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The new exhibition "Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote" opens June 4 at the Library of Congress. It will tell the story of the largest reform movement in American history with documents and artifacts from the women who changed political history 100 years ago. The exhibition is made possible by the Library of Congress James Madison Council with additional support from 1st Financial Bank USA (1FBUSA) and other sponsors. 1st Financial Bank USA believes that the voice of every American counts making every American's right to vote essential for protecting the freedoms and equal rights of all.
American suffragists persisted for more than 70 years before winning voting rights for women. On display will be their handwritten letters, speeches, photographs, music, merchandise, cartoons, and scrapbooks. Drawing from the personal collections of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and others, along with the records of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman's Party, the exhibition will explore women's long struggle for equality.
"Shall Not Be Denied" will trace the movement from before the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, through the divergent political strategies and internal divisions the suffragists overcame, the parades and pickets they orchestrated for voting rights, and the legacy of the 19th Amendment that was finally ratified in 1920.
"Shall Not Be Denied" is part of the national commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, marking major milestones in 2019 and 2020. The exhibition opens on the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Senate's passage of the suffrage amendment that would become the 19th Amendment once it was ratified by three-quarters of the states on Aug. 26, 1920. The exhibition is on view through September 2020.
💜Find more information on "Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote".


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This year's Energy Week features a myriad of fascinating and fun events that will engage students, faculty, and staff throughout campus. "This is the fourth year the Energy Center Student Advisory Board has put on Energy Week, and there is no doubt it has gotten better each year," said Meehan Lenzen, president of GreeND and one of the week's organizers. "I'm most excited about one of our brand new events, Energy Trivia Night at Legends! Also, the t-shirts this year are pretty fantastic, so I'd recommend getting them early."
Energy Week runs from Friday, September 24, through Thursday, September 30, and will be kicked off Activities at the Irish Green prior to the Stanford game Pep Rally. There will be Energy Week t-shirts for sale, prizes, and more.
Saturday, September 25 will feature an Energy Expo at Jordan Hall of Science. From 10am-12pm, leading energy experts will speak on current energy topics. From 12-1pm, adults and children of all ages are invited to participate in energy related hands-on activities and experiments.
On Monday, September 27 from 10:00am to 3:00pm, South Quad will host the annual Quad Display, where Energy companies and organizations will display their latest projects and newest technologies in sustainable energy.
There will be tours of the Notre Dame Power Plant and Geddes Hall, Notre Dame's first LEED Gold certified building. Two sustainability-related films, The 11th Hour and No Impact Man, will be screened as well.
On Tuesday, September 28th at 3:30, Ariel Castillo, Ph.D. Candidate at George Washington University, will discuss current research that is being done to assist in solving climate and energy issues by determining energy demands of the Department of Defense facilities and non-tactical vehicles that could be met by solar generation.
On Wednesday, September 29th at 7:30, Notre Dame professors will discuss current research initiatives at Notre Dame in alternative energy sources followed with questions moderated by Patrick Murphy, Managing Director of the Notre Dame Energy Center and the Sustainable Energy Initiative. Speakers are: Joan Brennecke (CO2 Capture and Geothermal); Seth Brown (Solar); Peter Burns (Nuclear); Thomas Corke (Wind); Rob Nerenberg (Biofuels).
The week will conclude with a Green Mass on Thursday, September 30 at 5:00 pm in Holy Cross Chapel in Stinson-Remick Hall and Energy Trivia Night at 9:30 p.m. at Legends. For complete details on the week's activities, visit our Events page.

subset: commoncrawl


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Underwater Controversy: An Amendment to the Alabama Cultural Resource Act Sparks Heated Debate
January 26, 2012
A proposed amendment to the Alabama Cultural Resources Act may give relic-hunters easier access to artifacts lying beneath the surface of the state's rivers, lakes, and bays. In Montgomery, Alabama Senator Cam Ward has introduced a bill to amend the Act, currently requiring underwater explorers to obtain a permit from the Alabama Historical Commission before diving in search of underwater artifacts. The amendment would still require permits to recover pieces related to shipwrecks and would forbid disturbing Native American burial sites, but treasure hunters would otherwise be free to search state waters and keep what they find.
Opinions surrounding this issue are sharply divided. On one side is Steve Phillips—advocate for the amendment and owner of Southern Skin Divers Supply Company of Birmingham. In 2003, Phillips was arrested for an underwater expedition on which he found a civil war era rifle, though he was only convicted of a misdemeanor. Phillips argues that there are no professional archaeological expeditions being conducted and without amateur collectors, many artifacts would still be at the bottom of Alabama waters.
On the other side is Teresa Paglione, president of the Alabama Archaeological Society. She argues that without legal protection, artifacts from the Civil War, settlement of the state, the age of European exploration, and thousands of years of Native American history could be carelessly removed in such a way as to prevent proper historical study. The context in which these objects are found is as crucial as examining the objects themselves; provenance cannot be ascertained once the objects have been extracted from their resting places. Another fear is that removing restrictions would lead to raids on historic sites for private collections, depriving Alabama citizenry of its cultural heritage.
The debate will continue as the amendment to the Act is considered.


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|Paper title:
|Information Technologies and Information Requirements: A BIM-Based Approach
|Silvia Mastrolembo Ventura, Nicolas Ziv and Angelo Ciribini
|The construction industry is currently facing important challenges: an imperative improvement of its productivity, higher performance targets and an increase of projects complexity. In order to overcome these challenges, a digital transition is on-going and has started with the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) processes. At the same time, digitisation of the construction industry requires a paradigm shift focused on collaborative workflows and user involvement, with the Client acting as driver for innovation. The proposed paper highlights the role of the Briefing process as project management tool of the demand side of construction. Information technologies for managing the bi-directional link between as-briefed and as-designed information requirements within a BIM environment are also investigated. These approaches are then compared with the ones of other industries and particularly with Systems Engineering methods. As a major Systems Engineering tool, the use of the SysML language in the construction industry is discussed. The comparison between the various data flows suggests further researches both in the application of Systems Engineering in the construction industry and in the development of requirements management tools for managing a BIM-based construction process. Finally, recommendations for the effective implementation of innovative processes and technologies are proposed.
|highlight paper
|Year of publication:
|Building Information Modelling, Requirements Management, Digital Brief, Design Review, Systems Engineering
|Download paper:
|Silvia Mastrolembo Ventura, Nicolas Ziv and Angelo Ciribini (2017). Information Technologies and Information Requirements: A BIM-Based Approach. Lean and Computing in Construction Congress (LC3): Volume I Ð Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Computing in Construction (JC3), July 4-7, 2017, Heraklion, Greece, pp. 37-44, http://itc.scix.net/paper/lc3-2017-313


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When I am not showing homes, I am busy being a wife, a mom to my two beautiful girls, and a Grammy to my two sweet granddaughters. Sadly my girls and granddaughters live out of state, but they all keep me busy talking on the phone, Skyping, and describing their next dress up fantasy for Grammy to zip up on her sewing machine. When I am not busy fulfilling the little dreams of my granddaughters, I am spending time out on the river or in my garden.


