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Volume , Number 0
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Kirk Zebolsky
Agribiz, Biotech & War
Brian Tokar
Sophie Styles
Lesson Plans
Paul Street
Norman Solomon
Justin Podur
Domestic Policy
James Petras
Raymond Ker
Foreign Policy
James Ingalls
Fog Watch
Edward Herman
Charles k. Fink
East Timor
Diane Farsetta
The Attack of the Wealthy …
Michael Bronski
Law & Order
Bill Blum
Conservative Watch
Bill Berkowitz
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Agribusiness, Biotechnology, and War
Ending destructive technologies
Brian Tokar
Virtually all of the new, technology-based industries of the past century have been products of wartime. World War I ushered in the widespread use of mechanization and the beginnings of aviation. World War II brought us nuclear power, modern rocketry, and cybernetics. The corporate giants of the automobile, chemical, and electronics industries all made massive fortunes profiting from war and helping fuel the 20th century's unending arms race.
While some may view the growth of these industries as social benefits emerging from warfare—just as we were instructed during the 1960s and 1970s that we should be grateful for the space program because it brought us Teflon—critics of technology advance a more skeptical view. Technologies are rarely neutral "tools" that can be applied equally to socially useful or destructive ends. Technologies are embedded in their particular social matrix. The priorities that shape the design and implementation of a given technology will significantly determine what ends it may or may not be used to advance. Therefore technologies designed to advance wartime agendas may become the means by which those agendas are entrenched in other social domains.
The case is most compelling where technologies have been developed to advance very specific capitalist priorities. Since the 19th century, for example, new technologies have been introduced into manufacturing in order to minimize the need for highly skilled—and often well organized—workers. In one instance, Cyrus McCormick's son introduced pneumatic molding machines at exorbitant cost into the plant that manufactured his father's famous reapers, even though this innovation increased production costs and decreased the quality of iron castings. The goal was to facilitate replacing unionized iron workers with unskilled, unorganized labor.
This pattern continued throughout the 20th century. Historian David Noble has documented in detail how design choices governing new semiautomated machine tool technologies after World War II were made to both repress labor militancy and advance Cold War military agendas. This was the beginning of the "permanent war economy" in the U.S., and also the period when military norms of "command and control" became most firmly entrenched in industrial production, transforming industrial design practices for at least a generation. In agriculture, hybrid seeds were introduced to farmers on a large scale in the 1930s, and a rapid increase in crop yields soon followed. But other innovations in plant breeding and cultivation were equally available at the time that may have offered even greater benefits for farmers; the alternatives, however, were far less amenable to creating commercial monopolies in marketable seeds.
When we examine how our food is grown today, it becomes clear that most of the chemical "tools" taken for granted by modern agribusiness are products of warfare. Is this an indirect consequence of the tragic history of the 20th century or does it suggest that the currently dismal state of our soils, fresh water supplies, and rural economies is an outgrowth of agribusiness's emergence from wartime in some important ways? Virtually all of the leading companies that brought us chemical fertilizers and pesticides made their greatest fortunes during wartime. How can this help us understand the ever-deteriorating quality of mass produced food? What does it tell us about the new technologies of genetic manipulation that every one of these companies posits as the centerpiece of the current generation of crop "improvement" technologies?
The handful of companies that over the past decade have used biotechnology in an attempt to radically reshape food production have their roots in wartime, have profited tremendously from war throughout their histories, and have long collaborated with military establishments to make the world a more dangerous place. Clearly these companies are not going to make responsible decisions about our food and our health, much less protect us from "bioterrorism." Indeed, an examination of these companies' histories suggests that the genetic engineering of food may be nothing less than an extension of their wartime agendas.
War By Other Means?
In 1998, as debates were heating up across Europe around the unlabeled imports of genetically engineered soybeans and corn from the United States, the editors of the Economist magazine in London published an impassioned defense of the biotech agenda in agriculture. "Agriculture," the Economist editors wrote, "is war by other means." Indeed, from its origins, chemical agriculture has been a form of warfare—it is a war against the soil, against our reserves of fresh water, and against all the microbes and insects that are necessary for growing healthy food. Since the earliest origins of modern industrial agriculture, agribusiness has been at war against all life on earth, including us.
The story begins with nitrogen. Since ancient times, people have been aware of the importance of nitrate salts for maintaining soil fertility. The traditional source of supplemental nitrogen was saltpeter, a form of potassium nitrate that was found in soil scrapings alongside roads and old buildings. Later, it was harvested from large deposits of seabird guano, particularly in South America. The Chinese discovered in the 12th century that saltpeter, when combined with sulfur and a carbon source, can also have tremendous explosive capability and used it to manufacture the first gunpowder.
During World War I, two German scientists named Haber and Bosch discovered an efficient means for the large-scale chemical synthesis of ammonia and its various nitrate derivatives. The BASF company—now the world's fourth largest manufacturer of agricultural chemicals—commercialized this process in 1913, and their products played a central role in the orgy of mass destruction that soon followed. Huge excesses of nitrogenous compounds that accumulated during World War I provided the basis for the beginnings of the mass production of synthetic nitrate fertilizers.
The DuPont Chemical Company—now the sole owner of the world's largest seed company, Pioneer HiBred—was the largest manufacturer of gunpowder in the U.S. during the early 19th century. During World War I, DuPont supplied 1.5 billion pounds of explosives to the Allied military forces, according to the company's official history. During the same period, the German dye-maker Hoechst—which merged with the French chemical company Rhone Poulenc in 1999 to form the biotech giant Aventis—altered several of its formulas to facilitate the manufacture of explosives and mustard gas. Decades later, DuPont and Hoechst would share the distinction of being the manufacturers of most of the ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that are responsible for the hole in the earth's protective ozone layer.
World War I also saw the rise of Monsanto as a major player. Founded in 1901 to bring the production of the artificial sweetener saccharine into the United States, Monsanto increased its profits a hundred-fold from $80,000 to well over $9 million per year. Monsanto supplied the chemical precursors for many high explosives. They manufactured phenol, which is a precursor of TNT (trinitrotoluene) and was also used as a battlefield antiseptic. They made the nitric acid used to nitrify the phenol-derived toluene, as well as sulfuric acid, various precursors for the production of poison gas, and additives to strengthen rubber (and later synthetic rubber) for many military applications.
New Synthetic Pesticides
In addition to chemical fertilizer production, today's food biotech giants have their origins in the production of chemical pesticides, perhaps the most ecologically damaging factor in today's industrial agriculture. In the 19th century, agricultural pest control was an eclectic enterprise, utilizing a wide variety of soaps, herbal preparations, and hand-removal of insects. Late in the century, botanical herbicides such as pyrethrum and rotenone began to be imported from sources halfway around the world. Entomologists began studying the life cycles and ecological interactions of insects, seeking to develop more sophisticated biological controls.
In the 1860s, various byproducts of the chemical dye industry were found to have insecticidal properties. With exotic-sounding names like Paris green and London purple, these substances became increasingly popular. Their common ingredient was arsenic; arsenic-based compounds were popular during the Victorian era as pigments for candles and wallpaper, as cosmetics and patent medicines; only later were the lethal properties of various arsenic derivatives more widely recognized. Lead arsenate was overwhelmingly the most popular insecticide throughout the early 20th century; it often killed plants, bees, and livestock as readily as it killed insects. Still its popularity remained uncontested for several decades. There was considerable opposition in Europe to the import of food from North America that had been sprayed with lead arsenate, but these concerns were widely dismissed by the founding fathers of American agribusiness.
In the 1930s, chemists working for the German company Bayer discovered the highly poisonous properties of organophosphate compounds. By then, Bayer had already merged with BASF, Hoechst, and other companies to form the huge chemical conglomerate I.G. Farben; today Bayer is poised to become the world's largest manufacturer of herbicides and pesticides—and a leading source of genetically engineered seed varieties—with its recent takeover of the biotech giant Aventis CropScience. (Aventis is the company responsible for the "Starlink" variety of insecticidal GE corn, which was never approved for human consumption and thus forced the recall of some 300 name-brand processed food products during 2000-2001.) As all of German industry became absorbed into the growing Nazi war machine, Bayer's organophosphate compounds were developed simultaneously as agricultural pesticides and as nerve gases for military use.
Some 2,000 new organophosphate compounds were discovered, including such notorious chemical warfare agents as sarin, soman, and tabun gases, all of which are still manufactured today. Later organophosphate pesticides included the livestock spray phosmet, which some researchers have associated with the emergence of mad cow disease, as well as malathion, parathion, diazanon, dursban, and lorsban; the latter three of these have finally begun to be phased out during the past two years. Organophosphates still represent 40 percent of today's insecticide market, and are associated with some 20,000 cases of acute poisoning every year. Organophosphates severely interfere with normal nervous system function, impeding the breakdown and recycling of acetylcholine, one of the main carriers of excitatory nerve impulses; its uncontrolled accumulation at the site of nerve synapses can force the nervous systems of both insects and humans into a virtually uncontrollable state of overdrive.
DDT: The "Ultimate Weapon"
Another new development in pesticide technology emerged from corporate-military collaboration during World War II. This was to have even more dramatic long-term consequences. In the 1930s, scientists at the Swiss J. R. Geigy Company were searching for new compounds to disinfect seeds and prevent moths from feeding on wool. Geigy later merged with Ciba to form Ciba-Geigy, with Sandoz to form Novartis, and then merged its agribusiness division with the British Imperial Chemical Industries' offshoot Zeneca to form the agrochemical and biotechnology giant Syngenta in 2001. These researchers' key discovery was that DDT, which was first synthesized by an academic scientist in 1874, could accomplish both of their desired ends and more.
