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If you're one of those people who wouldn't be caught dead listening to new age music, I may have some bad news for you. It just so happens that, in 1989, a scientist working in the psychology department at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire conducted research on people who had undergone near-death experiences. The research seemed to conclude that the musical stylings of the pioneering new age musician Iasos (pronounced "ya' sos") scored the highest ratings in a survey of various types of music reported being heard by those who have undergone a near-death experience—most notably Iasos' piece entitled "The Angels of Comfort."
So, it might just be that new age music is the ONLY kind of music you'll be caught dead listening to. Death metal can't really hold a candle to actual death music, can it?
But then again, if you've heard "The Angels of Comfort," you might conclude that you could very easily duplicate the same results in a survey of people who huff paint on a regular basis. I'm not necessarily suggesting that the heavenly music corporation producing these angelic choirs on high are the result of a lack of oxygen to the brain as vital organs shut down during the near-death experience, but it's certainly a distinct possibility. For all I know, Iasos' electronic noodlings sound the closest to an EKG machine or a ventilator. In any event, Iasos may or may not be on to something otherworldly.
Although many would credit Mike Oldfield's 1973 masterpiece Tubular Bells as the seed that started the popularization of ambient sound, it lacked a genre in which it could be placed. Most just labeled that album as "progressive rock," for want of a better term. The ambient music that would come to be known as "new age" certainly owed a debt to Oldfield as well as the experimental works of Edgar Froese, Tangerine Dream, Can, Klaus Schulze, and various other musical visionaries. But the phrase "new age" had yet to be coined in 1973. That would take another two years.
Iasos was a major pioneer in the creation of the musical genre of new age. He was born in Greece but moved to America at an early age, migrating to the West Coast in the late '60s for the sole purpose of pursuing his musical vision. In 1975 he released his first album, Inter-Dimensional Music. It's the kind of music to play while riding astrally projected elevators through the space-time continuum.
1975 was a heady year for "new age" culture; it is often cited as the year that the genre was created and the phrase was coined. That was also the year that Steven Halpern released his seminal and highly influential album Spectrum Suite. Even more important to some is the fact that 1975 was the year that Brian Eno released his first fully ambient record Discreet Music, setting in motion decades of ambient recordings from the famed musician, producer, and all-around genius.
That's right, kids. Eno's Discreet Music is 40 years old now. And that's how long Iasos—who should, by rights, be counted alongside those previously mentioned visionaries—has been churning out his own brand of new age and ambient sound. By my calculations, Iasos is approximately 68 years old. So, he's still producing new age well into his old age. And he shows no signs of slowing down. His multilayered ambient droning drones as hard today as it did in 1975.
Ambient Bandstand audiences rate Iasos: "Its got no discernible beat, and it's easy to trance to."
Iasos claims that he composes in collaboration with an inter-dimensional being that he calls "Vista." According to Iasos, Vista is the true visionary and architect behind these complex soundscapes and compositions. Iasos merely serves as the conduit through which Vista operates and opens new windows on the musical world.
Thank Vista, Iasos has recently posted an incredibly trippy, short documentary to YouTube that was filmed in 1979 (four years after releasing his first album), and it shows him at the height of his creative genius. The documentary, which you can watch below, oscillates between Iasos talking about his musical approach and general philosophy and various musical performances. The documentary appears to show a truly bliss-filled musician talking about receiving the radio signals in his head from his "collaborator." He also speaks of a feminine counterpart to Vista that he calls "Crystal."
According to Iasos, higher beings are interacting with humans to create a greater harmony, a paradise of music on earth. However, these higher beings practice a policy of non-interference and must be invited in. The more people who interact with these higher beings, the faster a paradise on earth will be formed. Convinced?
Pay attention to the fact that in this documentary, Iasos seems to laugh at less-than-appropriate times, like Dr. Julius Hibbert on The Simpsons. It's also fascinating to see his home studio comprised of state-of-the-art analog equipment… for 1979. Marvel at his incredibly spiritual framing of electronic sounds: "Electrons are pure God beings and are very sensitive to God control." He's clearly operating on a much higher plane than the rest of us.
h/t Iasos' website


