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Despite some tough comparisons to a year ago, Time Warner reported on Wednesday it beat analyst expectations on cable network gains. Net income rose to 86 cents, up from 78 cents a year earlier.
"Investments in content and technology are paying off," CEO Jeff Bewkes said.
The company has done $3.1 billion in dividends and share repurchases so far this year and is on track to meet its financial objectives for the year. Looking forward, Bewkes expects advertising to grow in the mid to high single digits, though international advertising is expected to decline in the fourth quarter.
There's no question that Time Warner's greatest strength is its cable networks — the division grew adjusted operating income double digits to its biggest quarter yet, on revenue that grew $131 million to $3.34 billion. (Read More: 10 Multimedia Stocks With Double the S&P 500 Gains.)
Bewkes highlighted the "good momentum" across the company's networks — TBS, Turner and HBO in particular.
HBO has more original programming than ever, which combined with HBO Go, is helping achieve subscriber trends that the company calls "the best they've been in years." And it's no longer just a domestic play. The company's first "over-the-top offering" — i.e. direct to consumer option without requiring a cable subscription — in the Nordic countries is preparing to launch. (Read More: Netflix Expands Into Scandinavia.)
Still, Bewkes dismissed the idea of creating an Internet-only version of HBO, saying a "subscription broadband network is not ready for primetime." The problem, he said, is that these broadband-only networks don't really have fresh programming. Bewkes said he's trying to figure out the method that's most monetizable for high quality original programming, and for now, that's a TV Everywhere model like HBO Go.
Just as News Corp. stressed the importance of sports to drive live viewership, Bewkes talked about the importance of its new deal with Major League Baseball, including expanded digital rights, to well position the network for affiliate renewal.
Is the company interested in more sports rights? Bewkes said if an NFL package came up, Time Warner "would consider it" but only if the company was confident it could monetize it.
When asked about how much Time Warner will be able to grow affiliate revenue as deals come up, Bewkes was coy. He said the fact that Turner is one of the largest cable network groups by itself "gives us some alternatives," so they'll negotiate "to ensure that the value is recognized."
There are two areas where Time Warner is struggling: CNN and Time Inc. Bewkes said the company is great at drawing a huge audience during big events like the hurricane, but it can "do a better job of tracking and retaining an audience when news isn't breaking."
The magazine division, where revenue dropped 5.7 percent, is "clearly operating in a challenging environment," and is focused on "extending industry lead share," Bewkes said.
Bewkes also fielded similar questions as News Corp. did about volatile broadcast rating trends — the fact that with the exception of live sports and events, people just aren't viewing as much in real time.
"Some of the pressure is coming from viewing on alternative platforms," Bewkes said. "VOD does this — it increases viewership, increases value of hit shows." That, he added, can increase ad revenue. (Read More: Predictions: The Future of TV.)
The question is whether Time Warner and the other networks can generate gains on these new platforms to compensate for declines elsewhere. We'll be watching to see what CBS reveals about ratings trends when it reports after the bell.
—By CNBC's Julia Boorstin
Questions? Comments? email@example.com


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Book Review: AP Stylebook & Briefing on Media Law
For years, the Associated Press wire service, or AP, has published its style manual, allowing journalists and writers from outside the organization to copy the AP's style. The operative question is why would someone want to.
Unless you are an employee of the AP or writing for an organization that has adopted the AP style as its house style, this book is an uncertain guide. It is designed for daily, newspaper reporting, not for other types of writing. Its rules and conventions are arcane and Byzantine. For example, should one use periods when abbreviating the names of organizations? According to the stylebook, the answer is no, except when you should. AP uses periods with U.S. and U.N., but not with FBI, CIA, or AP.
Old English in LoTR
This month, Peter Jackson's film The Two Towers hits theaters in the United States. It is the second installment of Jackson's dramatization of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. It seems an opportune time to take a look at Tolkien's use of language to set the tone and environment of Middle-earth, particularly his use of Old English.
Tolkien was not simply a writer of fantasy stories. He had a day job as a professor of philology at Merton College, Oxford. He was one of the world's foremost experts on Old English and his 1936 essay, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, revolutionized the teaching and study of Anglo-Saxon literature, treating the poem as a work of literature for the first time, rather than just a historical artifact. The Middle-earth stories about hobbits and wizards were simply a hobby and a way to amuse his children.
Word Of The Month: Weapon of Mass Destruction
The word (actually it is a noun phrase) of the month is:
Weapon of Mass Destruction, n., a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon. Sometimes radiological weapons are included in the definition. Also WMD. In use since at least 1937. Pre-1945 uses of the term referred to conventional weapons of great destructive power, such as the bombing of cities by aircraft, and chemical weapons.
Weapons of mass destruction have been all over the news lately. The United States is gearing up for war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein continues to develop them. The United Nations has sent inspectors to Iraq to ensure that he does not, in fact, possess such weapons. And in the midst of this, North Korea announces that it has a nuclear weapons program, in violation of agreements it has entered into with other nations.
American Dialect: New York Speak
One of the most distinctive dialects in the United States is that found in New York City. Often called Brooklynese (a misnomer as the dialect is common to all five boroughs, plus parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, and not just Brooklyn), the dialect has been introduced to the world via Hollywood, from the Bowery Boys to the Sopranos.
New York is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the country. Not everyone there speaks with the New York dialect. And unlike the dialects of other regions, like Boston or the South, the New York dialect is class-based. The higher you are on the social ladder, the less likely you are to sound like a New Yorker.
Correction: Hub City
In last month's issue, in the article on New England dialect, we said that Boston was called the Hub or Hub City because Bostonians considered it the hub of the universe. While this may be true in the hearts of Bostonians, it is not the exact origin of the term. The term is from a quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (father of the jurist), who said in the 1858 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, "Boston Statehouse is the hub of the solar system."
Slang In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Part II)
(This is part two of a two-part article. The first installment appeared in last month's issue.)
Last month, we took a look at Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (BtVS), a popular US television series that uses slang, both real and created, to set the mood and establish the characters. The show follows the exploits of Buffy Summers, the one girl in all the world endowed with the preternatural powers needed to slay vampires and fight the demonic forces of evil. Aided by her friends Willow and Xander, as well as by her "Watcher" Giles, she works to rid the world of evil, starting with her hometown of Sunnydale, California.
In the first part of the article we examined how BtVS used actual slang terms and phrases to good effect. This month, we will look at how the writers use a few derivational rules and patterns to create a wide variety of unique slang terms. We will also examine the speech patterns of a few of the characters to see how the writers and actors use language to establish and shape the characters.
Word Of The Month: Diplomacy
War is on everyone lips. Will the United States attack Iraq? What is being done to get weapons inspectors back into that country? What is going on at the United Nations Security Council and back in the foreign ministries at capitals around the world? The word of the month for November is:
Diplomacy, n., the conduct of international relations through negotiation, the methods and skills by which this is achieved. From the French diplomatie (pronounced –cie). In English since 1796.
Here we take a look at some of the words associated with diplomacy, what they mean and where they come from.
Slang In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Part I)
(This is part one of a two-part article. The second installment will appear in the November issue.)
It is not unusual for movies to use accents and dialects to create mood and a sense of location. Whether it is Meryl Streep adopting a Polish accent in Sophie's Choice, Joe Pesci playing the out of towner with a New York accent in My Cousin Vinnie, or the entire cast of the Coen brothers' Fargo setting the location in rural Minnesota, the use of dialect in entertainment is well established. The use of dialect in television, however, is rarer. Sure there is the occasional character from New York who is readily identifiable by his accent and use of youse guys, but other uses are of dialect relatively rare. One show, however, that makes good use of dialect, but not always the dialect of a particular place, is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Book Review: Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
Randall Kennedy has penned an insightful, thought-provoking, and balanced discussion of what he terms (in a gross understatement) "a troublesome word." Nigger is perhaps the last surviving language taboo in American discourse. It is a word with tremendous social impact. It has been used as a justification for murder, university professors have been stripped of tenure merely for uttering it, and it is the one word that white rap artist Eminem refuses to utter.
Kennedy opens the book with a discussion of the word's etymology, pointing out that it is from the Latin for black and that initially it was not derogatory. But by the early 19th century nigger had acquired a distinct offensiveness. Not only was it used to denigrate African-Americans, but it also served as social marker for the whites who uttered it; it is not a word used by the polite classes. Kennedy spends much of the first chapter giving examples of the cruelty and oppression delivered upon African-Americans over the centuries by whites using that term.
Word Of The Month: Halloween
The end of October is when all the ghosts and goblins come out. 31 October is Halloween and that is our word of the month. Presented here is something of a Halloween bestiary of spooks and specters (and some commonplace things) that one might find on the last night of the month.
Halloween, n., holiday celebrated on 31 October, supposedly the night that witches and demons emerge. The word is a clipping of All-Hallow Even. The modern, clipped form is from the 18th century, but All Hallow's Eve dates to the 16th, and Allhallowmass, denoting all the saints, dates to 1083. According to the Celtic calendar, 1 November was the first day of the New Year. The night of last day of October was Old Year's Night or the night of the witches. With the coming of Christianity, it was transformed into a holiday to celebrate the saints.
Copyright 1997-2019, by David Wilton

subset: commoncrawl


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African vice president charged in French probe
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities have filed preliminary charges of alleged money laundering against the son of Equatorial Guinea's president.
