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Notice: This Wiki is now read only and edits are no longer possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.
Ganymede Provisioning Workshop
Eclipse has long had Update Manager as its provisioning mechanism. Now over five years old, Update Manager comes from the era that predates OSGi, where Eclipse was a static tooling platform, Eclipse as a Rich Client Platform had not evolved, and where we could get away with assuming considerable computer skills in our users.
This workshop brings together committers from interested parties to evaluate current provisioning initiatives, project shared ongoing needs, and sketch an efficient and practical roadmap that leads to quality enabling solutions to provisioning problems.
Check out photos from the workshop
Some more photos from the workshop
The workshop will meet for two full days, April 10th and 11th, 2007.
All participants are expected to say overnight the night of the 10th. We expect some travelers will want to say the night of the 9th and/or the 11th.
The event will be held at the Fairmont Le Château Montebello Hotel. The location is about an hour and a half drive from either Ottawa or Montreal. We've chosen this venue for the relaxed and somewhat isolated environment where attendees can focus their full attention on workshop business.
This will be off-season at this resort hotel so we can expect a not-too-crowded environment indoors. Outside conditions could vary from late winter snowfall (beautiful) to early spring mud (less beautiful).
You are responsible for your own room registration using a discount code we will provide. See Registration below.
Overall this workshop seeks alignment and coordination between existing projects, committers and member companies with an eye to addressing the provisioning needs of Eclipse developers and users. More precisely we set out to:
- Develop a shared problem understanding and lexicon to foster future collaboration (see GPW Lexicon)
- Define and set out the requirements for basic provisioning support
- Explore the requirements for more advanced provisioning support
- Identify key problems in the current Update Manager (and other systems) that must not be repeated
- Identify key features in the current Update Manager (and other systems) that must be retained
- Identify relevant standards and protocols and establish focal points for those technologies
- Coalesce the community around a vision for the next generation of provisioning support in Eclipse
The workshop investigation and output should be both broad and deep while still having an significant impact in the Ganymede (post Europa) timeframe. Note, however, all work products will be considered advisory to the greater Eclipse community where all final decision making will take place.
This is not a meeting for managers or observers, it's a workshop for do-ers - people who have code or real-world experience to contribute or can provide other substantial information that furthers the goals of the workshop. The workshop will be conducted in English.
In an effort to ensure maximum communication opportunities, the overall number of attendees will be limited to around 25. We suggest representation at the workshop be distributed as follows:
- We invite one or two people from existing or proposed Eclipse projects focusing on some aspect of provisioning. Please descscribe your role on the project.
- We invite one person from existing Eclipse projects. We are especially interested in people who can explain difficult provisioning problems their projects have been experiencing. Please describe the nature of the problem and (optionally) specific ideas for its solution. We ask that you coordinate with others on your project and let us know who will be attending on a space-available basis (see below).
- We invite outside expertise in provisioning. If you have such expertise and are willing to help Eclipse, please tell us what you have to offer. If you know of someone we should contact, please pass that information on also and tell us how their expertice relates to our provisioning.
- We invite all interested parties to apply for remaining space available. Please tell us the nature of your interest.
We have taken the liberty of arranging a casual group recreational activity: curling. Curling is the Olympic sport made famous by the movie Men With Brooms. We have two sheets reserved Tuesday evening with 20 minutes of professional insruction at 7:30 pm.
You will want to have warm clothes and casual shoes, such as running shoes, for this event.
How to register
You will need to register in two places, once with the Eclipse Foundation, and then with the hotel.
- Email Anne Jacko to register with the foundation. Please tell her your full name, email and phone numbers, and which projects you will be representing.
- You may register online with the hotel, using this link that contains the registration code. If you prefer to call the hotel to register, just say you are attending the Eclipse Foundation event. Please let Anne know when you have registered for the hotel. Please note that the hotel has a 72-hour cancellation policy. If you cancel your room reservation within 72 hours of your expected arrival date, you will be charged for one night's lodging.
- We will provide contental breakfast in our meeting room (Quebec Room) and buffet lunch in the dinning room (Aux Chantignoles). Please advise Anne if you have special food requirements.
If you have an interest in attending, whether you have registered or not, you are welcome to list yourself and the nature of your interest below.
- your name and interest info here
- Markus Knauer -- EPP Project. EPP will be able to provide initial packages combined with an installer.
- Dave Stevenson -- representing the IBM Installation Manager for Rational 7.0 and other IBM developer products. I get into Ottawa airport ~9:30 Monday night, driving (hopefully not too much snow) to Montobello by midnight; back to Ottawa on Thursday morning.
- Denis Roy -- Foundation IT manager. Update Manager has a significant impact on IT/server infrastructure. I can provide insight in this area.
- Tim Webb -- representing the Maya proposed project
- Dennis Vaughn -- representing Maya
- Sharanya Doddapaneni -- representing Maya
- Andrew Overholt -- representing Linux Distros. I want to make this work with existing Linux provisioning mechanisms. Arriving Monday evening (driving from Cornwall), departing Wednesday evening.
- James Miles -- IBM Expeditor
- Stefan Liebig -- compeople. I want to share our experience and code of our framework for building sales representatives applications. I arrive at Montreal on Monday at 12:30, pick up a rental car and drive than to Montobello (~2 hours). Back to Montreal on Thursady.
- Elias Volanakis -- Innoopract. Arriving Saturday night; leaving Friday morning.
- Peter Manahan -- IBM Installation Manager
- Scott Lewis -- ECF Project. ECF can help with the pluggable transports requirements associated with provisioning effort.
- John Arthorne -- Eclipse Platform committer currently working on Equinox provisioning incubator. Arriving Monday evening (driving from Ottawa), departing Wednesday evening.
- Pascal Rapicault -- Equinox provisioning incubator. Arriving monday night
- Mitch Sonies -- representing Buckminster Project, Spaces Proposal
- Filip Hrbek -- representing Buckminster Project, Spaces Proposal. Arriving Monday evening, leaving Saturday or later.
Program email
- Jeff McAffer IBM
- Tim Webb Cisco
- Ward Cunningham Eclipse Foundation
Operations email
- Anne Jacko Eclipse Foundation (Portland)
- Lynn Gayowski Eclipse Foundation (Ottawa)
The workshop will alternate between plenary and breakout sessions. Attendees will collectively select breakout topics in the plenary sessions, tangibly contribute in self-assigned breakouts, and then reconvene to summarize results for the whole.
Breakout groups will be expected to quickly identify issues, review likely solutions, and recommend actions. Each group will draft written conclusions in this wiki that will be the basis of their report in the following plenary.
This is the agenda we used for the build workshop. We will adjust this to meet the needs of this workshop as they surface.
Day One
8:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00 Call to Order
- (30 min) Introduction to the workshop, its roots in Europa, and a vision for its most valuable contribution to Ganymede. -- Ward Cunningham, Jeff McAffer and Tim Webb
- (60 min) Lightning retrospectives presenting current systems, best practices, pain points and wish lists. We recommend these be presented from notes prepared in this wiki here: GPW Lightning Retrospectives. -- All Attendees
- (15 min) Snack and email break
- (60 min) Lighting retrospectives continued.
- (30 min) Topic brainstorm and first cut prioritization. We will use some variation of "cast each of five votes on most important topics". Although topics will probably not be surprising, attendees will begin choosing how to apply their efforts the remainder of the day.
- (60 min) Lunch and email break.
- (60 min) First breakout meeting
- (15 min) Snack, email and wiki writing break
- (30 min) First summary reports and discussion; see Ganymede Provisioning Workshop Breakout Results for more details.
- (45 min) Scope of Existing Work -- Jeff & Tim; Discussion of Equinox provisioning terminology and hashing out of a GPW Lexicon.
- (60 min) Second breakout meeting
- (15 min) Coffee break, email and wiki writing break
- (30 min) Second summary reports and discussion
At this point we will break before assembling for dinner. We expect attendees to enjoy the site facilities before and after dinner. However, we hope that the issues of the day and the opportunities for tomorrow will be frequent topics of conversation.
We invite attendees to participate in an experimental design technique which we will call Pod Programming. We will take one or two problems from the day's sessions and talk through programming them using CRC-Card techniques. We will pay particular attention to fitting into the design style and coding patterns employed in Eclipse. This will be recorded, indexed, and released under the EPL license. The resulting podcasts will serve as both concrete implementation hints and more abstract insight into the thought processes of our best authors.
- (45 min) Pod Programming session I
- (15 min) Break
- (45 min) Pod Programming session II
Day Two
7:30 Continental Breakfast
8:30 Call to Order
- (30 min) Reconvene, overnight reflection. -- Ward Cunningham
- (60 min) Third breakout meeting
- (15 min) Snack, email and wiki writing break
- (30 min) Third summary reports and discussion
- (60 min) Fourth breakout meeting
- (15 min) Snack, email and wiki writing break
- (30 min) Fourth summary reports and discussion
- (60 min) Lunch and email break
- (60 min) Fifth breakout meeting
- (15 min) Snack, email and wiki writing break
- (30 min) Fifth summary reports and discussion
- (90 min) Consolidation, assessment and call to action.