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#BookADay over Christmas Break - What are you Reading?
I'm slightly addicted to young adult lit. It's pretty much all I read, mostly so I can recommend it and share it with my community of fifth grade readers. I know I need to grow up one of these days, but hey they say 'thirty something is the new twenty' right - and twenty is a young adult, so there.
Who am I kidding? I'll still be reading YA when I'm eighty - I hope. :) In the meantime, here are my most recent YA reads.
I'm always inspired by the #bookaday challenge on Twitter and Christmas break is the perfect time for me to read to my little heart's desire.
I actually started the Divergent series around Thanksgiving time and finished up all three within the month. I'm a sucker for a good science fiction dystopian society story where character meets super powerful, controlling government and character wins. Think Hunger Games, Giver series, Among the Hidden series, Uglies series........ Divergent was equally as suspenseful. The first book in the series was clearly the best, but I have to read every book in a series once I get hooked - great literature or not. Note: Divergent is recommended for true young adult readers - too sophisticated for my fifth graders. But I can't wait until they're ready in a few years.
The Book Thief was a recommendation from my high school English teacher husband. It took me awhile to get immersed, it's actually more of an adult read in my opinion than young adult. But I did enjoy traveling back to World War 2 ridden Germany and living through the war from a German perspective - or should I say death's perspective? Great discussions about point of view could abound from this novel. And the figurative language is amazing! The book is also riddled with flashbacks, flash forwards and foreshadowing. It's an English teacher's dream.
Someone on Twitter compared Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I agree. I'm not usually a fan of fantasy, I'm always thinking 'ya right' when I read about things that couldn't really happen. But Mr. Lemoncello's Library is actually quite realistic and my similar love of board games sucked me in. Also, who doesn't love a good mystery? I can't ever put a book down until I can figure out 'who done it.'
Lastly, I just started Zebra Forest. Those of you who know my obsession with zebra print will understand how this book ended up in my Amazon shopping cart. Now that I've looked beyond the cover, I've realized it's actually just my type of book. Struggling foster child meets challenge after challenge, yet never gives up. Perseverance at it's best. Also, surprisingly this book is full of suspense and intrigue. I'm actually heading to finish it right now, with my electric blanket (Christmas present from the English teacher hubby) in tow and a mug of Ghirdelli white hot chocolate (Christmas present from a student). Life doesn't get much better than this.....
Hope you're enjoying your Christmas break as much as I am. Seven glorious days left!
Side note: If you're on the prowl for some 'no fuss' math centers for the first week back from Christmas Break - look no further. I've just finished my New Years Decimal Math Centers. Centers include task cards, independent work, two math games, and a problem solving activity. Skills include rounding decimals, placing decimals on number lines, adding decimals, ordering decimals, and multiplying decimals - all through the thousandths place. Enjoy!
4 comments
My parents just saw "The Book Thief" movie. It sounded great, but I didn't know it was a book, too. I'll definitely have to read the book first! "Zebra Forest" and "Mr. Lemoncello" sound great too. Thanks for the suggestions!ReplyDelete
Miss Woodward's Class
I will probably be reading YA books when I'm 80 too. I like to read them also so I can compete against my 5th graders in A.R. during the year by reading books and taking tests also. It's a great motivator for them.ReplyDelete
Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'
YA addict also, I am currently reading the Matched series...on the last book. http://www.amazon.com/Matched-Ally-Condie/dp/014241977X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388763779&sr=8-1&keywords=matchedReplyDelete
I have to read fast because there are always a group of students behind me waiting to get at the books. Thanks for the recommendations!
Does blog reading count? That's pretty much all the reading I've done over break. I have found some great ideas, though! Those math centers look great!ReplyDelete

subset: commoncrawl


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Gry dla Ciebie
7 WordsIf you like crossword puzzles, this is the perfect game for you! Look at the tiles and unscramble the word. Can you complete all 777 levels?
Daily CrosswordsTest your knowledge and puzzle skills in this fantastic new Crossword game. Can you complete the crossword without needing any help?
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Daily JumbleAmerica's number 1 puzzle game, the game has been delighting word-puzzle enthusiasts for more than 60 years. Play is simple, just unscramble four words, then use their answers to decode the final clue!
Universal Crossword
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The original hit puzzle that sets the standard for all daily crosswords. Clues and themes are served up fresh daily in this classic word game!


