text:
Consider them the four-legged version of Team Canada.
More than 100 Canadian dogs compete this week at the venerable Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York, where carefully groomed pooches and pedigree canines will strut their stuff in a bid to be named best in show.
The #WKCDogShow 3rd Annual Masters Obedience Championship is underway on Ring 10 at Pier 94! pic.twitter.com/iWYuIZJKnJ— Westminster Dog Show (@WKCDOGS) February 12, 2018
The homegrown competitors include record-holding champion Inuk, a snow-white 10-year-old from Caledon, Ont., who heads into the competition as the top American Eskimo in Canada for 10 consecutive years.
"When he walks in the ring he kind of (communicates): I'm here, so all eyes on me," his owner, Sharon Robertson said of Inuk's knack for performance.
This will be Inuk's 10th appearance at Westminster, where he's previously won eight best in breed titles and was awarded the title of "select dog" last year, for a second-place showing.
Robertson, who's been showing American Eskimos for almost 20 years, says she knew he was a champion since she first saw him as a puppy.
"He was just one of those dogs that you spot an attitude, you spot — and it sounds dumb — but I call it, 'It.' It's just a quality that every time you look in the box and see six puppies that's the only dog you see. And that was Inuk," said Robertson.
Canadians have had a solid track record at Westminster, the second-oldest continuous sporting event in the United States, after the Kentucky Derby.
Canuck dogs have won best in show at Madison Square Garden six times, most recently Miss P the beagle in 2015.
Miss P's handler, Will Alexander, returns this year to show eight pooches from the United States and Canada.
"Your whole year, this is what you strive for, making your dogs look good for this show," Alexander said as he prepared for the trip from his home in Milton, Ont.
"Westminster is sort of the Olympics of dog shows, right?"
The judging panels, too, feature a healthy Canuck contingent, with Vancouver-native Betty-Anne Stenmark presiding over the all-important finale.
Stenmark, who moved to California in 1975 after meeting her husband at a dog show in Michigan, will be the fourth Canadian to judge the category, and the second Canadian woman.
She spent many years as an exhibitor and breeder, cultivating a specialty in Dandie Dinmont terriers, but discovered an eye for judging in the 1970s.
"I was watching this judge do a terrible job with the breeds and I can remember saying to myself, 'I can do as good a job as that,'" said Stenmark with a chuckle.
But it's not easy to be a judge. Qualifications require applicants to have bred dogs, produced champions, judged apprentice shows, and completed exams on anatomy and specific breed standards.
Stenmark, who now lives in the Sierra Foothills, says she's licensed to judge about 130 breeds, including all breeds in the sporting, hound, and terrier groups.
Generally speaking, she'll be on the lookout at Westminster for good breeding stock.
"When you're faced with two lovely dogs before you, you think to yourself, 'I would be happy to have that dog at my house' and that's the one you choose. It's simply judging the quality of the dog and its abilities to reproduce and improve the breed with every litter," she said.
How can you not fall in love with this face? 💜 #WKCDogShow pic.twitter.com/vTa2sIhPcV— Westminster Dog Show (@WKCDOGS) February 12, 2018
Other Canadian judges include Pamela Bruce of Toronto; Stephen Dainard of Niagara Falls, Ont.; John Reeve-Newson of Toronto; and Canadian-born Elliott More, now of New Hampshire.
Then there's husband-and-wife judging team Michael and Rosemary Shoreman, who head to Westminster for the first time, although they've judged all over the world.
"It's a great show, it really is," said 73-year-old Michael Shoreman, who will be judging 170 dogs over two days in the terrier, toy and non-sport groups.
"Very often Canadian dogs do very well. The Canadian breeders, in a lot of breeds are very strong," he said.
Rosemary Shoreman said the Phelpston, Ont. couple will likely take more time than usual to assess the dogs, mindful of the big stakes at the televised event.
"Because it's a prestigious show, you don't rush through what you're doing," said the 70-year-old, who will be judging 159 dogs in the terrier and toy breeds.
"It will take a little bit longer than it would at a regular dog show. We're probably going to be judging in total each day about four hours."
Whittling some 2,800 dogs down to a single best in show winner is no easy task.
Stenmark has judged at Westminster 10 times, but admits the best in show category can come down to "a real lottery.
"The competition at that point is phenomenal, and as a judge when you get to those seven dogs you can't make a mistake — they're all good dogs," she said.
"It becomes more: Who's really on that day? Who's out there seemingly wanting it? And we'll see what happens."
The Westminster Kennel Club dog show runs Monday and Tuesday in New York City, with the best in show prize to be announced by 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press


text:
Ticket reservations are required. Facial coverings are strongly recommended. See Health and Safety.
by AMNH on
With countless restaurants and food markets, New Yorkers may have a more effortlessly sophisticated palate than ever, but do they really have a nuanced understanding of the global forces that shape the politics and economics of food? Do we understand who has enough, who doesn't—and why?
The Museum's current exhibition Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture provides some context for pondering these issues, but the answers aren't simple.
"The world of food is rife with paradox," says Frederick Kaufman. Kaufman, a noted journalist and professor, spent years researching the "financialization" of food for his 2012 book Bet the Farm: How Food STOPPED Being Food.
When did you first start writing about food?
In the 1990s, while getting my Ph.D. in English, I was very focused on food, medicine, and physiology in 18th- and 19th-century Federalist American literature. I eventually wrote a book, A Short History of the American Stomach, about why Americans are the way they are about food. My wife jokes that I'm fully qualified to be a doctor—an 18th-century doctor!
What has changed in your outlook on food since your earlier work?
The greatness of America stems from abundance…in essence, that's why so many people came here: to eat. But after writing about that for a long time, it was time for me to look at the other side: scarcity. I went from food to no food.
How did that lead to your recent book, Bet the Farm: How Food STOPPED Being Food?
Although traders have speculated in food "futures" since the mid-1800s, it was only in the early part of the current decade that Wall Street banks started speculating in food using certain kinds of complex financial derivatives that made the price of food no longer dependent on supply and demand. What I discovered in my research is people don't go hungry because there's not enough food. They go hungry because of the price of food.
While working on the book, you found that one side effect of global food markets is that it's actually small farmers who often go hungry. For instance, Ghanaian farmers who grow local tomatoes can't make a living because imported tomato products flood the market.
It's a shock, it's a shame, and it's an outrage. Small farmers are being pushed off the farms. A lot of the book is about the paradoxes of food, and the case of tomato farmers in Africa is only one example of how a food paradox can have devastating consequences. Virtual food has become an index, a political plaything.
What types of reform do you see helping the problems of food inequality and access?
There are a lot of solutions to this problem. We already know about agro-ecological farming methods; better relationship between urban and rural; not too much monoculture; variegated diets; slow food, local food. But before that there have to be economic reforms, internationally. There are many solutions—one is to regulate large banks out of gambling on food, to reform international derivatives markets.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Did Muslims Visit America Before Columbus?History Q & A
Ms. Fachner is an HNN intern.
Is it possible that there were Muslims in the Americas before Columbus? Some claim that Muslims came to America hundreds of years before Columbus arrived in the New World. Are the claims true?
Every elementary school student knows the story of Christopher Columbus; that he set sail from Spain and mistakenly discovered America in 1492, landing on an island in the Caribbean. Columbus encountered native inhabitants of this new world, and thinking that he had landed in India, he called them Indians. While many of the details have been mythologized or fabricated over the ensuing 500 years, Columbus's expedition represents the first major discovery of the Americas and the first appearance of non-Native Americans. The conventional wisdom is that Columbus ended tens of thousands of years of near-total isolation for the Native Americans. Since the Americas had been initially populated (probably between 13,000 BC and 11,000 BC) there had been no engagement with populations on any other continent, save small ventures by the Norse into Northeastern Canada.
Now some are suggesting that Muslims came to the Americas, possibly as early as the 700s. These researchers argue that Muslims came from Islamic Spain, particularly the port of Delba (Pelos) during the rule of Caliph Abdullah Ibn Mohammed (888-912). A book by a Muslim historian details the story of a Muslim navigator on a journey across the ocean to an unknown land, where they found much treasure. The historian, Abul-Hassan Al-Masudi, added a map of the world to his book, one that contained "a large area in the ocean of darkness and fog (the Atlantic Ocean) which he referred to as the unknown territory (the Americas).
Columbus landed on a small Bahamian island on Oct. 12, 1492. Although Columbus renamed it, the island was called Guanahani by the native Mandinka islanders. Guanahani is believed to be a corruption of two Arabic words, brought to the island by early Muslim visitors who remained in the Caribbean and intermarried with the Native Americans. Guana means brothers and Hani is a traditional Arab name, giving rise to the idea that the island name meant "Hani Brothers." Nearby in Honduras lived a tribe of natives known as Almamy, a corruption of the Arabic word Al-Imam, person who leads in prayer. Leo Wiener, founder of Harvard's Department of Slavic Languages, argued in an early 20th century book that these examples were the result of West African Muslims spreading throughout the New World and intermarrying with the various Indian tribes. There are other, equally fragmented, claims about an early Muslim presence in the Americas, all contained in an article published widely on the Internet by Dr. Youssef Mroueh. Dr. Mroueh; a Muslim author, historian of science and radiation control physicist, wrote this article to commemorate a thousand years of Muslim presence in the Americas in 1996.
Mroueh cited an Australian archeologist, Dr. Barry Fell, a marine biologist who claimed to find extensive archeological evidence of a significant Muslim presence in the New World in his book, Saga America. Fell drew parallels between West African peoples and Native Americans in the southwest, including cultural and linguistic similarities, and the existence of Islamic petroglyphs in the southwestern region. In particular, Fell mentioned a carving that he believed was done centuries before Columbus that states in Arabic: "Yasus bin Maria" (Jesus son of Mary), a phrase commonly found in the Koran.