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Popular Science Monthly/Volume 14/November 1878/Evolution of Ceremonial Government VII
By HERBERT SPENCER.
THE undeveloped human intelligence does not initiate. Adhering tenaciously to whatever his fathers taught him, the primitive man deviates into novelty only through unintended modifications. That which every one now knows holds of languages, that they are not devised but evolve, equally holds of usages. To many proofs of this the foregoing chapters of this series have added further proofs.
The like holds of titles. Looked at as now existing, these appear artificial: there is suggested the idea that they were at some time or other consciously settled. But this is no more true than it is true that our common words were once consciously settled. Names of objects and qualities, and acts, are at first directly or indirectly descriptive; and the names we class as titles are in this respect like all others. Just as the deaf-mute who calls to mind a person he means by mimicking a peculiarity has no idea of introducing a symbol, so neither has the savage, when he recalls a place as the one where the kangaroo was killed or the one where the cliff fell down; so neither has he when he suggests an individual by referring to some marked trait in his appearance or fact in his life; and so neither has he when he gives those names, literally descriptive or metaphorically descriptive, which now and again develop into titles.
The very conception of a proper name grew up unawares. The fact that among the uncivilized a child is for years known as "Thunder-storm," or "New Moon," or "Father-come-home," shows us that there was originally nothing more than a reference to an event which occurred on its birthday, as a way of raising the thought the particular child meant. And if afterward it gets such a name as "Squash-head," or "Dirty-saddle" (Dakota names), this results from spontaneously using an alternative, and sometimes better, means of identification. Evidently the like has happened with such less needful names as titles. These must have differentiated from ordinary proper names, simply by being descriptive of some trait, or some deed, or some function, held in honor.
Various savage races give a man a name of renown in addition to, or in place of, the name by which he was previously known, on the occasion of a great achievement in battle. The Tupis furnish a good illustration. "The founder of the [cannibal] feast took an additional name as an honorable remembrance of what had been done, and his female relations ran through the house shouting the new title." And of these same people, Hans Stade says: "So many enemies as one of them slays, so many names does he give himself; and those are the noblest among them who have many such names." In North America, too, when a young Creek Indian brings his first scalp he is dubbed a man and a warrior, and receives a "war-name." Among the more advanced people of ancient Nicaragua, this practice had established a general name for such: they called one who had killed another in battle tapalique; and cobra was an equivalent title given by the Indians of the Isthmus.
How descriptive names of honor, thus arising during early militancy, become in some cases official names, we see on comparing evidence furnished by two sanguinary and cannibal societies in different stages of advance. In Feejee, "warriors of rank receive proud titles, such as 'the divider of' a district, 'the waster of' a coast, 'the depopulator of' an island—the name of the place in question being affixed." And then in ancient Mexico the names of offices filled by the king's brothers or nearest relatives were, one of them, "Cutter of men," and another, "Shedder of blood."
Where, as among the Feejeeans, the conceived distinction between men and gods is vague, and the formation of new gods by apotheosis of chiefs continues, we find the gods bearing names like those given during their lives to ferocious warriors. "The Woman-stealer," "the Brain-eater," "the Murderer," "Fresh-from-slaughter," are naturally such divine titles as arise from descriptive naming among ancestor worshiping cannibals. That sundry titles of the gods worshiped by superior races have originated in a kindred manner, is implied by the ascription of conquests to them. Be they the Egyptian deities, the Babylonian deities, or the deities of the Greeks, their power is represented as having been gained by battle; and with accounts of their achievements are in some cases joined congruous descriptive names, such as that of Mars—"the Blood-stainer," and that of the Hebrew god—"the Violent One;" which, according to Keunen, is the literal interpretation of Shaddai.
Very generally among primitive men, instead of the literally descriptive name of honor, there is given the metaphorically descriptive name of honor. Of the Tupis, whose ceremony of taking war-names is instanced above, we read that "they selected their appellations from visible objects, pride or ferocity influencing their choice." How such names, first spontaneously given by applauding companions, and afterward accorded in some more deliberate way, are apt to be acquired by men of the greatest prowess, and so to become names of rulers, is suggested by what Ximenez tells us respecting the more civilized peoples of Guatemala. Their king's names enumerated by him are—"Laughing Tiger," "Tiger of the Wood," "Oppressing Eagle," "Eagle's Head," "Strong Snake," etc. Throughout savage Africa there is a like genesis of royal titles. The King of Ashantee has among his glorifying names "Lion" and "Snake." In Dahomey, titles thus derived are made superlative: the king is "the Lion of Lions." And in a kindred spirit the King of Usambara is called "Lion of Heaven:" a title whence, should this king undergo apotheosis, myths of sundry kinds may naturally result. From Zulu-land, along with evidence of the same thing, there comes an illustration of the way in which names of honor derived from imposing objects, animate and inanimate, are joined with names of honor otherwise derived, and pass into certain of those forms of address lately dealt with. The titles of the king are—"The noble elephant," "Thou who art forever," "Thou who art as high as the heavens," "Thou who begettest the men," "The black one," "Thou who art the bird who eats other birds," "Thou who art as high as the mountains," "Thou who art the peacemaker," etc. Shooter shows us how these Zulu titles are used, by quoting part of a speech addressed to the king—"You mountain, you lion, you tiger, you that are black. There is none equal to you." Further, there is proof that names of honor thus originating pass into titles applied to the position occupied, rather than to the occupant considered personally; for Shooter says that a Caffre chief's wife "is called the Elephantess, while his great wife is called the Lioness."
Guided by such clews we cannot miss the inference that the use of animal-names as names of honor, traceable in the records of extinct historic races, similarly arose. If we find that now in Madagascar one of the king's titles is "Mighty Bull," and are reminded by this that to the conquering Rameses a like laudatory name is given by defeated foes, we can scarcely avoid suspecting that, from animal-names thus given to kings, there result the animal-names given as names of honor to deities; so that Apis in Egypt becomes an equivalent for Osiris and the Sun, and so that Bull similarly becomes an equivalent for the conquering hero and Sun-god Indra.
With titles derived from imposing natural objects and powers, it is the same. We have seen how among the Zulus the hyperbolic compliment to the king—"Thou art as high as the mountains"—passes from the form of a simile into the form of a metaphor when he is addressed as "you Mountain." And that the metaphorical name thus used sometimes becomes a proper name, proof comes to us from Samoa, where "the chief of Pango-Pango being now Maunga, or Mountain, that name must never be used in his presence." There is evidence that among the ruder ancestor-worshipers divine titles are similarly derived. The Chinooks and Navajos and Mexicans in North America, and the Peruvians in South America, regard certain mountains as gods; and since these gods have other names, the implication is that in each case an apotheosized man had received in honor either the general name Mountain, or the name of a particular mountain, as has happened in New Zealand. From complimentary comparisons to the sun, there result not only personal names of honor and divine names, but also official titles. On reading that the Mexicans distinguished Cortes as "the offspring of the Sun," that the Chibchas called the Spaniards in general "children of the Sun," and that in Tlascala Alvarado was named by the people "Sun"—on reading that "Child of the Sun" was the complimentary name often given to any one particularly clever in Peru, where the Incas, regarded as descendants of the Sun, successively enjoyed a title hence derived—we are enabled to understand how "Son of the Sun" came to be a title borne by the successive Egyptian kings, which was joined with proper names individually distinctive of them. And remembering how in Egypt, along with elaborate ancestor-worship, there went worship of living kings, we shall have no difficulty in seeing that as the kings, besides the solar title borne in common by them, took from the same original such special titles as "the Sun becoming victorious," "the Sun orderer of Creation," etc., there naturally resulted, among their gods arising by apotheosis, solar titles similarly specialized; as "the Cause of Heat," "the Author of Light," "the Power of the Sun," "the Vivifying Cause," "the Sun in the Firmament," and "the Sun in his Resting-place."
Given, then, the metaphorically-descriptive name and we have the germ from which grew up these primitive titles of honor; which, at first individual titles, become in some cases titles attaching to the offices filled.
To say that the words which in various languages are the equivalents of our word "God," are originally descriptive words, will be a startling proposition to those who, unfamiliar with the facts, credit the savage with thoughts like our own; and will be a repugnant proposition to those who, knowing something of the facts, yet persist in asserting that the conception of a universal creative power was possessed by man from the beginning. But whoever studies the evidence without bias will find proof that the general word for deity was at first simply a word expressive of superiority. Among the Feejeeans the name is applicable to anything great or marvelous; among the Malagasy to whatever is new, useful, or extraordinary; among the Toda, to everything mysterious—so that, as Marshall says, "it is truly an adjective noun of eminence." Applied alike to animate and inanimate things, as indicating some quality above the common, the word is in this sense applied to human beings, both living and dead; but as the dead are supposed to have acquired mysterious powers of doing good and evil to the living, the word comes to be more especially applicable to them. Though ghost and god have with us widely-distinguished meanings, yet they are originally equivalent words; or rather, originally, there is but one word for the supernatural being. Besides being shown this by missionaries who have found no native word for god which did not also mean ghost, demon, or devil; besides being shown this by the Greeks and Romans, who used for the spirits of deceased relatives the same word which they used for their great deities; and besides being shown it by the Egyptians, in whose hieroglyphics the same "determinative" means, according to the context, god, ancestor, august person—we are shown it by the Hebrews, who applied the word elohim not only to their supreme supernatural being but also to ghosts: indeed, giving as they did this same name to living persons of power, they show us, just as primitive peoples at large do, that superiority of one or other kind is the sole attribute ascribed. And since in early belief the other-self of the dead man is equally visible and tangible with the living man, so that it may be slain, drowned, or otherwise killed a second time; since the resemblance is such that it is difficult to learn what is the difference between a god and a chief among the Feejeeans; since the instances of theophany in the "Iliad" prove that the Greek god, capable of being wounded by men's weapons, was in all respects so like a man that special insight was required to discriminate him—we see how naturally it results that the title "god," given to a powerful being commonly thought of as invisible, is often given to a visible powerful being. the title being applied under the belief that he may be the other-self of some dreaded man come back, even if it is not applied because of his natural superiority. Indeed, as a sequence of this theory, it almost inevitably happens that men transcending in capacity those around them are suspected to be these returned ghosts or gods, to whom unusual powers are ordinarily ascribed. Hence the fact that Europeans, considered as the doubles of their own deceased people, are called ghosts by Australians, New-Caledonians, Darnley-Islanders, Kroomen, Calabar people, Mpongwe, etc. Hence the fact that they are called by the alternative name gods by Bushmen, Bechuanas, East Africans, Fulahs, Khonds, Feejeeans, Dyaks, ancient Mexicans, Chibchas, etc. Hence the fact that, using the word in the sense above explained, superior men among uncivilized peoples occasionally call themselves gods; as do the pâlâs, a kind of priests among the Todas, and as do some chiefs among the New-Zealanders and among the Feejeeans.
The original meaning and application of the word being thus understood, we need feel no surprise on finding "God" used as a title of honor. The King of Loango is so called by his subjects. Battel tells us; and Krapf says the like of the King of Msambara. At the present time among wandering Arabs, the name "God" is applied in no other sense than as the generic name of the most powerful living ruler known to them. This makes more credible than it might otherwise be, the statement that the Grand Lama, personally worshiped by the Tartars, is called by them "God, the Father." It is in harmony with such other facts as that Radama, King of Madagascar, is addressed by the women who sing his praises as "O our God;" and that to the Dahoman king the alternative word "Spirit" is used; so that, when he summons any one, the messenger says, "The Spirit requires you," and when he has spoken, all exclaim, "The Spirit speaketh true." All which facts make comprehensible that assumption of θεὸς as a title by ancient kings in the East which is to moderns so astonishing.
Descent of this name of honor into ordinary intercourse, though not common, does sometimes occur. After what has been said above, it will not appear strange that it should be applied to deceased persons; as, according to Motolinia, it was by the ancient Mexicans, who "called any of their dead teotl so and so—i. e., this or that god, this or that saint." And prepared by such an instance we shall understand the better its occasional use as a greeting between the living. Colonel Yule says of the Kasias, "The salutation at meeting is singular—'Kublé! O God!' "
The connection between "God" as a title and "Father" as a title becomes clear only on going back to those early forms of conception and language in which the two are undifferentiated. The fact that, even in so developed a language as Sanskrit, words which mean "making," "fabricating," "begetting," or "generating," are indiscriminately used for the same purpose, suggests how naturally in the primitive mind the living father, as begetter or visible causer of new beings, becoming at death a causer of new beings who is no longer visible, is associated in word and thought with dead and invisible causers at large, who, some of them acquiring preëminence, come to be regarded as causers in general—makers or creators. When Sir Rutherford Alcock remarks that "a spurious mixture of the theocratic and patriarchal elements forms the bases of all government, both in the Celestial and the Japanese Empires, under emperors who claim not only to be each the patriarch and father of his people, but also divine descent," he adds one to the many misinterpretations produced by descending from our high conceptions, instead of ascending from the low conceptions of the primitive man. For what he thinks a "spurious mixture" of ideas is, in fact, a normal union of ideas; which, in the cases named, has persisted longer than commonly happens in developed societies.
The Zulus show us this union very clearly. They have traditions of Unkulunkulu (literally, the old, old one), "who was the first man," "who came into being and begat man," "who gave origin to man and everything besides" (including the sun, moon, and heavens), and who is inferred to have been a black man because all his descendants are black. The original Unkulunkulu is not worshiped by them because he is supposed to be permanently dead; but instead of him the Unkulunkulus of the various tribes into which his descendants have divided are severally worshiped, and severally called "Father." Here, then, the ideas of a Creator and a Father are directly connected. Equally specific, or even more specific, are the kindred ideas conveyed in the answers which the ancient Nicaraguans gave to the question, "Who made heaven and earth?" After their first answers, "Tamagastad and Çipattoval," "our great gods whom we call teotes," cross-examination brought out the further answers—"Our fathers are these teotes;" "all men and women descend from them;" "they are of flesh and are man and woman;" "they walked over the earth dressed, and ate what the Indians ate." Gods and first parents being thus identified, fatherhood and divinity become allied ideas. The remotest ancestor supposed to be still existing in the other world to which he went, the creator of his descendants, "the old, old one," or "ancient of days," becomes the chief deity; and so "father" is not, as we suppose, a metaphorical equivalent for "god," but a literal equivalent.
Therefore it happens that among all nations we find it an alternative title. In the before-quoted prayer of the New-Caledonian to the ghost of his ancestor—"Compassionate father, here is some food for you; eat it; be kind to us on account of it"—we are shown that original identification of fatherhood and godhood to which all mythologies and theologies carry us back. We see the naturalness of the facts that the Peruvian Incas worshiped their father the Sun; that Ptah, the first of the dynasty of the gods who ruled Egypt, is called "the father of the father of the gods;" and that Zeus is "father of gods and men."
After contemplating these early beliefs in which the divine and the human are so little distinguished, or after studying the beliefs still extant in China and Japan, where the rulers, "sons of heaven," claim descent from these most ancient fathers or gods, it is easy to see how the name father, in its higher sense, comes to be applied to a living potentate. His proximate and remote ancestors being all spoken of as fathers, distinguished only by the prefixes grand, great-great, etc., it results that the name father, given to every member of the series, comes to be given to the last of the series still living. With this cause is joined a further cause. Where establishment of descent in the male line has initiated the patriarchal family, the name father, even in its original meaning, comes to be associated with supreme authority, and to be therefore a name of honor. Indeed, in nations formed by the compounding and recompounding of patriarchal groups, the two causes coalesce. The remotest known ancestor of each compounding group, at once the most ancient father and the god of the compound group, being continuously represented in blood, as well as in power, by the eldest descendant of the eldest, it happens that this patriarch, who is head not of his own group only but also of the compound group, stands to both in a relation analogous to that in which the apotheosized ancestor stands; and so combines in a measure the divine power, the paternal power, and the kingly power.
Hence the prevalence of this word as a royal title. It is used equally by American Indians and by New-Zealanders in addressing the rulers of the civilized. We find it in Africa, Of the various names for the king among the Zulus, the name father heads the list; and in Dahomey, when the king walked from the throne to the palace, "every inequality was pointed out, with finger-snappings, lest it might offend the royal toe, and a running accompaniment of 'Dadda! dadda!' (Grandfather! grandfather!) and of 'Dedde! dedde!' (softly! softly!) was kept up." In Asia, we find cases in which the titles "Lord Raja and Lord Father" are joined together. In Europe, at the present time, father is applied to the czar; and in ancient times, under the form sire, it was the common name for potentates of various grades—feudal lords and king's: and still continues to be one of the names used in addressing a monarch.[1]
More readily than usual, perhaps from its double meaning, has this title been diffused. Everywhere we find it becoming the name for any kind of superior. Not to the king only among the Zulus is the word "baba," father, used; but also by inferiors of all ranks to those above them. In Dahomey a slave applies this name to his master, as his master applies it to the king. And Livingstone narrates how he was referred to as "our father" by his attendants, as also was Burchell by the Bachassins. It was the same of old in the East; as when "his servants came near, and spake unto Naaman, and said. My father," etc.; and it is the same in the remote East at the present time. A Japanese "apprentice addresses his patron as 'father.'" In Siam "children of the nobles are called 'father and mother' by their subordinates;" and Hue narrates how he saw Chinese laborers prostrating themselves before a mandarin, exclaiming, "Peace and happiness to our father and mother!" Then, as a stage in the descent to more general use, may be noted its extension to those who, apart from their rank, have acquired the superiority ascribed to age: a superiority sometimes taking precedence of rank, as in Siam, and in certain ways in Japan and China. Such extension occurred in ancient Rome, where pater was at once a magisterial title and a title given by the younger to the elder, though not related; and in Russia, at the present time, the equivalent word is used to the czar, to a priest, and to any aged man. Eventually it spreads to young as well as old. Under the form sire, at first applied to feudal rulers, major and minor, the title of father originated our familar sir; once general among us in speech and still in letters.
A curious group of derivatives, common among uncivilized and semi-civilized peoples, must be named. The wish to compliment by ascribing that dignity which fatherhood implies, has in many places led to the practice of replacing a man's proper name by a name which, while it recalls this honorable paternity, distinguishes him by the name of his child. The Malays, says St. John, have "the same custom as the Dyaks of taking the name of their first-born, as Pa Sipi, the father of Sipi." Marsden names the usage as common in Sumatra; and Ellis illustrates it from Madagascar. It is so too among some Indian hill tribes: the Kasias "address each other by the names of their children, as Pabobon, father of Bobon!" Africa also furnishes instances. Bechuanas addressing Mr. Moffat used to say, "I speak to the father of Mary;" and in the Pacific States of North America there are people so solicitous to bear this primitive name of honor that, until a young man has children, his dog stands to him in the position of a son, and he is known as the father of his dog.
The supremacy associated with age in patriarchal groups and in societies derived by composition from patriarchal groups, shown primarily in that honoring of parents which, as in the Jewish commandments, is put next to the worship of God, and secondarily in the honoring of old men in general, gives rise to a kindred but divergent group of titles. Age being dignified, words indicating seniority become names of dignity.
The beginnings may be discerned among the uncivilized: councils being formed of the older men, there arises a connection between the local name for an older man and an office of power and therefore of honor. Merely noting this, it will suffice if we trace among European peoples the growth of titles hence resulting. Among the Romans, senator, or member of the senatus, words having the same root with senex, was the name for a member of the assembly of elders; and in early times these senators or elders, otherwise called patres, represented the component tribes: father and elder being thus used as equivalents. From the further cognate word senior, we have, in derived languages, signore, seigneur, senhor; first applied to head-men, rulers, or lords, and then by diffusion becoming names of honor for those of inferior rank. The same thing has happened with ealdor or aldor. This, says Max Müller, "like many other titles of rank in the various Teutonic tongues, is derived from an adjective implying age;" so that "earl" and "alderman," both diverging from this root, are names of honor, similarly resulting from that social superiority which went along with age.
Whether or not the German title Graf should be added, is a moot point. If Max Müller is right in considering the objections of Grimm to the current interpretation inadequate, then the word originally means gray; that is, gray-headed.
We may deal briefly with the remaining titles which re illustrate, in their respective ways, the general principle set forth.
Like other names of honor that grew up in very early times, the name "king" is one concerning the formation of which there are differences of opinion. By general agreement, however, its remote source is the Sanskrit ganaka; and "in Sanskrit, ganaka means producing, parent, then king." If this is the true derivation, we have simply an alternative title for the head of the family group, of the patriarchal group, and the cluster of patriarchal groups. The only further fact respecting it calling for remark is the way in which it becomes compounded to produce a higher title. Just as in Hebrew Abram, meaning "high father," came to be a compound used to signify the fatherhood and headship of many minor groups; and just as the Greek and Latin equivalents to our patriarch signified, by implication if not directly, a father of fathers—so in the case of the title "king" it has happened that a potentate recognized as dominant over numerous potentates has in many cases been descriptively called "king of kings." In Abyssinia this compound royal name is used down to the present time; ancient Egyptian monarchs assumed it; and it occurred also as a supreme title in Assyria. And here again we meet a correspondence between terrestrial and celestial titles. As "father" and "king" are applied in common to the visible and to the invisible ruler, so also is "king of kings."
This need for marking by a distinct or additional name the ruler who becomes head of many rulers leads to the introduction of other titles of honor. In France, for example, while the king was but a predominant feudal noble, he was addressed by the title of sire, which was a title borne by feudal nobles in general; but after the middle of the sixteenth century, when his supremacy became settled, the word "majesty" came into use as distinctively applicable to him. Similarly with the names of secondary potentates. In the earlier stages of the feudal period, the titles baron, marquis, duke, and count, were often confounded: the reason being that their attributes as feudal nobles, as guards of the marches, as military leaders, and as friends of the king, were so far common to them as to yield no clear grounds for distinction. But as the differentiation of functions progressed, these titles differentiated in their meanings.
"The name 'baron,'" says Chéruel, "appears to have been the generic term for every kind of great lord, that of duke for every kind of military chief, that of count and marquis for every ruler of a territory. These titles are used almost indiscriminately in the romances of chivalry. When the feudal hierarchy was constituted the name baron denoted a lord inferior in rank to a count and superior to a simple knight."
That is to say, with the progress of political organization, and the establishment of rulers over rulers, certain titles became specialized for the dignifying of the superiors, in addition to those which they had in common with the inferiors.
As is shown by the above cases, special titles, like general ones, are not made, but grow—they are at first descriptive. Further to exemplify this descriptive origin, and also to exemplify the undifferentiated use of titles in early days, let me enumerate the several styles by which, in the Merovingian period, the mayors of the palace were known, viz.: major domús regiæ, senior domús, princeps domús, and in other instances præpositus, prœfectus, rector, gubernator, moderator, dux, custos, subregulus. In which list (noting as we pass how our own title "mayor," said to be derived from the French maire, is originally derived from the Latin major, meaning either greater or elder) we are shown how further names of honor carry us back to words implying age as their originals; and how in place of these descriptive words the alternative words used are descriptive of functions.
Perhaps better in the case of titles than in any other case is illustrated the diffusion of ceremonial forms that are used to propitiate first the most powerful, then the less powerful, and, finally, all others.
Uncivilized and semi-civilized peoples, civilized peoples of past times, and existing civilized peoples, all furnish examples. Among Samoans "it is usual, in the courtesies of common conversation, for all to call each other chiefs. If you listen to the talk of little boys even, you will hear them addressing each other as chief this, that, and the other thing." In Siam, a man's children by any of his inferior wives address their father as "my lord, the king;" and the word Náï, which is the name for chief among the Siamese, "has become a term of civility which the Siamese give to one another." A kindred result has occurred in China, where sons speak of their father as "family's majesty," "prince of the family;" and China supplies a further instance, which is the more noteworthy because it is special. Here, where the supremacy of ancient teachers became so great, and where the titles 'tze or futze, signifying "great teacher," added to their names, were subsequently added to the names of distinguished writers, and where class distinctions based on intellectual eminence characterize the social organization, it has resulted that this name of honor, signifying teacher, has become an ordinary complimentary title. Ancient Rome furnishes other evidences. The spirit which led to the diffusion of titles is well exhibited by Mommsen in describing the corrupt giving of public triumphs that were originally accorded only to a "supreme magistrate who augmented the power of the state in open battle."
"In order to put an end to peaceful triumphators, . . . the granting of a triumph was made to depend on the producing proof of a pitched battle which had cost the lives of at least five thousand of the enemy; but this proof was frequently evaded by false bulletins. . . . Formerly the thanks of the community once for all had sufficed for service rendered to the state; now every meritorious act seemed to demand a permanent distinction. . . . A custom came into vogue, by which the victor and his descendants derived a permanent surname from the victories they had won. . . . The example set by the higher was followed by the humbler classes."
And under the influence thus illustrated, dominus and rex eventually became titles used to ordinary persons. Nor do modern European nations fail to exemplify the process. The prevalence of names of rank on the Continent, often remarked, reaches in some places great extremes. In Mecklenburg, says Captain Spencer, "it is computed that the nobility include one-half of the population. . . . At one of the inns I found a Herr Graf [count] for a landlord, a Frau Gräfin [countess] for a landlady, the young Herren Grafen filled the places of hostler, waiter, and boots, while the fair young Fräulein Gräfinnen were the cooks and chambermaids. I was informed that in one village. . . . the whole of the inhabitants were noble except four."
French history shows us more clearly perhaps than any other the stages of diffusion. Just noting that in early days, while madame was the title for a noble lady, mademoiselle was used to the wife of an advocate or physician, and that when, in the sixteenth century, madame descended to the married women of these middle ranks, mademoiselle descended from them to the unmarried women, let us look more especially at the masculine titles sire, seigneur, sieur, and monsieur. Setting out with sire, as an early title for a feudal noble, we find, from a remark of Montaigne, that in 1580, though still applicable in a higher sense to the king, it had descended to the vulgar, and was not used for intermediate grades. Seigneur, introduced later as a feudal title, while sire was losing its meaning by diffusion, and for a period used alternatively with it, became, in course of time, contracted into sieur. By-and-by sieur also began to spread to those of lower rank. Afterward, reëstablishing a distinction by an emphasizing prefix, there came into use monsieur, which, as applied to great seigneurs, was new in 1321, and which came also to be the title of sons of kings and dukes. And then by the time that monsieur also had become a general title among the upper classes, sieur had become a bourgeois title. Since which time, by the same process, the early sire and the later sieur, dying out, have been replaced by the universal monsieur. So that there appear to have been three waves of diffusion: sire, sieur, and monsieur, have successively spread downward.'
How by this process high titles eventually descend to the very lowest, we are shown most startlingly in Spain, where "even beggars address each other as Señor y Caballero—Lord and Knight."
For form's sake, though scarcely otherwise, it is needful to point out how we are taught here the same lesson as before. The title-giving among savages which follows victory over a foe, brute or human, and which literally or metaphorically distinguishes the individual by his achievement, unquestionably originates in militancy. Though the more general names father, king, lord, elder, and their derivatives, which afterward arise, are not directly militant in their implications, yet they are indirectly so; for they are the names of rulers evolved by militant activity, who habitually exercise militant functions: being in early stages always the commanders of their subjects in battle. Down to our most familiar titles we have this genesis implied. "Esquire" and "Mister" are derived the one from the name of a knight's attendant and the other from the name magister—originally a ruler or chief, who was a military head by origin and a civil head by development.
As in other cases, comparisons of societies of different types disclose this relation in another way. Remarking that in sanguinary and despotic Dahomey the personal name "can hardly be said to exist; it changes with every rank of the holder," Burton says: "The dignities seem to be interminable; except among the slaves and the canaille, 'handles' are the rule, not the exception, and most of them are hereditary." So, too, under Oriental despotisms. "The name of every Burman," says Yule, "disappears when he gets a title of rank or office, and is heard no more;" and in China "there are twelve orders of nobility, conferred solely on the members of the imperial house or clan," besides "the five ancient orders of nobility." In Europe it is the same. Travelers in both Russia and Germany, with their social organizations subordinated to the purposes of war, comment on the "insane rage for titles of every description:" the results being that in Russia "a police-office clerk belongs to the eighteenth grade, and has the right to the title of Your Honor;" while in Germany the names of ranks and names of office, so abundantly distributed, are habitually expected and studiously given, in both speech and writing. Meanwhile England, for ages past less militant in type of structure, has ever shown this trait in a smaller degree; and along with the recent growth of industrialism and accompanying changes of organization, the use of titles in social intercourse has greatly decreased.
With equal clearness is this connection shown within each society. Names of honor pertain to members of that regulative organization which militancy originates. By the thirteen grades in our army and the fourteen grades in our navy, we are shown that the exclusively militant structures still continue to be characterized in the highest degree by numerous and specific titular marks. To the ruling classes, descendants or representatives of those who in past times were heads of military forces, the higher distinctions of rank still mostly belong; and of remaining higher titles, the ecclesiastical and legal are also associated with the regulative organization. Meanwhile the producing and exchanging parts of the society, carrying on industrial activities, only in exceptional cases bear any titles beyond those which, descending and spreading, have almost lost their meanings.
It is indisputable, then, that, serving first to commemorate the triumphs of savages over their foes, titles have expanded, multiplied, and differentiated, as conquest has formed larger societies by consolidation and reconsolidation of small ones; and that, belonging to the type of social structure generated by habitual war, they tend to lose their meanings, their uses, and their values, in proportion as this structure is replaced by one fitted for carrying on the pursuits of peace.
- ↑ Though the disputes respecting the origins of sire and sieur have ended in the conclusion that they are derived from the same root, meaning originally elder, yet it has become clear that sire was a contracted form in use earlier than sieur (the contracted form of seigneur), and hence acquired a more general meaning, which became equivalent to father. Its applicability to various persons of dignity besides the seigneur, is evidence of its previous evolution and spread; and that it had a meaning equivalent to father, is shown by the fact that in early French grant-sire is used as an equivalent for grand-père, and also by the fact that sire was not applicable to an unmarried man.