A lawyer for the son, Vice President Teodorin Obiang Nguema, insisted Thursday his client has diplomatic immunity.
French financial prosecutors said Obiang, the son of President Teodoro Obiang, was told by video conference of three counts of money laundering under a probe into the acquisition of properties in France by the leaders of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo.
After Obiang made himself available, French authorities lifted an international arrest warrant they had issued for him.
Authorities are still working to calculate the total value of real estate, luxury cars, art and other property in France that Transparency International estimates at least in tens of millions of euros.
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Michael O'Keefe sleeps with one ear open, his police scanner and camera beside him. That's the night life of this photographer, a man who's always prepared.
A picturesque knack is always there.
"As soon as that gal gets on the radio and says engine one, truck two, engine four, engine six - by that point, I'm out of bed because I know that's a structure fire," said O'Keefe, creator of First Response Photography, an online collection of pictures chronicling McKinney's and Collin County's newsiest emergencies. "At 2 o'clock in the morning when those tongs go out, I'm gone, out the door, in my Jeep and on the road in a few minutes."
And on the scene of a fire, highway collision or gas explosion soon after those in uniform. O'Keefe runs Creative By Nature, a landscape company that opened in McKinney in 2010, but stays ever focused on his passion: capturing breaking news with a flash.
Whether he gets there as flames and sirens abound, or in time for firefighter cleanup, he's almost always there - even if that means closing the shop gates in the middle of a rush.
"I always carry a scanner and camera, and I've been doing that since I was 16," he said.
That's when a car accident forever honed O'Keefe's photographic niche. He was taking pictures of trains in Duncanville when a lady involved in the on-scene accident offered him cash for his impromptu photos. She wanted them to show to her insurance company.
His lens work shifted from trains to occasional tragedies. O'Keefe ran away from home the next year, and worked for a mobile food service while living in a guard shack and tree house until stability came. He started an aquarium maintenance business that led into the pond and landscape business, emphasized for three years on a Garden Talk radio show on weekend mornings.
Always constant, though, was photography.
"Even when I was on the streets, I had my camera and scanner," he recalled. "Once you start doing it, you've got the bug, you don't stop. You never want to be in a situation where you don't know what's going on and you miss a good call."
Since taking a photography hiatus between 2006 and 2010, O'Keefe has missed few calls. He was there several months ago to capture the gas explosion near Medical Center of McKinney, from which one photo will soon be the front cover of Underground Focus magazine. "Showing a picture of an 80-foot-tall ball of flames is a good way to scare contractors from making mistakes like that," he said.
He captured Storybook Ranch's recent building fire, his shots shown all over local news media, and the aftermath of shootings in New Hope and McKinney in 2012.
And others - including the first responders who often cringe at news crews' arrival - are noticing. His Facebook photo page reached 8,000 likes this week, just 14 months after its inception.
"Collin County is a nice place to live but with just enough activity to keep me fulfilled," he said. "I've managed to get a handful of shots in a short period of time that have really got a lot of publicity, and it's really taken off."
The McKinney fire and police departments know him well. They sometimes use his photos to document and debrief a scene and how it was handled. Others pay him for photos to hang in their homes and stations - a few historic instants captured forever.
"He takes great photographs that we've used in a variety of ways, even for historical purposes," said Stacie Durham, McKinney Fire Department spokesperson. "We certainly have an excellent work relationship. He's enthusiastic and wants to do a great job of documenting what happens not just in McKinney but surrounding areas, as well."
But, Durham added, call chasers like O'Keefe generally aren't welcomed with open arms, particularly at tragic happenings. It's been a lengthy process for O'Keefe to get the access he has, she said.
O'Keefe, who credits 80 percent of his photographic success to his professionalism and developed accord with first responders, knows unwelcome well. He's had citizens chase him, cuss him out and call him a monster.
"The photographer on scene, especially in traffic accidents, is not invited," he said. "You're the last person somebody wants to see when their car is all crunched up or their kid is hurt and there are sirens everywhere. It's often the worst moment of their life, and they're amped up, so the biggest thing is to stay out of sight."
Something his images aren't able to do, anymore.
"With this citizen journalism thing, media outlets are hungry for what's going on in town and love to share it. A picture's worth a thousand words," he said. "It blows my mind that my still pictures are being used for what's commonly shown by video on the major outlets."
O'Keefe this weekend will be with PHI Air Medical crews, documenting their above-ground service. His ensuing itinerary involves visits to other such crews around the state and country.
In the meantime, he'll talk to people about the latest mulch or garden tool, before returning home, still on the clock. A first response photographer never truly sleeps.
"It's like a drug - you get addicted to it, the thrill, excitement, adrenaline of capturing breaking news," he said. "There's nothing like it."
To view O'Keefe's photos, search "First Response Photography" on Facebook.


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Savvy Financial Advisor Falls Victim to Identity Theft
Having worked in the financial industry for 31 years, Jay Smith* thought he knew how to protect himself against identity theft. But when identity thieves began rapidly opening new accounts the day after Christmas in 2014 he soon realized he was going to need help.
"It started with an email from one of my credit card companies advising me that several attempts were made for a $3,000 charge," explains Smith. "That same morning, my bank sent an email informing me of a new account. And while I was in the car on the way to the bank, a department store representative called to ask if I had recently made a purchase on my previously inactive card."
That was only the beginning. As Smith sat with his bank's branch manager he saw that the hackers had transferred over $80,000 from his valid accounts to five newly established fraudulent checking accounts. Smith also discovered that the hackers had changed his account contact information, and even set up a Western Union account on his bank's bill pay system as a means of attempting to syphon funds from his bank account. Moreover, a multitude of other credit cards, credit unions, pre-pay cards and discount brokerage firms were pinging the new accounts.
Smith quickly sprung into action. He had his bank transfer his money back to his accounts. He also contacted the three major credit agencies and froze his credit. But the thieves did not give up, so Smith finally decided to move all of his funds to his own brokerage firm for safekeeping. But the problems didn't stop. "I was learning about more and more fraudulent accounts," Smith explains. "Every time I knocked one down another would pop up—and each issue required hours on the telephone. It was incredibly frustrating."
That's when Smith remembered his homeowner policy included an identity theft rider. Smith called his agent, who put him in contact with a fraud investigator at CyberScout.
Smith quickly recognized the value of his CyberScout advisor. "I knew I needed to make sure all of the fraudulent accounts were identified, closed and removed from my credit files," he explains. "She got to work immediately and explained the key steps in the resolution process." Given the scope of the fraud against Smith there was a lot to do, including:
• Completing identity theft affidavits
• Notifying the Federal Trade Commission and IRS of the theft
• Reviewing current credit reports from the credit monitoring agencies and ChexSystems to identify every piece of fraud for dispute
Smith also enrolled in the CyberScout credit monitoring service for an extra layer of protection. With the help of his CyberScout fraud investigator, Smith now how has the fraud under control, and he couldn't be more relieved. "Each time a new problem was discovered she was ready on her direct line to help me," Smith explains. "I have a lot more peace of mind knowing that I have a fraud expert on my side to help me every step of the way."
* Identifying details have been changed to protect the victim's privacy.


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Who wants to buy a baby bear?
Wildlife officials are looking into reports that a man tried to sell two bear cubs at a northern California gas station on Wednesday after shooting their mother.
The Department of Fish and Game was contacted after drivers passing the Sierra Super Stop in North San Juan, a small town about 75 miles northeast of Sacramento, to report having seen the man, identified as Chris Puett, with two caged, black bear cubs, MSNBC reported.
Puett denied that he was trying to make money off the cubs. He said he had shot the cubs' mother in self-defense near his tent-trailer a few days earlier and was just looking for a new home for them.
"She comes in to get that bag, and I yell at her and instead of leaving like she had done every time in the past, she's coming right at me," Puett told NBC affiliate KCRA in Sacramento.
According to Puett, the injured bear scampered off without her cubs. He said he assumed she later died of her injuries.
Puett said he spent 18 hours trying to catch the cubs, which he named Yogi and BooBoo, after they escaped up a tree.
Afterward, he said he kept the cubs, one weighing 11 pounds and the other 13, for a couple of days before deciding to find them another safe home.
"I did not do this to kill animals," Puett told KCRA. "I did this to save my life. My life is saved. Theirs is still going. I don't want the babies dead."
Several witnesses at the gas station have supported Puett's claim that he wasn't seeking money in exchange for the cubs.
Now investigators are trying to find the dead mother bear to confirm Puett's story. Puett had no signs of injury from his alleged encounter with the bear.
A district attorney's office might investigate whether Puett was trafficking in bear parts, which a felony in California, Fish and Game spokesperson Patrick Foy said.
MSNBC reported that the four- to six-month-old cubs are healthy and in good condition. They will stay at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care until wildlife officials release them into the wild during hibernation.


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FULLERTON, Calif.—The Valentine's Day spirit is in the air around the Cal State Fullerton track and field program this week, as some of the distance runners participated in what has a become an annual Valentine's Day themed relay race Tuesday morning.
"This is just a fun event that we do every year now," said head coach John Elders. "The kids really get into it and have really taken it to a new level now."
Over 20 track and field athletes dressed up in their best Valentine's Day attire were paired up, with one male and one female on each team, to make 10 relay teams to compete in the near 10-mile fun and festive relay race.
Casey Candelaria and Jayson Perez took home the win, while Lexie Bravo and Brandon Cook took home the award for "best outfit." Donald Bernard and Monica Nunez were awarded with the title of "most inspirational".
