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Hubei, Wade-Giles romanization Hu-pei, conventional Hupeh, sheng (province) lying in the heart of China and forming a part of the middle basin of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). Until the reign of the great Kangxi emperor (1661–1722) of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), Hubei and its southern neighbour Hunan formed a single province, Huguang. They were then divided and given their present names, based on their location in relation to Dongting Lake: Hubei, meaning, "North of the Lake"; and Hunan, "South of the Lake."
In addition to Hunan, Hubei is bordered by Chongqing municipality to the west and by the provinces of Shaanxi to the northwest, Henan to the north and northeast, Anhui to the east, and Jiangxi to the southeast. Its capital is Wuhan, the composite name of the three former cities (and now districts) of Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang, which lie at the confluence of the Han River and the Yangtze at a point approximately 600 miles (965 km) from the sea and halfway between Shanghai and Chongqing. Area 72,400 square miles (187,500 square km). Pop. (2010) 57,237,740.
Most of Hubei province lies immediately north of the Yangtze River. Hubei is bounded on the north by the eastern extension of the axis of the Qin (Tsinling), Tongbai, and Dabie mountains. In the southeast the Mufu Mountains divide the province from Jiangxi. Along its south-central border there is no clear physical divide apart from the Yangtze itself; a lake-studded alluvial plain continues uninterruptedly southward to Dongting Lake in Hunan. The Wuling Mountains form the boundary between southwestern Hubei and northwestern Hunan. Western Hubei has highlands that lie at an elevation above 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) and consist of the eastern extension of two ranges, the Daba and Fangdou mountains, marking the boundary between Hubei and Chongqing.
The level of the land falls rapidly, from west to east, to the lake plain, much of which is no more than 200 feet (60 metres) above sea level. This flat or gently undulating country is often suddenly interrupted by steeply rising isolated hills or ranges. The plain is the remnant of a former depression or old lake basin formed in the Pliocene Epoch (about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago), which has largely been filled with eroded red sandstone from Sichuan province. The process of filling in is not yet complete; in consequence, large areas adjoining the Yangtze and Han rivers are covered by innumerable shallow lakes.
Drainage and soils
The Yangtze cuts its way from the Sichuan Basin through the Daba Mountains through the magnificent Three Gorges region. Prior to the completion of the Three Gorges Dam upstream from Yichang, the river descended rapidly there to the Hubei Plain; its flow down to the plain is now largely controlled, and much of the gorges area behind the dam is now inundated. The bed of the river at Yichang is only 130 feet (40 metres) above sea level and is 960 miles (1,550 km) from the sea. From this point onward its velocity decreases and its bed widens as it winds its way across the province from west to east. Finally, it forces a passage between the Mufu and Dabie ranges into Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. There the river again narrows to less than 0.5 mile (0.8 km) in width. In its course through Hubei the Yangtze receives the waters of two major tributaries, the Han and the Qing rivers. It also receives, through Dongting Lake, the entire drainage of Hunan. The Han, itself a considerable river even by Chinese standards, rises in the Qin Mountains and flows eastward in Shaanxi province for about 200 miles (320 km). On entering Hubei, it turns south in a much broader valley, or floodplain, and widens its bed, which varies from half a mile to a mile in width over much of this stretch. About 100 miles (160 km) from its confluence with the Yangtze at the Hankou (kou, "mouth") district of Wuhan, it turns east, threads its way through a maze of lakes, and, in the last few miles, narrows its bed to a mere 750 feet (230 metres)—a factor that is responsible for much flooding in summer.
The variation in the regime of the Yangtze between summer and winter is striking. At Hankou, where the river is nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, the average difference between summer and winter levels is 45 feet (14 metres). In winter the river is sluggish, with many shallows, and is navigable up to Hankou only by specially built flat-bottomed river steamers. Prior to completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the onset of the spring and summer rains dramatically changed the situation, and the river came down as a mighty flood. In times of exceptional flooding, as in 1931 and 1954, the flow reaches astronomical figures. Flooding of large areas of the surrounding low-lying land was normal each summer, when river and lakes combined. The Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited the area in the 13th century, reported that in places the river was more than 10 miles (16 km) wide; his report was discredited as a gross exaggeration, but he had seen the Yangtze in the summer flood. The new dam has greatly reduced the incidence of seasonal flooding. In summer Hankou is an ocean port, capable of receiving vessels of 10,000 to 15,000 tons. There are, however, navigational hazards at this time. Great care has to be taken that a vessel does not stray from the true river course and become grounded in more shallow water. If this happens, refloating is an urgent matter as the river is prone to quite rapid falls in level, and the vessel may be left stranded for a year.
Hubei lies in a neutral soil zone between the pedocals (soils of arid or semiarid regions, enriched in lime) of North China and the pedalfers (soils of humid regions, enriched in alumina and iron) of the South. The uplands are mainly brown mountain earth, the lower hilly lands yellow-brown soil, and the lowlands alluvium and red earth.
Hubei's precipitation follows the general Chinese seasonal pattern, governed by the rain-bearing monsoon winds. Hankou has an average minimum precipitation of about an inch (25 mm) in December and a maximum of almost 10 inches (250 mm) in June, with a total annual fall of about 50 inches (1,250 mm). Rainfall throughout the province decreases from southeast to northwest. Much of this rainfall is caused by the wet summer monsoons, which pass down the Yangtze valley from west to east. Occasionally, as in the summer of 1931, a series of cyclones passes down the valley in rapid succession, bringing phenomenal rainfall and disastrous flooding. Since 1949 considerable effort has been directed toward flood-control measures in the valley, in particular the Three Gorges project.
Hubei winters, although usually short, are often rigorous, with heavy and glazed frost and some snow brought by bitter north winds in January and February, when the average temperatures are 40 °F (4 °C) and 43 °F (6 °C), respectively. Summers are hot, with July temperatures averaging 85 °F (29 °C), and are long and oppressive because of the high relative humidity. Any light breeze by day tends to die out in the evening, leading to intolerable nights when mothers bring their bamboo beds into the streets and sit fanning their children through the weary hours. There are about 270 frost-free days in the south and about 250 in the north annually.
Plant and animal life
The natural vegetation of Hubei is dense forest, but this was cleared from the lowlands and hills many centuries ago, leaving only the western highlands densely wooded. The forests and woodlands consist mainly of pines, cedars, camphor, yellow sandalwood, maples, and poplars. As a result of deforestation, soil erosion has been serious. Despite sporadic efforts to plant the hillsides with trees during the early decades of the 20th century, the poverty of the people and the demand for fuel led to the continued stripping of trees. Since 1949 there has been a determined effort at afforestation and its maintenance.
There is a sparsity of large wild animals. Some small barking deer are found in the scant cover on the hills rising from the plain. Deer and wild pigs are plentiful in the wooded mountains in the west. The once-extinct Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) has been reintroduced to game reserves in the province. There is abundant birdlife, including wild ducks and pheasants, and the rivers abound with fish, including such threatened species as the Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) and the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius).
Population composition
Hubei's ethnic composition is largely homogeneous, being overwhelmingly Han (Chinese). Their dialect is closely akin to pure Mandarin. Most of the minority peoples are Hui (Chinese Muslims), who are widely scattered throughout north Hubei and the Han plain. There are some Tujia and Hmong (called Miao in China) people in the highlands of the southwest.
Settlement patterns
Population distribution in Hubei is more than half rural, the proportion similar to that found in the rest of China. The main concentrations of rural population are found in the lake plain around the Yangtze and lower Han, notably from Wuhan downriver to Huangshi; the lower Han basin below Zhongxiang (formerly Anlu) to Wuhan; and between Yichang and Shashi. A smaller concentration is found at Xiangfan at the confluence of the Han and Tangbai rivers. There the villages are often strung along high mud riverbanks, which give safety in time of flood. Villages are small, usually 10 families or fewer, and are usually about a mile or so apart.
Urban population is concentrated in a few large towns and a large number of small ones. The conurbation of Wuhan is the second largest industrial and commercial centre in the Yangtze basin. Of its three constituent cities, Hankou is the commercial and industrial centre; Hanyang, formerly residential, is now largely industrialized; and Wuchang is the administrative, educational, and cultural hub of the province. Other large cities are Huangshi, Shashi, Yichang, and Xiangfan. In the past, many of the larger towns were walled; many of these walls have been demolished and the stone used for building and road construction.
Hubei is located in the agricultural transition zone between the wheat-growing North and the rice-growing South; it is one of China's leading rice-producing provinces. In southern and southeastern Hubei, where rainfall is greater and irrigation more easily practiced, most of the cultivated land is devoted to rice growing. In northern parts, where rainfall is less and variability greater, rice occupies less of the cultivated area and wheat much more. Most of the paddy area is planted with a single crop—middle-season rice (rice planted in the middle of the season after winter wheat or barley has been harvested)—newer strains of which have a growing period of only 90 days. Winter crops grown on paddy fields are usually wheat, barley, and broad beans. Irrigation in the hilly lands is accomplished predominantly by means of gravity from ponds dammed higher up in the valleys. On the plains, where water has to be raised, wooden paddle pumps operated by hand are still used, but electrical pumping stations are rapidly replacing human labour. Food production decreases rapidly westward, where cultivation is confined mainly to deep valleys in the highlands.
Hubei ranks high among the Chinese provinces as a producer of cash crops, of which cotton is the most important. The main growing area lies north of the Yangtze in a belt stretching from Shashi eastward along the lower Han to Wuhan. Other important economic crops are vegetable oils (sesame, peanut [groundnut], and rapeseed) and fibres (ramie and hemp). Ramie is the fibre from which grass cloth, or China linen, is made. Some tea is grown on the hills in the southeast. Tung oil, a valuable forest product used in paints and varnishes, comes mainly from the western regions and the upper reaches of the Han and Yuan rivers. Of growing importance in the province are fruit farming, livestock raising (pigs and poultry), and aquaculture.
Resources and power
Hubei's mineral wealth consists chiefly of iron, copper, and phosphorus ores; coal; and gypsum. Some of China's richest and best iron ore is found at Daye in southeastern Hubei. The exploitation of this ore and of coking coal from Pingxiang in Jiangxi was the basis for the founding of an ironworks at Hanyang at the end of the 19th century. Ore from Daye and other mines was also the basis for the establishment of the Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation, one of China's largest integrated ironworks. Copper is found at Yangxin in the east and also at Daye. Reserves are large compared to those of other provinces, and production has increased considerably. Bituminous coal is found in the west and anthracite (hard coal) in the south and east. There are large reserves of gypsum and salt in the northeast
Construction began in 1994 on the enormous Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River at Sandouping, some 25 miles (40 km) upstream of Yichang. The project was designed to provide water conservation, flood control, and hydroelectric power for the regions downstream of the dam. The dam wall itself was completed in 2006, and it has since impounded an enormous reservoir that stretches upstream well into Chongqing municipality. The dam's hydroelectric station has an installed capacity of 22,500 megawatts. The first turbines began generating electricity in 2003, and the hydroelectric station reached full generating capacity in 2012. Power is now distributed eastward to Hubei and several adjacent provinces, and transmission lines reach Shanghai on the East China Sea coast.
After 1949, when Wuhan was restored to its traditional role as a national centre of trade and transportation, the tri-city area came to play an important role in the province's economic development. In 1983 the conurbation was given economic power on a level with the provincial government. The Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation plant, completed in 1961, was followed by other large iron and steel works in the area, as well as by a wide variety of other heavy and light industries. Wuhan is now one of the most important industrial centres in China. Huangshi has also developed as a large iron and steel centre. Shiyan, in northwestern Hubei, as well as Xianfan and Wuhan to the southeast, collectively have become a major national hub of the automotive industry. In addition, the Wuchang district in Wuhan has a large shipyard, and a number of foreign-built plants in the province produce chemical fertilizers.
For more than 2,000 years waterways have been the main means of communication in Hubei. Wuhan, known historically as "the thoroughfare of nine provinces," is the largest inland port in the country. The Yangtze and Han rivers, with their tributaries, are used by all manner of craft. Until the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, large oceangoing freighters could reach only to Hankou, above which smaller craft could penetrate much farther inland. However, the dam makes possible navigation by large ships up to Yichang, and locks near the dam facilitate access to the reservoir and allow navigation all the way to Chongqing. Huge coaster junks from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces also sail up and down the Yangtze, and the small stern-oared huazi—each rowed from the stern by one man—ply the smaller streams. In addition to the rivers, the lake plain is a network of drainage channels that are used for communication by the local people.
Until 1957 Hubei's railways consisted entirely of the Beijing-Hankou (Wuhan) and Wuchang-Guangzhou (Canton) line, which ran from north to south across the province. Because of political unrest, corruption, and lack of funds, by 1949 the Beijing-Hankou line was in a parlous state; rapid repair work was carried out by the communist government. In 1957 the completion of the bridge over the Yangtze between Hanyang and Wuchang—the first bridging of the river over its entire length—wrought a revolution in the system by greatly increasing the value and efficiency of the whole north-south line from Beijing to Guangzhou.
More than half of the pre-1949 road network was rendered unusable by the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) and subsequent civil war. Since 1949, much reconstruction and repair work has been done, and new roads have been built. Wuhan is a locus for major north-south and east-west express highways.
Wuhan also has become an important national centre for international and domestic air traffic. Air services, formerly entirely under central government control, have been supplemented by a number of regional carriers, as well as by foreign ones. Several other cities also provide domestic air service, including Xiangfan and Yichang.
Government and society
Constitutional framework
From 1950 to 1954 Hubei was part of the Central South greater administrative region. In 1954 provincial government was established directly under the central government. In 1958 local government was greatly modified by the formation of communes, which took over the duties of the rural districts and market towns (xiang and zhen) and were made responsible for the functioning of all local life at this level. During the early years of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) Hubei was governed by a Revolutionary Committee composed of party cadres, the army, and the revolutionary mass organizations. The Revolutionary Committee was replaced in 1980 by the People's Government, which is the administrative arm of the People's Congress. The commune system was abolished in the 1980s, and the township government pattern of the 1950s was reestablished. Hubei is now divided administratively into 12 prefecture-level municipalities (dijishi) and one autonomous prefecture (zizhizhou). Below that level are districts under the municipality (shixiaqu), counties (xian), autonomous counties (zizhixian), county-level municipalities (xianjishi), and one forest region (shengnongjia linqu).
Health and welfare
Before 1949 there were large, efficient modern hospitals, run by Christian missions and secular bodies in both Hankou and Wuchang; good though many were, they were inadequate to meet the needs of the rural people. Insofar as rural needs were met at all, they were served by medical missionaries and nurses, scattered sparsely throughout the province, as well as by Chinese doctors, herbalists, and acupuncturists. From the 1950s the city hospital services were greatly enlarged, offering a choice of Western or Chinese medicine; however, most attention has been paid to public health and to preventive medicine. Debilitating diseases such as schistosomiasis (a parasitic disease) and malaria were attacked; drinking water and the proper disposal of sewage were supervised; standards of personal hygiene and of the cleanliness of streets and public places were raised. These measures, and the equitable distribution of food, have served to improve health and increase production.
The educational pattern in Hubei is similar to that in the rest of the country. From 1949 onward determined efforts have been made to overcome illiteracy. By 1970 it was estimated that nearly two-thirds of the people were literate, and this proportion has steadily grown. Wuchang, which was the early capital of the ancient province of Huguang, has remained the educational and cultural heart of Hubei. Under the Nationalist government (1928–49), the former Ziqiang Institute (1893) was designated a national university (now Wuhan University; 1928) and built on one of the three large lakes outside the old walled city, and a Christian university (eventually called Huachung University; 1922) was established inside the city itself. After 1949 both these institutions were incorporated into the new educational system, which now includes several dozen institutions of higher learning throughout the province.
Cultural life
In common with all other provinces, Hubei has experienced considerable change in its cultural life since 1949. The great extension of education and the increase in literacy have had a far-reaching effect. In the cities, museums and libraries have been opened and are much patronized. Large stadia, sports halls, and swimming pools have also been built. The theatre still retains great popularity, particularly the regional operatic form known as Chu opera.
The rural areas, no less than the towns, have undergone great cultural change. Electricity has been extended to villages and hamlets. Every village of any size now has its own stores, its library, and its hall, in which meetings are convened, health clinics are held, and table tennis is played. Being probably better lighted than individual homesteads, the hall has become the place where villagers assemble to chat or listen to the radio or watch television. Storytelling—an agelong profession, which is still very popular—serves to preserve folklore. Country life is enlivened by occasional visits of professional players, entertainers, and acrobats.
Hubei province is rich in natural and historical sites that are draws for a growing number of tourists. The imposing Three Gorges region of the Yangtze is world-renowned. Shennongjia Nature Reserve, in the western Daba Mountains, is celebrated for its dense woods and abundant and highly varied plant and animal life. Other popular tourist destinations include Dong (East) Lake and Huanghe (Yellow Crane) Pavilion in Wuhan and the collection of ancient religious and secular buildings on Mount Wudang (also in the Daba Mountains), which collectively were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.
When Chinese civilization was slowly evolving in the Henan-Shanxi region during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (17th to mid-3rd century bce), Hubei formed part of the kingdom of Chu. Hubei was subjugated by Shihuangdi (reigned 221–210 bce), founding emperor of the Qin dynasty (221–207 bce), who created the first united empire of China; it was finally assimilated into the Chinese state under the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). Hubei at that time was described by the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian as:
a large territory, sparsely populated, where people eat rice and drink fish soup; where land is tilled with fire and hoed with water; where people collect fruits and shellfish for food; where people enjoy self-sufficiency without commerce. The place is fertile and suffers no famine and hunger. Hence the people are lazy and poor and do not bother to accumulate wealth.
From this time on, the facility of communications afforded by its river system has caused Hubei to figure prominently in Chinese history.
Since the mid-19th century it has been the centre of many momentous events, sometimes to its sorrow. The Taiping Rebellion, led by a Hakka, Hong Xiuquan, broke out in Guangxi in 1850, after which the rebel armies moved north, taking Wuchang in 1852. During the succeeding decade the central plains of Hubei and Hunan were devastated by fighting and banditry. After China's defeat in the second Opium, or Arrow, War of 1856–60, the Hubei cities of Hankou and Yichang were opened to Western nations as commercial ports; a third city, Shashi, was opened to trade in the 1890s. From this time on, European influence in central China steadily increased. Hankou became the head of international oceangoing traffic. In the first 20 years (i.e., until 1880) trade was based almost exclusively on tea, but, with increasing competition from India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Hankou became the centre for the collection and processing of other central Chinese raw materials, notably vegetable oils, egg products, and tobacco.
Hubei's industrialization began with the establishment of the Hanyeping ironworks in Hanyang by Zhang Zhidong, the governor of the province, who also established a cotton mill in Wuchang opposite Hankou. The ironworks had a checkered career. At first it enjoyed some government protection and tax exemption but later suffered from internal political unrest and instability, lack of capital, and poor management. Subsequently a Japanese concern gained financial control with a view to securing ore from Hubei for its ironworks in Japan. The Hanyang works were allowed, even induced, to fall into decay. They were destroyed by bombing during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45 and were restored only after the advent of the communist government in 1949.
The Chinese Revolution of 1911–12 began in Hubei. The army in Hankou mutinied, and the soldiers took the cities of Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang. Yuan Shikai led his northern troops, on behalf of the emperor, against them and retook Hankou but was unable to cross the Yangtze and eventually retired from the field. This was the only significant fighting during the revolution. The province was ruled by a warlord (dujun) from 1916 to 1927, but from 1928 to 1938 there was some attempt at local government of a democratic Western pattern. When Nanjing was taken by the Japanese in 1937, Hankou became a temporary headquarters for the Nationalists; after the Nationalist retreat to Chongqing in 1938, much of Hubei came under Japanese control. A period of near-chaos after the Japanese defeat in 1945 ended with the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.Thomas R. Tregear Victor C. Falkenheim The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
China: Constitutional movements after 1905…some troops into Sichuan from Hubei; some other troops in Hubei mutinied and suddenly occupied the capital city, Wuchang, on October 10. That date became the memorial day of the Chinese Revolution.…
Zhang ZhidongZhang's transfer to Hunan and Hubei was occasioned by his proposal to build a railway from Hankou to a point near Beijing. Giving its assent, the court also appointed Zhang in charge of the construction. After a long delay the line was completed in 1906. Meanwhile, Zhang had set about…
Yangtze River
Yangtze River, longest river in both China and Asia and third longest river in the world, with a length of 3,915 miles (6,300 kilometres). Its basin, extending for some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from west to east and for more than…
Kangxi, reign name ( nianhao) of the second emperor (reigned 1661–1722) of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1644–1911/12). To the Chinese empire he added areas north…
Qing dynasty
Qing dynasty, last of the imperial dynasties of China, spanning the years 1644 to 1911/12. Under the Qing the territory of the empire grew to treble its size under the preceding Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the population grew from some 150 million…
More About Hubei2 references found in Britannica articles
Assorted References
- association with Zhang Zhidong
- significance in Chinese Revolution