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TORONTO, Ont. – Canvass AI announced today its AI platform has been deployed by two major energy companies to improve overall plant resiliency. Based in North America and Southeast Asia, the oil and gas and geothermal companies are using Canvass AI to optimize asset utilization, reduce unplanned downtime, and lower carbon emissions.
The customers are part of a growing roster of energy enterprises that are seeking to extract an estimated US$1T of value from their existing digital investments. Of this, the World Economic Forum projects that oil and gas companies have the potential to unlock US$275B through operational optimization – highlighting the immense Return on Investment opportunity for energy companies when they apply AI to derive operational insights from their data. In addition, with AI the oil and gas sector can advance its net-zero emissions ambitions by reducing water consumption, risk of pipeline spills, and CO2 emissions.
"The addition of these customers proves that industrial companies can quickly extract value from their digital investments using our no-code AI platform," said Humera Malik, Canvass AI CEO. "The Canvass AI platform is founded on three core pillars: providing the predictive insights to improve resiliency; empowering the operations workforce with AI and removing the reliance on consultants; and paving the way for environmentally sustainable operations with a scalable platform where AI can be applied across the entire facility. The result is an AI platform in which operations teams can create immediate impact in their day-to-day operations."
"Enabling operational agility with a digitally connected workforce provides a competitive advantage and is now more critical than ever in light of the COVID-19 crisis," said Matthew Littlefield, Principal Analyst at LNS Research. "Canvass AI empowers industrial workforces with machine learning so they can be key participants in their industrial transformation."
The Canvass AI Platform is transforming industrial operations by putting the power of AI in the hands of engineers. By making the process of preparing data and building, training, and deploying machine learning models possible without coding skills, Canvass is creating a new generation of citizen data engineers who can gain value from their data and achieve immediate operational impact. Key features of the software-as-a-service Canvass AI platform include:
· Automated data preparation: Canvass AI Data Engine ingests data from multiple sources and automates the data connection, standardization, and cleansing required to prepare data for machine learning
· Enriched data visualization: empowering engineers to contextualize data, identify trends and explore new findings via interactive visualization with charts and graphs
· Pre-coded machine learning templates: for industrial manufacturing's most common use cases such as anomaly detection, asset and process optimization, defect part detection, asset failure prediction, forecasting, and to model what-if scenarios
· Scalable to support multiple AI deployments: deploy AI across the entire factory floor and your facility network
· Integration with Canvass Academy: an online, self-paced learning program with hands-on labs that accelerate users' proficiency in using the Canvass AI platform.
Canvass AI customers are achieving immediate time to value in days, not months. For example, a leading global Fortune 500 manufacturer, has automated the optimization of its co-generation assets, which is reducing the plant's greenhouse gas emissions and cutting energy costs by $100,000s annually due to lower natural gas and water consumption.


