text:
But today as I trudged through the house picking up some random piles of play things, I realized I still haven't shared some minor updates we made to our entry area {or updated the home tour page}.
Back in August, in preparation for back to school, we shared our entry organization and setup.
Now it's no secret that I love color. But it didn't take more than second after I hit the publish button of the past entryway post, and reviewed the pictures on my blog to realize it looked like Rainbow Bright ate too much ice cream and got sick in this space.
To me, the green is bright and bold enough, that added in extra bold accents in random colors may have been a bit much. It's OK though, live and learn. It also was a great reminder that sometimes it takes looking at your space through a photograph to catch the things the eye might not. And I always have been honest in saying that this blog is just as much about us learning as it is about us sharing what is working or what project we accomplished.
So, within a few days of the rug being placed out, it was rolled back up and gifted to a friend's space that it made much more sense within. The lampshade was leftover from our Storage Magazine photoshoot and has been making it's way through our home in different areas until we find the perfect spot, and the mirror was moved to Preston's bedroom.
Although I am on a Target hiatus, a birthday gift card went towards replacing the mirror with a pretty burst mirror, and the shoe cabinet received the treatment of some updated hardware. The rug was replaced with a Pier 1 clearance find, which fit the space in front of the cabinet much better. Those minor updates now marry our recently updated dining room to our entry, since the spaces flow together.
Much more subtle and toned down now! Maybe too toned down? Sigh... Those cubby cabinet doors are begging for a little somethin' something, don't ya think?
Here are a couple of photos of the two spaces to see how the colors now work together...
Yes, much better!
The round mirror was a game changer in the space. The shoe cabinet is rectangular, so the rectangular mirror above didn't offer enough visual contrast. And the touch of gold makes me giddy and warm inside!
Excuse all of the random acts of fresh flowers. This winter has been hard on me, especially working indoors all day and looking out at cold, cloudy days and falling snowflakes.
I still have some styling and accessorizing to do to the top of the large cabinet, but for now, it's filled with a few of my favorite reads...
No post would be complete without of before and after of the changes!
Any of you tuning in and toning things down? How about reviewing photos of your spaces to look and learn?