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High sensitivity, high resolution CMOS sensor with 30x zoom
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Fujinon 30x Optical Zoom (24mm-720mm)* & Super Macro
FUJINON zoom lenses with fast apertures of f/3.1 to f/5.9 With 15 elements in 11 groups, the lens combines aspherical and ED elements to good effect for reduced aberration and superior image quality. With Super-Macro Mode capturing subjects as close as 2cm from the lens, the FinePix F6800 seamlessly covers an enormous focal range with no need to ever change lenses.
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This mode uses Multi Frame technology to capture three consecutive photos shot at high speed?under-exposed, normal exposure, and over-exposed. The three images are then layered to an optimum balance of detail in shadow and highlights, eliminating "blackout" or "washout" and producing pleasing, natural gradations.
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For families looking for new family activity ideas, our family night and weekend family activity pages have something for everyone.
Helping busy families connect over dinner is what our family meals section is all about. Offering family fun ideas to liven up the most somber of meals.
For families looking to add some family fun to their holidays, visit our holiday pages for creative and inspiring ideas – New Years, Valentine's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas
From community service projects to inspiring and teaching compassion, our family giving section has some creative suggestions for getting involved in your local community.
How to Add Fun into Your Family Life
With the ever growing demands from school, jobs, and extracurricular activities, family fun can sometimes get lost or forgotten. Add fun back into your family life with these simple ideas:
Avoid Overscheduling – Be realistic about family activities and commitments and avoid taking on too much. Running from activity to activity or being buried in too many commitments leaves no time for family time and having fun.
Try New Things – Add some spice to your family life and enjoy the family fun and adventure of trying new things. Sometimes all it takes is a change to the traditional habits and routines for families to learn to laugh again.
Learn from Other Families – Watch and learn how other families add family fun into their lives. Use their laughter as inspiration to create your own family fun.
Make it a Priority – Avoid the pitfalls of "too much work and no play" by making family fun and family time a priority.
How to Fit Quality Family Time into Your Busy Schedules
If your family is anything like ours, you are running in a million different directions. Soccer games on Tuesday, PTA meetings on Monday, business trips on Thursday and Friday, and Sunday everyone collapses from exhaustion. In all the hustle and bustle of daily life, it gets very easy to forego family time. After all, the bills need paid, groceries bought, and homework done. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day or week. And then many families ask, "Why do we need family time at all anyway?" We see and talk to each other every day (though admittedly it may be as we pass each other in the door), email each other daily, and frankly the kids aren't complaining. So why add to our already busy schedules? Because simply, our kids crave it. Yes, they may not be asking, but in the end all kids really want from their parents is their undivided, non-distracted time.
For the most part, kids are very adaptable. They learn to go with the flow, know when the right and wrong time is to ask us for something, and learn that sometimes it is just easier not to ask. And sometimes kids just don't know the words to express what they are feeling or what they need from us. So their frustrations come out as crankiness, whining, and bad behavior. So what's a family to do? Follow these tips and you will be on your way to regular fun filled family time.
Schedule Regular Family Time – Grab your family calendar and schedule your family time for this month on everyone's calendar. Once it's scheduled, protect it like gold. This means saying no to the last minute birthday party your son gets invited to, saying no the PTA president who desperately needs you to manage the book fair, and saying no to your boss when she asks you to work late.
Plan It – Nothing ruins a family outing more than waiting until the last minute to figure out what to do. Agree as a family ahead of time what you will do and then make your reservations, print your maps, organize your supplies, and fill your car with gas ahead of time.
Make it Fun – Discuss together as a family what fun things everyone would like to do. Make sure everyone's voice is heard and negotiate differences. If time or money is a concern, then it may be a good idea for the parents to come up with a pre-approved list from which the kids can choose.
Turn Off the TV, Video Games, and Computer -Nothing takes away from quality family time like a TV blaring in the background. Give your family a chance to connect without all the background noise and you will be amazed at the things you learn and how much you laugh.
Make it a Priority – This is the hardest thing for many families to do, but if you can accomplish this everything else will be much easier.
So schedule and plan your family time now. Your kids will thank you for those "little things" later.


