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Monday, February 18, 2008
Pointed Questions About Pyramid Future
Someone is stepping back to ask the "real" question about its future.
Someone is willing to consider that the two best ideas for the darkened arena may not just be the ones that coincidentally walked through the door.
Someone is willing to suggest that it's not simply a choice between Plan A and Plan B.
Someone is willing to speak the truth: we are having the wrong conversation, and in doing so, we limit our own possibilities.
Someone is willing to consider that the land occupied by the project could be put to a higher and better use than remaining as a perpetual monument to our civic sense of unworthiness.
Amen And Amen
That someone seems to be City Councilman Shea Flinn, and all we can say in the wake of his questions about the proposed uses for the old arena is, "Amen."
As Councilman Flinn said to The Commercial Appeal: "We need to see what else is out there, so we can test the market and see what the market says about it."
Only to those fixed in their position and fixated on the building itself does this sound revolutionary. To the rest of us, it just sounds like good business.
An Iconic Failure
As he logically puts it up, when we couple The Pyramid site and Mud Island, we open up new possibilities that we may not even have imagined at this point. Heck, maybe there's even a way that the land could be used for the best of all worlds – in a way that could draw on the Riverfront Development Corporation's idea from a few years ago for new, high-quality development along the river and Friends for our Riverfront's positions about green space.
If the site could become the answer to ending the kind of controversy that has nagged us for too long, The Pyramid could actually become a symbol of a growing maturity in its very absence.
The notion by some – notably The Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck yesterday – that The Pyramid is an architectural signature for Memphis is on its best days simply ludicrous. On its worst days, it's the kind of misguided thinking that got us in this mess to begin with.
Symbol For What?
Mr. Peck, who often seems to have a tenuous grip on what makes Memphis tick, sees The Pyramid as Memphis' answer to the Eiffel Tower, the St. Louis Arch and other comparable city landmarks. But the truth is that those icons are reflective of those city's ambitions, successes and aspirations.
The Pyramid is just the opposite - a constant reminder of the price we pay for low expectations, lack of ambition, lack of national standards for public investments and an Elvis-like tendency toward kitsch.
I guess that's why the notion of demolishing The Pyramid has never upset us. To us, it's never been an architectural gem – the design is too pedantic, the building materials too cut-rate and the setting too depressing – and because of it, The Pyramid stands as a symbol all right - our tendency to settle for cheapness in a world where successful cities are being defined by quality.
Fish Photos
Mr. Peck's clincher for his argument for The Pyramid is that there are 1,500 photos of the deserted arena on Flickr. We just couldn't help but wonder how many photos will be taken if there's a 50 x 60 foot leaping bass added to all four sides?
But maybe Mr. Peck's instincts are right. There are 12,330 photos of Paris Hilton on Flickr, so maybe someone in City Hall should contact her for exclusive rights to her museum for her career, a Pyramid scheme if there ever was one.
As for us, we prefer to think that if we're looking for the iconic symbol for Memphis, it's the river, stupid. It's still the most visited and most photographed site in our city, and frankly, we think the view is improved if the jarring presence of The Pyramid was gone for good.
16 comments:
When I look at the Pyramid I don't see cheap materials. I do see an interesting skyline additive, and with a few lights or neon additions, I see an attractive anchor on our riverfront, vacant or not.
As for Pyramid use, plans should be made in the context of the entire riverfront, Fairgrounds and Shelby Farms/Wolf River. The fragmented, isolated decision-making process for these facilities will produce isolated, fragmented attractions, which will be weaker in their separate states than if blended to complement one another.
- Smart City Consulting said...
Here's why we say cheap materials. The "skin" of The Pyramid was changed from the original plans which were a gold mirrored surface to a second plan that had a seamless silver sheened surface, but finally, the present surface was selected because it was the cheapest. As a result of the changes, it allows the pidgeons to roost on the building and it has the seams that are so obvious.
In addition, the quality of the concrete was changed, and as a result, before it ever opened, cracks appeared.
Finally, in the pursue of cheapness, the entrance was modified and the most upgraded finishes removed.
All in all, The Pyramid was an exercise in cheapness from top to bottom. The notion that we could build a "state of the art" pyramid arena now is so ludicrous, it is hard to believe that we swallowed it. If you want to see the difference in quality to a higher quality arena - design, materials, etc. - we need only visit FedEx Forum.
Where you see an interesting skyline additive, we see something that's totally incongruous to downtown Memphis and deserves to be down in a hole.
We second your comments about the fragmented decision-making. Great point.
- bob said...
Tearing it down because it gives you psychic relief from the pain of your past mistakes doesn't seem to me to be well-founded rationale. Rather, it just closes the loop and underscores what you've many times identified as a Memphis problem.
We have low self-esteem. We look for the fast fix by building pretty but too often ill-conceived stuff. When relief doesn't come fast enough, we abandon them, and then go build newer stuff something else. Rinse, repeat. Our City is littered with built/abandoned monuments to our addiction to the quick and easy fix.
You're just proposing that we tear that old stuff down so we don't have to be reminded of our regrets.
Don't get me wrong. If the best solution for the property requires demolishion of the Pyramid, then by all means do so.
But I couldn't give two bits about your psychic pain. I didn't build the damned thing, so I don't feel guilty when I look at it. I'm used to it. It's kinda cool, even.
I prefer your idea of making it into a convention annex. Run the numbers.
The Pyramid would not be empty were it not for the ill-guided decision to let the Forum have first right of refusal on every event that comes to town.
That is the bad decision.
If you want to attract CREATIVE people to Memphis, do you think tearing down yet another 'mistake' and going back to the drawing board about what to do with an empty lot is going to attract them?
The fact is that the Pyramid is there, regardless of the reasons of why or how... I think if we could band together as a city, pool the creative resources we already have, and cut through some of the bs, we can find an appropriate use for it, and when we do, I think it will be a symbol of how we OWN AND THEN FIX our mistakes instead of tearing them down and pretending they never happened.
I defend this city with every breath I take, but when I hear this kind of thing, it depresses the hell out of me and /almost/ makes me want to give up the fight. Memphis needs to see that to be a great city, we need to start acting like a great city, and following a set of formulas is not the way to be a great city. I would also suggest that we need to define what we think will make us a great city. We should stop tearing everything down and start really planning things.
What do we want for Memphis? Better quality of life? What are the goals? How can we create a vision to satisfy these goals with the buildings we already have, and I mean ALL of them? Stop and think. Use critical thinking skills and resources. Look at the whole picture. Plan for the FUTURE, not just quick fix everything to death. How can we create greenways that interconnect the entire city, same with public transportation? How do we create more jobs? How do we improve our school system? I saw that you touted a weekend planning to start a new company... why don't we have a weekend that puts all kinds of different people in a room to strategize a comprehensive plan for our city's future instead of starting a new company? How can we get the people of Memphis to UNIFY instead of divide? It is going to take a lot of work and a lot of, here's that word again, CREATIVITY... it's not just about a certain class of people, it's about every person in the city, rich or poor, black or white, educated or uneducated... we all serve our purposes, so we need to work together to figure out what we all want and how we can get there.
I am tired of seeing defeatist attitudes, finger pointing and whining, and I guarantee you that until we fix this, you will not get your dream of new 25-34 year old 'creative people' and you might also lose the creative people you already have that are tired of listening to all this talk and no action.
- Smart City Consulting said...
Bob: This wasn't about any psychic pain. We're not sure where you came up with that one. Other cities tear down mistakes or outdated facilities every day - from a baseball stadium in places like Atlanta to downtown interstates. We think that Councilman Flinn is right to consider what the possibilities really are for the site.
- Smart City Consulting said...
Made our own bed:
It's not that simple. If there had been no non-compete with The Pyramid, the city and county governments would now be paying the operating losses for FedExForum in exchange for having another venue downtown. In return for the non-compete, the Grizzlies ownership took all operating losses at FedEx Forum. That still feels like a good deal to us.
- Smart City Consulting said...
Your questions was: "If you want to attract CREATIVE people to Memphis, do you think tearing down yet another 'mistake' and going back to the drawing board about what to do with an empty lot is going to attract them?"
Our answer: yes. If nothing else, it shows that we are a city looking forward rather than looking back, that we are willing to consider options that create more vibrancy, and that our traditional creativity is not confined to music and entrepreneurship.
As we said earlier, other cities don't hesitate to tear down unwanted buildings, mistakes in civic investment, or duplicate facilities. We don't know why we are so reluctant. Interestingly, some of the cities that have shown the boldness to so this - Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston - also coincidentally (?) are some of the most successful today.
We agree with you that we need to start acting like a great city. We think that is precisely what we're advocating.
We agree with all of your questions, because they are definitive questions for our city to address. We just don't see how the presence of The Pyramid contributes to any of them being answered in any progressive way.
As for 25-34 year-olds, we believe that in an election, the majority would vote with us. After all, in the entire time The Pyramid was open, the best approval rating that it ever got was still under 50 percent.
- Smart City Consulting said...
Your questions was: "If you want to attract CREATIVE people to Memphis, do you think tearing down yet another 'mistake' and going back to the drawing board about what to do with an empty lot is going to attract them?"
Our answer: yes. If nothing else, it shows that we are a city looking forward rather than looking back, that we are willing to consider options that create more vibrancy, and that our traditional creativity is not confined to music and entrepreneurship.
As we said earlier, other cities don't hesitate to tear down unwanted buildings, mistakes in civic investment, or duplicate facilities. We don't know why we are so reluctant. Interestingly, some of the cities that have shown the boldness to so this - Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston - also coincidentally (?) are some of the most successful today.
We agree with you that we need to start acting like a great city. We think that is precisely what we're advocating.
We agree with all of your questions, because they are definitive questions for our city to address. We just don't see how the presence of The Pyramid contributes to any of them being answered in any progressive way.
As for 25-34 year-olds, we believe that in an election, the majority would vote with us. After all, in the entire time The Pyramid was open, the best approval rating that it ever got was still under 50 percent.
- PeskyFly said...
Smart City, if you could see with fresh eyes only what is, rather than what should have been.
The Pyramid's not perfect, and maybe outright campy. And that sounds like Memphis to me.
My daughters wonder at it. My out of town guests do too (and go crazy for old Ozymandius out front).
As an uptowner who wants to see the Pinch develop, I have some interest here. And I'm with Shea--- explore the options. But when I stand on my porch and see that pyramid looming over and through the trees, I've got to hope it can become everything it was ever intended to be. Or at the very least something useful. We're a mythic city, and from its shape to its crystal skull it's a mythic structure.
Tear it down? For something assuredly awesome, sure. But I'll always love it. Seams, hole, and all.
Considering The Pyramid's relationship to the city's skyline is amusing. It's really not much of a skyline, and none of it makes any sense. Besides, the tomb pairs nicely enough with the M-bridge, as a greeter for eastbound traffic.
If we simply must say nasty things about contemporary Memphis architecture, I'd look a little further South on Riverside, and the horrible penis like welcome station. That's what we talk about when we talk about incongruity. I know, it's not a nagging white elephant. It's just an ugly green penis on Riverside. Nothing to be done.
- Smart City Consulting said...
We refer to that structure as part of Memphis' penis envy period. It got us the welcome center and the clock tower on main street and more.
- gatesofmemphis said...
Those who like the Pyramid aren't "looking back" (what to? the glory days of Bill Morris and Dick Hackett? woohoo!) In fact, the belief that demolition == looking forward is an old, tired, and boredom-spawning Memphis fantasy that has never come true. We don't get rocket pads and biodomes; we get parking lots and brownfields.
High Camp or the Eighth Wonder of the World, we like the building.
- Smart City Consulting said...
It's just awfully hard to see camp as a competitive advantage for Memphis.
For the record, we thought that putting a shiny pyramid on our skyline in the first place wasn't a shining hour of public decision-making. It's so clear that if we wanted an arena downtown, we shouldn't have had to put it inside a malfunctioning building to do it. It could have been where the Forum is today, but the city fathers were too afraid to do it.
Maybe we'll feel different when there are bass logos on all of its sides.
If the pyramid is torn down, what would you like to see in it's place? I simply think tearing down the pyramid without a plan to do something with the space is typical of waste. There is too much tearing down without rhyme or reason and THAT is the issue I am concerned with. This is not a problem limited to Memphis, and just because other cities are ok with tear down and sprawl-type activities, doesn't make it ok.
Just out of curiosity, what makes the cities you mentioned 'successful'? Also, what did they tear down, and what did they replace torn down buildings with? Did they have plans for the replacements before they tore them down?
- Smart City Consulting said...
Here's an earlier post where we suggested that The Pyramid and its parking lots become a festival ground to take the pressure off Tom Lee Park and make the area of the old arena green: http://smartcitymemphis.blogspot.com/2005/06/carols-thoughts-on-re-use-of-pyramid.html
We don't disagree with you about considering what an alternative plan could be. That's why we found Councilman Flinn's proposal so reasonable and timely. But as Mayor Herenton has even said - while romancing Bass Pro - perhaps it just never worked and needs to be removed. We think there's a need for more information and creativity given to solutions before anything definitive is done to the building. We just think we need to shake up our thinking, and that seems to be happening.
It's hard to think of a city that has such an incongruity on its skyline (there's the one in Las Vegas but incongruity is the name of the game there). We think of cities that tore up highways to put in parks, tore out old arenas for new art museums, etc. The list is pretty long.
- gatesofmemphis said...
The Pyramid gives us no competitive advantage in isolation, but as contributor to a richer texture of Memphis, it does.
Like the Jungle Room. People would think we're hillbillies if all we talked about was how great the Jungle Room is. But it is a beautiful thread in Memphis' tapestry.


