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Hello, Internet! Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating column with a graduate degree from the Unseen University.
This week, we're untangling tricky emotional issues. One reader wants to know whether his porn habit and his girlfriend are mutually incompatible. Another wants to know how to rebuild himself as a caring, honest individual after years of being a manipulative piece of crap. How can they thread these particular needles?
Let's do this.
Hi there Doc,
I'm in a relationship with a really awesome girl. Everything is amazing, buuuut...
She recently spotted the existence of porn on my computer (under my chrome "frequently visited sites" page) while we were surfing for air tickets, and she looked very very disturbed about it. She told me that it doesn't bother her, but she definitely is. To be clear, this is a girl that I'm sleeping with and who has literally seen me taking a dump, so I don't think this this is a boundaries/personal space issue. She's just very disturbed by me looking at other people having sex.
Is there a good way to have this conversation? What do you think about going porn-free for a partner? I want to promise her I'll scourge my computer of porn and never touch any of it again, but, let's be honest, odds are good i'll backslide and hurt the trust between us.
I'd love to hear from you; you seem like a really hoopy frood who knows where his towel is.
Internet Explorer
Here's the thing about porn: pretty much everyone uses it, men and women. The biggest difference between men's porn consumption and women's porn consumption is generally the medium; men edge out on videos while women tend to consume more stories, although that's changing.
Porn is, quite literally, one of our oldest art forms. As soon as humans developed abstract reasoning and symbolic representation, we promptly started drawing dicks, boobs and couples pounding it on every flat surface we could find. Cave drawings, statuary, pottery, tapestries, and paintings have all been part of the great history of humanity's quest to get off by watching other people bone. People were taking nude daguerreotypes almost as soon as the process was developed and one of the first movies ever shown was the nudie cutie "What The Butler Saw" on Edison's Kinetoscopes. Porn has also almost single-handedly shaped the direction of technology in the 20th and 21st century. If you enjoy watching Let's Plays on YouTube, chatting with your friends on Skype and buying things from Amazon, then you can thank porn for pioneering plug-in free video streaming, secure credit card transactions via the web and two-way video conferencing.
Porn has also been a great source of contention in many a relationship, as it may well be in yours. Right now, all we have is speculation; you're pretty sure that your girlfriend isn't cool with your watching porn but you don't know for sure. This is why you should, y'know, use your words.
Sit down with your girlfriend and talk about it with her. Before you make any grand gestures like swearing off porn forever (and likely sneaking it on the side) you should find out how she actually feels. She seemed bothered, so ask her what it is that disturbed her instead of assuming she just default hates porn.
It could be that she has some legitimate gripes with porn: many porn companies exploit their performers, much of it is almost absurdly sexist and racist and, frankly, watching too much of it tends to make you a lousy lover.
Or it could be that she's bothered by some of what she saw that you get off to. We tend to assume that en masturbation, veritas and assume that what people fantasize about is their "real" selves instead of just something that happens to get their engines going. If you were watching some gonzo facial abuse porn or hardcore BDSM, she might well think that this is what you actually want and worry that you're about to ask her for something she's uncomfortable with. Similarly, she may see a difference between her and the actresses and feel as though that you're not satisfied with her.
Or it could be that she's upset that you're watching it instead of being with her, which could well be a simple exercise in miscommunication. For many people, masturbation and partnered sex are two very different things; one is an intimate experience (even if you're both just looking to fuck) and one is a simple "wham bam thank you glans" to get things out of the way.
She might see fantasizing about others as being a form of infidelity and believe that if you really loved her, she would be all you need. Which is nice in theory, but in practice, that's not how monogamy works. A monogamous commitment just means that you won't sleep with other people; it doesn't say a damn thing about not wanting to. For many people, porn is a quick and easy way to get the sexual novelty they crave without betraying their partner's trust.
Or it could well be that she's annoyed that you're watching it without her. Plenty of women love watching porn with their partners.
But right now, you don't know. You're making assumptions, and that's making an ass out of you and 'mptions. So sit down, talk it out, and figure out where everybody stands before you make any grand sweeping gestures that you can't actually live up to.
And if it turns out that she does have a problem with porn for porn's sake? Don't make promises that you already know you can't keep; all that does is put a ticking timebomb into your relationship, waiting to blow up the trust she has in you. Talk it out; she explains how she feels, you explain how you feel, and then see if you can reach a compromise. That compromise could well be that you'll pretend that you don't watch porn any more and she'll pretend to believe you. Then it's on you to provide her with the plausible deniability that lets her keep the belief intact—no jerking it while she's in the house, no files on your hard drive or your phone (that's what Dropbox and PornHub are for), clear your browser history as soon as you're done and get used to using incognito mode.
Good luck.
Dear Dr. NerdLove
I've treated women like crap. This isn't a "I think I was a creep" e-mail, this is an "I know I was a creep" e-mail. I'll preface this by saying I've only had safe, consensual sex my whole life, and that I've had a fair share of sexual partners (In the double digits) but very few actual sexual encounters (1 to 10 per partner). I'm trying my damnedest to transition out of being an f-boy and into being a genuinely good human being, but I haven't found advice on how.
When I was young, I was a sweetheart. I was an absolute angel to my mother and had more female friends than male ones. I was very popular, and probably would have been a fantastic boyfriend if my life hadn't spun around in Middle school.
My parents are first generation Americans, so my punishments as a child were old school. Old school as in belts marks and crying followed by weeks of being grounded. I had an older brother who picked on me over everything, from not being able to find a talent (he is a very talented artist) to my shifting sexuality. He frequently stole from me, and when confronting my father on the issue his advice was to "Not trust anyone, even family". As the youngest I was easily excitable and emotional, so I was often told to shut up and calm down.
With time, I grew to believe that the only way to get anything was to get angry or get it myself. My parents were constantly threatening divorce, my father was frequently unemployed and cheating, and my older brother was more interested in knocking me down a peg then defending me. So I learned not to trust anyone, especially loved ones. Stack that with being Bi in the 90s and having the internet and television as one of few friends. All of this turned a latchkey sweetheart into a trouble child.
Fast forward to my early 20s and I've read PUA books, needed to be told "No" more than once, and have more broken relationships than solved ones. I hadn't spoken to my family in over 7 years, and made my way through college and into a career as a game designer on my own. My friends tried to show me where I was screwing up, but after getting that far by myself I refused to listen. Everything came crashing down a few years ago after getting a bit too chummy with a close friend's girlfriend and overstepping another mutual female friend's boundaries. I ended up losing my job, a few friends, and my savings. With my back against a wall I moved in with my mother and have been rebuilding myself from the ground up since.
It's been over a year and I'm improving. I've stopped making crass jokes, started reaching out for non-selfish reasons, started eating healthier and thinking positive. I'm pretty close to finding a new job in my field again, and am getting comfortable in my own skin, but I have to ask: How do I know I'm fixed? I still haven't successfully won over anyone's affections through being genuine. Looking back, all but one of my relationships came from purposefully distancing myself emotionally. A part of me thinks it's impossible to win over a woman with honesty, since the only way I've gotten physical affection is by being a jerk. My friends are all in relationships built on trust and respect, but I'm scared I might not be able to.
How do I go from an emotionally unavailable P.U.A. P.O.S. to the boyfriend I want to be? The kind that can cuddle and cry over Doctor Who, and always knows how to cheer his girlfriend up? I think I can still be the man I want to be, but I'm scared that at 27 it might be too late. Is there any hope for a recovering scumbag?
A Self Serving Hermit Asshole Transitioning
Let's start with answering your biggest concern first: no, it's not too late. As long as you're still breathing, it's never too late. In my experience, I've not encountered anyone who couldn't come back from the Dark Side (as it were) if they truly wanted to. And it's pretty clear that you want to.
Honestly, you've done most of the work already; you've identified the causes of a lot of your behavior - toxic family members, the stress of being bisexual in a time when any form of being queer was a potentially life-threatening situation, a need to prove yourself by manipulating others - and started eliminating them from your life. That's pretty damn huge; a lot of people don't get through that on their own.
However, the next thing you need to do may well be the hardest: you have to forgive yourself. You did some shitty things to people, you've burned a lot of bridges and pushed away people who cared about you. Now that you recognize this and have taken ownership of it, you have to be willing and able to forgive yourself for having been human. For having taken your pain and externalized it onto others.
It's good to take responsibility for what you've done, but using it as a scourge to continually punish yourself means that you can't heal. Make amends where you can (provided that doing so won't cause more pain to people you've already hurt) but forgive yourself and let your past be your past. It's who you were, not who you are or who you can be. The more you hold on to your past actions, the more you prevent yourself from growing past them.
When - and only when - you're able to forgive yourself and let go, then you'll be ready to rebuild your life and start unlearning what you've learned. The biggest obstacle in your way is that you've spent your life learning how to present yourself as something that you're not, and you're unused to being open and honest with people. And in fairness: being open with someone is fucking scary. You're deliberately making yourself vulnerable to others. But there's strength in vulnerability. It means learning to be your most honest, most authentic self and accepting that the guy who can be sweet and sensitive can also be someone confident and charming.
I won't lie to you: it's going to suck. It's going to suck for a long time. You're going to have to start back with the basics and build yourself back up again, working to undo so many of the bad habits you've developed over time. You're going to be doing things that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable to you at first and that's going to hold you back. You're going to fuck up. But that's ok. Fucking up is how we learn. Because you'll fuck up less and less over time and when you grit your teeth and make it through the pain period, you will get better.
Things suck right now, I know. But they can and will get better, just so long as you're willing to believe in yourself and your ability to change.
You're going to be ok. I promise.
Good luck.
Did you negotiate a porn compromise in your relationship? Have you reinvented yourself after leaving your past behind? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section, and we'll be back in two weeks with more of your questions.
Ask Dr. Nerdlove is Kotaku's bi-weekly dating column, hosted by the one and only Harris O'Malley, AKA Dr. NerdLove. Got a question you'd like answered? Write firstname.lastname@example.com and put "Kotaku" in the subject line.
Harris O'Malley is a writer and dating coach who provides geek dating advice at his blog Paging Dr. NerdLove and the Dr. NerdLove podcast. His new dating guide New Game+: The Geek's Guide to Love, Sex and Dating is out now from Amazon, iTunes and everywhere fine books are sold He is also a regular guest at One Of Us.
He can be found dispensing snark and advice on Facebook and on Twitter at @DrNerdLove.