text:
Anyone Following Division 8 in this years Transpac suspected that something was amiss aboard the Jeanneau 43 Sun Odessy "Aquarius" with it crew of 5.
It's tracking was all messed up, it went north , it went south and mostly it went slow. Really slow!
Behind the scenes, the TPYC was aware of some issues aboard the boat and the ongoing struggles between crew and captain.The following is the report from the navigator, X_____ X____ as posted on Sailnet
Mutiny at Dawn - Transpac Race 2013
My crewing/captaining luck finally ran out on me, I was shaken but not broken. I need reinvent my luck to continue to sail the great ocean ours.
Here is my daily log while on board a 2002 Jeanneau 43 DS on on route from Long Beach, CA to Diamond Head, Honolulu, HI during the 2013 Transpac Race.
I changed the names of the people involved for now.
Me - rockDawg or RD. as on-board navigator
Jake – Near coastal USCG licensed Captain. Serve as a crew.
Harry - Skipper/Owner – A Japanese national owns a Sushi Restaurant in LA, long time old traditional sailor, but no off shore or long passage experience. Serve as a skipper
Jane – Partner of Harry, co-owner of the Sushi Restaurant. Has no sailing experience. Serve a watch crew as needed
Sheryl – Mother of Jane, 86 yo. No official duty.
Jeanneau 43 – Corporation owned sailing vessel
Arrived LAX Friday July 5.
Skipper Harry picked us up at the airport. He looks older than his age and on a heavy side, but nevertheless, a kind and humble gentleman. A number of close calls on the way to the marina, he veered off into other lanes on the highway a few times. I hope Harry sails better than he drives, but I did not say anything and just sat quietly so he could concentrate on the road.
When we got the marina, Harry had a hard time to find a parking space. Coming from as an exNYC cabbie, he does not how to drive. We were late for the 'First Time Racer' party. The kitchen at the yacht club was closed but Jane, Harry's business partner bribed the kitchen, and they made us a chicken sandwich for each of us. Actually I would have preferred go to Sam Woo to dinner. Oh well, the guests did not have the choice.
-Day 2, Sat, July 6
Clear sunny sky in Long Beach. Oh boy, I really have a hard time understanding Harry's English. We need to develop some sign language. He apologized to us all the time about his language , but this is ridiculous. He has been in this Country for 16 years……hahaha. We leave his marina and head to Long beach. He had me on the helm until we entered Long Beach since I have no idea when I am going. At time I have to rely on my iPhone. His chart plotter on the helm sucks, it is B/W and the screen has no contrast, impossible to read. We moved the boat to Pine Ave Pier, where the race official marina was.
There were other boats there on the pier. Because of space we were docked stern in with dropping anchor at bow. I was not able to convey my idea to Harry, so I drew pictures to show him my suggestion. He agreed and we docked successfully.
I saw lots of big boy toys in the race with professional crews. Our Jeanneau 43 just did not fit in the race. But whet the hell, we are here.
We had the skipper meeting in the late afternoon. I recorded the meeting so that I wouldn't miss anything. I had zero local knowledge and was not familiar with the local names, so it was hard for me to follow what they were saying without a chart/map.
Obviously the meeting was not geared towards newbies like us. After the meeting was the party. Good food and good entertainment but one has to buy your own drinks in the party. Jake bought me a coke for the evening.
-Day 1, Sunday, July 7:
A bit disorganized, lots of things to do were found not done. We tried to help as much as we could. I found out the provisioning was not done as planned. Sat phone and other safety equipment not installed done. Harry refused to buy a pair jack lines from West Marine. He insisted to use an old 3/8" round sheeting rope. Some of the re-inspection from the race committee was not just a joke. Just a check in the box deal. Totally unfocused, Jane hauled in a wind generator she obtained from eBay and asked me to install for the trip. Are you serious? I asked in my head.
We canceled our trial spinnaker run with Sam of Norht Sail in San Diego because Harry needed to go shopping for our food. Sam was a 17-time TransPac veteran. It was good that I could at least meet him in person. I tried to pick his brain as much as I could for the race. He gave me a lot of local knowledge. Jake and I wrote down as much as we could. I felt much better as I had sometime to study the chart and the weather report. It seemed to all come together well and scientifically made sense to follow the 1020 isobar.
Rocky start at the top: not sure what was going on, but there must have been big fight between Jane and Harry. Harry barred Jane from boarding the boat until 2 hours before the race started. I got a text message from Harry that was intended for Jane to read. Things were not looking good, I felt uneasy. I finally intervened and made both shake hand and start the team again.
Jake was also having second thoughts and considered backing out. I sacrificed so much for this race/voyage, I felt like I was being let down. Jake asked me what to do. I told him that I was committed to this trip and if he and Jane wanted to back out, I was comfortable sailing the boat alone with Harry. I told him I know Jeanneau well. We would be fine if Jake backed out.
Day 0, Monday, July 8: Race Day.
An unexpected and totally unnecessary event. Harry blew up over the coffee filter left on the coffee maker by Jake. It was a half hour rage and total shut down all operation. My goodness, the man needs an anger management course badly. He threw things all over and around him. He was insulting Jake and everyone else claiming this is his house,….. blah, bah.
I don't think it was a big deal. The filter was still warm and he should have given Jake a chance to clean up. After all, we were being pulled all different directions for the last two days by two bosses. Well…. I didn't care, I just want to sail the Pacific and nothing can stop me know.
{Edited: Never knew this was just the beginning of an ordeal that I have never expected}.
When my daughter was in her second grade, I think she had a better organization skills than that of Harry and Jane. We rushed and rushed in a totally disorganized way, I didn't really have time to think. Somehow, I thought we would have plenty of time to work out the details once the rush is over when on route to Hawaii. Jake reminded Harry to top off the water tanks but he left the dock anyway to head to the starting point. Both Harry and Jane were equally controlling.
We were 20 min late to the start of the race, but I was happy to see that we were underway; at least I was thinking we will have time to learn or adapt Harry's style. As I often said to other on the net. It is his boat, his house/castle, his rules unless my life is endangered.
Day 1 and 2, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 9 and 10:
I am totally confused with this trip. Stress and fatigue were high. We were pulled into different directions at all time, like working with two bosses. We were being watched at all time. Micromanagement is too mild a word on this boat. How about nano- or pico-management?
And how about constantly remind you:
1. You don't know and thing!!!
2. You are a very bad crew!!!
3. You are a crew and an employee, We don't need your opinion, You should do what you are told.
Day 3, Thursday, July 11
Calling it quits.
Harry exploded with his temper. We had no idea what the hell he was screaming and jumping up and down and stomping his feet like a five year old. He does not use sentences to communicate, just a single words. He continued screaming at you louder and louder with the same mispronounced word. No one knew what he meant, including his partner for 13 years.
Day 4, Friday July 12
Weather is getting warmer. Water temp went up to 71 degree from 68. Partial sun is out for the first time. Our jib was tore and need to be repaired. Although it was a bit too early and we were far from the trades wind, at 2 pm. We flew the spinnaker with heading toward HI and wind was on 160 degree. Doing 6 to 8 knots. Argh, finally we got the speed that I was hope for.
Day 5, July 12.
Too upset and too exhausted to enter daily log. Micromanagement and constant yelling finally wore me down.
Day 6, July 13:
Conditions were not getting better despite Jane talking to Harry. There was a significant mistrust towards Jake and I. We were not allowed to talk to each other and not permitted to sit at the navigation table and must stay in our berth, per Jane orders. In despair, Jake contacted a military ship "HS V2 Swift" nearby for rescue, claiming unsafe environment. Unfortunately Harry and Jane refused to let us leave the boat. The captain of Swift talked on the radio that they would monitor for 3 hours. They took away the VHF radio and sent Swift away. We were officially their prisoners.
Without any hope of getting off the boat and still has at least 2 weeks of sailing, I tried to repair the jib and the jib track on jib furler. Jake hoisted me up to the forestay to repair the tract and lower down the jib. I ended up being hoisted 4 times. It was no fun and impossible to hold on. The bosun chair was so poorly made, it cut out my circulation from the waist down.
I was starting to put a doubt on this voyage what would if this bad situation continues. The boat was doing about 4 knots, and every day there are about 2 to 4 hour of yelling and the boat moved less than 3 knots. We are going to run out of food before seeing land.
Day 7, July 14:
Things seem getting better since I raised hell or should I say I exploded. Jake and I stopped working, Harry apologized to me telling me that he did not properly maintain his boat for this trip. The forestay track came apart because the loosen allen screws. He thanked me to go up the forestay to fix the track. Otherwise, we have to return to Long Beach.
I warned him that I made no apology of my behavior of rising hell if he ever endangers my life again. He ordered me to go on the dock immediately to take the spinnaker down with my harrass. At the moment of his rage, I obliged and went on the deck with Jake to take the spinnaker down. That was stupid of me.
Day 8, July 15:
Cloudy again
Since I was ordered to stay in my berth, I did not do any watch. When I was up, I was informed the spinnaker was down, Harry claimed it was a wild gybe or should I say he was not good enough to sail at night with the spinnaker. I told him to use autohelm if needed to control the sudden wind changes. But he avoids and claim that autohelm is dangerous.
The repaired jib at least held up. But we were moving very slowly again.