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BAR: GetEQUAL = Amateur Hour
[A DADT-related] release, issued by managing director Heather Cronk, [started] out with the sentence: "I have to be honest – I just vomited a little inside my mouth."
At that point, we stopped reading – and we're likely not the only ones who did. Thankfully, we had not just eaten.
Aside from the unlikely honesty of Cronk's statement (and even if it was true, announcing it to the world is too much information), what is the point? Does her opener draw in supporters of repealing DADT? No. Does it show that GetEqual is a major player in the LGBT civil rights movement? No. What it does show is that Get Equal, which has been in existence for almost a year, is not ready for prime time. [...]
And lest you think this is much ado about nothing, consider this: GetEqual's e-mails go out to thousands of people. GetEqual leaders have met with political figures, including administration officials. In other words, it's important that they are seen as professional and committed activists; but the statement from Cronk fell short. GetEqual has also started asking for financial donations from the community. If it expects to raise sufficient funds to continue operating in 2011, it must adopt a more mature press operation. No one wants to throw money away on an inarticulate, immature organization, not when so many deserving groups are hurting for funds. [...]
Good of the BAR to take GetEQUAL to task about their press operation and fundraising efforts, but something is missing from the editorial. What measurable outcomes were achieved by the GetEQUAL crew? I'm not sure what they accomplished with an estimated $700,000 or so in donations.
At the same time, I question what the NGLTF or HRC accomplished this year with their much larger budgets, and the BAR might address this matter in a future editorial.
Finally, speaking about no one wants to throw gay dollars at an immature group, that is a legitimate concern, but such thinking about effective use of money shouldn't be a question only when discussing GetEQUAL. We should all be wondering why so many gay community dollars are wasted on more mature organizations that comprise Gay Inc.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hungry hands touring soft and old,
My hero`s crying as we stood out their in the cold,
Like these autumn leaves I don`t have nothing to hold.
Handsome smiles wearing handsome shoes,
Too young to say, though I swear he knew,
And I hear him singing while he seats there in his chair,
While these autumn leaves float around everywhere.
And I look at you, and I see me,
Making noise so restlessly,
But now it`s quiet and I can hear you sing,
'My little fish dont cry, my little fish dont cry.'
Autumn leaves are fading now,
That smile that I`ve lost, well I`ve found some how,
Because you still live on in my fathers eyes,
These autumn leaves, all these autumn leaves, all these autumn leaves are yours tonight.
Lyrics "Autumn", Paolo Nutini