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Dr. John M. Freeman, an internationally renowned Johns Hopkins pediatric neurologist and expert in pediatric epilepsy who had also been a medical ethicist, died Friday of cardiovascular disease at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The longtime Ruxton resident was 80.
"Few Hopkins physicians have had a more profound effect than John Freeman on how we treat young patients who suffer from epilepsy and congenital abnormalities — and how we address the often-difficult ethical issues surrounding these potentially heart-breaking cases," said Ronald R. Peterson, president of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
"The sensitive, compassionate patient care to which the Johns Hopkins Hospital is dedicated has been enhanced immeasurably by John Freeman's unwavering concern for patient dignity and determination to improve the lives of those entrusted to his care," said Mr. Peterson.
John Mark Freeman, the son of Leon L. Freeman, a real estate developer, and Florence Kann Freeman Lippman, a volunteer and homemaker, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and raised in Great Neck, N.Y.
After graduating in 1950 from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield. Mass., Dr. Freeman earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 from Amherst College where he was an honors graduate, and went on to complete his medical studies in 1958 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
From 1958 to 1961, he was an intern, assistant resident and senior resident in pediatrics at the Harriet Lane Home of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In 1961, he began a three-year fellowship in neurology and child neurology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, and from 1964 to 1966, was a research physician while serving in the Army at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, before joining the faculty of Stanford University.
Dr. Freeman returned to Hopkins in 1969 and rose through the academic ranks, becoming a full professor in pediatrics and neurology. From 1969 to 1990, he was director of the Pediatric Neurology Service at Hopkins Hospital, and he was concurrently director of the Birth Defects Treatment Center at the East Baltimore hospital.
In 1991, he was he was named the Lederer Professor of Pediatric Epilepsy, a position he retained until becoming an emeritus professor in 2007.
It was Dr. Freeman's iconoclastic questioning of established medical practices that revolutionized the treatment of pediatric epilepsy and became the hallmark of his work.
He became a forceful advocate of two long-abandoned therapies — one that required a strict, unconventional high-fat diet, the other involving surgery to remove half of the brain of children that were tormented by unremitting epileptic seizures — which led to their revival and current acceptance as effective treatments.
"A high-fat, low-carbohydrate regimen that change's the body's metabolism so that the brain gets its energy from ketones, a fat byproduct, rather than glucose, or sugar, initially was developed in the 1920s but largely abandoned once chemical anti-seizure medications such as Dilantin (phenytoin) were created in the 1930s. As recently as 1995, many physicians considered KD no longer a viable treatment," according to a Hopkins announcement of Dr. Freeman's death.
Dr. Guy McKhann, founding head of the Hopkins' Department of Neurology, explained in the announcement that Dr. Freeman's "resurrection of KD," which completely eliminated the epileptic seizures of many patients, was accomplished "virtually all by himself, against great skepticism and opposition."
One of Dr. Freeman's patients who was permanently cured of seizures because of the Ketogenic Diet was the son of Hollywood producer, writer and director Jim Abrahams, who was prompted to lead an extensive publicity campaign to promote KD treatment in the late 1990s.
Mr. Abrahams established The Charlie Foundation, named for his son, to promote the diet. He also produced an educational DVD for parents and health care professionals, collaborated on a "Dateline" program regarding KD, and produced "First, Do No Harm," a 1997 made-for-TV movie that starred actress Meryl Streep.
He also funded the first edition of Dr. Freeman's book, "Ketogenic Diets: Treatments for Epilepsy and Other Disorders," that was written with Millicent Kelly and Jennifer B. Freeman, Dr. Freeman's daughter, who lives in New York City, and is now in its fifth printing.
In 1990, Dr. Freeman and his co-authors Eileen P.G. Vining and the late Diana J. Pillas, who was the longtime coordinator-counselor of the Pediatric Epilepsy Center, wrote "Seizures and Epilepsy in Childhood; A Guide for Parents."
Today, Dr. Freeman's ketogenic diet is now considered a mainstream medical treatment and is now offered in more than 45 countries across the world, and new studies indicate it may be an effective treatment for autism, brain tumors, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.
The second medical treatment that Dr. Freeman revived was the use of hemispherectomies, or the removal of half of the brain, to end crippling seizures, and in this work he was joined by famed pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson.
In an email, Dr. Carson, who is now retired, explained that Dr. Freeman, whom he described as "a wonderful teacher and mentor," got him interested in seizure surgery.
"He helped work out many of the techniques and problems associated with cerebral hemispherectomy as well as many other neurosurgical issues affecting patients from around the world," wrote Dr. Carson. "He cared deeply about the patients and had very admirable relationships with many of them and their parents. His shoes will be hard to fill."
Dr. Eileen P.G. "Patti" Vining, a Johns Hopkins professor of neurology and pediatrics who recently retired as director of the John Freeman Pediatric Epilepsy Center, formerly the Hopkins' epilepsy center, was a student of Dr. Freeman's.
"Hemispherectomies help relieve their burdens. They are better. John was stubborn — he had great courage. When he realized that children with devastating epilepsies involving one half of their brains were doomed, he was able to convince hesitant surgeons to live in the present and begin to perform hemispherectomies again," said Dr. Vining.
"He believed we had better procedures and technologies that would make it safe," she said. "He couldn't and wouldn't abandon those children and their families to a life without rational option. They loved him ever since."
In addition to his work with epilepsy, Dr. Freeman, who believed in maintaining the dignity of individual patients, was the founding chairman of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Ethics Committee and co-director of an undergraduate medical student course in bioethics.
He was also a member of the original faculty of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and established the Freeman Family Fund in Clinical Bioethics to help support the salary of a faculty member to teach that subject.
In 2001, Dr. Freeman and co-author Kevin McDonnell, professor of philosophy at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind., published the still-influential book, "Tough Decisions: A Casebook in Medical Ethics."
Dr. Freeman's work brought him recognition from the American Epilepsy Society, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Epilepsy Foundation of America and the Child Neurology Society's Hower Award, its highest honor.
The Hower Award's citation described his 40-year career as one where he "played the role of gadfly, critic, and skeptic, the asker of well-formulated questions."
Dr. Freeman had a well-honed sense of humor which he willing shared with his pediatric patients, keeping them amused and calm during examinations.
"John said about himself that he was a curmudgeon," recalled Dr. Vining. "But he didn't accept the classic definition of a crusty, ill-tempered old man. He thought of himself as willing to point out errors or hypocrisy with a sense of humor."
Dr. Freeman enjoyed playing tennis, backgammon and hiking.
"He enjoyed cooking and especially liked making soup," said his wife of 57 years, the former Elaine Kaplan, who retired from Hopkins Medicine, where she had been vice president of corporate communications.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Sol Levinson and Bros. Inc., 8900 Reisterstown Road.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Dr. Freeman is survived by two sons, Andrew D. Freeman of Baltimore and Joshua L. Freeman of Chevy Chase; a brother, Donald D. Freeman of Silver Spring; a step-sister, Laura Lippman Sager of New York City; and six grandchildren.


