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Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Book Review: The Invisible Gorilla
Chabris, C., & Simons, D. (2010). The invisible gorilla and other ways our intuition deceives us. London: HarperCollins. Psychology is a much misunderstood discipline. If you go into a high street bookstore, you will find the psychology section stuffed with self-help manuals and in all probability located next to the section on witchcraft and the occult. This is partly the fault of the Dewey Decimal Classification, which sandwiches Psychology firmly between Philosophy and Religion. For those who regard experimental psychology as a scientific discipline with affinities to medicine and biology this is a problem, and some psychology departments have dissociated themselves from the fluffy fringes of the discipline by renaming themselves as departments of cognitive science or behavioural neuroscience. An alternative strategy is to reclaim the term psychology to refer to a serious scientific discipline by demonstrating how experimentation can illuminate mental processes and come up with both surprising and useful results. This book does just that, and it does so in an engaging and accessible style. The book starts out with the phenomenon referred to in the title, and which the authors are best-known for, i.e. the Invisible Gorilla experiment. This has become well-known but I won't describe it in case the reader has not experienced the phenomenon. Richard Wiseman has a nice video demonstrating it. This is perhaps the most striking example of how we can deceive ourselves and be over-confident in our judgement of what we see, remember or know. In all there are six chapters, each dealing with a different 'everyday illusion' to which we are susceptible. My personal favourites were the last two chapters, which consider why people continue to believe in notions such as the damaging effect of MMR vaccination, or the beneficial effects of brain training for the elderly. Sceptics tend to dismiss those who persist such beliefs in the face of negative evidence, and denigrate them as stupid and scientifically illiterate. Chabris and Simons, however, are interested in why scientific evidence is so often rejected and consider why it is that anecdotes so much more powerful than data, and why we are sucked in to assuming there is causation when only correlation has been demonstrated. My one disappointment was that they did not say more about the reasons for wide individual variation in people's scepticism. After a rigorously sceptical undergraduate course in experimental psychology at Oxford, I assumed that all my peers on the course would be sceptics through-and-through, but that is far from being the case: I have intelligent friends who learned all about the scientific method, just as I did, yet who now are adherents of alternative therapies or psychoanalysis. I find this deeply puzzling, but it makes me realise that the satisfaction I find in the scientific method is in part due to the fact that it resonates with the way my brain works, and there are others for whom this is not so. In sum, I enjoyed this book for the insights it gave into how people think and reason, and for its emphasis on the need to adopt scepticism as a mind-set. Its avoidance of jargon and clear explanations give it broad appeal, and it would make an ideal text for undergraduates entering the field of experimental psychology, because it illustrates how a good experimenter thinks about evidence and designs studies to test hypotheses.
Posted by deevybee at 08:16 3 comments:
Thursday, 24 June 2010
An exciting day in the life of a scientist
or: How to kill a few hours trying to get publication quality figures out of Matlab This is really just a boring moan; blogging as therapy. Well, yesterday I had the excitement of getting proofs for an 'in press' article. Virtually no errors to be corrected, but what was this list of queries from the publisher? Ah, the figures. Resolution too low. Well, that should be easy to fix - I'd do it first thing. Or so I thought. 9.30 a.m. The paper has an unusually large number of figures, eight, some in colour. All were created in Matlab and saved as .tiff format. I was pretty proud of generating the figures in Matlab. Graphics in Matlab is a bit of a nightmare and takes some time to learn, but once learned, you can generally create figures that are more complex than those produced by the other applications that I know. The proofs have come from Developmental Science, but they tell me the figures are too low resolution, even though I'd selected a 'no compression' option when saving them. Coincidentally, I have another article that is under consideration by Journal of Neuroscience, who also mention their stringent requirements for figure quality, and point me to a website, Cadmus, that will explain what is required and how to do it. Oh good, I think. Someone will help walk me through how to get good quality figures. Ha ha ha. Cadmus has a list of programs and formats that are supported. Alas, Matlab not among them. But Adobe Illustrator is. We have a copy of that. I used to have it on my machine, but uninstalled it, because I never used it and I got fed up when graphics files defaulted to opening in it, which took ages. Tracked down the CD, reinstalled it (compact version). Right, I think, Matlab will allow me to export a file in .ai format, and then I will be OK. Ha ha ha 9.45 I start with the simplest figure I have – a simple black and white line drawing with a couple of text labels. I save it with .ai format. When I click on it, Adobe Illustrator tries to open it, but first tells me it has 'unrecognised fonts' (Arial?) and then says it can't open it. OK, I think. But I can open an .eps or .tiff file in Adobe, and I can also save my Matlab figure in those formats. But once again, I get strange messages about wrong fonts, and for the .eps version, what appears on the screen is unrecognisable from the original. I look again at what Cadmus says about Adobe Illustrator. Oh dear. "PLEASE NOTE: When creating graphics in illustration programs such as Adobe Illustrator with the intention of outputting to an imagesetter or platesetter, it is extremely important that the person creating the illustration have a thorough understanding of the details of imaging in a prepress environment. There are an abundance of complex problems that can occur at output if paths are set up improperly, colors are indicated incorrectly, or other elements are constructed improperly. Trapping issues can also present problems if not addressed. The more complicated your illustration becomes, the greater the probability of problems at output, and therefore the need for more expertise and experience in creating the files." Decide that I had better try another option, since I have never used Adobe Illustrator and would not recognise a platesetter if I stumbled over one. But, I think, there is a helpful application associated with Cadmus that allows you to check your files. And I can just open my .eps file from there. Having gone through the usual round of registering, thinking of a password, getting email confirmation of the account, etc. I am in to 'Rapid Inspector'. I try opening my .tiff file. FAIL says Rapid Inspector. Resolution too low. OK, how about .eps version? Ah, says Rapid Inspector"Rapid Inspector found an image with CMYK color. CMYK color is not supported. Acceptable color space include(s): Spotcolor, Lineart, Grayscale, RGB." But this is a black and white figure! I spend some time in Matlab trying to sort this one out, but with no success. My own fault, but I can't find the script that I made to generate the figure in the first place, and I will need to redo it with different fonts etc. So waste 10 mins tracking it down and resolving once again always to save my programs in sensible places with sensible names. I go on to the web to find out how to change the colormap to gray. Re-run program, save the figure, and try it again in Rapid Inspector. It still tells me I have CMYK color. It also complains about my fonts. "Rapid Inspector detected that some or all fonts are missing from this file. To pass inspection, all fonts must be embedded. The following fonts are not embedded: Helvetica. " That's odd, as I was using Arial, not Helvetica. Try a few more runs of the program with different fonts. It still doesn't like my fonts. 10.45 Time to do a Google search about how to save a Matlab figure with embedded fonts. Well, it is nice to know I am not alone, and that many others have had this problem over the years. Several complain that it is about time Matlab did something about it. One helpful person, Oliver Woodford, has written a routine called export_fig, which is freely available: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629 Excellent. But, he explains, if you want to use it to create the kinds of files I need, you need to download two other applications from other sources. Fortunately, I already have the first, but the second, xpdf, is one of those applications that makes the non-geek's heart sink when you go to the download webpage and find, instead of clear instructions about what to do, a whole list of possibilities. I fear that the one I probably need ends in .tar.gz. I've tangled with these things before but can never quite remember what to do with them. 11.30 After a bit of fiddling about, I save the .tar.gz file, then try to extract the contents. A few failures as I do something wrong, and then at last I have it. But I am not sure I have it in the right place and no indication is given as to where it should be saved. I've just stuck in my Matlab program folder. 12.00 OK I should be all set, so now let's look at the examples of how to use export_fig. Nice helpful man who wrote the script clearly has been through everything I have, and more. He writes: "Exporting a figure from MATLAB the way you want it (hopefully the way it looks on screen), can be a real headache for the unitiated, thanks to all the settings that are required, and also due to some eccentricities (a.k.a. features and bugs) of functions such as print. The first goal of export_fig is to make transferring a plot from screen to document, just the way you expect (again, assuming that's as it appears on screen), a doddle." This is looking more promising.... Print out the instructions – 13 pages of them. 12.30 Took a break to look at some interesting data: what I ought to be doing instead of this rubbish. 14:30 OK back to export_fig. First attempt failed. Matlab can't find export_fig. I need to put the script somewhere else. OK,eventually sorted that by putting all the export_fig m files onto the Matlab folder in My Documents. All going very well so long as I am exporting to .png format. But I want .eps. When I try that the program complains it needs pdftops . SO where the hell is that? I will have a hunt. Found it, but it is a .cc file. does not seem to be recognised by matlab. So I have now spent more time on the website looking for a .m file. Doesn't appear to be one. Gave up and decided to try a .tiff file. Hah! nasty bossy Rapid Inspector says PASS. Hooray! But turned out I was reading in a different file created with the same name in May. Back to my .tiff option in export_fig This fails resolution test, even though it is specified as max quality. 15.00 Have a cup of tea. Back to trying the .eps option. Can't work out how to use the xpng file. Program stops and asks for pdftops. I have located pdftops.m and pdftops.cc but neither seems what it wants. As far as I can see from looking at the code, it wants an .exe file. The web tells me that a .cc file is a C++ file. In some desperation I tried renaming the .cc file as .exe, but that did not work. Decide to write to the author of the script, having read all the comments on the program and found that nobody else is having problems. Send the email. It bounces. I had mistakenly included a full stop at the end of the email address. Try to resend to correct address: email keeps autocompleting to the address with the full stop. After 2 tries, get into 'frequent contacts' in address book and delete entry so can now send the email. 15.35. I need another cup of tea to calm down. So now trying figure 2 , coloured headplot. Already have as .tiff; it looks very nice. Rapid inspector tells me FAIL! resolution is too low. I try saving as .png. Get lovely looking picture. Rapid inspector won't read it. Try exporting from microsoft image reader to .tiff and then reading in. Now I get: "alpha_planes: Rapid Inspector found extra color channels within this image. Extra color channels are also known as Alpha channels. Alpha channels are not supported. Please use an image editor to remove alpha channels from this file.resolution: Rapid Inspector found a low-resolution (RGB) image (96 DPI). The minimum required resolution for this type of image is 300 DPI. " 16:30 The wonderful Oliver Woodford replied and explained patiently how to cope with the pdftops thing. I downloaded. Still did not work. Downloaded again to the location he had said his was in . It works!! And the figures it creates are acceptable to the wretched Rapid Inspector. Verdict I'm really grateful for those who have produced free software that helped me deal with this. But I am really annoyed on two counts. First, Matlab is an expensive package. It does wonderful things and I love it to bits as a programming tool, but its graphics are not easy to use. People have been complaining for at least 2 years about the difficulty of generating high resolution output, yet nothing has been done. It should be high priority for the Matlab developers to fix this so that there is a simple command to generate this kind of output. Second, the Journal of Neuroscience exemplifies a trend in many journals to make authors do a lot of work that would, in the old days, have been done by copy-editors and other professionals. Scientists are supposed to have skills in graphic design and programming on top of all their other accomplishments. Some journals do still accept figures in a range of formats and look after any conversion from their end. But increasingly, the onus is put on authors. There appears to be no correlation between the wealth of a journal and the amount of help it will give to authors – in fact, if there is a correlation, I suspect it is inverse. Journal of Neuroscience charges hefty fees for just submitting a paper, let alone publishing it, with added costs of $1000 per figure unless first and last authors are members of the Society for Neuroscience – we are not and we have lots of colour figures. So our grant will be spent on shoring up J. Neuroscience rather than employing a vacation student for a few weeks. I reckon that on a 1-10 scale of geekiness I am a 6-7, and I am struggling. I am a full-time researcher with good support. I am a reasonable programmer. But I've got lots of colleagues who are trying to produce papers who are closer to a 1 or 2 on the geekiness scale, have little or no support, and are trying to fit research around busy teaching commitments. How on earth can they cope with all of this?
Posted by deevybee at 19:55 15 comments:
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Journalists and the "scientific breakthrough"
There has been some animated discussion about science journalism by journalists and bloggers relating to the Fish Oil story that featured in my 1st June blog on the Orwellian prize. In summary, Ben Goldacre wrote a piece criticising the lax journalism behind the story, and was then roundly criticised himself by Jeremy Laurance of the Independent, who felt Ben was going too far in attacking hard-pressed journalists. There is a good piece by Ed Yong that gives the background and offers a cogent analysis. Here I don't want to rehearse the arguments – I've already added a comment to Yong's blog underlining my support for Ben Goldacre. Instead I have a constructive suggestion from a scientist to science journalists about how they might do things differently when handling science stories. This is prompted by my experiences when attending meetings of the British Science Festival. The British Science Association, which runs the festival, has a distinguished track record: founded in 1831 as the British Association for the Advancement of Science, its meetings included highlights such the first use of the term 'dinosaur' (1841), the debate on Darwinism between Huxley and Wilberforce (1860), Joule's experiments (1840s) and the first demonstration of wireless transmission (1894). Times, however, have changed. Science has become increasingly specialised. The British Science Festival plays a key role in fulfilling the stated goals of the Association: "connecting science with people: promoting openness about science in society and affirming science as a prime cultural force through engaging and inspiring adults and young people directly with science and technology, and their implications". It is, however, not a venue where scientists reveal to the world a hitherto unreported "breakthrough". In general, the material that is reported at the Festival will either be already published in specialist journals, or will be "work in progress". In fact, most scientists find the whole concept of the "breakthrough" suspect: most research proceeds incrementally rather than by a sudden leap forward. The media, however, don't seem to grasp this essential point. They descend on the meeting in droves where they summon presenters to press conferences based on the one-paragraph press releases that the scientists are encouraged to supply. They don't attend the lectures. If my experience is anything to go by, they focus on at most 5% of the presentations, selecting those that they judge will make a good story of interest to the general public. Then during the week of the Festival, there is a plethora of newspaper articles which report on the selected presentations, inevitably talking about them as if the work is entirely new. Scientists then get uncomfortable as they feel their research has been "talked up" to make it into a newsworthy "breakthrough". The following week, the newspaper coverage of science reverts to its previous low level. Now, while I can understand some of the reasons for this, it seems to me a terrific waste of an opportunity. Gathered at the Festival is a subset of Britain's scientific elite, selected in large measure because they are doing interesting research and can communicate their science to a general audience. (Inevitably there are some who are hopeless at doing this and misunderstand the nature of the audience, but they are a minority). Their work doesn't stop when the Festival comes to an end. They will return to their labs and continue doing the interesting research. So if I were a science journalist, I would go to the Festival not to frenetically write stories to be published that week, but to make contacts with researchers who could supply me with good science stories for the rest of the year. I'm sure most journalists don't have time to tour the country interviewing scientists, but if they could make a personal contact with a scientist and persuade them they want to write a serious piece, they would find most would be amenable to a future telephone interview. And instead of having to respond rapidly to a press release, journalists could take a more relaxed approach, which would reduce their stress levels and give them time to check things carefully. I suspect that many journalists will reply to say this is all very well, but it's not news and so editors would not stand for it. Their job is not to provide the public with a general science education, but to tell people about breakthroughs. I disagree. There is far too much science for any one person to grasp, and so most scientific research will be novel to the majority of readers. The difficulty is to explain what is often technical and complex material to a lay readership. We have some excellent science journalists who are good at doing exactly that. If they could build up a network of relationships with scientists, they'd find a great many fascinating stories out there that are currently appreciated by only a minority of specialists.
Posted by deevybee at 08:26 4 comments:
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Book review: biography of Richard Doll
Smoking kills: the revolutionary life of Richard Doll by Conrad Keating Signal Books: Oxford, 2009 I only once had the opportunity of hearing Richard Doll speak. It was in 2004, after a hard-hitting lecture by Charles Warlow on over-regulation of research (http://tiny.cc/m1n7v). Doll, aged 92, looking physically frail but mentally alert, stood up to point out that under current ethics regulation, none of the epidemiological studies that he had done to demonstrate a link between smoking and cancer would have been possible. The only way to rescue epidemiology from the trend for increasingly strict and bureaucratic constraints, he felt, was for someone to deliberately flout the law and be prepared to go to prison for the cause of liberating research. "I am prepared to volunteer myself for that role", he said, prompting a spontaneous outburst of applause. This engaging biography of Doll paints a picture of a man who could have been trusted to follow through on this offer. But as well as telling us about the remarkable life of Doll himself, the book is fascinating for its account of the history of evidence-based research in medicine. Doll would have gone to Cambridge to read mathematics were it not for the fact that he flunked one of the examinations after being plied with strong alcohol the night before. That fateful event led him to study medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, but he never lost his love of mathematics, and was quick to see the potential for using statistical methods and randomisation to evaluate treatments. Together with Austin Bradford Hill he developed the method of randomised controlled medical trials which has become the cornerstone for evaluation of efficacy of treatments. He subsequently took up a post researching disease prevention, a niche that not only suited him well, but was also one of the few options open to him, as his membership of the Communist party made him virtually unemployable as a hospital doctor. Remarkably, Home Office regulations meant he was also banned from teaching undergraduates, although he was allowed to teach postgraduate students. The account of his seminal work on smoking and cancer was a revelation to me. I had no idea that in the 1950s it was commonplace for doctors to offer a cigarette to a patient to calm them down before an examination. Nor that there had been a six-fold increase in lung cancer mortality in males between 1930 and 1944. Many of the discussions around this epidemic are reminiscent of those currently seen in the field of autism – was there some factor that could explain the increase, or was it simply that detection of the disease had improved, especially with new X-ray methods for visualising tumours? Doll was remarkable for his single-mindedness and energy in assessing large numbers of patients, and for his ability to see the need for controls. He was ever alert to the possibility of misinterpreting data and developed methods of guarding against unwitting bias. Calculations were done by hand and painstakingly checked. Doll was concerned not to publish until certain of his facts, leading to some delay in publication of the first results. Keating emphasises the extent to which Doll felt it important not to become a campaigner for public health measures, but merely to present the results of his findings. It is a view nicely summed up by a comment attributed not to Doll, but to his collaborator Hill, who was confronted at a cocktail party by a doctor who said "You're the chap who wants us to stop smoking." "Not at all," replied Hill. "I'm interested if you go on smoking to see how you die." As each new study by Doll found further support for a strong link between smoking and lung cancer, and also revealed an unexpected link with heart disease, initial apathy towards the results turned into acceptance by the Medical Research Council, criticism by the tobacco industry, who derided the findings as 'unscientific', and alarm by the government, who made substantial sums in taxes on smoking. One of the harshest critics was the eminent statistician and heavy smoker R. A. Fisher. Fisher was exercised by a key limitation of epidemiological studies, the lack of experimental control. "Correlation does not mean causation" was his mantra, and he argued forcefully for alternative explanations of the association. The debate turned acromonious, with Fisher accusing Doll and Hill of failure to make their data available, and others accusing Fisher of conflict of interest, owing to his lucrative consultancies with tobacco companies. Again, aspects of the debate have some modern resonances: in my own field of neuropsychology, it is often argued that the goal is to find the necessary and sufficient cause of a disorder, much as Fisher had argued. On this view even a single case of lung cancer in a non-smoker could overturn a causal theory. But gradually it became clear that a factor such as smoking could act as a risk factor for disease without acting in a deterministic fashion. In my own writings on developmental neuropsychology I have used the example smoking and cancer to make the point that causal mechanisms may be multifactorial and probabilistic (http://tiny.cc/i8x5l), but until I read this book I had not realised that there was a bitter debate around this very issue in the 1950s. Keating describes it as a shift from reliance on Koch's postulates to Hill's specification of criteria for causality. Koch, working on infectious diseases had specified that, among other things, to prove an organism was the cause of a disease the organism had to be discoverable in every instance of the disease, and that experimental animals could be given the disease by inoculation with a pure culture. Hill's criteria involved nine viewpoints, none of which on its own gave indisuptable evidence for a causal effect, but which taken together would help determine whether causality was a reasonable hypothesis: strength, consistency, temporality, biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment and analogy. Doll is best-known for his work on smoking, but he also played a pivotal role in discovering the health risks of asbestos, ionising radiation and the contraceptive pill. Keating tackles head-on the accusations that emerged after Doll's death that he was in the pay of companies such as ICI and Monsanto, and refutes firmly any suggestion of malpractice. Doll believed that if one wanted to obtain access to data it was important to have some relationship with companies. This emerged most strikingly in his early work on asbestos, where his preliminary findings caused shock and alarm. He resisted attempts to suppress the data, but negotiated with the company where he had done his studies with the aim of doing further analyses. The company were willing to implement changes to their working practices and Doll judged that more good could be done by working with them than attacking them: after Doll's findings, measures for containing asbestos fibres were taken so that the workers could at last see that there was a clock on the far-side wall. Doll made no personal profit from this company, nor from his work for chemical firms, whose fees were donated to charity. Nevertheless, the book raises big questions about how to handle potential conflict of interest and illustrates the importance of modern practices of full disclosure – which only became commonplace after his retirement, and of which Doll fully approved. I can thoroughly recommend this book as providing a stimulating account of a fascinating life. It puts into historical perspective aspects of medical statistics and epidemiology that are now largely taken for granted, but which may have taken much longer to be developed without Doll's intelligence and dedication. A final word of thanks to the Book House, Summertown, the small, independent bookseller where I happened upon this book. Please support them if you live in Oxford: I can guarantee that if you wander in and have a browse, you will find something interesting and unexpected on the shelves. (And no, I don't have any vested interests – just keen for the survival of a local amenity!)
Posted by deevybee at 18:33 2 comments:
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Orwellian prize for journalistic misrepresentation
I am offering a prize each year for an article in an English-language national newspaper that has the most inaccurate report of a piece of academic work.
The prize will consist of a certificate and statuette and I would welcome suggestions for the design of both of these
The prize will be awarded in January of each year.
1. The article must purport to report results of academic research, and judgement will be based on a points scoring system, as follows:
* Factual error in the title: 3 points
* Factual error in a subtitle: 2 points
* Factual error in the body of the article: 1 point
2. Factual errors must be ones that can be judged against publicly available documents – i.e. not just opinions or reports of interviews.
3. Nominations must be posted on this blog. The nomination should contain:
* Web addresses for both the nominated article and the academic source that is misrepresented.
* Name and email contact of the nominator. Anonymous nominations are not allowed
* A scored copy of the article, as illustrated below
If a nominated article is not available electronically, then the nominator should provide a list of the points used to score the article, and retain a photocopy of the article, which should be provided to the judges on request.
4. If there is more than one plausible candidate for the prize, then additional criteria will be used, such as:
* The seriousness of the error, e.g. could it damage vulnerable groups?
* Relevant undisclosed vested interests by journalist or his/her newspaper
* The ratio of accurate to inaccurate content
* The presence of irrelevant but misleading content
* The size of the readership
and mitigating circumstances, such as
* Whether there was a misleading press release from the academic's institution
* Whether a scientist colluded in 'talking up' the findings and going beyond data
Nominators are encouraged to comment on these points also, but final judgement will be made by a panel of judges.
Illustrative example of nomination:
The following article is a strong contender for the prize in 2010, and illustrates the scoring system.
Inaccurate sections shown in square brackets with N points in round brackets.
Nominated article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/30/fish-oil-supplement-concentration
Misrepresented source article: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/4/1060
Nominator: DVM Bishop, firstname.lastname@example.com
[Fish oil](3) helps schoolchildren [to concentrate](3)
US academics discover [high doses of omega-3 fish oil](2) combat [hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder](2)
* Denis Campbell
* The Observer, Sunday 30 May 2010
Children [can learn better at school](1) by taking [omega-3 fish oil supplements](1) which [boost their concentration](1), scientists say.
Boys aged eight to 11 who were given doses [once or twice a day](1) of docosahexaenoic acid, an essential fatty acid known as DHA, showed [big improvements in their performance during tasks involving attention](1).
Dr Robert McNamara, of the University of Cincinnati, who led the team of American researchers, said their findings could help pupils to study more effectively and potentially help to tackle both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is important because a lack of DHA has been implicated in ADHD and other similar conditions, with poor maternal diet sometimes blamed for the child's deficiency.
ADHD affects an estimated 4%-8% of Britons and can seriously impair a child's education because they have trouble concentrating and are often disruptive in class. A lack of DHA has also been associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
"We found that, if you take DHA, you can enhance the function of those brain regions that are involved in paying attention, so it helps people concentrate," said McNamara. "The benefit is that it may represent an intervention that will help children or adults with attention impairments."
The researchers gave 33 US schoolboys 400mg or 1,200mg doses of DHA or a placebo every day for eight weeks. [Those who had received the high doses did much better in mental tasks involving mathematical challenges](1). Brain scans showed that functional activity in their frontal cortex – which controls memory, attention and the ability to plan – increased significantly.
The results, and fact that many people eat too little fish to get enough DHA through their diet, meant it could help all children to improve their learning, added McNamara. "The primary benefit is to treat ADHD and depression, but it could also help people with their memory, learning and attention," he said.
12th September 2010
New nomination by Jon Simons, who has pointed out to me that there is a word limit on Comments, which makes it difficult to post nominations there. If you have a nomination, please save as a text file and send to me (email above) and I can post it here.
Nominated article:
Original article: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/329/5997/1358
Nominator: Jon Simons (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Scientists can [scan brains for maturity](3), potentially [gauging child
By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, September 9, 2010; 6:13 PM
Scientists have developed a scan that can [measure the maturity of the brain](1), an advance that someday might be useful for [testing whether children are maturing normally](1) and for [gauging whether teenagers are grown-up enough to be treated as adults](1).
A federally funded study that involved [scanning more than 12,000 connections](1) in the brains of 238 volunteers ages 7 to 30 found that the technique appeared to accurately differentiate between the brains of adults and children and determine roughly where individuals scored in the normal trajectory of brain development.
While much more work is needed to validate and refine the test, the technique could have a host of uses, including [providing another way to make sure children's brains are developing properly](1), [in the same way doctors routinely measure other developmental milestones](1). [The scan could, for example, identify children who might be at risk for autism, schizophrenia and other problems because their brains are not maturing normally](1).
"If you are worried about a kid's development, in five minutes you could do a scan and it would spit out a measurement of their brain maturity level," said Nico Dosenbach, a pediatric neurology resident at St. Louis Children's Hospital who helped develop the technique described in Friday's issue of the journal Science. "That's sort of the future."
The technique developed by Dosenbach and his colleagues uses magnetic resonance imaging, already commonly used to measure activity in the brain by correlating increases and decreases in [blood flow](1) to various brain regions. The scans are considered safe because they do not use radiation.
In this case, the technique was called functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging, or fcMRI, because it [measured connections](1) in the resting brains of the subjects. The researchers used a computer program to analyze how [connections in the brain changed as the mind matured](1), pinpointing 200 to produce an index of maturity. They found that [close connection weakened while distant connections strengthened as the brain matures](1), until about age 21 or 22.
Dosenbach estimated they were able to distinguish between the brain of children ages 7 to 11 and that of adults ages 25 to 30 with 90 percent accuracy. They were able to differentiate between adolescents and adults with 75 percent accuracy, Dosenbach said in an e-mail.
But Dosenbach warned that it would be premature to start using the technique to measure individual maturity levels.
"I would not endorse that," he said.
Posted by deevybee at 18:08 26 comments:
Labels: #Orwellian
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This is the combination file/eng firmware(flash file) for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus SM-G9280 Android phone.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus SM-G9280 combination/engineer/ service flash file (ROM, firmware) can be useful in software-related cases.
Below are some of the servicing functions you can do with a Samsung Combination / Eng (Service)Firmware.
- To remove Google Account FRP(Factory Reset Protection) lock
- Enable ADB/Fastboot access on the locked Samsung phone using the ENG S.boot file
- To remove the Samsung Account lock or Samsung Factory Reset Protection
- Troubleshooting of your Samsung Galaxy device
- Restoring to factory defaults
- It enables the Service menu / Test mode to test the Samsung device.
- A combination file can be used to downgrade the Android version.
- Fix the device does not have the key-DRK issue.
- Fix stuck, hang or stopping in recovery mode.
- Fix a device stuck on the Samsung logo.
- Fix or repair IMEI, Serial Number, and other connectivity related IDs
- Repair Knox
- Change CSC of your Samsung device
- To flash the firmware: Read the tutorial on how to flash the Samsung Combination file to your Samsung Galaxy device.
- Check the Samsung firmware compatibility codes page.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus SM-G9280 Combination Firmware ROM (Flash File)
Here are the links to the Factory Binary combination / Eng firmware/flash file for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus SM-G9280.
|Galaxy S6 Edge Plus
|Android Version
|5.1.1 Lollipop
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Is My Father Still Alive?
In this week's Torah portion we learn of the dramatic revelation of Yosef to his brothers that the Egyptian potentate giving them such a hard time is none other than the brother they sold into slavery 22 years earlier. The first words he utters upon telling them that he is the disguised Yosef were "Is my father still alive?"
This seems a strange question to ask of people who have just spoken to him about their father. It may well be then that what he was asking was "Is the spirit of my father still alive within you?"
The name Yisrael, the Torah explains, refers to the successful battles waged by Yaakov against both man and angel. The State of Israel is also waging a battle against the forces threatening its very survival. It is to be hoped that by returning to the sacred spirit of the original Yisrael we can secure Israel forever.