Fell's claims though have been ridiculed by professional archaeologists. They were enraged by his claims, deriding not only his findings, but his inflexible and rigid presentation of them, without the usual caution that characterizes academic pronouncements. Fell's methods came into question, as detractors noted: "His claims for scientific rigour might hold for marine biology, but when it comes to archaeological interpretation, he ignored the usual rules of evidence." (Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Cult and Fringe)
Other claims have been similarly criticized. In 2002 the Middle East Policy Council published the Arab World Studies Notebook, a teachers guide to understanding and teaching students about Arab culture. The text claims that Arab explorers came to America in advance of Columbus, marrying Algonquin Indians whose descendants eventually became tribal chiefs with names like Adbul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik. The Notebook and its editor, Audrey Shabbas, came under intense fire for failing to provide corroborating evidence. According to the Washington Times, Shabbas and the Council were slow to respond to concerns from various sources. Peter DiGangi, director of Canada's Algonquin Nation Secretariat calls her claims "outlandish" and says that "nothing in the tribe's written or oral history support them."
Another critique came from William Bennetta, professional editor and President of the Textbook League. Bennetta referred to the text's "flights of pseudohistorical fakery." Among other issues, he called the Notebook to task for offering no support for its claim that the Americas were seemingly full of Muslims and Muslim descendants when Columbus arrived. He noted that the Notebook does not even name the English explorers who supposedly found the Algonquin chiefs. Bennetta wrote to Shabbas to inquire about some of the unsubstantiated claims in the Notebook, and while he received a reply, "she didn't send me [Bennetta] any citation. She made some evasive claims about some published 'works'."
In an article featured at David Horowitz's frontpagemag.com in 2004, David Yeagley, adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma, called the Notebook "intellectual genocide on American Indians," noting that the authors "simply created an Indian story to suit the purposes of the advocacy group, and published it in a school text manual as fact." Yeagley believed that Shabbas and the other authors were simply trying to gain acceptance for Arabs, further integrating them into American culture by making them 'native.' Shabbas also came under fire from the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which published a report called "The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers." The report was critical of many sources that are used by history teachers, noting that sometimes there is no way to ascertain the accuracy of materials provided for teachers. In particular, the report referred to the Notebook as "propaganda."
As an end result to the continued criticism, Shabbas promised to give "careful and thoughtful attention" to the issues raised by her detractors, after many issues of the Notebook had already been sent out to teachers.
Archibald, George. "Textbook on Arabs removes blunder." The Washington Times. 4 Apr 2004: A2.
Bennetta, William J., "Arab World Studies Notebook lobs Muslim propaganda at teachers." The Textbook League. (2003): n. pag. Online. Internet. 30 Mar. 2006. Available http://www.textbookleague.org/spwich.htm.
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith. "Barry Fell." Cult and Fringe Archeology. (2006) n. pag. Online. Internet. 28 Mar 2006. Available http://kjmatthews .
Mroueh, Dr. Youssef. "Muslims in the Americas before Columbus." As-Sunnah Foundation of America. (1996). n. pag. Online. Internet. 28 March 2006. Available http://www.sunnah.org/history/precolmb.htm.
Yeagley, David A., "So Muslims Came to America Before Columbus?" History News Network (2004): n. pag. Online. Internet. 30 Mar. 2006. Available http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/4899.html.
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Gajibur Rahman - 12/8/2009
Peace be upon everyone
We Muslims only hate people who hate us, We don't hate people simply because they are different from us.
Muslims wouldn't hate people like 'Maura Doherty' or 'S Y', but they probably would hate muslim-haters like yourself Vernon.
Andrew D. Todd - 5/11/2006
Take the following with a grain of salt-- it's been nearly twenty years since I passed a prelim in Physical Anthropology on the second go-around. I haven't kept up with the field since.
The final separation of Africa from South America was about forty million years ago. You know how lots of marsupials have survived in Australia, but very few species elsewhere. Something similar happened with the New World. The so-called "new-world-monkeys" in South America stayed the same, in a relatively narrow range of arboreal niches, whereas the "old-world-monkeys" moved on, and many of them became ground-dwellers, eg. baboons, macaques, and great apes. At about twenty-five million years ago, you have Proconsul, which would have been an ancestral monkey. About ten or fifteen million years ago, you have the Ramapithicenes, the first identifiable apes. Note however, that Ramapithicene material is very scarce and very fragmentary. The first identifiable hominids are about four million years old, Australopithicenes. The early varieties walked upright, but had brain sizes more or less comparable to a chimpanzee. The oldest identifiable stone tools are about two million years old (Olduwan "pebble choppers"). Of course, in view of the work with apes carried out by Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Penny Patterson, etc., it would not wise to underestimate the mental capacities of an animal more or less similar to a chimpanzee or gorilla. I've always thought that making something out of stone is a desperation measure, when wood is impossible for some reason.
Comparative genetic studies have yielded the results that all surviving humans are very closely related, roughly equivalent to a common ancestor two hundred thousand years ago, who has, predictably, been nicknamed "Mother Eve." There is some debate about whether Eve lived in East Africa or Central Asia. The genetic variability between ethnicities is small compared to the genetic variability within ethnicities. Now, skin color is a very recent adaptation to extreme climates. Given the mortality rate of white men in the tropics in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, one has a very good idea of how forced-draft evolution might have taken place. Africa is the tropical continent par excellence, with a lot of land at low altitude with plenty of rainfall. Things like citrus fruits grow wild. You can live off the land pretty well in Africa if the mosquitoes don't kill you. So the population of Africa is adapted for malaria resistance. As for whites, melanin in the skin seems to interfere with vitamin D synthesis. In other words, a black man would need to eat a somewhat more balanced diet that a white man could get away with, and the shaping experience of the Arctic and the winter is hunger, starvation. We know from archaeological evidence that the Eurasian subarctic became populated about 40,000 years ago. The wild pachyderms got killed off pretty quickly, and after that, the people were obliged to hunt deer, rabbit, and the like. That's probably why the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote strikes such a powerful resonance.
American Indians are borderline-indistinguishable from Asians, in the absence of cultural cues. The American Indians seem to have popped up into the Arctic in Siberia, and down again on the other side in North America, in a thousand years or so, too fast for biological adaptation to take place. The American tropics are disproportionately dominated by seas and mountains. The Mexican or Peruvian living at seven thousand feet is not a tropical man. Amazonia is thinly populated, and therefore unrepresentative.
Finally, one might add that the current polar people are comparatively recent arrivals, within the last five thousand years or so, with a thick enough technological base that they could buffer themselves from the climate.
I should add, incidentally, that comparative linguistics only reaches back about five thousand years. With each stage of "recension," you throw out words, so, as you push backwards, your findings become progressively more speculative.
Peter Kovachev - 5/11/2006
"No one can know whether humans or hominoids were inhabitants of Pangaea." (VC)
If you go by such things like evolutionary timelines, hominids appeared no later than 5.5 million years ago. Hominids are mammals and early mammals and dinosaurs did not appear until the early Jurassic, over 200 million years ago, just around the time Pangaea broke-up. Hominids appeared around 65 million years ago, well after Pangaea had broken-up into recognizable continents.
"I'm mostly wondering, as so many others seem to about where the aboriginal inhabitants, as we currently know them, came from." (VC)
The genetic and cultural evidence for a Bering Strait migration of people of Siberian origin in four or possibly even five successive waves is apparently overwhelming. The last and the latest wave, a minor one and discernible only through DNA readings, may have been a European / Western Asian one, most likely involving Northern European nomadic people. There is a controversial study which proposes a Polynesian link, based on tentative DNA evidence, but that's as wild as things get in the mainstream of the field. In turn, all those groups share common African origin with all of humanit.y Outside the field, of course, anything seems to go, including people from turtle eggs and UFOs.
"I've not seen studies on genetics that infer that the inhabitants of North, Meso and South America are of a kind." (VC)
Most people haven't seen them, as they typically appear in journals which the media doesn't notice, but there have been hundreds of studies, especially ones looking at mitochondrial DNA (from the mother's side only), which can more accurately pinpoint geographic origins. One of the more recent studies was featured in the National Geographic a few issues back. I'm not sure what you mean by "of a kind." Siberia, where the majority of Amerindians appear to have migrated from is culturally diverse even if the groups there share similar genetic markers.
"There are discernable differences in appearances and certainly huge differences in native languages." (VC)
Appearance counts up to a point, but it's the least reliable means of determining differences, as appearance can be relatively quickly affected by climate, nutrition and cultural or sexual selection. Blood groups and DNA provide us with much better markers. Linguistic differences are not surprising either. Amerindians arrived in successive waves, hundreds and even several thousands of years apart and from different linguistic regions. Also, groups of people rapidly develop their own idioms and dialects and with relative isolation separate languages quickly evolve. For examplem up until the 19th century Europeans, Persians and Indians had no idea that their languages share common roots and that they evolved from a shared proto-Indo-European language.
"You don't think, like the first explorers, that they are all one people, do you?" (VC)
I'm not sure what the first explorers thought. Again, as with the word "kind," the term "people" is not clear in this context. Technically, in the African Genesis context, all humans are "one people." Other definitions and self-definitions of people-hood go by linguistic, religious, political, geographic or cultural criteria.
In any case, your arguments above don't support a "Pangaean Origins" hypothesis; in fact they argue against it.
Vernon Clayson - 5/10/2006
Wow, Maura, "vernon" is overwhelmed. Don't you think there is room in these discussions for questions from an avowed iconoclast? If you believe there should be no hypothesis, however far out, maybe you have found the wrong website. There are many things in question and little absolutely resolved in ancient history. Where is your sense of wonder or did you surmise you need not wonder after you obtained your doctorate? The original acticle about Muslim discovery of America is absurd, I have moved on.
Vernon Clayson - 5/10/2006
No one can know whether humans or hominoids were inhabitants of Pangaea. I'm mostly wondering, as so many others seem to about where the aboriginal inhabitants, as we currently know them, came from. I've not seen studies on genetics that infer that the inhabitants of North, Meso and South America are of a kind. There are discernable differences in appearances and certainly huge differences in native languages. You don't think, like the first explorers, that they are all one people, do you?