Conditions are getting worse. Blame games begins. It is apparent that it is their boat, it is their decision. They don't care how long it takes to get to Hawaii. Both Jake and I want to get out this situation as soon as possible.
Jake and I set up the spinnaker again. We were doing quite well and got the speed up. A few hours later, one of the snap shackles came loose and caused the spinnaker fly like a kite. We carefully got spinnaker safely on deck and just used the jib and main sail. Wind was good and we are doing about 6 to 7 knots.
Day 9, July 16:
Every day seems like just another explosion. Life on this boat sucks big time. They think we are here to be their servants. Constantly being humiliated, we can't even trim the sails until we are asked. WTF!!!
Jake and I sewed and repair the bottom part of the spinnaker so that it won't rip further up the sail. We have no control where we are heading where the wind is. Harry just take to rhumb line 243 degree, But we worked all day.
Jane took away the sat phone preventing Jake from downloading the weather grib file. Harry has a problem controlling his temper and totally lacks people skills, but Harry is not a bad person. Jane is an evil, manipulative, and controlling liar. She appears she controls Harry until he blows up.
Day 10, July 17
Got up early in the morning and found out Harry took us directly north for almost 45 nm. WTF. Now we need to spend a whole day sailing back south. Wind died again.
We saw a j40 passing us. They did not even look at us or wave. They depart 2 days behind us. We are hardly moving.
Day 11, July 18:
Jake and I stayed watch from 10 to 4 am. We had a good run with the spinnaker doing 6 to 7.5 knots at all time, we use the autohelm to get us through some hairly situation. It was the best we had for this trip. After more than 7 hrs, Harry came to relieve us. Less than 5 min at the helm. He lost control of the spinnaker and it suffered a total system collapse. We rush back on deck with total disbelief. We knew it would require 5 to 6 hours of me and Jake working hard to get the spinnaker up again to sail in decent speed.
Both me and Jake worked franticly to prevent any further damage to the spinnaker under a total darkness with 17 plus wind. I almost killed myself and I decided I must quit in the dangerous situation. Jake and I want back to the cockpit and told Jane we could not work under this condition. In less than two hours, it would be dawn. We would try again to fix the fouled spinnaker.
At day break, Jake woke me up and get ready to rescue the spinnaker that was stuck permanently on the forestay. After 3 hours, fight with the wind we got it down and fly the spinnaker again.
The rest of the day, we sailed ok. Me and jake tried to dominate at helm as much as we could. Because we don't want harry at the helm to fuuk thing up. If things fuuked up, it is me and Jake to fix the problem.
Day 12, Friday, July 19:
Mutiny at dawn
Got 2 hours sleep in 24 hours, me and Jakeues were on the helm all night until 4 am. Handed the helm to Harry and within 30 min the emergency whistle blew and rushed to deck with my half naked body and harness. The spinnaker collapsed and fouled. The guy line fell. WTF!!!
Jake and I fought like hell and battled 15 knots wind with huge sail of the spinnaker, and tried to save the spinnaker. We finally reattached the guy and cleared the fouled lines went back down to sleep. We were very lucky this time.
Must be less than 5 mins, the whistle was blew again, what the **** now. I bet my blood pressure went through the roof. The spinnaker was hopeless wrapped on the forestry. After 2 hours, Jake and I took down the damaged, torn spinnaker.
Mutiny is the only way to survive. I begged Harry to use the autohelm to control the spinnaker or we quit. We gladly put our lives on the line so many times (6) and we were only half way to Hawaii. We could not do this anymore. Like all the other times, they refused to use autohelm. I instructed Jake to use my satphone to call Dave Cort (Race Committee) The boat's satphone was no Longer accessible to us. I spoke to Dave begging him to help us to resolve the problem. He refused and claimed that is not their problem and we must resolve ourselves. I told him that this had become a safety issue for the crew members. I asked him to contact the CG for us and have the CG to call the owner. He hung up on me.
Because of poor reception, we moved up to cockpit to call the CG. Harry came behind and attacked Jake and use his arm around his neck and tried to get our sat phone and throw it over board. I struggled with him and he turned around and picked up the winch handle trying to strike Jake's head. I blocked his arm from hitting Jake. I dared him to strike me. But I was in a combat mode to block and struck his nose. He hesitated for a second and I grabbed and threw the handle away. Jane jumped in the midst of this for our phone, I grabbed her hands and pushed her to the starboard side of the cockpit and sat still. I told Jake to escape into the v-berth with the phone.
I shouted both of them with fouled language that they were no match with my strength and speed. 'Don't be stupid'!!!
I went to the v-berth after Jake and locked ourselves in. Harry stepped on the hatch, preventing us from opening the hatch for air and better reception.
I had my iPhone with me and CG number. We contacted the Norfolk region and worked ourselves to west coast region. I asked Jake to call CG, since he speaks perfect English with un-detectable Jewish New Yorker accent.
After explaining the situation to CG, the remaining question was to ask CG for advice on how to take control of the boat legally. Under what situation we must follow to get us safely to Hawaii.
If we don't take control for the boat and sail her properly, our sails will suffer more damage and water supply will become an issue. We would be in trouble. We were totally out of CG Helo range. The wild gybe that Harry causes because his inability to sail at night, put me and Jake a greater danger.
Our water is dangerously low. Jake only given 1.5 L bottle of water to drink each day. And we are carrying an 86 year old lady who has no idea what is going on around her.
The CG informed us to deescalate the situation best I know how while he seeks legal advice. Lt. Daniel Han asked us to call back in an hour.
I will download the rest from my iPhone later.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Baku-APA. The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.
In Lebanon, the Red Cross said storm-related accidents killed six people over the past two days. Several drowned after slipping into rivers from flooded roads, one person froze to death and another died after his car went off a slippery road, according to George Kettaneh, Operations Director for the Lebanese Red Cross, APA reports quoting Associated Press.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, a Palestinian official said two West Bank women drowned after their car was caught in a flash flood on Tuesday. Nablus Deputy Governor Annan Atirah said the women abandoned their vehicle after it got stuck on a flooded road and their bodies were apparently swept away by surging waters. Their driver was hospitalized in critical condition.
In the Gaza Strip, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said storms cut electricity to thousands of Palestinian homes and rescuers were sent to evacuate dozens of people. Parts of Israel were bracing for snow a day after the military was forced to send helicopters and rubber dinghies to rescue residents stranded by floodwaters.
The unusual weather over the past few days hit vulnerable Syrian refugees living in tent camps very hard, particularly some 50,000 sheltering in the Zaatari camp in Jordan's northern desert. Torrential rains over four days have flooded some 200 tents and forced women and infants to evacuate in temperatures that dipped below freezing at night, whipping wind and lashing rain.
"It's been freezing cold and constant rain for the past four days," lamented Ahmad Tobara, 44, who evacuated his tent when its shafts submerged in flood water in Zaatari. A camp spokesman said that by Wednesday, some 1,500 refugees had been displaced within the camp and were now living in mobile homes normally used for schools.
Weather officials said wind speeds exceeded 45 miles (70 kilometers) per hour and the rain left two feet (70 centimeters) of water on the streets.
The storm dumped at least a foot of snow on many parts of Jordan and was accompanied by lashing wind, lightning and thunder. It shut schools, stranded motorists and delayed international flights, Jordanian weatherman Mohammed Samawi said. The unusually heavy snowfall blocked streets in the capital Amman and isolated remote villages, prompting warnings from authorities for people to stay home as snow plows tried to reopen clogged roads. It forced at least 400 families to evacuate their homes and move to government shelters overnight.
Samawi called it the "fiercest storm to hit the Mideast in the month of January in at least 30 years."
The snowstorm followed four days of torrential rain, which caused flooding in many areas across the country.
In Lebanon, several days of winds and heavy rain along the coast and record snow in the mountains caused power outages across the country, blocked traffic and shut down mountain passes. Later Wednesday, snow is forecast at altitudes higher than 200 yards (meters), while rain that has already flooded suburbs of the capital, Beirut, should continue.
In Egypt, rare downpours, strong winds and low visibility disrupted Suez Canal operations over the past three days and also led to the closure of several ports. The number of ships moving through the Suez Canal had fallen by half because of poor visibility, the official MENA news agency reported. A canal official said that by Wednesday, operations had returned to normal. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
MENA also reported that ports in the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Dakhila were shut down, while cities in the Nile Delta suffered power outages and fishing stopped in cities like Damietta, northeast of Cairo.
MENA also reported ten fishermen went missing after their boat capsized near Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean.
Snow was piling up in and around the Syrian capital of Damascus, where a civil war is raging. Officials said many villages in central Homs province and along the southern border with Israel have been cut off after heavy snow fall. Torrential rains are expected over the next three days and temperatures are expected to remain around freezing. Some 2.5 million people within Syria have been displaced in fighting that has stretched on for nearly two years now.