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On Stack Overflow, I'm a pretty frequent contributor with over 3K in reputation. Almost all of which earned by answering real user questions about Windows programming and other topics.
Last night, somone posted a question. I knew the easiest thing to do would be to direct him to an appropriate documentation page on MSDN that I thought would help. And I literally did this:
- Copied the URL directly into the post.
- Below the URL, copied two lines of content from that page that was relevant.
- Small code snippit below that.
Literally, this is what the answer looked like:
This warning is automatically promoted to an error. If you wish to modify this behavior, use #pragma warning. For example, to make C4235 into a level 2 warning, use the following line of code
#pragma warning(2:4235)
I felt that by cutting and pasting a quote from the website, and attributing it with the URL was proper form. Such that it's not ambiguous where the answer originated from - both from a copyright perspective as well as a courteous to the content owner.
About an hour later, I observed two things:
One moderator downvoting the answer and flagging it because "Copy/pasting. Nice. Did you see "© 2011 Microsoft. All rights reserved" at the bottom of that page"
Another moderator deleted it with just a link to the FAQ - which says nothing about cut and paste or copyright rules.
Well that was disappoining. It wasn't like I was pasting a writeup without giving credit to the original author. Just a small quote from a well known reference site.
So here's my questions:
What is the policy around answers coming from other online reference sources?
Is pasting a URL to a page with an answer OK?
Is pasting content from the URL OK? Even if it's attributed? Is there a proper way to attribute content when it originates from another site?
Is there a proper way to attribute an answer if it originates elsewhere?
Was I wrong to paste a snippet of content from MSDN, or was I wronged by aggressive moderators?
Now here's the real kicker - my day job is a software engineer at Microsoft. I am certain that my employer would not take issue at all with me helping the Windows development community by referencing pages they publish. So in some sense, the Stack Overflow communinity is just making it harder for the Windows experts to help the Windows community. It seems odd.