Still, there was only limited interest in DDT until World War II, when the U.S. Army faced two nearly incapacitating pest problems. Soldiers in southern Europe were facing widespread outbreaks of typhus from exposure to lice and their counterparts in the south Pacific faced potential epidemics of malaria. The pyrethrum-based powders that were most often used had to be reapplied in a stringent and systematic manner every week, which was seen as far too inconvenient for battlefield conditions. Also, Japan had by then become the leading supplier of pyrethrum. So the Army looked to Geigy's new product as the answer, and soon, two million pounds of DDT were being produced every month.
Throughout the 1940s, scientists discovered the usefulness of DDT for combating a wide variety of agricultural pests quickly and with long-lasting effect. A variety of household and public health uses were implemented as well. DDT was used against potato beetles and other crop pests, but also against flies, mosquitoes, bedbugs, scabies, dog flies, Dutch elm fungus and to combat malaria, typhus, yellow fever, dengue fever, and a wide variety of forest pests. It was the "ultimate killer," the "atom bomb of insecticides." Monsanto began manufacturing DDT in 1944, along with some 15 other companies. DDT became the most widely applied chemical in human history and its commercial success led to a massive increase in the production and use of chemical insecticides of all types. Revenues from insecticide production in the U.S. rose from $10 million in 1940 to $100 million in 1950 to over $1 billion today.
The commercial success of DDT led to a dramatic shift in the chemical industry's approach to pest control, a shift in attitude that still plagues us today and was in many ways a direct outgrowth of its wartime origins. DDT was seen as an ultimate weapon, capable of permanently eliminating various pest species. Professor John H. Perkins of Evergreen State College in Washington, who has studied the history of entomology in agriculture, writes, "DDT and the other new chemicals elicited proposals for a concept of control seldom considered in prewar times: permanent control by eradication of a pest species…. The power of the new chemicals to evoke quests for final solutions became an important part of entomology that lives with it to the present day."
The irony of Perkins's invocation of the Nazis' genocidal "final solution" is clearly intended here. But unlike the Nazi genocide, these cannot be dismissed as the crimes of an outlaw totalitarian regime. This quest for permanent eradication of pests became the norm in agribusiness practice and continues to this very day. With the increasing use of DDT, basic research in entomology came to a near standstill, as scientific expertise was diverted from studies of the life cycles and ecological relationships of insects toward maximizing the effectiveness of new chemicals. Farmers were informed that time-tested methods of biological and mechanical pest control, including crop rotation and other means of controlling habitat, were archaic and needed to be replaced by the new, more "scientific" chemical approach.
Of course, people soon discovered a vast array of problems with DDT. While its acute toxicity to mammals is comparatively low, especially as compared with organophosphate insecticides, DDT accumulates in fatty tissues and in milk. It contributes to the degeneration of the liver and kidneys and is a potent disrupter of the central nervous system. Researchers soon discovered that university campuses that were experimenting with DDT were losing their entire population of songbirds. DDT caused a catastrophic thinning of eggshells, and was found to be a potent carcinogen. In 1972, the U.S. Congress banned the use of DDT in domestic agriculture—it is still manufactured for export—and further bans on related organochlorine pesticides such as aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane, and heptachlor soon followed.
The tremendous public outcry around the toxic effects of DDT and other pesticides during the 1960s and early 1970s was a crucial factor in the decision by Monsanto and other agrochemical giants to begin shifting their research efforts toward the brand new technology of gene manipulation. The first successful splicing of foreign (transgenic) DNA into the chromosomes of a living cell was demonstrated in 1973. By the late 1980s, Monsanto, Ciba-Geigy (now Syngenta and Novartis), and others were heavily invested in the genetic engineering of basic food crops. While the companies insist that GE crops are a safer alternative to pesticides, most independent evidence suggests that this is far from the case. In the words of agronomist and agricultural policy consultant Charles Benbrook, "Both herbicide tolerant and Bt-transgenic varieties entail novel mechanisms to enhance the ability of farmers to more fully rely on pesticides." Pesticide production, pesticide use, and pesticide profits continue to increase as genetically engineered varieties of soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton are planted in ever larger acreages in the United States and Canada.
Herbicides and Warfare
Of course, the agrochemical giants' close involvement with the military continued throughout the remainder of the 20th century. Monsanto's research director Charles Thomas, along with DuPont scientists, supervised the purification of plutonium and polonium for the development of the first atomic bomb and the two companies operated the Pentagon's nuclear weapons laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee during the 1950s.
Also during the 1950s, Monsanto discovered that a byproduct of its chlorinated pesticide production was causing severe skin rashes, joint pain, and nervous disorders in its production workers. This mysterious substance turned out to be dioxin and the U.S. Army Chemical Corps immediately became interested in its potential usefulness as a chemical warfare agent. The herbicide Agent Orange, which was used by U.S. military forces to obliterate the dense jungles of Vietnam during the 1960s was a mixture of the herbicides 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. Seven different chemical companies supplied Agent Orange to the U.S. military, but Monsanto's formulation had as much as 1,000 times the concentration of dioxin.
Dioxin's toxic and carcinogenic effects are still experienced on a daily basis by people in Vietnam, but it was a group of U.S. Vietnam War veterans who brought suit against the companies that were responsible for their own terrifying symptoms of Agent Orange exposure. When a $180 million legal settlement was reached in 1984 between the seven chemical companies and the veterans, the judge ordered Monsanto to pay 45.5 percent of the total, more than Dow Chemical, which was by far the leading supplier of Agent Orange by volume. Dow, of course, became most notorious during the Vietnam War for its production of napalm, the gasoline-based incendiary that set vast expanses of land ablaze, along with entire villages and hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. Today, Dow is also a leading player in biotech agriculture, having purchased the early biotech innovator Mycogen, as well as Cargill's entire U.S. seed division.
The 1980s and 1990s saw a rapid expansion in Monsanto's herbicide production, in close parallel to its development of genetically engineered crop varieties. In the past decade, the contribution of Roundup-family herbicides to Monsanto's operating revenue has increased from one-sixth to nearly two-thirds of the total. Roundup plays a central role in the U.S. "drug war" via its widespread use to eradicate coca and poppy plants in Colombia and other countries. Colombian agronomists have uncovered the use of a new additive that increases herbicide exposures to more than 100 times Monsanto's recommended dosage in more typical agricultural applications. Along with coca and poppies, U.S. aerial spraying of tons of Roundup over the Colombian countryside has led to the destruction of local subsistence crops such as manioc, bananas, palms, sugarcane, and corn, as well as the poisoning of creeks, rivers, and lakes and the destruction of indigenous fish populations.
Of all of Monsanto, DuPont, and Dow's agricultural products, genetically engineered food crops might appear to be the least tainted with immediate wartime origins. But this technology emerged from a period when the future of chemical agriculture appeared very much in doubt. With the rapid expansion of the agrochemical industry during the post-World War II era, these companies and their European counterparts established a profound degree of control over agricultural practices. Agrochemical companies set the agenda for changing farm practices, came to dominate agricultural policymaking and the information available to farmers, and later forged strategic alliances with the emerging global grain trading companies, such as Cargill, ConAgra, and Archer Daniels Midland.
As public pressure and the weight of scientific evidence curtailed the use of DDT and many other chlorinated pesticides in the 1970s, executives and corporate scientists saw the potential for limitless advances—and ever-expanding marketing potential—in the incorporation of technological advances into the genetics of seeds. During the 1990s, Monsanto alone spent nearly $8 billion acquiring leading commercial seed suppliers such as DeKalb, Asgrow, and Holden's, along with shares in seed companies in Brazil, India, and other countries; DuPont and others quickly followed suit. Only the expanding worldwide resistance to the genetic engineering of food has curtailed these companies' ability to continue introducing new GE crops, including herbicide-tolerant varieties of wheat and rice.
Since the historic shutdown of the WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999, activists have been aware that genetic engineering is a central means by which global capitalism is consolidating its control over our food and healthcare. Biotechnology has helped drive unprecedented corporate concentration in both the agribusiness and pharmaceutical sectors. The WTO's "intellectual property" regimes have forced countries to alter their legal systems to allow the patenting of life forms. The U.S. government continues to use the threat of WTO sanctions to pressure European, Latin American, and Asian countries to accept GMOs, while the World Bank offers aid to promote acceptance of genetically engineered agriculture throughout the global South.
Today it is clear that opposing genetic engineering is also a key to countering the capitalist war against nature. As the world braces for a second year of the Bush administration's interminable "war on terror" and as scientific evidence increasingly affirms the ecological hazards of genetic engineering, it is imperative that critics and activists redouble efforts to counter these inherently uncertain and destructive technologies. Z
Brian Tokar is the editor of Redesigning Life? The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering and the director of the Institute for Social Ecology's Biotechnology Project. For up-to-date information on resistance to genetic engineering, see www.nerage.org.
Z Magazine Archive
LABOR - May 1 is May Day. Workers of the world will celebrate the 124th anniversary of International Worker's Day. Born out of a call for an 8-hour workday in the United States, this day is an opportunity for all workers to show their solidarity with one another, as well as to renew the call for labor rights.FARM CONFERENCE - The Farm Conference on Community and Sustainability will be held May 24-26 in Summertown, TN, in partnership with the Fellowship of Intentional Communities. Tour green homes, see sustainable food production, learn about solar installations, alternative education, midwifery, and more.
Contact: email@example.com; http://www.thefarmcommunity.com/.
PALESTINE - The Conference of the Palestinian Shatat in North American will be held June 3-5 in Vancouver. The conference will examine the future of the Palestinian liberation movement.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.palestinianconference.org/.
LABOR - The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association's 45th annual conference will be held May 3-5, in Portland, OR. This year's theme is Labor Under Attack: Learning from the Past and Preparing for the Future. A call for presentations, workshops and papers is currently underway.
Contact: PNLHA, 27920 68th Ave. East, Graham, WA 98338; 206-406-2604; email@example.com; http://www3.telus.net.
MARIJUANA - On the first Saturday of May marijuana legalization activists will hold informational and educational events, rallies and marches in over 300 cities around the world.
ECONOMICS - The Union For Radical Political Economics will hold its 39th annual conference May 9-11 in New York City.