text:
[The latest installation of a Monday series profiling Group of 88 members, which has included posts on Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Wahneema Lubiano, Pete Sigal, Grant Farred, Sally Deutsch, Joseph Harris, Paula McClain, Jocelyn Olcott, Irene Silverblatt, Maurice Wallace, and Kathy Rudy. The posts examine the scholarship and teaching of Group members, delving into the mindset of professors who last spring abandoned both the tenets of Duke's Faculty Handbook and the academy's traditional fidelity to due process. An item to keep in mind: in higher education, professors control the hiring process. The people profiled in this series will craft future job descriptions for Duke professors; and then, for positions assigned to their departments, select new hires.]
Group of 88 member miriam cooke (she capitalizes neither her first nor her last name) is a professor of Arabic in the African & Asian Languages & Literature Department, in which she has served two terms as chairperson. She received her Ph.D. from Oxford in 1980.
cooke's research focuses on gender in the Middle East. She has published widely, with books that include War's Other Voices: Women Writers on the Lebanese Civil War; Women and the War Story; and Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism through Literature.
Several themes permeate cooke's scholarship:
1.) The legacy of sexism, not her subjects' insignificance, explains the lack of attention devoted to the female activists who have interested cooke.
Her 1988 book on women writers in the Lebanese civil war theorized,
As the war dragged on, the middle and upper class Beiruti women found themselves increasingly alone, and they began to write about their experiences as women, and to recognize through articulation their previous oppression and marginalization. As negative awareness of otherness crystallized, the selfness of the "center" came into question. Intensified, this questioning became the first step in the deconstruction of a dominant discourse. The Beirut Decentrists came to realize that discourse, the conduit of power, could also become the locus of its ultimate threat.
In writing about these marginal but ideologically appealing figures, cooke claimed that she challenged "the notion that only men write about war. [This revelation doubtless would surprise Barbara Tuchman.] Although of differing political and religious beliefs, it is these Decentrists—women bound by common exclusion from both the literary canon and social discourse—whose vision will rebuild shattered Lebanon."
As anyone who has followed contemporary events in Lebanon would understand, the women of cooke's study appear to have exercised little, if any, influence in "rebuild[ing] shattered Lebanon." Perhaps the world would be a better place if cooke's Decentrists had influence over Lebanon's civic culture. But basing arguments on what an author wished had happened does not constitute good scholarship.
2.) Islam is a female-friendly religion; to the extent that Muslim males have engaged in sexist behavior, Europe, the United States, or Israel are to blame.
cooke has stated that she wants to highlight "what some Muslim women have named Islamic feminism. Over the world there are Muslim women who are going back to the Koran, to Islamic law, to the Sunna of the Prophet, and saying, 'We have a religion whose texts can be read in a very woman-friendly way. The problem is, that for centuries men's interpretations focused on pushing women out of public space. Today Muslim women are themselves interpreting these Islamic texts. They claim the right to do so because every Muslim has the right to interpret the foundational texts since there is no priesthood in Islam, there are no intermediaries between God and the individual.'"
cooke has gone to great lengths to rationalize behavior in some Middle Eastern societies that most people would consider anti-feminist. She told City Journal's Kay Hymowitz that "polygamy can be liberating and empowering. Our norm is the Western, heterosexual, single couple. If we can imagine different forms that would allow us to be something other than a heterosexual couple, we might imagine polygamy working."
As Hymowitz further noted,
Some women, [cooke] continued, are relieved when their husbands take a new wife: they won't have to service him so often. Or they might find they now have the freedom to take a lover. But, I ask, wouldn't that be dangerous in places where adulteresses can be stoned to death? At any rate, how common is that? "I don't know," cooke answers, "I'm interested in discourse." The irony couldn't be darker: the very people protesting the imperialist exploitation of the "Other" endorse that Other's repressive customs as a means of promoting their own uniquely Western agenda—subverting the heterosexual patriarchy.
Even cooke doesn't claim, however, that Middle Eastern societies always have good records in their treatment of women. But this development, she contended, is the fault of the West. "The colonial experience," wrote the Group of 88 member, "complicated relations between men and women, so that it is only in the desert beyond the reach of the colonial arm that fear does not predominate and Islam can operate as it was originally intended for the benefit of women."
In a winter 2003 interview, cooke asserted, "When men are traumatized [by colonial rule], they tend to traumatize their own women . . . Now there," she added, "is a return of colonialism that we saw in the nineteenth century in the context of globalization. What is driving Islamist men is globalization." How her thesis would describe the experience of India—the "jewel of the crown" in the imperialist era but a major beneficiary of globalization—cooke didn't reveal.
cooke's tendency to exclusively blame the West (and Israel) for the problems of the Middle East accounted for her unusual interpretation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks—which she traced back "to the establishment of Israel in 1948." Indeed, her celebration of the "agency" of Muslim women has come close to rationalizing the acts of Palestinian women who engaged in suicide-murder attacks against Israel. After one such murder, she remarked, "For those of us who really are concerned with women's role in the Arab public square, in the way in which women have been trying to empower themselves vis-à-vis the U.S., vis-à-vis old colonial powers, vis-à-vis their own men, the situation has become so desperate that now women's participation in war is a mark of absolute hopelessness."
Turning her attention to the United States, cooke argued with the 9-11 attacks, "American citizens felt for the first time how the apparently innocent business of moneymaking in New York City and of policymaking in Washington DC are seen as criminal elsewhere. The daily deals struck in the financial and military-political capitals of the U.S. have direct and mostly negative consequences for most of the rest of the world. These consequences are invisible to Joe-6-pack, they are searingly obvious elsewhere."
Imagine cooke's (appropriate) outrage if one of her scholarly critics had used a phrase like "Jane-3-pradas" as part of a claim that educated women are clueless.
3.) Disagreeing with cooke threatens the principles of the academy.
A few years ago, a significant debate occurred over reauthorizing Title VI, a government program that funds area studies (Middle East, Africa, Latin America, East Asia). The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has a well-deserved reputation for ideological one-sidedness; many in Congress argued that the government needed improved oversight to ensure that federal dollars went to increase knowledge about other regions, rather than simply funding the latest academic fads. In cooke's mind, this proposal was not only unacceptable but a grave threat to academic freedom: Middle East Studies professors—apparently alone among recipients of government funds—should be free from oversight on how they spend the public's money. As she wrote,
What is at stake here is academic freedom and the contradictory claim that it must be protected by surveillance, control and ignorance. When the nation is in extreme distress, educational institutions must devote themselves to the national project. There is an historical precedent for this rhetorical linking of academic freedom and its suspension as though they were the same thing. In her brilliant account of the roles of various institutions and individuals in shaping the Nazi conscience, [fellow Group of 88 member] Claudia Koonz has revealed how dangerous was the tailoring of education for specifically national purposes.
To compare legislative oversight of a government-funded program in which universities voluntarily participate to the Nazis' education program is a breathtaking assertion.
cooke likewise has lashed out against Campus Watch, an organization concerned about the anti-Israel bias that too often permeates Middle East Studies classes. The group has a website that does nothing more than publicize the writings and remarks of Middle East Studies professors. To cooke, however, "Campus Watch is the Trojan horse whose warriors are already changing the rules of the game not only in Middle East Studies but also in the US University as a whole. They threaten to undermine the very foundations of American education."
Apparently Justice Brandeis' dictum—"sunlight is the best disinfectant"—has no place in miriam cooke's academy.
In a comment thread a few days ago, several Group sympathizers implied that only specialists in the relevant field could even describe the academic work of Group members. cooke has taken this approach one step further, implying that only specialists in the relevant field who agree with the Group's approach can review Group members' work. In 1990, the International Journal of Middle East Studies reviewed cooke's study of Lebanese women writers as well as her translation of stories by Egyptian writer Yahya Haqqi. Magda Nowaihi observed that cooke had made "numerous mistakes in translation, as well as deletions that detract from the meaning of the original text." The reviewer offered two full paragraphs of examples of cooke's incorrect translations. She added that while cooke's deletions were deliberate, they too frequently distorted the meaning of Haqqi's text.
Sabah Ghandour, meanwhile, noted that the Group of 88 member's study of Lebanese women writers "definitely expands our information about literature written by and for women," but lamented that "cooke seems to be ideologically motivated when analyzing the work of some important literary figures."
Ghandour laid out how cooke treated males and females differently throughout the book. Males were "writers," women were "authors"; men's writings were "nationalistic," while women's were "patriotic"; and cooke equated the "perspective of the narrator/character with that of the author when discussing literature by male writers . . . while she distinguishes quite clearly between author in narrator in women's writings." In the end, it appeared that cooke was so intent on using gender as a "rigid theoretical framework" that she threatened to drown "out other crucial variables in the literature written on the Lebanese civil war."
The reviews strongly displeased cooke. She claimed that Nowaihi viewed translation as a "pedestrian operation" that required word-for-word recapitulation. (Nowaihi had said nothing of the sort.) The reviewer, claimed cooke, failed to understand that, as Derrida, one of her intellectual mentors, contended, "translation is Umdichtung (poetic transposition)." Meanwhile, after noting that "it would be otiose to repeat the argument of War's Other Voices," cooke nonetheless did so, rather than responding to the specific criticisms that Ghandour made. Both reviewers, cooke claimed, were motivated by "outrage" at her "philological choices and theoretical decisions," with the reviewers attempting to silence her voice in academic debate.
cooke's response was so over-the-top that the journal took the unusual step of giving both Ghandour and Haiwairi an opportunity to reply. Ghandour lamented that since cooke apparently could not accept "a reading of the text that differs from [her] own," she instead resorted to personal attacks. Nowaihi likewise regretted cooke's eagerness to claim that ideological bias explained the reviewer's motive, noting "the vast majority of my differences with her go well beyond differing theoretical approaches." Nowaihi added that good-faith disagreement among academic specialists did not constitute a "refusal to acknowledge" cooke's views.
Responding to criticism by instead lashing out at the critics, suggesting an attempt to silence dissenting voices in the academy . . . Where have we recently seen that strategy by cooke and her colleagues in the Group of 88?
cooke already had a reputation as a professorial protester before she joined the Group of 88. She's one of the two dozen professors who form DukeDivest, an organization demanding that Duke divest from all companies with military ties to Israel, citing allegations of human rights abuses. (The divestors did not call for Duke to divest from companies with military ties to any other nation, including those with acknowledged human rights abuses in the Arab world; Israel, in their mind, deserved unique treatment.) She also was one of the more than three dozen Duke professors who signed onto a 2003 Chronicle ad denouncing George Bush's foreign policy—an ad that violated Duke rules, since it was paid for by department funds.
It's not hard to imagine someone with such a profile signing onto the Group of 88 statement. cooke, indeed, appears to affiliate with just about every politically correct initiative that comes along. In late March, even before AG Roy Cooper had declared the three players innocent, she had moved on to her latest cause, joining with members of a group called "Fight Imperialism Stand Together," holding a sign reading, "No More Persecution." Their agenda? Rallying on behalf of Sami al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who pled guilty to conspiring to aid Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization. A few weeks later, the group called for a march on Durham to protest Cooper's exoneration of the three players.
In spring 2007, cooke taught "Arabic Culture & 9/11"; this fall, she's offering "Topics in Arabic."
[Update, 6.30pm: Debrah uncovered this video of cooke with her husband, Duke professor Bruce Lawrence.]