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This afternoon on our way home from the famous Christmas Place Plantation and Hunting Club, after a weekend of hunting, I stopped at this particular area to take pictures of the swamp. The swamp is on both sides of the highway interchange coming/going at the split, one going to Jackson and the other to Greenwood, MS. It was a cloudy day after it rained most of Saturday and by late afternoon the sun finally came out.
I will be posting some pictures tomorrow of our successful hunt at the deer camp. So stay tune! (click on pictures to enlarge)
There is something about a swamp!


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Champions League Draw: Manchester City face Real Madrid
The official result of the #UCLdrawpic.twitter.com/Pvz577XZRc— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 15, 2016
Manchester City are playing in the Champions League semifinals for the first time while their opponents, Real Madrid, are 10-time European champions. At this stage of the competition the narrative writes itself and there is plenty of backstory to City's drive into the final four of the Champions League.
Real Madrid's record at home to English clubs: W7 D5 L2.#UCLdrawpic.twitter.com/fofHGVfmjd— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 15, 2016
The manager, Manuel Pellegrini, is due to leave City this season and will face his former club, Madrid, in the semifinals before potentially facing his successor at City, Pep Guardiola, in the final if both City and Bayern were to progress.
Pellegrini's case is also being likened to that of former Bayern Munich manager Juup Heynckes - Bayern announced Heynckes departure in January 2013, intending to replace him with Guardiola, similar to how City announced Pellegrini's departure and Guardiola's impending arrival earlier this season.
Bayern under Heynckes went on to win the league and the Champions League that season, and while Guardiola has won the league in the last two years, his side has also crashed out of the Champions League in the semi-finals twice.
#FCBayern will play @atletienglish in the semi-finals of the @ChampionsLeague! #UCLdrawpic.twitter.com/cKCVhCN27i— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) April 15, 2016
If Pellegrini were to somehow win the Champions League this season, it would be sweet success for both club and manager for multiple reasons, but it will also set another, very high, standard for Guardiola to follow.
Of course, City are nowhere near close to winning the league title this season, which is a primary target for the team this and every season.
City's opponents Madrid are chasing an 11th title with a rejuvenated side that has clawed back Barcelona's lead in the league. Now, with Barcelona eliminated, they will fancy themselves as a genuine title favorite. With Cristiano Ronaldo hitting form in the form of a hat trick against Wolfsburg, the Madrid side know they can progress to the final at San Siro and potentially steal the league title as well.
Winning either title would represent a major vindication of Zinedine Zidane's appointment as manager midway through the season. Apart from masterminding a win over Barcelona in the Clasico, Zidane has also managed to restore the self-belief and camaraderie between the players that was missing under former manager Benitez.
City will play @realmadriden in the @ChampionsLeague semi final! The first leg will be in Manchester #mcfc#CMONCITYpic.twitter.com/TK1vVvVq86— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) April 15, 2016
Having led Madrid to Champions League success as a player, Zidane is best-placed to lead the club as a manager and complete a unique player-manager Champions League double.
The other tie sees two of the best managers in Europe go head to head, as Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid take on Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich. Atletico, as their city counterparts, are also chasing Barcelona domestically and face a struggle to stay fit and keep fighting on both fronts. Bayern, despite Dortmund's late charge in the league, are still clear at the top of the table and can afford to rotate in a league that rarely offers them serious opposition.
See you in 2 weeks, @atletienglish! #FCBAtleti#UCLdrawpic.twitter.com/VetOvjlWCh— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) April 15, 2016
Atletico will take heart in knowing that Bayern have been defensively vulnerable throughout the Champions League knockout stages, and indeed have looked capable of conceding goals whenever they are faced with a quality attacking side. Atletico's challenge will be to score more than once. Based on the evidence of the game against Barcelona, Atletico could steal this semi-final.
Bayern need to find defensive stability, but more importantly they also need to find a way through the best defense left in the Champions League. While both City and Madrid will give their opponents plenty of chances to score, Atletico are miserly in comparison and a very compact unit that is ideally suited to going up against a side managed by Guardiola.
Whatever the outcome, both ties should hopefully produce some memorable football.
Champions League semifinal schedule
First Leg
Manchester City v Real Madrid - April 26.
Atletico Madrid v Bayern Munich - April 27.
Second leg
Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid - May 3.
Real Madrid v Manchester City - May 4.
The final is at San Siro in Milan on May 28.