"I think not only did the kids have a good time with it, but it also was a good work out for them," said Elders. "It's a fun little contest, but it definitely isn't an easy thing to win."
The Titans will get back to more standard competition on Sunday when the indoor team competes in its final meet of the season in the Run for the Dream meet in Fresno, California.


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The market's reaction to last week's USDA acreage report was bearish, not from the projected acres to be planted but from the Quarterly Stocks report.
Spring flush is upon us. Now, that can mean different things to different people.
For a bottler and manufacturer, it means increasing milk receipts. Manufacturing time will need to be increased and, in some cases, milk will have to be diverted to other facilities willing to take it on. To sweeten the pot, milk is offered at a discount when supply is plentiful. Pricing varies throughout the country as some regions are able to handle current milk supply easily while other regions are seeing strong milk receipts.
Cheese and butter manufacturers are mixed as to the interest in purchasing extra milk. Cheese and butter prices give the indication there is limited downside price risk and therefore increasing the desire to produce more product. However, the outlook for a choppy market with limited upside price potential for the near-term keeps others cautious over extra production.
For farmers, increasing milk production means a greater milk check. More income is always better. However, that is coming with a cost. The March milk/feed ratio of 1.47 is not helping profitability. In fact, the milk feed ratio has been below 2.00 since April 2011. This has been the demise of some farms while many others are just hanging on. This year will be critical.
USDA released its "Prospective Plantings" report last week, which was considered neutral to bullish with the estimate of 97.28 million acres of corn and 77.13 million acres of soybeans expected to be planted. Gone for now are the previous predictions of 99.0 million acres of corn and $4.00 per bushel.
Prices will be hard pressed to decline to that level unless weather is ideal this summer (which is highly unlikely). Current long-term weather forecasts indicate a strong potential for continued drought in the South and Great Plains stretching up into the Dakotas. Now, this may be a smaller area than last year as more moisture has been seen in some areas, reducing the various drought areas on the Drought Monitor map. One can only hope a repeat of last year will not be seen or grain stocks will fall lower again.
The reaction of the market to the acreage report was bearish, not from the projected acres to be planted but from the "Quarterly Stocks" report that was also released at the same time. Old-crop corn futures being pushed limit down put spillover pressure on new-crop corn futures. Much of this knee-jerk reaction stems from where actual numbers fall, according to analysts' estimates.
Quarterly stocks of corn were above analysts' estimates but should not have caused May and July futures to decline as much as they had. Strong cash prices going into the report indicated a premium was being paid to obtain supply, and that certainly is not going to change because of stocks being higher than anticipated. Corn stocks are 624.0 million bushels less than the same time last year. Current estimated ending stocks are 632 million bushes compared to 989 million bushes last year.
So, it would seem to be a comfort that quarterly stocks are not falling as some predicted and knowing that the market is doing its job. Potential ending stocks as low as they are predicted, combined with another growing season just beginning and weather already looking to not be optimal, should cause great concern.
Declining grain prices that resulted from this report are a gift and should be taken advantage of. Those who had already purchased call options and call option spreads earlier need to roll them down to lower levels. Those who have not protected feed prices for the rest of this year and next need to step up and purchase call options. The growing season is ahead, and protecting feed prices in case a repeat of last year is experienced could mean the difference between staying in business or being forced out.
Upcoming reports:
- Global Dairy Trade auction on April 2
- March Federal Order prices announced on April 3
- February Dairy Products report on April 4
- World Agricultural Supply and Demand report on April 10
Robin Schmahl is a commodity broker and owner of AgDairy LLC, a full-service commodity brokerage firm located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. He can be reached at 877-256-3253 or through his website.
This material has been prepared by an employee or agent of AgDairy LLC and is in the nature of a solicitation. By accepting this communication, you acknowledge and agree that you are not, and will not rely solely on this communication for making trading decisions.
The thoughts expressed and the basic data from which they are drawn are believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. Any opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain inherent limitations. Simulated results do not represent actual trading. Simulated trading programs are subject to the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. There is risk of loss in commodity trading may not be suitable for recipients of this publication. Those acting on this information are responsible for their own actions.


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Boost Mobile by 2020 Mobile in Riverside
Come to our store today for the lowest prices and best value for cell phones of all types. We carry the iPhone as well as Samsung Galaxy, and offer several different plans including prepaid, unlimited talk, text and data, as well as Mexico calling. Visit our store today and speak to one of our friendly customer service associates.


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"Yea, I say to you, blessed are the cask-makers, for they build the houses in which dwells the ale."Beer, as God (or Mother Nature) intended it, comes in casks--fresh, alive, and unadulterated. Ensconced in a firkin (kilderkin, hogshead, or even pin), ale that is lively with yeast and not quite fully attenuated is allowed to rest. Perhaps it serves as a tea for additional sachets of hops. Once the yeasts have generated a bit of carbonation, the ale, through no help of man, is ready. Pour, drink, repeat.
Sadly, there's WAY too damn little cask beer in Portland--Beervana's one verifiable fault. Except in April, when the annual Firkin Fest comes to town. There you will find dozens of firkins, enough at least for one afternoon. (Hogsheads, sadly, will be in short supply.) This Saturday, in two sessions at the Green Dragon. You can either pick up tickets in advance, or buy online. I wouldn't advise showing up without a ticket, but I think you can buy them at the door--unless this post generates the kind of interest I hope it does. It's thirty bucks, but you get eight 6-ounce tasters and two food vouchers, which is by any measure a good deal.
Firkin Fest
Green Dragon, 928 SE 9th
Session 1 (11am - 2pm) or Session 2 (3-6pm)
Ted Sobel, Oregon's Johnny Appleseed of real ale, plans plant some mild ale at Belmont Station on Friday night--for those of you who can't wait til Saturday.


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Wildlife Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation is a major part of PAWS' work with wildlife. We have established our expertise at PAWS Wildlife Center by working with more than 100,000 wild animals of 260 different species over the past 30 years.
The work can be stressful and demanding. But seeing an animal recover and return to a wild and free life makes it all worthwhile.
What is it?
Wildlife rehabilitation is a profession involving the treatment and care of sick, injured or orphaned wild animals with the goal of releasing healed animals back to their natural habitats in the wild. To be released, animals must be able to function in their natural habitats as normal members of their species.
Effective rehabilitation meets the unique physical and psychological needs of each species we treat. It combines aspects of veterinary medicine, animal husbandry, animal behavior, biology and other fields.
Keeping the wild in wildlife
Wildlife rehabilitation does not attempt to turn wild animals into pets. Human contact with patients at PAWS is kept to a minimum, and animals are held in captivity only until they are able to live independently in the wild. Animals with injuries or illnesses that prevent them from surviving in the wild are humanely euthanized.
Releasing our wild patients
For rehabilitation to be deemed successful released animals must be able to survive on their own and be an integral part of their species' population, i.e., recognize and obtain appropriate foods, select mates of their own species to reproduce, and respond appropriately to potential dangers (flee or fight). These dangers include people, cars, dogs and natural predators.
Wildlife rehabilitation provides an opportunity for public education about the dangers wild animals face in an increasingly human-dominated landscape. This critical part of our work helps wildlife on a much larger scale than wildlife rehabilitation could alone.
Because PAWS does not believe in keeping wild animals permanently in captivity, we do not use live wild animals in our education programs. Instead, we use storytelling and wildlife artifacts to teach children and others to respect wildlife.
Who can rehabilitate wildlife?
It is illegal in the state of Washington to rehabilitate wildlife without a permit. PAWS holds both state (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) and federal (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) permits.
Learn more about what it takes to become a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.


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Did I Mention that I Spit the Dopest Rhymes?
Dan and John, in high school and today. 10 years later, and we are pimper than ever.
My first foray into recording rap songs was back in 1995. I was a sophomore in high school, and my buddies Chris and John and I got it into our heads that we would start a rap group, which for some ridiculous reason we named the "Big Booty Bass Mad Klown Ho Posse." We began recording a series of truly terrible rap songs. Our "studio" was my bedroom, and our equipment consisted of a 486SX PC with a copy of CoolEdit, a cheap Casio keyboard, and a Radio Shack microphone. We would try to cut down on the background noise in our tracks by recording most of our vocals with blankets over our heads. We actually cranked out an entire album that way, with tracks that touched on a variety of nerdy topics. Some of the album's song titles that spring to mind are:
I hesitate to call any attention to the fact that these songs exist, because they were so embarrassingly awful that I still cringe when I think of them. I certainly won't be posting any of them here, but if you dig around enough in the monzy.com archives you may be able to unearth an old recording or two. I suppose it is unremarkable that my 16-year-old self did not have a particularly mature or refined sense of humor, but I still feel ashamed of my early rapping efforts.
Fortunately, around the time that Chris, John, and I went off to college, we realized how feeble our rapping attempts were, and resolved to put down our microphones for good. I still see Chris all the time, and he has stayed true to this promise (we both ended up in grad school at Stanford, and share an apartment now). John and I gradually drifted out of touch… until about a year ago, when we discovered each other on YouTube.
It turned out that John and I had both independently decided to pick up the mic again, after a ten-year hiatus, and begin recording nerdy rap songs with renewed vigor. When I saw John's debut music video, Lips and Assholes, I knew that we would have to "get the band back together," as it were, and collaborate on something again.