text:
So we made it very simple for ourselves and went back to the 'original non stick' - cast iron.
Cast iron possesses no potential dangerous coatings, will not chip or scratch and is also a great way to introduce trace amounts of iron into your diet.And if that wasn't enough incentive, cast iron is also very affordable. A twelve inch skillet for example is less than $30 (here) and it will last forever.


text:
I bet you have a similar story to tell, and fond memories of the childhood icon who had us wearing silver gloves and practicing our moon walk. So in the spirit of the widespread MJ tributes out there today (and because so many of you asked) here are a few Michael Jackson cakes:
Care posted this over at Craftin' on the Couch. It's her sixth birthday cake, and I think you can see it was love at first sight. :)
And lastly, this morning Daun D. sent me the tribute cake her office ordered:
Plus, Daun's office had a moon walk contest, complete with prizes for the winners. See, now that is just awesome. In fact, if you're reading this at work I think you should organize moon walk-offs immediately. And take lots of video, too; you never know when your friends might need to blackmail you.
And finally, here's a snippet of one of my all-time favorite MJ incarnations: Captain Eo. (This was a 3D film at Disney, and I still hold out hope that they'll bring it back, even if just for a few days.)
If you want to watch the whole thing, go here.
Thanks to Rob D. & Liz for helping me find these cakes!
- Related Wreckage: See Michael Jackson's 16th birthday cake here.
NOTE: I know Michael Jackson is a controversial character, but let's keep today's comments in good taste, Ok?


text:
the Week of Proper 2 / Ordinary 7
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Divine Office
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
As contained in approved Breviaries, the group of psalms, hymns, prayers, readings from the Old and New Testaments, patristic homilies, and lives of saints, arranged and formulated by the Church, whereby daily public or liturgical prayer is offered to God. It is also called Cursus, Canonical Hours, or Opus Dei. It is the public and official prayer by which the Church, as a visible society and as the Mystical Body of Christ, offers in union with her Divine Founder, adoration and supplication to God. In consequence, the regulation of this official prayer depends upon the supreme authority in the Church who deputes certain representatives (the priesthood) to fulfill this obligation in the name of the universal Church. "It is the common prayer which is offered to God by the minister of the Church in the person of all the faithful" (Saint Thomas). It follows from these dogmatic principles that all the faithful habitually pray in the recitation of the Office and that a priest, even though he recite the Office privately, prays in the name of the entire Church.
The history of the Divine Office may be divided into three periods. The first period extending from the Apostolic age to the pontificate of Gregory I (6th century) witnesses the formation of the fundamental parts. From Apostolic days, the Church dedicated certain fixed hours to public prayer. These hours were comprised in the vigils extending from evening to dawn. From these vigils which were daily celebrated in the 4th century emerged the major hours of the Office, Vespers, Matins, and Lauds. In the same century the day hours of Terce (6 a.m.), Sext (12 m.), and None (3 p.m.), which previously had been hours of private prayer, had become a public fixed custom. The hour of Prime (6 a.m.) was instituted in the same century and the hour of Compline, in the 6th century. From the earliest days it was the Book of Psalms that furnished the groundwork of this public prayer. In the West Saint Benedict (6th century) rearranged systematic distribution of the psalms over the canonical hours and in other ways regulated the structure and content of the Office.
During the second period (6th to 16th century) the Roman Office as celebrated in the Roman basilicas spread into France, England, and Germany. To it were added the festivals of many saints. Through monastic influences, principally Franciscan, it received periodic additions; e.g., hymns (12th century), Gradual psalms, Suffrages, Offices of the B.V.M. and of the Dead, final antiphons.
The third period, from the 16th century to our own day, is characterized by the simplification of the Office and a rearrangement of the psalms to restore the traditional ideal of the recitation of the entire Psalter within the compass of a week. Each complete daily Office requires 33 psalms which are divided among the canonical hours; the longer psalms are divided into two or more parts. The Divine Office is intimately connected with the Sacrifice of the Mass which regulates the Office of the day. Within the compass of the annual ecclesiastical cycle, the Church commemorates and renews the mysteries of the life of Christ and the work of the Redemption and honors the saints of God. This fundamental idea determines the structural contents of the Office as assigned to the various canonical hours. As contained in the Breviary, the Office is divided into: rubrics or directions for the recitation of the Office; the Ordinary, or the normal framework of the Office; the Psalter, or the psalms assigned to each hour of each day; the Proper of the Season, or the prayers and current scriptural reading and patristic homilies; the Proper of the Saints, or the prayers and historical lessons for the Office of the saints; the Common of the Saints, or certain variable parts of the Office which may be used for many saints according to their classification; a Supplement, containing the Office of B.V.M., the Office of the Dead, Penitential psalms, litanies, etc.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Entry for 'Divine Office'. 1910 New Catholic Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ncd/d/divine-office.html. 1910.


text:
Watch Out for Counterfeit Products
Counterfeit consumer electronics affect customers and the industry
Using counterfeit batteries, chargers, or other camera accessories is dangerous as there is a real risk of injury or damage to your camera. Lithium batteries must include marks to show they are in compliance with their country's safety and environmental standards. It may be illegal to sell batteries that are not in compliance.
Problems when Using Counterfeit Batteries
Not only is there a risk of counterfeit batteries unexpectedly overheating or catching fire when being charged, damage to the camera may also occur.
Compared with genuine batteries, counterfeit batteries have significantly less charge capacities. Counterfeit batteries may also deteriorate quickly after frequent use, inaccurately show battery power levels, expand and become stuck into the camera slot, cause sudden power loss, or damage camera data.
In addition, even genuine batteries can deteriorate quickly and lose charge capacity when charged with counterfeit chargers.
Sony cannot guarantee against accidents, battery or camera damage, data destruction or other problems caused by counterfeit batteries or chargers. Further, Sony cannot repair counterfeit batteries or chargers.
This information is to help ensure the safety of our customers and prevent unexpected problems while using your Sony products.
Is one of your accessories counterfeit?
Below is a list of the most commonly found counterfeited Sony accessories. Please note that in addition to batteries and chargers, battery grips and other power accessories are also counterfeited frequently.
If you have already purchased any of the products listed here, please carefully check whether it is counterfeited or not.
The most frequently counterfeited Sony batteries and chargers:
| Chargers
Helpful Tips for Avoiding Counterfeit Accessories
- Only purchase items directly from Sony or from authorized dealers
Purchasing directly from Sony or from an authorized dealer is the best way to ensure that you get genuine Sony accessories.
Find Authorized Sony Retailers
- Be careful when purchasing from overseas sites
Counterfeit goods are more often sold online from a variety of countries.
- Watch out for prices that appear unreasonably cheap
If you find items with prices that seem too good to be true, they may be counterfeit. Before taking advantage of an extra low price, take a moment to consider the damage a counterfeit battery could do to your camera.
- Check the quality of the packaging
Genuine Sony replacement batteries are always sold sealed in high-quality blister packs or cardboard boxes. These are marked with the Sony logo and anti-counterfeiting devices such as holograms. Sony never sells its products in plastic bags or paper wrapping, so we recommend that you never buy goods packaged in this way. Please note that some counterfeit goods may have fake hologram seals.
- Beware of suspicious offers or messages
Dealers of counterfeit goods may offer free shipping or other discounts if you agree to purchase loose, unpackaged accessories. This is a strong sign that the accessories may not be genuine.
- Check that your batteries fit your devices properly
If your battery does not fit easily and securely into its slot in your camera, camcorder or charger, it may be counterfeit.
- Beware of overheating
Counterfeit batteries or accessories are not made to industry safety and quality standards, and may heat up dangerously when in use, possibly smoking, melting, igniting or even exploding.
- Make sure your accessories perform as well as they should
Counterfeit batteries may not last as long, or hold a charge as well as the genuine battery that came with your camera or camcorder. If your accessories do not perform as well as genuine accessories, they may be counterfeit.
- Check the logos
When you buy a new battery or accessory, compare the logo with the one that appears on your original battery or camera. Genuine goods will always use logos that are clear and sharp, and placed precisely in the proper location. Counterfeit goods often use logos that are blurry, sloppy, off-color, or misplaced.
How do I tell the difference between counterfeit and genuine products?
Sony batteries are marked with the Sony logo and anti-counterfeiting holograms. The hologram may be found either on the packaging or the battery. Again, purchasing directly from Sony or from an authorized dealer is the best way to ensure that you get genuine Sony accessories. |