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Across Canada Workshop Series on Resilient Rainwater Management: Final Program released by BC's Partnership for Water Sustainability
Note to Reader:
Starting on October 23 and ending on November 3, the 5-city 2014 Across Canada Workshop Series on Resilient Rainwater Management will feature workshop events in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. Practitioners will have an opportunity to learn about cost-effective tools developed in BC for climate adaptation and watershed health.
To download a copy of the Final Draft of the program, click on Resilient Rainwater Management: Across Canada Workshop Series on Adapting to a Changing Climate.
Resilient Rainwater Management
The Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia is responsible for developing and delivering the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, and is the hub for a "convening for action" network in the local government setting.
The Partnership has released the Final Draft of the program for an Across Canada Workshop Series on Resilient Rainwater Management. The series is made possible by funding from the Intact Financial Corporation. The series is an initiative under the umbrella of the Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP) at the University of Waterloo. The 5-city series will be delivered during the period October 23 through November 3, 2014.
"The Across Canada Workshop Series will be an opportunity for water resource and infrastructure practitioners to learn about British Columbia's collaborative and science-based approach to protecting and restoring watershed health," states Dr. Blair Feltmate, CCAP Chair. "The series meets the project's mandate to showcase viable and cost-effective adaptation solutions that ultimately will be replicated in communities across the country."
Showcasing BC's Watershed-Based Approach
The series theme is Resilient Rainwater Management: Across Canada Workshop Series on Adapting to a Changing Climate. The program for each workshop is structured as four modules.
"We have a comprehensive story to tell about our two-decade long journey in BC, and the University of Waterloo's Climate Change Adaptation Project has made the Across Canada Workshop Series possible," states Kim Stephens, Partnership Executive Director. "In telling our story, our plan is to frame it in a way that helps each of our five host partners advance their local goals and initiatives. The road show is an opportunity for all of us to share and learn from each other."
Sharing & Learning
"Our story is about what it means for a group of people to share a vision and make a long-term personal and professional commitment to creating a better future in the regions of BC. We challenge our audiences by asking 'What do you want this place to look like in 50 years' because the decisions that we make today will ripple through time," continues Kim Stephens.
"Our experience covers the continuum from developing provincial policy and tools to implementing actions on the ground. Our strength is founded on a science-based approach that has enabled us to transcend rhetoric and demonstrate the cumulative benefits of changes in practice on the ground."
"At the end of the day, the main purpose of the national series is to showcase the web-based Water Balance Model Express for Landowners because that is what excited the CCAP team at the University of Waterloo. They see its potential application as a climate change adaptation tool."
"Equally important from our perspective, the series also provides an opportunity for relationship-building that will create a national network of rainwater management champions," concludes Kim Stephens.
Draft Program
"The structure for the workshop program has evolved from discussions with our across Canada partners, and comprises four modules for knowledge-sharing, In the Draft Program, we have identified a SCOPE, which serves as an abstract; and an EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE – that is, the learning outcome," continues Ted van der Gulik, Partnership President and previously the Senior Engineer in the BC Ministry of Agriculture. During his career with government, Ted had a leadership role in provincial water initiatives.
"In Module 1, the local partner provides the core content. Their objective is to establish relevance for their target audience. They are providing the bridge into Modules 2 and 3 where we provide our core content."
"The key words that capture the essence of Module 2 and Module 3 are 'developing' and 'implementing', respectively. The unifying theme is Mimic the Water Balance. A key message is this – if we get the hydrology right, water quality will typically take care of itself."
"Module 4 is where we close the loop in terms of meeting expectations established in Module 1. This will be an interactive segment. We achieve this by asking participants to share their Ah-Ha Moments. Our approach is to 'work the audience' so that the room is energized and the day finishes on a high note," concludes Ted van der Gulik.
To Learn More:
To download a copy of the Final Draft of the program, click on Resilient Rainwater Management: Across Canada Workshop Series on Adapting to a Changing Climate. Also, click on the image below.
The Draft Program elaborates on each of the four modules, presents the bios for the 3-person BC presentation team, and explains what "Watershed Health Goal" means in BC.