At this point the formal workshop will be over. We expect eastbound attendees to stay over for early morning flights.
Related Resources
- Requirements for a new update_manager
- https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=162559
- https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=162559
- http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/development/eclipse_project_plan_3_3.html
- http://www.eclipse.org/org/councils/20070123PCMinutes.php
- http://www.eclipse.org/epp/
- http://www.eclipse.org/proposals/maya/
- http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/incubator/provisioning/proposal.php
- http://www.eclipse.org/ecf


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Thursday, January 20, 2011
Delving Deeper
I'm sure the usual suspects are already registering their displeasure over the appearance of yet another retro-clone, but the complainers are forgetting a couple of things. First, all the retro-clones of D&D to date are broadly cross-compatible, so it's not as if BHP's publication of Delving Deeper will suddenly make, say, the adventures John Adams will also publish uncompatible with Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, or even Lamentations of the Flame Princess. There's really no harm to anyone who isn't interested in another clone. Second, there are plenty of old school fans who are interested in additional clones, since the best of them all bring something to the table that others don't, whether it's S&W's unified saving throw or LotFP WFRP's encumbrance rules. And since the texts of all these clones are available for free, anyone who just wants to cherry-pick their best ideas without buying them is able to do so with ease. Finally, BHP's White Box was the only boxed, introductory old school RPG out there. Retailing at under $30, it was affordably priced and suitable for a wide audience, from children to adults. That gave it a unique place in the old school market, a place that ought to continue to be filled.
It's worth noting, too, that Delving Deeper looks like it'll cover a couple of related bases. It'll both allow people to play something reminiscent of LBB-only OD&D, as well as, with a few tweaks, something in line with the Holmes Blue Book. I think that's rather unique as well and will help to distinguish DD from both White Box and the other existing clones. So, from my admittedly biased perspective, I don't really see a downside to this announcement, especially since Matt Finch has stated elsewhere that he intends to continue to make WB readily available in some form, for those who prefer that version to Swords & Wizardry. What's not to like?
31 comments:
- AnonymousJanuary 20, 2011 at 3:49 PM
I'm glad John and Matt are making something positive from all this.
ReplyDelete - AnonymousJanuary 20, 2011 at 4:22 PM
Can somebody reading this succinctly explain why each OSR micro-publisher needs their own game system if everything is so cross-compatible in the first place? Why not spend one's limited resources on supplements, modules and other stuff people actually might need?
ReplyDelete - AnonymousJanuary 20, 2011 at 5:35 PM
I'm sure the usual suspects are already registering their displeasure over the appearance of yet another retro-clone...
The truth is there are only two actual retro-clones - Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC - all the rest are at best simulacrum games, Swords & Wizardry: White Box included (as Matt Finch admitted during the WB implosion). This is not a criticism, just putting things in perspective for those who are complaining that here is "yet another" clone.
If John Adams produces a true clone of the 3LBBs, that'll make the third true retro-clone on the scene. And if he gives it options that will make it compatible with Holmes and S&W:WB, gamers can only gain (including any White Box fans who are feeling let down at the moment).
And of course as has been pointed out, all these clones and simulacra are easily compatible. "the best of them all bring something to the table that others don't, whether it's S&W's unified saving throw or LotFP WFRP's encumbrance rules."
I guess this raises the questions of why we need the now-seemingly endless repackaging of the other 90 percent of the rules.
I dig the innovative new parts too, but have started to wonder if we would all benefit more from people publishing the 5-15 pages of variant systems that are actually unique in each of these sets and be done with it.Bravo for Mr. Adams and Crew, I'll definitely be getting one of these! Under $30 for a box set, totally complete! You rarely see that these days, and he deserves kudos for it(White Box == Awesome), in my view. Also, he owns the rights to X-plorers, and I look forward to his development of that game.
@James C:
So customers can use the variant of 'D&D' that appeals to them most, to go along with the adventures and other supplements.(No one is forced to buy anything, ya know!.) More customer choice is good, I think. I don't mind throwing my money to publishers with quality products who love the game.
It's easier for actual use to have the preferred 'tweaked' rules set to hand in one package, imo.
I don't think there's a limited amount of overall creative energy to be parcelled out, therefore I'm cool with more 'clones'(i. e. the 'cloners' aren't 'wasting their time' coming up with rules when they could be cranking out 'other stuff'. If they wanted to do the 'other stuff', they would, regardless.); though obviously only 2 or 3 will be 'dominant'.
Note also more modules, settings, and general game expansions are making there appearance, as amateur(especially on blogs) or professional products.There certainly is a lot of brand diffusion; The Tome of Horrors is coming out for Pathfinder and ... I want to say Swords & Wizardry? I remember it was an OSR game, but there's so many of them. If consumers see a book for Delving Deeper, will they know how close that it is to what they're playing? Will they even know it's D&D; it could be FATE or FUDGE or something whose closest resemblance is to GURPS or RIFTS. Even if you remember that it's D&D, what rules are going to trip you up in the game? Are the saving throws, the spell resistance, the skill system anywhere close to what you're using?
There could be a lot of D&D 3.5 look-alikes, but most publishers seem happy working with Pathfinder. The only other one that comes to mind, at least as currently in print, is Castles and Crusades, and they seem to have picked a deeper position. Two isn't bad; it's the constant proliferation.
And, um, Delving Deeper? Between this and Adventures Dark and Deep, methinks that someone is going to get a nastygram about trademarks in 2011.Can somebody reading this succinctly explain why each OSR micro-publisher needs their own game system if everything is so cross-compatible in the first place? Why not spend one's limited resources on supplements, modules and other stuff people actually might need?
There is no 'need' involved, of course. Enough people will buy the stuff that a little money can be made; that's all that matters, businesswise. As for modules and supplements - Jesus, does anyone still need more of those? There are more RPG modules out there than any gamer will ever, ever play in a single lifetime - not just D&D stuff but material easily ported from other game systems. (And of course other games entirely.) Folks make more of the damn things because the making itself is enjoyable, etc. No one's going to get rich off 'old-school' gaming.
That said, at this point, OSR publisher folks like Jim Raggi either (1) know they're never gonna make much money at this, and can live with it, or (2) are idiots.@Prosfilaes:
Brand diffusion:
Also known as choices; I don't think its that confusing, myself!
'will they know how close that it is to what they're playing?':
They can check? Informed consumer, and all that.
'Even if you remember that it's D&D, what rules are going to trip you up in the game?':
Rulings, not rules. Most clones are so close to original rules(i. e. quick 'n' easy) that most issues could be resolved quickly, anyhow. It's preference, really.
There could be a lot of D&D 3.5 look-alikes:
There were; most of 'em are dead now, 'cuz of quality issues. I'd say the 'clones' are different due to being in a market segment that is generally more decided on the features they're looking for.
'most publishers seem happy working with Pathfinder':
Due to WOTC's policies.
'Between this and Adventures Dark and Deep, methinks that someone is going to get a nastygram about trademarks in 2011.':
Doubtful; AD&D is not DD! ;-)I like having lots of varying complete rulesets. I find the one or several that strike a chord with me, then tell my players which one we're using. I like the conversations that go "I like how this one does this or that one does it that way."
Each of my games goes on to have its own unique character and quality, but it's forever flavoured by the specific ruleset that I started tinkering with. For me it's just like doing art - it's like being able to pick between canvas types, different papers, oil, watercolour, pencil, etc. It would suck if all my art store had was acrylic paint and one type of canvas, and then I had to try to use that if I wanted to make something that looked like a pen and ink or a pastel or whatever.
Anyway.. "We take what we want and leave the rest, just like your salad bar." - Egg ShenI like this very much... Especially this: "Go back to a time when every weapon did d6 damage, clerics could cast no spell at first level, only fighters could use magic swords, and if you wanted a locked door opened you had to bash the thing in!"
But can someone name this RPG to me: "the Third Print Edition of a modern rpg inspired by Original Edition" ?
I'm confused :)- AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 9:22 AM
Guys, I like having options and that there are different takes on the baseline rules as well. But what if the creative and commercial resources being expended on re-skinning the same game again and again with 20% unique were instead spent on further developing the 20% unique. If those buying all of these editions are only kit bashing anyway, why not focus on making kits to bash vs. restating the rules that are being kept?
ReplyDelete - AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 11:28 AM
@ Bard: "the Third Print Edition of a modern rpg inspired by Original Edition" ?