Peter Kovachev - 5/10/2006
Mr. Clayson,
Pangaea began to break-up around 200 million years ago to eventually create the geography we are familiar with now. There were no humans in the Mesozoic, not even mammals I suppose, just dinosaurs and reptiles. From archeological and genetic evidence we know that the first people appeared in North America only 20,000 years ago, when they crossed what was then the Baring Strait Land Bridge.
Maura Doherty - 5/10/2006
I find the debates over early contacts with the "new world" facinating, although it is not my area of expertise. I very much appreciated Fachner's discussion and critique of the evidence, especially the discussion of the sources or lack thereof. I await more news from the historians and anthropologists who work in this area, as it seems the jury is still out.
Maura Doherty - 5/10/2006
Hey Vernon,
We're not "defending them," we are criticizing YOU bro. We are here for intelligent, informed, historically- based discussion. You must have found the wrong website. And by the way, I'm Dr. Doherty, since we don't really know each other well.
Vernon Clayson - 5/10/2006
Ot perhaps ancient humans were around on the landmass called Pangaea and stayed wherever they were when the landmass separated into continents and re-discovered one another through exploration long after the original event, which would have likely occurred so slowly they wouldn't have been aware of it.
Vernon Clayson - 5/9/2006
"Stereotyping and bigotry", of course it is that, SY. And they view us as enlightened and worthy of admiration because we have advanced civilization, such as it is, beyond what they want the world to be. That would be stuck in the cultural and rigid lifestyle of the pre-medieval Middle East, don't defend them, they hate you and Ms. Doherty beyond anything you can comprehend and your tender understanding means naught.
Ms. Doherty was referring to your comments regarding the stagnation of society and culture and the acerbic lifestyle seemingly chosen by Muslims. That's not history. That is, as she said, stereotyping and bigotry.
Vernon Clayson - 5/9/2006
Ms. Doherty, see my reply to Mr. Todd. Informed people using history and logic? I don't believe that an Arab camel driver from a failed mid-1800s experiment is serious history, if you get beyond the possibility that I was being sarcastic you will find some logic.
Vernon Clayson - 5/9/2006
The grave marker of Hadji Ali in Quartzsite gives his nationality as Syrian but who can know for certain.
It isn't likely he was viewed as anything other than an Arab whatever his ancestry, more likely he was viewed as a quaint object who had some knowledge of camels. I would guess people in the 1800s were even more inclined to stereotype than we are now. For heaven's sake, as recently as the last century Rudolph Valentino and John Derek played the part of Arabs to say nothing of the other painted actors and belly dancing actresses. Did you ever hear the joke about the white man taken captive and made to choose to enter one of three tents?
Maura Doherty - 5/9/2006
Please take your stereotyping and bigotry elsewhere. This sight is for informed people using history and logic. But have a nice day :)
Andrew D. Todd - 5/8/2006
This business sounds like the Kensington Stone forgery in western Minnesota, circa 1898. As Wingren (*) notes, the forged stone was apparently concocted with the aid of a part-textbook, part-encyclopedia, Carl Rosander's _The Well-Informed Schoolmaster_, Stockholm, 1864, subsequent edition of 1893 distributed as a subscription bonus by a Swedish-American newspaper.
(*) Erik Wahlgren, _The Kensington Stone: A Mystery Solved_, University of Wisconsin Press, 1958, pp. 131-37
Hadj Ali was one of about 10-15 camel drivers hired by the U.S. Army at Smyrna (Izmir) in the 1850's, in connection with the importation of about 60-70 camels for the U.S. Army camel experiment. They would probably have been Turks rather than Arabs, and one was Greek. A couple of men were eventually repatriated at government expense.
Odie B. Faulk, The U. S. Camel Corps: An Army Experiment, Oxford University Press, 1976
Peter Kovachev - 5/8/2006
Mr. Abu Nasr,
Your post is one of the most refreshing pieces on the subject of breathless historiographical claims I have read in a long time. I read and re-read it quite a few times in admiration of the sober methodology behind it.
It's one of those frustrating facts of life that without a "time machine" many mysteries of history may be lost to us forever. This topic, now muddled-up in pseudo-history and politics, may already be irretrievably damaged, as you imply, as no credible historian will want to go near it. Pity. Other tentative theories, e.g., Chinese journeys to the West Coast of the Americas, African travels to Brazil, pre-Viking European fishermen on the North Atlantic coastline, etc., may have suffered similar fates.
With regards to your assumption that Muslim travellers should have left cultural evidence behind, though, remember that the Vikings (whose brief presence in North America, in New Foundland, has been archeologically documented) appear to have left nothing behind except a few foundations and partial walls. The "critical mass" of people from a visiting culture required to leave an imprint is probably greater than we imagine.
Frustrating, isn't it?
Peter Kovachev - 5/8/2006
Professor Yeagley sums it up rather nicely:
"This free use of American Indian history by white liberals to promote Arab Muslims is the most presumptuous disrespect of Indians in history. Indians are relegated to myth, as if we didn't really exist historically…or if we did, our history did not matter – we're just a fantasy for anyone to use any time it suits. We're a free talisman of racial, cultural validation. Just say you're Indian, you're in, at the deepest level."
True, but I differ with Professor Yeagley about what is the most disrespectful-to-Indians pseudo-history to date. This latest Islamist propaganda by AWAIR may be obnoxious, but so far it's a tiny piddle that's being laughed-out as we speak. Far more damage was done by the old crank, Eric von Daniken, with his popularized and televised as documentary bunkum on how aliens taught pre-Columbian Native Americans pretty well everything.
Muhammad Abdallah Abu Nasr - 5/8/2006
As a Muslim I find discussions of the possibilities that Islamic peoples might have visited America before Columbus to be most interesting. But it is highly frustrating when so much of the "evidence" for such possible visits is so flimsy and even possibly "cooked up."
Other than this article, I have no knowledge of Ms. Shabbas or her teachers' handbook, but based on what is written in this article, her activity has been scandalous and done harm to a serious study of the subject.
Much of the other material mentioned by this article is similarly doubtful.
For example, there is supposed to be an inscription from before Columbus saying Yasu bin Maria? But that is not Islamic nor is it "common in the Qur'an." In the Qur'an Jesus is referred to as 'Isa ibn Maryam, or one might spell it 'Isa bin Maryam.
Christian Arabic texts do refer to Jesus as Yasu', based on the Syriac version of his name, so such an inscription, if it is genuine, might represent evidence that Arab Christians were in America.
That would be no less fascinating than a pre-Colombian Islamic inscription in America, but since the author made the mistake of saying that the phrase in that form is in the Qur'an - which it is not - it makes me wonder about the "inscription" itself. Where exactly is it? Is it not possibly the work of Arabs ("Moors") who accompanied the Spaniards after Columbus? Such people are known to have been present. Dating an inscription on a rock is not a simple matter and uncontroversial matter, even if it indeed exists.
Then there are the Bahamian Islands named Guana Hani which supposedly comes from the Arabic for "Hani Brothers". Actually, that would be al-Ikhwan Hani" in Arabic. Is such linguistic corruption from al-Ikhwan Hani to Guanahani possible? I suppose so, but I personally would like to see a bit more corroborating evidence than just a name that "sounds like" something.
The same goes for the "almama" tribe who supposedly were descended from some Imam.
It seems to me that if these tribes were so influenced as to take on the names of Arab visitors, that they would also adopt a number of customs that are typically Arab or Islamic, yet there is no mention of that here.
It also would seem likely that there would be medieval Islamic artifacts around if - as these stories tend to suggest - such visits were not chance shipwrecks of individuals.
It is known that the Vikings landed in North America prior to Columbus and I believe there have been artifacts dug up that attest to Nordic settlements in the precolombian period. Of course one might claim that we simply have yet to find the Islamic ones in the Bahamas and South America. That well may be, but it seems that pending such discoveries, we must be cautious when approaching this evidence.
Finally, as to the historian Abu al-Hasan 'Ali al-Mas'udi who supposedly mentioned a voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
His imposing historical-geographical-travel work "Muruj adh-Dhahab wa-ma'adin al-jawahir" ("Meadows of gold and mines of gems")is well known and is one of the great medieval histories. It was written around 943 CE. The basis for the work are al-Mas'udi's own travels. Al-Mas'udi was reportedly born in Baghdad and visited lands as far to the south as Sri Lanka and to the east as China before coming back to Syria and Egypt.
Al-Mas'udi is very informative and entertaining, but unfortunately also famous for being full of good stories that are not always as reliable as the writing of other Arab-Islamic historians of the Middle Ages.
I would appreciate a more detailed reference to where this "tale of a voyage to America" appears in his history - which is several volumes in length. There might well be such a story, but I don't happen to know of it. I have never heard of a map showing the Western Hemisphere being included in al-Mas'udi's history.
It's quite possible that such a tale does exist in al-Mas'udi and it might indeed point to early Arab - Islamic trips to the New World, but if so, al-Mas'udi's text should be presented with more care than passing reference.
So did Muslims visit America before Columbus? I think it quite possible, but to go from there to any measure of certainty we need more information than that reflected by the various authors quited in this interesting article. And we also need to examine the evidence with a critical eye, certainly not inflating possibilities into supposed "facts" to be included in text books.
Best regards!
Muhammad Abu Nasr
Vernon Clayson - 5/8/2006
I believe the best argument against Muslims coming to America before even Columbus is that society and culture has advanced and not become mired in the stagnant and acerbic lifestyle seemingly chosen by the Muslims. I've not followed this hypothesis closely but the earliest Muslim in this country I've heard of is Hadji "Hi Jolly" Ali, a camel driver, circa 1856, who is buried in Quartzsite, AZ.
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!!! The END of our Freedom, of our Existence !!!
The New World Order that serves my adversary has already begun to dominate the world,
its agenda of tyranny began with the plan of
vaccines and vaccination against the existing pandemic;
these vaccines are not the solution, but the beginning of the holocaust that
will lead to death, transhumanism and implantation of the mark of the beast,
to millions of human beings.