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The Buccaneers have signed former Bears tight end Kyle Adams, the club said Wednesday.
Adams is a needed addition to a position thinned by injury. The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Adams perhaps could contribute with rookie Tim Wright (6-3, 220) in two-TE sets. At present, they are the only tight ends on the Buccaneers' active roster.
A third tight end, Matt Veldman, is on the Bucs' practice squad.
Adams, 25, appeared in 24 regular-season NFL games with Chicago from 2011 through 2013. He played 11 snaps on offense and 14 snaps on special teams in the Bears' season-opening win vs. Cincinnati, then was waived the next day.
Wright, 23, is second on the Bucs in catches (34), receiving yards (366) and targets (44).
Three Buccaneers tight ends are on injured reserve: Nate Byham, Tom Crabtree and Luke Stocker.


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As we learned last week, members of the Ravens' 2000 championship squad are rooting for the 2012 team, but if the modern-day Ravens could go back in time and play them, the 2000 team is confident it would win.
"If you asked me to pick a team to win, well, of course the 2000 Ravens," guard Mike Flynn told our Ed Lee.
Ray Lewis, the only man still standing from the Super Bowl XXXV team, believes the teams are similar.
"When you think about this team and the 2000 [Super Bowl team], the...


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Montana's Number One Killer – Prescription Drugs [AUDIO]
There were about 165 children every day seen in emergency rooms throughout the country last year after getting into prescription medications.
Coordinator of the Missoula Underage Substance Abuse Prevention Program team Brandy Tyree says in Montana, more than twice as many people died from prescription drugs than were killed by drunk drivers last year.
Tyree says prescription drugs are safe and useful when taken correctly. There will be a community discussion on protecting children from the misuse of prescription drugs, along with a drug take-back event on Tuesday, January 15th at 7 pm on the 3rd floor of the University Center. Special speakers will include Missoula Police Department Detective Dean Chrestenson, Dr. Greg Kazemi, from the St. Patrick Hospital Emergency Room, and Kenzie Clarke, from The University of Montana School of Pharmacy.
Coordinator of the Missoula Underage Substance Abuse Prevention Program team Brandy Tyree


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My representative knows me by name, knows exactly what I need and treats me like I am the only customer he has no matter how busy he is. It's this personal attention that makes me truly value my relationship with Kim Supply.
John, Brownsburg Car Wash
After dealing with different car wash suppliers over the years, I was struck by Kim Supply's responsive customer service. I have always believed that you get what you pay for, and with Kim Supply, I finally found a company that delivered my money's worth with excellent prices and customer service!
Rod, Victor Car Wash
With a car wash operation as large as ours, we cannot afford to be down for very long. When we order from Kim Supply, we get our order the very next day. They keep us up and running with speedy shipping, and their prices are competitive.
Tim, Waterway Gas & Wash