Contact: http://www.ramapo.edu/eea/2013/.
RECLAIM THE DREAM - The 2013 Poor People's Campaign & March from Baltimore to Washington D.C. will be May 11. Communities, schools and unions interested in participating are encouraged to contact the Baltimore People's Assembly.
Contact: 410-500-2168; 410-218-4835; email@example.com; Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Baltimore and the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly, 2011 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218.
MOTHER'S DAY - The 17th Annual Mother's Day Walk For Peace will be May 12th, in Dorchester, MA. The walk began in 1996 for families who had lost children to violence. The day has become a way for thousands of people to financially support the work of the Louis Brown Peace Institute.
Contact: http://www.ldbpeaceinstitute.org/; http://mothersdaywalk4peace.org/.
NATO 5 - An International Week of Solidarity with the NATO 5 has been called for May 16-21. Supports call on supporters to raise awareness of the NATO 5 and support funds for the defendants on the one-year anniversary of their preemptive arrests.
Contact: email@example.com; https://nato5support.wordpress.com.
MOUNTAINTOP - The 2013 Mountain Justice Summer Activist Training Camp will be held May 19-27 in Damascus, VA. It will be a week of workshops, field trips to view Mountain Top Removal coal mines, direct actions, and service project.
Contact: http://rampscampaign.org/.
FEMINIST SCI-FI - The feminist science fiction convention WisCon 37 is scheduled for May 24-27 in Madison, WI.
Contact: WisCon, ? SF3, PO Box 1624, Madison, WI 53701; email@example.com; http://www.wiscon.info/.
ANARCHY FEST - A month-long Festival of Anarchy is scheduled for May in Montreal. The festival includes The Montreal Anarchist Bookfair (May 19-20).
Contact: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/; http://www.radicalmontreal.com/.
LABOR - The International Labor Rights Forum will present: Down the Supply Chain, Driving Corporate Accountability, on May 22 in Washington, DC. The Labor Rights Awards Ceremony and Reception will honor pioneers in supply chain worker organizing, working solidarity and international labor rights policy.
Contact: http://laborrights.org/.
MULTICULTURE - The 26th annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) will take place May 28-June 1, in New Orleans.
Contact: SWCHRS, 3200 Marshall Avenue, Suite 290, Norman, OK 73072; 405-325-3694; firstname.lastname@example.com; www.ncore.ou.edu.
MEDIA - The 2013 Alliance for Community Media Annual Conference will be held May 29-31, in San Francisco, CA. Participants will include educators, community leaders, media professionals, journalists, nonprofit leaders, policymakers and students.
Contact: http://www.allcommunitymedia.org/.
RADIO - The 38th Annual Community Radio Conference is schedule for May 29-June 1, in San Francisco, CA, with discussions and workshops.
Contact: 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004; 202-756-2268; email@example.com; http://www.nfcb.org/.
BRADLEY MANNING - On June 1, a rally will be held at Fort Meade in support of Bradley Manning.
Contact: http://www.bradleymanning.org.
BIKES - Bikes Not Bombs is holding its 24th annual Bike-A-Thon and Green Roots Festival in Boston, MA on June 3, with several bike rides scheduled, music, exhibitors and more.
Contact: Bikes Not Bombs, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-522-0222; email@example.com; www.bikesnotbombs.org.
LEFT FORUM - The 2013 Left Forum will be held June 7-9, at Pace University in New York City.
Contact: 365 Fifth Avenue, CUNY Graduated Center, ? Sociology Dept., New York, NY 10016; http://www.leftforum.org/.
VEGAN FEST - Mad City Vegan Fest will be held in Madison, WI, June 8. The annual event features food, speakers, and exhibitors.
Contact: 122 State Street, Suite 405 B, Madison, WI 53701; email@example.com; http://veganfest.org/.
ADC CONFERENCE - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) holds its annual conference June 13-16, in Washington, DC, with panel discussions and workshops on civil rights, media and other topics.
Contact: 1990 M Street, Suite 610, Washington, DC, 20036; 202-244-2990; email@example.com http://convention.adc.org/.
CUBA/SOCIALISM - A Cuban-North American Dialog on Socialist Renewal and Global Capitalist Crisis will be held in Havana, Cuba, June 16-30. There will be a 5 day Seminar at University of Havana, plus visits to a cooperative, urban garden, community development project, social research centers, and educational & medical institutions.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/.
NETROOTS - The 8th Annual Netroots Nation conference will take place June 20-23 in San Jose, CA. The event features panels, trainings, networking, screenings, and keynotes.
Contact: 164 Robles Way, #276, Vallejo, CA 94591; email@example.com; http://www.netrootsnation.org/.
MEDIA - The 15th annual Allied Media Conference will be held June 20-23, in Detroit.
Contact: 4126 Third Street, Detroit, MI 48201; http://alliedmedia.org/.
GRASSROOTS - The United We Stand Festival will be hosted by Free & Equal, June 22 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The festival aims to reform the electoral process throughout the U.S.
Contact: http://freeandequal.org/.
SOCIALISM - The Socialism 2013 Conference is scheduled for June 27-30 in Chicago, featuring talks and panel discussions.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.socialismconference.org.
LITERACY - The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) will hold its conference July 12-13 in Los Angeles under the heading, Intersections: Teaching and Learning Across Media.
Contact: 10 Laurel Hill Drive, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003; http://namle.net/conference/.
IWW - The North American Work People's College will take place July 12-16 at Mesaba Co-op Park in northern Minnesota. The event will bring together Wobblies from branches across the continent to learn new skills and build One Big Union.
Contact: http://workpeoplescollege.org/.
PEACESTOCK - On July 13th, the 11th Annual Peacestock: A Gathering for Peace, will take place at Windbeam Farm in Hager City, WI. The event is a mixture of music, speakers and community for peace. Sponsored by Veterans for Peace.
Contact: Bill Habedank, 1913 Grandview Ave., Red Wing, MN 55066; 651-388-7733; firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.peacestockvfp.org.
CHILDREN'S DEFENSE - July 15-19, join clergy, seminarians, Christian educators, young adult leaders and other faith-based advocates for children at CDF Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, for five days of spiritual renewal, networking, movement building workshops, and continuing education about the urgent needs of children at the 19th annual Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.childrensdefense.org.
ACTIVIST CAMP - Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp will have sessions in July and August in Ben Lomond, CA; Portland, OR; Charlton, MA. YEA Camp is designed for activists 12-17 years old who want to make a difference in the world.
Contact: email@example.com; http://yeacamp.org/.
LA RAZA - The annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference is scheduled for July 18-19 in New Orleans, with workshops, presentations and panel discussions.
Contact: NCLR Headquarters Office, Raul Yzaguirre Building, 1126 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036; 202-785-1670; www.nclr.org.
LABOR - The Eastern Conference For Workplace Democracy: Growing Our Cooperatives, Growing Our Communities, will be held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, July 26-28.
Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com; http://east.usworker.coop/.
WOMEN/LYNNE STEWART- Radical Women is asking for support letters and cards to be sent to Lynne Stewart. Stewart is a civil rights attorney and political prisoner who is currently in jail. She has breast cancer and authorities have denied her request for transfer from her Texas prison to the New York City hospital where she received medical attention during a prior bout of breast cancer. Send messages and cards to: Lynne Stewart 53504-054, Federal Medical Center Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, Fort Worth, TX 76127.
Contact: 747 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA 94109; 415-864-1278; firstname.lastname@example.com; http://lynnestewart.org/; http://www.radicalwomen.org/.
HAITI/WOMEN - Haiti's government is considering a legal reform measure that would prohibit and punish all sexual assault, including marital rape. MADRE and the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict are launching a petition to raise international support for this push to address violence against women in Haiti.
Contact: 121 West 27th Street, #301, New York, NY 10001; 212-627-0444; firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.madre.org.
SYRIA/MIDDLE EAST - The Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) is currently seeking funds to assist more than 200,000 refugees fleeing violence in Syria.
Contact: https://www.mecaforpeace.org.
FOLK FESTIVAL - The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival will be held August 2-4, in the Berkshires, NY.
Contact: http://www.falconridgefolk.com/; email@example.com.
WAR RESISTERS - The War Resisters League will hold its 90th anniversary conference, Revolutionary Nonviolence: Building Bridges Across Generations and Communities, August 1-4, at Georgetown University. The event will focus on the U.S.' long history of antimilitarism.
Contact: 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012; 212-228-0450; firstname.lastname@example.com; http://www.warresisters.org.
POPULAR ECONOMICS - The Center for Popular Economics is holding its 2013 Summer Institute August 4-9 at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. No background in economics is needed for this intensive training. This year's theme is, The Care Economy: Building a Just Economy with a Heart.
Contact: Center for Popular Economics, PO Box 785 Amherst, MA 01004; 413-545-0743; email@example.com; www.populareconomics.org.
VETERANS - Veterans for Peace is holding the 28th annual convention August 6-11 in Madison, WI. This year's theme is, Power To The Peaceful.
Contact: http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/.
DEMOCRACY - The Democracy Convention will take place August 7-11 in Madison, WI. The convention brings together nine conferences including topics such as media, education, defense, race, environment and others.
Contact: https://democracyconvention.org/.
MEN - The 38th National Conference on Men & Masculinity: Forging Justice: Creating Safe, Equal and Accountable Communities, presented in partnership with HAVEN, will be held in Detroit, MI, August 8-10.
Contact: email@example.com; http://www.nomas.org/.
OCCUPY - An Occupy National Gathering will be held in Kalamazoo, MI, August 21-25.
Contact: email@example.com; http://occupynationalgathering.net/.
COMMUNITIES - The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for co-operative or communal lifestyles, with workshops, events and entertainment; scheduled for August 30-September 2 at the Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, Virginia.
Contact: http://www.communitiesconference.org/.