That's S&W Whitebox - so DD is a 3-in-1, there is the S&W:WB-isms (single save?), the truer-clone than WB (more saves!), and the Holmes options. @James C:
'But what if the creative and commercial resources being expended on re-skinning the same game again and again with 20% unique were instead spent on further developing the 20% unique.':
See my post on 'creative energy', and Wally's on 'need', Robert Fisher's most concise explanation on motivations of the publishers, and I add for emphasis:
'Cuz that's what the people coming up with this stuff want to do, dude! It's their time and money...- AnonymousJanuary 21, 2011 at 7:16 PM
No need to point out to me the posts preceding yours velaran, I'm capable of reading and comprehending them on my own. The motivations of the publishers strike me as simply pride or possibly misguided greed. Recent bulletin board hissy-fits only reinforce my suspicion of the former. I was just wondering if anybody else had a different take aside from adulation or "because THAT's why, dude".
ReplyDelete @James C:
'simply pride or possibly misguided greed':
Pride? Maybe. But most of the rules are derived from the work of others. So...
Greed? The profit margin on this is not very high. It's not 1981 any more. :-)
'I'm capable of reading and comprehending them on my own.':
I didn't elucidate them for you. :-/ I just thought they were pertinent to my post.
There's been mostly 'why do we NEED more clones' from what I saw...
'because THAT's why, dude':
I don't see how pointing out that the publishers want to clone(using their time and money) is irrelevant to your question.
You obviously don't like the idea; that's cool. The clone guys aren't concerned about it apparently. My take is they're just coming up with their version of D&D and sharing. It's not likely to set the world on fire, and I'm pretty sure they know it. YMMV.@velaran: There's a reason why D&D has always been the biggest game; it's because everyone knows D&D, and is willing to play it. No matter how close S&W is to DD, I'm not going to be familiar with all of them.
I love the "informed consumer" nonsense. In general, people buy what they've heard of or is the right price, which is not necessarily best. Most people would rather play then spend a lot of time comparing different game systems to each other. And if they're looking at something in a store, and don't have an iPhone or any other internet connection?
Most of the D&D 3.5 clones are not dead because of quality issues; they're dead because the market for yet another D&D 3.5 clone was nil. Many publishers publish for Pathfinder, because the demand for a book for Pathfinder is much higher than that for a new D&D 3.5 clone.
@migellito: I don't know what effect the D&D OSR is having on the RPG ecosystem as a whole, but while OSR D&D may be different sizes of canvas or different colors of paint, but they're all the same type of canvas and paint. I'm looking at Adventures Dark and Deep, and bailing out after 25 pages; I've seen it all before, and it's not worth reading the whole thing to find out the few differences.@Prosfilaes:
'everyone knows D&D, and is willing to play it':
Not everybody is willing to play, though most all know it, but I know you mean to say most, as in household name recognition. Like say Nintendo in the video game field, Ford for trucks... YMMV on various brands.
'No matter how close S&W is to DD, I'm not going to be familiar with all of them.':
The clones are so close to the originals in %92 or thereabouts I wouldn't see a problem, personally.
'Most people would rather play then spend a lot of time comparing different game systems to each other.:'
I'd say a quick skim through the book/a PDF preview and visiting a forum or two would probably be enough to make a decision. Of course, everybody's different on this score.
'informed consumer nonsense':
Not everybody's an informed consumer, ya know...
But the concept is hardly nonsense, I know quite a few, plus the Internet, various magazines, word of mouth, etc...
'And if they're looking at something in a store, and don't have an iPhone or any other internet connection?':
I'd ask other people browsing in the store as well as the attendants, myself. I assume many people'd do the same...
'Most of the D&D 3.5 clones are not dead because of quality issues; they're dead because the market for yet another D&D 3.5 clone was nil.':
The others weren't considered to be up to late 3.5/Pathfinder's standards and dropped by the wayside, so I'd say quality had something to do with it. I'd say Paizo has it sewn up for the foreseeable future!(But I'm no Oracle, so grain of salt, and so forth...)
'I've seen it all before, and it's not worth reading the whole thing to find out the few differences.':
I'd say that's the essence of the debate for those who don't want more clones, wouldn't you? :-)In the end, though, the reasons aren't really important. If Delving Deeper isn't worthwhile, then it'll get ignored. Even if it was created with the best of intentions. If it is worthwhile and finds success, then it doesn't really matter if it was motivated by greed or pride.
Raggi created his RPG simply as a tool to get his supplements and modules into stores. It was successful enough that it has him rethinking his business. I have a hard time seeing where the error in that is.- AnonymousJanuary 22, 2011 at 9:24 AM
@veleran: I understand the likely profit margins, hence "misguided" qualifying the word greed. Pride relates to the sentiment "yeah, these rules are already all out there, but this is my version"
I've actually got no beef with Raggi's game because ultimately he is striving for something original. He is expanding on that 10%-20%.
Look, I've got no problem with publishers trying to sell what they make. I'm just wondering why the community is willing to keep buying what they already have. Robert Fischer already summed up the reality of the situation above, so I'll leave it that. @James C:
That's a different question. I think I know why the publishers clone.(Tinkering, sharing, maybe a little spare cash...) As for the fans buying the clones, I guess they like the options, packaging, the different feel of the various rules. But that's imprecise, so I'd suggest the best method, imo, would be for the posters(if any more happen by, and are willing!) to give their reasons.
Me, I like looking 'em over, noting tweaks, mulling design choices, and estimating playability, but I only own three clones in hard copy: S&W, Mutant Future, and LL.(I will be getting Original Edition and Advanced Edition Characters, though. And maybe Peyrton Fantasy RPG(OGL 3.0 Clone[I don't have one of those, and it looks interesting, so... ]). I'm going to donate S&W to someone and pick up Delving Deeper.(Which looks like it'll bring something new to the table as well as emulate White Box.)
'He is expanding on that 10%-20%':
Agreed. You never know how far he's gonna go.Looks worth it. Love the vibe anyhow.I bought LL, AEC, OEC, & MF. I like LL because B/X is my favorite D&D, but I like LL's all-in-one organization and that it is OGC. With OEC & AEC, I find it a very compelling package. I am thankful for it (and GORE as well), so I'm happy to send some money Goblinoid's way.
I bought the LotFP Wierd RPG because it was such an impressive product. A quality box that was packed full. Contents that made a lot of sense. And some interesting twists rather than just a retro-clone. I want to see more products like that. I was curious if it really was going to be as good as it looked, and it was. And it seemed like a perfect starter set for my gf.
Now that I write that, it seems that both of these are bringing value beyond the systems they contain. It is about form and organization. Trying to build on what exists and make it better.
But that's all I've bought. I don't foresee buying more, but I might. If something impresses me.I'm looking at Adventures Dark and Deep, and bailing out after 25 pages; I've seen it all before, and it's not worth reading the whole thing to find out the few differences.
That's fine, prosfilaes. I'm not writing it for you, I'm writing it for me. I just happen to be making it available to anyone else who's interested. Some (most?) will get it just to have the new classes or spells or magic items or monsters, and that's just fine, too.

subset: commoncrawl


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Acid Mine Drainage Near Ten Mile Creek Prompts Letter From State Lawmaker
Washington PA
Observer Reporter
4 May 2013
Orange water spilling across state Route 88 in West Bethlehem Township prompted a state representative to question the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's response to a faulty acid mine treatment facility near Ten Mile Creek.
Rep. Pam Snyder, D-50th District, sent a letter to DEP Secretary Christopher Abruzzo April 12 requesting information on the acid mine water draining from the nearby abandoned Clyde Mine.
"I was driving down the highway, and I saw that the road was red," Snyder said. "It made me take pause. I said, 'What's going on here?'"
Snyder said a brief phone conversation with a DEP official revealed that a treatment facility at the abandoned mine had been shut down, causing acid mine drainage to spill across the roadway and into local waterways.
"I wanted a resolution to (the problem) because their recent monitoring had showed the flow had doubled," Snyder said. "I have not gotten a response back to my letter yet. I just want to make sure everything that could possibly be done to resolve this issue is being done."
DEP community relations coordinator John Poister confirmed the leak. "We are certainly aware of the problem, and we are working on a plan right now designed to solve the problem on Ten Mile Creek," Poister said.
The DEP took over control of the mine water treatment plant in 2000 when the former owner went bankrupt. Poister said a clogged borehole had collapsed last year and stopped the acid mine drainage treatment facility from operating.
Poister did not know exactly how much polluted water was being leaked but said DEP monitoring showed the volume recently had increased. He said it should not be harmful to wildlife, residents or recreational users of the waterway in the short term.
Poister said the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation was scheduled to begin the field work phase of the project within the next three or four weeks.
Paul Battaglini, commissioner at large for East Bethlehem Township, said he first noticed the problem earlier this spring as winter snows began to melt. He said acid mine drainage has long been a problem in this part of Western Pennsylvania, but recent cleanup efforts have gone a long way to restoring local waterways.
"I remember when I was a young person in the early '60s, the Ten Mile was all orange," Battaglini said. "There were dead fish everywhere."
Abandoned coal mines often fill with water that becomes contaminated and turns orange from its interaction with high levels of iron. The water then seeps into local waterways, where the acidity has the potential to wreak havoc on PH levels. Fish and other aquatic wildlife sensitive to PH levels often die as a result.