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Shure SV100 Multi-Purpose Microphone
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SV100 is a multi-purpose microphone with excellent sound quality, ideal for spoken word, karaoke performance, multimedia and instrument use.
The unidirectional (cardioid) pickup pattern of the SV100 helps reduce feedback, while the wide frequency response and high output deliver excellent sound quality. Ideal for multiple applications including spoken word presentations, karaoke performances, multimedia, and instrument use, the SV100 includes durable cable with 1/4" (6.3mm) plug for use with home or portable recording/karaoke systems.
The SV100 is the replacement model for the C606
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Monolog #5 : Jab Tak Hai Jaan
|Credit for Zedge
"Love that breaks you,
But still keeps you together.
Love that creates distances,
But still brings you closer.
Love, that is true and forever.
If you have the power to love like that,
Then God makes sure that your love finds its way.
All you have to do is just hang in there,
And wait,
Wait for your time."
Taken from the dialogue of the film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan.


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Imagine being 21 years old, a rookie pitcher playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and you're in the World Series against the New York Yankees.
That was the situation in which Bob Welch found himself on the night of Wednesday, Oct. 11, 1978, when he came in to close out a 4–3 victory for Los Angeles. Starter Burt Hooton had gone six innings and staked the Dodgers to a one–run lead when he left; then reliever Terry Forster pitched 2⅓ solid innings but left after serving up a single and a walk in the ninth.
In came Welch.
This was at the time, it should be noted, that Jackson was gaining his reputation as "Mister October." A year earlier, he hit three consecutive home runs to lift the Yankees to their World Series–clinching triumph over those same Dodgers and won the series MVP in the process.
He could have evened the game with a well–hit ball, but the young Welch gunned him down. Jackson struck out swinging, and Welch had preserved the victory for the Dodgers.
Los Angeles would lose the next four games — and the Series — to the Yankees.
The Dodgers ended up trading Welch to Oakland following the 1987 season. The A's faced the Dodgers in the World Series in 1988, and Welch pitched in the only game Oakland won. He didn't get the win — another ex–Dodger, Rick Honeycutt, got the win in relief after Mark McGwire hit a one–out home run in the eighth.
A couple of years later, Welch won the Cy Young Award. He won 27 games that year and remains the last pitcher to win 25 games or more in a single season.
Welch died yesterday at the age of 57. At this point, his cause of death remains undisclosed.


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This morning the red currants in this jam were on bushes in our back "yard." S. spent a few hours picking the ripe ones and came in around noon with an ice cream bucket and a half. I washed and threw out the ones that floated, simmered the rest in a large pot for just a little while, put them through a food mill and set the result, 2 quarts of "thick" juice, to boil, mixed with two packages of "No Sugar Needed" pectin.
Usually I put berries in the steam juicer and extract the clear juice, but that means the stove is on for a few hours. This was much faster.
When the juice boiled I added 11 cups of sugar (red currants are pretty tart!) After the mixture boiled for a minute (took about 10 minutes of stirring by the hot stove to return to a good boil), I ladled it into these jars. They had been standing in the sink, having been filled with boiling water.
There was enough for almost eight pint jars. The last, almost-full jar with the screw-on lid goes into the fridge to be eaten soon. The others are labeled and will be stored in the spare bedroom closet, the coolest place in the house which is why my shelves of canned jars are kept there. Good, tart jam for on toast this coming winter!


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Montreal, Quebec, June 10, 2010 - Quebecor Media Inc. and Sun Media Corporation are pleased to announce the appointment of David Akin as Sun Media National Bureau Chief in Ottawa, and Brian Lilley as a Senior Correspondent.Big stuff happening in the Canadian Newsmedia industry. Big, big, big...
David Akin has had a 25-year career in both print and television. At CTV National News with Lloyd Robertson, Mr. Akin received a Gemini Award for his reporting. While working for The Globe and Mail, Mr. Akin received a National Newspaper Award citation of merit. He was also a member of the inaugural staff of National Post. Most recently, Mr. Akin was the National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service.
In addition to his work in traditional media platforms, Mr. Akin has also been a pioneer in digital platforms. A blogger for almost a decade, Mr. Akin's On The Hill is one of the Top 15 most-read political blogs in the country and, last year, Mr. Akin was named one of the "100 Most Influential People in Ottawa" by the Hill Times.
Brian Lilley is a veteran broadcaster having spent the last decade in major market radio across Canada. In addition to work in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, Brian has spent the last five years as Ottawa Bureau Chief for Canada's largest private radio broadcaster.
Stay tuned. More to come! The Old Media in Canada must now be shaking in its boots at the prospect of a fair-and-balanced 24-hour Canadian news network as a competitor. They've already suffered serious losses, including in audience. Imagine what'll happen to them once Canada has a news channel that tells it like it is, regardless of political correctness and all that. No longer shall the Old Media have a monopoly on broadcasting. Betcha the Liberals are nervous, too, at the prospect of there being a powerful broadcaster who doesn't toe the Liberal Party line... Yup... The Left will have something new to bash, while regular folks have a real alternative to the same old, same old "progressive"-propaganda media... Gonna be fun to watch!
Think... FAIR AND BALANCED!


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Ben, Josh, Isaac, Chris and their horde of loyal children and teens have kept working on the adobe house in Gonaives. There have been some setbacks, like the day when they arrived in the morning to find a handful of sacks slashed open, or the day several sacks were emptied of their dirt and stolen. A few weeks ago, their storage space in Jubilee was broken into and all their tools, barbed wire, and some sacks were stolen. But the work has continued with very encouraging results.
Over Thanksgiving week, the house reached my height. When I left to come back to Port-au-Prince, the guys were getting ready to install the front door and go even higher on the walls. Much of the work we do in Haiti has little visible results; with the adobe house, we can see every minute of labor and it is very satisfying.
Monday, November 28, 2011
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Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku JaafarKUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- The Olympic Council Malaysia (OCM), for the first time, has decided not to set any medal targets for the SEA Games in Singapore scheduled for June.
OCM president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Jaafar said: "We've agreed not to set any target this time. We don't want to put any pressure on the athletes."
He said individual sports may have specific targets but this was not the case for the contingent.
"Every athlete has a chance to get a gold medal...and I believe every sport has its own targets," he told a press conference after chairing the OCM selection meeting for the 28th SEA Games in Singapore, here Wdnesday.
Present were the chef-de-mission (CDM) Datuk Mohamad Norza Zakaria, OCM honorary secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi and National Sports Council director-general Ahmad Shapawi Ismail.
Recently, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia would focus on new and upcoming athletes at the Singapore Games.
Khairy also noted that in previous SEA Games, Malaysia had focused more on the number of gold medals to be achieved but this time the game plan had changed.