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Alex Ainouz wants to inspire you to cook by failing
Ainouz's love for technology and food come together every week.
Can you use math to make the perfect French omelet?
If you're a classically trained French chef, the answer is an obvious no. It takes years of practice — and the soul of an artist — to master this deceptively simple dish.
But if you're Alex Ainouz, known by over a million fans as "French Guy Cooking," the answer is yes, and he has the endorsement to prove it.
In April 2018, Ainouz, of Paris, published a video to his YouTube channel titled, "I Try To Master Jacques Pepin's Perfect Omelet….." Over the course of 10 minutes, he attempts to replicate the French icon's omelet, fails miserably, tries again, develops a mathematical theorem to figure out the correct number of eggs depending on the size of the frying pan, and finally succeeds as the strings of Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" reach a joyous crescendo.
Two days later, thanks to some online prodding from Ainouz's fans, Pepin responded with a video of his own praising the omelet and challenging French Guy Cooking to next debone a whole chicken.
Watch the original video and you'll notice something unusual. There's no recipe and no list of ingredients, but by the end you'll likely feel more confident in your own cooking abilities, even if your omelets never look quite as good.
"When I'm failing on camera and recovering from it and just finding another way, I feel like this must be reassuring as a viewer," Ainouz tells Inverse. "I try to raise confidence in people's mind, body, and soul, because without it, you can't start cooking."
Whether it's using math to crack a recipe, hacking his garbage can with an Arduino computer, or reverse-engineering a pasta machine he ordered from China, Ainouz's love for technology and food come together in French Guy Cooking on a weekly basis.
In one video, he explains why he makes his own linen dishcloths. In another, he travels from Paris to the French coastal city Nantes to forge his own kitchen knife. There's an entire series on why he loves instant ramen, along with his attempts to create his own mass production ramen operation.
You won't learn how to cook a specific dish from watching one of his videos, but you might be encouraged to take some creative risks the next time you're in the kitchen.
"Sometimes I'm not even helping them by being very geeky about things," Ainouz says. "But I want them to feel inspired by the craziness that I carry on my channel. I don't have to show the recipes. It's not the point. I'm just saying it's possible, and look how amazing food can be."
In the five years since he started his "YouTube adventure," Ainouz has built a loyal audience and even published a cookbook. He's worked with famous chefs like Jamie Oliver and traveled the world. But even now, French Guy Cooking is just getting started. He recently expanded beyond the one-man operation where he researched, wrote, filmed, edited, and starred in every clip. He has big plans, but for now, he just keeps moving forward, one video at a time.
"I'm very busy all the time," Ainouz tells me in Paris in front of a classic French bistro when we meet briefly before he hops on his bike. "Making a new video every week, mostly on my own, is very difficult." Then I watch him pedal off.
Also read — Alex Ainouz: How to hack your Thanksgiving with French mashed potatoes
A few weeks later, I'm talking to Ainouz in New York, where he's shooting several videos, including this one about knife sharpening and something else that's top secret. He's working non-stop days but offers to meet me for 30 minutes at Chelsea Market.
I opt for a Google Hangouts video call instead. As tempting as it is to tour the popular high-end Manhattan food court with a mega-popular YouTube chef, I worry I won't be able to hear him during the after-work rush, and I've got a lot of ground to cover.
To start, how does one guy (French or otherwise) produce a funny, well-edited, and informative video every week? The answer, in part, is his obsession with the gadgets he uses to make those videos. (He later tells me his favorite YouTuber is MKBHD, both for the tech and for "the cleanest, crispiest color space that I've seen on YouTube.")
"I love technology," he says. " I'm a geek when it comes to cameras; I love filmmaking."
Ainouz readily admits to spending almost a full day of his limited time in New York at B&H, the iconic electronics store that takes up a full Manhattan block. He says he analyzed every camera and lens in sight.
"Life is already quite complicated when you're trying to create something and share a voice," he says. "So buy the best tool you can afford."
But for video creators just starting out, Ainouz argues the best camera is the one already in your pocket. Not only are the lenses on most smartphones powerful enough to rival most standalone cameras, they also attract a lot less attention. "Nobody would bitch about you using a smartphone in a store or on a plane,' he says. "People get used to it."
His one tip for shooting video on a phone? "Embrace its smartphone-ness." Don't shoot in landscape. Hold your phone vertically so the video feels different, more spontaneous; maybe you're filming somewhere you're not supposed to. The style of the video should communicate what's happening.
Beyond smartphones, Ainouz says the camera is less important than the lens — "a DSLR or a mirrorless" — but the most important part of any video for him isn't visual at all; it's the audio.
"Focus on the sound," he says. "I can watch a shaky dark video if the sound is good, but I can't do the opposite. I can't watch a beautifully lit video if the sound it terrible. I would quit straight away."
The first video Ainouz ever published online was also about omelets — "everything was off," he says, "apart from the will to do something" — but his love for both food and technology goes back even further. As a child, Ainouz remembers traveling the world with his parents, who taught him to love food at a young age.
"We went everywhere, and we always started visiting new countries with the food market," he says. "That was the first point of entrance into a different culture."
"I learned how to cook thanks to life."
It wasn't until years later that he started cooking, not out of interest but out of necessity. After moving in with his girlfriend (now his wife) about 12 years ago, they decided to divvy up the housework. Ainouz agreed to do all the shopping and cooking ("among other things"), and from that point on he was preparing almost every meal on a daily basis. "I learned how to cook thanks to life," he says.
At the same time, after graduating with a degree in telecommunications and traveling the world as a photographer, Ainouz ended up running a digital marketing agency. Managing the Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts for various clients introduced him to the world of social media and "the freedom and liberty of content creation." It wasn't long before things started to click into place.
"So I got the internet side somewhere and I got the photography side somewhere, and then I had the love of food plus the ability of cooking," Ainouz says. "At some point I realized, if I created a cooking channel or food channel on YouTube, that would be a dream job for me that would compile all the skills I'm the best at."
"There are plenty of skills I know I suck at," he adds, "but these… I know I can have some value in them."
At first, it wasn't easy. It took the help of a famous chef to boost Ainouz and his YouTube channel from obscurity to viral stardom. About a year later, French Guy Cooking was going nowhere. "Nothing was happening with my channel," Ainouz says. "It was an absolute desert." Then, he discovered Jamie Oliver.
Unlike the serious French chefs that Ainouz was familiar with, Oliver was casual. He was cool. He didn't worry if something got a little burnt.
"I was like, who is this guy?" Ainouz says. "Am I even allowed to do this in the kitchen as a French person? And I thought, why isn't there a French Jamie Oliver? Somebody that is just casually cool, easing people, soothing us, instead of just frightening us, scaring us."
Over time, the two chefs struck up a friendship. Oliver had a YouTube channel, too, but he wasn't doing much with it. Then, he started marketing it with a series of events, leading up to a global competition where chefs submitted their own three-minute videos for a chance to get featured on Oliver's channel.
Ainouz entered and came in third. He remembers getting thousands of new followers in a single day but assumed that was it. Instead, he and 11 others were invited to launch a small network of YouTube channels. That lasted for three years and launched French Guy Cooking into the stratosphere.
"Jamie Oliver has been both a friend and a stamp of approval," Ainouz says. "I think he's a great human being."
When Ainouz published a cookbook, Oliver wrote the foreword. "Alex's food is fantastically fun," he writes. "It's simple but delicious, and always delivered in his brilliantly quirky ways. He's a self-taught genius, and he knows exactly what home cooks really want to make."
Eventually, Oliver decided to move in a new direction, and French Guy Cooking struck out on its own again. It was a dangerous moment for Ainouz's career, but it gave him a chance to showcase the food nerd he truly is. The one that he'd been holding back.
"It was time for me to move on to my own thing and to embrace the personality that you have seen on my channel at the moment," he says. "More geeky, more obsessive, more series oriented."
"The recipe is not the finish line. What's important is the journey."
The first video I ever watched on French Guy Cooking was titled, "I Learned How They Chop Onions on the Street…" Published in 2017, it doesn't take place at some food stand or a farmer's market. Instead, it's set in Ainouz's own studio. Seated behind his computer, he searches the internet for a faster onion-chopping method, watches a blindfolded man dice an onion in seconds, and then tries to replicate this method.
It's classic French Guy Cooking. In roughly eight minutes, Ainouz massacres over a dozen onions ("Learning a new thing is always exciting," he says with a smile right before butchering onion number 11 and cursing in French), but eventually, he manages to improve his onion-cutting speed by exactly 47 percent. It's funny, geeky, and inspirational, all at once.
I'd be lying if I said this video changed the way I dice onions. It didn't. But it still inspired me to be more creative in my own cooking and to recognize that there's no one right way to do anything in the kitchen.
Similarly, for Ainouz, this video is less about the skill itself and more about encouraging others to take risks of their own.
"The recipe is not the finish line," he says. "What's important is the journey. How do you get there? What do you understand along the way? How did I get the message properly shared to the audience. Did they really understand something or is it just me bragging about skills?"
Ultimately, all he can do is keep on trying, and, more importantly, keep on failing.
"Plenty of people are terrified when it comes to food," he says. "They just want to make it right but they think everything's going to be wrong. I hope, after seeing my videos, they'll think, Alex failed. Look at his mozzarella. He sucked so much, and then he kept on trying and trying and trying, and in the end, he got something decent. So maybe I can do that. That's what matters the most to me."
Alex Ainouz is a member of the Inverse Future 50, a group of 50 people who will be forces of good in the 2020s.
Also read — Alex Ainouz: How to hack your Thanksgiving with French mashed potatoes