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Here's an idea.
Get your children's shoes on and take them all into the back yard. Grab a notebook and pen on the way out. Then, start making a list of the things you see. Are there trees? Birds? Flowers? Clouds? Bugs? In a minute, your children will be running around, calling you to see the Queen Anne's Lace all closed up and gone to seed, bringing you yarrow and hawkweed, finding a deserted funnel web in the grass. Write it all down in a list. Add date, time, and weather. Decorate if you want.
A nature journal does not have to be complicated. It does not have to be perfect. In fact, as I've begun to do it more and more, I've found that the process is more important than the product. It's in the process that you realize how little you know, that you begin to notice and compare details, that you begin to gain skill in capturing what you see, hear, touch, and smell. A nature journal is a record of a learning process.
Anyone can make a list. One list every month can be a valuable record as you notice the changes from month to month. (So many flowers have gone to seed since last month!) A list could be a first step to recognizing what you want to learn more about. (What is that small aster-like flower with white petals and tiny purple flowers in the center?) A list requires no artistic skills. If you keep making lists like this, though, you may find yourself recording --and illustrating-- details of things you want to find out more about.
Keeping a nature journal does not have to be any more complicated than this. If it grows into more, well, you can take that as it comes! You do not have to start out knowing how to draw, or paint with watercolours, or knowing the names of everything you see. Start where you are. Make a list. Discover things to wonder at, things to find out more about. That's all you need to get started.
The joy you find as a parent in nature study and nature journalling will be naturally contagious to your children. I'll be honest, SA(7) still does not enjoy writing or drawing, as that's a natural weak area for him. But I've noticed that when he has gotten out his nature journal, it has been because I was making an entry in my own. All the children enjoyed helping me make this entry in my nature journal. They not only found things for me to add to my list, but they described some of them in great detail. This makes me happy, and I know it has great benefits for them, too.
Don't be intimidated by nature journaling. Make a list!


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Here is Alyssa's imaginative story.
When I met a Gruffalo
Once when I was strolling through the woods, I saw a giant Guffalo. It looked like a bear. It had orange eyes and they looked like fire. It had a black tongue that looked like a swirly snake. The giant Grufflao had purple prickles all over his back. It looked very grumpy and I was scared.
I looked straight into his eyes and screamed " Help help! I am going to get eaten by a Gruffalo". I thought quickly… And I called the animal control. I was so terrified that I shouted out loud and started to cry, but no one was there. The Gruffalo was following me in the woods.
The animal control came in five minutes and they got a big net. They grabbed the Gruffalo in the net and put him in a big truck. Then they took the Gruffalo to the zoo. Some time later I heard on the radio that they have a new creature at the zoo and everyone went to the zoo to see 'The Gruffalo'
By Alyssa


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MSI Limited Edition Los Angeles Dodgers PCs and netbooks now available
MSI and the Los Angeles Dodgers announced the Limited Edition MSI Wind Top AE2220 All-in-One PC and the Wind U135DX Netbook will be available to the public.
MSI co-founder Henry Lu will join Dodgers' Casey Blake and Hung-Chih Kuo to unveil the All-in-One computers and Lu will also throw out the first pitch for MSI night at Dodger Stadium on July 9th. Three of the Wind Tops and three of the netbooks will be given away at the stadium that night. A photo contest on MSI's site will also give five lucky fans who demonstrate the most Dodger spirit an All-in-One PC and Netbook courtesy of MSI.
"We have had a chance to work with the new Wind Top All-in-One PCs here in the front office and they are absolutely amazing," said Dodgers VP, Steven Spartin. "The fans are going to love the ease of use, design and most of all the speed in which these new PCs operate."
Check out the designs and enter the contest, running July 9th-August 9th, via the Source Link below.


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Everything you need to understand or teach Irwin Shaw's Short Fiction by Irwin Shaw.
Three themes recur frequently in Shaw's short fiction. The first is the role of chance and accident in shaping human life. In "Small Saturday" Christopher meets and dates the girl who will become his wife only after both miss the chance to go out with others.
Unknown to them, a lusty Swiss flying into New York, a police bust of several con artists, and a middle-aged man's passion for a young actress have helped mold their destiny. In "Noises in the City" a man's affection for his pregnant wife is rekindled after he meets a man whose wife was murdered. The victim died when a stable husband and father went unaccountably berserk. In Shaw's world lives are changed by a thoughtless word, a careless glance, or an unplanned meeting.
Tales about people whose fates are sealed by chance and coincidence strike readers with wonder; unexpected convergence is one...