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Author Notes: My favorite green beans are those skinny French ones, sometimes labeled haricots verts. This salad is very simple and easy, but it could be a base for building much more. Walnuts or pine nuts, shaved parmesan or ricotta salata would all be excellent additions. Or you could even add rice or pasta and make it a heartier salad. My favorite, though, is just as it is, plain and simple. —[email protected]
Serves: 6
pound French green beans
tablespoon white wine vinegar
large shallot, sliced into rounds
teaspoon salt, plus more for the boiling water
a few grinds of pepper
tablespoons olive oil
In This Recipe
- Trim the stem ends off the beans.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a generous amount of salt. Add the beans and boil just until they are tender, 3 or so minutes. Drain them in a colander and run cold water over them until they are room temperature. Shake the colander to remove any excess water and set them aside.
- To make the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, shallots, salt, and pepper. The shallot will be in large pieces, but that's fine. When you whisk, some pieces will break up and some won't, leaving a nice variety of sizes. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.
- When the beans have drained, place them in a large bowl. Add about three quarters of the dressing and mix. Taste the salad and add more dressing if you like.
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best String Bean Salad
More Great Recipes:
Salad|Bean|Green Bean|Shallot|Vinegar|Vegetable|Make Ahead|Vegetarian|Side


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Skyline Releases Women's Soccer Report #2
- Cerverizzo named Player of the Week, Santos receives Rookie of the Week honors -
Clifton Park, N.Y. - The Skyline Conference released the second Women's Soccer report for the 2010 season this afternoon, including Player of the Week, Rookie of the Week, Honor Roll and Conference statistics.
Junior midfielder Katrina Cerverizzo (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches) was named Skyline Conference Player of the Week. Cerverizzo spurred the Rams to a pair of comeback victories last week. Katrina assisted on the game-winning goal in the 82nd minute as Farmingdale State rallied for a 2-1 victory at Manhattanville. Against Gettysburg at the William Smith Tournament, the Rams trailed 1-0 at halftime before Cerverizzo scored the game-tying goal in the 72nd minute and led to a 2-1 win.
Freshman defender Yvonne Santos (Hicksville, N.Y./Hicksville) was named Skyline Conference Rookie of the Week. Santos picked a big moment to score her first collegiate goal. She scored with just 3:57 left in regulation to lead the Rams to a 2-1 win over Gettysburg College at the William Smith tournament. Farmingdale State trailed 1-0 before pulling even on Cerverizzo's goal in the 72nd minute. Santos' goal in the 87th minute off a free kick capped the comeback.
To view the full report, click HERE.


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BookEnds (http://www.bookends.org)/ is a Los Angeles based non-profit that is tackling the problem of a lack of quality books in underserved areas by facilitating book drives of gently used books in schools where the children have books in their homes and donating those books to classroom libraries in schools where the students have, in many cases, no books at home, and little or no access to school or public libraries.Over the past 12 years, BookEnds has donated over 2 MILLION books to classrooms and youth organiztions in greater Los Angeles. The schools and teachers do not have to pay for the books, the books donated are quality books in excellent condition - think Harry Potter books that have been read once - and BookEnds offers the added benefit of introducing thousands of students to community service. With BookEnds guidance, the BookEnds book drives are organized, marketed, sorted and delivered by the students of one school to the students of the recipient school. It an amazingly simple idea that has had a tremendous impact. California ranks 49th in books per pupil in school libraries and last in access to public libraries. 50% of Los Angeles Unified School District students scored below proficient in state tests in English. 80% of the students who attend the schools that receive books from BookEnds live below the poverty line.So its this simple - many children have lots of books in their homes that they have read and enjoyed and will never read again. Many more children have no books at home and scant access to books at school. By recycling these wonderful, thrilling, beautifully illustrated books and passing them along to another child, we make this world a better, more literate place. Even more impressive, BookEnds was started by an eight year old boy. Beginning with his first book drive, BookEnds has donated over 2.2 milllion books to over 500,000 students and engaged over 220,000 students in community service.
Blogs About Reading
Sound It Out
Dr. Joanne Meier
Along with her background as a professor, researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
Access to summer reading
As we head into summer, we're all being reminded about the importance of summer reading. Children who don't read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect.
Not all kids have access to books. Many, many kids (WAY too many) live in in homes without books. First Book founder Kyle Zimmer suggests that 42% of American children — 31 million — grow up in families where spending money on books is not an option. A new report from London suggests that one in three children in London doesn't own a single book.
The answer to access isn't as easy as "use the library!" While our library system in the U.S. is an incredible resource, libraries face their own budget cuts. In some neighborhoods, this translates into branches with shorter hours or closed altogether, and fewer (and older) books on the shelves of those that are open.
Last summer's meta-analysis report Children's Access to Print Materials and Education-Related Outcomes, commissioned by Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), found that access to print materials improves reading performance, helps kids learn the basics, causes children to read more and for longer periods, produces improved attitudes.
There are huge national efforts to provide access to new books for children in need. First Book is a shining example of that, but more can be done, within your neighborhood, and at your school. At our school we've put together summer reading bags for the past two years. You can read how we set it up at no cost. They've been very successful. Our neighborhood book swap was another great way to get books into the hands of kids; even the kids who didn't bring a book browsed and brought books home. Even our local drycleaner has gotten into the act. When you walk in the door, there's a cardboard box of books free for the taking. Leave one, take one, or just take one, it's a very casual system but it works!
We can increase access to books, and make a difference, just by thinking about creative ways to get books into every child's hands this summer. Do you have any ideas to share?


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The term "isolationist" is much like the word "racist" in that it has become almost useless due to its overuse. For example, if the Left rightly considers Ku Klux Klan members racist—but also members of the Tea Party who merely criticize President Obama "racist"—such a glaring logical disparity cries out for a reassessment of terminology. A word that can mean anything can quickly become meaningless—and it also becomes a great rhetorical weapon in a political environment that substitutes smears for thoughtful debate.
Such was the case at the Wall Street Journal last week which published an editorial entitled: "The Kucinich Republicans: The House GOP turns isolationist on Libya and war powers." The "Kucinich Republicans" were the 87 GOP House members who supported liberal Democrat Dennis Kucinich's bill forcing a withdrawal of American troops from Libya within 15 days. What made these House Republicans "isolationist," according to the WSJ, is that they now undermine the President by challenging his constitutional war powers and questioning his authority according to the War Powers Resolution Act of 1973.
The WSJ makes the case that American presidents have long committed troops or taken military action without Congressional approval. It also makes the case that these same presidents and many on Capitol Hill today consider the War Powers Resolution Act unconstitutional. Said Sen. John McCain: "No president has ever recognized the constitutionality of the War Powers Act, and neither do I. So I don't feel bound by any deadline." Asks columnist George Will: "Oh? No law is actually a law if presidents and senators do not 'recognize' it?"
Will makes a good point. Many Americans and a few in Congress believe the Internal Revenue Service is unconstitutional. Similarly, many also believe the same is true concerning Obamacare. What might happen if the people or their elected officials simply decide not to 'recognize' the legality of either?
The entire purpose of the House of Representatives is that the "people," through their elected representatives, should act as a counterbalance to the Senate and Executive branch, as outlined in the Constitution. The entire overall purpose of our Constitution is to limit the power of the federal government; and it explicitly vests to the president the power of how to wage war—to Congress, when to wage it. Obama now does both while completely ignoring Congress. The inability of so many of our leaders to recognize and respect this important constitutional distinction is indicative of their routine recklessness. That the WSJ considers the historical precedent of routine recklessness justification for virtually unlimited Executive war powers, also suggests that the supposedly conservative newspaper now considers the Constitution itself a moot point.
But if the WSJ finds challenging the constitutionality of Obama's actions in Libya absurd because it also finds the Constitution absurd—perhaps even more ridiculous is calling House Republicans who challenge this war president "isolationist."
To my knowledge, there are no genuine isolationists—those who would build an economic, diplomatic and perhaps literal wall around this country—in modern American politics. There are leaders on Capitol Hill who are regularly called "isolationist," much like there are those in Washington who are called "racist"—but you will find few if any elected officials who truly fit the traditional definition of these terms.
This is particularly true of the charge leveled by the WSJ at the 87 House Republicans who voted to withdraw troops from Libya. Most Americans do not understand why we are in Libya. Many leaders in both parties can't understand why we're in Libya. President Obama cannot give the American people a straight answer as to what interest the US has in Libya.
But who is enthusiastic about the war in Libya? "Obama Republicans" like Sen. McCain. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find an American military intervention overseas in the last few decades that McCain and similar-minded Republicans and Democrats were not enthusiastic about. Because of such consistent bipartisan champions of hyper-interventionism, the US now has arguably the most expansive and globally involved foreign policy in history. We also have a historical debt to match it.
The notion that questioning the wisdom of this foreign policy status quo is "isolationist"—something even outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates says needs serious reassessment—is a rejection of any discernible definition of that term. That the WSJ considers Republicans who question our war in Libya isolationist—a curious situation that not only a majority of Americans but the entire world looks upon with bewilderment—should really disqualify that newspaper from ever using the term again.
There isn't a political trend or movement in this country currently that even remotely approaches genuine isolationism—but the extreme opposite of what that term actually means is treated as a matter of fact and finality in Washington every day. Indeed, if we were to take the WSJ's definition seriously almost every other nation on earth could be considered isolationist. And calling Washington leaders who now insist on limiting the President's power through fidelity to the Constitution "isolationist," makes about as much sense as calling a devout husband a "bad lover" for refusing to share his passion with scores of women.
Wrote Kucinich bill co-sponsor Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) in his response to the Wall Street Journal editorial: "The Constitution is not a list of suggestions; it is the law of the land." To the extent that this President or any other is forced to obey this nation's laws, will also be the extent to which he is prevented from taking America to war needlessly in other lands.
Make no mistake: This is precisely what the political establishment fears most—and it will make any argument or disobey any law necessary to protect the unlimited power to which Washington has become so accustomed.