In addition to the toll on wildlife, Battaglini said he worried about the effect the acid mine seepage could have on recreational activities in the area. The contaminated water in Ten Mile Creek flows downstream directly into the Monongahela River.
"We only have another month before Memorial Day," Battaglini said. "Green Cove, Sunset Marina, all the docks along Ten Mile – that's a gorgeous piece of water. This could disrupt everything for skiers to kayakers to boaters, everyone."
Battaglini said the timing for the ecological contamination was unfortunate.
"Just when we get the river cleaned up and it's the River of the Year in Pennsylvania, this happens a mile away in Ten Mile," Battaglini said. The Monongahela River recently beat out the Susquehanna River to be named as Pennsylvania's River of the Year by the state Department of Conservation.
Rebecca Trigger, president of the Harry Enstrom chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a nonprofit that aims to conserve and protect natural resources, said the contamination could possibly jeopardize the hard work organizers have done in recent years to bring people to the water. "We're deeply concerned about the adverse effects to the environment and the people who are drinking this water," Trigger said.
The Izaak Walton League stocks Ten Mile Creek with trout and monitors the water in the area. Trigger said although the tainted mine water did not contain dangerous PH levels, higher-than-normal levels of the chemical bromide were found at some test sites near the area. When mixed with chemicals such as chlorine at water treatment facilities, bromide can form the carcinogen trihalomethane. The Monongahela River is a source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents in the Mon Valley area.
Poister acknowledged the bromide, but said DEP testing showed the chemical wasn't showing up in significant levels. He said if the levels did rise to dangerous concentrations, facilities could alter their treatment regimens to avoid creating the carcinogens.
Bromide isn't usually associated with acid mine drainage from coal mines. Poister said the DEP wasn't sure of the source of the chemical compound, but Trigger suspected it originated from nearby natural gas activity.
"The bromide indicates that the residual wastewater from the hydraulic fracturing process is getting into the mine shafts," Trigger said.
While in the short term, small doses of mine discharge should not have an adverse effect on the wildlife in Ten Mile Creek and the Monongahela River, Trigger said the sudden appearance of the orange water was disturbing.
"It's very unpleasant to look at," Trigger said. "Aesthetically, it looks terrible, and we will continue to monitor it for adverse health effects to people and the environment."


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Meanwhile, for no particular reason I'm thinking about "Sesame Street," a show from my childhood that was not so much popular as omnipresent. We watched it at home, we watched it in school. We had "Sesame Street" toys and sheets and bedroom slippers and books and tapes. I think there was also a breakfast cereal, but we were strictly a Rice Krispies and Cheerios household.
Do you non-American readers know "Sesame Street"? I'm thinking perhaps you do. I know Basil Brush and "Blue Peter" and Babar, so maybe Big Bird and the rest also have an international following.
"Sesame Street" was, in general, a brilliant educational show. Perhaps it still is, but of late I've not been watching. The aim was to teach basic reading and numbers skills, along with a smattering of ethics and manners. It taught me most of what I know about comic timing, and instilled in me a love of ridiculous lyrics and overblown production numbers that persists to this day. Rare is the morning when my line-up of shower songs does not include a heartfelt rendition of "C is for Cookie" or the club anthem of the National Association of W* Lovers.
Sadly though, some recurring segments didn't quite pack the same wallop. Two come to mind.
The first was a film montage of...something. Usually an animal. Let's say, a cow. There would be various shots of the cow in tight-close up, never revealing more than an ear, or a nostril, or half an udder. Over these shots would be played the extempore rantings of unseen schoolchildren, all trying to guess what the thing was, even though it was painfully obvious. "It's a dog," one would say. "No," another child would counter, "It's a centipede!" At last, after two minutes of this, there would be a full shot and a simultaneous, surprised shriek: "IT'S A COW!"
What a shocker. Hand me the smelling salts.
I always wondered where the hell these little geniuses were from. We lived in suburban Tucson, Arizona and my closest personal experience of a cow was the one in my Play-Skool farmyard set, and yet I could recognize an udder without undue strain.
And then there was the interminable perennial "One of These Things Is Not Like the Others." In case the title's not explicit enough, let me walk you through it.
You are watching a screen that has been split into four equal segments. In each segment is a child. Three of the children are doing the same thing, like sleeping. The fourth child is doing something else, like jumping up and down on a pogo stick or singing "Celeste Aïda."
Over this, the following ditty plays:
One of these things is not like the others.I'm not sure, but I think the lyric is by Ira Gershwin.
Come on, can you tell which one?
Can you tell which kid is doing his own thing?
Now it's time to play our game,
It's time to play our ga-ame.
Then a voice-over would guide you slowly and carefully from one square to the next. See, this kid is sleeping. This kid is also sleeping. And this kid is...sleeping! But then this kid is making bobbin lace! He's not like the others!
Congratulations all around.
The creators of "Sesame Street" were known for being market-savvy and I can't imagine "One of These Things Is Not Like the Others" would have been repeated in every episode if it had not proven itself popular. But with whom? What person, even at age five, needs four minutes, a jingle, and personal coaching to be able to tell a kid playing ball from a kid eating ice cream?
It might have been interesting if they'd upped the ante. Say, three Sunnis and a Shiite. Or three genuine Rembrandts and a forgery. Or three Republican presidents and an elephant's butt. Never happened.
When either of these gems popped up on the screen, I took it as my cue to go to the kitchen for a glass of milk. I figured maybe they were aimed at the girl in my class who used to space out during storytime and eat her own boogers.
*The letter. Not the president.


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Alex Karras, who was a star defensive lineman for the Detroit Lions in the 1960s and went on to gain other fame for his acting in Hollywood's Blazing Saddles and TV's Webster, has died, according to multiple reports.
He was 77 and had been suffering from kidney failure, asPeople magazine earlier reported. His death has been reported to The Associated Press by Karras' attorney, Craig Mitnick, and toUSA Today by the Lions.
The Associated Press reminds us that:
"Karras became a bit of a celebrity through George Plimpton's behind-the-scenes book about what it was like to be an NFL player in the Motor City, Paper Lion: Confessions of a Second-string Quarterback. That led to Karras playing himself in the movie adaption, and it opened doors for him such as being an analyst alongside Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford on Monday Night Football.
"Karras had a well-known appearance as Mongo in the 1974 movie Blazing Saddles and was a star in the 1980s sitcom Webster. He took on another role this year as lead plaintiff in a complaint against the NFL by ex-players who claim the league didn't do enough to protect them from head injuries."
IMDB.com has cataloged Karras' acting career here. For those of us who were young and enjoyed director Mel Brooks' movies back in the '70s, his performance as Mongo in Blazing Saddles is some classic comedy. If you haven't seen his most famous moment from that movie in a while, there's a clip of it here (and, no, we're not endorsing the punching of horses).
Karras missed the 1963 NFL season. He and the Green Bay Packers' Paul Hornung "were suspended by [Commissioner] Pete Rozelle for betting on NFL games and associating with gamblers," as ESPN writes.
Update at 11:35 a.m. ET. Daughter Confirms The News:
"Tom McInerney, owner of McInerney's Woodhaven Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram and a friend of Karras since the 1950s, said he heard the news [of the death] from Karras' daughter, Katie,"
FRONTPAGE" target="_blank">the Detroit News reports.
Update at 11:05 a.m. ET. A "Bull-Necked Defensive Tackle" Who Was "Ahead Of His Time As A Multimedia Personality."
The Detroit Free Press begins its appreciation of Karras with this:
"Alex Karras, a bull-necked defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions who chased NFL quarterbacks on muddy fields more than 50 years ago but was ahead of his time as a multimedia personality, died today in Los Angeles. He was 77 and had been suffering from dementia and kidney failure.
"Karras never slowed down after a 13-year NFL career — he was suspended one season for gambling — turning to an acting career he'd built in previous off-seasons. He appeared in movies, TV shows and commercials, and spent three years (1974-76) in the Monday Night Football booth, once declaring, 'I'm the bridge between Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford. I'm there to have a little fun.' "
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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The Sound Of Crazy
I read somewhere, some time ago, that the sound of an infant crying is one of the most stress-inducing sounds for the human ear to hear; it induces anxiety in the listener, and for good reason - a baby's survival naturally depends upon its ability to command the resources of its mother or father or any other adult human being that is equipped to care for it. Our natural response, then, to a baby's cry, is to rush to it and seek to resolve whatever problem is causing said baby to cry. Which is great, for the baby. Not so great for the exhausted mother who really, really wants to sleep, badly, or at least have her arms to herself for a minute or two, but can't, because her particular baby a) has recurring gastrointestinal challenges that, quite understandably, upset him and cause him to cry, and b) just really likes to be held ALL THE FREAKING TIME and is not afraid to say so.