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Rinse the gooey seeds in a mesh colander to remove as much of the pumpkin pulp as possible.
Lay them out on a stack of paper towels to dry.
After they dry, mix a teaspoon each of worcestershire sauce and vegetable oil together in a bowl. Add about two cups of seeds, and sprinkle with sea salt, spike, garlic powder, brewer's yeast, or whatever spices you like. The sky's the limit, just sprinkle on whatever spices float your boat. Mix it all up real good and spread the seeds out on a baking sheet. Bake at 300°F for about an hour, turning frequently.
Nutrition note: pumpkin seeds are a great source of zinc. Zinc is an antioxidant mineral, not produced naturally in our bodies. Zinc is helpful in obliterating free radicals and keeping your body healthy. If you want to maximize the amount of zinc (and fiber) you get from pumpkin seeds, consume them with the shells on. The shell itself does not contain much zinc, but there is a thin layer directly beneath the shell, called the endosperm, that does. Zinc is especially concentrated in this endosperm envelope.
So spice 'em up, roast, and enjoy... endosperm envelope and all!


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Michael H. McCarthy
Michael H. McCarthy has carefully studied the writings of Bernard Lonergan (Canadian philosopher-theologian, 1904-1984) for over fifty years. In his 1989 book, The Crisis of Philosophy, McCarthy argued for the superiority of Lonergan's distinctive philosophical project to those of his analytic and phenomenological rivals. Now in Authenticity as Self-Transcendence: The Enduring Insights of Bernard Lonergan, he develops and expands his earlier argument with four new essays, designed to show Lonergan's exceptional relevance to the cultural situation of late modernity.
The essays explore and appraise Lonergan's cultural mission: to raise Catholic philosophy and theology to meet the intellectual challenges and standards of his time. Chapter 1, "The Tangled Knot of Old and New," shows how Lonergan's redemptive project strategically developed from the critical appropriation of our cultural heritage. In chapter 2, McCarthy locates Lonergan's philosophical anthropology within the historical problematic created by Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. Through his profound analysis of human subjectivity, Lonergan identified a striking paradox at the heart of modern culture and sought to unravel it by a forceful defense of the human capacity for self-transcendence. In chapter 3, McCarthy clarifies the nature and origins of modern secularity and the unprecedented challenges it creates for religious faith. In the concluding chapter on the challenges of Catholic renewal, the central themes of Lonergan's life work are brought together. After describing the Catholic struggle with modernity and John XXIII's bracing call for aggiornamento, McCarthy examines Lonergan's distinctive contributions to the philosophical and theological renewal of his church.
"Michael McCarthy's book is a masterpiece of cultural synthesis and interpretation. I know of no other recent books on the same or similar topic to which Authenticity as Self-Transcendence can be compared. It is definitely unique. It will interest students and teachers of modern philosophy, theology, and history. It will be a fine classroom text, especially in courses on history and culture, politics, and religion, as well as specifically Catholic thought." — Richard Liddy, University Professor of Catholic Thought and Culture at Seton Hall University
"To address the cultural crises of our time—epistemic, moral, and spiritual—Michael McCarthy lucidly details their sources in Western history, and he expounds Bernard Lonergan's remedial prescriptions. McCarthy's timely diagnosis will help readers to understand better the past and the present of influential views, and to envision the future of the human race with both hope and realism." — Louis Roy, Dominican University College in Ottawa
"The true genius of Michael H. McCarthy's work is to show how Bernard Lonergan's own dissatisfaction with modernist epistemology led him to an interior appreciation of knowing that he would dub 'method,' by contrast with simple logic, and certainly with Descartes. Lonergan's special and peculiar use of 'method' is the key, as McCarthy demonstrates, showing deep affinities with Aquinas, particularly through Lonergan's study of verbum. A study of a complex thinker who can easily be complicated by his commentators, McCarthy's analysis shows his own maturity as a philosopher as well as his indebtedness to Lonergan in a way that cuts to the heart of Lonergan's philosophy and theology by demonstrating how the former can be at the service of the latter." — David Burrell, C.S.C., Theodore Hesburgh C.S.C. Professor emeritus in Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame
456 pages
"McCarthy has spent decades carefully studying Lonergan's extensive corpus. His studies have been deeply enriched by his simultaneous and equally deep engagement with the works of some of the most important twentieth century political thinkers—notably, Arendt and Taylor. This book's erudition and seriousness is a major contribution to Lonergan scholarship." — Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"No other work provides such a comprehensive and historically rooted account of Lonergan's achievement . . . McCarthy's treatment of Lonergan's contribution to renewal in the Catholic Church should serve as a final corrective to the especially pernicious anti-modernist Catholic misunderstandings of Lonergan's account of human authenticity which are still appealed to by Catholic philosophers and theologians to justify inattention to and dismissal of the extraordinary achievements of one of the foremost Jesuit thinkers of the twentieth century." — Journal of Jesuit Studies
"McCarthy is a capable expositor with an impressive grasp of the range of Lonergan's philosophical work. Non-devotees will probably find his exposition clearer than Lonergan's own." — Theology
Bronze winner in Theology, 2016 Illumination Book Awards2016 Catholic Press Association Book Award, Second Place Theology


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If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I'm knee-deep writing Resuscitation, the sequel to They Never Die Quietly. I completed the first draft a few weeks ago and asked three people—all with strong literary skills—to read the manuscript and offer constructive feedback. I asked them to be brutally frank; I would gain nothing from diplomacy.
Well, I got what I asked for. All offered comprehensive criticisms that I must admit knocked the feathers right out of me. Each one read the manuscript individually and never spoke, yet they saw the same things . Of course, each of them found specific problems unique to his or her critique as well. However, on the major issues—those most important—it was as if they had worked together. When three people, all strong fiction readers, tell you the same thing, you'd better listen.
So, now I began the tedious process of editing, pruning, fleshing out scenes, building stronger characters, correcting continuity issues, cleaning up grammatical mistakes, checking punctuation, and tightening the story. It's a lot of intense work, but the finished product makes it all worth the effort. Unless, of course, my agent can't sell the damned book and it ends up in the recycling bin. Then, it's time for me to consider a different career.