- Home
- The Book of Truth
- 940. The Antichrist Will Create Grants to Entice Companies, Organisations, as Well as Charities, to Work for His New One World Trade Centre - Saturday, October 19th, 2013 @ 20:00
940. The Antichrist Will Create Grants to Entice Companies, Organisations, as Well as Charities, to Work for His New One World Trade Centre
Saturday, October 19th, 2013 @ 20:00
My dearly beloved daughter, I call on all of My disciples who have heard Me and who recognise Me, in these Messages, to listen to Me now.
This Work, which has been bestowed upon you, is Sacred. Whatever torment, abuse, suffering and ridicule you may endure, because of this Mission, remember that this Work is Mine. My final Mission, given to the world, through God's prophet, is a great Gift to humanity. Rise above the mockery, which you will witness and know that it is created by the evil one in an effort to stop the Truth. The Truth, My Holy Word, will be trampled on and every demon, released from the depths of Hell, will do everything possible to silence My Voice.
Working through those souls, who leave themselves open to infestation, the evil works of Satan will soon be camouflaged and presented to the world as Holy Scripture. The new doctrine, they will say, was divinely inspired by Me, Jesus Christ. The whole world will be brought to attention, as it is unveiled layer by layer and applauded, especially, by a secular world. Those who you would never expect to give honour to God will be the first in the queue to embrace the series of heresies – lies against Me – as they are revealed.
Never before will the Catholic Church receive such public honour with the world's media and political elite. Never before will atheists and all religions, including those who do not honour Me, open their arms and drop to their knees in honour of those who say that they are of God.
When My Image disappears and is no longer seen and when My Crosses, Holy Bibles, misselettes for the Holy Mass, rosary beads, medals, scapulars and Benedictine Crosses are no longer to be found, you will know then that the reign of the beast has commenced.
The world will sing the praises of the antichrist. No sooner will he have created peace – a false peace – created because of wars he helped to start – than he will make startling statements. He, the antichrist, will declare that he has received messages from God the Father and they will seem to be authentic. Then, using the power of the occult, he will be seen to heal many and appear to have great spiritual gifts. Many will be astonished by the 'so-called' miracles he will seem to perform and the world will adore him and lay prostrate at his feet. Then he, the antichrist, will declare himself to be Jesus Christ, the Son of man, and say that the time has come for him to reclaim the world and salvage the whole of humanity. Anyone who dares to challenge the filth and obscenities, which will pour from the mouth of the beast, will be punished severely.
At this time, because of the infestation of Satan in the world, sin will be so widespread that human dignity will reach its lowest levels, where impurity, lust, greed and every other vile sin, in the Eyes of God, will be witnessed in every public place. Because sin will be declared to be a natural human fault, and because you will be told that God will not judge you on a weak human trait, many will embrace sin and have no shame in their souls.
The world's celebrities, entertainers, media, movie stars will all clamour to be seen with the antichrist and his image will be more visible than anyone who came before him. He will be fluent in many languages; he will be handsome; have a great sense of humour and extraordinary communications skills. He will be very careful as to what he says about God and he will never refer to the Mother of God, for she will be seen to have no further role to play.
The antichrist's interviews on television will be common and people will hang onto every word, which comes out of his mouth. He will influence politicians in every nation and those with whom he is seen will be treated like royalty. It will not end there. His quotes will be preached upon the pulpits of all churches. He will be given great honour and position in all churches, until eventually he will sit on the new throne in the new temple of Babylon. His influence will extend to all the banks, trading laws and the world's economy. The antichrist will create grants to entice companies, organisations, as well as charities, to work for his new one world trade centre. Great wealth will be created by those who want to be part of the antichrist's empire. Everyone who swears allegiance to him, either through religious ceremonies, business or trade agreements, will have to take a mark. Those who accept the mark, which will be in the form of a bank card and special chip, which will be embedded into their hand, will lose their souls to him. All those who wear the Seal of the Living God will escape the clutches of the antichrist and become immune to the horror. Do not ignore this warning. Do not fear it, for if you follow My instructions, you will be protected.
I spilt many Tears giving you this Message and this is why My Pain in you, My daughter, at this time is so great. Comfort Me by calling on My Mercy and for My Protection.
Your Jesus


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Confession Tuesday
To the confessional--
Yeah, I shouldn't keep my iPhone in my back pocket as it has a mind of its own.
Chaka Khan,Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan
let me rock you
Let me rock you, Chaka Khan
Let me rock you, that's all I wanna do
(And now it may be in your head too.)
Nerd Girl--
I confess that while I play a normal every day poet in real life (um, can poets really be "normal"), I am actually a nerd who spent my childhood collecting rocks and stamps. Again, refer to the above confession that "I am not edgy,"
And I'll be honest, when I went to DC, I spent 4 hours in the Postal Museum & claimed it my favorite museum of all the Smithsonians. I know, I played the violin from 5th -11th grade (always got an A in Dorkestra) and collected ceramic dachshunds as a child, so this should be expected, but...
Here's what you don't know, I confess I am really excited that the dog mascot of the United Postal Service ("Owney") gets his very own stamp on July 27th. I know, none of you know this-- That is because none of you get updates and emails from the Postal Museum. And I do.
Here's the link with the info.
And here's the stamp...
And you will see this stamp on my SASEs because, that's how I roll. I love stamps and rocks and birds and the universe and coin collecting with my dad (though my dad is no longer here, the coins are). And I look for grammatical errors in signs.
And I confess while I look as if I "fit in" -- I don't, I never have. That's okay, too. I heard a comic say yesterday that "Life is a pair of skinny jeans & we are one big arse who doesn't fit in." But life isn't about fitting in, it's about belonging. And if you think about it, there's a difference. A huge difference.
P.S. If any of you knew this Owney info and were actually looking forward to it (as I am), please leave me a note or email me. We can be the sesame seeds on poppyseed bagel of life...


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Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is one of Canada's most accessible natural wonders, which, for many visitors, makes it more of a photo op and less of an experience. It's easy (once you find a spot in the lot across from Horseshoe Falls) to park, cross the street into the mist, and jostle for a prime view of Niagara's three waterfalls—Horseshoe, American, and Bridal Veil.
Peering in from the edge is awe-inspiring, yet there's another way to absorb the immense power of the falls: on the water. Ride Hornblower Niagara Cruises in the basin directly in front of the falls, or board a jet boat a few miles downstream to ride the Devil's Hole Rapids, created by the water rushing from the falls. "The falls have carved a seven-mile, narrow rock gorge, compressing the water downstream on the lower Niagara River into Class 5 whitewater," says Victoria Groenevled, a local resident who works with Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours. "Experiencing the water at this point is exhilarating. Whenever I have a stressful day, I can't wait to get out into the gorge."
For even more adventure, get a view of the falls from the sky. Soar through the air on WildPlay's MistRider Zipline for a new perspective on the Niagara Gorge and Horseshoe Falls.
When to Go: From June to August the falls viewing areas can get packed with summer vacationers. If possible, plan a May or September visit to avoid the biggest crowds. Peak fall foliage is typically mid- to late October. November through March is cold, with temperatures averaging between 21 and 39°F. Nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake, about a 20-minute drive from the falls, hosts three major wine festivals: Icewine in January, New Vintage in June, and the classic vintage Niagara Wine Festival in September. From April to October the city hosts its famous Shaw Festival, whose repertory company specializes in plays written by George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries. The season typically includes 10 to 12 productions and about 800 performances.
How to Get Around: Niagara Parks' WEGO buses provide an affordable, convenient way to access Niagara Falls' must-see attractions, including Table Rock, Skylon Tower, and Horseshoe Falls. Buy an Adventure Pass at any Niagara Parks Welcome Centre or online at niagaraparks.com to save on sights and transportation. Taxis can be flagged from the falls' downtown core to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where you can sightsee aboard a traditional horse-drawn carriage.
Where to Stay: You can hear the falls, but not the tourist traffic, from the garden of Greystone Manor, an elegant, four-room bed and breakfast located in a restored 1908 Niagara Falls home. The WEGO bus stop is a few blocks away, or it's only a 15- to 20-minute walk to the falls. In the heart of nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake, the red brick Prince of Wales Hotel offers opulent Victorian luxury: individually styled rooms decorated with elegant antiques, English afternoon tea served in the drawing room, and a nightly turndown service with complimentary rose. Standard rooms are located in the hotel's modern wings, so ask for a room in the historic main inn, built in 1864.
Where to Eat or Drink: The Niagara Peninsula is home to about 65 percent of Ontario's wineries, many of which have restaurants and menus showcasing local farmers, growers, and producers. "A perfect day is to cycle along the Niagara River, stop at a Kurtz's fruit market to taste what is in season, and then head to Peller Estates winery to sample their latest vintage," says Susan Murray, former president of Niagara's Finest Hotels. "In the evening, nothing beats enjoying theater at the Shaw Festival and finishing the day on the patio at Zees with a glass of Jackson-Triggs sparkling wine and a selection of locally made cheeses and cured meats."
Sample Chef Jason Parsons's menu at Peller Estates Winery Restaurant, where wines are paired with offerings such as northern Ontario elk and truffle-roasted diver scallops. At Trius Winery Restaurant, the culinary team offers a shifting menu, focused on local ingredients, with meticulously selected wine pairings.
What to Buy: Ice House is the only Niagara Peninsula winery that exclusively produces Ontario's "liquid gold"—icewine—made from grapes naturally frozen on the vine. At the Ice House winery, located in a 19th-century peach-packing barn about ten miles from the falls, pick up a bottle of Northern Ice Vidal and try one of "Ice Wine Wizard" Jamie Mcfarlane's N'Icewine Slushies.
- Nat Geo Expeditions
What to Read Before You Go: The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart (McClelland, 1997). Urquhart's award-winning debut novel is a spellbinding tale set in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in the summer of 1889.
Helpful Links: Tourism Partnership of Niagara, Niagara Falls Tourism
Fun Fact: Every 60 seconds, six million cubic feet of water rushes over the falls, enough water to fill a million bathtubs each minute.