text:
Inside NPD - National Parts Depot
Nuts and bolts are funny things. When you start a car restoration you picture body panels, engine blocks and newly upholstered seats. But the lack of the correct fastener can stop a restoration cold. Such little things have a very important job. In the case of National Parts Depot those humble nuts, bolts and assorted fasteners were the foundation for the largest classic car parts supplier in the country. And it all started with a rusty Model A.
Jim Schmidt had a dream: to restore a Model A. When he was 14 that dream started to take shape in the form of a rusty 1928 Model A saved from a local scrap yard for the princely sum of $50. Jim dove in and found that the tin worm had worked its way deep into the car, with the bulk of the fasteners being too far-gone to reuse. But where do you buy new fasteners to restore a Model A? That question did not have an answer…yet. With help from his father Jim began putting together Model A restoration hardware kits in his basement. That business grew quickly and Jim branched out into more than just fasteners for Model As. Along the way Jim picked up a 1957 Thunderbird (important later) and worked for his dad, all the while still running his own business.
It wasn't until 1976 that National Parts Depot came into being. By that time the Model A restoration business was sold and Jim looked back into his past garage for inspiration: he would base his new business on 1955-57 Thunderbird restoration parts. His mail order parts business grew while he worked away in his basement. From there it was a short step for Jim to jump into the classic Mustang parts business. Adding Mustang signaled the beginning of NPD's diversification in the restoration auto parts industry. By the end of the decade NPD had opened a parts and restoration facility in Gainesville, FL. It wasn't long before Jim's dedication to perfection put an end to the restoration side of the business (too much stress) allowing him to focus on the parts side. Soon NPD's first branch opened in Ventura, CA followed by another branch in Livonia, MI. The product line expanded to included GM products by the mid 80s. Jim's son Rick came on board full time in 1987 and soon took over purchasing duties. The 90s started with a bang thanks to the opening of a new branch in Charlotte, NC. Rick was promoted to Vice President Chief Operation Officer in 1995.
Things progressed rapidly but methodically as the Schmidts plotted the future of NPD. On thing NPD prides itself on is order fulfillment. Over the last few years the mantra in the mail order business has been "on demand" stocking. This means that unless you get and order for a product it is not sitting on your warehouse shelf. This puts order delivery time highly dependent on the timeliness of your supplier. This never sat well with the Schmidts who believe that having their products on the shelf gives them an edge. Thanks to their highly effective warehouse management and their own in-house trucking company inventory is constantly balanced among the four locations.
Over time NPD added more and more space to each branch warehouse. The most recent expansion occurred at their Ocala warehouse, which grew that location to a staggering 350,000+ square feet! The Ocala location is extra special is it houses the Schmidt's personal car collection. The collection is hard to comprehend at first. A gigantic section of the warehouse is dedicated to just classic cars (and an equally impressive Kodak collection). The collection is eclectic but not without thought. Proudly on display is that most important car of them all, the very 1928 Ford Model A that Jim restored those many decades ago. Lincolns are a favorite here as well are one-off concept cars. Oddball optioned cars along with production milestone vehicles have found a loving home here with the Schmidts. Each car is cared for on a rotating basis by the in-house restoration staff. As dictated by the schedule each vehicle is gone over, given fresh fuel, started, rechecked, and possibly even driven (depending on the vehicle). A vehicle need not be a high dollar collector vehicle to retire to the collection. Normal everyday vehicles that have served the Schmidt family well are also placed along side their more sought after brethren. A minivan or an RV may not seem like a classic but when it has become a member of the family the Schmidts recognize that fact. It is that dedication the cars that has allowed NPD to become so successful. Jim and Rick know what it means to love a car and in turn know what their customers not only need, but also what they expect.
Published Dec 7th, 2015


text:
A sign prohibiting the sale of alcohol between certain hours is seen in the aisle at the Naval Station Norfolk Main Exchange, Wednesday, July 31, 2013 in Norfolk, Va. The NEX Main Exchange is the world's largest among military installations. (AP Photo/Jason Hirschfeld) |
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — On the world's largest naval base, sailors can pull into a gas station and buy a bottle of liquor before sunrise.
But as the Navy works to curb alcohol abuse in a push reduce sexual assaults and other crimes, the days of picking up a bottle of Kahlua along with a cup of coffee are coming to an end.
The Navy's top admiral has ordered a series of changes to the way the Navy sells booze. Chief among them, the Navy will stop selling liquor at its mini marts and prohibit the sale of alcohol at any of its stores from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
"It's not going to fix everything, but it is a real step in the right direction," said David Jernigan, Johns Hopkins University's director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. "Historically, the military, as elsewhere, has viewed these problems as individual problems to be dealt with by identifying the individual with the problem. While that's important, the research shows it's much more effective actually to look at it as a population problem and to deal with things that are affecting everybody across the population."
The changes are the latest addition to a broader, long-standing alcohol education and awareness program that appears to have had some success. Throughout the Navy, the number of alcohol-related criminal offenses dropped from 5,950 in the 2007 fiscal year to 4,216 in the 2012 fiscal year. The number of DUI offenses dropped from 2,025 to 1,218 during that same period, according to Navy Personnel Command.
Liquor will still be sold on U.S. bases at a discount of up to 10 percent for what it can be bought at in a civilian store, but sales will be limited to dedicated package stores or exchanges that sell a wide variety of items.
At Naval Station Norfolk, the main exchange is comparable to a small shopping mall that sells clothing, electronics and jewelry, among other things, at a discount. At smaller naval bases, the exchanges aren't as sprawling but still often have the feel of big-box retail. While hours at those stores vary, most open at 9 a.m. close by 9 p.m.
The Navy's minimarts at the Norfolk base currently start selling liquor as early as 6 a.m. That's four hours earlier than people can buy at Virginia's state-run ABC stores off-base that are typically open from from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays.
Jernigan said a growing preference among young people for distilled spirits over beer and wine means the Navy's moves could be particularly helpful.
"But that said, alcohol is alcohol, so reducing the availability of one kind is a step in the right direction, but you can certainly get just as impaired from drinking beer and wine as you can from distilled spirits," he said.
In the 2012 fiscal year, the Navy reported $91.9 million in distilled spirits sales, compared with $39.3 million in wine and $62.3 million in beer. The Navy uses 70 percent of the profits from its sales of alcoholic and non-alcoholic products to support morale, welfare and recreation programs.
Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan Greenert also ordered the exchanges to display alcohol only in the rear of its stores. The new rules are set to take effect by mid-October.
Greenert's order on alcohol sales was issued the same day in late July the Navy unveiled other initiatives to battle sexual assaults that range from hiring more criminal investigators to installing better lighting on bases.
The effort follows a Pentagon report, released in May, that estimates as many as 26,000 service members may have been sexually assaulted last year.
Alcohol is often involved. In a survey, 55 percent of Navy women said they or the offender had consumed alcohol before unwanted sexual contact.
Navy officials have stressed they're not trying to keep sailors from drinking, but they want them to do so responsibly.
The Navy is already giving many sailors random alcohol-detection tests when they report for duty, and soon the devices will be found on store shelves for personal use. The single-use product will sell for $1.99.
Jernigan suggested the Navy may want to eliminate its discounts on alcohol — just as it recently did with tobacco — if it wants to make further strides.
Not all sailors think the new rules will help.
"If people are going to drink, they're still going to buy it wherever," Seaman Bryan Free said after buying a bottle of vodka from a Naval Station Norfolk gas station. "So if they take it out of here, it's not going to do nothing because they're going to go to the package store right out of base. That's usually where everybody gets it. So it doesn't really matter."
Most of the Navy's large bases are in urban areas with plenty of convenience and grocery stores nearby.
And in the Navy, on-base housing options are typically limited, leading Free and other sailors commute to work rather than living in barracks.
Robert Parker, a University of California at Riverside sociology professor who has studied the links between alcohol and crime, said restricting on-base alcohol sales should help even if there are places to buy it nearby.
"If you make something like alcohol harder to get, you restrict the hours, you restrict the places it can be bought, then generally consumption goes down in that community or that area because people have a lot of things to do in addition to buying alcohol," Parker said. "There will be some individuals that will be determined no matter what, and they'll travel 100 miles to buy a six pack, but most people won't do that."
Navy Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/support/nadap/Pages/default2.aspx