LABOR DAY - The 29th annual Bread and Roses Festival, a celebration of the ethnic diversity and labor history of Lawrence, MA, will be held September 2, in honor of the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike. There will be music, dance, poetry, drama, ethnic food, historical demonstrations, walking & trolley tours.
Contact: PO Box 1137, Lawrence, MA 01842; 978-794-1655; http://www.breadandrosesheritage.org/.
OCCUPY WALL STREET - September 17 is the two-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Events are planned in New York City and worldwide.
Contact: http://occupywallst.org/.
TEACHERS - The 13th Annual Conference, "Teaching for Social Justice: The Politics of Pedagogy," will be held October 12 in San Francisco, CA. The free event features workshops, resources, and free childcare.
Contact: 415-676-7844; email@example.com; http://www.t4sj.org/.
HAITI - International Action, which brings clean water and chlorinators to Haiti, seeks office space capable of housing up to six people and their office equipment.
Contact: Zach Bremer, firstname.lastname@example.com; 202-488-0735; http://www.haitiwater.org/.
MEDIA - The Union for Democratic Communications and Project Censored are sponsoring a joint conference on media democracy, media activism and social justice to be held November 1-3 at the University of San Francisco. Proposals for presentations, workshops and panels from activists and critical scholars are invited.


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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
While voter opposition to the government bailouts of Wall Street has softened a bit, a majority still thinks the U.S. financial system should be opened to more competition. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that 53% say more competition and less regulation is better for the financial industry than more regulation and less competition. One in three (32%) takes the opposing view and say more regulation is needed. Another 15% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Given the holiday week, there will be no Rasmussen Challenge this week. The contest will resume on Tuesday, November 27.
The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on November 18-19, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Rasmussen subscribers can log in to read the rest of this article.OR
Become a member and get full access to all articles and polls starting at $3.95/month.Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter, the Rasmussen Report on radio and other media outlets.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $3.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on Election 2012, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

subset: commoncrawl


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By Kelli Stopczynski (email@example.com)
9:38 AM EST, February 25, 2013
Advertisement |
SOUTH BEND – A St. Joseph County mother accused of not watching her kids before they died will face a second trial.
Earlier this month, a hung jury resulted in a mistrial for 25-year-old Jacqueline Wilk. Her 2- and 4-year-old sons died after she found them trapped inside the trunk of her hot car in June 2011 at their New Carlisle home.
Wilk and her parents didn't talk to reporters Monday after learning prosecutors want to try her case a second time.
"The prosecutor's office can do that and sometimes they do. Obviously, we're disappointed," said one of Wilk's defense attorneys, Brendan Lahey. "But it's not unusual.
The decision comes a little more than two weeks after a hung jury deadlocked 5-to-7 on one neglect charge and 4-to-8 on the second – NOT to convict the young mother.
Afterward, jurors said their job wasn't easy.
"I won't say that it got ugly, but it was heated a little bit," said Victoria Barhydt, a juror in the previous trial.
At just 18-years-old, Barhydt was the youngest juror in the first trial. She said the most difficult part for her was proving Wilk knew she put her kids in a dangerous situation when they slipped out of the house and crawled into the trunk of her car.
"We don't know what she thinks. We can't get inside her head, so the only thing we have is the evidence, you know? We have to go by that and what she said," Barhydt added.
"I can say it was emotional, it was trying, it was very difficult," added another juror, Rosalind Cutts, after the judge declared a mistrial.
In a taped statement four days after finding her boys trapped in the trunk, Wilk told a detective they'd played in the car 20 or 30 times before. But on the witness stand, she and her parents testified the boys never played there unsupervised. That's where jurors said they split.
A second jury is scheduled to be selected May 28 and be tasked with deciding whether what happened to those two little boys was a tragic accident or the result of their mother's neglect.
Copyright © 2013, WSBT-TV


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The Village Church Farm is run entirely by a dedicated team of volunteers who gladly give up their time and skills for free. We do not receive any money from central government or local councils. The only way we can keep Lincolnshire's only open air farming museum open is by generating money at our special events and the generosity of people such as yourself.
Please consider supporting the work of the volunteers by making a donation to The Village Church Farm.
You can do this in person at The Village or online using the link below.
All donations, however small, are greatly appreciated and we guarantee that every single penny received is spent on enhancing this award winning museum for the benefit of the whole community for years to come.
Thank you


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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Lebanon Cedar
Cedrus libani, commonly known as the Lebanon Cedar or Cedar of Lebanon, is a coniferous tree native to the mountains of Lebanon, western Syria and south central Turkey; varieties of it (some treated as separate species by some authors) occur in southwest Turkey, Cyprus, and the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa:
- Cedrus libani var. libani (Lebanon Cedar): Lebanon, western Syria and south central Turkey
- Cedrus libani var. stenocoma (Turkish Cedar): southwest Turkey
- Cedrus libani var. brevifolia (Cyprus Cedar): Cyprus
- Cedrus libani var. atlantica (Atlas Cedar): Atlas Mountains
In Lebanon and Turkey it is most abundant at altitudes of 1,000-2,000 m, where it forms pure forests or mixed forests with Cilicican Fir (Abies cilicica), European Black Pine (Pinus nigra), and several juniper (Juniperus) species. In Cyprus, it occurs at 1,000-1,525 m (reaching the summit of Mount Paphos), and in the Atlas Mountains at 1,300-2,200 m, in pure forests or mixed with Algerian Fir , junipers, oaks and maples.
The tree is an evergreen in the family Pinaceae, with a height of up to 40 m, and a conic (when young) to broadly tabular shape. The shoots are dimorphic, with long shoots and short shoots. The leaves are needle-like, spaced out on the long shoots, and in clusters of 15-45 on the short shoots; they are 5-30 mm in length, quadrangular in cross-section, and vary from green to glaucous blue-green with stomatal bands on all four sides. The cones are produced often every second year, and mature in 12 months from pollination; mature cones in October are 8-11 cm long and 4-6 cm wide, resinous, and break up to release the winged seeds through the winter. The seeds are 15 mm long, 6 mm broad, with a triangular wing 20-25 mm long.
Several decades in the Lebanon Cedar's growth must pass before fertilization, as flowering does not occur until the tree is a minimum of 25 years old, and some trees may require 3 decades of growth before flowering ([1]). Additionally, as a result of long exploitation, very few old trees now remain in Lebanon, but there is now an active programme to conserve and regenerate the forests. Extensive replanting is also taking place in Turkey, where about 30,000 ha (300 km²) of cedar are planted annually.
Contents |
History and symbolism
The importance of the Cedar of Lebanon to the various civilizations is conveyed through its uses. The trees were used in ancient times by the Phoenicians to build their trade and military ships, as well as their houses and temples. The Egyptians used its resin for mummification, and its sawdust was found in the pharaoh's tombs. They also used to burn cedar in their ceremonies. Judaic priests were ordered by Moses to use the bark of the Lebanon Cedar in circumcision and treatment of leprosy. According to the Talmud, Jews used to burn Lebanese cedarwood on the Mount of Olives to announce the beginning of the new year. Kings of neighboring and distant countries asked for this wood to build their religious and civil constructs; the most famous of which are King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem and David's and Solomon's Palaces. In addition it was used by Romans, Greeks, Assyrians and Babylonians.
The Lebanon Cedar is mentioned 75 times in the Bible. Some of these statements are: "The cedar in the heaven of God is unmatched by cypress and unresembling in its branches...", "the trees of God resemble the Cedars of Lebanon which he planted", "the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grows like the cedar in Lebanon", "my love is white and red... bright as Lebanon and young as the cedars".
The Lebanon Cedar has been always the national emblem of Lebanon, and it is seen on the Lebanese Flag. It is also the main symbol of the Cedar Revolution.
- Talhouk, S. N. & Zurayk, S. 2003. Conifer conservation in Lebanon. Acta Hort. 615: 411-414.
- Semaan, M. & Haber, R. 2003. In situ conservation on Cedrus libani in Lebanon. Acta Hort. 615: 415-417.
External links
- Lebanon Cedar - Cedrus libani
- Arboretum de Villardebelle - photos of Cedrus libani in Turkey
- Arboretum de Villardebelle - photos of Cedrus libani cones (scroll to foot of page)
- Gymnosperm Database - Cedrus libani
See Also
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details


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"Prophetic Declarations"
By Contributing Writer Evangelist Shane Perry, Sr.
Prayer is the most powerful tool available to us as it relates to changing our lives through the words we speak. Prophetic declarations are often viewed in a different light than prayer. When in fact, the ability to decree future events in your life is not only a legitimate form of prayer, but one of the most practical and effective ways to engage in this acetic practice. Using this form of prognostication gives you the opportunity to bring a shift in the atmosphere of your city, church, home, and personal life.
A popular colloquial term that best describes this unique spiritual articulation is known as an "affirmation". Affirmation is derived from the Latin word "affirmâre" and means to make firm. When we make prophetic declarations, what we say becomes firm in the spirit first. Then, it's only a matter of time until what we have spoken in the spirit realm manifest itself in the natural. It's important to note that when you speak a prophetic declaration, you speak it in the present, as if you already have it (Mark 11:23-24). It's imperative to understand that your present declarations are becoming your future manifestations. What you say today is creating your tomorrow.
"It's imperative to understand that your present declarations are becoming your future manifestations. What you say today is creating your tomorrow."
An important thing to remember when putting these decrees into practical application is to use the word of God as your basis. So when I declare a thing over my life, I speak it in the now with applicable biblical context to back what I'm saying. The next step is to identify your problem, find the proper scripture to apply to that situation, and speak the antithesis of what you are going through. You may be dealing with sickness or disease today. The worst thing you can do is complain about what you're going through. I often teach a simple method for identifying and consequently changing my current state of affairs. When you find yourself complaining about something-- stop and ask yourself, "What do I want?" If I'm sick, talking about how bad I feel or what the doctor said is not the path to shifting from malady to health. When I can clearly define what I want, I can create a biblical counter confession using the prophetic declaration model. Here is a great example:
Father in the name of Jesus, I decree and declare that I am now healed according to your word. I confess according to Isaiah 53:5 that by your stripes I am already healed. I declare that according to 3 John 2, above all things I prosper, I am in health, even as my soul prospers. I thank you that I now walk in divine health.