subset: commoncrawl


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Since 20th to 24th of January, I was on my On-arrival training in Lesce-Bled. If you read forward, you will see what awaits you when you become an EVS volunteer…
This kind of activities are a part of every EVS project with at least 6 months and for that, I was five days in an intensive program of teambuilding, we identified our hopes and expectations, rights and responsabilities about EVS project, talked about cultural approach, touched themes as networking and project management – the last was a task, which took us beyond our imagination!
Our On-arrival training was led by three trainers, Alenka Oblak and Henk Persyn, but also with the support of Jerneja Modic.
We were 21 volunteers, from 13 differents countries: Portugal (3), Spain (5), France (1), German (2), Ukraine (2), Belarus (1), Turkey (1), Hungary (1), Finland (1), Lithuania (1), Latvia (1), Bulgaria (1) and Poland (1).
During the training we discussed some practical information about EVS and we learned about some European programmes for youngsters like the Youth in action programme, Life Long Learning and SALTO youth. In between, we had some energizers to create empaty and union among the participants.
The On-arrival training is a really good experience and opportunity to know something more about EVS and also to know other volunteers which are living the same experience as you. The intention was also to share some ideas, projects and thoughts with eachother.
At the end, I believe that our hopes and expectations were achieved and new friendships were made!
And this kind of friendship is very important, because you know that you have someone who is going through the same experience as you and you can share everything with these friends, they will understand you and help you. And they are also an important part in the intercultural relationships!
Ana Margarida,
the portuguese volunteer in MC ZOS ;)


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A few kilometres from Meru town, off the Kithirune market in Nkando village, South Imenti, sits a farm known as Home of Friesians.
The over half-acre farm owned by Nicholas Kirimi hosts a cowshed, napier grass, maize and sweet potato vines for the animals.
"Many people here keep cows as a tradition and concentrate on tea farming but I have taken a different path by commercialising my venture," says Kirimi, who set on the project three years ago on the land he inherited from his grandfather.
He used his savings to buy two Friesian heifers at Sh50,000 each, and employed two workers to manage the project for him as he toiled in employment at the county government, where he works as a cameraman.
"I got the two workers because then I was green in farming. I learnt from them how to take care of the cows," says Kirimi, who holds a diploma in photography.
He now has eight cows, seven which are Friesians and one an improved Ayrshire. He milks the two cows that he started with, getting 20 litres from each every day.
"I bought the Ayrshire to find out its production. If it will not be good when it calves, I will stick to Friesians."
He has invested in a generator-driven chaff cutter which he uses to chop the napier grass and potato vines into smaller pieces.
"When I am feeding the cows with dry maize stalks, I add molasses to make them palatable. I also feed them dairy meal to boost milk production for those that are lactating. I offer them the bulk of the feeds in the morning and little amounts in the afternoon."
With dairy farming, he notes he can choose where to supply his milk.
"Tea farmers at times have to sell their produce at low prices to avoid incurring more losses. But with the milk, I can add value if I feel the prices do not favour me," says Kirimi, who sells his milk in Meru town at Sh55 a litre and makes about Sh20,000 profit in a month.
The farm, according to him, now sustains itself.
"My aim is to have about 15 cows to make the venture more profitable as I improve my breeds."
His challenges include high cost of commercial feeds and artificial insemination that goes for between Sh1,000 and Sh7,000.
"My dream is to go into dairy farming fully in the near future. There used to be a notion that farming was only for retired teachers and civil workers. As young people, we have the energy to do this kind of work when we still have the energy," he opines.
Biko Kithinji: From four heifers to dairy farming empire
"Most youths consider farming dirty but with the rising levels of unemployment, it is the best bet as long as one is resilient and patient. Definitely, it will not pay overnight but it will surely do."
Meru County Director of Livestock David Mugambi says Ayrshires and Friesians are good breeds and do well in many areas across the county, including in Meru.
He attributed low production of milk to underfeeding cows.
He adds the best feeds for increased milk production are silage and Boma Rhodes grass.
Good quality cow that offers farmers much better returns
- Friesians have distinct colour, usually black and white or black red.
- They are famed for their large dairy production, averaging 23,285 litres of milk per year.
- Healthy Friesian calf weighs 40 to 45kg or more at birth. A mature one, on the other hand, weighs 580kg and stands 147cm. Friesian heifers should be bred by 13 to 15 months.
- This will enable them to calve at between 23 and 26 months.
- The gestation period is about nine and a half months.


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One Orange Wonder
Other than the 4 a.m. aftershock this morning the day went by pretty smoothly. The air was damp and it rained on and off all night. The skies were gray when I hopped on the train to make my way into Chiba. The lights are still off on the trains in a massive effort to save electricity.
On my way back to the station the air was chilled, but the sun was out. I paused in front of a house to stare at this enormous orange flower. It was there reaching up towards the warm sun. Strong in spirit. Bending little in the breeze. It is my orange wonder. A strong warrior among the concrete, and potted plants of Ichikawa.


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The Bubble Run by Cool Events, which was scheduled to take place on the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh grounds today, Saturday, September 9, was canceled in January. Please visit their website to contact them at https://bubblerun.com.
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Cindee Schneider Honored With 2019 Dorothy Hilbert Award
By Sam Oleson
July 21, 2019 - Cindee Schneider, EAA 1114863, has been volunteering at EAA's annual fly-in convention for about 40 years, first in press headquarters and now at helicopter operations. For her dedication over the past four decades, Cindee is the 2019 Dorothy Hilbert Award recipient.
The Dorothy Hilbert Award is given to a female volunteer who exhibits the passion, dedication, and devotion for volunteerism that Dorothy presented throughout her life and time spent at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
"I was incredibly surprised to even hear that I was nominated let alone be honored with this," Cindee said. "I knew Dorothy and Buck Hilbert back in Hales Corners a long, long time ago. To even be mentioned in the same conversation with Dorothy is beyond my comprehension."
Originally Cindee was a volunteer at press headquarters during EAA Oshkosh before moving over to helicopter operations in 2001. For nearly the past two decades, Cindee has been vital in making the Bell 47 helicopter tours a smooth operation and a must-do attraction for many AirVenture visitors.
"I take care of the requisitions, I work with the pilots to coordinate training for the safety procedures for the entire operation, set up the facilities to get the 2,500 people that we usually push through every year," she said. "My fingers are basically in everything."
As for what keeps bringing Cindee back year after year, it's the folks she volunteers with in Oshkosh year in and year out.
"The family atmosphere is what I'm finding with the volunteer group and especially with my current group. It's the people as much as it is whatever aircraft you're flying."
The Dorothy Hilbert Award ceremony is scheduled for today at 3 p.m. in the Volunteer Park.