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KTB road shows promote Kenya holidays in the UK
Last week's Kenya Tourist Board road show saw a record number of agents and travel operators attending the events which promoted Kenya holidays in venues across different United Kingdom cities including Dublin, Manchester and London.
Over the past week Kenya holidays have been promoted throughout the UK and Ireland during the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) road show. The road show visited main cities such as Dublin, Manchester and London last week and saw the attendance of a record number of travel agents and tour operators who were keen on seeing the latest offerings for holidays to Kenya.
Travel trade guests battled it out in "The Big Kenya Quiz" which tested their knowledge on the East African country and at the end of the evening, a winner from each city that hosted the road show was awarded the grand prize of a holiday to Kenya. Runner-up guests received prizes including places on a Kenya Tourist Board fam trip in November; copies of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's African adventure, Long Way Down; and novelty "booby prize" gifts which were awarded by Kenya Airways.
According to the Kenya Tourist Board Director for the United Kingdom, Angie Sloan, visitor arrivals to Kenya during the first quarter of the year have increased by 10 per cent each year and the road shows are expected to further boost the number of travellers booking Kenya holidays.
"The past two years have been tough for the travel industry and despite so many destinations reporting negative growth Kenya has bucked that trend with steady growth in 2009, 2010 and the first quarter of 2011," she said.
"We hope this week's events and future fam trips we have planned in 2011 will further help the trade to convert all the interest into sales."
Kenya is a country located in East Africa which boasts beautiful white sand beaches fringed with the shores of the sparkling Indian Ocean; numerous nature parks thriving with wildlife that includes giraffes, lions, rhinos, elephants , leopards and wildebeest; and the majestic snow-capped Mount Kenya.
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Plumbers and pretty
The plumber arrived late, forgot a part and then stayed late too so I thought no gym today, but then I remembered those old exercise DVDs and I popped one in (while the plumber was there). When I was first starting to exercise again post-baby, I divided the work out time: 10 minutes in the morning, 10 during nap time, and 10 right after dinner. 30 minutes all at once was just too hard. Sometimes my kids would lie down on top of me during the abs portion which was OK as it would just make the workout harder.
Isn't that water bottle inspiring? It's new from Target and reminds me of spring and new beginnings. Lunch: tuna melt with cherry tomatoes and lemon plum (so yummy and only about 30 calories!)
Posted by Apis Melliflora at 9:15 AM
2 comments:
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I am so honoured to have received this award from 3 different bloggers this week. Thank you from the bottom of mt heart Michelle from Upsy Daisy Creations, Tonia from Pigtails and Paper Trails and Jacquline from Made by Jacqueline. Please hop on over see their amazing talent and leave them some love!
Now I need to tell you 7 things about myself...hummm....
1 - I am currently reading a historical romance novel and forgot how much I really love them :)
2 - I love subbing in jr. high as scary as that might sound lol
3 - My favourite game on the Wii is the Price is Right
4 - In my living room I have fruit shaped pillows (a apple, a pear and a strawberry)
5 - I am getting married on New Years Eve 2011
6 - I live for pjs
7 - My all time favourite snack food is potato chips (pretty much any flavour)!
*How is that for some random facts :)
I would like to pass this award on to the following people:
Jessica @ http://chick-n-scrap.blogspot.com/
Stacy @ http://lovethatbug.blogspot.com/
Michelle @ http://mumoftwoblog.blogspot.com/
Sherrie @ http://sherriescraps.blogspot.com/
Valerie @ http://bestisyet2be.blogspot.com/
The Cropping Canuck @ http://thecroppingcanuck.blogspot.com/
Thanks everyone and happy crafting!


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I promised more obscure invertebrates, so here is an onychophoran. Onychophorans are forest leaf litter dwellers. I have never seen one, but I live in hope. Their common-or-garden name, velvet worms, seems to suggest that holding one would feel like being stroked with a piece of velvet. As a presumptive scientist, I have qualms about using a word like 'cute', but look at those little antennae. I'm only human!
Onychophorans are also wonderful because they are freaks. I have a soft spot for animals who exist in distant, unclassifiable, evolutionary backwaters. Onychophorans appear to be related to both insects and annelid worms, but cannot be classified as either. They exist in a phylum all of their own. To put this in perspective, human beings are in the phylum Chordata, along with (more or less) everything else that has a backbone. The phylum Onychophora contains only onychophorans.
Germaine Greer reputedly remarked the other day that she was an animal. Perhaps Germaine should consider becoming an invertebrate. In the tradition of female-dominated ant, bee and termite societies, and female praying mantises who devour their mates after sex, some onychophorans live under a rigid matriarchal hierarchy.
The Australian species Euperipatoides rowelli commonly lives in a social group of up to 15 females, males and young. They hunt as a pack, immobilising their prey with a sticky secretion of mucus. The group observes a strict hierarchy in the order in which they feed. The dominant female feeds first, followed by other females, then the males and young. According to biologists who made this discovery, 'hierarchy within the group is established by aggressive-dominant and passive-subordinate behaviours'. At least there are no passive-aggressive onychophorans.
Aggressive behaviour consists of kicking, biting, chasing and climbing on other individuals. Passive behaviour involves running away or allowing oneself to be climbed on. Females are commonly larger than males, and this may explain their higher status. Onychophorans of this species have been observed running their antennae over others' backs, perhaps to estimate their size and social status.
However, while it's a dog-eat-dog world inside the onychophoran pack, they close ranks against outsiders. To quote the aforementioned biologists, 'E. rowelli from different groups, ie. from different logs, are met with intense agression'. Perhaps Germaine is right. It seems all too easy to draw parallels with the human condition. Personally, when I see someone from a different log, I can barely contain myself. But first I run my antennae over their back, just in case.
Unfortunately for onychophorans, fragmentation of their habitat means it's sometimes difficult to find a mate, so they resort not to inbreeding, but to outbreeding. To explain by way of analogy, onychophorans are not like the hillbilly who marries his cousin, but the hillbilly who marries his goat. Unable to find a mate of the same species, they will breed with a different species of onychophoran. As with many cross-species matings, the resulting offspring often have fertility problems, as well as unusual numbers of legs.


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January 5, 2012
Physicist named as one of the top scientists in Kansas
By Communications and Marketing
When it comes to research in physics, Kristan Corwin's work is some of the most illuminating.
Corwin, an associate professor of physics at Kansas State University, studies and builds lasers. She was named one of the top 150 scientists to operate in Kansas within the past 150 years by the Ad Astra Kansas Initiative.
Recently Corwin helped develop the first mid-infrared laser in hollow optical fiber. It uses near-infrared light -- invisible to the human eye -- to pump a gas of atoms, which then emit a mid-infrared beam. This is all done inside hollow glass fibers the size of a human hair. The laser could be used by the military for distance measurement, or for medical purposes -- like mapping the specific molecules in someone's breath to diagnose an illness.
Additionally, Corwin's work with lasers could also improve the speed of phones, Internet and other communications technologies.
Much telephone and Internet traffic exists as pulses of light over optical fibers. By combining many colors into a single optical fiber, information can be sent faster, but this requires optical frequency standards so the proper colors are routed in the proper way. Corwin is studying the use of gas-filled optical fibers as frequency standards for this and other applications.
Throughout 2011, Ad Astra spotlighted Kansas researchers, inventors and engineers from the past to the present who have advanced their field. The initiative's project, "Science in Kansas: 150 Years and Counting," celebrated the state's sesquicentennial, and emphasized the importance of science and the career possibilities in research and innovation to K-12 students.
Corwin is one of 21 active faculty members at K-State to be named a top scientist in Kansas. She joins other historically noted Kansas researchers on the list like George Washington Carver, Charles H. Sternberg, Clyde Cessna and Clyde Tombaugh.