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How We Learn
I'd like to talk about 3 aspects of knowledge: span, depth and connections between the disciplines. I've come up with a good metaphor to bring these aspects together, and it looks very to the point. Though, I don't like metaphors that much, as they're misleading quite often.
Basically, my metaphor stems from another metaphor according to which people can be broken down into two types. The first type is someone who likes to go over many things in their learning and research. The people of the second type pick just one or two disciplines and dig into them. The first type are foxes, the second type are hedgehogs.
To me, learning looks very much like a geological field research. Imagine that you're facing a new mysterious continent. You know nothing about it. Of course, you can see mountains, forests, rivers but you have no idea of what's in there. You don't know what's over the horizon, is there a sea, how cold this continent is on the north and what's the temperature in the south.
The map
So, you start putting the map together. You send expeditions everywhere and you sketch the local maps. Then you drill surface holes to identify the soul texture and composition. Then you discover oil, gold, diamonds, and you start mining.
Learning follows exactly the same scenario. Let's say you're studying maths. In the beginning you know very little about it. Okay, you count to 10, and you see how three red balls are different from five blue balls. Step by step you're discovering some new territories. You learn multiplication tables, and you're amazed as you get to know the real numbers, or as you find out that it's impossible to divide by zero. You briefly touch upon differential calculus, and for some unknown reason you learn how to take integrals. By the time you're 16, you've got the map of the nearby territories on your hands, but most likely you have no idea of the set theory, topology and functional analysis. It's very unlikely that you've acquired in-depth knowledge in any of the fields in mathematics. Just scooped and scratched the tidbits off of the surface.
High school doesn't provide solid knowledge. You only sketch your map at school as you get ready to drill the surface holes.
Choosing your field can be easy … or difficult. One way or another, there you are at a university. Your teachers rightly assume that you know nothing. The truth is: most of the teachers don't really care where you start your drilling. They deliver their lectures in a boring or in a fun way, and they rarely put any emphasis on the connections between disciplines. Take physicists: they grab differential calculus and use it to solve their problems. No one cares to trace mathematical analysis to physics and to check if it can be used there. Any given scientific field is an island on your map. For some reason, the common belief states that it's your job to build bridges between the islands - or at least to set up a ferry service.
Your map abounds in the white patches of seas and oceans that can hardly be drilled, except for the shelf areas.
The islands of knowledge build up clusters as they become one integral whole for you, and instead of the bridge an archipelago emerges. That's the time when you lay down the foundation for cross-field connections. As these connections take shape, the archipelago transforms into a solid land, good enough to host a highway. For example, you've got this distinct knowledge of what derivatives are, and how they can be applied to mechanics. Bang, there you go, now you definitely see a connection between the motion of bodies and differential calculus.
Why differential calculus is a standalone subject in the school curriculum? Why no one ever says how it can be applied to solving practical tasks?
The contemporary education, at least in this country, does help if you're set to discover and develop the new islands… but not the new continents. Too little attention is paid to the connections, as well as to the paths and the logic of discoveries. That's too bad.
Foxes and Hedgehogs
Back to knowledge span vs. knowledge depth. When you set out to some new field, it's better to put together a map first, that is, to acquire a span of knowledge. That's the only way to be able to dig deep into the subject later and identify the spots for drilling.
For example, you learn programming. It'd be stupid to dive straight into the theoretical depths of the artificial intellect or the lambda calculus. It's equally stupid to rush into some programming language. At the entry level, you need to find out the basics: how programming evolved, what is it for, which branches are available, what are their specifics. Next, it's about the paradigms, types of programming languages, the platforms, how the platforms relate to each other, what are their development trends. Again, it's about sketching a map of the continent called "software development" and understanding where to get started with this map. If you're interested in web development – welcome to the world of JavaScript, functional programming, scripting and markup languages. If you're more into game development, go ahead and look into AI, strictly typified languages and algorithms. Of course, it doesn't mean that you can skip all the rest, but that's the way you identify the spots for deep drilling.
You must be a fox first, to be able to shape-shift into a hedgehog later. That's the problem of today's world: it's much easier to end up being a fox forever, than to become a hedgehog. I feel it myself; it's a lot harder to get deep down into your chosen field of knowledge. You always want to read just one more blog post, check Twitter, take a look at this interesting article or book. When all the world's information is at your fingertips, it's soo tempting to be a fox.
Deep drilling
The spot is selected, and the drill sharpened. So, how to drill now? Watch out for interesting soil layers and horizons. If you reach those layers, you'd never roll back. Beware the space in between the layers - that's where the rocks might crumble. You dig deep into the subject, you read, you do something, and there's a moment when things fall into place. Congrats! You've found the gold.
There's one more good metaphor, I've picked it up in some book. In the beginning you find yourself in the dark room, and you're using touch and feel to discover what's in this room. Then there's an instant, when the lights turn on, and you see very clearly what is where. The same is going on in your head. The light is suddenly on, and all the standalone concepts get precisely aligned. You will never forget that moment, and this clear alignment will always be there. The lights will be on at all times. The overhead lights might dim with time, but they won't go out completely.
At times it's very hard to make yourself keep on drilling. When you see that nothing changes, and you've been pecking this subject for several months with no evident progress, you just want to give up everything and get away to some sunny beach. What are you supposed to do in this case? The answer is the same – keep on doing it. If you give up once, give up twice – you'd lose your self-confidence, that's it. You'd obsess over the thought that you're good for nothing and get stuck at your current layer forever. You have to keep on drilling. You have to get to the first precious layer and experience the "aha!" moment. You have to turn on the lights to see what's in the room.
What's the difference between brilliant programmers and average programmers? It might well be about just one thing: with brilliant programmers, this faith is there all along. They just believe they can't be anything else but brilliant programmers, whereas average programmers never conjure such things and give up on the drilling eventually. The power of faith and self-confidence can work wonders.
What if you don't like the drilling location that you've previously selected? You have to get busy with something else then. If you take no delight in the studies, if you unconsciously register the count of pages in a new book the moment you open it – this subject or this discipline is not for you. Go over your map one more time and find another location. Maybe you'd get interested in UX, or automation, or marketing. With one or two trial drillings you will locate the spots worth putting your effort into.
So, how we learn? What should we do to make the learning process more efficient?
- Turn on "the fox mode" and sketch your map. Identify some starting points for a more in-depth look into the subject.
- Try to make sense of the connections between disciplines and order the studies logically. It's quite easy on the high-level.
- Turn on "the hedgehog mode" and dig deep. You'll have to interrupt the focused digging though to jump to the related subjects, otherwise you won't be able to reach the even deeper layers.
A great teacher would disclose his map to the students, guiding their way and showing implicit connections between the disciplines. Students will never lose their way if they have such a map.
Unfortunately, I haven't come across a teacher who would have done that to his students. So I have to break through the jungle all by myself, working with my machete and carrying my torch, as I put new territories on the map. Hopefully, my children will have better luck.
P.S. Translated from Russian by Olga Kouzina.