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Matt Kenseth is the one driver that'll remain competitive for years to come and retirement shouldn't be brought up into the conversation as silly season looms.
EDITORS NOTE: This was published hours before the announcement came out that Erik Jones will replace Matt Kenseth in Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 Toyota beginning in 2018. Here were my thoughts about Kenseth's future that remains unchanged.
Matt Kenseth is going to be the next guy to retire from NASCAR.
This comment has become the norm among NASCAR fans, predicting the 2003 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion will join the likes of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and walk into the sunset.
I'm in the minority, I don't think Kenseth, 45, is going to retire anytime soon.
Kenseth's press conference at Kentucky Speedway Friday sparked more speculations of his future.
Kenseth said he doesn't believe he'll return to Joe Gibbs Racing—the team he's driven for since 2013 with tremendous success—after this season nor believes he has the option to ask car owner Joe Gibbs for a new deal.
It leaves Kenseth as one of the top free agents going into 2018. Dale Jr.—who Kenseth competed against for the 1999 Xfinity Series championship and 2000 Cup Rookie of the Year—said he's confident Kenseth will have a top ride next season.
Bouncing Back from Rough Start
As the Cup Series enters the second half of the season, Kenseth sits 11th in points overall. Without a win, it puts Kenseth down to 16th. Good enough for the final playoff spot with only eight regular season races remaining.
Throughout the first half of 2017, retirement talks peaked after Kenseth had a pair of hard hits at Phoenix and Fontana, putting him 25th in the standings.
At first, I felt Kenseth may miss a few races because of the new concussion protocol but nothing came out regarding my concern and Kenseth soldiered on.
Several fans thought Kenseth's special announcement heading into Bristol was going to be about his NASCAR future. Instead, it was a six-race sponsorship deal with Circle K, retirement was out of the question.
From there—in typical Kenseth fashion—consistency and staying out of trouble has propelled Kenseth just outside the top 10.
What I got from Kenseth's press conference was the desire of continuing racing remained apparent and still wants to win races despite having doubts about his future at Gibbs.
Model of Consistency and Controversy
In an era where retirement has become a major trend, Kenseth is the last of the "Young Guns Boom" from the early 2000s. As a matter of fact, Kenseth will be the last 1990s debutant driver (Kenseth debuted at Dover 1998 filling for Bill Elliott) that still runs the full schedule after Dale Jr. retires.
Kenseth has had a stellar and controversial career. 38 wins, two Daytona 500 wins and of course, being the last "Winston Cup" champion.
While those stats are first ballot Hall of Fame worthy, he's had his share of criticism fans haven't forgotten.
Kenseth's 2003 championship run received backlash because of his points racing strategy rather than winning races. Kenseth was seventh in top 5's with 11 to Ryan Newman's season-high 17.
However, Kenseth led the series in top 10's with 25 of 36 races, three ahead of Newman and had the best average finish at 10.2, a full spot ahead of runner-up Jimmie Johnson.
Certainly, Kenseth had a strong campaign and earned the championship while Newman had inconsistent runs highlighted with seven DNF's (including a flip, triggering a 27-car pileup and his car being engulfed in flames) and seven finishes outside the top 30.
Kenseth however only had one win at Las Vegas to Newman's eight and clinched the championship in the penultimate race at Rockingham. It was the fourth time in a span of five years the title wasn't decided at the season finale.
The sole win and clinching the title early led to the Chase being born the following year and Kenseth hasn't won a championship since as wins (specifically during the playoffs) have become more rewarding than consistency.
Statistically, Kenseth's most successful seasons were in 2002, 2006, 2013 and 2015 when he won more than three races and finished second twice (2006 and 2013) in those four seasons, both to Jimmie Johnson.
No question, Kenseth is a proven winner but consistency is what he's known for and just hasn't quite delivered during the playoffs to make him an all-time great like Johnson.
Kenseth was also scolded by critics for deliberately taking out Joey Logano at Martinsville Nov. 1, 2015, costing Logano a Championship 4 spot and resulted Kenseth a two-race suspension.
Many fans applauded Kenseth for taking out NASCAR's modern-day Kryptonite after Logano spun Kenseth out at Kansas in the second round of the playoffs. Logano advanced while Kenseth was eliminated.
Others including Kyle Petty were outraged and in their eyes Kenseth deserved punishment. The Martinsville incident gave the sport a bad reputation because the sport has tried to distance themselves from being a sport featuring callous drivers wanting to kill their competitors.
I've also had my opinions about Kenseth over the years, some have been negative because of his incidents with Jeff Gordon from 2006-2012. It has led Gordon being fined $10,000 for physically shoving Kenseth at Bristol 2006 and a win taken away at Martinsville 2010.
I wasn't the biggest Kenseth fan for years but I've always respected his "silent yet effective" driving style. That never changed during those six seasons of personal animosity.
Underrated driver when it comes to aggression. Put a bumper on Kenseth, don't expect to get away with it and that's been proven in his adventurous 20-year Cup career.
Racing Past 40 a Thing of the Past?
The sport really needs a long-time veteran like Kenseth. He's still a fierce competitor that contends for race wins. His stint at Gibbs revitalized his career to new heights and brought back the fire that might've been lost during his final years at Roush Fenway Racing.
Kenseth will win again but it's a matter of when because his team has yet to visit victory lane in Cup this season. Last season, Gibbs' four-car operation won 12 races but neither driver captured the championship.
Kyle Busch fell short of defending his title and Carl Edwards had a late-race crash and since retired. Kenseth and Denny Hamlin failed to qualify for the Championship 4. Joe Gibbs Racing's disappointment from Homestead are still there and they're slowly recovering from its hangover.
NASCAR's next stop, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway July 16—a track Kenseth has won three times and the site of his last win 35 races ago—may be his best chance to prove the critics wrong that the oldest full-time driver in the field at age 45 can still be a race winner in NASCAR's highest level.
I've said for years Kenseth is that one guy who will run past 45 and join the likes of Bobby Allison, Harry Gant and Mark Martin who remained contenders all the way to their early 50s.
Kenseth is the least likely to fall under obscurity like Derrike Cope and Morgan Shepherd has been in the 21st Century who still race past 50 but for low budget teams.
I'm willing to go further and say Kenseth has an excellent shot of being the oldest champion currently held by Allison when he won his only title in 1983 at nearly 46 years old.
There aren't many drivers past 40 these days as Johnson and Kevin Harvick—both 42 next year—will be the only full-time drivers who have secured rides in 2018. Those two will be around but for how much longer?
I do see Harvick competing in his late 40s but for Johnson, I do think he'll retire after his new three-year deal ends. Kenseth is the only driver past 45 right now who is a legit contender but has the sport lost its longevity drivers?
It's not the same sport I grew up watching when Kenseth won the championship where the will to compete in the sport for 20+ years like Hall of Famers Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett and Terry Labonte was common.
The demands of a driver pleasing their sponsors and earning good amount of money has put a heavy load on their schedule. It's gotten to the point where drivers may say 'I'm financially set, it's time to step away' or 'This is not what I signed up for when I started.' The sport's landscape is vastly different and maybe why we're seeing this epidemic in NASCAR.
Stress and poor performances can also damage a driver's longevity and can explain the high mass of drivers leaving (ex. John Wes Townley) or make a career change (ex. Brian Scott) the past two years.
I'm certain Kenseth is financially set where he can walk away but he still shows interest of staying in NASCAR if he finds a ride next season.
Where Does Kenseth Go Next Season?
Silly season buzz hasn't been this dramatic in quite some time where top caliber rides are open and may leave some double-digit Cup winners without a ride.
Hendrick Motorsports has yet to announce their 2018 plans as Dale Jr.'s No. 88 car and most likely Kasey Kahne's No. 5 car will be vacant.
Stewart-Haas Racing hasn't announced their plans either and signs tell Danica Patrick may be on her way out of the No. 10 car and possibly the sport.
If Kenseth indeed won't be back in the No. 20 car, it puts Erik Jones as the top guy to replace Kenseth. This gives Kenseth an opportunity to replace Jones in Furniture Row Racing's No. 77 car and pair up with Martin Truex, Jr. as teammates.
The Kentucky press conference has also left fans believing Kenseth will join Hendrick, replacing Dale Jr. It will be a good fit for Kenseth to showcase his competitive nature yet again like he's done for Gibbs. Martin did it when he joined Hendrick in 2009 so why not Kenseth?
There's only one caveat. If they sign Kenseth and/or Xfinity Series driver William Byron, where does Hendrick test driver Alex Bowman go?
Say Kenseth takes the No. 88 and car owner Rick Hendrick doesn't re-sign Kahne and doesn't shut down the No. 5 team that's been around since the team's inception in 1984, Bowman should be the obvious choice.
Byron should either stay at JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for another year or get called up to run for either Gibbs or Furniture Row.
Trust me, Byron has done an incredible job in his rookie season in NXS with two wins under his belt but it won't hurt him staying another year.
This does however put Hendrick under the microscope on who should replace Dale Jr. and possibly Kahne.
The worst-case scenario could see Bowman end up like Formula One test drivers Paul di Resta, Luca Badoer and Gary Paffett, never getting the nod to run the team they're testing for full-time.
The sport just doesn't work that way because sponsors are critical to a team's operation more than it has ever been before. This is where Bowman's chances are damaged but I'm sure all parties will help him find a sponsor if selected.
Then there's Danica's ride. Does Stewart-Haas want a proven winner that's young or wants a driver with tons of experience?
Kahne will factor into this silly season madness. Stewart-Haas may consider Kahne as a contender to replace Danica.
If Kahne isn't considered, he'll either drop to a lower series or run dirt tracks under his own race team where he can be a contender on a weekly basis after years of being Hendrick's weakest link.
Knocking on the door is Xfinity Series rookie Cole Custer who isn't ready to compete in Cup. Custer has some ways to go but his advantage is the sponsorship ties he has with Haas because Custer's father, Joe, is the executive vice president of Stewart-Haas.
With those things in mind, it may leave Kenseth only two options, Hendrick or Furniture Row.
If I had to predict where he ends up in 2018, Furniture Row is the best-case scenario.
Barney Visser's team has been around since 2005 and recently became one of NASCAR's top teams with Truex, Jr. being the strongest car the past few seasons including seven victories.
Jones has also done an impressive job in the No. 77, earning five top-10 finishes and sits 14th overall in points. It can be encouraging for Kenseth if selected to run the second Furniture Row car.
No matter what, those are my predictions and the drivers considered are speculations. Time will tell when these changes will be made but it shouldn't be much longer until we see silly season kicking into high gear.
Kenseth will find a competitive ride and continue to be one of NASCAR's elite competitors by the turn of the decade. Retirement is irrelevant.