I am aware that this can seem a little crazy but it is a powerful spiritual truth that will revolutionize your health, family, living situation, relationships, and finances. I have found that after making these declarations, it is important to literally act like you already have it. Earlier we referenced the scripture Mark 11:24, this verse states that whatever we desire, when we pray, we should believe that we receive them and we shall have them. So there it is, whatever you speak you should give God a prophetic praise for your prophetic declaration. You should walk like you got it, dance like you got it, talk like you got it, because in your spirit it is already yours! I often say that every prayer session should turn into a praise session. I may not see it yet, I may not feel it yet, and my life may be going in the opposite direction of my prayer, but my praise says no matter what it looks like, in my spirit I already got it! Therefore I know that it will come to pass in my life.
The Bible substantiates this claim of prophetic declarations in several verses of scripture. Proverbs 18:21 reveals that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Job 22:28 says we can decree a thing and it will be established unto us and the light shall shine upon our way.
I implore you today to identify the areas of your life that you are ready for God to invade. Ask yourself this one question—"What do I want?" Whether it is health, deliverance for yourself or a loved one, financial breakthrough, or a complete overhaul of your life, find the scriptures that relate to your desires and speak it as if you already have it in the present tense. Then praise God for it until what's in the spirit manifest in the natural. Remember, it's already done!
If you liked this article you might also like:
It's time to equip yourself not just to pray, but pray more effectively through these powerful teaching resources. In Paula's new 3 CD series "Prayer" she covers the topic of prayer intensely with guests Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams, who specializes in prayer, and Evangelist Shane Perry who has made prayer the cornerstone of his ministry. For your Ministry Gift of $25 or more you will receive "Prayer along with Suzette Caldwell's book "Praying to Change Your Life," a book that will take you from 0 to 10 in your prayer life, and Prayer Declarations to help you fight the enemy and declare the Word over your life. |
Thank you so much for your continued support! We could NOT do this without you!


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Hi Jack,
Welcome to the forum. You need 50 posts before you can start a thread in the For Sale section, but you can express interest in products. If you want to reach 50 posts you're more than welcome to take part in the thread next door.
I'll be more than happy to help you out with anything, just ask!


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As I prepare to return to my ancestral home for Thanksgiving, I was inspired to publicly give thanks that I'm not Glen Campbell.
It has been widely reported that Campbell was arrested for "extreme drunk driving" at 5 pm yesterday, lending merit to rumors that Campbell followed up his hit CBS series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour with The Glen Campbell Goodtime Happy Hour. He was once a lineman for the county, now, sadly, he can't even walk a line.
As an expression of my thanks for not being Glen Campbell, I plan to record song parodies over the holiday. They will include "Wichita Wine-man," "Wine-stone Cowboy," and "By the Time I Get To Phoenix (Jail, I'll Be Drunker Than a Fucking Monkey.)"
Perhaps I'll post over the holiday and perhaps I won't. Enjoy it, unless you're not American, in which case you should kiss my red, white, and blue ass.
Analogcabin @ 2:04 PM ------------------------- "Being mute's not that bad. I mean, if I had to have a sensory handicap, it'd be mute. Except not being able to smell, but I don't think that even counts as a handicap."
Analogcabin @ 7:11 AM ------------------------- I'm probably opening myself up to ridicule beyond the normal volume by starting this post with an admission that I watch Ed.
Analogcabin @ 12:00 PM ------------------------- There are those that would say we're a society that worships celebrities, but that's clearly not the case. We loathe celebrities, and we thrill at their pain, failure, and decay.
Analogcabin @ 10:07 AM ------------------------- I can't express how terrible I feel about the bombings in Istanbul.
Analogcabin @ 2:17 PM ------------------------- I leave town for a couple of days, and this happens. What's becoming of this world? Analogcabin @ 12:27 PM ------------------------- Ah, NASA. They're canny assessors of the human condition down there on the Cape.
Analogcabin @ 2:09 PM ------------------------- I started this week the same way I've started an alarming number of others. While showering, I continued my years long internal debate on Counting Crows. Do I love "Long December" enough to outweigh my hatred for "Mr. Jones?" Will I ever be able to reconcile my aversion to the lameness of the band with my desire to purchase Recovering the Satellites? Would said purchase result in another Wallflowers Bringing Down the Horse debacle -- an awful album that resulted in little more than ridicule from friends? Analogcabin @ 7:53 AM ------------------------- I just saw The Matrix: Revolutions, and I can think of few pieces of shit grander or more smelly. Honestly, people, can you really tell me that in 2003 you can include a scene-ending close-up of your movie's villain cackling as something other than a gag?
Analogcabin @ 12:19 PM ------------------------- Word on the street is that there's a new Paris Hilton tape, this one of the lesbian variety (or variete lesbian, for our French visitors.)
Analogcabin @ 6:38 AM ------------------------- In spam related posts, check out this bit of hilarity at Oblivio. It's at least partially about the writing of a porno spam header, "i am not perfect but I do suck c0ck".
Analogcabin @ 9:48 AM ------------------------- Something happened this morning that reminded us that we at The Spoonbender don't talk enough about our tough stance on things. Important things that affect us all. Things like "issues." This morning's event made us realize that it's high time to make right the oversight.
Analogcabin @ 7:09 AM ------------------------- I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to see when I'm poised to dig my teeth into a flame-broiled monument to bacon and cheesy delishium is some woman's milk-weeping and chapped nipples, but according to this story, it looks like that's a chance Burger King diners in Utah are going to have to take.
Analogcabin @ 7:52 AM ------------------------- You may not notice without my calling it to your attention that I've removed Neal Pollack from the links section. That's because he's announced his retirement from blogging, and now there's no chance he'll ever ask me to guest for him.
Analogcabin @ 7:12 AM ------------------------- I only post this because I want to do my part in the unfair punishment of someone roundly envied and despised for nothing more than being born lucky.
Analogcabin @ 7:32 AM ------------------------- I don't want to wax too political here because, frankly, there are loads of better equipped people doing it already. That's a stunning breach in my fortress of hubris, I know, but I'm all about modesty this week.
Analogcabin @ 2:32 PM ------------------------- Despite what she claims there is no "right time" for a new Sarah McLaughlin record. Unfortunately, no one asked me, and apparently there are enough misunderstood, 23-year-old, white and well-to-do poetesses around for Arista's profit projections to make sense, so there you have it. Rev up your Lillith Fair, grab your journal, and get ready for the predictably titled Afterglow.
Analogcabin @ 12:17 PM ------------------------- CNN reports that, according to the testimony of former Rosie marketing chief and cancer survivor Cindy Spengler, O'Donnell chastised her for lying by saying the following:
Analogcabin @ 9:06 AM ------------------------- Once again, reading between CNN's lines reveals that scientists are stupid.
Analogcabin @ 2:24 PM ------------------------- Two things disturb me about the below picture, but I'm not sure which disturbs me more.
Analogcabin @ 12:54 PM ------------------------- This is wonderful and horrible, and I can't say I'm surprised.
Analogcabin @ 1:55 PM ------------------------- It's time for a little honesty, America, because there's far too little of it in this age of low-carb diets and genital shaving. Anyone with a home delivery subscription to The New York Times knows that I'm always eager take up a cause. There's my work on the environment, education, charity, fairness, and good, not to mention not-hunger and not-sick, but I'm especially fond of fighting for the freedom of incarcerated rappers. Of these fights, my battle for Slick Rick's freedom is the closest to my heart.
Analogcabin @ 10:57 AM ------------------------- This article is just further proof that things have really changed since I was in high school. In my day, condoms stuck all over your shirt wasn't a costume, it was a cruel prank, and I didn't appreciate it one bit.
Analogcabin @ 1:39 PM ------------------------- What do you wash down a teenage surfer girl's arm with? Blue Crush, of course!
Analogcabin @ 10:45 AM ------------------------- Before I attempt to embark upon another week of entertaining your asses off, I want to apologize for the relatively poor quality of last week's posts. I understand that to you, the rabid and unquestioning fan, last week's Spoonbender was genius. But as a man of brilliance, I know that I have a responsibility in addition to masturbation, and I know that I didn't meet that responsibility last week.
Analogcabin @ 8:01 AM -------------------------
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Mute dismissiveness. We've all heard the above kind of uninformed prattle millions of times. But if ever a story brought into stark relief the dangers of being mute, it's this one. When was the last time you heard about a deaf person being sold as dog meat?
Link Via Wiggins
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Now that that embarrassing admission is out of the way, let's move on to something equally if not more embarrassing -- the use of the phrase "Spoiler Alert." If you haven't seen last week's episode, the one in which Ed proposes to Carol and the Burton's house burns down, stop reading a sentence ago.
It's fitting that the episode's B story involves Mike's father, played by Burt Reynolds, inadvertantly burning the house down while frying a Thanksgiving turkey because Burt looks like a burn victim these days. I assume I'd have heard something if Reynolds actually were caught in a fire, so I can only guess that the way in which his taunt and papery skin ripples and strains with the slightest movement is a result of plastic surgery.
His lips once formed America's best loved smile and parted to loose America's best loved laugh. Now those lips flatten and pull backward whenever he turns his head. They thin, go colorless, and curl into a snarl that reveals gigantic bridgework.
I hate you, Burt Reynolds. You've taken Burt Reynolds away from me.
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So I'm being clear up front, I'm going to write this as though I speak for all of us, when obviously I'm projecting so that I don't seem like such a heel.