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All I can say is that I would need to be a professional blogger to comment on all the statements, opinions, and rhetoric that I heard during this speech. Literally, 15 minutes into the speech and I already have a page and half of notes for things I feel I should comment on. By the 30 minute marker, I had abandoned all hope of being able to cover the speech with any semblance of granularity and decided to just cover the topics I felt most important.
First off, let me state, that was one hell of a campaign speech Mr. President, but gave us little information pertaining to the real State of the Union. I liked the ideals of job creation, restoring the economy, establishing improved benefits for current and returning soldiers, and the overall tone of "America First"; however, the speech left me with more questions than when you started, as most campaign speeches do. The biggest question being, HOW??
To recover funds distributed during the bank bailout, you propose a fee on the biggest banks to recoup the remaining monies outstanding, but what will that fee amount to? In addition, you mock the banks stating:
If these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.
However, have you forgotten the pay increases that have went to government bodies within the last year. Why not focus on decreasing the increases, upwards of 541%, that have occurred within capital hill during your one year in office? Do you not remember, that it wasn't at the will of the people that the banks were rescued, but via an unpopular policy expansion decision by your administration. You berate the banks by stating,
"We can't allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy"
but it must be a short memory that allows you to forget that it was the Democratic policy, pushed by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and others, that forced the banks to make those risky decisions. Thru the Community Reinvestment Act, banks were forced to loosen credit criteria and make loans to people unqualified, and ill prepared, to handle such loans. Banks were further encouraged by Fannie May and Freddie Mac to participate in these subprime loans by increasing the scope of these "flexible" credit standards in which these government entities would guarantee. In addition, you talk of using the $30B repaid by banks from the bailout to invest in community banks. How will that money be invested and doled out? What steps will be taken to ensure that the money given to the smaller banks will not be used in the same, fraudulent manner that the large banks used those funds? What steps taken to ensure that the funds are split equally and not just to community banks in areas supportive of you?
You talk of job creation, you pat yourself on the back for the "amount of tax cuts you have enacted", you even point out the Republican side for not applauding you for those tax cuts. The reason they did not clap is due to the fact that the policies you wish to enact will increase taxes on most American Families. They did not refuse to clap out of spite, but because they knew that you are misleading in your statements. Again, with this knowledge, how do you propose to create jobs? You talk of the millions of jobs saved, but is that number before or after the counting of jobs in ghost districts that do not exist, or the double counting of jobs for people that worked temporarily only to be displaced within weeks? With policies proposed like cap and trade, the health care bill, and others that will, by the CBO's accounts, raise taxes and further hurt the American family, by what method will this reverse the double digit unemployment that plagues us now? The same unemployment rate the stimulus bill was to keep under 8% if enacted immediately? How is your new, proposed "job bill" going to succeed when your first attempt was an adjunct failure?
You talk of building trust with the American voter again thru transparency and accountability. Again I ask you, how? Will it be via more broken promises to ensure that the health care debate will be publicized on C-SPAN, but instead spent the majority of time in back rooms closed to the public resulting with shady deals to buy votes, such as the Cornhusker compromise or the Louisiana Purchase? Will it be via your promise that the Economic Recovery act will be removed of earmarks and pork barrel spending, but actually resulted in billions to pet projects and activities that had little to no impact on the recovery of our economy? How then Mr. President, do you plan on rebuilding the trust? How do you tout accountability, when Congress has complained that they have no idea to where stimulus or TARP funds are being distributed? How can you restore accountability when TARP funds were not used to buy up toxic assets, as promised to the American people, but instead used to buy stock and pave the way for a government take over of the banking system?
You ask for bipartisan support in congress, but in a direct rebuke to the Republican leadership, you stated:
Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.
This sounds great in a campaign speech, but it seems that you are the one that needs to be reminded that you were elected to serve the citizens. You have ignored the voice of the people since you were elected. You proceeded with the bank bailouts, even though you state that you hated it. You proceeded with the auto bailout, even when the citizens protested. You push forward with cap and trade, despite the fact that it will raise energy prices and taxes on American families. You gloss over the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, who ran on a promise to defeat the health care bill that you continue to try and ram down our throats, as a sign that people were angry at George Bush. Regarding health care, your own leader, Nancy Pelosi, stated after your address:
If the gate is open, we will go thru it. If the gate is closed, we will climb the wall. If the wall is too high, we will pole vault over it. If we can't jump high enough, we will parachute behind it. We will get healthcare passed for the American people.