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Product Collection
- Medi-Zinc cleanser 100ml / 175ml (select your choice)
- Retinol serum
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You have a complex skin type characterized by inflammation manifested as redness and rashes. The inflammation leads to an increased risk of skin aging, making it mandatory for this skin type to use anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ingredients.
Your skin feels rough, tight, and lacks radiance due to poor light reflection. Your inflamed skin makes you more prone to developing lines and wrinkles.
ADA skin types also have an impaired skin barrier which means that allergens, bacteria, and irritants can more easily enter the skin. Water evaporates off of the skin, leaving it dry. You struggle to find the correct skincare products that do not aggravate your symptoms.
Consistent everyday use of the correct products will allow your skin to repair itself, hold onto water and reduce its tendency for inflammation.
1. Medi-Zinc Cleanser
2. Litaderm serum and/or DermRepair
3. DermDefence SPF 50
1. Medi-Zinc Cleanser
2. Retinol serum + Litaderm
3. DermRepair
1. Medi-Zinc Cleanser
2. Litaderm serum + / or DermRepair
3. DermDefence SPF 50
1. Medi-Zinc Cleanser
2. Retinol serum + Litaderm
3. DermRepair
- Keep Medi-Zinc cleanser in contact with your skin for 5-10 min.
Tip: Apply to dry skin (so that the cleanser do not run into your eyes - it will sting). Keep on your skin while you ex. brush your teeth, bath, shower or get dressed. Rinse off after 10 min. and wipe your face clean with a clean facecloth or with the microfibre face sponge.
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MLB Week in Review + Free Series Pick
by Robert Ferringo - 6/18/2006
We are entering the Dog Days, my friend. Summer is the time to attend a festival with half-naked hippy chicks, grill out with your crazy aunt and uncle, and show off that beer gut while going bare-chested by the pool - all in one weekend. It's the season of humidity and hurricanes, beaches and barbeques, and it's a great time to be alive.
But let's not lose focus. We need to shift our sports-loving gaze away from corrupt Uruguay officials and Togo temper-tantrums and back to our National Pastime. Summer is also the time of walk-offs and winning streaks, designated hitters and doubleheaders. There's work to be done, and money to be made. So put down the beach towel and pick up the boxscores, we currently have a number of compelling storylines from sea to shining sea.
The American League East has become baseball's best division. Baltimore took two of three from the National League's best team. When healthy, Tampa Bay has one of MLB's best young rosters. New York and Boston are reprising their Paris Hilton vs. Nicole Richie blood feud, while Toronto plays the role of Lindsay Lohan. The burning question is whether the big-breasted Blue Jays will finally rip off their tops and enter the catfight or sit at the bar swilling Uncertainty Martinis?
In the NL West we have a miasma of mediocrity. All five clubs are within a game of .500 and just two games separate first-place from last. Barry Bonds continues his trail towards tainted milestones and possible perjury charges. Los Angeles has been riding the wave of the former Red Sox and Colorado is winning with small ball. Wacky stuff in the Wild West.
Here's a quick look at the week that was in MLB:
NL Team of the Week
Florida Marlins Florida has been an ATM over the past three weeks, riding an 18-6 rush and has posted an eight-game winning streak. And what was more surprising: last week's three-game sweep of Atlanta or the fact that the Fish were favored in two of those games? As recently as May the Marlins were floundering at 11-31 as one of the league's worst clubs. But young players like Dan Uggla are finding a grove and the Fish are starting to pay ($984 last week alone).
AL Team of the Week
Oakland Athletics The weather is heating up, so its time for the A's to start scorching. Oaktown has won ten straight and are now a half-game up on Texas as top team in the West. The A's have been in the money in 15 of their last 17 outings, including a big-money sweep of the Yankees June 11th that net a $507 profit. Unfortunately, oddsmakers have taken notice. Oakland has been a favorite in five of its last six.
NL Player of the Week
(Tie) Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes - The New York Mets have slugged their way to a 9.5-game lead in the East, averaging nearly eight runs a game in the last eight days. A big reason has been the textbook play of their leadoff and cleanup hitters. Reyes has reached base in 16 of his last 29 plate appearances, stolen three bases and scored nine runs. Delgado has hit .500 and posted a 1.374 OPS during that span, adding eight RBI and six runs.
AL Player of the Week
Francisco Liriano - Since his debut in Minnesota's starting rotation in mid-May, the right-handed Liriano has been stunning. He finished last week 2-0, surrendering just two earned runs in 14 innings. He struck out 17 and posted a WHIP of just 0.64. Behind their devastating one-two pitching punch of Johan Santana and Liriano, the Twins have clawed their way back into the wild card hunt with a seven-game winning streak.
Upcoming Weekend Series to Watch:
Houston Astros at Chicago White Sox, June 23-25
Probable Pitching Match-ups:
Friday - Taylor Buchholz vs. Jose Contreras
Saturday - Andy Pettite vs. Jon Garland
Sunday - Roy Oswalt vs. Javier Vasquez
This interleague series is a rematch of last year's Fall Classic. The White Sox handled the Astros in October, and should do the same this June. Chicago is exceptional at home while Houston is dreadful on the road. The question will be pricing.
Since opening the season by dropping two of three to Cleveland, the White Sox have gone 9-1-1 in home series. Their 24 home victories are tied for the best in MLB. Interestingly enough, the value on the Sox has improved from around -150 or -160 last month to -120 or -130 recently.
The Astros have been playing better ball as they await the return of Roger Clemens. They're on a 9-3 surge and swept the putrid Cubs last week in a trip to Chicago. However, discounting that series, Houston is a feeble 4-13 in its previous six road trips.
Houston also has the fourth-worst road offense in the league, hitting just .258 and managing a paltry 4.6 runs per game. Conversely, the White Sox pitching has given up the second-fewest runs while at home in the Majors.
Series Prediction: Chicago wins 2-1.
The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Doc's MLB picks service or Valley Sports. Questions or comments for Robert? E-mail him at email@example.com.