The result of our first tandem effort in more than ten years is a music video called "So Fucking Pimp." Perhaps you remember that I was once quoted as saying that "geeks are the new pimp". To me, nerdcore is all about the idea that everyone is pimp in their own way. Naturally, geeks are not pimp for the reasons traditionally cited in rap songs (wealth, women, jewelry, cars, strength, etc.) — but certainly everyone has their own special skills to be proud of, and nerdcore is all about embracing the things that make you unique, even if they are not widely appreciated.
John recorded two great verses for this song too, but we still have to shoot video for those, so stay tuned for the remix, with 66.6% more pimpness.
In other nerdcore news, my amigo Doctor Popular is dropping his new album today, entitled Me Geek Pretty One Day. I listened to it last night and I heartily give it the monzy.com seal of approval. DP is very talented and is one of the most original voices in nerdcore, so you should definitely check out his album if you are thirsty for more geeked-out hip-hop.
Hooray, Brussels Sprouts!
Last year at Thanksgiving, we had some amazing Brussels sprouts in mustard sauce, and I emailed my mom this year to ask her if the Brussels sprouts would be making a repeat appearance. She confirmed that our Thanksgiving menu would indeed include Brussels sprouts, and I replied with a heartfelt "Hooray, Brussels sprouts!"
Her reply: "This message did make me smile. Given their reputation, the phrase 'Hooray, Brussels sprouts' may never before have been uttered in human history."
|This is perhaps an exaggeration, but a quick Google search for the phrase "Hooray, Brussels sprouts" returned 0 results. Searching for the phrase "Hooray for Brussels sprouts" returned only two results. So although the phrase, or some variant thereof, may have been uttered at some point in human history, it is certainly not a particularly common sentiment in the blogosphere. I decided I needed to remedy this immediately and give Brussels sprouts a little more of the Internet kudos they deserve.
My mother went on to dispense two interesting tidbits of Brussels-sprout-related knowledge, culled from Wikipedia:
The second factoid sounds awfully dubious (which "Belgians" are these, exactly?) but perhaps I now have grounds for another controlled scientific experiment.
|The first point is a good explanation for why Brussels sprouts have their undeserved ill reputation. If you have shied away from Brussels sprouts in the past, I encourage you to give them another try. This is the right time of year — pick up a few pounds at the local farmer's market, and try out a recipe like "Fried Ssäm Bar Brussels Sprouts" or "Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and Mustard Seeds". You won't be disappointed.
I was complaining to Culyba about Brussels sprouts not getting any respect, and he agreed with me wholeheartedly. "I LOVE Brussels sprouts," he said. "In fact, I would say that Brussels sprouts and the related cabbage family are the evolutionary pinnacle of deliciousness."
"Yeah man," I agreed, a little confused by his statement, but happy to have found a like-minded compatriot in the struggle for cruciferous vegetable recognition, "those veggies are where it's at. Think about it — you got your arugula, Swiss chard, bok choy, broccoli, turnips, collard greens… ALL good stuff."
"People make a lot of noise about how good things like strawberries are," Dave continued, "but what they don't realize is that fruit is an evolutionary dead-end."
"Yeah," I said, warming up to this admittedly bizarre line of reasoning, "Fruit is old news. CABBAGE is the future."
|I have little doubt that long after the human race is extinct, the earth will be ruled by hyperintelligent life forms descended from Brussels sprouts and their Brassicaceae brethren.
It Is a Real Meat!
For the past year I've divided my time between northern California and New York City, and people sometimes ask me how I would characterize the difference between the two places. I usually talk about how intense I find New York compared to the Bay Area, how everything in Manhattan is noisy and fast-paced and high-energy, and when I come back home at the end of the day, I feel drained. I love how many things there are to do in New York, but there's something about the bustle and the crowding and the noise that can wear you out, and it's nice to escape to the relative calm of Palo Alto for a while.
What amazes me about Cairo is that it makes even New York seem soothing. People call New York the city that never sleeps, but in my experience certain neighborhoods take the occasional catnap. Cairo appears never to pause in its caffeinated, adrenaline-charged frenzy. Spend a night wandering through the narrow streets of Khan al-Khalili and you'll see what I mean.
|You begin to notice the first time you step into a taxi. After an impassioned negotiation session over fares and routes, involving a great deal of scowling and arm waving (fortunately, we generally had Egyptian friends with us who could handle these deliberations on our behalf), you embark on what is sure to be a memorably death-defying adventure. Cairo's road system was originally designed to accommodate 1 million cars, but there are 2.5 million vehicles on the road today. In the chaotic congestion that results, Cairo drivers seem to follow their own peculiar set of rules.
Iman and I hanging out at el-Fishawy, a 250-year-old coffee shop.
Stop lights are rare, and where they do exist, drivers consider their signals more as suggestions than commands. Lane markings are more common, but these are ignored completely; Cairo's drivers make use of every available inch of space, so a three-lane road is often packed in six cars wide. Drivers dart to and fro through seemingly non-existent gaps, narrowly avoiding collisions mostly through liberal use of their horns, which seem to have much the same function as the echolocation chirps used by sightless bats to navigate in the darkness. Honking your horn in Cairo is an essential part of driving, and it can mean one of many different things:
- I'm passing on your left
- I'm passing on your right
- I'm in your blind spot (just thought I'd let you know)
- Greetings random pedestrian! If you try to cross in front of me I will probably hit you.
- Hello nearby motorist/donkey cart/bicycle stacked impossibly high with gigantic pallets of baked goods! If you continue in your current trajectory we will most likely collide.
- Greetings!
All told, the usage of the horn seems much more varied and meaning-laden than in the United States, where honking your horn typically means one of only two things: (a) move faster, asshole; or (b) fuck you.
|I was impressed by the casual adroitness with which our courageous taxi drivers would navigate the maddening maze of Cairo streets. No matter which city you visit, taxi drivers are a special breed, but Cairo taxi drivers are clearly in a class of their own. I'm looking forward to the release of the English translation of the Egyptian bestseller "Taxi, Tales of Rides" by Khalid Al Khamissy. It's a book based on many different dialogues with taxi drivers conducted over a year-long period. I find the idea compelling: taxi drivers come from many different walks of life, and interact with a broad cross-section of people from day to day. Taken together, I imagine that the stories give a fairly thorough picture of contemporary Egyptian life. One book review I read quoted Galal Ameen, an economics professor at the American University in Cairo: "No one person or group has the entire pulse of Egypt,†she said, "but a Cairo taxi driver is the closest to having it all.â€
Awesome, real meat!
Roughly 260 USD a month for a 1BR apartment.
One day we hired a friendly fellow named Aziz to take us around the city. He was a comfortably retired businessman who took people on tours because mostly because he enjoyed interacting with foreigners, and not because he particularly needed the money. He was well traveled — he mentioned having driven around the United States — and I recall discussing Cairo's driving situation with him. I asked him if he found Cairo driving stressful.
"Well, of course," he said, "but I find it more stressful in the US, because the police actually bother to pull people over. Here you don't have to worry about that as much."
This was an unusual attitude, I felt, but I chalked it up to the distrust Egyptians seem to have for their government and its staggeringly inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. Near the Egyptian museum is a monolithic government office building, 10 stories tall and the size of several city blocks, and taxi drivers can apparently spend days navigating its labyrinthine corridors before they find the right sequence of officials to bribe in order to renew their licenses. While I was in Cairo a rather depressing article appeared in the New York Times (title: "In Arab Hub, The Poor are Left to their Fate") that began to give me a better understanding the Egyptians' lack of faith in their government.
While the Egyptian government is the country's largest employer, it is by all accounts an utterly unreliable source of help for the average citizen. That combination, social scientists say, helps create a system that has stifled political opposition and allowed a small group to remain in power for decades.
So I suppose that if you look at it from this perspective, driving somewhere where there is a real threat of being detained by authorities might be more nerve-wracking than driving someplace where collisions are narrowly avoided every few minutes. This lack of faith in the system seems depressing, and the article as a whole painted a rather somber picture of the situation of Cairo's residents.
|Fortunately we got to see a lot of the more positive aspects of the country as well. I'm glad that we had the chance to spend some time with my parents' colleagues — they were fantastic hosts, and it was refreshing to see people who believed in the future of Egypt and were working on making things better. They took us to visit the Association for the Protection of the Environment, a nonprofit that runs workshops for young women from the local community of garbage collectors, teaching them to quilt, weave, make paper out of recycled garbage, and most importantly to read and write.
Potter and kiln in Tunis.
|We visited a girls' school in Al-Fayoum, and stopped in Tunis, a small village on the shores of the Qaroun Oasis, to admire the beautiful pottery made by the community of artists living there. And we had a wonderful dinner with Marie Assaad, an anthropologist and activist who was profiled recently in a far more optimistic and encouraging Times article about the turning tide in Egypt in the struggle against female genital mutilation.
Shakshouk Girl-Friendly School
|So yeah, the pyramids that have survived for five millennia are now crumbling from air pollution, and there's a Pizza Hut a stone's throw away from the Great Sphinx, but there's still hope for a brighter future. In the meantime, if you go to Cairo, be careful crossing the street.
Science Fridays at Google
|I spent last summer working for Google at their New York office. Working at Google is great because it's sort like being in school, in that you're surrounded by lots of smart, creative people who are doing interesting projects… but also the pay is much better, and they give you free gourmet meals.
|Google definitely knows how to pamper you with creature comforts. I'm sure everyone has already heard about the pantries stocked with free snacks and the the well-equipped game rooms. In addition to the regular company events like Tuesday afternoon tea, the company picnic, and TGIAF, there were a slew of intern events.