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1. I started writing this story about three years ago, and the idea started with the notion of a dare. There were a lot of reality television shows that dealt with challenges and dares at the time, and I loved the idea of moving that concept to the Victorian era. As the story developed, it became more about what my heroine had to do to save her father's business than an outright challenge, but I hope that first scandalous kiss in the story still carries all the danger, temptation, and excitement of a dare.
2. When I conceived of Lucius, the hero of One Scandalous Kiss, I thought of him as cool and somber, a man who hid his feelings in order to survive. I love characters from literature like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice and John Thornton from Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, both of whom initially hide their feelings. What makes a man seem grim and unfeeling on the outside? I think it's a delicious adventure to unwrap all the layers and find out what's hidden inside.
3. My heroine, Jess, lives out one of my personal fantasies by owning a bookstore. As it turns out, that experience is fraught with trouble for her. However, when I was writing her bookstore scenes, I was definitely channeling my own experience working in several bookstores, and especially my love for small, intimate used bookstores. There was a place like that back in the Midwest town where I grew up called Erasmus Books. It was tucked away on a residential street in a beautiful Arts and Crafts style home, and while I browsed its many sagging shelves, Siamese cats wandered through the stacks and sometimes rubbed against my ankles. As a teenager, I thought it was something akin to a booklover's paradise.
4. Lucius's formidable aunt, Augusta, Lady Stamford, is one of my favorite characters in the book. She's vibrant, clever, and she sees beyond the masks that people wear. She is a combination of several strong, important women who've passed through my life — my grandma, fellow coworkers, teachers, professors, and friends. I kind of feel like we all should have at least one Aunt Augusta in our life, someone who's always there for us, would defend us to the end, and can give just the right advice precisely when we need it.
5. I love seeing animals featured in stories, and I wanted to include some pets in One Scandalous Kiss. When I was writing early drafts of the book, I was re-reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, and Lady Bertram's love for her pug combined with Otto, a friend's pet pug, to result in Lady Augusta's twin pugs, Castor and Pollux. Incidentally, they are named after the twin sons of Leda and Zeus from Greco-Roman mythology. Several other characters—Lucius, Julia, Augusta, and Maxim—have Roman-style names, so I thought the dogs should have Roman names too.
One Scandalous Kiss
An Accidental Heirs Novel
Christy Carlyle
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Date of Publication: September 8, 2015
Number of pages: 256
Book Description:
Debut Victorian historical romance author Christy Carlyle delights in the first book of her Accidental Heirs series in which a suffragete bookshop owner agrees to a devil's bargain that results in one scandalous kiss. When a desperate Jessamin Wright bursts into an aristocratic party and shocks the entire ton, she believes it's the only way to save her failing bookstore.
The challenge sounded easy when issued, but the one thing she never expected was to enjoy the outrageous embrace she shares with a serious viscount. Lucius Crawford, Viscount Grimsby, has never met, or kissed, anyone like this beautiful suffragette. He's determined to protect the title he's unexpectedly inherited and Jess doesn't fit into his plans.
When a country house party brings these two people together once more, neither can resist the temptation and both find that one scandalous kiss just isn't enough.
London, September 1890
She'd never imagined wealth would be so uncomfortable. Nearly every aspect of the Marquess of Clayborne's Belgrave Square drawing room made Jessamin Wright uneasy. There were no books stacked in piles, no candles whose wax had run down their sides in haphazard sculptures, and not a spot of ash dusting the hearth—nothing inviting about the room at all. How could any lived-in space be so clean? The slippery damask settee felt stiff and unyielding beneath her body. Nothing about it urged you to sit and stop awhile. Even art was lacking from the walls, except for a series of watercolors of what must have been a terribly boring fox hunt. A fire burned low in the grate and offered a bit of warmth against the autumn chill, but the cool beiges and tepid pinks of the wallpaper and furnishings made Jess feel slightly queasy, as if blood had been drained from her body as thoroughly as color had been drawn out of every surface in the room. Even the wood was light colored or painted white and lacquered to a high sheen. It was all wrong. No room should be so spotless. As she and Alice had yet to meet their host, she began to doubt that anyone lived here at all. Then again, she'd never before set foot inside a fine London townhouse. Perhaps they were all this stark and unpleasant.
Jess didn't have to look down to know the room's pristine neatness contrasted sharply with her scuffed boots, soot-dusted cloak, and unfashionable work clothes. She found it impossible to settle herself in such elegant surroundings. Sitting, then standing, then sitting again, she rearranged her limbs and scratched her neck in a most unladylike manner. Finally finding a spot on the settee that suited her, she stripped off her twice-mended gloves but kept her hands clasped, careful not to touch anything for fear she might leave a mark.
Her cluttered thoughts offered as little comfort as the room. She fretted about leaving the bookshop managed solely by her assistant, Jack. He was a longtime employee and utterly trustworthy, but he'd never been fond of dealing with customers. He simply loved books—acquiring them, reading them, repairing them—and that was something she understood. He hadn't stayed on after Father's death for her, but out of loyalty to Lionel Wright. She understood that too. One of Father's gifts had been the ability to inspire a bone deep sense of obligation in others. Since Jess had taken on the shop, other employees had been hard to come by—few men wished to take their wages and direction from a woman.
Slipping Father's old watch from its place in her skirt pocket, Jess's mind sifted through what she had yet to accomplish before resting her head for the day. It was a long list and —Ah, that too—now included an article she'd almost forgotten to write for the Women's Union journal.
"I hope Lady Katherine hasn't forgotten us. To be honest, I won't be sad to see the last of this room. It's all rather cold, even with the fire. Makes you afraid to touch anything or even breathe."
Alice McGregor had an uncanny talent for reading one's mind and could always be counted on for blunt and insightful commentary. Of all Jessamin's friends at the Women's Union, Alice was the most practical and plain-speaking. Delicacy was overrated as far as Alice was concerned. She said what everyone else was thinking but knew it impolite to mention.
"No, it's not terribly inviting, is it?"
If Jess could decorate such a room, the colors would be bold and full of life. Red would do very nicely. And she'd decorate the walls with art so vivid you'd believe you could smell the pot of basil in a Holman Hunt painting or hear the swish of silk and satin as one of Mr. Tissot's beauties crossed the room. She closed her eyes and imagined crimson walls covered with art in rich, vibrant colors.
"Miss Wright, have I caught you napping?" Lady Katherine Adderly's giggle was like the clash of two crystal glasses meeting in a toast. Sharp and clear, it instantly snapped Jessamin out of her fantasies.
As she swept in, a maid followed close on her heels with a tea tray. Lady Katherine smelled of flowers, but far too many, the scent cloying and sickly sweet.
"Forgive me, my lady." It was easier for Jessamin to apologize for drowsing than acknowledge how she loathed the decor.
Jess and Alice exchanged raised-brow glances as their hostess handed each of them a fine porcelain teacup and began the process of pouring tea and offering them confections from plates laden with biscuits and tiny pastries. It was an elaborate ritual, much more fuss about tea than Jess had ever made in life. But the rich tang of jasmine in the brew was delicious and she was grateful for the distraction of the warm refreshment, even as she sensed the persistent tick of Father's watch against her skirt pocket. She had to get back to the shop and hoped their meeting with the marquess's daugther wouldn't take long.
"I'm pleased to make this donation to the Women's Union. You know how I enjoy the lively meetings."
Lady Katherine had attended only three of the group's weekly meetings over the course of four months, but she'd been eager to make a financial contribution and Alice, as the union's treasurer and co-founder, was all too happy to accept. Jess wasn't certain why Alice had asked her to come along to collect the money, but as editor of the group's printed journal and author of many of the speeches given at gatherings, she supposed she was a visible member of the organization.
"We are most grateful for the funds, my lady." As always Alice spoke with sincerity, gratitude clear in her tone.
"Oh, please call me Kitty."
Alice took a sip of tea, attempting to hold the cup with all the dignity Kitty seemed to manage effortlessly.
"I understand there's another worthy cause to which I may also contribute."
"I'm sure there are many in London," Jess offered, thinking of a dozen ways she might spend charitable funds, not to mention the money needed to salvage the indebted bookshop her father had left her.
"I was referring to you, Miss Wright."
Jessamin shot Alice a look, wondering just what her scrupulously honest friend had revealed to Lady Katherine.
"I understand you have a bookshop and lending library here in town."
"Yes, my lady," Jess bit off, unable to keep the irritation from her voice. Alice shouldn't have mentioned her situation to anyone. Kitty might be feeling benevolent, but the amount needed to clear the shop's debt was more than any wealthy aristocrat's daughter would wish to spend, no matter how generous they were feeling.
"Would one hundred pounds be useful to you?"
A shiver tickled Jessamin's spine as she contemplated the amount, a sum she couldn't earn at the shop in months, perhaps not even in a year. It wasn't nearly enough to clear the entire debt, but it would bring her payments with the bank current.
Jessamin studied Kitty's feline smile and tried to unravel the mystery of the young woman's wish to help her. She knew Kitty was wealthy, the daughter of a marquess, and perhaps a bit bored, but she'd never even conversed with her before today. Kitty was mentioned off and on in the scandal sheets Jess admitted to no one she indulged in reading, but she was hardly known as an outstanding philanthropist.
Charity tasted sour, yet how could she refuse the sum?
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be" had been one of Father's favorite lines from Hamlet. But it was an adage he'd failed to uphold. His gambling had turned him into the worst sort of borrower, taking loans from friends and money from the bookshop he'd worked so hard to build up. For Jess's part, she'd become a lender soon after her father's death, finally instituting the lending library she'd been envisioning for years. It seemed neither of them had heeded the Shakespearian admonition at all.
Kitty watched Jess closely and appeared to notice the moment she'd almost made up her mind to accept the money.
"I am so pleased you'll allow me to help you, Jessamin. And in return, I'm certain you won't mind assisting me with one tiny request."
Alice frowned and set her teacup on the table between them, edging forward on the settee as if she meant to get up and leave. "I'm not sure that's quite right."