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Rib fracture - aftercareBroken rib - aftercare
A rib fracture is a crack or break in one or more of your rib bones.
Your ribs are the round, flat bones in your chest that wrap around your upper body. They connect your breastbone to your spine.
More About Your Injury
A rib fracture can be very painful because your ribs move when you breathe, cough, and move your upper body.
The ribs in the middle of the chest are the ones that break most often.
Rib fractures often occur with other chest and organ injuries. So your health care providers will also check to see if you have any other injuries.
What to Expect
Healing takes at least 6 weeks.
If you injure other body organs, you may need to stay in the hospital. Otherwise you can heal at home. Most people with broken ribs do not need surgery.
In the emergency room you may have received a strong medicine (such as a nerve block or narcotics) if you were in severe pain.
You will not have a belt or a bandage around your chest because these would keep your ribs from moving when you breathe or cough. This may lead to a lung infection ( pneumonia ).
Pneumonia is a breathing (respiratory) condition in which there is an infection of the lung. This article covers community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). ...
Pain Relief
Apply an ice pack 20 minutes of every hour you are awake for the first 2 days, then 10 to 20 minutes 3 times daily as needed to reduce pain and swelling. Wrap the ice pack in a cloth before applying to the injured area.
You may need prescription pain medicines (narcotics) to keep your pain under control while your bones heal.
- Take these medicines on the schedule your health care provider prescribed.
- DO NOT drink alcohol, drive, or operate heavy machinery while you are taking these medicines.
- To avoid becoming constipated, drink more fluids, eat high-fiber foods, and use stool softeners.
- To avoid nausea or vomiting, try taking your pain medicines with food.
If your pain is not severe, you can use ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn). You can buy these pain medicines at the store.
- These should be avoided for the first 24 hours after your injury since they may lead to bleeding.
- Talk with your provider before using these medicines if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, liver disease, or have had stomach ulcers or internal bleeding in the past.
- DO NOT take more than the amount recommended on the bottle or by your provider.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) may also be used for pain by most people.
To help prevent a collapsed lung or lung infection, do slow deep-breathing and gentle coughing exercises every 2 hours. Holding a pillow or blanket against your injured rib can make these less painful. You may need to take your pain medicine first. Your provider may tell you to use a device called a spirometer to help with the breathing exercises.
Collapsed lung
A collapsed lung occurs when air escapes from the lung. The air then fills the space outside of the lung, between the lung and chest wall. This bui...
It is important to stay active. DO NOT rest in bed all day. Your provider will talk with you about when you can return to:
- Your everyday activities
- Work, which will depend on the type of job you have
- Sports or other high impact activity
While you heal, avoid movements that put painful pressure on your ribs. These include doing crunches and pushing, pulling, or lifting heavy objects.
Your provider will make sure you are doing your exercises and that your pain is under control so that you can be active.
There is usually no need for taking x-rays as you heal, unless you develop fever, cough, increasing pain or difficulty breathing.
When to Call the Doctor
Call your doctor if you have:
- Pain that does not allow deep breathing or coughing
- Fever
- Cough or increase in mucus that you cough up
- Shortness of breath
- Side effects of pain medicine such as nausea, vomiting, or skin rashes
Browner BD, Jupiter JB, Krettek C, Anderson PA. Scapula and rib fractures. In: Browner BD, Jupiter JB, Krettek C, Anderson PA, eds. Skeletal Trauma: Basic Science, Management, and Reconstruction . 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2015:chap 50.
Eckstein M, Henderson SO. Thoracic trauma. In: Marx JA, Hockberger RS, Walls RM, et al, eds. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice . 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2014:chap 45.
Review Date: 5/14/2016
Reviewed By: Jesse Borke, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, Attending Physician at FDR Medical Services / Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Buffalo, NY. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.


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Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ashwin by Kit Rocha
Narrator: Tatiana Sokolov
Series: Gideon's Riders #1
Published by Tantor Audio on October 23, 2018
Genres: Dystopia, Erotica, Science Fiction
Length: 8 hours, 41 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Amazon, Audible, Audiobook, Barnes & Noble
Lieutenant Ashwin Malhotra is a Makhai soldier--genetically engineered to be cold, ruthless. Unfeeling. His commanding officers consider him the perfect operative, and they're right. Now, he has a simple mission: to infiltrate Gideon's Riders, the infamous sect of holy warriors that protects the people of Sector One.
He's never failed to execute an objective, but there's one thing he didn't anticipate--running into Dr. Kora Bellamy, the only woman to ever break through his icy exterior.
When Kora fled her life as a military doctor for the Makhai Project, all she wanted was peace--a quiet life where she could heal the sick and injured. The royal Rios family welcomed her like a sister, but she could never forget Ashwin. His sudden reappearance is a second chance--if she can manage to touch his heart.
When the simmering tension between them finally ignites, Kora doesn't realize she's playing with fire. Because she's not just falling in love with a man who may not be able to love her back. Ashwin has too many secrets--and one of them could destroy her.
There's a smattering of genre here- science fiction, romance and erotica, a different combination. I would label the Gideon's Riders series science fiction erotica then, with a new couple in each book.
The world building in Ashwin is comfortable. It gives us enough to understand without being overwhelming. There is so obviously more to learn, however. The characters are quite well defined, particularly Ashwin and Kora. Neither has had an easy life but they are admirable in their efforts to do well and improve things personally and for others. I liked them both very well.
Ashwin and Kora have known each other in their past so it is not shocking for them to move into a relationship more quickly. Currently, they have some challenges. Ashwin is learning to move from a black and white view, into a rainbow life of emotion, rather than just missions and orders. He also takes on the problems both he and Kora have which can could be very dangerous for them both.
I'm familiar with this narrator and enjoy her performance. I did listen at 1.25x narration, which I've been using 1.5x speed. She handles a variety of voices well and I like her male voices. Her straight narration when she is not voicing dialogue is pleasing.
Listen to a clip:
|Rating Breakdown
|Narration (Audio)
- 🎧 The Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab @veschwab @KateReadingVO @MichaelKramerVO @marisacalin @MacmillanAudio #LoveAudiobooks - September 26, 2023
- Hunting the Truth by Kathleen Donnelly @KatK9writer @CarinaPress - September 24, 2023
- Sunday Post – 24 September 2023 @kimbacaffeinate @readingreality - September 24, 2023
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2018 Audiobook Challenge
- 2018 New Release Challenge


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Zhoumi, miss A's Jia, and more show their support for f(x)'s Amber
f(x)'s Amber sends a personal shout-out to her celebrity friends as she finishes her first round of promotions for "Shake That Brass."
On February 16th, Amber updated her personal Twitter account with a series of photos thanking Zhoumi, miss A's Jia, AOA's Yuna, Apink's Eunji and Bomi. On the said update, she reveals that, "the first airing is finally over! It was really fun and I want to thank everyone. ^^ Thanks also to all my beloved friends who came to cheer me on! Babom Bomi, Eunji who doesn't use dialects and AoA friend Yuna, Zhoumi, MongJia."
Amber is currently busy promoting her debut mini-album Beautiful and performing the title track "Shake That Brass" on various music programs. Aside from promoting her latest material, she is also busy appearing on variety programs and was dubbed as the ace of MBC's Real Men.
첫방 드뎌 마무리했는데 너무 재밌었고 여러분 넘 감사해요^^ 응원하러 온 사랑하는 내친구들도 너무 고마워! 바봄보보미, 사투리 이제 안 쓰는 은지, 아오아 친규 유나, 조미거거, 몽지아 ❤ pic.twitter.com/yt6bD0stTn
— Amber J. Liu 刘逸云 (@llama_ajol) February 16, 2015