I attended some of these, but my favorite at-work leisure activity was actually an unofficial event called "Science Friday." Every Friday afternoon, a small group of science enthusiasts would gather to perform various Bill Nye-esque "science" demonstrations. These experiments would not generally advance the state of science, but they would often involve cool explosions, electronics hacking, or goopy slime. I organized two Science Fridays during my internship at Google, and I that think in the interest of disseminating scientific knowledge, I should publish the results. I hope that posting these experimental results does not violate my nondisclosure agreement.
Experiment 1: How Much Can Craig Possibly Suck?
This experiment answered a question that had weighed heavily on our minds for some time: "how much could our co-worker Craig possibly suck?"
Suppose we gave Craig a straw that was 40 feet long, and asked him to drink water through it. Would it be possible? To know the answer, we need to understand some basic scientific ideas about air pressure.
Perhaps you are familiar with the scientific principle behind a mercury barometer. Building one is quite simple: after filling a clear tube with mercury, quickly upend the tube into a container of
mercury. The mercury inside the tube will begin to descend, leaving a vacuum behind, until the force of air pressure outside the tube is equal to the weight the column of mercury inside the tube. By measuring the height of the column of mercury, we can determine the air pressure.
A straw works in a similar fashion: after you suck the air out of the top of a tube, a low pressure area is created inside your mouth, and ambient air pressure pushes the liquid up the straw. (Fun Fact: A straw would not work on the moon because there is no ambient air pressure!)
In this experiment, we built a sort of barometer, but since mercury is a dangerous poison, we used water (tinted with Gatorade) instead. Naturally, since water is much less dense than mercury, the experiment required a much longer tube. Some quick calculations suggested that standard air pressure at sea level should be capable of supporting a column of water 10.3 meters high. This means that Craig couldn't drink through a straw longer than 10.3 meters, even if his mouth were capable of producing a perfect vacuum!
We met on the 21st floor of Google's Times Square office building verify this hypothesis. We started by dangling a 40-foot length of vinyl tubing down a stairwell, all the way to the 17th floor.
We then immersed the bottom of the tube in a bucket of water, and measured how far up the tube Craig could suck the water. We compared this distance to the theoretical maximum based on an official measurement of the air pressure that day.
|Here's a video demonstrating the experimental setup:
|Our experiment revealed how much Craig could suck, compared to a perfect vacuum. The rest of us decided to try sucking as well, see who sucked the most. The results are shown below in a highly scientific graph. Note that we have scientifically determined that Craig does not actually suck very much — Mike sucks much more. We would not have known this without SCIENCE.
Experiment 2: Microwave Heat Distribution
A microwave oven heats food using high energy radio waves, with frequencies of roughly 2450 MHz. Radio waves in this frequency range have an interesting property: they are absorbed by water, fats and sugars, and converted into molecular motion, or heat.
In the high-voltage section of a microwave oven, a transformer increases the typical household voltage of about 115 volts to approximately 3000 volts! This intense voltage is converted by a magnetron tube into undulating waves of electromagnetic cooking energy.
This microwave energy is transmitted into a metal channel called a waveguide, which feeds the energy into the cooking area where it encounters a slowly revolving "stirrer blade." Some oven models use a type of rotating antenna, while others rotate the food through the waves of energy on a revolving carousel. The desired effect is to evenly disperse the microwave energy throughout all areas of the cooking compartment.
But some ovens are designed better than others, and this even dispersal of energy is not always successful. Perhaps you can attest to this if you have tried to cook a burrito and found that some sections of it were scalding hot, and others icy cold. In this experiment we attempted to observe this uneven distribution and evaluate our microwave oven's capacity to heat food evenly.
- 3 Pounds Jumbo Fluffy Marshmallows
- Toothpicks
- Microwave Oven
Experimental Procedure:
Construct a 3D lattice of marshmallows, with toothpicks for struts, with one marshmallow at each point on the lattice. Place this lattice in the microwave, and cook for 30 seconds. Each marshmallow will expand in proportion to the intensity of microwave energy at its location. By observing the size of the marshmallows across the lattice, we can construct a 3D graph the distribution of electromagnetic energy within the microwave oven.
|Check out this video to see the results of our experiment.
Our results were informative and delicious.
We even produced a beautiful marshmallow work of art that we hung on the wall for our fellow Googlers to enjoy.
What you gon' do with all that donkey
|I'm currently sitting at a small desk on the second floor of this building with my laptop plugged into a 10Mbps hub, surrounded by teenage Fassis using MSN Messenger to chat with their friends in a mixture of French, Moroccan Arabic, and emoticons.
|Fes is a city full of striking contrasts between old and new. Parts of it seem suspended in time; while wandering around the Medina-city of Fes el Bali, you feel transported to the Middle Ages, but then you'll be yanked rapidly into the present when you notice that the donkeys traversing the narrow streets are loaded down with cases of Coca-Cola and propane canisters. While marveling at the picturesque skyline of gilded mosque towers and ancient buildings, you'll notice that the roofs are peppered with antennas and satellite dishes as far as the eye can see.
One minute you'll be admiring the extravagant zelij tilework of a 14th century medersa, imagining the lives of craftsmen ages ago, and then you'll suddenly hear the crackly refrain of "My Humps" drifting out the window of a nearby fondouk. I find it paradoxically amusing that a few minutes after riding a donkey through the Dyers' Souk I can wander into a cyber cafe and update my blog.
Cost for a five-minute donkey ride: 15 dirham. Cost for one hour of broadband internet access: 10 dirham. I'm not sure what this says about the local economy.
Already Tried a SIGQUIT…
I have to admit that when I released my debut rap single about a year ago, I never considered "nerdcore" a legitimate musical genre. I may have presented it as such in my blog post, in which I linked to other nerdy rappers whom I admired, but this was mostly because I've been indoctrinated into the academic tradition of giving credit to "related work." Certainly there were a variety of geeky rap artists writing songs about topics like anime, computers, video games, and role-playing, but I doubt that most of them would have identified themselves as "nerdcore." At that time, many of these artists were not aware of the other nerd rappers populating the Internet, and I suspect that some of them would have taken offense at the "nerd" label. MC Plus+, for example, did not identify his music as nerdcore, describing himself instead as a "CS gangsta."
But then came the Wired article, which adopted the same tone as my blog post and declared that a variety of artists were "nerdcore" whether they knew it or not. Another item in the Daily Tarheel followed suit, and then one on cool.com.au, and more like them that began with greater and greater frequency to portray nerdcore as a genre, a musical "scene," or even a nerd "movement."
My performance at Geekapalooza.
|These descriptions in the media were not particularly accurate, given that the nerdcore "movement" was really just a handful of people with web pages and blogs who emailed MP3s to each other. Nevertheless, they gave a certain credence to the idea of a collective of nerd artists banding together to start a musical trend. Artists increasingly began identifying themselves as "nerdcore," and as awareness of the nerdcore label increased, many aspiring rappers jumped in and began recording songs.
I regard the nerdcore "movement" with a certain ambivalence. The great thing about nerdcore is that anyone can do it — its self-publishing ethic means that all you need to be a "nerdcore artist" is a microphone and a pirated copy of Adobe Audition. The horrible thing about nerdcore is that anyone can do it — even those with little originality or talent.
MC Frontalot, who is generally portrayed as the "godfather" of nerdcore (having coined the term many years back) is an extraordinarily skilled rapper who puts a tremendous amount of effort into his lyrics and his recordings. Meanwhile, scores of copycats have jumped onto the nerdcore bandwagon by recording low-quality tracks with little artistic merit, diluting the genre with their hackneyed rap attempts. I shudder to imagine what the average person might think of the nerdcore "movement" were his first exposure to the field to be the music of a goofball like Rappy McRapperson (consciously atrocious) or an uninspired imitator like Ill Engineer (also shitty, but unintentionally so).
There's also the larger question of whether nerdcore is a parody of hip-hop or an homage. Much of mainstream rap music is insipid and unimaginative, constantly repeating the same tired themes, so I can understand the appeal of satirizing it. However, there's a lot of great rap out there as well, and as someone who regularly listens to and thoroughly appreciates "real" rap music, my personal intent is not to ridicule the genre as a whole, or to poke fun at hip-hop culture. While the majority of nerdcore hip-hop does incorporate humor, the type of nerdcore that I admire the most has lyrics that are funny in their own right, and not because they mock mainstream rap music.
|Above all, it's in the nature of nerds to be inclusive. When a new kid transfers to your school, if he tries to sit at the lunch table with the cool kids, they won't have anything to do with him, but if he sits down at the nerd table, they'll welcome him. Being at the bottom of the social hierarchy leaves nerds little room to criticize, and the tendency to be tolerant and non-judgmental is one of the nerd traits I admire. So on one hand I understand why the new nerdcore compilation features a whopping 55 artists, many of whom had never previously produced a single track; on the other hand, I fear that this policy of blanket inclusion may cause the rappers with actual talent to be buried amidst a tide of crap.