"What is the favor, Lady Katherine? Please, let's speak plainly with one another." It didn't surprise Jess in the least that Kitty expected something in return. No one offered such a sum without expecting something in return.
"Kitty, please. Do call me Kitty. It's a simple favor, really. As simple as a kiss."
Jess choked. "Pardon?" she squeaked, when she'd finally managed to swallow her mouthful of tea and could breathe again.
"Just a kiss, Jessamin. Surely you don't object to kissing." Kitty's teasing tone belied the glint of steel in her gaze. "You're a modern, free-thinking woman, after all. You believe in the suffrage and equality for our sex. You should feel quite free to kiss any man you like."
Kissing men had nothing to do with Jess's interest in social reform or gaining a voice for women in the political sphere. If Kitty thought it did, she hadn't been to nearly enough meetings.
"You want me to kiss a man?" Jess spoke the words as if it was an extraordinary feat. And it was. She'd never kissed a man. Not really. A childish, graceless kiss on the cheek from Tom Jenkins when she was twelve years old hardly counted.
"This seems a rather strange favor, Kitty." Alice's precise tone cut through the quiet of the room.
Kitty's tinkling laughter rang out. "Yes, I suppose it does. But it's merely a harmless bit of revenge."
"Revenge." Jess waited. There had to be more.
"Oh, all right. If you must know, the dreadful man snubbed me." Kitty plumped her bow-shaped mouth in a pout.
Was she the shallowest heiress in Belgravia? The thought that Kitty wished to seek revenge because a man did not prefer her company was ridiculous. Her beauty and wealth could secure her any suitor she set her cap at. In fact, the question of why the man rejected her was as intriguing as her desire for Jess to kiss him.
"Why did he snub you?"
"Why, indeed!" Kitty straightened up in her chair and slid her fingers into honey blond hair, tucking her already neatly pinned coiffure more firmly into place. "Perhaps because he is an odious man. If he wasn't a viscount, soon to be an earl, and so irredeemably handsome, I wouldn't have bothered with him. Never mind Papa's mad notion I marry Lord Grim. Freddie is much more fun, even if he doesn't have a farthing to his name." Kitty turned the full force of her bright green gaze on Jess. "You'll do it then?"
"I'm still not sure I understand."
Kitty's tone became pedantic, as if she was speaking to a child who needed to be set aright.
"My dear, it couldn't be simpler. Viscount Grimsby snubbed me at a soiree last week and I would like your help to put him in his place. He's a dour man, as cold as marble. Some call him Lord Grim. And so he is. Grim and heartless. He needs a little comeuppance." As an afterthought, she added, "He's against the vote for women, of course."
As if that made the whole ridiculous scheme noble. As if kissing him would change his mind about women's suffrage.
"And where does kissing come into play?" It all sounded wrong to Jess, like the discordant notes of an untuned piano playing over and over in her mind, but Kitty waved away her concern dismissively.
"It won't be a real kiss, my dear. Not the kind that matters. Just a kiss that knocks him off his pedestal a bit. It will cause him a trifle of social bother. Stir up some tittle tattle."
For a moment Kitty's expression altered, the corners of her mouth turning down as if she'd fallen into troubled contemplation. Jess wondered if she was already regretting her petty scheme? Then she lifted her head, a satisfied cat-at-the-cream grin lifting her cheeks.
"The next time I see the man at a ball, perhaps he'll manage a bit of humility. And since no one else will wish to stand up with him, I suspect he'll be more than happy to dance with me."
None of Kitty's words put Jess's mind at ease. She'd never heard of Lord Grimsby but from Kitty's description, kissing the man certainly didn't sound appealing.
"I happen to know he'll be at an art gallery in Mayfair this evening."
"And?" Jess was growing impatient. Who had time for games when she had a business to run?
"There will be a gathering at the gallery. Mrs. Ornish is a great fan of art and has sponsored one of the artists whose works will be featured. I do wonder why he always goes to Mrs. Ornish's events. Could he have his eye on Meredith, do you think?"
Of course, Jess had no idea who Mrs. Ornish or Meredith was. She might share their love of art, but they were the kind of women with wealth enough to offer an artist patronage. Jess couldn't even afford to buy a painting. Her walls were decorated with cut-out prints culled from books and newspapers.
"Kitty, please just tell me. What must I do?"
Kitty's crooked her mouth alluringly. Jess supposed she used the simpering expression to charm everyone. Everyone except Lord Grimsby, apparently.
"I want you to show up at the gallery event and stride up to Lord Grim. Yes, you'll just walk up and plant a kiss square on that cruel, unsmiling mouth of his."
"I really don't think—"Alice's voice had taken on the same pitch and volume she used to quiet the women's group meetings.
Jess knew what she was going to say and cut her off. "Wait. Let me consider a moment."
Jess closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She had to do it. She needed the one hundred pounds Kitty offered. There was no denying what the woman proposed was scandalous, not to mention farcical and childish. But Jess had no reputation to protect. As Kitty said, she saw herself as a free-thinking woman, unhampered by society's strictures and eager for changing women's roles. She had no idea how kissing a complete stranger would strike a blow for woman's rights, but she knew her desperation for funds made her beholden to Kitty's whims.
"Come, Jessamin." Kitty's sing song voice was cajoling. "I dare you."
Because Jess's speeches encouraged action over words, perhaps Kitty saw her as brave and daring. But if she was brave, it was because Father died and took all of her options with him. She'd lost everything—her home, a modestly comfortable lifestyle, freedom to study and spend her days more or less as she wished—and put all her energy into maintaining his business, even after discovering the massive debt he'd accumulated. She was beginning to make inroads toward repaying the debt and Kitty's funds would be another step toward financial success for Wright and Sons Booksellers.
"Fine. I'll do it."
Kitty gasped with delight and clapped her hands together.
Alice shot her a look as if Jess had taken leave of whatever sense she'd been given.
Jess couldn't match Kitty's enthusiasm nor acknowledge Alice's concern. She was too busy fighting off the sense of dread that settled in the pit of her stomach at the prospect of what she'd agreed to do.
About the Author:
Fueled by Pacific Northwest coffee and inspired by multiple viewings of every British costume drama she can get her hands on, Christy Carlyle writes sensual historical romance set in the Victorian era. She loves heroes who struggle against all odds and heroines who are ahead of their time. A former teacher with a degree in history, she finds there's nothing better than being able to combine her love of the past with a die-hard belief in happy endings.
Website: http://www.christycarlyle.com/


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The most famous prehistoric monument in the world, and now a world heritage site, Stonehenge stands alone in the vast empty tract of Salisbury plain. Its origins date back nearly 5,000 years and it has been home to pagan religion and spiritual worship, not to be mention public debate ever since. What was this vast collection of stones intended for? Was it observatory of the moon, a temple to the sun, or an elaborate cemetery? Who were the people who carried and carved these 40 ton rocks? Come and unlock the secrets for yourself and marvel at this remarkable and mysterious feat of ancient engineering and design, as we enjoy the wonderful celebrations that take place to mark the summer solstice.
The tour :
Join our Premium Tour that departs London at lunchtime and heads west towards the site, taking time to enjoy the ancient stones at Avebury, before heading to picturesque Lacock for an early evening supper, included in the price. From here we journey to Stonehenge itself arriving at roughly 7pm, as it begins it's annual celebration of the summer solstice. Huge crowds gather and there will be plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere of this historic event, walk amongst the stones, and observe the pagan rituals and ceremonies that take place at varying intervals throughout the evening. Please note there are two twenty to thirty minute walks involved during the day in order to see the celebrations at Avebruy and Stonehenge.
Summer solstice:
The solstice itself is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator, with the sun appearing to have reached its highest or lowest annual altitude in the sky above the horizon.
The word solstice is comes from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun, as seen from earth stands still in declination before reversing it's direction. Thus after the summer solstice the sun does not appear as high in the sky and daylight reduces. The solstice is therefore seen as the midpoint of summer in many cultures and is cause for celebration.
Like other religious groups, Pagans are in awe of the strength of the sun and the divine powers that create life. For many pagans, they believe that the Goddess took over the earth from the horned God at the beginning of spring and she is now at the height of her power and fertility. The summer solstice marks the marriage of the God and Goddess and see their union as the force that creates the harvest's fruits. To celebrate many Pagans and non Pagans head to ancient religious sites including Avebury and Stonehenge, to conduct fascinating and colourful ceremonies throughout the night enjoying the last sunset and sunrise before the sun alters it's direction once more.
Additional information:Please note that as a responsible tour operator we have a duty of care towards the places we visit and in this case we ask you to be take great care when visiting the historic site. It is important that Stonehenge and its surrounding Monuments are preserved for future generations and we ask you not to touch the stones, and not to leave any litter at the site.
Visitors are requested to dispose of their rubbish carefully at the designated recycling and rubbish points located in the Solstice Car Park and at Stonehenge. Clear recycling bags will also be handed out on arrival.. Please do not drop litter - bag and bin your rubbish so the recycling team can gather them up. It is a very sensitive landscape and still used by local farmers so please respect their crops and livestock.
There are authorised catering facilities on the site and some personal food and drink is allowed to be brought onto the site. Please bring them in a small bag – large rucksacks are not permitted. Glass is not permitted and will be confiscated – many people walk barefoot and the livestock graze in the area throughout the year. A small amount of alcohol is permitted on the site amounting to no more than one bottle of wine, or 4 500ml cans of beer or cider. Please note consumption of alcohol on the coach is not permitted. Due to the large numbers of people who attend the vent, naked flames are strictly forbidden. Small ground sheets and blankets are allowed.
Please note that there will be a lot of walking on grass involved and we recommend bringing warm clothing, sensible footwear and a small umbrella if rain is forecast.
*Due to the nature of this special event, we cannot guarantee exact arrival or departure times from Stonehenge so all timings are approximate.


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by Robert Fisk, The Independent
No Muslim general wants to go down in history as the author of the Eid Massacre. That's why many Egyptians last night suspected that their supposedly "interim" government's self-declared failure to end the crisis with their Muslim Brotherhood enemies might still not be the ultimate collapse.