text:
Sign in to submit an EZClaim, review coverage and access valuable health resources.
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At Equitable Life, you can find your passion and make a difference every day.
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text:
GRAY, ROBERT, office holder, politician, judge, and army and militia officer; b. c. 1747 near Glasgow; d. 12 Feb. 1828 in Charlottetown.
Like many Glasgow Scots, Robert Gray was employed in the American tobacco trade, and in 1771 he came out to Virginia as storekeeper and agent for a Glasgow tobacco merchant. Not surprisingly, when rebellion against Britain broke out in 1775, Gray supported the mother country and joined a volunteer corps raised by Governor Lord Dunmore. In 1777 he was appointed a captain in Colonel Edmund Fanning*'s King's American Regiment, being in charge of the defence works on Goat Island during the rebel siege of Rhode Island in 1778. He later served in the fierce guerrilla warfare of the Carolinas, and was commanding the British garrison at Georgetown, S.C., at the time hostilities ceased. Gray then retired on half pay of £86 per annum and came to Shelburne, N.S., on a commission to assist in the disbanding of loyalist soldiers there. His wartime commander Fanning was appointed lieutenant governor of St John's (Prince Edward) Island in 1786 and soon after invited Gray, whom he regarded as "a gentleman of superior merit and worth," to become (at £60 per year) his private secretary and "man of business." Gray arrived on the Island in 1787. Fanning appointed him to the Council, made him provincial treasurer, and gave him the unpaid post of assistant judge of the Supreme Court. He was also granted two town lots and two 12-acre pasture lots.
In 1790 Fanning sent Gray to England to lobby for new arrangements with the Island's absentee proprietors, and to obtain the office of receiver general of quitrents, a post also sought by John Stewart, who is said to have offered to pay Gray £80 per year if he would withdraw his candidacy, although the office paid only £50. Stewart's reputed bid was possible because the quitrents were never paid to the government, but, as Captain John MacDonald* of Glenaladale put it, went "to make a parcel of idle fellows live without work, and drink wine and debauch girls." Gray did not pursue his claim to the office (which Stewart obtained), but he was still in London when a group of proprietors pressed charges of malfeasance against the Island's major officers, including Fanning [see John Cambridge]. Gray mobilized support for the lieutenant governor among the proprietors and successfully argued his case before the Privy Council. Following his return to the Island in 1793, he gradually added a number of minor appointments, such as captain in the Island's fencible companies, colonel of militia, and paymaster of volunteers, to his portfolio of offices. Although Gray continued to support Fanning publicly, he privately complained of the lieutenant governor's close political association with the Stewart family, and gradually developed a reputation, unusual in Island politics, as an independent and unbiased official. His critics charged that he managed to remain free of factions by never doing anything.
Gray married Mary Burns (daughter of George Burns, an original proprietor) some time after 1793, and they had six children, including John Hamilton Gray*. He was active in organizing an agricultural society in Charlottetown in 1803, and especially after Fanning's retirement in 1804 devoted much of his time to reading and literary pursuits. From November 1802 to September 1803, and again from August 1804 to July 1807, he served as acting chief justice and over the remainder of his life he attempted to gain remuneration for this service, as well as a regular salary as assistant judge. Between 1806 and 1808 he assisted the Burns interests in settling a large number of Guernsey immigrants on the Island.
Despite his increasingly low profile, Gray was unable to keep completely out of political controversy. In 1811 William Roubel and other members of the Loyal Electors, an incipient political party, made charges against the Supreme Court that prompted Chief Justice Cæsar Colclough and the assistant judges to call on Lieutenant Governor Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres, who had control of the affidavits containing the charges. Although no specific criticisms had been directed against Gray, he joined the delegation and his testimony about the lieutenant governor's reaction to their visit helped destroy DesBarres's credibility. Gray was no friend of the Loyal Electors, whom he called a "Club instituted for the avowed purpose of regulating and controlling the Government, and headed by two men without principle and without property. "He sat on the Court of Chancery, which in 1816 prosecuted one of those two men, lawyer James Bardin Palmer, for professional and political misconduct. Under Thomas Tremlett, Colclough's successor, Gray often found himself a minority of one when the court came to split decisions, and although he protested he never made his concerns a public issue. In later years he became quite infirm, and died in 1828 after a long illness.
National Library of Ireland (Dublin), Dept. of mss, ms 20287 (5) (O'Hara papers), J. F. W. DesBarres, printed letter, 25 Sept. 1812. PAC, MG 23, E5, 2. PAPEI, Acc. 2702/643; Acc. 2810/132a; Acc. 2849/116; Acc. 3355/1–2; RG 1, commission books, 72: 5, 51; RG 3, "Memorial & petition of Robert Gray," 28 Jan. 1825; RG 16, land registry records. P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation (Charlottetown), File information concerning Robert Gray. PRO, CO 226/12, 226/18, 226/31, 226/39. SRO, GD293/2/78/2, 24. Prince Edward Island Register, 12, 26 Feb. 1828. Royal Gazette and Miscellany of the Island of Saint John (Charlottetown), 3 June 1793. J. M. Bumsted, "The Loyal Electors of Prince Edward Island," Island Magazine, no. 8 (1980): 8–14.
© 1987–2023 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Cite This Article
J. M. Bumsted, "GRAY, ROBERT (d. 1828)," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 2, 2023, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gray_robert_1828_6E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
|Author of Article:
|J. M. Bumsted
|Title of Article:
|GRAY, ROBERT (d. 1828)
|Publication Name:
|Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6
|University of Toronto/Université Laval
|Year of publication:
|Year of revision:
|Access Date:
|October 2, 2023