So, with that decidedly mixed review, I direct you to the first ever nerdcore compilation album, Rhyme Torrents, slated for release tomorrow and soon available for download. I will say that despite my misgivings about the project, the first disc contains some awesome hip-hop. I was blown away by the hilarious rhymes in Shael Riley's tightly produced "Miss Information," which spreads outrageous lies about some of nerdcore's major players (apparently I am actually Ice Cube). I was also immensely impressed by ytcracker's "White Warrior," a hard-hitting dis track targeted at mc chris, who has recently taken some flak in the nerdcore community for declining to participate in the compilation project. The infectious tracks by Beefy ("Tub of Tabasco") and MC Hawking ("Rock Out with your Hawk Out") are definitely worth a listen, and of course I recommend you check out the new song that I recorded for the compilation, Kill Dash Nine (lyrics here). Invoking the
kill command with the
-9 flag is the Unix equivalent of "terminate with extreme prejudice," and I think it also makes for a catchy hook. Crank up the volume and shout along the next time you need to vent some of your repressed geek rage.
Vodka Research
Perhaps you saw the Internet meme about vodka filtration that was circulating last year. An enterprising group of young "scientists" purchased a bottle of extremely cheap vodka and a Brita filtration pitcher, and after pouring the vodka through the charcoal filter several times, they claimed that the result was indistinguishable from expensive "top shelf" vodka.
I admired the ingenuity of these researchers, but I found their experimental methods somewhat suspect. They began by tasting the cheap vodka, which they all thought was horrible. Next they filtered it once and drank some more. "Much better," they agreed. They ran it through the filter again and found that it tasted even better! I'm sure you realize that this experimental design has certain confounding factors.
So naturally, I was skeptical of the findings; after all, if all that were required to produce good vodka was plenty of filtration, it's hard to believe that cheap vodka would be so repugnant. Even so, if their results were borne out by further study, the potential gains would be staggering. Instead of wasting my money on Chopin or Grey Goose, I could purchase a $9 plastic handle of Vladimir vodka, run it though a filter, and mix up deliciously smooth martinis at a fraction of the expense.
So, in true scientific spirit, I replicated the vodka filtration study at our weekly Computer Science Department social event, but under revised conditions that I believe produced more reliable results.
First Experiment
We began by filtering a bottle of "Pavlova," a foul-smelling but extraordinarily inexpensive brand of vodka (cost: $8 per liter). We decided to compare the filtered Pavlova to Ketel One, a Dutch vodka that is generally very highly regarded (cost: $27 per liter).
We set out two pitchers of vodka labeled A and B along with small cups for tasting. Our subjects sampled the two varieties, wrote down their preferences on small sheets of paper, and cast their votes in a ballot box.
This initial vodka filtration experiment seemed a success. Of the 24 people who participated in the blind taste test, two-thirds preferred the inexpensive filtered vodka (Pavlova) over the expensive premium vodka (Ketel One). I myself preferred the Ketel One; I wasn't sure whether to be pleased with my refined taste in vodka, or disappointed that I couldn't use the filtration trick to reduce my monthly martini budget.
Second Experiment
Although our preliminary results were encouraging, we decided that further experimentation was required before drawing any definitive conclusions. In our next experiment, conducted several months later, we investigated two additional factors:
- The first experiment failed to establish that people would choose the more expensive vodka in the absence of filtration. In the second experiment, we ran an initial baseline in which participants sampled unfiltered versions of both vodkas, to ensure that the taste preference could be attributed to the filtration.
- It is possible that the filtration process actually removes alcohol from the vodka. This would certainly account for the improved taste, but it would make the procedure much less valuable. In the second experiment, we used an alcoholmeter (a modified version of a hydrometer that measures percentage content of alcohol) to see if the filtration removed alcohol from the liquor.
Our second experiment used four pitchers, labeled A through D. Pitchers A and B contained unfiltered Pavlova and Ketel One, respectively. Pitchers C and D contained Ketel One and filtered Pavlova. In the first experimental condition, subjects compared the vodka in pitchers A and B, rated each vodka on a 5-point Likert scale, and indicated which vodka they preferred. In the second condition, the same set of subjects compared pitchers C and D, marking their preferences the same way.
We recruited 26 subjects for the second experiment. Our results were as follows:
First Comparison
Subjects preferring A to B: 12
Subjects preferring B to A: 12
Subjects with no preference: 2
Second Comparison
Subjects preferring C to D: 11
Subjects preferring D to C: 13
Subjects with no preference: 2
Our hydrometer readings showed significant differences in alcohol concentration between the three varieties of vodka: Ketel One measured 88 proof, unfiltered Pavlova 82 proof, and filtered Pavlova 78 proof. We suspect that the reduced alcohol content in the filtered vodka was not actually a result of the filtration, but rather evaporation during the filtration process, as it was repeatedly poured from container to container.
Ketel One: 88 Proof
Filtered Pavlova: 78 Proof
Although our second experiment still demonstrated a minor benefit from filtration, the effect was far less pronounced than in the first experiment, and in fact the difference may be attributed to the lower alcohol content of the filtered vodka. In the first experiment we filtered the vodka the night before and left it in a pitcher overnight, which may have resulted in even greater alcohol evaporation, accounting for the more pronounced differences.
There are a variety of ways in which our data could be interpreted, but our general analysis is that most people can't tell the difference between expensive vodka and cheap vodka, regardless of whether or not it has been filtered. Of the 12 subjects who preferred Ketel One in the first trial, only 7 preferred it in the second trial; meanwhile, 4 of the 12 subjects who preferred unfiltered Pavlova in the first trial decided they preferred Ketel One to filtered Pavlova during the second trial. This seemingly haphazard set of preferences would be consistent with the hypothesis that our subjects were in general unable to discriminate between the vodkas in either condition.
Despite this confusion between vodkas, our findings imply that Ketel One is superior to Pavlova, at least by one metric. If we assume that a simple way to make vodka taste smoother is to reduce its alcohol content, then we would expect weaker vodkas to come out ahead in taste tests. The fact that many people preferred Ketel One during both trials, despite its significantly higher alcohol concentration, suggests that it is of generally higher quality.
To summarize our findings,
- Given a particular brand of vodka, people prefer its taste after it has been filtered, but this is most likely because filtration reduces the alcohol content.
- Most people can't tell the difference between an expensive vodka with high alcohol content and a cheaper vodka with lower alcohol content.
Our second experiment demonstrated approximately equal preferences for Pavlova and Ketel One. Although Pavlova contains 3-5% less alcohol by volume than Ketel One, it is also 70% cheaper, so it would seem a clear winner.
Do our results indicate that you should always buy cheap vodka for your parties? Not necessarily. Vodka distribution at parties is rarely administered in a double-blind fashion. In situations in which the taster is aware of which brand of vodka he is drinking, his preconceived notions of its quality will likely provide a strong influence on his perception of its taste.
Future Work
In the second experiment, we chose two side-by-side comparisons rather than a single three-way comparison because we felt it would be too difficult for subjects to rank three alternatives. Unfortunately this meant that our second experiment never gave us a direct comparison between filtered and unfiltered Pavlova. There was no significant difference between the average Likert scale ratings for filtered and unfiltered Pavlova (2.85 for filtered and 2.87 for unfiltered), but a more thorough experiment might add an additional condition in which the two were compared.
We observed differences between the alcohol contents of the three vodkas, and we assume that alcohol concentration is closely connected to taste preference. In our next experiment, we may attempt to control for alcohol concentration by diluting the stronger vodkas with water. We would also like to control for the size of each vodka sample; in our experiments we allowed subjects to pour their own samples, and a large sip of vodka may be perceived as tasting worse than a small sip of the same vodka.
We also hope to investigate the influence of preconceived notions of quality on perceived taste. In a future study, we plan to pour the same variety of vodka into two different bottles, one labeled with an expensive brand like Ketel One, and one labeled with a cheap brand like Pavlova. By ensuring that the bottle labels and price tags were visible during the taste test, we could measure the effect of brand reputation on perceived quality.
Our experiment complete, Collin polishes off the remaining vodka.
Fukuro Irimasen
Tokyo is an extraordinarily clean city, a fact that is all the more striking once you realize that there are no public trash cans anywhere. In Manhattan, there is a trash can on nearly every corner, but it is evident from the waste littering the streets of Midtown that the half-block of traveling required to reach a waste container is still not sufficiently convenient for many New Yorkers. In Tokyo, I often found myself carrying an empty cup or candy wrapper around for hours without finding a place to toss it out. I usually ended up bringing my trash home with me; I suppose that's what everyone else was doing as well, since I certainly didn't see any garbage on the sidewalks.
In Japan, all trash must be sorted into combustible and noncombustible waste, so my Tokyo apartment had three wastebaskets: one for recyclables and two for garbage. At times I was confused as to whether a particular article of trash could be burned or not; when in doubt I tended towards classifying garbage as noncombustible, since it was my understanding that combustible waste taking up space in a landfill was a less severe problem than the fumes that could be created when non-combustible garbage was sent to the incinerator.
I developed the habit of sorting my garbage fairly quickly, but I still ran into confusing situations on occasion. When I went to dispose of my empty cup at the Starbucks in Ikebukuro, I was confronted with a somewhat bewildering array of compartments and receptacles: separate openings were designated for liquids, paper cups, plastic cups, leftover ice, lids, trays, and dishes, as well as burnable and non-burnable garbage.
Now where does my cup go?
The waste stations at the World Expo in Nagoya were even more exhaustive, with separate bins for newspapers, paper cups, burnable waste and unburnable waste, plastic, compost, PET bottles, chopsticks, and leftover drinks. While I imagine that this situation was taken in stride by the Japanese Expo attendees, I found it a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, the Expo organizers had anticipated the confusion of foreign visitors, so each waste station was actively staffed by a uniformed attendant who would examine your garbage and assist you into classifying it into the appropriate bin.