Abdul Fatah al-Sisi may be a very jolly general indeed – after all, he created this wondrous administration with himself as deputy prime minister – but sending in his goons against hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshippers on the eve of the feast marking the final day of Ramadan is not likely to commend itself to Egyptians, let alone to the Americans who supply the military with $1.5bn a year.
Of course, this may be a little naive. Armed, as he thinks he is, with the 'people's' mandate, perhaps General al-Sisi thinks he can get away with corpses in the streets this week. But he has shown himself a patient man, and his 'interim' government's assurance that it would still welcome international help to resolve the conflict suggests that he has not yet reached the point of no return. US deputy secretary of state William Burns – a diplomat who brings failure along in his brief case –may have departed, but the military are still trying to absorb John McCain's description of their July 3 antics as a "coup". Rarely has the Muslim Brotherhood had such American diplomatic support – and the Qataris are very frustrated that they were not allowed to meet Mohamed Morsi.
The trouble is that Morsi was the elected president, and when – apparently to his own great surprise – he was overthrown by the army (or the 'popular will of the people', depending on your point of view), his supporters simply had no plans for the future save for their demand that Morsi be reinstalled. So they blocked the roads of Cairo. General al-Sisi, assuming that the Brotherhood would tire of this tactic after a few days in the summer sun and a few mini-massacres, is now suffering the conundrum of all generals who find that their enemy doesn't want to play by their script.
The Brotherhood knows al-Sisi does not want a mass slaughter. Al-Sisi knows the Americans do not want a mass slaughter. Perhaps some sort of 'people power' can be organised – now there's a thought – to drive the Brotherhood away and leave the army unspattered with Brotherhood blood. After all, a lot of the snipers who have shot down Morsi's supporters these last five weeks have been unidentified. But there are too many foreign diplomats, NGOs and journalists sniffing around for that to work on a large scale.
So which is more important? The will of 'the people' – those who hate Morsi – or the steadfastness of the Brotherhood for whom martyrdom (often in Egyptian prisons) has long been a characteristic? What about the dignity of the Egyptian army? About to set sail aboard his royal ship of exile, the 'al-Mahrussa' in 1952, King Farouk turned to the officers who had dethroned him. "Look after the army," he told General Mohamed Naguib, soon to be deposed by Colonel Gamal-Abdul Nasser. Everyone loves the army.
And the Egyptian army rather loves itself. Its vast and obscenely bloated investments in real estate, banking and industry make this one of the richest Arab armies in one of the poorest Arab countries. It's hardly in their interest to start a mini-war in the streets of Cairo. But the Brotherhood itself is bloated with arrogance, its record in power – with Morsi as their cypher – hardly worthy of the support of the 'people'.
It's worth remembering at this critical moment that Morsi's government rejected proposals for free elections for trade unions, one of the principle definitions of any industrial democracy. John McCain may have identified the coup that overthrew Morsi, but he could scarcely claim that the Brotherhood were for the working man. Well, all this may be water under the Nile Bridge by this morning. But many probably hope the debate will go on– and that we shall see further foreigners arriving to 'save' Egypt.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/in-egypt-general-alsisi-is-at-a-loss–but-a-massacre-on-eid-would-bring-too-much-infamy-8750836.html


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Today I had my second weigh-in with Weight Watchers and to my surprise – I actually lost another 2.8 pounds! I'm officially down 6.2 pounds since I first began on January 3rd and I'm feeling more confident than ever that this time around, I'll be able to get ALL THE WAY TO GOAL!
I worked out a lot more this week and tried really hard to make sure I was eating every couple of hours. I feel like I was snacking on vegetables non-stop! Being back in school is definitely going to help me maintaining a decent eating schedule. I was excited because I bought a cute little lunch container that fits a small sandwich or salad, and three compartments for other foods. I've already used it twice and think it'll become a permanent addition to what I bring to school every day.
I've also been drinking SO MUCH TEA.
I'm hopeful for next week as I'll be more settled into my new schedule. I'm also participating in an online Facebook challenge with my friend Corrine. It's free, five days, and comes with a grocery list and meal plan… But the best part is the daily accountability check-in that I'll be doing to list off the amount of water I drank, exercise I did, what I ate, and how I'm feeling. I did it a few months ago and loved the support from all the other people on the challenge. If you're interested, it starts MONDAY JANUARY 20th.
For more information, click on the picture below and it will bring you to Corrine's page where you can ask her to add you to our group.
Until then, what are all of you doing this weekend to show off your healthy ways?!?!
Lots of love,


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I started sewing at a very young age as I grew up in my grandmother's and mother's upholstery and drapery shop. I was picking up scraps off the the workroom floor and making purses which I sold in elementary school. Even some of the teachers bought my purses. I decided I did not want to make a living sewing, (don't ever say never) so I graduated college and spent the next 15 years as a math/technology teacher. I sewed as a hobby, making items for my home and sometimes sewing my own clothes. I took my first quilting class about 10 years ago. The first time I worked with Batik fabric, I was hooked.
My husband and I opened Lavender Lime Quilting in Chattanooga in the summer of 2005. In 2009, we were named by Better Homes and Gardens as a "Top Ten Shop" and were featured in their 2009 Fall Edition of Quilt Sampler Magazine.
I began designing patterns in 2007. We have 6 books published under "Designs by Lavender Lime" and #7 is almost ready. You can see all the books and many quilts made from the books on our web site at http://www.lavenderlimeinspires.com/. The books are sold nationwide and are carried by many quilt shops. The designs are easy and quick but make beautiful quilts. I also design patterns for Northcott Fabrics. You can check out their website and see my designs: http://www.northcott.com/.
My blog is http://lavenderlimeinspires.blogspot.com/ where I try to post things going on at the shop. We would love to have you as a follower. My favorite things about this business are the creative freedom that quilting allows and the wonderful people that I come in contact with. What a blessing to spend time creating!
Thanks Kathy!
Kathy has designed block 4. She calls it "Stepping Down."
Click HERE for instructions to Kathy's block.
Here are my blocks: First, with Attitude Girls


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Sunflower as a Feed
Sunflower meal is the by-product of the oil extraction process. Oil is the majority value of sunflower seed and meal is considered a by-product. Sunflower meal is an excellent livestock feed, especially for ruminants. For the last several years, the supply of U.S. sunflower meal has been somewhat inconsistent. That is changing as the domestic market for sunflower oil increases.
There are three large sunflower crushing plants in the U.S. and two small plants. Some of the sunflower crushing plants remove a portion of the hull prior to the oil extraction process. This process called 'dehulling' or 'decortication' results in a sunflower meal with protein levels above 30% and fiber levels of 21% and below. One sunflower plant uses only a mechanical press when removing the oil from the seed. This results in a fat content of 13 percent. The other processing plants use both a mechanical and solvent extraction process and therefore have fat contents of 1 percent.
Because of the variation of mechanical systems at the various oil extraction plants, each sunflower processing plant has protein and fiber levels unique to that plant. The individual plant specifications are listed below in order of volume.
Processing Plant Specifications
ADM Enderlin ND
Cargill West Fargo ND
ADM Goodland KS
Colorado Mills, Lamar CO*
* Mechanical press only
Pricing and Volume
Meal is generally priced on a protein unit basis. Sunflower meal has traditionally priced at a discount to soybean meal which is considered the premium meal in the world market. The discounts largely relate to the lower lysine and high fiber levels. Part of this discount may be due to sunflower meal's inconsistent supply throughout the year.
Historically, much of the U.S. sunflower seed was crushed in the first six months after harvest and the majority of the oil was exported. With the advent of NuSun® oil for domestic markets, the annual crush is being spread out equally over the 12 month period. This provides meal users with a consistent supply throughout the year.
It is expected that U.S. demand for sunflower oil will increase consistently by 10 percent or more per year for the next several years. This will result in a corresponding increase in meal production as well. Visit the
U.S. Sunflower Meal Supply & Demand tables
for a historical review.
Sunflower Meal Uses
Sunflower meal is the fourth largest oilseed meal produced and consumed in the world. Sunflower meal has the greatest potential use in ruminant rations but also has a place as a protein supplement in non-ruminant rations. Unhulled or partially dehulled sunflower meal can be substituted for soybean meal on an equivalent protein basis in feeding ruminants. The low-fiber and higher protein meals can be utilized in feeding poultry and swine. Lower levels of lysine and threonine may cause some restrictions on some non-ruminant uses of sunflower meal. However, sunflower meal contains an excellent level of methionine which provides potential advantages for mixing with other meals.
Comparison with Other Oilseed Meal
Crude Protein
Dairy Cattle
Sunflower meal is entirely adequate as the sole source of supplemental protein in dairy rations. Milk production was similar when partially dehulled (18) or fully dehulled (12) sunflower meal replaced soybean meal in dairy cow rations. Cows fed an extruded blend of sunflower and soybean meal had a more desirable amino acid balance than cows fed soybean meal, indicating that a blend of sunflower and soybean proteins may be better than either protein source alone for high producing cows (3). Production increased slightly when cows were fed a blend of sunflower meal and soybean meal instead of only soybean meal as the protein supplement (10).
The high oil content sunflower meal is an excellent feed source for dairy as well. Most modern dairies supplement fat in feed rations for lactating cows. The high fat sunflower meal eliminates the need for some or all of the fat supplement requirements. Supply of the high fat content sunflower meal is limited.
Sunflower meal is also well utilized in young calves and growing heifers (13, 16). Weight gains and feed consumption were similar for calves and heifers fed sunflower meal or soybean meal. Digestion trials indicated that protein digestibility was the same for both meal rations (79 percent) but energy digestibility was slightly less for sunflower meal rations (73 percent vs.78 percent for soybean meal) because of the low digestibility of sunflower hulls (1,10,20).