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CA. Delta, accustomed to water wars, prepares for battle
Delta, accustomed to water wars, prepares for battle
Landowners plan their fight against two 35-mile underground tunnels that would carry water from the Sacramento River to the giant pumps that fill southbound aqueducts.
By Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times October 4, 2012, 6:39 p.m.
SUTTER ISLAND, Calif. As a child, Brett Baker learned farming fundamentals from his grandfather, who taught him to drive a tractor and gave him some advice about water.
"There may come a time," his grandfather said, "when you have to grab a shotgun and sit on the pump."
The vast delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers east of San Francisco, where Baker's family has lived and farmed since the 1850s, has long been the center of the state's chronic water conflicts.
It is the switchyard of California water, the place where the north's liquid riches are shipped to the irrigation ditches of the San Joaquin Valley and the sinks of Southland suburbs.
Now, as if heeding Baker's grandfather, the delta has become the defiant seat of rebellion against the most ambitious water supply project proposed in California in decades, a multibillion-dollar plan that has the backing of the administrations of Gov. Jerry Brown and President Obama, as well as the state's most powerful irrigation and urban water districts.
"Our secret plan is to fight them to build it," said Baker. "If it's built, fight them to operate it. And then fight them to tear it down. We're not going anywhere."
Delta landowners have refused to grant access to state crews doing preliminary soil testing for the project. They have demonstrated against the proposal in Sacramento, pitchforks in hand. They have organized a vocal coalition that has produced a documentary film airing at public forums around the state to drum up support for their cause.
The proposal, which is not final, calls for the construction of two 35-mile-long tunnels that would carry water underground from intakes on the Sacramento River a few miles north of here to the giant pumps that fill southbound aqueducts.
The government pumping operations currently suck supplies entirely from the south delta, a practice that plays havoc with the tidal estuary's natural salinity and flow patterns, creating a hospitable environment for invasive plants and fish. So powerful are the pumps that they reverse the flow of some delta channels, confusing native fish and drawing them to their deaths.
Advocates say the tunnel project, which also calls for the restoration of more than 100,000 acres of delta habitat, would reduce the pumps' harmful effects and help imperiled fish species rebound. They hope that in turn will allow the government to lift some of the endangered species protections that have restricted delta water exports.
But delta farmers want none of it. They fear the restoration efforts will cost them portions of their land. They worry that their irrigation waterwill grow saltier, hurting crops, as fresh Sacramento River water that has always flowed through the delta is instead diverted beneath it.
Opponents, including a number of conservation groups, warn that migrating salmon will run afoul of the massive river intakes. They argue that the big tunnels will inevitably be used to send more water south, robbing the delta ecosystem of needed flows.
"It's really taking away from one place and giving to another," said Baker, 28, a UC Davis graduate in fish and conservation biology who does related consulting work.
Recently married and expecting his first child, he is the sixth generation of his family to call a slice of Sutter Island home. The small north delta island has no towns. It is a neat grid of pear and cherry orchards, vineyards and scattered houses where about 150 people live, protected by earthen levees more than a century old. The Sacramento, California's largest river, rolls by the island's northeastern shoulder and two sloughs wash its flanks.
Baker isn't sitting on the pump with a shotgun yet. But he and other delta residents are taking aim at the big agribusiness interests of the western San Joaquin Valley that would be among the prime beneficiaries of the tunnels particularly the politically influential Westlands Water District that provides water to some of the largest and richest farm operations in California.
"It's about providing cheap irrigation water for a select few constituents of California senators and congressmen," Baker said.
Baker's great-great-great-grandfather was Asbury Hustler, a stern looking, bearded Austrian who trekked by wagon train from Ohio to California during the Gold Rush and wound up on Sutter Island. In 1876, after draining and cultivating the land under reclamation law, Hustler took title to 50 acres on the island's east side, next to Steamboat Slough.
In their early homesteading years, Hustler and his wife, Mary Jane, couldn't afford fruit trees, so they planted vegetables in the sandy loam soil. When high water in the winter and springflooded their fields before the levees were built, they would journey east to the Sierra foothills and pan gold, returning with enough money to start an orchard, a few trees at a time. They began with cherries and apricots, then found pears thrived under the cooling influence of the delta's marine breezes.
Their labors are chronicled in worn ledgers that Baker and his parents, Chuck and Joy Baker, never tire of scanning, gleaning the details of 19th century delta life from the careful cursive script. In 1877, the Hustlers bought 250 feet of lumber for $4. In 1880, they paid $15 for a plow and $10 for 50 Bartlett pear trees.
After the levees were constructed, the family stacked packed fruit boxes atop them for pickup by schooners and steamboats bound for booming San Francisco.
The heyday of California pear production is long gone, and with 30 acres of Bartletts, the Bakers are among the smallest of the state's 67 remaining pear growers. It's not enough to make a living. So Chuck Baker, 59, who runs the operation, also manages fruit orchards for other delta landowners.
After a hot day among the fruit trees, Chuck Baker sat on his second-story deck, a few hundred yards from his son's house, and gazed over rows of softly lit pear trees. In his hand was a glass of a favorite red wine made by Bogle Vineyards, a north delta winery whose president, Warren Bogle, was Brett Baker's football coach at the 275-student local high school.
The previous night Chuck and Joy Baker had attended a fundraising showing of "Over Troubled Waters," the documentary produced by Restore the Delta. Joy, 57, is president of the anti-tunnel group.
Used to be, you could catch 20- to 30-pound fish in the slough that flows by his property and irrigates his 4,300 pear trees, Chuck Baker said. Tons of salmon migrated through the delta. "As they increased the pumping, the fish population went like this," he said, pointing downward.
He bristles at the notion that he might lose land along the slough to restoration efforts intended to aid the recovery of imperiled fish that would sustain or even increase water exports to the San Joaquin Valley. "I'm not willing to sacrifice my land for somebody growing cotton in the desert," he declared, referring to a major crop grown in the Westlands Water District.
Yet when it comes to the delta's long ecological decline, virtually no part of California is blameless.
Central Valley farms and Bay Area cities take more waterfromthe delta watershed upstream before it can reach the delta than is pumped south. Altogether, nearly half of the water that would naturally flow through the delta to San Francisco Bay is diverted sipped by 25 million Californians and soaked up by several million acres of farm land.
It was Hustler and his fellow Gold Rush-era settlers who set in motion the most profound changes to what had been a great, freshwater tidal marsh, astonishingly rich in birds and wildlife. Drained and diked with nearly 1,100 miles of dirt levees by the early 1900s, the delta has lost all but 5% of its original tidal wetlands. It is now a quilt of water channels and 57 levee-ringed agricultural islands.
In the central and west delta, where marsh reeds decaying over thousands of years created thick peat soils, more than a century of farming has caused delta islands to sink 10 to 25 feet below sea level. Exposed to oxygen, the carbon in the peat vaporizes and the soil disintegrates, releasing greenhouse gases.
UC Davis geology professor Jeffrey Mount, one of Brett Baker's former instructors who calls the delta "one of the world's great holes in the ground," warned in a much-publicized 2005 scientific paper that there was a 2 in 3 chance that by 2050, major flooding or an earthquake would cause widespread levee collapse. Numerous farm islands would be submerged and freshwater supplies would be tainted with salt water rushing in from San Francisco Bay. Rising sea levels associated with global warming will leave the levees all the more vulnerable.
Tunnel backers cite that disastrous scenario as another reason to build a new diversion system. But delta residents dismiss the gloomy prognosis. Strengthen the levee system, they argue, and develop more regional water supplies in the state to lessen Californians' reliance on the delta and give its native fish what they most need: more water.
Though the delta has its share of wealthy, politically connected landowners, in the tunnel fight it is a comparative weakling, pitted against the state's biggest irrigators and Southern California water agencies.
Still, that alignment could change, especially if water contractors who have committed to pay for the $14-billion tunnel system start pulling out because they can't be assured of the deliveries they want, or if the state's north-south water rivalrieserupt as they did three decades ago when state voters killed the Peripheral Canal project, an earlier attempt to divert water around the delta.
When Brett Baker's delta neighbors ask, "Are we winning yet?" he tells them: "Everyday we're here, we're winning."
Delta, accustomed to water wars, prepares for battle - latimes.comNO AMNESTY
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Without the Colorado River, Los Angeles would revert to a desert.Join our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & to secure US borders by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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The San Diego region hit another milestone in its long quest for water independence, reaching a tentative agreement to buy the entire output of what will be the Western Hemisphere's largest seawater desalination plant.
The plant in Carlsbad will produce 50 million gallons a day.
http://www.alipac.us/f19/deal-reache...-plant-264581/NO AMNESTY
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Here at RLN we are interested in hearing from you. Perhaps you would like to know more about our projects, or join our team. Please e-mail us on the address below to get in touch.
We are also always interested in hearing from potential project partners both here in the UK and in Europe. If you would like to talk to us about future work, projects, bid writing or evaluation please contact us.


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Because life requires a lot from us, we have to maintain a fresh face and a deep desire to fight our way through our storms.
1. You're more than able to handle what you're going through.
2. There's no defeat in life, there's only course corrections, readjustments and new beginnings
3. The end of one chapter is a fresh, new beginning to the next. You have the right to create the next chapter as you see fit.
4. God always sends a helper. Dont shut people out.


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NOW is the perfect time to get your summer projects done whether it is decking, building, new roof, etc. Stop in and check us out. We sell to individuals and contractors. Schilling Truss, is truly your one stop for all of your building materials…..Continue reading
SPRING IS A PERFECT TIME FOR THOSE NEW PROJECTS WHETHER IT IS FOR A NEW POLE BUILDING OR NEW ROOF OR A NEW DECK…… STOP IN AND TALK TO TYLER OR JEFF REGARDING THESE PROJECTS. YOU MAY CALL US @ 740-984-2396. SCHILLING TRUSS WORKS WITH CONTRACTORS FROM WV OR OHIO AND INDIVIDUALS. ALSO WE DELIVER …Continue reading
NEED QUALITY LUMBER & DECKING BOARDS? COME SEE US TODAY…… NEED SHINGLES OR METAL FOR A NEW ROOF WE HAVE SAMPLES? …….COME SEE US TODAY…… NEED TRUSSES COME OR CALL US TODAY…….. WE ARE A ONE STOP SHOP……Continue reading
Do you need trusses for your next project whether it is for a pole building, garage or new home? Stop in and see Jeff or Tyler today…….. Have you seen our showroom lately we have samples of vinyl siding, metal, shingles and composite decking. Stop in and see us today…….. Have a good summer…..Continue reading
FAMILY OWNED AND TRUSTED FOR OVER 30 YEARS METAL & SHINGLE ROOFING INSULATION / ROOFING MATERIALS COMPOSITE DECKING CUSTOM DESIGN TRUSSESS VINYL SIDING HARDWARE WINDOWS & DOORS WE DELIVER VISIT OUR SHOWROOM 230 STONY RUN RD BEVERLY, OHIO VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.schillingtruss.comContinue reading