At least the labels are in multiple languages…
On the 50th floor of Mori Tower in Roppongi, you will find an urban planning museum called the Mori Urban Institute for the Future. On display there are exquisitely detailed 1/1000 scale models of three of the world's great cities: Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai. Each tiny building replica is individually hand-sculpted from foam, its surface covered with composite on-location photographs of the actual building. Above these amazing models, which occupy a room the size of several tennis courts, is a screen displaying statistics comparing the three cities. I found the format in which the statistics were presented to be rather entertaining: first, a heading was shown, such as "average cost of a hotel room," or "ambient carbon monoxide concentration," and time was allowed for the viewer to speculate as to which of the three cities came out ahead. The numbers were then displayed, accompanied by graphs, against which you could check your guesswork.
Some of the statistics were fairly easy to predict; for example, Japan is the most expensive city to buy a meal, followed by New York and then Shanghai. New York has the highest incidence of violent crime, and Tokyo has the lowest. Other facts were less obvious; for example, New York has far more space devoted to public parks than the other two cities. And some information took me completely by surprise: while Tokyo's average energy consumption per capita is less than half of New York's, its municipal waste output per capita is slightly higher.
At Tokyu Hands, even trash cans can be cute.
Perhaps this should not have surprised me given the Japanese obsession with beautifully wrapped products. Consider the lemon tart that I bought from the French bakery in the basement of Tobu. The tart was set on a small cardboard tray, and this tray was placed inside of a box with a cardboard insert to prevent it from sliding around, accompanied by an individually wrapped plastic spoon, a napkin, and a bag of desiccant. After the box was closed and sealed with an elegant gold sticker, an additional label was affixed on the lid which was stamped with the date. The box was then placed in a glossy bag with a fabric handles and the bag was taped shut with an adhesive ribbon bearing the name of the bakery. Finally, since it was a rainy day, this paper bag was in turn draped with a fitted plastic covering and taped shut.
While I couldn't help but marvel at the attention to detail and the dedicated service accompanying my 320-Yen piece of cake, a part of me protested the extravagant use of packaging materials. The elegant wrapping might make sense if the cake were a gift, but what if, minutes after leaving the store, I planned to sit on a bench outside the subway station and eat the cake right there?
If you plan to spend any amount of time in Japan, a useful Japanese phrase to learn is "fukuro iranai" — "I don't need a bag." When I first asked my friend Makoto how to politely refuse a bag, he looked puzzled, perhaps because he was trying to think of a phrase that I wouldn't be able to butcher too badly. Finally he suggested that I simply bring my own bag, hold it up, and proudly proclaim, "My Bag Campaign!" In English!
"Campaign" is one of those English words that has crept into common Japanese usage, but acquired a distinctively Japanese meaning, similar to "saabisu" (something free that is included with a purchase), "manikyua" (nail polish), "mentaritii" (intelligence), and "manshion" (a luxury apartment, giving rise to the somewhat confusing phrase "one room mansion"). I've seen the word "campaign" on various signs in the subway describing advertising promotions, so I assume that there must be a conservationist effort called the "My Bag Campaign" that advocates bringing your own bags to the store.
Oddly enough, this was printed on a plastic bag I received at a convenience store.
It's a timely crusade to mount in Tokyo, where any purchase you make, no matter how small, will be carefully packaged. You can run into the 7-11 to buy one package of chewing gum or a single can of beer, and unless you request otherwise, the typical checker's devotion to customer service will ensure that it is placed in a plastic bag, the handles carefully rolled together and the top taped shut for your convenience.
So let's hope that the "My Bag Campaign" takes off. In the United States, where we have cheap acreage to spare, we can simply hide away our trash in vast rural dumps. But in a country no larger than the state of California, waste disposal must be handled with the systematic precision that is so typically Japanese.
A Selection of Splendid Shirts
The Japanese version of the Nintendo DS comes in colors not available in the US (turquoise blue, candy pink, and graphite black), so naturally I needed to buy one while I had the opportunity. Then I needed some games to play on it, but I had to make sure that the games I bought didn't rely too heavily on knowing how to read Japanese.
I first game I picked up was Castlevania DS, which I found fairly playable in spite of the Japanese dialogue — of course I couldn't really follow the plot, but I was still able to make it through the game, and I felt pretty cool for completing it several months before its US release date. The next game I tried was Yawaraka Atama Juku ("Gentle Brain Exercises"), a cute and surprisingly addictive quiz-style game.
|Yawaraka Atama Juku offers a collection of puzzles and brainteasers, separated into five categories: think, identify, compute, memorize, and analyze. Once you've completed a run of tests, the game displays a radial graph showing your brainpower in each category. This "brain map" is accompanied by a letter grade that describes what type of brain you have — a "doctor's brain," or "artist's brain," for example.
|Here is my brain diagram. You'll notice that I did well in identify, memorize, and analyze, but my score in think was terrible. The reason for this is simple: the think category consisted entirely of word puzzles in Japanese. Given that I study computer science, my 66% in compute may seem strange, but there's a simple explanation for this as well: one third of the problems in the compute category were word problems in Japanese. So really the main piece of information we can take away from this brain map is that I totally suck at Japanese.
I felt obligated to point this out before posting another round of Engrish pictures, just so you understand how difficult it is to translate between the two languages. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm really in no position to criticize Japanese attempts at English; if I were asked to design something in Japanese I'm sure I would produce something even worse than these specimens. Still, I think that some of them are just too interesting to keep to myself.
I had spent some time browsing engrish.com before leaving for Japan, but I was under the impression that the photos it contained were examples of rare and precious Engrish gems. What I soon discovered was that these examples of Engrish were simply everywhere, T-shirts being the most prominent example. First there were the shirts with simple typos or R/L inversions — shirts that said "Jesus Crist," for example, or the shirt I saw with a stylized picture of some palm trees, beneath which was written "MARIBU." But then there were examples like these, which really go a step beyond and lead you to wonder what exactly the shirt designer was thinking.
Funny, I thought they were around earlier than 1986.
"Valid to Mod New York"
"It goes to get a haircut after a long time."
"An orange Streetlight Very much."
"Die instead of those who also perform etal. shedding tears, this bacillus guy Waste! It returns to the country, inhales and sleeps also on a mama's milk! It is crazy! Therefore, local of is diagreeable! EXCITE ACTION and it is waste and there is no existence value and war and anything is those guiltless! Brains of fucker! Shrewd smell a crow. This mother complex guy! It will kill a front Terrible impudent shelf. It is shaken if you etc. and, naturally is what! Also do masturbation, It sex with that child in the face of you."
"Like flowers love the sun but even more
And fill my heart with love
for only you… When she grooves"
"Creation of new world standard, clearing previous
standards. SUPER EVOLUTION OF STRENGTH"
I think it's supposed to say "UPGRADE," as in, "Time to upgrade my elegance with this awesome shirt."
I'm not sure what a "drilling convention" is, but it appears that if you attend one, 139 is a respectable score:
"The drilling convention WAS done all together LAST NIGHT. My SCORE was 139. It is not BAD!"
I once heard of a Japanese guy who came to study in the US and paid his way through college by selling American toys to wealthy Japanese collectors who were fascinated with American oddities. He would go to the Toys 'R Us and take pictures of all of the cheap toys, and post them for sale on the Japanese equivalent of eBay at hugely inflated prices. Whenever he got a buyer, he would go back to the store, purchase the item, and ship it to Japan. This allowed him to distribute a large selection of toys with no initial investment. I could imagine a operating similar business with strange Japanese T-shirts, crossing the Pacific in the opposite direction. Now I regret not buying any of them — they would have made great novelty gifts.
Tokyo Container Quartet
Tokyu Hands is my second favorite Tokyo retail chain. It is narrowly edged out of first place by Don Quixote, which offers a comparably dazzling assortment of bizarre and outlandish merchandise, but is slightly cheaper and has a cuter logo. Though I didn't consider this a factor in my comparison, Don Quixote is also the only store I've seen in which sex toys and pornography are shelved only a few steps away from children's toys.
In any case, while browsing Tokyu Hands (an activity that can easily occupy an entire afternoon), I happened upon these fabulous containers:
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Windows Phone 7 is just about 15 months old and while it hasn't taken a significant section of the market from Android or iOS, it is an impressive platform, and according to Joe Belifiore, head of Windows Phone for Microsoft, it's only just the beginning.
Pocket Now has been given access to a video starring Belfiore which was intended for Microsoft's partners at Nokia, in which he details the hardware and software improvements which are coming with Windows Phone 8, which is currently being referred to by the codename Apollo – and is rumoured to be coming in the last qiuarter of 2012.
So far Windows Phone handsets have been trailing their Android and iOS competitors when it comes to pretty much every aspect of hardware – with cameras the possible exception.
Well, WP8 is going to change all that and will let OEMs make their own choices rather than forcing then to follow specific strictures. According to Belfiore, WP8 will support multicore processors (no mention of how many), four different screen resolutions (no mention of pixel counts) and will also allow manufacturers to include microSD cards to expand local storage.
The Apollo update will also add NFC support with Belfiore placing specific emphasis on WP8's push into contactless payments. This will be controlled by either a secure element on the SIM or utilising hardware on the phone itself. One of the most exciting aspects of this however will be the tap-to-share element which will allow for transfer of data between the phone and a Windows 8 laptop/tablet/PC simply by tapping the phone on the device.