Of those three things, I think our enthusiasm for celebrity decay is the cruelest. Pain is pain -- everyone has some in their life, and no matter how deeply we repress it, we all whisper to ourselves, "...better him than me." The only difference is that, when it's celebrity pain, no one whispers it. Failure brings us the most joy because we see it as karmic retribution. The decay thing, though, is really sadistic. We elevate these people because they're pretty or bright or, rarely, both. But we all know that neither pretty or bright lasts forever. Especially pretty. And so we watch and giggle as the identity we've made for the celebrity molders.
It's like giving a baby an Ipecac-soaked lollipop. OK. It's not really, but what an image, huh?
Speaking of babies, the worst and best decay is the aging of a child star. Puberty smashes their once adorable faces, and we all laugh, laugh, laugh. Usually, anyway. Christina Ricci has been the rare exception. Though she spent a good portion of her teens teetering on the edge of catastrophe, she appears to have pulled through. Thanks almost entirely to her breasts.
Without those breasts, Ricci would be a slightly chubby girl that, caught in the wrong light or from the wrong angle, could easily be mistaken for a retarded person.
Not that looking a little slow isn't sexy in its own way, but it's not what's generally considered "classic beauty."
The boobs, on the other hand, are classics. She's been working toward whipping them out for a while now, what with the sheer dresses and bra scenes, but she's finally brought out the big guns in the upcoming Prozac Nation, and, baby, them boobies are beauties.
You may have pulled two on us on the way up, Christina, but we'll get you on the way back down.
Image Via Stereogum
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So I won't try. Instead I'll take this opportunity to suggest that there might be a better way to determine the source of a noise than the method referenced in the following quote.
"We knew it was a bomb when an arm came flying through the window."
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Some claim that space exploration is fruitless. They say that it's foolish to continue to funnel billions into a dangerous enterprise that yields little more than information on the effects of weightlessness, as though that matters to a grossly obese nation. They say that that NASA's budget would be better spent on things like our decaying public schools and bombs to fling at folks that haven't met Jesus.
Obviously these ruffians don't understand a little something called "art." Sure, NASA works on a large scale, but so did Michelangelo. One of today's best loved artists, Mr. Tom Hanks, recognizes the genius of NASA. In fact, he masturbated all over that genius in both Apollo 13 and a 74 hour-long maxi-series called From the Earth to the Moon. It chronicled the Apollo program -- a NASA mission that you might recall resulted in way more than trillions of dollars spent, a few deaths, a starched flag in the moon, and a memorable quote. It remains one of the great and enduring metaphors of our nation's struggles and triumphs.
The missions are juxtaposed with the idealistic and volatile 1960's -- an inspired choice on NASA's part. Landing on the moon initially seemed to us, the audience, a rarefied and impossible goal. It was a fitting symbol for other goals of the age such as peace and racial equality. As we struggled, so did Apollo. But the men and the program ultimately triumphed -- Armstrong walked on the moon.
The triumph, of course, yielded nothing. We've never returned to the moon and don't plan to. Thus, NASA showed us that triumph is fleeting, much like the hippies' idealism and MLK's dreams of racial harmony.
Though NASA's most popular work, and probably its most accessible, the artistry doesn't end with Apollo. Only recently, NASA provided the world with a fine symbol of America as a crumbling superpower, unwilling to admit its own shortcomings and unable to perform as it once did. When the aging Columbia disintegrated in a streak across the sky, we looked to the Russians -- practitioners of a catch as catch can, Mad Max style of space travel -- to supply and evacuate the space station we once thought too pedestrian for our involvement.
And now, punctuating the Columbia piece with a brilliant bit of satire speaking to the ascendence of the buffoon in today's America, NASA has promoted the man in charge of the ill-fated shuttle's safety. Of his promotion, the man said, "Sometimes as human beings, we often learn more from our failures than from our successes." Sometimes we often, indeed. America -- failing our way to the finish line.
Bravo, NASA. Bravo.
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So there are these two brothers that'll never make another good movie and one of them is going to get a sex change, and now I've got to hear about them for the next 40 years. Terrific.
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I think I deserve it, so send it to me.
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Via Chicha
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But first, please notice that when we at The Spoonbender end paragraphs with a rhyme, we sound like Jesse Jackson.
The first of our tough stances is against grunting, gasping, or groaning while shitting in a public, multiple stall toilet. We at The Spoonbender just got back from taking a crap, and, really, people. If you make noises like you've been gutshot when you're on the bowl, you probably don't need to make a doodie that badly. If you're looking for the attention your drunken pig of a father never gave you, try a bathroom in a rest stop off the interstate. Lean back against the hole and you'll get gruntworthy male attention soon enough.
The second of our tough stances is that we at The Spoonbender don't really get why people write their blogs in the "we" point of view, whatever that's called. At least two that I read regularly do it: Gothamist and TMFTML. I suspect the latter thinks it's funny, and I can dig on that. The former, though, seems to use the technique to give the illusion of an editorial point of view. Before this "we" thing gets way out of hand, let's be honest with ourselves and admit that the only time a blogger's justified in writing from "the we" is when they're referring to themselves and their constant companions, crushing loneliness and pitiful hunger for attention.
And let me pause to point out that I realize tough stance two is a lot closer to a Sniglet than it is to a tough stance.
The third tough stance we at The Spoonbender take is against spam. I'd guess by now that pretty much everyone is familiar with the feeling of helplessness to stop the onslaught of unwanted email. I find that using SpamCop helps. From what I can tell, you forward a spam message to SpamCop and it somehow figures out where it originated and who hosts the website advertised. SpamCop then sends the involved parties nasty emails. In essence, you spam the people providing internet service to the spammers in the hopes that they'll get irritated and cut off the service. Or something. I don't know if it works, but I like doing it.
Anywho, this morning I got a spam that caught my eye. It's either the work of an amazing, surrealist artist that chooses spam as his canvas or it's some kind of high concept psychosexual taunt designed to drive me to the linked website. Either way, I'm intrigued.
I submit the spam for your perusal. I'd appreciate any thoughts or interpretations you might have, and that's what the "comments" thing is for.
I've heard _all_ about you...
Home of big dicks!
>> But each day brings its petty dust our soon-choked souls to fill, and we forget because we must, and not because we will.
50.000 of massive penises mpegs!
>> By common consent gray hairs are a crown of glory the only object of respect that can never excite envy.
10.000 of hardcore gigant cocks pics.
>> There are certain moments when we might wish the future were built by men of the past.
Shocking live penitration shows.
>> The price for independence is often isolation and solitude.
Chicks who fuck huge penises.
>> No amount of artificial reinforcement can offset the natural inequalities of human individuals.
19" Inches in tiny pussys!
Your virtual paradise:
El kio ke te guadre
Unsubscribe: firstname.lastname@example.com
Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it. Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth. When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers.
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Pull up a chair, kiddies, 'cause I'm fixin' to riff.
We all know that there are pros and cons to living in the civilized world. On the upside, there's a low infant mortality rate, TiVO, and delicious, thirst-quenching beer. On the downside, public defecation is frowned upon. Ours is a society of delicate balances. We hold personal freedoms dear and we cherish public safety. Alas, sometimes these loves are mutually exclusive, like a man's love of cats and a man's love of having sex with cats.
Take it from me and Kris Kristofferson, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," and let me take this opportunity to admit that I've never really understood those lyrics.
Until now.
Clearly, this Utah titslinger has nothing left to lose -- no pride, no dignity, and no appetite. I can picture her now, sated and reclining in molded orange plastic bench, Whopper detritus strewn across the table, enjoying a clove cigarette as she unfurls her milk-laden knocker.
Shh. I'm picturing it.
At some point in my life I was scarred by a story about a woman I know. She had recently given birth, and was having some kind of trouble with whatever kind of special bra breastfeeding women wear. She was in the bathroom, thank the Lord, when her overfilled boob began "spraying milk everywhere." I'll never forget that phrase. "Spraying milk everywhere."
Imagine if this had happened in the Burger King's dining room. Milk spraying from the breast like a Willie Waterbug toy on a summer day. Splashing into milkshakes and coffee, dousing fries and sandwiches. Shooting into patrons' eyes other unguarded orifices.
That's bodily fluid, friends. It's not only a disgusting scenario, it's a dangerous one. Perhaps it's unlikely, but are you willing to take your chances with a loaded jug?
I, for one, am not.
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Thanks, Neal. Asshole.
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My favorite thing about it is the image of a stoned and sweaty guy rutting away with huge and unwieldy night vision goggles strapped to his over-pomaded head.
Via Lindsayism.
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Modesty, and rocking your motherfucking world.
I find Dennis Kucinich charming in a Warren Cheswick kind of way. In debates and interviews, he seems earnest, remarkably dorky, and constantly trying to find ways to divert attention from the cool guy candidates like John Kerry on to himself. I think it's easier for me to find him charming because I know there's no chance that he'll win.
But poor Dennis is incredibly ugly, isn't he? I mean, there's that limp and vaguely greasy hair. There's his almost blue lips that curl creepily over off-color teeth. There's the way his eyes bug out sometimes, like the well-meaning shellfish character from some Disney cartoon. And there's his papery skin. I don't think there's any doubt that he's an ugly, creepy-looking man.
Not surprisingly, he's also single, and CNN ran an article on it. If there's one thing creepier than the picture they choose to run with the article, it's the caption they coupled with it.
Kucinich says he fantasizes about his first lady.
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I can live with the new record. It's the below quote I find really difficult to swallow.
Now I find anything that I write after [giving birth] has really been kind of sappy and gooey and feel-good. It's new territory for me and I don't know quite how to deal with it yet.
Sappy and gooey is new territory for Sarah "I Will Remember You" McLaughlin? Puh. Leese.
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You know what happens to people who lie? They get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again.
This is exactly the kind of brazenly illogical threat you'd hear from a gin-sneaking 12-year-old babysitter who wants nothing more than for her annoying charge to leave her alone with her already blue-balled 17-year-old "boyfriend."
Your mother died of breast cancer. Was she lying?
I like this Spengler. She cuts to the quick.