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Glock Model 42 — A New Single-Stack .380 ACP Carry Pistol
Glock will sell a small, single-stack .380 ACP pistol in 2014. The new carry gun, designated the Glock 42, was supposed to be a deep, dark secret until SHOT Show 2014, but news leaked out throughout the blogosphere, and Glock has confirmed that this is the real deal. Here's the good news: the pistol is light (13.4 oz. empty) and slim (0.94 inches wide). Under 6″ in length, it should carry discretely in a variety of holsters. Made in the USA, the Glock 42 has a 6-round mag, and a 5.5-lb trigger pull weight.
First "Un-Boxing" of Glock 42 Carry Pistol in .380 ACP:
Here's the bad news: It seems Glock fans were hoping for a slim, single stock 9mm, as the .380 ACP cartridge is considered under-powered by many self-defense "gurus". Some would-be buyers were also hoping that Glock would finally jettison the distinctive bulged-bottom backstrap that many shooters consider uncomfortable at best, and just plain wrong at worst. For many people, that fat bulge in the lower half of the grip causes the gun to point wrong. For many of us, the "hump" on the back of the grip forces an unnatural wrist angle when firing. If you don't understand, shoot a Glock and a classic Sig back to back and you may experience ergonomic enlightenment.
Does the Glock 42
Really Represent Progress?
We find it interesting that, in the 105 years since Colt released its m1908 "Pocket Hammerless", handgun design hasn't necessarily advanced that far. Let us explain…
Compared to the Glock 42, the slim, .380 ACP Colt m1908 (derived from Colt's .32 ACP m1903) has a smoother trigger, and boasts a 7-shot magazine (vs. a 6-shot mag for the Glock 42). The Colt also has a better-shaped grip, plus a smoother exterior (with fewer bumps, ridges, and snag-points). Remarkably, the 105-year-old Colt is actually thinner — it is 3/4″ wide compared to just under 1″ for the Glock 42.
On the other hand, at 13.4 ounces, the Glock is much lighter in weight than the 24 ounce Colt, and, yes, the Glock 42 is shorter than the m1908. For some, the Glock's lighter weight is all-important. Others may prefer the Colt given its all-metal construction, lovely blued finish, and classic styling. Many gun aficionados feel that the m1903/m1908 pistols were the prettiest of John Moses Browning's self-loading designs. What do you think? Is the Glock 42 really a better .380 ACP pistol than the classic Colt m1908?