text:
In this election year, an emerging theme coming from voters around the country is frustration with the tone of politics today. NPR's Debbie Elliott set out to revisit Brownstown, Ind., where she first talked with voters during the 1998 congressional elections, another acrimonious time.
Fourteen years ago, Anne Clodfelter was directing the Jackson County Homemakers Extension Chorus as they prepared for an upcoming concert.
The Republican-controlled Congress, under then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, was preparing to impeach Democratic President Clinton Bill Clinton. Much of the campaign rhetoric that year focused on the subject, a sore spot at the time for Clodfelter.
"It's probably harder to vote the issues than any year because you don't hear about the issues," she said.
In 1998, Clodfelter and other chorus members said they wanted to hear less about Monica Lewinsky and more about subjects like education and the rising cost of health care.
Seeking A Candidate
Today, Clodfelter still sits at a piano, now directing the choir at Brownstown Presbyterian Church.
Just like 14 years ago, she's finding it hard to engage in this year's election because she doesn't think the candidates are articulating substantive agendas.
"If you can't do a 30-second bite, you're not going to do any good. And that's not what I need to know," she says.
Anne Clodfelter is 73 years old and a retired schoolteacher. Her husband, Don Clodfelter, is 78, also retired after running the local electric co-op for more than a quarter of a century.
This part of southern Indiana is known as a Democratic enclave in a mostly Republican state. But the Clodfelters don't identify with either party.
"I'm a registered Independent. I have never ever voted a straight ticket, and I've never ever missed an election," Don Clodfelter says.
The couple voted for John McCain in 2008 because they say he was more experienced than then-candidate Barack Obama. Another sore spot for Anne Clodfelter is the divisive political climate today. She complains criticism of the president is too often chalked up to racism.
"I get frustrated with the color card — and people who voted for Obama because he was black, people who voted against him because he was black. I did not vote against him, I voted for McCain," she says.
They're not going to vote for Obama, but they haven't galvanized behind any of the Republican candidates either.
Don Clodfelter is looking for someone who can tackle the economy.
"We need a CEO, a really good manager," he says.
'Left Behind'
Brownstown is the Jackson County seat, but only has about 3,000 residents. It's a scenic region, where the flat White River Valley meets rolling hills and knobs near the Kentucky border.
"This is Main Street. This used to be the stoplight, and I guess we've had progress, 'cause we've got another one [now]," Don Clodfelter says.
On a driving tour of town, he points out a new steel company, but says a lot of the older industries are now gone.
"We had a paper mill here for many years, and it is no longer functioning, and we had a cannery here and it's no longer functioning," he says.
There's talk of a new company restarting the paper mill, but he says for the most part, workers in Brownstown have to travel to bigger cities for jobs. It's happening in small towns throughout the region.
"The heartland is left behind," says Jack Montgomery, a friend of the Clodfelters.
He says no one is looking out for rural America anymore.
"Our legislators, once they leave here and are in D.C. for 2 years, they've lost all touch with reality," he says. "They've gotten to be a part of that machine and the lobby group and the income level that you see in D.C."
Hoping For Compromise
Montgomery, 66, retired last year after 33 years at the local bank.
"Something needs to be done. We've got to curtail spending and quit bailing out the big guys," he says. "Had we failed, a $150 million bank, they would have said, 'Oops, your stockholders are going to take a loss.' But when a big bank starts to fail, they say, 'Oh, we've got to bail them out, they're too big to fail.' Why? Their stockholders should take the loss too."
His wife, Mary Ann Montgomery, says it seems as though big corporations and political leaders don't play by the same rules that apply to the rest of the country. She says in real life, people have to work together and find compromise for the greater good.
"I think it's a crime that the two parties have to constantly fight one another, that there is no compromise going on," she says. "Therefore, nothing gets accomplished, everything is stymied."
The Montgomery's say they've yet to see a presidential candidate — from either party — who appears ready to put partisan differences aside for the good of the heartland.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Class Central Tips
What do paintings tell us about sex? How is art gendered? In this course we will study some of the world's most beloved pictures guided by expert curators and art historians who step outside of the square, bringing a gendered reading to the masterpieces contained in the magnificent collections that we have been lucky enough to bring to the Coursera platform. In this course you will learn how:
* Gender and sexuality is an integral part of the production and reception of works of art
* To increase your understanding of paintings through theories of gender and sexuality
* To understand key terms from gender-related theories of art history and museology
* To recognise the operation of what is termed 'the gaze' and how it works in relation to paintings
* Ideas about gender and sexuality can productively be employed in theorising art curatorial practices
* To take the initiative in relating theoretical ideas about gender and sexuality to the reading and display of art and visual cultures.
View the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/hm7qbl3


text:
For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Becky of Project Domestication chose Burnt Sugar Ice Cream on page 432 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Refrigerate to cool down, then whiz in the ice cream maker. Whoo hoo! Ice cream delight!
Thanks Becky for letting me dig out my ice cream maker! Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!
Project Domestication blog, or
Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.


text:
🎉 Our next novel writing master class starts in –! Claim your spot →
Advice, insights and news
Free 10-day publishing courses
Free publishing webinars
Free EPUB & PDF typesetting tool
Launch your book in style
Assemble a team of pros
A weekly short story contest
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2021
Nick Sheezen has not written a bio yet!
Oops, you need an account for that!
Log in with your social account:
Or enter your email:


text:
Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011) - Details
When Henry fails yet again to hand in his homework, he inadvertently sets off an unexpected and curious chain of events. He forms an unlikely alliance with Moody Margaret, the infuriating girl next door, outwits corrupt School Inspectors, topples an evil Headmaster, wins a talent contest, and stands up to his ultimate nemesis. With each antic crazier than the last, Henry finds himself inexplicably trying to save the very school which he has always professed to hate.


text:
Jointly offered by ISI Kolkata, IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta
The Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics (PGDBA) - jointly offered by IIM Calcutta, IIT Kharagpur, and ISI Kolkata - aims to help shape the emerging profession of business analytics by delivering a cutting edge inter disciplinary educational experience to graduate applicants with an aspiration of building a career in this field.
PGDBA is a two year full time residential diploma programme aimed at creating business analytics professionals employable by leading Indian and foreign firms. This programme is designed for those who have an analytical mindset, are interested in tackling challenging business problems, and possess an inclination towards mathematics.
For more details, click here.