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As I stumble through American Idol withdrawal and recover from the fact that vanilla is still the flavor of choice in the U.S. whether we're talking ice cream or singers, I've been increasingly thankful for Susan Boyle, the hairy angel on Britain's Got Talent. Whether she wins or loses the chance to sing for the Queen, she is the inspirational poster child for late bloomers everywhere.
Besides looking like that crazy spinster aunt in Wal-Mart clothes that your mother always invites to dinner because she lives alone with her cat, Boyle is a creaking forty-eight years old. That's right: she's more than twice the age of Kris Allen, our newly crowned American Idol. Yet, Boyle's age, hairy church lady looks and lousy luck in love didn't deter our feisty lass from climbing up on stage and belting out "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables in a way that made even the only female judge, Botox beauty Amanda Holden, cast cow-eyed looks of awe at this unlikely Scottish songbird.
Why did this performance become such an instant viral plague on YouTube that even my son sent it to me via his college email? It wasn't just for that okay tear jerker of a song. It was because Susan Boyle gives all late bloomers hope that we still have a chance to realize our own dreams. Want to be a singer? Write the great American novel? Run a marathon? Be a millionaire? Take up painting? Invent a flying car? Sail around the world? Watching Susan Boyle, we know it's not too late! Even if I could wave a magic wand and somehow combine Kris Allen and Adam Lambert into one perfect manchild megastar, they could never do that. They're too beautiful. And way, way too young.
As writer Malcolm Gladwell noted in his wonderful October 20, 2008 New Yorker essay, "Late Bloomers" (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell), "doing something truly creative, we're inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth." He points out notable examples of that, from Orson Welles to Mozart. However, Gladwell goes on to note that many geniuses are late bloomers, not prodigies who burst out of the gates at age fifteen, talents and ambitions razor sharp. Late bloomers muddle ahead, experimenting and failing and trudging forward for decades before they're a success, or even noticed at all. Until then, many late bloomers are perceived as failures. They have to rely on mundane jobs (think of Einstein toiling away in his patent office) or kindly patrons as they inch forward toward their dreams.
What's so inspiring about Susan Boyle? She dreamed her dream not for a mere seventeen years, like bluesy, confident American Idol finalist Allison Iraheta, so perfectly at home on stage next to veteran rocker Cyndi Lauper, but for almost half a century. Now that's star power.