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Nokia will release this year the successor of the Nokia Internet Tablet N810, called so far, the Nokia Internet Tablet N900 or Nokia Rover. The information was reported first by MobileCrunch and CellPassion.
The nice picture above has been created by LinuxUK.
Some data compared between N810, N97 and N900:
Dimensions (mm): 72x128x14, 55x117x16, 59.7x111x18.2
Weight (g): 226, 150, 180
Screen : 4.13″ 800x480 (WVGA), 3.5″ 640x360, 3.5″ 800×480 (WVGA)
The question now is, who is interested in this new Internet Tablet ? What's the advantage of the N900 compared with the N97, the next generation high-end mobile phone from Nokia ? Maemo versus S60 ? Will Nokia succeed this time in bringing the N900 to the market or will it stay a niche product for a happy few like it was for the 770, N800, N810 ? How will be the video experience on the smaller 3.5" screen (resolution is the same as the N810) ? What about the thickness of the device, 18mm is much more then the 14mm of the N810, isn't it. When will the N900 become available ? When will it become available in Europe ?
A nice, and much more complete article, about the question 'Where will a new Maemo device fit in today? can be read following the LinuxUK link.
Original post blogged on b2evolution.


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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 2, 2006
Mrs. Bush's Remarks to the Press Pool
St. Boniface Elementary School
Ft. Smith, Arkansas
MRS. BUSH: I'm here today in Ft. Smith really to talk about the Medicare drug coverage plan, prescription drug coverage plan. The enrollment date - the deadline for enrollment is coming up, May 15th, so we want to encourage seniors around the country to get enrolled. And I think it's so terrific that these 6th graders have figured out how to help people - they've enrolled more than 200 people in this community for their prescription drug coverage.
And they can tell you that there are three simple things that seniors need to do: you need to make sure you have your Medicare card, your red, white and blue Medicare card in hand; that you've gathered up all your current prescriptions, all the drugs that you're currently taking so you can have a list of those; and then you can either call 1-800 MEDICARE, and a counselor there can answer your questions over the phone, or you can go online - which is what all these 6th graders are doing with the people they're helping enroll, at www.medicare.gov - g-o-v, gov.
And you can do that.
If you can't use the Internet, if you aren't computer savvy like these 6th graders, you can get help by going to your area Agency on Aging; you can go to your grandchildren, to your own children and see if they'll help you, or just make the phone call, where you'll have counselors helping you.
It's really important if possible to have the peace of mind that comes with prescription drug coverage with Medicare, so I encourage seniors to try to enroll in the next two weeks, before the deadline. You may not be taking very many medications right now, but the chances are as you age you might have more and more medications and you don't want to take the chance of having to spend a whole lot of money on your medications because you have not enrolled in the Medicare prescription drug coverage.
So I want to encourage people to get enrolled in Medicare for your prescription drug coverage. And I want to thank all these 6th graders here that are helping people in Ft. Smith, Arkansas get enrolled, here at St.
Boniface School, where they're helping their parish members - but anybody else that wants to come in on the Monday mornings when they help community members get enrolled. So thanks a lot.
This is a great way also for children to help their parents, children my age can help their parents get enrolled; grandparents can ask their grandchildren to help them. And these 6th graders will tell you that it's not as difficult and as confusing as you think it might be.
Q You receive lots of letters from kids all the time. What stood out about this particular -
MRS. BUSH: Well, these letters actually went to the President, so I didn't receive them - my letters come another route.
We actually heard about how terrific this was before the letters even got to him. So we wanted to come here to let people know that it's not that difficult and to really encourage young people to help their parents or their grandparents, encourage friends to help each other.
This is a great program where a Catholic school is helping. I'm sure there are a lot of churches around the country that can arrange to help their members as they try to get enrolled in prescription drug coverage.
Q Mrs. Bush, I know that - Ethan said it, you know, it's people making a mountain out of a mole hill, but we do, we encounter people every day who are having such trouble. We encounter pharmacies that are not prepared. Do you expect that to change, to smooth out within time?
MRS. BUSH: I do, absolutely, I think it will smooth out. This is new, as you know. It's a new program, new part of the government Medicare program so, of course, there are a lot of people who don't know, who are confused about it, a lot of pharmacies. If I understand it - and we need to ask somebody else who's here with us - but the pharmacists have been doing courses for their - the Pharmacy Association has been doing courses for their pharmacists to get caught up on how to do it and how to enroll people.
And, of course, people want to go to their local pharmacy, they want to be able to use the pharmacy and the pharmacist they've always used before; they want to use what's familiar with them.
And the other great thing about this drug coverage is that there are a lot of options. If you're already taking a lot of prescription drugs, you would choose another one option. If you're not taking any prescription drugs, but you want to go ahead and get the benefit in case you might need to take drugs later, then you would have another option to choose. It really gives seniors a big choice what fits them best.
MS. HARRINGTON: I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming and adding to this. The point you made about things getting smoothed out is exactly right. The bumps in the road were just that - they're bumps in the road and the program is getting smoothed out now. We have over 36 million Americans now enjoying the peace of mind of prescription drug coverage. And we thank you for coming, because we're going to get Arkansas over the finish line. So thank you, Mrs. Bush.
MRS. BUSH: Thank you all very much.


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Cocina de Autor – Grand Velas Riviera Maya
Love is Blind by Netflix returns to Grand Velas Riviera MayaSofi Hernández
Love is once again in the air, this time with Season 5 of the successful Netflix series Love is Blind, which recently premiered the first…29 September, 2023
A journey of love and celebration with these wedding experiencesSofi Hernández
Your wedding day is a cherished moment, and Velas Weddings has shared with us its top experiences for an enchanting and unforgettable event. At Velas…16 August, 2023
Snorkeling in Riviera Maya: Explore its Fascinating Marine WorldVerónica Toro
Riviera Maya is a dream destination, famous for its white sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and impressive coral reef. Therefore, the Mexican Caribbean offers a wide…3 August, 2023


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The U.S. Federal Deficit Continues to Shrink
by Jessica Schieder, 9/10/2013
The federal budget deficit has been plummeting in size over the last few years; however, judging from polls, most Americans do not know that – indeed, their concern over the deficit has grown even as the annual deficit has shrunk significantly. And it continues to do so: the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated yesterday that the deficit for the first eleven months of this fiscal year fell $400 billion from the comparable period last year.
Source: The New York Times
The 35 percent decrease was driven by a combination of decreases in government spending and increases in revenues. Federal outlays fell by $127 billion, and tax receipts increased by $284 billion. This is part of a longer trend. As highlighted by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman in August, the budget deficit (as a percent of GDP and in absolute terms) has been falling since it peaked in 2009.
But you would not know that from reading the polls alone.
Source: Pew Research Center
Despite the decreasing size of the deficit, 72 percent of Americans surveyed in January 2013 said they felt reducing the budget deficit should be a "top priority" for the president and Congress this year. In January 2009, only 53 percent of Americans said reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority. But back in 2009, the deficit was higher than it is now. It was about to increase because tax revenues fell due to the recession and the mostly one-year increase in government spending – known as the "stimulus" – to arrest the free fall of the economy and to stem job losses.
A YouGov.com poll also found that far more people erroneously believed the deficit was larger in 2012 compared to 2011.
There are several theories as to why Americans are increasingly focused on the deficit even as it is shrinking. One theory has it that – perhaps partly due to a lavishly corporate-funded public relations campaign that directs the public's attention towards the deficit and debts rather than a pro-job growth fiscal policy – Americans' concerns about the deficit are really more about their feelings on the economy's direction.
As Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect put it: "Voters associate high deficits with poor economic performance—the public might say that it wants more action to lower the deficit, but what it means is that it wants Washington to improve the economy."
There is a link between deficits and economic growth. Strong economic growth coupled with balanced tax policies that put an appropriate burden on those most able to pay – the wealthy and corporations who benefit from public services and goods, including infrastructure – tend to lead to smaller deficits and even government surpluses, as the U.S. briefly saw at the end of the Clinton presidency. In other words, causality tends to run in the direction of economic strength leading to smaller deficits, rather than small deficits leading to economic growth.
In Europe, there are recent cases where it appears that slashing government spending to reduce deficits has had the opposite effect: reduced government spending weakened the economy and instead made deficits larger. This has happened in the United Kingdom, Greece, and elsewhere.
Whatever the reasons behind the disconnect between Americans' views and the actual size of the deficit, in the U.S., deficits are getting smaller for now and in the near future.