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|Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS:
|The impact of surgical management on outcome from breast cancer
|Kingsmore, D. B.
|Awarding Body:
|University of Aberdeen
|Current Institution:
|University of Aberdeen
|Date of Award:
|Availability of Full Text:
This thesis aimed to determine the causes of the better survival of women treated for breast cancer by specialist surgeons. Two separate studies were performed. Firstly, a geographically defined database of pathology and mortality data from 1980-88 was updated to 1996. Secondly, a retrospective cohort study was performed of 2762 (94% of total) case-records of women diagnosed during 1986 to 1991. Women treated by specialists, even in the screening time-period, had a long-term survival advantage. Inadequate compared to adequate treatment was associated with double the risk of recurrence independent of other factors. The case-mix for non-specialists was more often unknown. Specialists were more exact in the treatment given: a preoperative diagnosis and mammography were obtained twice as frequently; staging was more selective; breast conserving surgery was performed with equal frequency, but when performed by non-specialists was inadequate twice as frequently and was four times more likely to be due to more than one error. Non-specialists omitted axillary staging three times more often and inadequately treated the axilla ten times more often. Overall, inadequate loco-regional treatment was twice as likely if treated by a non-specialist. Specialists prescribed chemotherapy twice as often, but the prescription of systemic therapy to those at highest risk was the same. The loco-regional recurrence for non-specialists was twice that of specialists after accounting for pathology and treatment. Specialists had a 26% lower risk of death after allowing for demographic, prognostic and treatment variables. This was negated if adequacy of treatment was included as an independent variable. There was poor correlation between caseload and adequacy of treatment. Adequacy of loco-regional treatment correlated with death from breast cancer.
|Not available
|Not available
|Qualification Name:
|Thesis (M.D.)
|Qualification Level:
|EThOS ID:
|Not available


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Queen Victoria was once described as the Grandmother of Europe since her many children and grandchildren married into so many of the Royal families of Europe - Spanish, Prussian, Russian etc.
Unfortunately Queen Victoria was a carrier of haemophilia and this was passed on to her descendants and played a part in the collapse of the European monarchies.
This statue of Queen Victoria and her daughters is in the Cimiez district of Nice. It was placed there in 1912 to commemorate the Queen's visits to Nice.
During the Occupation of Nice during WWII , the Queen's head was knocked off the statue but the damage was repaired after the war ended.
Queen Victoria spent several holidays in Nice , exploring the arera by carriage and train and she adored the battle of the flowers and othe rlocal festivals.
On her deathbed she is reported as syaing, "Oh, if only I were at Nice, I should recover."
This is Victoria's hotel in Cimiez - the Excelsior Hotel Regina. It was deliberately built to attract the Queen's businesss and was built in front of the hotel she had stayed in previously, destroying the view.
The building is enormous and at the time it was built many people thought it was ugly and out of place in the Cimiez since it is right beside the Roman amphitheatre.
It is a totally over the top confection , like a wedding cake gone wild.
This is the part of the builiding reserved for Queen Victoria and her party. The tower has a little crown on top to show off the Royal connections.
The west wing of the Regina building with the crown on top of the domed roof of the turret. It resembles the small crown that Queen Victoria wore after her husband, Albert, died , although the real one was made of silver to signify mourning.
A gate into the private gardens of the Regina building. The little crown is part of the decorative ironwork. Initially the garden paths were laid out for easy access by the Queen's wheelchair. The gardens were quite elaborate and had croquet lawns, tennis courts, cycle paths and a tropical green house.
The Excelsior Hotel Regina closed in 1937 and Queen Victori'as coat of arms was removed from the private chapel and placed in the Holy Trnity Chrich in Nice where she worshipped once .
The former hotel is now subdivided into chic apartments and offices.


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These are comments that were sent to me by Brap a we days ago. Brap is an atheist who makes good comments and pretends to be an alien exploring our world for the first time, which enables him to play the stranger and force me to explain the obvious (at least I think he's pretending...).
He [Sam Harris] is saying there is more to these experiences than simply being in awe of nature, but there is no basis to extrapolate from these personal experiences (universal or not) to anything about the origin of the universe.
Meta: certainly there is. the historical association says it all. It's just a matter of preferring a different metaphor.
Can you expand on "the historical association?" I don't recall seeing that term in this context before.
Meta: The original term "super nature" was coined in 500 by pseudo Dionysus.what he meant by the term was the transformative sense of the experiences. So Mystical experience is by its every nature a priori supernatural. It's in the enlightenment that the term SN was changed to mean magic or other realms of something beyond what is natural. The real term refers to the process of experince whereby one is elevated in consciousness.
So by that definition the word "supernatural" simply refers to the changes (mental, physical, whatever) one goes through during (and after?) a mystical experience, correct? I'm ok with that definition, so let's go with that. Now since that doesn't seem to imply the existence of anything outside of the natural world, how does one get from "mystical experience" to "God exists?"
The historical association goes back way before that. It could go back to stone age or even Nanderthal times. That's harder to prove, but as we look at late neolithic humans we see they seemed to experience a sense of the numinous in they developed thoughts of after life, decoration of implements pertaining to it, mazes and other artifacts that seem to indicate the were experiencing spiritual phenomena. Certainly as long as writing has been around people have written about such things.
Moreover,not only the historical association but also the content of the experience indicates its an experience of the divine. Most of them time people say they are experiencing holiness, or deity or the divine, all pervasive love; it's giving them a sense of the oneness of things but more than that, it's most often wrapped up in a sense of the divine.
Can you provide some examples of outcomes (of mystical experiences) that can't be explained by natural means?two of the best early studies demonstrate the experimental group as a whole experienced certain things:
Wuthnow, Robert (1978). "Peak Experiences: Some Empirical Tests." Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 18 (3), 59-75.
*Say their lives are more meaningful,21% more likely to experience these things lasting for the first year after the experience. One can also have them again.
*think about meaning and purpose
*Know what purpose of life is
Meditate more
*Score higher on self-rated personal talents and capabilities
*Less likely to value material possessions, high pay, job security, fame, and having lots of friends
*Greater value on work for social change, solving social problems, helping needy
*Reflective, inner-directed, self-aware, self-confident life style
Noble, Kathleen D. (1987). ``Psychological Health and the Experience of Transcendence.'' The Counseling Psychologist, 15 (4), 601-614.
*Experience more productive of psychological health than illnessFrom Council on Spiritual Practices Website
*Less authoritarian and dogmatic
*More assertive, imaginative, self-sufficient
*intelligent, relaxed
*High ego strength,
*relationships, symbolization, values,
*integration, allocentrism,
*psychological maturity,
*self-acceptance, self-worth,
*autonomy, authenticity, need for solitude,
*increased love and compassion
"States of Univtive Consciousness"
When you say "the content of the experience is usually about God or the divine or the meaning of life," what exactly do you mean? Is that how the people who have a mystical experience describe it?Yes, they are overwhelmingly religious in content, meaning in most cases they are associated this way.
An example of the sort of experience is found in a study by Robinson.[i]
Finally, Robinson (1977) found that 15% of his adult respondents spoke of childhood mystical experiences. As this from a 40 year old female:
When I was eleven years old I spent part of a summer holiday in the Wye Valley. Waking up very early one bright morning, before any of the household was about, I left my bed and went to kneel on the window seat, to look out over the curve, which the river took just below the house. The trees between the house and river ... The scene was very beautiful, and quite suddenly I felt myself on the verge of a great revelation. It was as if I had stumbled unwittingly on a place where I was not expected, and was about to be initiated into some wonderful mystery, something of indescribable significance. Then, just as suddenly, the feeling faded. But for the brief seconds while it lasted I had known that in some strange way I, the essential "me", was a part of the trees, of the sunshine, and the river, that we all belonged to some great unity. I was left filled with exhilaration and exultation of spirit. This is one of the most memorable experiences of my life, of a quite different quality and greater intensity than the sudden lift of the spirit one may often feel when confronted with beauty in Nature (p. 37).(quoted by Gackenback)[ii]
Another example (this one from William James used by William Alston):
"…all at once I…felt the presence of God—I tell of the thing just as I was conscious of it—as if his goodness and his power were penetrating me altogether…I thanked God that in the course of my life he had taught me to know him, that he sustained my life and took pity both on the insignificant creature and on the sinner that I was. I begged him ardently that my life might be consecrated to the doing of his will. I felt his reply, which was that I should do his will from day to day, in humility and poverty, leaving him the Almighty God, to judge of whether I should some time be called to bear witness more conspicuously. Then, slowly, the ecstasy left my heart; that is, I felt that God had withdrawn the communion, which he had granted.[iii]
Still another example, used by Alston:
There was no sensible vision, but the room was filled by a Presence, which in a strange way was both about me and within me. I was overwhelmingly possessed by Someone who was not myself, and yet I felt I was more myself than I had ever been before.[iv]
Or do people have a hard time describing it, so that's the closest our language can come to describing it? If people have a hard time describing it in our current language, how do we know it's really about God or the divine and not simply some mental state not yet fully explained or documented by science?The concept is that you can't communicate the experience in words. It's like trying to transcribe music you hear in your head to paper, it's never going to be the same. The nature of language is metaphorical and religoius language is analogy. Within an analogical framework people are lucid about what they describe. The examples above seem lucid to me.
The following quote is attributed to Hippocrates: "Men think epilepsy divine, merely because they do not understand it. But if they called everything divine which they do not understand, why, there would be no end to divine things." Is it possible that mystical experiences are considered divine because we don't really understand what's going on in that state of consciousness?That's argument from analogy. Epilepsy seems like mystical experience, not because its not understood but becuase both convey a sense of total peace and a sense of understanding all things for a certain time, which then fades away. This is argument from analogy since both seem similar in texture of the experience that doesn't mean they are cased by the same things. It's possible that both effect similar centers of the brain. That doesnt' reduce mystical experince to something that originates only in Brain Chemistry. Epilepsy doesn't have the kind of track record for totally transforming people's lives in ways that make them better across the board. A couple of hindered studies show that mystical experience dos so.
[i]Quoted in Gackenback , Jayne. website: "Trans personal Childhood Experiences of Higher States of Consciousness: Literature Review and Theoretical Integration" (unpublished paper 1992) URL: http://www.sawka.com/spiritwatch/cehsc/ipure.htm (last visited summer 2008)
[ii] ibid
[iii] anonymous report in James (Verities of Religious Experience, 67-68) Quoted by William Alston, Perceiving God, the Epistemology of Religious Experience. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press 1991, 1993, 13.
[iv] Timothy Breadsworth, A Sense of Presence (1977) in Ibid, 17.