I've also read, everywhere, that when baby's crying gets to be too much, you should just take a break. Put baby down somewhere safe, they say, and walk away for a few minutes and stretch and breathe and try to calm yourself down. Which, ha. Did 'they' not get the memo on the stress-inducing pitch of an infant's cry? I can no more walk away from my crying baby to stretch and breathe and "calm myself down" (*makes frantic air quotes with fingers*) than I could leave my toddler playing with her crayons in the middle of a busy street while I painted my toenails or some such shit. NOT. POSSIBLE.
Fine, they say. If that doesn't work: get help. Find someone to hold baby while you take a break, take a bath, listen to some music. Which, yeah, great idea. UNLESS there's no-one around to help. Unless your husband is working these super-insane long hours making stupid TV commercials that are really only hastening the decline of civilization anyway so even though you know the paycheck is important you're all like whaddup dude plz come home but anyway he's just not at home when you could most use the break and he's not going to be home for the whole goddamned long weekend and you live in a new town and only know, like, one other person and maybe you could call on your neighbors but, um, you're topless because holy hell the nipple chafing and in any case the ones that are around in the daytime are mostly elderly and your giant freakishly strong baby would probably break their arms and so what are you supposed to do then, huh? HUH? ANSWER ME THIS, BABY EXPERTS. And, then, prescribe me some Zoloft, because, seriously.
He's sleeping now, merciful heavens, pressed against me, his chest rising and falling against my own, his little fist curled against my neck and this is so, so sweet, but still - my arms hurt and I am tired and I am bracing myself for the long evening ahead and I am wishing that I had, the other day, given in more fully to the happiness that I suspected would be fleeting (as I was exhorted to do by a friend, who lobbed Pindar at me: We are things of a day/What are we? What are we not?/A shadow in a dream in man, no more./But when the brightness comes, and it is given by the gods/Then there is a shining of light on men, and their life is sweet. Which is ancient Greek for chill the fuck out, dude and enjoy it while it lasts. Woe that I did not do this, because my happy reserves are seriously getting depleted.)
I know that the moments of brightness are many, and my heart is nourished by the weight of my sweet, sweet baby against my breast, but still. This shit is hard.
Labels: bad mother, Being Bad, her bad crazies, post-partum bad, sprout


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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Some weeks ago I decided that I wanted to read Tolstoy's War and Peace. Lou Ann loaned me her copy. At more than 1100 pages, reading it in bed required as much strength as balancing a box of bricks in my hands. In my senior years I have developed arthritis in my thumbs, which made the effort not only difficult, but painful.
I had read about half of the novel when I was given the gift of a Nook, the e-reader from Barnes and Noble. Although I am committed to supporting my neighborhood independent book store (Books to be Red), and enjoying honest-to-goodness books, the .99 Nook edition was so lightweight that it has made reading War and Peace a genuine pleasure. For those of you who have not tackled this tome as yet, it is a page-turner.
As I was reading, I came across this sentence: "It was as if a light had been Nookd in a carved and painted lantern...." Thinking this was simply a glitch in the software, I ignored the intrusive word and continued reading. Some pages later I encountered the rogue word again. With my third encounter I decided to retrieve my hard cover book and find the original (well, the translated) text.
For the sentence above I discovered this genuine translation: "It was as if a light had been kindled in a carved and painted lantern...."
Someone at Barnes and Noble (a twenty year old employee? or maybe the CEO?) had substituted every incidence of "kindled" with "Nookd!"
I was shocked. Almost immediately I found it hilarious...then outrageous...then both. It is definitely clever. But it raises many questions. E-books can be manipulated at will by the purveyors of the downloadable software. Here is a classic work of fiction (some claim it is the greatest novel every written) used for a sophomoric and/or commercial prank. What else might be changed in an e-book? Fears of manipulation for economic, political, religious, or other ideological ends come to mind. It makes one wary of the integrity of any digital version of not only War and Peace...but any e-book.
I searched the Internet for others who have found the same "revision" but was unsuccessful. Could it be that no one else has ever read this e-book version of War and Peace? Or has no one else brought the substitution to anyone's attention? Could some software programmer have altered just my copy?
I may never have answers to my questions, but I would like to hear our readers' reactions. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.
Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a list of a few traditional Ocracoke Island recipes. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news052112.htm.
52 comments:
- Toni W.8:22 AM
I agree with your feelings of both amusement and outrage. Clever prank but the copyrighted word should not be changed under any circumstances unless it is noted that it has been. This was drummed into me during college courses that threatened to end my career before it began if I did not use proper APA or MLA notations for each and every quote.
I will be downloading the Kindle version of War and Peace... I doubt that any words have been changed but who knows? - Bear8:37 AM
Hi Philip,
I'm appalled. After receiving your input on my short story "Ode to Mrs. Godfrey", I think that it is safe to say that we agree, to edit any work, no matter how major or minor is sacrilege. The English (Russian, or any other) language is a beautiful art. The slightest change of wording or punctuation can alter the meaning or impact of that segment or the entire work.
I once submitted an essay to a local (Wilmington, DE) newsletter for publication. The person in charge decided to make several changes without notification. When contacted he stated that his computer's automatic spell and grammer check suggested these changes and therefore he was right. I was infuriated and never again will submit anything to this particular entity.
Once again I thank you for my experience with you and "Ode th Mrs. Godfrey."
TTFN, Bear MacDonald - Anonymous9:11 AM
Another theory --
Kindle was the first e-reader, sold by Amazon. Could it be possible that some software glitch in the Nook that you have, Philip, changed the word to the B&N product?
I can't think of anything more tedious than going through War & Peace to find the spots where the word **kindle** appeared to replace it with the work **nook**
I might have an alternate theory if a different word had been changed but to have the alteration limited to the brand names of two e-readers?
I think that's far TOO coincidental to me.
FTR -- I don't use spell check OR grammar check at all -- never have. Those two pieces of software are so often wrong, it's not even amusing.
Just my take on the whole thing -- - Brian P.10:22 AM
You are right, this is scary and hilarious. I have been intimately anti-e-readers. I like the feel of the book, the smell of an old book, turning pages, and all the other physical and repetitive processes that go along with reading a book.
For years product placement has played important roles in films, perhaps in our overly saturated futures books will be written with corporate tie-ins – or even more disturbing would be posthumous advertising. Nothing is sacred. - Anonymous9:29 PM
I would just about guarantee this is a simple find and replace hard coded into the operating system... any variation of the word "kindle" is replaced with all suffix and prefix left unchanged with "nook".... i think on one hand you can get bent out of shape that they modified the text, but your splitting hairs, this is a clever marketing substitution, it is not intended to do harm... in fact on internet forums it happens alll the time, especially around April 1
ReplyDelete I am not sure if one can define what would be an authoritative translation of a book written in another language. The only origional form of a book is in the language in which it was written. So if some publisher comes along and declares a translation to be the "official translation" who knows what commercial interests were involved in the decision. People can alter printed books just as easily as EBooks. But I will admit it is a pretty gratuitous alteration on the part of Barnes and Noble.
ReplyDelete- Anonymous8:11 PM
The reason this is possible is that the work in question is public domain. There is no copy write anymore due to the age of the work.
In the future, I'd suggest getting all public domain works for free from Project Gutenberg instead and avoiding this altogether (not to mention saving yourself $.99) It is perfectly legal since the copy write on the works stored there have all lapsed.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ - Anonymous11:41 AM
This obviously wasn't done by Barnes & Noble, but by the publisher who submitted the book to Barnes & Noble.
They created a Kindle version of this public domain book first, realized they used 'Kindle' somewhere in their submission, and did a quick find-and-replace to change 'Kindle' to 'Nook' - never once thinking it would affect the book's text rather than just whatever they put in the title page. - Anonymous12:39 PM
@Anonymous 11:41 AM
That is the most logical. Whoever submitted this to B&N probably also submitted this to Amazon as well. Does it say "Nook" anywhere else, for example, stating that this is formatted for the Nook? Most likely they did a Replace All, replacing all instances of Kindle with Nook. They likely didn't intend to change Kindled to Nookd, but replace all replaced more than they intended. They should have done a more careful replace, checking each instance to see if it was what they meant to change. - Anonymous2:05 PM
Just FYI, but if you're reading classics such as "War and Peace", check out Project Gutenberg.
They take old books that are out of copyright, scan them, and convert them to a digitized format. There are usually formats for the Nook and Kindle as well. The books are free, so you would have saved yourself $0.99. Not much, but it would have bought a paper or a cheap cup of coffee.
I've picked up a few classics from Projecgt Gutenberg and have been happy with the quality. - Anonymous3:44 PM
To check whether the change was made in the ebook or by the Nook system software, open the ebook file in Sigil (free ebook editing software) and search for "It was as if a light had been".
If the next word after "been" is "Nookd" you'll know it was the producer of the ebook file and not the Nook system software. - Anonymous4:57 PM
Its really easy and fun to go all conspiracy theory here, but I'm pretty sure that this is an example of someone using Barnes & Noble's self publishing service to publish a book that is Public Domain (the copy write expired and now belongs to all of us). This is a VERY common thing to do on Amazon's and B&N's self publishing, and there is nothing the companies can do about it.