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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kirk Korver scored 17 points to lead UMKC over Lincoln (Mo.), 99-64 on Tuesday night in its home opener.
Korver was 6 of 8 from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range. Trinity Hall, Thomas Staton and Alton Tanner each added 9 points. Brad Reid had nine rebounds.
The Kangaroos (1-1) shot 60 percent from the field.
UMKC had a 51-29 lead over the Division II team.
Charles Cole led the Blue Tigers with 20 points, including two 3-point shots, and 10 rebounds. He was 6 of 14 from the field. Darius Whitson added 9 points for the Blue Tigers (0-2). Shakir Preston had 8 points and six assists.
The game marked the fourth consecutive year that UMKC has faced a Division II team for its home opener.


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Mumford & Sons have just posted a brand-new video for "Lover of the Light," which is taken from the band's mega-selling new album, Babel. Watch the clip, which was directed by Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba, below.
"We are, quite obviously, huge fans of Idris Elba's acting work, as pretty much anyone can agree he's the most badass British actor since Richard Briars," said the band in an official statement. "So we trusted him as the director for our latest video. We've been fortunate to work with some great directors in the past, but we've always been uncomfortable with the process of making music videos. We've never really enjoyed being in them, unless they involve live performance."
They continued: "Talking to Idris and Dan about making a video that we're not in made it a lot more fun to think about. They went off and wrote the treatment after our ale-infused conversation in a pub in London, and what they directed, we are proud to present as: Lover of the Light."
The band also announced a handful of U.S. tour dates for February 2013, which can be found below the video.
Mumford & Sons 2013 U.S. Dates
- Tuesday Feb 5th - TD Garden, Boston MA
- Wednesday Feb 6th - Barclays Center, New York NY
- Wednesday Feb 13th - Patriot Center, Fairfax VA
- Saturday Feb 16th - Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden NJ


text:
RIN Issues:
Fall 2002
Vol. 5, No. 3
Summer 2002
Vol. 5, No. 2
Spring 2002
Vol. 5, No. 1
Vol. 4, No. 3
Summer 2001
Vol. 4, No. 2
Spring 2001
Vol. 4, No. 1
Fall 2000
Vol. 3, No. 3
Summer 2000
Vol. 3, No. 2
Spring 2000
Vol. 3, No. 1
Fall 1999
Vol. 2, No. 3
Summer 1999
Vol. 2, No. 2
Spring 1999
Vol. 2, No. 1
Fall 1998
Vol. 1, No. 2
Summer 1998
Vol. 1, No. 1
Cover Story:
Preaching the Word in Littleton
After several decades of polite religious
pluralism in public mourning rituals, the Littleton tragedy shows Americans are embracing
a much more aggressive evangelical Protestant vocabulary to express their grief and give
meaning to their losses.
by Andrew Walsh
From the Editor: A Different Spiritual Politics
Religion in American politics, always episodic, is taking on a new role.
by Mark Silk
On the Beat: In Lagos,
Religion's Above the Fold
In Nigeria's yeasty newspaper market, religion
coverage plays a key role in explaining a vast and diverse nation to itself.
by Matthews A. Ojo
Something Wiccan This Way
Pagan covens in our armed forces? Some
conservatives rise to the bait following reports of officially-sanctioned Wiccan worship
at Fort Hood.
by Mark Silk
Kosovo: A Confusion of
America's religious leadership hasn't recovered the
common perspective on the use of force in U.S. foreign policy lost during the Vietnam era.
The result: a tangle of passionate statements and perspectives.
by Anthony Burke Smith
The Diallo Killing:
Sharpton Ecumenistes
Out of the furor surrounding the police
shooting of Amadou Diallo, Al Sharpton remade himself as an ecumenical maestro and created
a new profile for Islam in New York.
by William K. Piotrowski
Methodism's Time of
The United Methodist Church reluctantly
launches ecclesiastical trials against dissident clergy determined to undermine the
church's recently strengthened restrictions on ministry to homosexuals, most notably an
outright ban on the blessing of gay unions.
by Keith Hartman
Spiritual Politicking and the
The IRS cracks down on the Christian
Coalition, potentially changing the rules of religious participation in politics.
by G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Correspondence: Was the
Church Fires Story Legit?
Two views on whether the black church arson story of
the mid-1990s was media manipulation or a revelation of real troubles in American society.
The opinions expressed in this
magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew
Charitable Trusts.


text:
|Page tools: Print Page
In 1998-99, 78% of total energy consumption was accounted for by three major sectors: electricity generation; transport; and manufacturing (table 15.15). Electricity generation is the largest energy consuming sector. The strong growth in energy consumption in that sector is attributed to increased electrification in all end use sectors; rapid growth in a number of industries in which electricity is the prime fuel source, such as the commercial and non-ferrous metal sectors; and technological innovation encouraging the use of new electrical appliances in all sectors (ANZMEC 2001).


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She's Dr. Chocolate.
From cocoa fields in Ghana to posh factories in Britain, she spent seven years researching the chocolate trade to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
That's right, seven years immersed in the economic and anthropological impact of chocolate, and what everybody wants to know from Kristy Leissle is:
"What's your favorite candy bar?"
Hmmm, that's a tough question.
"There's too much chocolate in my life for me to pick," said Leissle, a global studies teacher at UW's Bothell campus. "I like whatever chocolate I am eating. Milk, dark, salted, flavored. I'm not overly particular."
She eats chocolate at breakfast, between meals and before bed. No matter where she is.
She ate chocolate at sunset with penguins in Antarctica. "I've eaten chocolate on all seven continents," she said.
She eats chocolate in class. She teaches a course that unwraps the role of chocolate in history, politics, film and advertising.
Not only students look forward to her lectures.
"I've noticed a staff member or two hanging around hoping she's bringing in her tasty treats," said Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, UW Bothell associate vice chancellor for undergraduate learning.
"It's not every day that somebody can study chocolate and get a Ph.D.," he said.
Leissle claims she's the first.
If you Google "Dr. Chocolate," her blog is at the top of the search engine. Then comes Dr. Chocolate's Chocolate Chateau in Minnesota; a bunch of medical doctors espousing the benefits of chocolate; and a party band named Doctor Chocolate in South Wales.
Leissle, 38, cut her teeth on Hershey bars.
"My grandpa used to babysit me when I was little, and he would feed me chocolate to keep me happy," she said.
It was her gateway drug.
"My brother once found me in the basement watching TV and eating Nestle's Quik powder with a spoon."
She still guzzles chocolate syrup from a bottle, "if that's all there is in the house," she said.
That doesn't happen often. She has a "chocolate closet" at her Ballard home, with bins and boxes filled with chocolate, from artisan to fun-sized.
The curly-haired Oxford University graduate moved from New York to Seattle in 2000 with the dream to be Dr. Chocolate someday.
At UW, Leissle won a scholarship to study the global aspects of the cocoa trade. "One full year was research and travel," she said. "I had to examine everything about chocolate."
She finished her doctoral dissertation in 2008 and dedicated it to her grandpa.
"People started calling me Dr. Chocolate, and it sort of stuck," she said.
Outside the classroom, she serves as education director of Seattle's annual Northwest Chocolate Festival.
She spreads the joy of chocolate wherever she goes, even with the person sitting next to her on a plane.
"It's one of the only foods our bodies respond to on many levels. All the things our bodies want, chocolate has," she said. "It gives happiness and pleasure. It makes us feel good."
You don't have to wait until Valentine's Day.
"Every day is a good day to eat chocolate," she said.
Doctor's orders.
Andrea Brown; 425-339-3443; firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Chocolate's Top 10
10. As ice cream, on a chocolate brownie, covered with hot fudge and chocolate sprinkles or crunchies.
9. In one of Autumn Martin's boozy milkshakes at Hotcakes Molten Chocolate Cakery in Ballard.
8. A drink of very dark chocolate, melted with heavy cream and sprinkled with sea salt crystals, in one of my nice china teacups.
7. Mixed into cold, whole milk after a long run.
6. With whoever is sitting next to me on an airplane during takeoff.
5. In chunks on whole wheat toast, on top of a layer of peanut butter and drizzled with honey.
4. In handfuls, straight from the collection in my chocolate closet, at my desk while working at home.
3. In Aaron Barthel's Saint Basil truffle from Intrigue Chocolates in Seattle.
2. Melted into my steel-cut oats at breakfast.
1. In my best dreams, where rivers of molten chocolate run all for me.
— Kristy Leissle,
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text: The Weil Firm is a law firm specializing in appellate practice. Amy Levin Weil has over 35 years of experience in both trial and appellate practice, both civil and criminal. Ms. Weil's experience includes bench trials, jury trials, motions practice and briefing and arguing appeals, in both state and federal court.