And there you have it. If only this case were a TV drama series, it would be here that the gallery would titter and ah, the defense lawyer's head would collapse into his hands, and the judge would slam his gavel and remand O'Donnell to the care of the state, leaving the empathic prosecutor and the audience with one unanswered question -- what did her mother lie about?
"Rosie, someday you'll grow up to be the prettiest bride in the whole world, and I won't be dead from the cancer!"
O'Donnell: I'm gonna stick this up in them guts!
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Some paleontologist named Leslea Hlusko postulates that early humans used toothpicks. We are told that this is significant because it shows that these monkey-men were concerned with oral hygiene.
Suppose, for a moment, that you're a person of bestial intelligence. You hunt or gather for days in search of any food, let alone something large enough to get stuck in your teeth. When you pick up a blade of wild grass to insert into some cranny in your molar, it's going to be to dislodge the precious and succulent morsel for eating, not because you're concerned about a bright smile.
If this kind of half-assed scientistery keeps up, they'll probably undercover my remains in 10,000 years and deduce that I masturbated to keep the dust off of my penis.
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The first thing is that anyone could have thought Gary Ridgway was something other than a serial killer. Just look at those eyes. The second upsetting thing is that he looks just like my former Cub Scout master, Mr. Thielen, and that it hadn't occurred to me until today that Thielen looked like a complete fucking psycho.
I need to make myself a note never to have repressed memory therapy.
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Link via Deviated Septum
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Since 1984 I've been waging a figurative and literal war against the powers that be -- sending them strongly worded letters soaked in stink bomb juice, shooting at them, and flashing my penis at their families. Today, it appears that I've won that war. Slick Rick will taste the tasty air of freedom when he breathes it.
Except now I find out he shot a couple of guys. That bit of info makes this moment more than a little bit bittersweet, let me tell you. I mean, fuck, you know?
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"What else has changed since you were in high school?" you clamor with almost sexual anticipation. Well cease your baby bird wriggling and squeaking in aviary supplication, for I'm about to regurgitate a tale of a time called the mid-nineties.
George Bush was the president. No, not that George Bush. I'm talking about George Herbert Walker Bush -- the current president's grandfather and Olympic prizefighter. Morton Downey, Jr. ruled the airwaves, and homosexuality was nothing more than a secret dream lurking deep within Harvey "The Inventor of Gayness" Fierstein's psyche. Blogging wasn't the rarefied fourth and a half estate is it today. It involved a bump of cocaine, a tub of Vaporub, a straw, and an underage girl. In fact, the internet itself was known only to small group of Cal Tech role-players cloistered deep within their own fractured psyches. The rest of us were forced to use modems to connect with something called a BBS -- an acronym that stood for nothing at all, because the concept of acronyms had not yet been fully fleshed out. Dilbert was king, Cathy was his beautiful queen, and I loved them both well, for Anime had not yet sprung from the minds of emotionally stunted Japanese men. Lisa Lisa was the closest thing we knew to an Hispanic sex symbol, and thank the Racist Lord for small favors. Thank Him, too, the cornucopia of puns made based on "Cult Jam." I'd say that Eric Nies cabbage patched through the collective subconscious of young girls everywhere, but the concept of the collective subconscious didn't exist because David Blaine had not yet been born.
It might seem to you as though we had it tough, but it was a simpler time, and, oh, how we danced!
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Yeah! The comedy... it burns!
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The masturbation part I did. Anyway, I'm sorry. This week will be different, I swear. It will be a success the likes of which not seen since the bombing of Cambodia.
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Chris Paul, Cliff Paul Return for State Farm - Posted February 13, 2013
From Translation comes the second installment of the Chris Paul/Cliff Paul State Farm saga, which will make its TV debut tomorrow night.
If you recall, Episode I (the entire premise of which rested on a pun about the word "assist") premiered during ... [AgencySpy]
Chris Paul Bumps into 'Cliff Paul' in Latest State Farm Spot - Posted December 26, 2012
L.A. Clippers All-Star point guard Chris Paul got plenty of airtime yesterday beyond his team's beatdown of the Denver Nuggets.Thanks to this latest effort for State Farm, which this time comes to us from Translation and director ... [AgencySpy]
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What's New
ŌĆó Support for SharePoint 2013ŌĆó PDF Form filling: easily fill your PDF forms containing the most common field types
ŌĆó Retina graphics: SharePlus now comes in HD with all high-resolution graphics
ŌĆó New security features
ŌĆó Fixes & performance enhancements around: form based authentication, meeting workspaces, calendar lists, returning from inactivity mode, PDF filesŌĆÖ treatment of non-English characters, Japanese localization, rich text & external keyboards, migration issues, image filesŌĆÖ metadata, & dates on Excel files
App Description
ŌĆ£We needed a mobile collaboration solution that could deliver the latest company & product information. The team at Infragistics demonstrated how quickly & easily SharePoint documents could be retrieved & edited on mobile devices using SharePlus, even offline.ŌĆØ - Christian Bihari, Solution Architect - Collaboration, RocheŌśģŌśģŌśģŌśģŌśģ
Ranked #11 in Business Apps on iTunes
Your Sharepoint data in your hands
Securely browse your SharePoint content from wherever you are! Access documents, intranets, calendars, task lists & more from the convenience of your iPhone or iPad. With SharePlusŌĆÖ intuitive, touch-enabled design, navigate SharePoint while away from your desktop. Access information you need, exactly when you need it.
SharePlus works with your current SharePoint setup. No need to install server components or request special permissions.
SHAREPLUS ENTERPRISE (features not included with SharePlus Pro)
SharePlus Enterprise provides the features, configuration, customization & support so you can easily mobilize SharePoint & boost mobile productivity within your organization. Includes in-house deployment, centralized configuration, remote updates, custom branding, plus:
ŌĆó Enterprise Security: Security features like MDM integration, Multi-Factor Authentication, Authentication Time Bomb & Editor Whitelisting ensure company information stays private
ŌĆó Enhanced mobile navigation: Enterprise Search provides scoped, full contextual searches. Locate specific content on-demand
ŌĆó Boost your corporate social network with My Site, My Profile & Meeting Workspaces
ŌĆó Priority Support via phone, live web chat & online submission
ŌĆó Customization: Address specific corporate needs like adding custom features, supporting unique authentication scenarios & SharePoint architectures, etc.
Email us at email@example.com to learn more about SharePlus Enterprise
The universal mobile SharePoint app, SharePlus Pro includes:
ŌĆó Support for all standard SharePoint content types
ŌĆó Native Previewer supports all Office file formats
ŌĆó Support email files (.msg/.eml) stored on libraries
ŌĆó Send files to 3rd party apps using Open-In
ŌĆó Edit files using 3rd party editing tools & save to SharePoint
ŌĆó Check-in/-out & approve/reject support
ŌĆó Save local drafts
ŌĆó Delete/restore previous file versions
ŌĆó PDF navigation & annotation
ŌĆó Local files & favorites section
ŌĆó Capture pictures, video & audio
ŌĆó Geo-tag SharePoint items
ŌĆó Support InfoPath form libraries (Forms Server Required) & Reporting Services report libraries
ŌĆó Wifi sharing
ŌĆó SharePoint list views: select & apply server-defined views
ŌĆó Search items within lists
ŌĆó Browse past document versions (in Libraries only)
ŌĆó View managed metadata services fields
ŌĆó Send documents by mail, linked, or fully attached
ŌĆó Directly call a SharePoint contactŌĆÖs number & send mail
ŌĆó Add SharePoint contacts to local iOS contacts
ŌĆó Retractable nav bar
ŌĆó Web toggle
ŌĆó Day/Week/Month calendar view
ŌĆó Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3)
ŌĆó SharePoint 2007, 2010 & 2013
ŌĆó Office 365 & BPOS
ŌĆó Data protection: built-in hardware-based encryption system
ŌĆó Multi-account management
ŌĆó Authentication support: Windows, Forms, Office 365 & Web-based; ADFS & claims-based; client-side certificates
ŌĆó Channel security: HTTPS (SSL) support; compatible with VPNs
ŌĆó Compatible with reverse proxies (Microsoft ISA Server/ForeFront)
App Changes
April 09, 2013 New version 3.8.2
February 19, 2013 New version 3.8.1
December 18, 2012 New version 3.8
October 11, 2012 New version 3.5.1
September 19, 2012 New version 3.5
June 20, 2012 New version 3.2
April 01, 2010 Initial Release


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The Rock4Hunger Tour visited Ferndale High School on November 22, 2011 and Royal Hoax played for the 3 winning classes of their canned food drive. We had a great time and the students were stoked! They raised 1200 meals for Gleaners!
© 2013 Created by Rock4Hunger.
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Baked apples stuffed with dates and cinnamon
An apple a day is no problem when it's filled with port-laced dates and bathed in sticky juice.
To Prep |
To Cook |
AVG RATING (2 Members) |
recipe To my
- Ingredients
- Nutrition
- 85g (1/2 cup) pitted dates, chopped
- 2 tbs port
- Olive oil spray
- 2 tbs brown sugar
- 2 tbs pine nuts, lightly toasted
- 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp reduced-fat margarine
- 4 medium Granny Smith apples, cored
- 250ml (1 cup) apple juice
- Low-fat vanilla yoghurt, to serve
Energy 1255kJ |
Fat saturated 0.50g |
Fat Total 6.00g |
Carbohydrate sugars - |
Carbohydrate Total 55.00g |
Dietary Fibre 5.50g |
Protein 5.50g |
Cholesterol - |
Sodium - |
All nutrition values are per serve.
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Totally yummy and not too fattening either - especially when you forget to add the butter like I did! I used mixed nuts, finely chopped, instead of pine nuts, and served with thick Greek yogurt. Loved it!
never had port so used Sherry. Never had pine nuts I used walnuts. Will make again
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Behind the Shoji: Art and Craft Show
August 2–September 8, Garden hours
Pavilion Gallery
Included with Garden admission
Make plans now to attend the tenth annual Behind the Shoji Art and Craft Show, featuring distinctive arts and crafts inspired by traditional and contemporary Japanese culture and aesthetics.