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When it came time for us to leave our beloved Inn at Palmetto Bluff, we thought it would be fun to plan a lunch stop on the way back up to North Carolina. Try as I might, I simply couldn't convince Michael to make a (significantly out of the way) detour to Charleston for lunch at Husk – a restaurant I've been dying to visit for months now. I then thought lunch in Beaufort, SC might be a nice option, but I just couldn't seem to get excited about anything I was finding online.
After doing a little more digging, I found the perfect spot for a quick lunch – The Pink Pig in Hardeeville, South Carolina, just outside of Bluffton. From the articles I found online via Travel + Leisure and Savannah Magazine, The Pink Pig seemed like a fantastic local hangout, somewhere I might not even think to stop if passing by.
Our meals were simple – we both ordered barbecue sandwiches, with french fries for Michael, and hushpuppies for me. Admittedly, I'm not the biggest barbecue connoisseur, but I do consider Michael to be, and he absolutely raved about the sandwich! My line of expertise is definitely the hushpuppy, and the ones we had (I wound up sharing a few with Michael, even though I wasn't too happy about it) at The Pink Pig were some of my very favorites. Not every hushpuppy I eat meets my standards, but these were deliciously sweet with a crispy exterior and a fluffy interior. When he wasn't begging for a few of Michael's french fries, Orvis greeted some regular patrons of The Pink Pig from our seat near the front door.
If you find yourself driving to Savannah, or staying at Palmetto Bluff, we'd highly recommend stopping in for some tasty lowcountry barbecue.


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I was planning on taking a bit of a break from writing about the cesspooly trenches of partisan politics for the next couple weeks, but I'll make an exception today for the few points...
- By now, I'm sure everyone has seen what a $25 million public relations campaign couldn't even dream of coming close to accomplishing.
- Former Alberta Liberal MLAs Mo Elsalhy (Edmonton-McClung) and Maurice Tougas (Edmonton-Meadowlark) have started up a blog on Alberta politics. Not very often do Albertans hear from former MLAs, so this should be an ongoing interesting read.
- On the topic of former MLAs, former NDP Edmonton-Calder MLA Dave Eggen is the new Executive Director of the Friends of Medicare. Eggen fills the spot vacated by Harvey Voogd (Voogd stepped down to run for a Ward 3 City Council spot in 2007, he was defeated by Ed Gibbons and Tony Caterina).
- And finally, political differences aside, I want to wish my friend Anand Sharma all the good luck that I can muster in his run for the Presidency of the Alberta NDP at this weekend's convention in Calgary. Good luck, Anand!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
colbert, m & m, and the cesspooly trenches of partisan politics.
I was planning on taking a bit of a break from writing about the cesspooly trenches of partisan politics for the next couple weeks, but I'll make an exception today for the few points...
Posted by daveberta at 8:40 a.m.
10 comments:
Good to see Eggen still in politics. Hopefully he'll take a run in Edmonton Calder again in 2012 and become NDP leader. They could use a leader like him.
- Thursday, June 12, 2008 11:05:00 a.m.
Judging by "Mo"s commentary on minimum wage earners and political/government workers, its sad to think that he was always regarded as one of the better Liberal MLAs; even from the other side of the fence.
Provincial NDP convention would be mildly interesting if there were any coverage...not sure we can expect any though, anyone know? Mr. Mason needs to get on with whatever he's doing. Would also love to know who are the publicly "undeclared" prov. ND'ers that will be there.
- Thursday, June 12, 2008 12:36:00 p.m.
Also, I'll at least give Eggen that he's honest about his political stance as a democratic socialist and everything that entails. He'll at least stand up and say it.
Doesn't do anything to the fact of the viewpoint being largely disregarded, but at least its honest and he speaks about where he comes from. When I've heard him/talked to him anyway...
- Thursday, June 12, 2008 12:37:00 p.m.
tjk: Mo doesn't say anything about government workers. Parliamentary assistants are Conservative MLAs given a spiffy new title but little actual new work.
- Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:16:00 p.m.
Anon: I know those things to be both untrue and incorrect respectively.
You really shouldn't say things like: "I bet you, most of those minimum wage earners are smarter and harder working people than most of the ones Eddy surrounds himself with." If three "examples" is good enough for the blogger, then I'll provide 3 as to why this statement is not a good one to make.
1. Its disrespectful and petty. Not to mention extremely partisan for the sake of being partisan. I'm not saying anyone's perfect in this respect, as we could all strive to be better in this sense.
2. Its blatant pandering that voters don't buy and are not interested in. Ooh...look at me taking a shot at the politicos...whoopeee...
3. It trivializes the point that we certainly all strive to have the best standard of life possible for the people in this province. We have different methods, but the same goal (I think anyway).
Points like helping people earn more money and live better lives should not be trivialized. Raising the minimum wage (which even fewer than the statistically identified number make, most of us know that)is a negligible way to help these people earn more. We should focus on having them pay less tax (in an all-around sense) and keeping the economy strong, which leads to much better job prospects and more power for them to command a higher wage, as well as greater opportunities for advancement. END RANT. :-)
- Friday, June 13, 2008 8:48:00 a.m.
- A said...
Those aren't examples, T.J. Tsk, tsk.
- Friday, June 13, 2008 10:47:00 a.m.
You noticed my "s, did you not? I suppose the things he wrote were more illustrations than anything else. Mine were reasons based on observation. Fun with semantics :-) Should've added reasons after the 3...where's that telepathic typer when I need it...
- Friday, June 13, 2008 11:33:00 a.m.
Anyone who claims PA's have little extra workload really needs to do their homework because they are either uninformed or just plain stupid.
- Friday, June 13, 2008 11:47:00 a.m.
Anand Sharma did win, he is the new party president.
- Saturday, June 14, 2008 4:47:00 p.m.
Sharma is President. Now all we need is Eggen as Leader.
- Monday, June 16, 2008 12:54:00 p.m.


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A new, two-unit building will replace a dysfunctional cottage on a mid-block site in Cole Valley. The new building contains a larger residence and in-law unit, proto-typical for the new multi-generational family. The architecture mediates the urban context through layered construction of inward and outward identities unified by formal tropes of landscape and abstraction. Physical, metaphorical and representational landscapes are incorporated throughout the building and site including edible gardens, programmatic topographies and a glazed façade scrim, acid-etched with an abstracted tree-scape. The building is designed to receive LEED-Gold status.
Project Area: 4,000 sf
Project Team: Edward Kopelson, Kristin Nakagawa


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Four new electro-acoustic releases from Empreintes DIGTALes. (18/06/2019)
Nikos Stavropoulos studied at Bangor and how has a chair at Leeds University, where he lectures on the subject of electroacoustic music. His Micro-lieux (IMED 19159) contains eight compositions dating from 2003 to 2017; most of them seem intent on exploring the structure of a space or a place in comprehensive detail, making microscopic sweeps over his chosen materials and reprocessings. His notes reveal nothing of his compositional approach, and instead describe certain organic phenomena such as 'Ballistichory' and 'Nycintasty;, or discourse on aspects of Greek mythology he is evidently familiar with. I enjoyed some of the textures in 'Atropos', which I thought was telling the story of one of the Fates (the one who cut the thread of life). However, it isn't anything of the sort; he simply wanted a title that described his process in a metaphorical way, and he denies any relation to content. Vague…unsatisfying.
James Andean is a composer, but also does free improvisation and music performance in groups such as Rank Ensemble, The Tuesday Group, and Plucié/DesAndes. His Assemblance(s) (IMED 19157) is both maximal and lively. At any rate, he's good with creating strong dynamics and jarring shifts in timbre through his editing, particularly on pieces like 'Dechirure', whose very title indicates it's all about "ripping up" the sound. He uses field recordings, but very precise ones – and can tell you an interesting travelogue story about each one (e.g. the old Jesuit monastery in Greece where the wind gave him many moments of epiphany). He also uses piano and percussion in his work, and samples of famed opera singer Maria Callas on 'Maledetta', his unsettling sound portrait of the terrifying Medea character. I'm also warming gradually to 'Valdrada', which is not only a fascinating sonic enigma, but is prefaced with an Italo Calvino quote; anyone who reads Calvino is OK in my book. A strong and varied set with a lot of great compositional ideas, backed up by life experience and insightful observations.
Sophie Delafontaine was born in Lausanne and studied in Belgium; a gifted child prodigy, she seems to have come into electroacoustic music through the medium of dance and movement. I'm quite taken by her refreshing, near-innocent approach to her work on Accord Ouvert (IMED 19156), which showcases six recent compositions. The overlapping voices (speaking and singing) on 'Ondiesop' are absolutely enchanting, and they swim in and out of a collage which involves running water and stabs of digitally reverbed sound. 'Respire marche pars va-t-en' began life as an observation about breathing – and made me think for two seconds we'd be getting a Pauline Oliveros-like observation – but instead it's about the forward movement of life, which sets up a kind of swing or pendulum. What I like is the way she makes it part of her personal history; did she do the right thing in leaving Lausanne so young? She reflects, honestly, on her own private impressions of what it all means for her, giving the music depth and feeling. There's also a droney, languid reflection on the restorative powers of sleep in 'Dormir, Aujourd'hui' which uses the speaking voice of Laurent Plumhans to deliver fragments of a lecture in among compelling rise-and-fall electronic tones. The distant sound of a cock crowing at dawn in the middle of this one is about one of the most poetic moments I've heard in this genre of music. The three other pieces refer in turn to watchmaking and the tiny springs, the rock formations at Creux-du-van, and the work of Ovid as she tells the story of Echo's metamorphosis. While it's possible to situate Delafontaine's work in the traditions of musique concrète and electro-acoustic, she clearly isn't weighed down by the baggage of history. I mean it as a compliment when I think of her as a naive, instinctive composer, one who is not afraid to source her own life in an honest, personal, diaristic fashion. Some of the stodgier buttoned-up composers on this label could learn a lot from her.
English composer Annie Mahtani studied with Jonty Harrison in Birmingham, and does electronic music, electro-acoustic composition, free improvisation, and installations; she expresses an interest in environmental recordings. Five very recent pieces on Racines (IMED 19158), of which the earliest dates from 2008. The stories behind these contain her written observations about the very specific places where they were made, or where the original recordings were captured; it's evident she's very sensitive to the entire surrounding area, hoping to capture the truth of a locale. I like her subdued, pared-down approach on 'Past Links', which remains very coherent as it attempts to take on the form of a living museum in sound, using objects from a museum in Dudley to tell the story of the industrial past of the Black Country. 'Round Midnight' derives from her time in the Amazon rain forest, working with Francisco López; having heard my fair share of recordings of frogs, insects, birds and rainfall, I can safely say Mahtani's is one of the most interesting entries in an over-crowded field. In her hands, the locale becomes an intense, bubbling cauldron of life; the power of nature, cubed. Equally subdued and focussed is 'Inversions', involving a strange tale of 5000 figures carved out of ice at some open-air exhibit; she creates a minimalist humming atmosphere which may have been derived from the sounds of chiselling and melting ice. Scary; at times it seemed these icy figures were coming to life, forming an army and preparing for an invasion. There's also 'Aeolian' made from wind recordings in Northumberland, and the very touching (and personal) 'Racines Tordues', about a family tragedy which has evidently deepened her and made her stronger. A most excellent set by Mahtani.