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Dual-energy computerized tomography (DECT) has high accuracy in detecting in established gout, but low diagnostic sensitivity for recent-onset gout, according to a recent meta-analysis published in Rheumatology
Investigators conducted a systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library for research on the diagnostic utility of DECT for gout. Selected studies used detection of monosodium urate crystals in synovial fluid or another validated set of criteria for gout diagnosis. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 criteria were used to assess the quality of each study. Data from person-based and joint-/localization-based evaluations were pooled separately; diagnostic odds ratios of DECT for imaging monosodium urate deposits were obtained using random-effect models.
Ten studies were selected for analysis, among which 5 presented data from person-based evaluations and 5 presented data from joint-/localization-based evaluation. Three studies conducted subgroup analyses for participants with recent-onset gout (≤6 weeks).
For patient-based evaluations, the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.77-0.86) and 0.91 (95% CI, 0.85-0.95), respectively; for joint-/localization-based evaluations, these values were 0.83 (95% CI, 0.79-0.86) and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.83-0.92).
The pooled sensitivity among patients with recent-onset gout was 0.55 (95% CI, 0.46-0.64), indicating an appreciable number of false negatives. When calculations were stratified by reference standard, no significant differences in sensitivity and specificity were observed; monosodium urate crystals, Janssens' score, and American College of Rheumatology 1977 criteria resulted in similar levels of accuracy.
Although DECT displayed high diagnostic accuracy for established gout, sensitivity was low for recent-onset gout.
No major differences in sensitivity and specificity were observed between patient-based evaluations and joint-/localization-based evaluations; further research is necessary to identify how many joints must be scanned to diagnose gout while minimizing cost and radiation exposure.
Gamala M, Jacobs JWG, van Laar JM. The diagnostic performance of dual energy CT for diagnosing gout: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis [published online May 14, 2019]. Rheumatology. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kez180


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About Motor Design
Motor Design Ltd (MDL) is a world leader in developing advanced software and tools for electric machine design. We have been developing electric motor design software since 1998.
Our software, Motor-CAD, is recognised worldwide as class-leading motor design software. We use our expert knowledge of designing electric motors to provide software support and consultancy services to electric machine designers at some of the most prestigious aerospace, automotive and industrial companies worldwide.


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Unpopular Vote: Hillary Did NOT Run a Bad Campaign
I explain why Americans NEED to believe Hillary ran a bad campaign because they can't accept the appeal of Trump's "minority-majority" fear-mongering
I explain why Americans NEED to believe Hillary ran a bad campaign because they can't accept the appeal of Trump's "minority-majority" fear-mongering
In a special reunion episode of "A Year Long Conversation," we dive deep into Doug Jones upset of Roy Moore, what this means for Alabama (and the South), Trump's first year in office, Russian meddling, predictions for 2018 and 2020, and the paradox of Trump's Russia-sponsored nationalism, at a time when fascism is having a moment what… Read More »
If you enjoyed our amazing 50-state tour, why not recommend us to ANYONE that can help get this podcast syndicated? The next episode is our last one unless we get sponsors or syndication…
I don't want to sugarcoat it: the Democratic Party is in trouble. It is at its lowest level since the late 1920's and possibly even worse than that when you consider Hawaii (one of only three states including Rhode Island and Delaware where Democrats control the state legislature trifecta and all congressional representation) wasn't yet a state at that time.… Read More »
Aside from the myth that Bernie could've won, we also hear that Hillary's campaign was bad. This is the second persistent myth that basically lets the American voter (and the media) off the hook. The thinking probably goes "hey, our country's not really dumb enough to vote for Trump against a good candidate, it's gotta be Hillary's fault!" It… Read More »
One of the widespread myths of the 2016—and there seem to be many—is that Bernie Sanders could've beat Trump where Hillary failed. This myth usually runs parallel to the myth that Hillary ran a bad campaign, a convenient theory that lets the voters (and the media) off the hook without acknowledging history, demographics, just how… Read More »
We dive deep into all things men, women, and everyone in-between in a stand-out episode. Big questions are explored like: Are men and women really different in 2016? Is Trump the epitome of what women like Hillary have always had to fight against? Have women already surpassed men and how will that affect dating, marriage,… Read More »
We spend the first half of the episode making sense of Big Don's implosion, tallying the numerous scandals and recapping his second debate performance. Then we ask "What is Corruption?" in 2016, and notice that a lot of American corruption seems to be how corruption is prosecuted and investigated in the first place–i.e. along party… Read More »
Can the Democrats take back the white working class? And how did they lose them in the first place? Tricky questions that we attempt to answer by looking deep into the history of the Democratic Party–which contained MLK and George Wallace at the same time–and how the Southern Strategy cost them the white working class decades… Read More »
This should be a real event. A boring guy with white-ish hair vs. a boring guy with very white hair… 6:00 p.m…even the pre-debate montage of these guys makes them look boring. I can almost hear the editor of this clip package "Hey guys, you can't make a turnip sexy." 6:05…A debate moderator I've never… Read More »


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Writer Andrea Flynn explores the persistence of hidden, racialized barriers to economic equality in the US, and explains why a 'class only' attempt to address inequality for all Americans fails to confront the legacy of systemic racism - via mass incarceration, spatial segregation and the wealth gap - blocking Black Americans from prosperity and equal access to the economy at large.
Andrea is co-author of the book The Hidden Rules of Race: Barriers to an Inclusive Economy from Cambridge University Press.
Andrea Flynn is a writer, researcher and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.


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I just wanted to share my journeys of painting from year 2000 to 2016. I started when I was 14 years old. My first medium was acrylic and I started oil painting last 2011. I was inspired by the landscape works of local artist Boy Velara and learn some techniques on him. I had a very slow progress because I only rely on history of art books and no internet during the first 3 years. Days, weeks or months I discovered something new and experimenting techniques.
Below is painting from the year 2000. I saw this from the collection of my high school classmate and took photo on it. I don't have camera before so I didn't took photo of my early works. This was not my first painting and my first painting was worst from this one.
Below is one of my recent painting of this year 2016.
I was amazed by some of the works copied from my youtube tutorials especially those who said that it's their first attempts. They did really amazing jobs. I can clearly see that you are better than me. I would like to congratulate you all.
Oil Portrait Paintings, Landscape Oil/Acrylic, Abstract and directly copy from picture. Best for birthday gifts, anniversaries, weddings and even for personal collections.


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UL Softball Completes Series Sweep Of ULM
The 16th-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns softball team continued their dominance of Sun Belt Conference schools on Sunday in Monroe, Louisiana, downing the ULM Warhawks in the 2017 regular season home finale for both teams.
Louisiana defeated ULM, 8-0, in 6-inning mercy-rule fashion, to complete a three-game series sweep, giving them 7 series sweeps in the 8 conference series that they played this season.
The Cajuns, who swept a doubleheader from ULM on Saturday, winning by scores of 4-0 and 6-5, ended up outscoring the Warhawks in the series, 18-5.
Going into the series, UL had already clinched their 4th-consecutive regular season Sun Belt Conference title, as well as their 15th in the 17-year history of softball in the league.
The win extended the Cajuns' current win streak to 10 games, while giving them 25 wins in their last 26 games, and 32 in their last 34.
UL has also now won 29 of their last 30 conference games, dating back to last season.
The series triumph also pushed Louisiana's conference series win streak to 37, a school and Sun Belt Conference record.
The Cajuns haven't lost a league series since 2013, when they dropped 2-of-3 to South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.
The 23 conference wins this season are the most in school history.
Louisiana got on the scoreboard first, and in a big way, plating 5 runs on 4 hits in the top half of the 4th inning, including a 2-run home run by Aleah Craighton, her 15th of the season, a bases loaded walk by Beth Ashley, a fielders choice run batted in by Kara Gremillion, and a 2-out infield single from DJ Sanders, to give them a 5-0 lead.
The Cajuns added two more runs in the top half of the 5th inning, with the first coming on a solo homer from Craighton, her second of the game and 16th of the year, with the second coming on a 2-out single off the bat of Kelli Martinez, to extend their lead to 7-0.
Louisiana ended things in the top half of the 6th inning, when Lexie Comeaux singled home a run with two outs, giving them an 8-0 lead, and the eventual 8-run mercy-rule triumph.
Comeaux's RBI gives the Cajuns five players with at least 45 runs batted in on the season.
Louisiana, who outhit ULM, 11-4, was led at the plate by Craighton, who went 2-for-3, including 2 homers and 3 runs batted in.
Alex Stewart (22-3) recorded the win in the circle for the Cajuns, allowing only four hits over 6 shutout innings.
Stewart, who the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, before nailing down a save in the second game, moved her career Sun Belt Conference record to an amazing 36-1.
Melanie Coyne (16-13) suffered the loss for the Warhawks, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits, in 4-plus innings of work.
With the victory, Louisiana improved to 42-6, overall, and 23-1 in league play, while ULM dropped to 29-26, and 11-16, respectively.
The Cajuns, the top-seed in the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Tournament, draws a first-day bye, and will play on Thursday morning at 10 am.


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You can download the guide to the iBooks App on your iPad (iBooks is a free app available in the App store).
- Open iBooks.
- Tap the "Store" button in the upper left corner of the iBooks screen.
- In the "Search" field in the upper right, enter "iPad user guide." The guide should appear in the search results. Tap the "free" button. The guide should download and appear on your bookshelf.
A PDF version of the user guide is also available from Apple's Web site.