text:
"The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions."
A new article in the LA Times says that the American Geophysical Union (AGU) is enlisting the help of 700 scientists to fight back against a new congress that is viewed as a bunch of backwoods global warming deniers who are standing in the way of greenhouse gas regulations and laws required to same humanity from itself.
Scientific truth, after all, must prevail. And these scientists apparently believe they have been endowed with the truth of what has caused recent warming.
The message just hasn't gotten across.
We skeptics are not smart enough to understand the science. We and the citizens of America, and the representatives we have just elected to go to Washington, just need to listen to them and let them tell us how we should be allowed to live.
OK, so, let me see if I understand this.
After 20 years, billions of dollars in scientific research and advertising campaigns, cooperation from the public schools, TV specials and concerts by a gaggle of entertainers, end-of-the-world movies, our 'best' politicians, heads of state, presidents, the United Nations, and complicity by most of the news media, it has been decided that the American public is not getting the message on global warming!?
Are they serious!?
Americans — hell, most of humanity — have already heard the 20 different ways we will all die miserable deaths from our emissions of that life giving — er, I mean poisonous –gas, carbon dioxide, that we are adding to the atmosphere every day.
So, NOW it no more mister nice guy? Give me a break.
Finally Time for a REAL Debate?
Actually, this announcement is a good thing. There has been a persistent refusal on the part of the elitist, group-think, left-leaning class of climate scientists to even debate the global warming issue in public. Maybe they have considered it beneath themselves to debate those of us who are clearly wrong on the global warming issue.
A complaint many of us skeptics have had for years is that those who constitute the "scientific consensus" (whatever that means) will not engage in public debates on global warming. Al Gore won't even answer questions from the press.
This is why you will mostly hear only politicians and U.N. bureaucrats give pronouncements on the science. They are already adept at weaving a good story with carefully selected facts and figures.
Why has the global warming message been presented mostly by politicians and bureaucrats up until now? Probably because it is too dangerous to put their scientists out there.
Scientists might admit to something counterproductive — like uncertainty — which would jeopardize what the politicians have been trying to accomplish for decades — control over energy, which is necessary for everything that humans do.
Scientists Ready to Enter the Lion's Den
The LA Times articles goes on to explain how there will be "scientists prepared to go before what they consider potentially hostile audiences on conservative talk radio and television shows."
Gee, how brave of them.
Kind of like when I went up against Henry Waxman? Or Barbara Boxer?
I can sympathize with Republican's desire to have hearings to investigate how your tax dollars have been spent on this issue. But I will guarantee that if such hearings are held, the news media will make it sound like Galileo is being tried all over again.
As if climate scientists are objective seekers of the truth. I hate to break it to you, but scientists are human. Well..most of us are, anyway.
Most have strong personal, quasi-religious views of the role of humans in the natural world, and this inevitably guides how they interpret measurements of the climate system. Especially the young ones who have been indoctrinated on the subject.
Those few of us who are publishing climate researchers and who are willing to take the risk of speaking out on the biased science on this issue are now late in our careers, and we have seen the climate research field be transformed from one where "climate change" used to necessarily imply natural climate change, to one where nature does not have the power to cause its own change — only mankind does.
I have repeatedly pointed out how virtually all global warming research funds either (1) build the case for humanity as the primary cause of recent warming, or (2) simply assume humans are the cause.
Virtually NO funding has supported research into the possibility that warming might be mostly part of a natural climate cycle. And if you give scientists enough money to find something, they will do their best to find it.
Politicians have orchestrated and guided this effort from the outset, and scientists like to believe they are helping to Save the Earth when they participate in global warming research.
Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Hypothesis, Nothing More
What the big-government funded climate science community has come up with is a plausible hypothesis which is being passed off as a proven explanation.
Science advances primarily by searching for new and better explanations (hypotheses) for how nature works. Unfortunately, this basic task of science has been abandoned when it comes to explaining climate change.
About the only alternative explanation they have mostly ruled out is an increase in the total output of the sun.
The possibility that small changes in ocean circulation have caused clouds to let in more sunlight is just one of many alternative explanations which are being ignored.
Not only have natural, internal climate cycles been ignored as a potential explanation, some researchers have done their best to revise climate history to do away with events such as the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. This is how the 'hockey stick' controversy got started.
If you can get rid of all evidence for natural climate change in Earth's history, you can make it look like no climate changes happened until humans (and cows) came on the scene.
Bring It On
I look forward to the opportunity to debate a scientist from the other side who actually knows what they are talking about. I've gone one-on-one with some speakers who so mangled the consensus explanation of global warming that I had to use up half my speaking time cleaning up the mess they made.
Those few I have debated in a public forum who know what they are talking about are actually much more reserved in their judgment on the subject than those who the pop culture presents to us.
But for those newbie's who want to enter the fray, I have a couple of pieces of advice on preparation.
First, we skeptics already know your arguments …it would do you well to study up a little on ours.
And second, those of us who have been at this a long time actually knew Galileo. Galileo was a good friend of ours. And you are no Galileo.


text:
Very nice story ………….Dont Miss to Read it.
An elderly man in Mumbai calls his son in New York and says,
'I hate to ruin your day son, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are getting a divorce; 35 years of marriage... and that much
misery is enough!'
'Dad, what are you talking about?' the son screams.
'We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,' the old man says.
'We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Hong Kong and tell her!'
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.
'Like heck they're getting divorced,' she shouts, 'I'll take care of this.'
She calls Mumbai immediately, and screams at the old man, 'You are not getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling
my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then , don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR??' and she hangs up. The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. 'Okay', he says, 'It's all set. They're both coming for Diwali and paying their own airfare!!'
No man / woman is busy in this world all 365 days.
The sky is not going to fall down if you take few days LEAVE and meet your dear ones.
OFFICE WORK IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE and MONEY MAKING IS NOT EVERYTHING IN LIFE. AFTER ALL WE WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S DREAM..
Thursday, July 10, 2008
FW: Gud Story
Very nice story ………….Dont Miss to Read it.


text:
Bethel's most widely viewed public face has gotten a makeover. Go to www.bethelks.edu and see for yourself. Perhaps more important, if you know a student who's looking at colleges, direct her/him there. The site has a new design, new navigation systems and many new features--such as an online application form, interactive admissions counselor locator map, 360-degree view of campus and interactive calendar--and content has been extensively updated.
The Web site has been a priority for Lori Livengood, director of marketing and institutional communications, since she began in the position a little over a year ago. Brian Stucky '02, network administrator and Webmaster, has put in many extra hours developing the new site, which has been built from the ground up by Bethel staff specifically for Bethel College. The Web project got a boost when Alissa Cyphers '98 began in mid-January as full-time Web editor, a position that ensures that the site will be kept up-to-date.
Institutional Communications and IT staff are eager to hear from users about what they like or don't like about the site, as well as mistakes or omissions they might find. Feel free to use the "Send us a note" link when you visit the new www.bethelks.edu .


text:
Photographs: Amit Dave/Reuters Lalit K Jha in Washington
After the formation of the Narendra Modi government, there is a tremendous mood swing and positivity in the country, a visiting delegation of Indian chief executive officers from CII said describing its maiden Budget as visionary.
The delegation of Indian CEOs from Confederation of Indian Industry in an interaction with the Washington audience at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Friday highlighted the growing sense of optimism amongst both the public and industry in India following the recent election results which brought Bharatiya Janata Party to power with a landslide majority.
Please . . .
'Modi govt ushers in positive vibes in the Indian economy'
Photographs: Reuters
Ajay Shriram, CII President described the unique nature of the recent elections, in which the BJP came to power solely on the campaign promise of growth and development, which speaks to the aspirations of India's young people.
Describing the 2014-15 annual Budget as visionary, Shriram commended the new government for moving very actively to ease and facilitate the way business is done in India.
"Success in India will come with leadership, mindset change, philosophy and action," he said.
Please . . .
'Modi govt ushers in positive vibes in the Indian economy'
Photographs: Courtesy, PIB
In his remarks, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII also appreciated the government's vision and receptivity to new ideas and thoughts, especially from industry.
Naushad Forbes, vice president, CII and director, Forbes Marshall Pvt Ltd focused on the promising steps being taken in India's education sector and the increasing role of the market in this sector which is having a net positive impact on issues related to quality and equity of access.
He also specifically mentioned the community college model in the US as one worth looking at in India as well.
Please . . .
'Modi govt ushers in positive vibes in the Indian economy'
Photographs: Reuters
Vikram Kirloskar, vice chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, highlighted the importance of the manufacturing sector and pointed out that the role of industry in this sector related to enhancing quality, competitiveness and innovation.
Rajan Navani, chairman, CII National Committee on India@75 and managing director, Jetline Group of Companies spoke about the need for India to channelize the power of India' youth through skilling and leadership development.
He also spoke of the use of technology as a major potential game changer in India.
The wide ranging discussion that followed came at a critical time in India's engagement with the US, with the resumption of several stalled bilateral dialogues, beginning with the US-India Strategic Dialogue in Delhi next week.