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Counter people with people: Home Minister
by May Kyaw
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Home Minister of the Burmese military junta had at a point of time exhorted the staff members of the General Administration Department at a meeting to 'counter people with people and counter politics with politics'.
In the Home Ministry's directive, a copy of which has been leaked and is with Mizzima, the Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo had given such a blatant instruction to officials of the General Administration (GA) Department at a meeting in Naypyitaw Home Ministry's Meeting Hall on 20 January 2007.
"Counter people with people, counter politics with politics. There is no need to get involved personally. Do it carefully and do it daringly," he had directed.
In the six-page directive, he had instructed organizing of NGOs so as to be pro-government, to mobilze people, not to confront the army, to go in for fund raising for the welfare of the Home Ministry staff members and to monitor the activities of the 'National League for Democracy' (NLD).
Moreover Maj. Gen. Maung Oo had also said that the staff of the Home Ministry should use their power for their livelihood instead of begging.
"Regarding smuggling, arrest them. Report to the authorities, anything you seize from them, either a car or a motorcycle. Surrender them to the customs department. You will get 50 per cent reward money from these goods. So you don't need to beg, but arrest them for your living," the directive says.
He had also talked of the junta's plan of holding mass rallies against the opposition forces in late 2007 to senior officials in the GA Department across the country.
Following the saffron revolution in September 2007, protest rallies were organized by the junta backed civilian organisation - 'Union Solidarity and Development Association' - in some States and Divisions across the country.
The meeting presided by the Maung Oo was also attended by the Burmese Deputy Home Minister and Director General of the General Administration.
During the meeting, Deputy Minister Brig. Gen. Phone Swe advised GA officials to build trust and win the respect of ethnic people in their respective regions and to prepare for joining a political party.
Director General Myat Ko also informed the 'District Peace and Development Council' (DPDC) Chairmen and 'Township Peace and Development Council' Chairmen to thoroughly scrutinize before giving recommendations to establishment of social organizations and to make office expenses frugally.
The DPDC and TPDC are under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry's GA Department. While most Chairmen of DPDC has military backgrounds, a few are selected from the civilians and there are a total of 62 districts in the Burmese administration.
Divisional and State level PDC are controlled and are under the charge of the commander of the military regional command in their respective regions.


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The Bad Boy Magnum with a 54″ Deck and the 725cc Kohler Pro 7000 Engine is a no compromise mower that may be all new, but it's still built to last
Most mowers at this price are made from flimsy stamped steel and bolted together. So if you're looking for the efficiencies of a zero-turn mower at a price that does not compromise on quality construction and quality of cut turn to the MZ Magnum.
With its all new, larger and stronger frame sporting an even stronger 7-gauge all-steel, fabricated deck the MZ Magnum is far more substantial in build quality than other mowers in this price range. Youll immediately appreciate the rock-solid, all-steel welded construction, powerful engine and 'too much fun to call it work' ride.


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California Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto is offering a penny for your thoughts–actually, 250,000 pennies–in a new X-Prize bill he is sponsoring.
Capitol Public Radio reported that the proposed legislation will reward citizens $25,000 if they can solve specific problems or come up with an innovative idea to streamline government. X-Prizes have become a popular incentive device to inspire employees in private industry to help their employers solve various company problems.
Gatto has created a pilot program that would go into effect in 2015. "I imagine somewhere in Silicon Valley there's some young guy or some young gal who has some really neat, new application to streamline California government," the congressman asserted. "And I think for the renown that would come with winning this contest, and the small prize, I think that person would probably give us that intellectual property."
According to AB2138, the innovation contests would be open to all residents of California who are not employees of the state. Specifically, under Gatto's bill, $75,000 would be allocated for the prizes and there would be three winners each would receive up to $25,000. The X-Prizes have been introduced on the federal level as well.