text:
1 syllable
- au, aux, beau, beaux, bleau, blow, blowe, bo, boe, boeh, bow, bowe, breau, breault, breaux, bro, broe, browe, chau, cho, choe, cloe, clow, co, co., coe, cro, crow, crowe, dau, doe, doh, dough, eau, flo, floe, flow, flowe, foe, fro, froh, gau, glo, gloe, glow, go, goe, gogh, goh, gro, groh, grow, growe, ho, hoe, hoh, jo, joe, joh, know, ko, koh, krogh, kroh, krowe, kyo, lo, loe, loew, loewe, loh, low, lowe, luo, m'bow, mau, meaux, mo, moe, mow, nau, neault, ngo, no, noe, noh, o, o', o., oh, ow, owe, plough, po, poe, poh, pro, queau, quo, reaux, rheault, rho, ro, roe, roh, rohe, row, rowe, schau, sew, sgro, show, sloe, slow, snow, snowe, so, sow, stow, stowe, stroh, strow, tho, though, throw, toe, tow, towe, trow, tso, vo, whoa, wo, woe, wroe, yau, yo, yoe, yoh, zoh
2 syllables
- aglow, ago, although, arnaud, arnault, badeau, badeaux, barbeau, beaudreau, bebeau, begnaud, belleau, below, bestow, bibeau, bibeault, bio, biscoe, blincoe, boileau, boisseau, bonneau, bordeau, bordeaux, boudreau, boudreaux, bourbeau, bourdeau, bourgault, brancheau, brasseaux, brazeau, brideau, brosseau, brousseau, bruneau, brusseau, budreau, buteau, cabo, campeau, chabot, champeau, changsho, chateau, chateaux, chenault, cointreau, comeau, comeaux, compeau, cousteau, crepeau, croteau, crotteau, daignault, daigneault, davao, davault, deboe, dedeaux, defoe, denault, deneau, deneault, devault, devaux, deveau, deveaux, devoe, drapeau, dubeau, dufault, dussault, dusseau, dusseault, enloe, enlow, enslow, escoe, escrow, facteau, faucheux, faurot, fauteux, favreau, fecteau, forego, forgo, fregeau, furlaud, garceau, gareau, garneau, gaudreau, gauthreaux, gautreau, gautreaux, gauvreau, gendreau, georgiou, gibeau, gibeault, giraud, goudeau, goudreau, groleau, guilbault, guilbeau, guilbeault, guilbeaux, guillot, hello, hurteau, hwang-ho, inco, inlow, inscoe, jacquot, jandreau, jarreau, kayo, kowtow, labeau, lafoe, lambreau, lareau, laveau, lebeau, lebow, ledlow, legault, leleux, lettau, lheureux, lienau, lozeau, malveaux, manseau, marceau, marceaux, margaux, mayeux, michaud, michaux, micheaux, migneault, mineau, miro, monceaux, mongeau, monroe, moreau, morneau, morneault, mousseau, munro, nadeau, nedeau, neveau, nouveau, outgrow, papo, pernod, perot, perreault, peugeot, pineau, plateau, primeau, primeaux, pruneau, rambeau, renaud, renault, reneau, rideau, rideaux, riendeau, rondeau, rougeau, rouleau, so-so, soileau, sterno, tableau, tableaux, tarot, tebeau, tetreault, thebeau, thibault, thibeau, thibeaux, thiebaud, thoreau, thurnau, tondreau, trudeau, truffaut, turbot, ungo, uno, valleau, van-gogh, veilleux, viau, vieau, vienneau, vigneau, vigneault
3 syllables
- apropos, eeo, imo, ivo, overflow, pinsoneault, taekwondo, tallyho, theriault, therriault, tourtelot, tyo, undergo
4 syllables
- celo
6 syllables
- genego
The only site you need for word puzzles, home work, anagrams and scrabble games. The best site for two word anagram solutions. |
Enter the
letters to get anagrams for the word
synonyms, antonyms and related words
Enter the
word below with '?' to indicate missing letters
Enter the
word to find the rhymes
Enter the
letters of the beginning, middle or end of the word.
Unscramble.net is the free tool to unscramble letters and words for games like Text Twist, Words with Friends, Scrabble, Word Scraper, and of course the ever popular Jumble newspaper puzzle. It is also great for homework problems that frustrate many parents and students. Unscramble.net provides one and two word unscramble solutions from its extensive 280,000 word list that includes technical, medical and slang words. There is no limit to the number of letters entered for one word unscrambles and the site also provides for rhyming words and dictionary definitions for many of the unscrambled words. Two word unscramble results are provided in two formats for easy comprehension by the user. There is no limit to the number of word combinations provided whether for one or two word unscramble solution sets.
The site is mobile friendly and fully https/tls security compliant. Fast and easy, unscramble.net provides the most accurate and complete word, letter and anagram solutions available. Trust the oldest and most reliable unscramble tool on the net. Word lists are constantly being updated from reliable sources. Android and iOS apps are coming soon.


text:
This Is the Manicure You Should Get, Based on Your Astrological Sign
13 Gross Ingredients Hidden in Your Beauty ProductsLipstick that contains bug juice, soap made of human breast milk ... see what you've been slathering on your face and body |
Older comments
So far from I have seen on here is gross
by Anagalia Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 03:59PM Report as inappropriate
DISGUSTING!! now i regret reading this article...think i'm feeling sick.
by 92jess11 Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 10:54PM Report as inappropriate
Simethicone and pepper are the only ones that aren't disgusting.
by Helmi Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 06:14PM Report as inappropriate
Ok I didn't expect this article to affect me much but it did. Foreskin? Bull semen? All of that is disgusting!
by NillaButterfly Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 04:30PM Report as inappropriate
Not all that gross apart from baby foreskin.... Just saying, but very informative.
by Zeaundra Monday, February 25, 2013 at 07:33AM Report as inappropriate
I don't think most of these are all that gross, plus some of them are stretched a bit to up the ick factor. Kinda lame.
by tallredamanda Friday, January 11, 2013 at 02:22PM Report as inappropriate
i've know about a lot of these but omg some of these totally grossed me out!
by rayshaviolet Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 11:47AM Report as inappropriate
Sometimes I just don't want to know.
by EricaC123 Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 03:36PM Report as inappropriate


text:
Just when you thought you had seen everything in the Copenhagen bicycle culture, the Sperm Bullitt appears on the cycle tracks of the city. Yes. The Sperm Bullitt. This is brilliant. If you're cycling around Copenhagen, keep your eyes peeled for this bike.
Nordisk Cryobank (European Sperm Bank)is one of Europe's leading sperm banks and the company was looking at environmentally-friendly alternatives to how they could transport their sperm samples to the fertility clinics around Greater Copenhagen.
The company's CEO, Peter Bower, says, "The first idea was how we could deliver to the fertility clinics in a C02-friendly way. Shortly afterwards followed the idea of a custom-designed bike with a cooling system. Now, six months later, we can cycle around the city on our sperm cell bike."
The text on the side reads Become a Sperm Donor in Danish. The bike is more than just a rolling billboard for the company aimed at increasing awareness of the need for donors to help childless children around the world. Inside the head of the giant sperm cell is a cooler compartment designed so that the metal containers with sperm donations can fit snugly inside and be kept cold. CEO Peter Bower rides the bike himself around town and he is constantly stopped by curious passersby who want to take photos of it or ask questions about the unique design.
"We're always looking for new donors so it's a fine bonus that the Sperm Cell Bike gets peoples attention.", says Peter Bower.
The Sperm Bike is, like the company's sperm donations, a Danish product and constructed around the Danish Bullitt cargo bike from Larry vs Harry.
Producing the Sperm Bike was no easy task. It was constructed by the Danish company 10 Tons - who specialise in zoological and botanical models as well as paleontologic reconstructions, including full-size whales and dinosaurs.
With the tail, the bike is 2.9 metres long and fully-loaded with... um... sperm... it weighs 50 kg. About the same as my cargo bike with two kids and a bag of groceries. Here are some photos that Copenhagenize took of the Sperm Bike last month:An Aside from Copenhagenize... Why a Bullitt?
That it was a Bullitt from Larry vs Harry that was chosen for the Sperm Bike is not that surprising. From a marketing perspective, it is fascinating to regard how the brand has become cult so quickly all over the world. A loyal following of customers is something that any company dreams of and many bike brands have such a group. What I find interesting is why the Bullitt breeds so much creativity. There is enormous creativity regarding cargo bikes in Copenhagen but what we're seeing is that the iconic Bullitt is being used for purposes out of the ordinary. Here's a list off the top of my head:
- The Cocktail Delivery Bullitt.
- The Karaoke Bullitt in Berlin.
- The Surfing Bullitt.
- The Newborn-Baby Transport Bullitt.
- The Bike Repair Bullitt.
- The Childrens Bedroom Bullitt.
- The Nike Shoebox Bullitt.
- The Summer Wading Pool Bullitt.
- The Fixie Bullitt.
- The Windmill and Solar Bullitt.
- The Rowboat Bullitt.
- The Santa's Sleigh Bullitt.
- The Daddy's Sleigh Bullitt.
- The Stereo Bullitt from Klara Geist.
- Still awaiting documentation (detailed and photographic please) of the Stripper Pole Bullitt in Dublin.