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Beyond COVID: A message of hope for the next normal
It would be fair to say that 2020 has been a bizarre time, with the bushfires and hazardous smoke to start the year off, followed by a worldwide pandemic due to COVID-19. Workplaces have been turned upside down, many people have had to adjust to working from home, some have had to adjust with transferring to different jobs, and some have had to adjust to a reduction of hours or losing their jobs altogether. With the mental health issues accompanying these events, there is some hope for what the next normal will entail.
In our most recent report on how COVID has changed workplaces, leaders expressed a message of hope for how workplaces can move into a post-COVID world that will become the 'next normal'.
A more flexible and innovative workplace
One key aspect that leaders would like to embrace is a more flexible and innovative workplace, rather than returning to the same workplace that existed pre COVID-19. =
"We are not going back"
"BAU is a wasted opportunity"
This includes providing flexible working arrangements for staff, embracing remote working as the norm, continuing to trust teams and people and focus on output instead of time-based management style. Office spaces may be smaller which can bring cost savings on leases, utilities, and travel and more.
Stronger climate action and awareness
Leaders also stated their hope for stronger climate awareness and action, hoping that scientists would be listened to more regarding environmental impacts and the need for climate action. COVID-19 has shown that humans can have a significant and immediate positive impact on the environment through our choices and that a change in choices and lifestyle will not bankrupt the economy.
Although COVID-19 has disrupted the world, it has unlocked possibilities for a different future in the workplace. And with this comes the silver lining and hope for a brighter 'next normal'.
Have you seen any other changes that you think will stay in place post-COVID? Let us know!
If you want to talk about how to keep employees engaged and well during this time, get in touch with one of our experts.
You can download the full report here: https://www.pentaquest.io/covid-govreport


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A pancreatic cancer patient has become the first person in Italy to be treated using a new, faster form of radiotherapy that potentially enables doctors to improve outcomes while extending more advanced care to more patients. The Humanitas Clinic in Milan delivered the faster treatment using RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems .
Dr. Marta Scorsetti, lead clinician at Humanitas added, We see three major benefits with RapidArc. The short treatment time — under two minutes in this case — decreases the chances of the patient moving during treatment, which helps to improve precision. RapidArc enables us to spare more healthy tissue from receiving unnecessary dose and we believe this additional precision will enable us to increase the dose, which should contribute to a higher cure rate.
With RapidArc, Varian's Clinac® medical linear accelerator can target radiation beams at a tumor while rotating continuously around the patient. Conventional intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments are slower and more difficult for radiotherapy radiographers and patients because they target tumors using a complex sequence of fixed beams from multiple angles.
Dr. Scorsetti said, The patient reacted very well to the new treatment and he was comfortable throughout the two minutes he was on the treatment table. As the overall treatment time was reduced, we will be able to treat more patients and consequently reduce waiting times.
Humanitas, one of the largest hospitals in the Milan urban area, serves up to three million people and treats 150 patients a day in the radiotherapy department.


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Garden Bar
Camden Town Brewery // 2018
SmithMatthias was briefed by Camden Town Brewery to design and manufacture a fleet of portable garden bars which can be placed in beer gardens during warmer months then collapsed for storage during winter. The garden bar is constructed from box section metal and clad with printed marine plywood. Consideration was given to weight, cost and ease of use. There is a removable end panel for connecting barrels to CO2 and cooler which are housed within the bar. Perforated metal shelves and drawer are included for accessories, storage and the bar tender's kit. The roof can be raised and lowered for transport and storage and there are integrated clips on the underside for festoon lighting.


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Carbon Footprint is a multi-disciplinary work by artist in residence Seema Goel. The piece uses local wool, spinning and knitting as a metaphor to explore climate change, carbon capture, and micro-economies in Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland.
Friday, August 27, 2010
spin in tomorrow!
Tomorrow is the big day. Many of you have volunteered to be part of the Spin In tomorrow from 3-5. Please meet (if possible - I know some of you are busy just before hand) at the Carbon Footprint Studio (former pretty windows store beside the persian pub) at 2:30-ish to pick up wool, grab some info cards, and find your spinning location. Depending on the weather, it might be advisable to ask a friend to come with you to hold your umbrella. Bring an umbrella.
There is a thank you reception in the studio afterwards. Please come and share a glass of wine and see the new space. You are all invited to come in and spin or knit etc. or just stop in at the studio over the next 9 weeks.
Thanks to everyone.
See you tomorrow!
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Can a New Bill on Climate Legislation Get Things Back on Track and Counter Rising Attacks Against Science?
This story was written by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Brad Johnson, Zaid Jilani, and Alex Seitz-Wald.
As global temperatures reach record highs, freak weather continues to leave destruction in its wake. Heatwaves bake Australia and Singapore. After the billion-dollar losses from the series of "Snowmageddon" storms depressed the U.S. economy, a new "meteorological bomb exploded" over New York and New England last week. Fueled by "very warm sea surface temperatures," the extreme storm Xynthia pushed record heat and killer winds through western Europe. Every ice front in southern Antarctica is retreating. Meanwhile, politicians in Washington attempting to craft climate and clean energy legislation are weathering a political storm. Industrial polluters fuel a relentless assault on the legitimacy of climate science and lobby to prevent the Obama administration from taking away lucrative subsidies. Right-wing pundits crow that public understanding of the scientific consensus on manmade global warming is declining. And the mainstream press reports on the propaganda campaigns to discredit scientists as a "climate-change debate," as if physical reality were something decided by the poll results. Meanwhile, China has unveiled its 10-year plan to boost renewable energy technology, gas prices are rising, and experts wonder if America is even still in the running in the clean-energy race.
THE WAR ON SCIENCE: As the Senate is mired by inaction, the Obama administration is proceeding to slowly phase in rules to limit carbon pollution, based on a long-delayed endangerment finding for greenhouse gases by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The scientific finding -- the eventual result of a petition in 2001 that led to a Supreme Court mandate in 2007 -- is now under attack by most Republican and some Democratic lawmakers, several Republican state attorneys general, and top industrial lobbying groups. Other than by rewriting the Clean Air Act -- the "Dirty Air Act" effort led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and several House members -- the only way to overturn an endangerment finding is to dispute the underlying science. So Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) claimed that global warming is based on "unreliable, unverifiable and doctored" science. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) accused the world's climate scientists of "data manipulation" and "suppression of dissent." The South Dakota legislature has ruled that climate science is "prejudiced" by "political and philosophical viewpoints," and public schools should teach the "debate." Calling global warming "the new religion to replace Communism," Utah state Republicans accused climate scientists of a "conspiracy" to "manipulate global temperature data," asking the EPA to "immediately halt its carbon dioxide reduction policies." This last-ditch attempt to block clean energy reform by accusing scientists of a global conspiracy to defraud oil companies would be risible if not for the effectiveness of this campaign to swiftboat science. However, as former Vice President Al Gore wrote in the New York Times this weekend, "We can't wish away climate change."
'THE GREEN ECONOMY IS COMING': Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has emerged as the unlikely green leader in the Senate, working with Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on comprehensive climate legislation. Graham's behind-the-scenes negotiations to craft a political compromise are perhaps less impressive than his strong language. Echoing Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Van Jones, in November Graham called for the United States to "lead the world rather than follow the world on carbon pollution" because "the green economy is coming." When conservative Democratic senators like Ben Nelson (NE) and Mary Landrieu (LA) proposed dropping efforts to limit carbon pollution and instead pass only an energy-subsidies bill, Graham lashed out, saying. "[I]f the approach is to try to pass some half-assed energy bill and say that is moving the ball down the road, forget it with me." Speaking with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman last week, Graham recognized that, by arguing that climate change is a hoax, Republicans "are putting at risk" the "party's future with younger people," who overwhelmingly accept the scientific consensus on climate change. Graham's clear message is matched by few others in Congress, though leaders like Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) have emerged to fight against the dependence on oil money, the "senseless debate," and "insider baseball crap" that have prevented the Senate from taking action.
KERRY-GRAHAM-LIEBERMAN: Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman intend to release their "plan that promotes domestic energy production while putting a first-ever price on greenhouse gas emissions" this week, E&E News reports. Their challenge is to craft a bill that meets scientific standards for pollution reduction and steers the economy away from dirty fuels and towards clean energy jobs -- while also having a shot at several Republican sponsors. Although the structure of the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman plan is not settled, information is emerging from the halls of Congress about the shape of their comprehensive plan, which will replace the vehicle originally favored by the Obama administration -- the Waxman-Markey plan, which passed the House of Representatives last June and was paired with the similar Kerry-Boxer plan in the Senate. "Cap and trade as we know it is dead, but the issue of cleaning up the air and energy independence should not die -- and you will never have energy independence without pricing carbon," Graham said. Unlike Waxman-Markey, which includes "all major industrial sources of greenhouse gases in one broad economywide cap-and-trade system," the Kerry triumvirate "will propose different types of limits for different sectors of the economy, beginning with electric utilities and then turning later to manufacturers such as chemical plants and pulp and paper mills." As proposed by major oil companies, "including Shell Oil Co., ConocoPhillips and BP America," oil refiners and producers would not be part of the emissions trading system, but "transportation fuels can expect a carbon tax" that would fund "transportation projects, reducing fuel consumption and lowering domestic reliance on foreign oil." Industrial polluters in the manufacturing sector would "face a series of greenhouse gas limits after power plants, but talks are still ongoing over when the phase-in begins and what specific industries fall into the suite of restrictions." According to Daniel Weiss, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, "the most important element" of the plan is whether it will achieve needed reductions in pollution to give us a chance at avoiding catastrophic global warming. "The method in the bill to achieve that goal -- whether it's cap and trade, cap and dividend, carbon tax, or a hybrid system -- is much less important as long as it can meet the goal while attracting 60 senators' votes," Weiss said.