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For the last six years, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer advocacy group, has given what it calls the annual "Xtreme Eating Awards" to restaurants for serving excessively large portions and using ingredients deemed to be unhealthy. Some of the most popular eateries in America are among this year's "winners," including family favorites like the Cheesecake Factory, the International House of Pancakes and Maggiano's Little Italy.
The list, which is published on the CSPI website, rates restaurant dishes for calorie count as well as fat, sugar and sodium content. Some of the findings are outright startling. Single meals like the Cheesecake Factory's "Bistro Shrimp Pasta," a spaghetti dish with crispy battered shrimp in a cream sauce, easily exceed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) recommended calorie count for an entire day. Even fruit drinks like Smoothie King's "Peanut Power Smoothie with Grapes" that sound healthy are in fact extremely caloric and laden with high amounts of sugar.
96 percent of American chain restaurants serve meal sizes in excess of the USDA recommendations for daily intake of fat and sodium, according to a survey conducted by the RAND Corporation.
These findings stand in stark contrast to the changing eating habits of many Americans who have become more health-conscious in recent years and who would choose to eat better and also less if given the chance. For example, at least one third of interviewed restaurant patrons said they would be agreeable to having their portion sizes reduced if such options were offered, according to studies on the subject.
"People are willing to downsize, but you have to ask them to do it [for them]," said Dr. Janet Schwarz, a psychologist and assistant professor of marketing at Tulane University in an interview with "The Salt," a production of National Public Radio (NPR).
Tests have shown that displaying calorie content, as it is now required for larger restaurant chains, has already made a difference in consumer choices. Researchers also found if people receive such information before they make their purchases, they are more inclined to order less or leave more on the plate than if they already have a big pile of food in front of them. The well-known experiments by Dr. Brian Wansink, a professor for marketing and nutritional science at Cornell University and author of "Mindless Eating – Why We Eat More Than We Think," have demonstrated how our consumption tends to increase proportionally with the amounts of food available to us.
We need to change both sides of the equation, restaurants and their customers, in terms of expectations and what is considered of value, says Dr. Lisa Young, a nutrition professor at New York University (NYU). We all agree that portions have grown much too big over time. "Now that we are in agreement, we need to figure out ways to scale back," she says.
Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book "The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun"®, which is available on her blog, "Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.", and at amazon.com. You can follow Timi on Twitter and on Facebook.


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We're supporting the people of Yorkshire & Humber
Our goal is that everyone in Yorkshire & Humber who wants to be in work should be able to access the right job for them. Higher levels of employment mean greater levels of personal prosperity, plus all the attendant benefits. Our economy also depends on a strong labour market to support its growth. Businesses need access to people who are well-trained, talented, and hard-working, who can help them achieve their goals.
That's why Yorkshire Forward is encouraging skills development and equal access to skills, right across the region. We're working closely with our partners: skills stakeholders from the private, public and voluntary/community sectors.
We have a set of policies which direct how we support people: for example, where to invest, and what kind of activities we deliver. To find out about the policies which relate directly to supporting people in our region, please refer to the section entitled our role.
Jobs for everyone in Yorkshire & Humber
A major objective of the Regional Economic Strategy is to achieve a radical improvement in the development and application of education, learning and skills in Yorkshire & Humber. Find out what we're doing to provide equal access to higher skills.
Raising skill levels in Yorkshire & Humber
Find out what Yorkshire Forward is doing to raise skill levels across the region. More skills, at a higher level, will help to fill some of the skills gaps which have occurred as the region moves from more traditional to newer and knowledge-based industries.
Support for individuals
We have co-ordinated offers available and advice on pre and post-redundancy, tailored for people in Yorkshire.
2012 Olympics and Skills
The London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games present us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to reach out to communities, businesses and individuals across the Yorkshire and Humber region to get them excited about their skills, talents and potential.
How Yorkshire Forward makes a difference
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Equality & diversity
Yorkshire Forward is fully committed to removing barriers to economic opportunity for everyone.
Find the right staff
Struggling to get good people? We support initiatives which match good people to good jobs.


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Re: How to select from ContextMenuStrip without using the mouse?
Hi. I'm a long time visual studio + visual assist user. I've only recently started using vim at home for light coding on my macbook. I found ViEmu and it seems like it can greatly improve my productivity at work plus help me towards my goal of never having to use the mouse.
I've been using the trial version for about a week now and it's mostly fit into my daily workflow. One issue I do have though regards the "Goto Implementation" feature in Visual Assist (VAX). Before ViEmu, I would move the cursor over a keyword and press Alt + G (which is mapped to to VAssistX.GotoImplementation ) to goto that keywords declaration. If there were multiple possibilities, a ContextMenuStrip would pop up. And I could either use the keyboard arrows or the mouse to select between them.
However with ViEmu installed, the arrow keys no longer work. Once I press Alt + G, the options pops up. But then the focus goes back to the text editor. The arrow keys or hjkl move the cursor in the text editor. The only way to select an option from the popup is to use the mouse.
Do other people encounter this issue? Is there a solution that would enable me to use the keyboard to select an option? I posted a screenshot to show the issue.
For reference, I'm using Visual Studio Professional 2005 SP1, Visual Assist X 10.4.1626.1 built 2008.01.17, and ViEmu 2.2.9.
Thanks in advance. And thanks to the ViEmu author for a great product. I will be purchasing a license soon.
EDIT: The screenshot doesn't show up clearly in the post. Here is a direct link to the screenshot. http://imgur.com/NJh0T.png
Last edited by dkgamez (2010-03-11 20:11:53)


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Hi everyone. I am here to show you a project I created for the challenge blog Words & Paintery as a guest designer for their November challenge.
This was the board i had to play with ..
These are the rules
To participate you need to do your interpretation of our challenge and upload a direct link to your project with the help of our Linkytool. The interpretations are free in form (layout, card, art journal, album, canvas) but you need to follow the outlines of the challenge. Each month we will chose a couple of projects that will be highlighted in a special post.
Here is what I created.. I included a whole lot of current and past flowers, embellishments and art mediums from Prima and in particular some of Finnabair's collections.
Thank you for dropping by!
See you again soon X