text:
To which I say: Oh, buck up.
The key to female empowerment doesn't lie with wheedling word police. It lies with girls and women finding the courage to speak and act on their beliefs and principles without regard to their detractors' opinions.
My message to girls, including my own 13-year-old daughter, is not: "Ban Bossy." My message is: Be Bossy. And that means first being the boss of you.
Here is my own little story. Over the past 20 years, I have gained a reputation as mouthy, aggressive, overbearing and, yes, bossy. I've barreled my way through interviews on "The View" and the "Today" show, arguing over Joy Behar and Matt Lauer. I've battled with some of the biggest blowhards in politics, media and Hollywood.
But I wasn't always this way. In grade school, I was shy to the point of verbal paralysis. I failed a speech class because I was terrified to stand up in class with 30 sets of eyes staring at me. I was a doormat and a wallflower, not because I was afraid of being labeled "pushy" or "bossy," but because I was afraid of owning my own thoughts, beliefs and work.
What changed? In college, I got sick of other people -- especially, ahem, of bossy liberal white women -- pretending to speak for me. I learned to say "no" when everyone around me expected and demanded "yes." I learned to cut my own path and not give a damn whether anyone followed. I wasn't held back by how others perceived me. I was held back by how I perceived myself.
Sandberg and her friends think "bossy" (which she calls "the other b-word") is worth ginning up an entire media campaign over -- even enlisting White House officials and cabinet members. But women with unpopular ideas and opinions face a daily barrage of unprintable c-words, f-words, s-words and w-words that are far worse. If we launched media campaigns to ban every ugly word that comes our way, we wouldn't have time to get anything else done.
It is a blessing to be able to make a living exercising the First Amendment. It would be an absolute waste of those precious free speech rights for any woman to pull her punches for fear of, gasp, an adjective.
Girls, here's the truth about the Ban Bossy campaign: It's being spearheaded by a privileged group of elite feminists who have a very vested interest in stoking victim politics and exacerbating the gender divide. They actually encourage dependency and groupthink while paying lip service to empowerment and self-determination. They traffic in bogus wage disparity statistics, whitewashing the fact that what's actually left of that dwindling pay gap is due to the deliberate, voluntary choices women in the workforce make. This includes which industries women enter, how long they stay, what levels they attain, and when and how they decide to start a family.
The supposedly abhorrent unequal outcomes that "progressive" women want to eradicate don't always come down to sexism. It's not just a gender thing. It's a freedom thing.
I want young girls and young ladies to know that whatever adversity you might face, there has never been a better time to be an American woman. You have more educational, economic and entrepreneurial opportunities than generations of women before you. You have more flexibility, more choices and more ways to spread your messages and make yourself heard than ever before.
Don't just be bossy. Be your own boss. When I started two Internet companies, I didn't ask for anyone's permission. I didn't let anyone stop me. I didn't wallow in self-pity about the odds stacked against me or the derision that greeted me. And when times were tough, I didn't blame The Man. I woman-ed up.
Gals, you don't need the sensitivity brigade to protect you from criticism or attacks. You need to learn from them and rise above them, not censor them. And if anyone tells you to tone it down, do the opposite: Crank it up and don't look back. That's an order!


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At a time when some Catholic bishops are actively intervening in the political process to prevent gay marriage and gay adoption, it could be helpful to remember that in the long history of the Christian faith, outright hostility to same sex relationships has not always been inevitable. In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, and in the early, medieval and modern church, there have been numerous examples of Christian recognition of same sex relationships, both as formal rites and procedures, and by personal example.
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In Scripture:
- God & Adam: Chris Glaser ("Coming out As Sacrament") has observed that the very first love story in the Bible, and certainly the most important, can be viewed as between two "males" – that between God and Adam. Yes, it is completely false and simplistic just to accept the conventional pronoun and to think of God in purely masculine terms, but the point is an important one. Whoever we are, male female or neither, we know that God loves us. We may think of God in whatever gendered terms we like – and that could certainly include a same-sex relationship.
- David & Jonathan: Many people protest that there is no evidence that the relationship between these two took physical form, but a more compelling argument is that there is also no evidence that it did not – and there is substantial evidence of its emotional intensity. It is also one of the two relationships which represent the longest love stories in the Bible. The other is another which is about a same sex pair – Ruth and Naomi.
- Ruth & Naomi Here too there are naysayers arguing that this is "just" a family relationship, but this misses the point. Whatever else it is, this is clearly a story of a deep emotional love and mutual commitment between two women.
- Jesus & the Beloved Disciple: We cannot know precisely the nature of this relationship, but it was clearly a close one. We also do not know for certain the identity of the Beloved Disciple, although many people assume it is John the Evangelist. (There was even a long standing tradition in some parts of the Church, that the couple being married at Cana were Jesus and John). Others disagree, suggesting Lazarus, among other possibilities.
- Martha & Mary – Described in the New Testament as 'sisters', but this may have been a euphemism for lesbian lovers.
- Philip and Bartholomew: Included in the Apostles, cited together in the Eucharistic prayer of the Mass, these were frequently named as a couple in the early liturgies of same-sex union.
- The Roman Centurion and his "pais" (= slave/lover) represent the clearest possible evidence that Christ himself did not reject people in same -sex relationships, and was even willing to go into the home of the Roman – an extraordinary thing for a Jew to do, in the context of the deep resentment against the Roman military occupation.
- St Paul and Timothy are sometimes named as possibly having a relationship that was more than just spiritual.
- Euodia and Syntyche of Phillippi were a missionary couple active in the early church , mentioned in St. Paul's letter to the Philippians (4:2-3)
- Tryphaena and Tryphosa were a further missionary couple active in the early church, mentioned in in Rom 16.
The Early & Medieval Church
In the early church, many saints and martyrs are remembered as pairs of lovers. The church also created and used formal rites for church blessing couples committing to each other in same sex unions. In addition to liturgical recognition of these unions at their start, some couple also achieved church recognition at their dissolution in death, by being buried together in church tombs, in a manner exactly comparable to that widely used for conventionally married couples.
Here are some examples:
- SS Sergius & Bacchus, Roman soldiers, lovers, martyrs and recognised as saints by popular acclamation, are by a long way the best known of the so-called "gay saints" (although I prefer to use the descriptor "queer").
- SS Polyeuct and Nearchos, are not as well known as Sergius and Bacchus, but like them were Roman soldiers and martyrs who became recognized as saints. They are frequently named together in the liturgical rites of same-sex union.
- St Paulinus of Nola was a Bishop who also wrote homoerotic poetry to his male lover, Ausonius
Other paired saints who were often named in these rites and other liturgies (including, in some cases, the Mass) are
- The 'two Theodores', one a foot soldier martyred in the fourth century, and the other a general invented in the ninth century to form a pair, are often depicted with their arms around one another, and they are paired together with Serge and Bacchus in Kievan icons dating from before the twelfth century.
- Peter and Paul
- Peter and Andrew
- Jacob and John
- Philip and Bartholomew
- Cosmos and Damian
- Cyrus and John
- Marcellus and Apuleius
- Cyprian and Justinus
- Dionysius and Eleutheris
- George and Demetrius.
Some couples who were found by archaeologists to have been buried together in Macedonia in the 4th to the 6th centuries were:
- Faustinos and Donatos (at Phillippi),
- Posidonia, and Pancharia,
- Kyriakos and Nikandros,
- Gourasios and Konstantios,
- Euodiana and Dorothea (at Phillippi),
- Martyrios, a presbyter, and Demetrios, a lector (at Edessa),
- Eudoxios, presbyter, and John, a deacon described as "the sinner" (at Edessa),
- Droseria and Eudoxia (at Edessa),
- Athanasios and Chryseros: buried together at Edessa, in Macedonia. 5th to 6th century.
- Alexandra and Glukeria: buried together at Phillippi, in Macedonia. 6th century
- St Patrick of Ireland: after his escape from early slavery, Patrick worked for time as a male prostitute. A recent history of Irish homosexualilty suggests that he may have taken a male lover in later life
- St Brigid of Ireland may have had a female lover, Darlughdach – although, as with many of the early saints, the historical details of her life are sketchy and unreliable.
- Several Bishops of the medieval church are known to have have had male sexual partners. Archbishop Ralph of Tours even got his boyfriend John, who had a well-deserved reputation for promiscuity, named as bishop of Orleans. Other bishops were renowned for the poetry and love letters they wrote to their boyfriends. (SeeThe Homoerotic Flowering of the Medieval Church)
It was not only the Eastern church that sometimes buried same sex couples in shared tombs. The historian Alan Bray ("The Friend") has described the shared tombs of the Irish and English couples
- Dicul and Maelodran the wright (Delgany, County Wicklow);
- Ultan and Dubthach (Termonfechin, County Louth);
- John Bloxham and John Wyndham (Merton College Chapel, Oxford, 14th Century);
- William Neville & John Neville: English knights, buried together in Galata, near Constantinople 14th Century.
- Nicholas Molyneux and John Winters: made a compact of 'sworn brotherhood, made in the church of St Martin of Harfleur. 15th century.
Renaissance to Modern
- John Finch and Thomas Baines were buried together in Christ's College Chapel, Cambridge (17th Century).
- Fulke Greville & Sir Phillip Sidney: the joint monument Greville planned for himself and Sidney in St Paul's cathedral was never built. But the simple intention alone indicates the natrure of the relationship, as also its recognition by the church.
- Cardinal John Henry Newman and Fr. Ambrose St.John were buried together, 19th C. There is no suggestion that their deep love was anything but celibate, in keeping with their vows. All the same, reflection on this relationship raises important questions about the response of the Catholic Church to same sex relationships in our own day.
Recommended Books:
- Boswell, John: Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality
- Boswell, John: Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe
- Glaser, Chris: Coming out As Sacrament
- Jennings, Theodore The Man Jesus Loved
- O'Neill, Denis: Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People
Related articles
- Nov 1st: All (Gay) Saints (queering-the-church.com)
- GLBT History Month (in Church): Cardinal Borghese (1576 – 1633), Homoerotic Art Lover (queering-the-church.com)
- St John the Evangelist, the "Beloved Disciple": December 27th(myqueerscripture.blogspot.com)
- The Queer Bible: Beyond Family Values (myqueerscripture.blogspot.com)
- Sergius & Bacchus, 7th October: Patron Saints of Same Sex Lovers? (queering-the-church.com)