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Stranger Things and Where to Buy Them
Scenes From a Mall
It's the summer of 1985: the intersection of the Cold War and the Cola Wars. Just as the kids of Stranger Things are growing up—tearing down tree forts, getting jobs, and discovering the opposite sex—so, too, is the town of Hawkins, Indiana. Instead of a mysterious research laboratory in the woods, the newest local landmark is the Starcourt Mall, a shiny temple to Reagan-era consumerism.
The fact that the mall is essentially a front for an underground Russian military base makes it the perfect metaphor for the childhood ambitions and anxieties of Generation X: Fast Times at Ridgemont High meets Red Dawn. Telekinetic wunderkind Eleven may have closed the portal to the mystical Upside Down, but here it is all over again in man-made form, ready for business: good (or at least normal) on top, evil beneath. The slimy subterranean tunnels of season 2 have been replaced by miles of sterile corridors, both below the mall and behind its neon-lit shops, that are equally sinister and spooky in their own way.
Metaphorically, the Starcourt Mall has another dark underbelly: shuttered small businesses and corporate kickbacks to cigar-chomping local politicians. There's another echo of the Upside Down in of Hawkins' dead and decaying city center, where Joyce works in a general store so deserted that she has time to read electromagnetism textbooks behind the counter. The new Radio Shack has a prime position in the mall, but the one downtown is shuttered.
The Starcourt Mall is practically a character in the new season of Stranger Things, just as malls were in the childhood of many of the show's fans. The town has upped its fashion game accordingly. Hawkins' housewives wear chunky jewelry, heels, and full makeup to the municipal pool; Jim Hopper swaps his sheriff uniform for a pastel-hued Hawaiian shirt—a sly reference to the Magnum P.I.episode he watches in the premiere. Even El gets a mall-rat makeover in a shopping montage choreographed to "Material Girl."
This season's other big set piece—a kitschy Fourth of July carnival, the mayor's craven stunt to burnish his image among locals displeased by the mall—is a red herring. The real action takes place at the mall, where Steve and Dustin continue their bromance with big assists from Robin (the kind of deadpan, somewhat prickly band nerd that Winona Ryder herself might played back in the day), Lucas's sassy kid sister Erica, and a bunch of Dolph Lundgren lookalikes.
The appeal of Stranger Things has always owed as much to Spielbergian nostalgia as to its monsters—in this case, a convoluted invasion-of-the-body-snatchers mystery, somehow linked to the nefarious Russian plot. But the Duffer brothers have outdone themselves here, recreating the 80s mall experience with Merchant Ivory-level attention to period detail (They filmed in a partially abandoned mall in Georgia). There's a JC Penney anchoring Waldenbooks, Sam Goody, The Gap, a Glamour Shots-style photo studio, a Victoria's Secret clone, Jazzercise, a movie theater, and a vast food court where you can grab an Orange Julius or a Whopper. There's no Sbarro, but Taco Bell is coming soon!
Today, the closed and decaying mall has become a metaphor for small-town America's decline, and the decline of brick-and-mortar stores in general. For Hawkins residents, the Starcourt Mall is the future. But we, the viewers, know all along that it's an illusion; we can't see the boom without anticipating the bust. Stranger Things gives us both. Fittingly, by the end of the season, the Starcourt Mall is toast.
Ever since Mike offered El her first Eggo in Season 1, Stranger Things has navigated the fine line between historical realism and product placement. This time around, Netflix cannily partnered with Levi's, H&M, Nike, and other brands to blur the lines between fashion and fiction. You can buy Eleven's day-glo romper, Dustin's Camp Know Where trucker hat, and Steve's Scoops Ahoy uniform, an imaginary costume silly enough to compete with the real-life horrors of the neighboring Hot Dog On a Stick.
But it's Hopper's Hawaiian shirt and stonewashed MacGyver jeans that viewers will remember. Paired with a sports jacket for his non-date with Joyce or a gun and rolled-up sleeves to kick Russkie ass, they turn Sheriff Dad Bod into an instant normcore icon. After all, if there's one thing we learned from the 80s, it's that not all heroes wear capes.


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BOUNCER | Installation Large Dog Door | In a door
Have your pet door installed in 4 steps:
1. ORDER - You add the installation to the shopping basket and pay together with the pet door you buy.
2. AGREE ON A DATE - When we receive your purchase, we will propose an installation date within 24h. Doesn't it fit? Then we will continue our search together!
3. FITTING - Upon installation, we take the waste with us and leave everything neat and tidy.
4. REFUND - Do you live in Belgium and are you eligible for the reduced VAT of 6% instead of 21%? The installation will only cost you 176 euros ✔
Our fitting service
In Belgium, it is our own employees who install the Tomsgates pet doors. In the Netherlands, Norway and Great Britain we organize the installation for you with our local partners. So we guarantee the service and quality.
We install our dog and cat doors in walls and doors. An installation in a door takes about 2 hours, an installation in a wall will take about 5 hours.
We are punctual, work with dust extraction, take the demolition waste materials with us and leave everything neat and tidy. The price is determined in advance, no settlement afterwards. If you have a VAT benefit (see below), we will refund the excess VAT paid within 14 days of installation.
The installation in 4 steps
You add the fitting service to the shopping basket and pay together with the pet door you buy.
When we see your purchase coming in, we will propose an installation date within 24h. Doesn't it fit ? Then we will look for a new date together !
Upon installation, we take debris waste us and leave everything neat and tidy.
If a VAT benefit has to be refunded, we will ask you to sign a certificate after the installation of the the pet door and the difference will be refunded.


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Parents tend to be just a bit biased about their children's looks (not me though—my kids are objectively beautiful), but as it turns out, this type of self-deception is not as benign as one might think. According to recent research, many parents appear to suffer from a sort of denial concerning their kids' weights, which poses a considerable obstacle to remediating childhood obesity by way of promoting healthy eating habits at home.
The latest of such studies was published last month in the American Journal of Human Biology, and conducted by a team of scientists at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.
Daniela Rodrigues and her collaborators, Aristides Machado-Rodrigues and Cristina Padez, recruited hundreds of parents and children for their research. All the participating children were between 6 and 10 years old and attended elementary school in Portugal.
A total of 834 parents completed questionnaires that included a variety of questions, such as whether they thought that their children's weight was a bit too little, a bit too much, way too much, or just fine. In turn, the team collected the weights and heights of the 793 participating children, at their respective schools.
The results were in line with the researchers' predictions, but nonetheless remarkable. Of the 33% parents who misperceived their children's weight, 93% underestimated it. Moreover, parents who underestimated their kids' weights were 10 to 20 times more likely to have an obese child.
Several factors were associated with the parental weight underestimation, including a higher BMI (body mass index) for the mothers, younger ages for the children, lower household income (for girls) and urban living (for boys). However, such associations did not explain why parents underestimated their children's weights to begin with.
The researchers speculated that parents might "feel embarrassed to discuss the fact that their child is overweight/obese," which in turn could make them less likely to make proactive efforts, such as seeking the advice of a health care professional. Alternatively, parental embarrassment might not be the main reason for the underestimates, if parents truly misperceive their children's weight.
Supporting the latter possibility is the fact that parents underestimated the weight of younger children more than that of older children. A 2014 study found that mothers misjudge the heights of their youngest children as smaller than they are, by an average 7.5 cm. The explanation for the height misperception, the researchers proposed, could be adaptive: underestimating the height of the youngest child could lead to greater parental care and allocation of resources to the baby of the family.
It seems plausible that a similar adaptive effect might be at play, not just for one's children's heights, but also for their weights. If so, parents who misperceive their children (especially the youngest ones) as thinner than they are could engage in greater efforts to feed them, and thus unwittingly elevate their risk of obesity.
Future research might disentangle the various possible contributors to this puzzling phenomenon of parental misjudgment. In the meantime, and where your kids' weight is concerned, trust not your eyes, but the scale.