ReplyDelete I wouldn't be too worried. Authors still hold IP rights when publishing through Amazon or B&N so if they changed anything they'd get sued hard. War & Peace is public domain.
It may be they modified it do they can claim it under an ISBN and claim IP rights on that version to sell it. You are allowed to do that.This is precisely the scenario that I discussed with my regarding ebooks vs traditional media. Even in different revisions of the same physical book we can still refer to earlier imprints, but with the electronic format there may not be any real original.
I likened this to the events in Orwell's 1984 where inconvenient history was simply overwritten and the original information destroyed.
Sure that's going a bit far, but obviously Barnes & Noble have already taken a step towards the Orwellian future by having life imitate art.
David Nicol
http://twitter.com/davidxnicolLOLOLOL! I KNEW there was a reason I'd stuck to nice, searchable, inexpensive (probably mostly hack-proof) pdfs instead of forcing my readers to buy all these 8-track players just to read a book.
We call ebooks "Fred" -- now they've managed to "Party 'till Fred gets hurt." I've been in publishing since 1986 (helped Booksurge become Createspace). This cracks me up so bad. http://www.lulu.com/desertpeach- Anonymous1:00 PM
First thing to do is to contact the provider with a strongly worded protest. You wanted the novel - not some advertiser's sorry joke. Did you pay for it? If so, you have been defrauded. Not funny; they have completely destroyed the integrity of Tolstoy's world and smashed any chance of suspension of disbelief with a gimmick that goes CLANG!!
ReplyDelete - Anonymous6:22 PM
I don't think this was a prank. I think it was more likely a badly thought out attempt at counter marketing. They probably did a search and replace on their entire library, thinking to change ads, inadvertently changing a lot of other things. Typically stupid for a large corporation.
ReplyDelete - Anonymous12:17 AM
As a retired editor who worked a lot with the search-and-replace function in word processing software, I can easily understand how this happened. If you don't double-check your work and what the program is doing, this can be the result. I'd suspect an inattentive or inexperienced operator before I'd assume malicious intent.
ReplyDelete - Anonymous12:19 AM
As a retired editor who worked a lot with the search-and-replace function in word processing software, I can easily understand how this happened. If you don't double-check your work and what the program is doing, this can be the result. I'd suspect an inattentive or inexperienced operator before I'd assume malicious intent.
ReplyDelete As a heads up, for any classic texts like that, avoid B&N altogether and head to Project Gutenberg. You can download almost any out of copyright book for free there, including "War and Peace." And you're guaranteed, since PG has no horse in the race, to get unadulterated text. I read their version of W&P (the Maude translation, I think) earlier this year on my Nook, and enjoyed it thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteA printed book can't be manipulated after printing, a digital one can.
There is no need to speculate why this action was taken, it is just again a proof of the stupidity of marketing and profit orientation.
Forgive my bad english, my criticism in german is more
defined, http://buchbestattung.de/2012/06/06/kindle-nook-die-7-te/
Thank you for your blog, it is a pleasure to read!
Connie, Gribow, Germany- Steve L6:56 AM
Hi Pillip-
I'm up in Annapolis, Md. I'm including this in my cybersecurity master's degree term paper as an example of Amazon not being able control their product once it gets outside of their control.
Looks like you're a celebrity.
You've hit an artery, and I think are going worldwide. This is a message on the home page of Superior Formatting Publishing's web site: "Barnes and Noble promptly brought this to our attention and the issue was resolved. The current copy of War and Peace on sale has had the error fixed. This was a simple editing mistake and we apologize for any inconvenience caused."


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Irving Near me
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Continuing our belated MLB Season Preview...
NL MVP: Carlos Beltran
NL Cy: Ben Sheets
NL Rookie: Tim Lincecum
NL Manager: Willie Randolph
AL Cy: Daisuke Matsuzaka
AL Rookie: Alex Gordon
AL Manager: Eric Wedge
* - Why not Matsuzaka for AL ROY? I predict
Give out your own awards in the Comments.
MLB Wrap: Break up the Nats! 9th-inninng rally gives DC their first win of the season (in a season where wins are expected to be few and far between).
Crushing the Cards (again) may not be much solace for the Mets from last year's NLCS disappointment, but it might foreshadow better times for the Mets THIS season.
Stud (hitter): Grady Sizemore
Stud (pitcher): Ted Lilly
Bonds hits HR No. 1 of '07. 'Nuff said.
Extra Innings to stay on cable: Fans win! Fans win! In a nice bit of common sense in action, MLB will keep "Extra Innings" available to cable subscribers. (Now: All those fans who were griping BETTER pony up and buy the thing.)
Kudos to Ken Griffey for planning to wear Jackie Robinson's 42 jersey on the anniversary of Robinson's entry into the majors. And kudos to MLB for extending the offer to every team. Which players will step up? (At least one MANAGER will: Willie Randolph will wear 42, too.)
Via sports-media guru Richard Deitsch of SI.com, TBS has signed Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn to be part of their broadcast team. This is a fantastic move -- star power AND solid analysis. I'm totally curious how Ripken will do.
Masters: As usual, the key question is "Tiger or the Field?"
The pick: Usually, I take "The Field" (with no dis meant against Tiger), but given Tiger's pending fatherhood and his imminent Varsity Dad status, I think this year I'm going to go with the dad-to-be.
(Wow: Was it really 10 years ago that Tiger won his first Masters in that dominating style? I would argue that golf's current era began that weekend, even though Tiger was a pro before.)
NBA: Gilbert Arenas injures knee in the ultimate karmic boomerang. Any season that began as stunningly well as his did would HAVE to end miserably, right? It's just the
(Meanwhile, promising Blazers rookie LaMarcus Aldridge is out indefinitely with some weird kind of heart issue. He was looking really good in March; let's hope he's OK for the long-term.)
NBA Draft Watch: In what might have been called "The Durant Game," the Celtics proved more interested in their draft status than winning the game against their bottom-feeding rival, the Bucks. More power (and Ping-Pong balls) to
Billy Donovan Watch: He wants some time to "decompress" before making his decision. That doesn't sound like someone who seems 100 percent committed to his current gig. But he hasn't heard
More coaching carousel: Is Bob Huggins going to jump from
Women's Hoops: Candace Parker didn't enter the WNBA Draft, and you have to install defending champ
Eddie Robinson, R.I.P.: Hope you've been enjoying all of the columns in appreciation of late Grambling coach Eddie Robinson. After reading everything, I can't believe he wouldn't make everyone's all-time college coach Top 5.
Finally: Reggie Bush is apparently NOT banned from the
Bonus! Just saw this in today's NYT Op-Ed section. Does it woozily remind you how this blog sometimes works?


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Now let's move to Egypt where one year ago today mounting protests forced Hosni Mubarak to step down as president. Last February, millions of jubilant Egyptians poured out onto the streets across the country, but that mood has given way to widespread frustration. Many Egyptians object to the continued hold on power by Mubarak's military allies, a rapidly weakening economy and the failure to bring the former president to justice. This week we spoke with people around Cairo about their impressions one year on.
UNKNOWN WOMAN #1: Actually, in the beginning I was so optimistic about the revolution, but I started to be like pessimistic. And I'm so sad about what's happening.
UNKNOWN MAN #1: Nothing changed at all. It's the same - same corruption, same oppression.
UNKNOWN WOMAN #2: I think we - we got our freedom back. We have a voice now. I think it's so much better. It's a very different feeling than before. There's still violence everywhere. They're still killing people everywhere. There's nothing in progress. No democrat. There's no democrat.
UNKNOWN WOMAN #3): (Through Translator) The times that we are living is very critical, filled with a lot of blood and sacrifice. But this is the price that we pay for the freedom of our country.
UNKNOWN MAN #2: There hasn't been the progress that we have been waiting for. It will take some time.
SIMON: Voices from over in Cairo this week. To find out how Egyptians are marking this anniversary, we're joined by NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Soraya, good morning.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: And how are Egyptians marking the occasion today?
NELSON: Well, there are a few very small protests. We see them here at Tahrir Square. There's also a sit-in with a huge sign that thanks the generals sarcastically for mismanaging the country, the ruling generals here. But the big thing today was supposed to be a strike, a nationwide strike. It's starting at universities. The worker syndicates or unions say they will take part, but the thing is, this is a normal weekend here, so government offices are closed and public transit, which would be a really key thing to paralyzing this country is still moving.
So it's unclear, you know, where this general strike is going, although this was supposed to be the kickoff today.
SIMON: What's the status of Hosni Mubarak.
NELSON: Well, he's in a hospital outside Cairo being treated for a heart condition while he's undergoing the trial. But this week it was interesting. I mean, public discontent at the moment is so high that part of the way they've decided to deal with it is to announce that they were moving him to a prison hospital wing here at Tora prison, which is where many of the Egyptians who were allied with him in government and are now standing trial, are being held.