Windows 8 Integration
Microsoft are obviously looking to create an huge ecosystem which will include PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Developers creating apps for the Windows 8 platform will be able to "reuse – by far – most of their code" when porting an app from desktop to phone, according to Belfiore. In the video he specifically mentions the kernel, networking stacks, security, and multimedia support as areas of heavy overlap.
Another issue which has plagued WP7 users is the reliance on Zune, and WP8 will get rid of this in favour of a syncing relationship with a dedicated companion application. Pocket Now believes this will mean Microsoft is bringing back a (presumably) richer version of ActiveSync after letting that program die out for the most part.
There are also other companion apps for Xbox and your SkyDrive account on Windows 8 which will play nice with your new Windows Phone 8 device. In the video, Belfiore gives the example of instantly having one's music collection available on a newly-purchased Windows Phone, without the need for a PC sync.
App Ecosystem
There are currently 50,000 Windows Phone apps in the Marketplace with some serious gaps still there. According to Belfiore this will be boosted to 100,000 by the time Apollo rolls out.
One of the major gaps in the Marketplace is Skype and considering Microsoft now owns the VoIP service this is a rather glaring omission. That will be rectified with Window Phone 8 however with the service baked into the new OS.
On a more general basis, Windows Phone 8 will add native code support, which will enable more powerful applications as well as easier porting of code from programs initially developed for iOS or Android.
Data Management
A major problem for many smartphone owners these days, especially since unlimited data plans are so scarce, is keeping tabs on their data usage. A new DataSmart Live Tile will be added to Windows Phone 8 which will give users an instant breakdown of data consumption.
While this is a function other platforms already provide, DataSmart will go further by actively attempting to give Wi-Fi connections precedence, going so far as to automatically connect to carrier-owned WLANs when in range. The Local Scout feature of Bing Maps will also enable the real-time location of nearby hotspots.
With RIM faltering, it could be Microsoft's chance to capture some of the enterprise market and to this end, Windows Phone 8 will include BitLocker encryption — the same 128-bit, full-disk encryption found on Microsoft's most recent desktop platforms.
So overall, the Windows Phone 8 update is a pretty major advance and along with Windows 8, could see Microsoft gaining a major foothold in both the tablet and smartphone markets, which has so far eluded it.
Will Windows Phone 8 be the breakthrough Microsoft has been waiting for? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Pocket Now


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Spring storm bringing needed snow to Colo., Wyo.
DENVER — A spring storm is bringing much-needed moisture to parts of the Rockies and the Plains but winds are raising the wildfire danger to the south.
Rocky Mountain National Park has already gotten over 2 feet of snow and more is expected to fall through Wednesday. Southeastern Wyoming could also get up to a foot. It's also snowing in western South Dakota and Nebraska and the storm is expected to push into Iowa Wednesday night.
The storm has boosted the mountain snowpack and extended Colorado's ski season. Vail and Breckenridge ski resorts will open for an extra weekend.
However, parts of southern Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona are forecast to get only strong winds, making it easier for wildfires to spread in dried-out vegetation.
— Associated Press


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World's Trashiest Reality Star Gets Even Trashier
X Factor contestant, unabashed teen prostitute, and reality TV clown Chloe Victoria has been caught doing cocaine on camera. Even scarier: There's footage from an old makeover show in which she ditches her trademark tarantula eyelashes and pancake makeup.
Chloe Victoria is the British chav answer to Jersey Shore. "Chloe Heald" by birth (she's known as "Chloe Mafia" when she parties and "Chloe Victoria" on X Factor), she's only 19 but has been arrested 140 times, according to British news reports. Twice since her meteoric rise to fame last week, undercover reporters have caught Chloe prostituting (price: $400/hour or $2400/night). Now video has surfaced of Chloe snorting lines (and displaying some cameltoe):
[There was a video here]
Every time you think reality TV can't stoop lower, there it goes.
Before she was an international phenomenon, Chloe was merely a local phenomenon in her hometown of Wakefield, where she was a "full-time yummy mummy." Here's an episode of bizarre British makeover show Snog, Marry, Avoid, in which a bitchy robot gives Chloe a "makeunder." It's interesting primarily for the pre-makeunder portion: We see Chloe Victoria in the wild, applying "fit tan" and makeup in her bedroom. We also meet her baby daughter Destiny.
[There was a video here]
Viewed in sequence, these videos—along with Chloe's break-out performance on The X Factor—are a microcosm of how fame works in Great Britain. First, you dance around your bedroom fantasizing you are famous. Then Simon Cowell squawks at you, and suddenly you are actually famous and doing blow with undercover reporters. Amy Winehouse was discovered this way, too, right?


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America got together this week on the national playground to talk mommies, breastfeeding, and good parenting. Time and their cover model-mom, Jamie Lynne Grumet, made sure of that, as the pretty, hand-on-her-hip mom looked out from supermarket magazine aisles, her near-4-year-old son standing on a chair, attached to her breast with his mouth, while Time asked, "Are you mom enough?"
The peculiar intimacy portrayed, the size of the child, and questions about whose needs are really being met in the Grumet family set off a fervent debate in a country that ranks 36th among industrialized nations when it comes to breast-feeding, and where "normal" parenting is hard to define because of America's cultural diversity.
Is this good? Some say the picture helps to normalize breast-feeding and the idea of "attachment parenting," which means extended breast-feeding, co-sleeping, and refraining from using the word "no," ideas espoused by best-selling parenting book author William Sears, whom Time suggests "remade motherhood." (The philosophical underpinnings of attachment parenting actually date back to the 1950s.)
Is it bad? Some say the picture itself, more than the idea of what some would call over-attentive parenting, is an example of parenting gone badly wrong. "This is self-centeredness at its worst, sold as good parenting," writes Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist, on Fox News.
In an era of helicopter parents and delayed nest-jumping, these are all debatable points. But the core of debate over the provocative picture is fueled by the extent to which American moms and dads are ready and willing to debate their own basic parental insecurities: Am I doing this right? How do I know?
"Part of the issue here is, she can do whatever she wants, there's no abuse going on," says Joani Geltman, a child development expert in Cambridge, Mass. "It's a way for people to look at their own values and their own belief systems, which I think is what a good magazine article does. It gets you to look at your own life and your own family, and your own children and ask, Why wouldn't I do this? What's my belief system that I wouldn't do this?"
To be sure, what Ms. Geltman calls the photo's "icky" quality suggests that America as a whole may not be totally comfortable with so-called "child-led weaning" espoused by Sears. According to an unscientific online poll by MSNBC, 73 percent of respondents said they would rather not see those kinds of images.
One mom who took part in the Time photo shoot said the confrontational nature of the photograph and the headline may actually serve to inflame middle-class "mommy wars."
Proselytizing child-led weaning, co-sleeping, and gentle admonitioning for bad behavior is not the intent, writes Dionna Ford, one of the Time moms, in a blog on the Huffington Post. "Why does my [4-year-old] son still nurse?" she writes "He nurses because I am his warm, safe place. This is what works for us. You may do things differently. Neither of us is more extreme or better than the other."
Some child development experts, however, take a dimmer view of the practice, which may have fueled some of the backlash.
"In a way, while looking at the Time magazine cover, we are all Grumet's son and may know something of his possible plight: finding her a compelling and dramatic presence, seduced by her combination of sex appeal and motherhood – unable, in fact, to detach from her," writes Dr. Ablow. "Talk about a prescription for psychological disaster."
Even if the consequences aren't that dire, other development experts say there's still open debate about whether children really benefit from constant physical and emotional attachment as they move through toddlerhood.
"At the age of 3 is when kids are celebrating their separateness from their parents, so I think it gets in the way of a developmental milestone," says child-development expert Geltman. "I think the jury is still out on this philosophy of keeping your child attached to you, literally. But is keeping them attached providing something for the child? Nobody can answer that except the parents and their physician."
Even some breast-feeding advocates admit they were taken aback by the cover, saying it fails to show the nurturing side of the practice. Ms. Grumet acknowledged that criticism in an interview, saying, "This isn't the way we breastfeed at home. It's more of a … cradling situation."
Grumet says she self-weaned from her mom at age 6, and that she still occasionally breastfeeds her 5-year-old adopted son, a practice that she says has eased his anxieties.
Even on the playground, parenting is always hard to discuss because it is, in the end, deeply personal, drawn from tatters of experience, family tradition, book advice, and societal expectations. So when a boy who'll be going to kindergarten soon is depicted still drawing nourishment directly from mom, the lingering question for some Americans is how the pressure to do right by your kids – helped along in no small way by a provocative magazine cover – pushes parents to seek a higher elevation in parenting than perhaps it requires.
"Attachment parenting demands not just certain actions you take with your baby but also certain emotional states to accompany those actions," writes Hanna Rosin at Slate. "So, it's not just enough to breast-feed but one has to experience 'breast-feeding induced maternal nirvana.' And it's not enough to snuggle – you have to snuggle enough to achieve a spiritual high."
Anything less, adds columnist Logan Levkoff of the Huffington Post, is now being painted by some as failure, adding to the already heady anxieties of bringing a new person into the world.
"There's no one way to parent," she writes. "But we're told in many insidious and just plain overt ways that we'll never be good enough. It doesn't make sense, and the result is that we have lost the ability to trust our own instinct."