Call for artists! Applicants are now being considered. Find out more.


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Halloween Fancy Dress for the October Spooky Season
As the Halloween fancy dress holiday draws close, kids look forward to trick or treating. Parents feature strongly too as they prepare festive bites and delicious delicacies for the neighbourhood children. Of course, this is before they attend their own late night festivities, with a lot more than just horns and wings going on! The 31st of October allows the kids to dress in outfits as popular spooky characters and animals. For teenagers, it seems to become more of a social event with less enthusiasm about costumes, though worn nonetheless. For some reason, adults seem to really get into the spirit, albeit with Halloween fancy dress ideas instead of simpler, more juvenile ones.
Everyone loves Halloween fancy dress costumes!
In this day and age it is of paramount concern to grown ups that their youngsters wear suitable costumes that could make them the star of the show. This is why there are many companies who make vinyl costumes that represent professional service roles and other characters. A few things must first be considered. To begin with, beautiful and vivid, yet strong and robust materials form the basis of the outfit so that it will both last for a long time and look fabulous. Finally, they are also simply visual and not textured, which provides enough illusion of realism, as opposed to adult Halloween fancy dress costumes, which are likely more realistic.
Youngsters often wear masks to disguise their identify. These masks are usually held on with a single elastic strap that makes it easy to take off or move around as kids gets fidgety. Adult masks, though, are often more intricate and quite extravagant. These are the kinds of masks that you find in movie costume shops and might involve encasing your whole head in rubber in order to properly resemble the character you wish to portray. For the best results that money can buy it is always advised that high quality expert cosmetic products are used to complete your appearance. The makeup allows you to breathe easily and not sweat all night!
Buy Halloween Fancy Dress Costumes Here!
Witch costumes make great for Halloween fancy dress outfits
Even though it's still feasible to buy Halloween fancy dress witch costumes almost anywhere that most Halloween trinket items are sold, the choice for costumes might be very limited. This is because they are usually more expensive, and therefore less popular. Also retailers only have so much space available, no matter how big the storefront or warehouse might be.
One option for finding unique Halloween fancy dress is to go online and search for costumes on a range of websites. In fact, you can probably get a good deal by shopping outside of the typical autumn Halloween season. Specialist websites might suit your requirements better as they might have a better range of sizes and styles or unusual niche items. There is no point stressing yourself out buying Halloween fancy dress when companies send out deliveries to you!
But I want a different Halloween fancy dress costume, what should I pick?
Well, the options for Halloween fancy dress outfits are limitless. Lady Gaga Halloween costumes are fabulous, really cool and don't cost much money to put together. For a controversial Halloween fancy dress outfit I would pick the Anna Rexia costume, which is just a slinky skeleton costume dress that looks better without the accessories.


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Tutorial written by : Gobelet Last edited: August 22, 2003
I will not be responsible if you screw your Xbox following this tutorial! It worked for me and for other people on the forum.
You'll need:
- Two screwdrivers to open your Xbox (TORX 10 & 20). - Some acetone to clean the board - A pencil, or if it don't works, a conductive ink pen, or a rear window defogger repairing kit.
You'll not be able to do it on a V1.2/V1.3 Xbox, because the two points to link, are like the d0 point, you have to put a wire between these, or some solder. You can try, since I don't have any V1.2/V1.3.
It's not recommended to work with a pencil since it will not be flawless. And you'll be able to flash it just once or twice, or maybe the connections will be lost while flashing your TSOP. It's highly recommended to use a conductive ink pen, or a defogger repair kit.
First of all, you have to open your Xbox, and pull out the mainboard (follow the tutorial here, by XanTium).
You have to clean the points to rely. Those points are the same points as for TSOP flashing with solder. (Tutorial is here). Clean them with acetone, or alcohol.
Then, link them with your pencil, your pen, or your defogger repairing kit.
Then you can go on EvoX, and flash your TSOP without any problem, like if you soldered the points! Now follow the tutorial here (Credit goes to sharpie00!).
If you find a way to make it works on a V1.2/V1.3 Xbox, drop me a line on the forum, by nickname is Gobelet.
Tutorial written by : Gobelet


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Welcome to Motability
Over the past 35 years, Motability has helped over three million people get mobile by exchanging their mobility allowance to lease a car, scooter or powered wheelchair.
Are you eligible?
If you are disabled, you may be able to exchange your mobility allowance to get a vehicle that suits your needs. What's more you don't even need to drive. Family, friends or carers can drive on your behalf.
Choose your vehicle
Once you've confirmed your eligibility and are happy that Motability is right for you, you can choose from around 2,000 cars and Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV), and hundreds of scooters and powered wheelchairs, many of these available at no more than the cost of your weekly allowance.
Find a dealer
Whether you're looking for a car, a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV), a scooter or powered wheelchair, there are nearly 5,000 Motability specialists in the UK, who can help you find the right vehicle for your needs.
Car search
See advanced searchVisit us at The Big Event!
Hosted by Motability, The Big Event is the UK's biggest display of Motability vehicles where you can also test drive a range of cars with adaptations! Come to our event on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 May 2013 at Stoneleigh Park Indoor Exhibition Centre.
Find out more about The Big Event
Changes to your mobility allowance
As part of the planned changes to disability benefits, the government has introduced new allowances, which you can use to lease a vehicle with Motability.
Read more about the allowances
Customer area
Already have a car, scooter or powered wheelchair with us? From insurance matters to what to do in a breakdown, our new Customer Area will provide you with the information you need to know throughout your lease.
Car and WAV customers
Scooter and powered wheelchair customers
Update your details
Recently changed address or have a new phone number? You can easily update your contact details by filling out our online form.
Update your details online
Latest news
View all news-
An easier way to find the adaptation installer you need
10 Apr 2012
If you think you may need an adaptation fitted to your car to improve your driving experience, it's now even easier to locate adaptation installers who may be able to help.
Check out our new FAQs section
22 Nov 2012
Whether you are a customer or new to Motability, any query you may have about an aspect of the Scheme may be answered by a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ).
Driving safely during wet weather
6 Dec 2012
As the weather turns colder and wetter, it pays to make sure you stay safe in these challenging driving conditions. Follow our tips on how to adjust your driving style for wet roads.
Fourth edition of Rough Guide to Accessible Britain now available
4 May 2012
With so many events and activities happening around the UK in 2012, there are plenty of great days out you can enjoy in your Motability car.
Future Events and Exhibitions
View all Events and ExhibitionsEnter your postcode or town to find your nearest Motability event
Show results on map-
Dealer events
These are events which are organised by specific dealers in order to showcase the stock of Motability vehicles they have
Motability hosted events
These are events run by Motability where experts are on hand to explain what the scheme is all about
National events
These are mobility and disability events covering a broad spectrum of activities and support available for all people affected by disability. Motability will be present so come and see us
Fundraising events
These are events which you can participate in to raise money for Motability
Enter our competition
Share your top tips on choosing a Motability car, scooter or powered wheelchair for a chance to win a camera.
Sign up for our email newsletter
Register your details for up-to-the minute news and info about Motability.


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What's the difference health-wise? Is palm kernel oil bad?
To make this easier, lets start with a picture... The orange fruit, if pressed and processed into oil, turns into what we call "red palm oil". The white portion is the kernel of the nut, and provides the raw material for "palm kernel oil". Red palm oil has an extremely high concentration of antioxidants like vit A and E while palm kernel oil is relatively devoid of such nutrients (thus it's pure white color vs the vibrant yellow/red of the fruit and skin). Red palm oil from the fruit is also higher in monounsaturated fats vs the highly saturated fat found in the kernel. Regarding palm oil and the environment, there are responsible producers. I reviewed one such source, Jungle Products, in a post I did a while back. While industrial producers of palm oil (typically the palm kernel oil used in a wide range of industries not just limited to food production) can be accused of practicing a damaging form of monoculture, we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water. The use of responsibly produced and fairly traded palm oil products is no different than supporting producers of grass-fed beef. Any food product, especially in this age of "opacity" (i.e. we generally don't see where our food comes from, know who makes it, and even what exactly is in it), can be grow/harvested in a way that is harmful to people, plants/animals, and the environment. This applies to bananas, coconuts, cows, chickens, etc. just well as it does to palm oil. |
While it might be alright for human consumption, it's terrible for the health of ecosystems in places where it is farmed. There's all kinds of hub-bub about "oh it's sustainably farmed in such and such a place..." The simple truth is, that ANY consumption of palm oil, leads to the demand for low priced palm oil, which is where the ecosystem destroying, species massacre-ing plantations in SE Asia come into the picture. Red palm oil is in a host of industrially produced cosmetic, hygiene and food items that enter the market with competitive prices because the price of ingredients is kept low. Palm Oil: How our consumer choices affect wildlife People around here sometimes mention things like Industrial farming, and how it is a horrible thing. People bring up points from the vegetarian myth, like how these industrial farming processes create monocrops and wipe out ecosystems, entire species, and turn parts of the world into deserts. Well..what do you think palm oil plantations are? Think about THAT next time you consider how healthy any form of palm oil is. |
Palm kernel oil has a very similar fatty acid profile to coconut oil. I cook with it because it has none of the coconut flavor/aroma that comes through with CO. If/when I use up my CO that will be the last I buy, but I'll buy PKO again. Perhaps I'm ultra sensitive to the taste, but even having tried different brands and such, that coconutty flavor comes through (and if it doesn't it's been highly processed) and dominates the taste of dishes. PKO is tasteless. Mine is flakes that are really easy to use as well. PKO is popular in soap making and not so much for dietary, but food grade sources are available. |
I like Spectrum's Vegetable Shortening, which is Palm Oil. Its rather difficult to get palm oil locally since its not very popular item around here. I have to get it online. According to them its sustainable and doesn't kill some random monkeys in a third world country. |