SIMON: And how are ruling generals and the Egyptian government marking today's anniversary?
NELSON: Well, they're very opposed to this national strike. Certainly, the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament has spoken out against it. They're saying that this is going to cause chaos, further wreck the economy, and so are the military rulers. They are saying that they claim that the nation faces conspiracy, that seeks to topple the state and spread chaos. And so they are also against this. And it's important to note that state television has been showing images of public transit moving, things operating to try and discount this nationwide strike that started today.
It's also important to note that Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and General Martin Dempsey, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are meeting today in Cairo. And they will be talking about aid - which is $1.3 billion in military aid - I'm sure will be part of the topic which is in danger right now because of a Egyptian government crackdown on NGO workers. Among them, 16 or 19 Americans, depending on who's counting. But there's been this investigation and these people have been referred to trial. They're being banned from leaving the country. And the son of the U.S. Transportation Secretary is one of those holed up at the U.S. Embassy for shelter.
SIMON: Whatever differences there might be between the U.S. and Egypt, when Gen. Dempsey and Field Marshal Tantawi's meet today, there's a lot that ties those two militaries together, isn't there?
NELSON: Certainly. I mean this has been a 30-year-long relationship. Egypt has relationship with Israel and like most Arab countries in the region, it's very important. And the American military and Egyptian military have been very close. The American military has provided a lot of training, and in addition to billions of dollars of aid over the years. So this is a very unusual time, I think and a very uncomfortable time for both militaries, frankly, because obviously general to general, they're looking at it more from a military perspective, yet they're in the middle of this very, very tense period in U.S.-Egyptian relations.
SIMON: Soraya, thanks so much.
NELSON: You're welcome, Scott.
SIMON: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
SIMON: And you're listening to NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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The medium of sound art is complex and multilayered, and creates a huge palette of experiences. It does, however, possess a number of internal contradictions, which are affecting the work contemporary artists are making.
A huge buzzing fills your headphones; all-enveloping, whipping from ear to ear. Abruptly, it cuts off, replaced by a warbling, almost bird-like synth sound, which degenerates slowly as it is modulated, becoming more sporadic and erratic. Eventually, it is replaced by an African man speaking about a piece of music he has made, as synths gradually fade in the background. Not a piece of music; rather, a piece of sound art. The sounds belong to John Wynne's Upcountry. It's a recording Wynne made celebrating William Ingosi Mwoshi, a Kenyan musician. Wynne, who first premiered the piece at the Purcell Room in London in 1999, is a sound artist.
Sound art, at its most basic, consists of pieces of sound, which after processing and filtering them according to the desires of the artist, are arranged to form a recording that explores a particular idea or motif. Practitioners of sound art are as skilled and as resourceful as those who create art out of clay, paint, stone or metal. The sound they use can come from a range of sources. It can be "found sound" (recordings made in the field of unplanned environmental sounds, such as a car pulling off from a red light or crickets at night) or heavily processed synth notes made with software instruments. It can take the form of, among others, acousmatic sound (highly processed, abstract and unrecognisable sounds blended together), lowercasesound (pieces which emphasise extremely quiet, soft sounds and large spaces) or intelligent dance music, which rejects the typical musicality of dance and techno for a more nuanced version.
It is a complex, multilayered discipline, and often an extremely contradictory one. One of these practitioners – and one who understands the contradictions in her art form is Katharine Norman. Trained as a musician, Norman has a PhD in computer music from Princeton University and is a senior lecturer at London's City University. She is a creator of what she terms electro-acoustic compositions, and for starters, she doesn't even like the term "sound art". "I find myself using it because it seems to have a currency and people can understand it," says Norman. "I think it was a constructed term in the 1980s, and people started using the term "sound art" as a way of talking about art made of sound in the same way you would about visual art."
Norman, who is also author of the book Sounding Art (Ashgate 2004), is creator of several pieces of sound art. One of these is Islands of One, a layered, unsettling account of being ill in a remote place. Norman lived for a time on an island off the coast of British Columbia, and the piece, which uses the sound of gently swirling water as a backdrop to create themes of insomnia and fever, is a good example of some of the work that Norman does.
Over the past few years, a revelation has taken place in the field of home studios. Hardware and software have become cheaper and more compact; much of the heavy, space-hogging pieces of equipment like equalizers and compressors have become software (the term used for this is "in the box"). This has changed the kind of sound art being made; although many pieces have a visual element to them as well as an auditory one (Wynne has used sound to create "animated architectural drawings" using stereo reflections at an exhibit at the E:Vent Gallery in London) it means that where before complex equipment was required, it is now possible to create sound art with nothing more than a good microphone and an editing program – meaning it's a lot easier to do.
Norman, who says her foray into audio experimentation was on an ancient computer with one pair of headphones shared between four students, agrees. These days, she operates from a single Mac laptop, a lot of hard drives, ProTools to edit sound (plus Final Cut Pro for the images she works with) and a "good pair of headphones."
Norman is enthusiastic about the developments in the art form: "I can remember a few years ago when everyone was saying that the bedroom studio was going to be the thing of the future, and in many respects it is, but I don't think people knew how it would change the kind of work produced and also the ways and reasons for producing it. I think what I've noticed is that there is a lot more music-making going on in all kinds of contexts between groups of friends; ad-hoc improvisation, and also people making fixed media pieces, which I suppose you might call sound art sometimes, with entirely varying resources. I think that does result inevitably in a much more variable and wider range of craft and quality. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, and I don't necessarily rate expertise in craft as being my main criteria in deciding whether a piece of work is valid or interesting."
Of course, this is another of the inherent contradictions in producing sound art. It's a big one: at what point does a collection of sounds, labelled sound art, become a piece of music? According to Moeti Damane, a Lesotho-born music producer who goes by the name of San The Instrumonumentalist, such a point exists: "There should be a dividing line, it has to be conceptual. Concept has to ring out more than anything else. If you try to fuse sound and art together, then there has to be an underlying concept. There are all kinds of sound out there, even noise counts as sound, so I think it has to have a theme."
Damane specialises in the production of instrumental hip-hop music for a variety of artists but he, along with his production partner, South African Mark Sunners (known as Alias, and collectively known as Inspiration) have been stepping over that line for some time. Their latest project, Numb3rs And Alphab3ts, is a mix of both contemporary beats and elements that push it into the direction of sound art composition. Take their piece Blood In The Well; it begins with the sound of dripping water, echoing as if in a dark, dense place, before kicking into a highly emotionally-charged beat which melds a regular hip-hop drum break with several different samples. On the surface, it's a piece of music; yet it has several of the stylistic techniques similar to that of contemporary sound art. "What I wanted to invoke with Blood In The Well was almost a feeling of you being there as the listener," says San, who, like Norman, works off a single laptop and a pair of headphones. "Being able to interpret the music implicitly. The emotion and the perception has to be somewhat similar to a greater degree for someone listening to a piece of music. I wanted to capture that moment of silence, but at the same time have your mind drifting towards the overall concept of the piece of music which was of people facing all kinds of hardships with that little moment of silence, I was able to capture that."
Sunners agrees with his production partner that "both sound art and very good instrumental music would be one and the same thing, because it takes you to another realm. It takes you out of yourself. You experience something through the sound, which is what good instrumental music does. That's common ground that they share, creating an auditory landscape. With sound art, you are being enveloped in an experience, where both the person who is experiencing it and the person who created the art are linking through that experience."
Inspiration are not alone in this type of musical experimentation; others, like Dutch producer Nicolay of the group The Foreign Exchange, uses sound art practices to paint aural pictures of urban environments in his City Lights series. His latest release, Shibuya, explores Tokyo, taking in the silence of Ueno Park before slamming into the controlled chaos of Shibuya Station.
Of course, sound art is as much about who is listening and how they are listening as it is about the sounds that are being played. It is not uncommon for pieces of sound art to be played through massive installations: speaker stacks scaling up the sides of buildings, huge rooms filled with carefully calibrated subwoofers designed to rattle your stomach, perfectly dark spaces filled with increasing concentrations of ambient sound. With such a wide palette of experiences and artists working their magic, sound art – whether you agree with the term or not – can be an enormously rewarding medium.
For more information, visit Katharine Norman: www.novamara.com, John Wynne: www.sensitivebrigade.com/wynne.htm, Inspiration (San and Alias): www.reverbnation.com/santheinstrumonumentalist, and Nicolay at www.nicolaymusic.com.
Rob Boffard


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Chelation Therapy
Topic Contents
Treatment Overview
Chelation therapy is a chemical process in which a synthetic solution—EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid)—is injected into the bloodstream to remove heavy metals and/or minerals from the body. Chelation means "to grab" or "to bind." When EDTA is injected into the veins, it "grabs" heavy metals and minerals such as lead, mercury, copper, iron, arsenic, aluminum, and calcium and removes them from the body. Except as a treatment for lead poisoning, chelation therapy is controversial and unproved.