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See 1992 photograph.
DISCOVER displays photos and descriptions of more than 250 individual historic properties. Local Landmarks (LL), Federal National Register of Historic Places (NR) and potential candidates (D) are designated. Use Search to locate a property by name, street or neighborhood.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
What "Hating America" Really Means
The "liberal" ones have a really easy job, because the "conservative" ones are so into making their core audience angry that they don't even care about making sense to anybody else. If they speak to the other side at all, it's only to pick fights.
One of the crazier statements to come from the "conservative" side is that various Americans hate America.
This group of people which claims this, they've kind of always had a weird denial that their interests are specifically their interests. It's kind of like how Christian fundamentalists angrily protest that teaching evolution threatens their society. They never actually do it accurately. They always say that teaching evolution threatens all American society, as if their religious beliefs - and indeed, their seriousness about religion in the first place - were a universal American thing. Teaching evolution is no threat at all to American society, but it really is a very serious threat to their particular sub-culture.
I think the idea that their sub-culture is a sub-culture would offend them tremendously, but I can't figure out why. It seems pretty obvious, just in terms of sheer numbers. I've also never been able to figure out whether this was a malicious denial or merely a foolish one. Are they actively opposed to acknowledging other Americans are also American, or do they just really not know?
Either way, the key to understanding the "XYZ hates America" madness is that it's never meant for XYZ to hear. These people aren't interested in communicating with XYZ. What they're doing is saying to their core audience, "XYZ is an enemy. Don't pay attention to anything they say." It isn't about making sense. It's about spreading panic and fear, and drawing a line in the sand. This is why the "liberal" commentators like to be funny. Laughter dismantles panic and fear.
As far as I can tell, the biggest point of argument between "liberals" and "conservatives" in American politics is whether to laugh or fight.
I would say that the "liberals" win absolutely, except for the fact that the "liberals" never seem like they want to make the "conservatives" laugh too. And that really makes the entire thing massively dysfunctional. There is no voice of reason; there's just insane paranoia and dismissive laughter.
I think the "conservatives" are wrong about everything, except that we should take this division seriously.
10 comments:
Got a comment on this, rejected at moderation because it was rude. Interesting, though, in a weird way.ReplyDelete
It basically said these four things go together:
pro gay rights
against family
I think the most obvious explanation for the "liberals" looking to make people laugh and the "conservatives" looking to make people angry might be that the "liberals" want to laugh and the "conservatives" want to be angry. whatever floats your boat, I guess.
If you've ever listened to Air America I think you'd agree it's targeted at getting "liberals" scared and angry. Only thing is AA isn't doing so hot, so I guess "liberals" don't like that tact. What I find is that "conservatives" on TV try to make their core audience angry, but "conservatives" on the radio do both. They try to raise concern on certain issues for the base, and they throw in some anti-liberal comedy, which is good for a laugh.ReplyDelete
My read on it is when "conservatives" say that "liberals" hate America, they don't mean that "liberals" hate this continent, or what they deem the country stands for, but rather they hate the dominant American culture. There's a difference. What I think the "conservatives" are saying is that most Americans like the American culture, but most "liberals" hate it, disparage it, and try to change it through institutional change every chance they get. This effectively marginalizes people within those institutions who used to be accepted, in favor of certain people who they feel have been excluded. You don't have to look too closely to see this: exclude the Boy Scouts, and the military from schools and college campuses--they're deemed anti-gay, therefor bigoted, therefor evil and bad--and make every effort to assuage the fears of gays and minorities, to be "inclusive". I like the idea of trying to include those who are different. I do think that "liberals" have gone too far doing this, because both Boy Scouts and the military have good things to offer, even though their values disagree with those of "liberals".
I guess the question I'm asking is can't public institutions disagree with organizations without outright excluding them from participation? Does "tolerance" only apply to skin color, or sexual orientation, or can it also apply to ideas and values? I don't mean that all ideas should be entertained all the time. Like I was saying before, I don't think teaching ID should be a formal part of science class. I think it would be perfectly fine to discuss it in some other class, if it dovetailed with a relevant curricular topic.
Even if you think these organizations suck, wouldn't you agree it's more difficult to engage them, to recognize they are basically good organizations with some perceived flaws, if you exclude them?
I'm not so sure the dominant American culture really is dominant. I think to a certain extent it's an idea about how America used to be, rather than a reality of how it is now. People like to talk about farmers as if they were the heart of America, but software engineers outnumber farmers 2 to 1. There are more World of Warcraft players in our country than farmers.ReplyDelete
To a certain extent I think there's a culture which is invested in thinking of itself as dominant, without actually being dominant. For example, Caucasians are an ethnic minority in California, yet Caucasians predominate in the state legislature. What is the dominant culture in California? The answer probably varies depending on whether you mean politically dominant or socially dominant.
I do think the current situation is too polarized. On the other hand, I think the idea that people are somehow entitled to cultural or political dominance is pretty unhealthy.
Neal Stephenson's solution in Snow Crash was to permit bigotry of the type perpetrated by the Scouts and the military, give people total economic freedom, arm the oppressed, and make responding to violence with violence simply legal. I think he was being extremely lazy, in that a serious analysis will show you problems with that very quickly, but I kind of see where he's coming from. As long as there isn't government money in the Scouts, or violence being done, they should probably be free to organize around whatever values they want to organize around. In practice, though, government money is usually involved.
- AnonymousOctober 24, 2007 at 6:36:00 AM PDT
Less politics, more programming.ReplyDelete
Meh. I was planning to launch my campaign here, but maybe I'll start for another blog for that instead.ReplyDelete
Don't listen to that anonymous guy. I came to your blog for Ruby and through Ruby, but I stayed because of your opinionated articles.ReplyDelete
I also happen to agree to about everything you say, but then I'm European, so what you say just strikes me as common sense, not as some sort of fringe belief.
My parents come from England. Most non-Europeans would consider them European. So I'm a first-generation American.ReplyDelete
This bit here:
pro gay rights
against family
I can't even figure out how those things are supposed to be connected. Like if you're a European reader and you're like, hmmm, I wonder how those things are connected, I'll read an American blog and then I'll know, well, the bad news is, we don't know either. Maybe it's just because my family's European, maybe it's just because only the people who believe those things even understand how they're supposed to be connected in the first place. I have no idea. But it does kind of give you perspective how weird and divided things are over here.
Well, I personally consider English people to be European, although they might disagree with me :) .ReplyDelete
But then I'm weird even for a European guy: I'm French, living in the Netherlands, speak three languages fluently (French, English and Dutch) and two more at a more Basic level (Spanish and Modern Greek). Most French people I know struggle with English, when they know a second language at all. Despite being French I am not prejudiced against British or German people (actually two of my colleagues are German and Scottish) . Heck, I don't even lump all Americans in the same basket :) .
But to come back to the subject at hand, about those four subjects:
pro gay rights
against family
I actually don't believe most people who say they are related actually understand why. They usually just parrot what somebody else said without thinking (a phenomenon unfortunately pretty much planetary). As for the ones who say they have an explanation, that explanation is usually deeply religious, and as such full of logical holes (you can guess that I have little tolerance for people trying to impose religious rules on society at large). I for instance never understood how someone can be Christian (and thus believe in the original sin and the fact that we are all born sinners, but also in the 5th/6th Commandment - depending on actual denomination -), be against abortion, and still be in favour of capital punishment. But that may be just me...
I would not limit the perceived "dominant culture" to just farmers.
I wouldn't put much weight in the influence of Silicon Valley culture, either. Technology workers, in and out of SV as a whole (I'm talking about programmers, network engineers, etc.) make up about 3-4% of the total workforce. This is the way it's been for decades, even during the booming 90s.
The industry that surrounds Christianity in the U.S. makes billions of dollars a year. I'm not saying they're better than anyone else, just talking about size and influence.
Re: the Scouts and military
What I was getting at with them is yes, they're discriminatory, but they're not the Klan. I wouldn't allow the Klan as much leeway, since they're literally in the business of assaulting minorities, but I think the Scouts and the military are organizations that can be dealt with and they can be engaged in debate and discussions about their values.
It isn't just them either. I've heard of Christian groups, which have been part of college campuses for decades, being kicked off campus now for being "intolerant" just for holding to tenets of their faith.
What's irked me the most with college campuses is the idea of speech codes. That to me is antithetical to an academic environment. I can understand about banning slurs about race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and the like, but you'd be surprised the kind of speech that gets banned in the name of "tolerance". It goes beyond common sense.
If government money is involved, it probably has to do with the state government. The federal government has actually been more firm about it: you allow the military to recruit on campus or you're not getting money from us. This has been law, actually, since the mid-1980s.
I have mixed feelings about the military. I think they provide an essential service to us, and particularly right now I wouldn't want to do anything, no matter how noble or moral, that would disrupt their ability to do their jobs well. I wish things were different, but like the issue of Turkey and the Armenian genocide, I'm wary of the idea that now is the time to bring that up within that institution. What would change my mind is if I knew most people there were cool with working with out-of-the-closet gays. If that were the case I'd say alright, let's allow them to be out in the open without getting discharged.
I think it needs to be recognized that there are degrees of intolerance. People can be angry about it all the same, but people and organizations don't have to be painted with the same broad brush when it comes to institutional access.
I disagree about not criticizing the military. The military did their job brilliantly five or six years ago. What's going on now is that politicians are using the military to solve a political problem. The politicians should be criticized for misusing the military, and the military should be criticized for allowing themselves to be misused.ReplyDelete
But I also think we're very far off the topic of the original post. I don't really want to get into this.


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If you believe the tell-all message boards on CollegeConfidential.com, the cluster of UMass dorms known as Southwest are . . . well, let's do it Zagat-style. "Very lively.'' An "Animal House-like scene.'' "If you live on campus and are not a partier, stay away.''
So what's Taylor Gugel, a dean's list type who frequently gets up in the wee hours of the morning for ROTC drills, doing in one of these, ahem, lively dorms? Reveling in the peace and quiet, actually. Gugel lives on one of UMass's two 24-hour "quiet floors.''
Despite their incongruous placement — one is in Southwest, on the 22d floor of the Adams dorm; the other is on the fourth floor of Brooks, an alcohol-free dorm in Central — quiet floors are the place to be if you want to knuckle down and focus. (Think of them as the college's answer to the Amtrak Quiet Car.) They've been around for at least 20 years, and they never seem to have trouble filling up, though maybe that's because they house just 66 people. Very few freshmen choose to live there; this year, only five of the 66 are first-years. But 27 are sophomores. We're guessing that after a busy first year, a quiet floor would feel like quite the refuge.


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From the clientZONE login page, under the input boxes for entering your email and password there is a link: "Would you like access to clientZONE? Click here to request access." If you click on the link a popup window will appear and you will be invited to enter your details so that we can register you with clientZONE and provide you with access
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Firstly you must have previously registered and been notified of your access. In addition it is important that you type your email address and password exactly. You must type your email address in full and your password must be exactly as defined when registered including the correct upper and lower character combinations and any special characters included in your password.
If after a few attempts you still recieve this message then you can request a reminder to be sent to you using the link "Forgotten your password?" which is located under the login button on the login page.


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Connect with your Higher Self to heal past experiences
Thursday Jan. 18, 2018 - 7h-8hPM. Find what is blocking you in the present and which past experience needs healing, and allow yourself to move past the hurt so you can get on with your life. Access your higher self through guided meditation to discover what is holding you back and forgive, release, and heal the past through a guided release technique. Cost: $20 Location: 63 Hebert, Gatineau Qc J8P 6B6
Remove blockages for self-acceptance
Thursday January 25, 2018 - 7h-8hPM. Identify your core beliefs about yourself and life and remove blockages related to these negative beliefs through guided meditation and achieve greater self-acceptance of yourself. Cost: $20 Location: 63 Hebert, Gatineau Qc J8P 6B6
Release yourself from your family karma
Thursday February 8, 2018 - 7h to 8hPM Repair and release energetic ties from your ancestors. Heal any of the 7 karmic shadows written in our family's history through guided meditation. Cost: $20 Location: 63 Hebert, Gatineau Qc J8P 6B6
Living from the Heart in this time of Extremes
Thursday February 1, 2018 - 7h-8hPM. Expand your heart's energy and learn to live a fulfilled life through love and compassion. Guided group meditation to send loving energy to a part of the world in need. Cost:$20 Location: 63 Hebert, Gatineau Qc J8P 6B6
Evelyne Paulauskas
Healing Facilitator & Spiritual Coach
Registered Integrative Naturotherapist, Reiki Master/ Teacher, Intuitive
Facilitatrice de guérison & Coach
Naturothérapeute intégrée, Maître
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Living from the Heart
Friday, February 02, 2018
Evelyne Paulauskas
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