Sunflower meal is generally quite palatable. In research comparisons with soybean meal, sunflower and soybean meals were equally palatable by all ages of cattle ranging from young calves to milking cows. In studies with beef cattle, sunflower meal and cottonseed meal were equally palatable (15).
Beef Cattle
As with dairy, sunflower meal can be entirely adequate as the sole source of supplemental protein in beef cattle rations (15). Sunflower meal has been compared to urea, soybean and cotton meals in beef cattle studies. Sunflower meal was equivalent to soybean meal for growing heifers. The 31 percent protein sunflower meal was as suitable as urea when fed to steers at up to 20 percent of the ration and as suitable as cottonseed meal when fed at 11 percent of the growing finishing ration (15). Feeding sunflower meal at 22 percent of the ration resulted in increased dry matter and crude protein digestibility and higher nitrogen retention. Limited studies indicated reduced weight gains and feed efficiency when beef cattle were fed 28 percent protein sunflower meal instead of a fully dehulled 41 percent sunflower protein meal (11). This difference was greater with barley than with corn-based rations.
Additional Documents
Meal in Beef Cattle Diets
file size: 261 kb
Sunflower Meal in Beef Cattle Diet
Early 1980s research in feeding trials utilized a dehulled 41 percent sunflower meal (no longer available). In that work (4, 6) found a 41 percent protein sunflower meal was equivalent to soybean meal in corn/oat rations and was equivalent to cottonseed meal in 12 percent crude protein rations for growing and finishing lambs. Weight gains tended to be greater when fed soybean meal, but a 50:50 blend of sunflower and soybean meals was equivalent to soybean meal. In comparisons with cottonseed meal, weight gains tended to be higher with sunflower meal, especially when fed low protein rations. Growth and wool production with eight percent crude protein rations, designed to be limiting in protein, were greater with sunflower meal, indicating that sunflower meal was slightly superior to cottonseed meal because of its higher methionine content (14).
There may be more limitations in feeding swine sunflower meal due to the high fiber and lower levels of lysine. However, the lower fiber sunflower meals can successfully replace from 25 to 50 percent of the soybean meal in swine feeds. Lysine supplementation is necessary when replacing greater than 50 percent of the soybean meal. Lysine supplementation is more critical in early feeding than at finishing (2). The high fiber and low protein sunflower meal can be used up to 50 percent replacement of soybean meal in swine rations, but at higher substitution levels energy intake and weight gains may be reduced because of the high fiber content in sunflower meal (2, 5).
The high protein and low fiber sunflower meals have application in poultry rations, but generally as a partial replacement for soybean meal. Lysine supplementation is required in laying hen diets containing over five percent sunflower meal. Threonine is a second limiting amino acid for broiler chicks and laying hens (9). The maximum amount of sunflower meal that can be included in diets for broiler chicks appears to be 15 percent in all mash diets and 30 percent in pelleted diets; higher amounts may adversely affect performances. Sunflower meal in laying hens can replace 100 percent of supplemental proteins, (including soybean meal) if sufficient supplemental lysine is included (9).
Whole Seed Feeding
Whole sunflower seed can be feed to dairy cows as a fat supplement to the diet. Cottonseed has become the oilseed of choice as a fat supplement partially due to location of production and transportation costs. Cottonseed has approximately 17 percent fat content seed while oil-type sunflower seed is 40 percent.
Sunflower can be used without any processing of the seeds. There appears to be no advantage in cracking or rolling sunflower seeds prior to feeding. The size of the seed results in cows chewing and breaking down the product during digestion (1). Feeding sunflower seeds in a mixed ration eliminates any issues of feed preference or palatability.
Milk production increased as much as 15 percent when sunflower seeds replaced barley, corn or oats as an energy source in the diet of early lactation cows (8).
Researchers also found that growing dairy heifers fed whole sunflower seed responded well showing improved growth efficiency over animals fed no sunflower seeds.
Researchers caution that sunflower seed in the rations must be carefully controlled. A general rule for lactating dairy cows is 100 to 200 g/kg sunflower seed in grain mixes; or 1.0 to 1.8 kg of oilseed sunflower or 1.4 to 2.3 kg of confectionary or non-oil sunflower daily per cow (8). Sunflower seed is high in fat and too much fat can result in scouring, decrease in feed consumption and depressed milk fat and protein content.
Feeding whole sunflower may be most economical in areas where sunflower is being produced. Transporting sunflower seed long distances can be costly because of the light weight of the seed (28 lb/bushel). Feeding distressed sunflower seed may be an excellent option. This could include light test weight seed due to an early frost or high insect damaged seed unfit for human consumption are some examples. Determining fat content in these seeds may be important prior to developing a feed formula. Often distressed seeds are lower in oil content.
1. Ahrar, M. and D.J. Schingoethe. (1978). The feeding value of regular and heat-treated soybean meal and sunflower meal for dairy calves. J. Dairy Sci. 61 (Suppl. 1):168 (abstr.).
2. Baird, D.M. (1981). Sunflowers: swine applications. Feed Mgt. 32(6):32.
3. Drackley, J.K., and D.J. Schingoethe. (1986). Extruded blend of soybean meal and sunflower seeds for dairy cattle in early lactation. J. Dairy Sci. 69:371.
4. Erickson, D.O., M Hankel, M.R. Light, W. Limesand, and T. Faller. (1980). Sunflower meal vs. soybean meal for feeder lambs. J. Dairy Sci. 51 (Suppl. 1):96 (Abstr.).
5. Gargallo, J., and D.R. Zimmerman. (1981). Effects on sunflower hulls on large intestine function in finishing swine. J. Anim. Sci. 53:1286.
6. Insley, L., D.O. Erickson, M.R. Light, and W. Limesand. (1983). Lamb performance as affected by protein level and source. J. Anim. Sci. 57 (suppl. 1):110 (Abstr.).
7. Lilliboe, D. (1999). Sunflower meal applications-for livestock & poultry feeds. The Sunflower. 25(5):14.
8. Marx, G.D. (1988). New oilseed meals may be economical alternative protein supplement. Minnesota Dairy Rep. AG-BU-2235.
9. McNaughton J.L., and J.W. Deaton. (1981), Sunflowers: Poultry applications. Feed Mgt. 32(6):27.
10. Nishino, S., S. Kondo, and K. Hayashi (1980). Feeding value of sunflower meal as a replacement for soybean meal in lactating cows. J. College of Dairying 8:275.
11. North Dakota State University (1983). North Dakota research: Swine, ruminant meal test results. The Sunflower 9(2):40
12. Parks, C.S., G.M. Edgerly, G.M. Erickson, and G.R. Fisher. (1981). Response of dairy cows to sunflower meal and varying dietary protein and fiber. J. Dairy Sci. 64 (Suppl. 1):141 (Abstr.)
13. Park, C.S., G.R. Fisher, and C.N. Haugse. (1980). Effect of dietary protein and sunflower meal on blood serum cholesterol of dairy heifers. J. Dairy Sci. 63:1451.
14. Richardson, C.R., and R.N. Beville, R.K. Ratcliffe, and R.C. Albin. (1981). Sunflower meal as a protein supplement for growing ruminants. J. Anim Sci. 53:557.
15. Richardson, C.R., and G.D. Anderson. (1981). Sunflowers; beef applications. Feed Mgt. 32(6):30.
16. Schingoethe, D.J. (1981) Sunflower: dairy applications. Feed Mgt. 32(6):18.
17. Schingoethe, D.J., and M. Ahrar. (1979). Protein solubility, amino acid composition, and biological value of regular and heat-treated soybean and sunflower meals. J. Dairy Sci. 62:925.
18. Schingoethe, D.J., J.A. Rook, and F. Ludens. (1977). Evaluation of sunflower meal as a protein supplement for lactating cow. J. Dairy Sci. 60:591.
19. Schneiter, A.A. (1997). Sunflower Technology and Production. American Society of Agronomy. Agronomy 35:765.
20. Stake, P.E., M.J. Owens, and D.J. Schingoethe. (1973) Rapeseed, sunflower , and soybean meal supplementation of calf rations. J. Dairy Sci. 56:783.
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To those saying that a strong or emphasis should be used, I might ask how that's semantically correct? You're going for a visual effect, correct? You're not trying to give it emphasis or strong emphasis as far as I can tell.
While it's important to recognize non-css compliant browers, you shouldn't use non-semantic mark-up as it implies poor meaning to anything that relies on that mark-up, such as a screen reader, to determine what the content within is. I can see no reason why you would want to add any emphasis to a link of which you are currently at. That should be implied or delivered by the content within a header tag at the appropriate level.


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Byzantine Asia Minor and Syria: From Art Historical Monuments to Archaeological Settlement
Cyril Mango, Exeter College, University of Oxford
When the Byzantine monuments of Asia Minor and Syria first came to the attention of scholars, in about the year 1900, they were viewed largely in an art-historical perspective focused on form and technique. Their importance lay in the contribution they made, or were thought to make, to the grand debates of the time: were the origins of Christian art to be sought in the West or the East? Was Hellenism or the Orient the formative influence during the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages? The monuments in question were above ground. They could be measured and photographed and were then classified typologically. In the same period the great excavations of the classical cities of Asia Minor started, those of Syria following later, in all of which little interest was expressed in the late antique and later, namely Byzantine phases.
What has happened in the last 60 years, since World War Ⅱ interrupted these ventures? Urban excavations resumed and their numbers expanded. At Sardis, Anemurium, Amorium, Sagalassos, Apamea, Bostra there is now an overt interest in post classical periods. This is accompanied by advances in techniques, including a greatly increased knowledge and classification of ceramics, both Late Roman and Byzantine, as well as an invasion of scientific analysis. More importantly, the continued investigation of urban life is now paired with a shift in interest to the countryside, as exemplified by Georges Tchalenko's Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord (1953–58) where the study of monuments was replaced by an interest in settlement. Art history gave way via archaeology to economic history as the prime explanatory factor. An understanding of the city interacting with its hinterland was now possible. That is to be welcomed, but another important element cannot be overlooked. We are dealing with a historical period and without the written word even the most refined techniques will not always tell us all we want to know.