Chelation therapy is performed on an outpatient basis.
Why It Is Used
Chelation is a very effective way to treat heavy metal poisoning. Health Canada has approved prescription chelation therapy for the treatment of lead poisoning. Injected EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) binds with the harmful metal and both are then eliminated from the body through the kidneys.
Some health professionals have also used chelation therapy to treat atherosclerosis and/or coronary artery disease, although there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that this treatment is effective. Some people believe that EDTA binds with calcium deposits (the part of plaque that obstructs the flow of blood to the heart) in the arteries, and then EDTA "cleans out" the calcium deposits from the arteries, reducing the risk of heart problems. Research results have been inconsistent. Chelation therapy should not replace lifestyle changes or standard treatments for coronary artery disease.
Some health professionals also suspect that EDTA may act as an antioxidant by removing metals that combine with LDL cholesterol, which can damage arteries. The theory is that when you remove metals that flow freely through arteries (such as copper or calcium), you may slow down diseases such as atherosclerosis. Research has not proved this theory. Some experts believe that EDTA could remove calcium from healthy bones, muscles, and other tissues, as well as from diseased arteries.
Many people report less pain from chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma after chelation therapy. The theory is that EDTA acts as an antioxidant, which protects the body from inflammation and protects blood vessels. Again, this idea has not been proved by scientific research.
Children, pregnant women, and people who have heart or kidney failure should not have chelation therapy at any dose.
Many years ago, chelation therapy was given in high doses and may have been linked to kidney damage, irregular heartbeats, and other serious consequences. Even when this treatment is given in low doses, some negative effects may occur, including high blood pressure, headache, rash, low blood sugar, and/or thrombophlebitis.
EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) may remove vital minerals from the body along with the toxic metals. Vitamins and minerals are added to the EDTA solution to help keep them at an optimal level in the body to maintain health.
Always tell your doctor if you are using an alternative therapy or if you are thinking about combining an alternative therapy with your conventional medical treatment. It may not be safe to forgo your conventional medical treatment and rely only on an alternative therapy.
Related Information
Current as of: March 2, 2023
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine
Current as of: March 2, 2023
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Medical Review:Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine
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To Hell with All That
**Edited - link added - below. Check it.
What follows is an exchange that was, with the exception of the last letter (my last, unpublished word), recently printed in the National Post. And, for dessert, random thoughts that may or may not be related to that exchange.
(And! Gratuitous baby photos!)
What's Best for Mom is What's Best for Kids
Re: Stay At Home, Mom!, April 26.
Caitlin Flanagan states that she "said the truth" in her book, To Hell with All That: Fearing and Loathing Our Inner Housewife, in suggesting that stay-at-home motherhood is best for children and families. She also responds to critics who charge that the book is a contradiction in terms (in its having been written by a working mother) by saying that "it's a book about contradictions."
A memo to Ms. Flanagan: You can't have it both ways. When your operating assumptions are riddled with contradictions, you cannot claim that your conclusions are "truth." What you have are opinions.
And while her opinion that stay-at-home motherhood is best seems commonsensical, it misses the point for most mothers. What's best for children and families is what's best for women -- as mothers and as individuals -- and that's choice. A woman who finds staying at home fulfilling and rewarding will be a happy woman and so will be giving her best to her children. A woman who finds staying at home stifling or frustrating is going to be unhappy: Is this best for her children? The gold standard is happy parents.
Ms. Flanagan says that "when a mother works, something is lost." Absolutely. But something is also lost when a mother stays home and is miserable, or when a father works such long hours that he only sees his children on weekends. The happiest families are those in which both parents are able to make the choices that best serve them and their children, not those that follow the dubious "truths" of a dilettante stay-at-home-mom like Ms. Flanagan.
Her Bad Mother, Toronto
Put Children First
Re: What's Best For Mom Is What's Best For Kids, letter to the editor, April 28.
(Her Bad Mother's) letter saddens and frightens me. She states: "A woman who finds staying at home stifling or frustrating is going to be unhappy. Is this best for her children? The gold standard is happy parents."
Shouldn't the "gold standard" be happy and healthy children? It is this type of selfish attitude that causes many parents to feel the "need" for a dual income and therefore leave the child-rearing to strangers or grandparents, even if they don't need the extra money. I realize many couples require both parents to work in order to pay the bills, but Ms. Bad Mother is talking about working for the purpose of being a "happy parent" -- not because of a need for money. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why we have children. Is it to fulfill ourselves and to make us happy as parents? It should be about the children. They should come first.
Paul Larman, Barrie, Ont.
Put Family First
Re: Put Children First, Letter to the Editor
Paul Larman missed or misunderstood my point entirely. I did not say that parents should go to work 'for the purpose of being a 'happy parent'' (italics mine); I said that the happiness of parents should be a consideration in making the choices that make a happy family. If a mother – or, for that matter, a father – is happy staying at home, then that happiness will be reflected in her or his parenting, and consequently yield greater happiness for the children. The well-being and happiness of our children is, of course, the primary concern here; what I'm suggesting is that the well-being and happiness of men and women as parents has everything to do with the happiness of their children.
So when I said that 'the gold standard is happy parents,' I was referring to a standard against that suggested by Caitlin Flanagan – the standard of the dutiful stay-at-home mother/housewife. The gold standard of parenting is not – cannot be – such a model, which is unattainable for many and undesirable for many. Where this model is possible and desirable - as it is for myself and my own family - it can be understood to be meaningfully choiceworthy. Where such a choice is not solely a matter of duty, it serves the greater happiness of the family as a whole. However, where this model is pursued only as a matter of duty, and where the primary duty within that models falls to a reluctant mother, whose interests are really served? The children will certainly benefit from the 'round-the-clock presence of their mother, but if she is unhappy, how deep does that benefit actually run?
This is old feminist hat, but why should the woman be the one to stay home if she would rather work? Or, to put it differently, why should the father work, if he would rather stay home? My point is that mothers and fathers – families – are best served by choices. Obviously, financial constraints bear upon the availability of such choices, and ours would be a much better world for families if all had the financial freedom to choose to keep a parent at home. But perfectionist claptrap such as that which Ms. Flanagan is offering and Mr. Larman defending – the insistence that the only happy family is one that follows the Cleaver model of virtuous stay-at-home housewifeliness – also constrains families and women by perpetuating the dangerous myth that parenting, and motherhood in particular, must for some reason be sacrificial. Happy families are only happy families to the extent that all members – children, fathers, and mothers - are happy. Period.
Her Baaaaad Mother, Toronto
For the record, I enjoy Caitlin Flanagan's writing: she's funny, and smart, and she raises interesting and provocative questions. As should be obvious from the above exchange, I disagree with many of her conclusions. But that disagreement is not what is really getting under my skin here. What most bothers me is that this work contributes in a significant way to the manufacture of polarities in the debates concerning women, motherhood and parenting. It seems that almost everything being published these days on the topics of feminism and motherhood and the confluence of these is or is being presented as an extreme pole in a raging debate. Moms versus Mommies! SAHM versus WOHM! Feminist versus Traditionalist versus post-Feminist! KoolAid quaffers versus cold realists! Flanagan's book is just adding height and prominence to the already teetering New Traditionalist/Post-Feminist pole and so making discussion among women about their condition as women and mothers seem all the more, well, polarized.
Of these poles, of course, everybody loves the one that is or seems to be anti-feminist (as the New Traditionalist/Post-Feminist camps appear to be), the one that seems to break through the seeming din of feminist dogma, the blind chorus of we-are-women-hear-us-roar-our-weakness. Because that's edgy. That's brave. That's daring.
(There's a Nietzschean rant here that I am fighting off with all that I have... resist resist resist...)
Lone woman setting out to battle the feminist lions?
That's a story.
Controversy sells, obviously, and so it's likely no accident that any mention of Flanagan's book is prefaced by taglines to the effect of "Feminist Rage Boils Over!" Find or create the Anne Coulter of mothers and you'll have your next media sensation. But all of the fuss over what is ostensibly polarized and sensational obscures the fact that between and amongst women there is a fluid range of positions and views and that for most thinking women - for this woman - those positions and views are threaded with ambivalence and ambiguity and and contradiction and nuance. I call myself a mommy, but appreciate the force of the argument for using 'mom' or 'mother.' I call myself a feminist, but have had my struggles with feminism in both theory and practice. I am a SAHM who never thought that she would be a SAHM and that she would love being a SAHM; I am also a SAHM who needs the stimulation of things beyond my SAHMness. (Queen of Spain put wonderful words to this, chez QOS today: I am a stay-at-home-FEMINIST.)
We contradict ourselves? Fine, we contradict ourselves; we are vast, we can contain multitudes.
It's not controversial, it's not edgy. But it's probably the most interesting thing about being a woman, a mother, a parent, a human being.
Let's embrace it.
What is truly unambiguous, unambivalent, and without contradiction: The Zurbert.