Her statement is a slap in the face to the American voter who has shown via polls, tea party movements, and the election of Scott Brown that they do not want this health care bill passed. So my question is how will you foster this bipartisanship that you request? Will you finally see that the Republicans aren't just saying no to Democratic policies, but instead following the dictates of the people. When will you realize that Americans do not want this healthcare? When will you allow the Republicans to bring their viable, patient oriented ideas to the table and stop this government take over of our health care system,? You asked, "If anyone has a better idea, let me know", but yet you've dismissed the Republican party to the sidelines and ignored their proposals of better ideas. When will the government get out of our banking, auto, and energy industries? With all of your talk of "I will", "I came", "My administration", "My goals", "My direction", you forget the most basic of principals, which is there is no "I" in "Teamwork", Mr.. President. When will you lead by example and begin to listen to the American people?
You stand before Congress and the American people and preach about the evils of the gridlock within our political system. You defiantly declare that you came to Washington to change the way our political process works. My question to you is how? Need I remind you that you had complete control of Congress for the last year? That with proper leadership, you could have enacted any change you so wished, but instead, we just received more of the same. The same back room deals, the buying of votes, and the expansion of big government. Even with "the largest majority in history", your party has defied your promises and made you look like a fool. So how will you change the gridlock that is paralyzing our political process when you are unable to even control your own party? You cannot place the blame on the Republicans because, as stated, your party held unprecedented control.
You speak of campaign reform, admonishing the Supreme Court for "reversing a century of law that you believed would open the floodgates of special interest, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections". A admonishment to which Justice Alito responded by mouthing "Not true". Not a Joe Wilson moment, but I wish it would have been. You lied Mr. President. You stood before your people, and your country, and lied. Even as you stand there and lecture our Supreme Court, you forget the amount of foreign aid that was funneled into your campaign financing. You forget the investigations that showed the Nigerian man, who within his own border, raised over "$900,000" for you, the infamous "Mr. Doodad" that was also illegally contributed to your campaign, or the other $3.38M in questionable contributions that your agency refuses to reveal. So again Mr. President, how do you plan to reform when the very practices you preach against helped finance your way into office? How can the American voter believe you when you stand before us and lie to place the blame on the Supreme Court for something you took part in and was partially responsible for your election?
You speak of your desire to enhance the security of this country. While I like your ideas regarding the increasing of care and support for our returning and active veterans, I worry that your promises are empty based on your efforts so far. When you take actions, such as the cancelling the development of the next air superiority fighter jet, I worry if you honestly have the security of this nation, and it's soldiers, in mind. You speak of your will to crack down on terrorists, but again I ask how? You all but ignored your commanding general in Afghanistan in his pleas for more troops, else "We risk defeat" for months, then only giving him a fraction of his ask. You bring terrorists within our borders for trial, rather than putting them before military tribunals as appropriate. You grant terrorists Miranda rights, affording them the same rights of the citizens they wished to harm, thereby increasing risk that they may go unpunished. You place blame on our military system, declaring to the world that the US tortures it's detainee's, when it's been proven over and over again that this is yet another lie. So how can the people trust that our national defense lies at the top of your priority list, when your past year has shown evidence to the contrary?
Lastly, you condemn both sides of the aisle, by stating:
Sadly, some of the unity we felt after 9/11 has dissipated. We can argue all we want about who's to blame for this, but I'm not interested in re-litigating the past.
Issuing a call upon this statement, to again work on repairing the "trust deficit" that the American people have with our government. Again, I ask you how? You have defined your first term in office by re-litigating the past, as you put it. Even this speech itself, was bloated with condemnation and blame placed upon the prior administration. You take no responsibility for your own actions, but instead, push the fault on to those before you. You accuse the past President for the overwhelming deficit over his 8 year term, but make no mention how your administration quadrupled that deficit within one year. You posture that Bush was responsible for the housing bubble, but ignore the fact that it was the policies of your own party, against the advice of Bush's administration, that were the cause. So while eloquent, your statements drip with hypocrisy when every day you place the blame for failure on everyone but yourself. The American people are tired of the excuses. We've grown weary of your blame without personal responsibility for your policies. You were elected under promises of change, but your personal agenda of socialism is not the change that people want.
Maybe the best recourse would be for you to sit and truly listen to your own words, rather than just reading them off a teleprompter. It's time to stop with the rhetoric and begin with action. Take control of you party, stop the lying, and start listening to the American people. It's time become the leader you were elected to be and follow the promises you made. You are one year into your Presidency, so time to stop placing the blame on the past and realize that your destiny is now in your hands alone. Your campaign slogan has lost all meaning President Obama. You are no longer "Change we can believe in", but instead "Change we fear". You have only three years to reverse the damage done. It's time to stop preaching to those in Congress and for you to step up as our President. Only you can determine how history will remember you. If this speech serves as foreshadowing, you will be remembered as the President big on campaign promises, but lacking in actions.


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I began today with the intention of taking up a suggestion from a user called Purity at the Digital Spy Forums and applying for the position of Forensic Accountant. After all, I'm a huge Gil Grissom and CSI fan and figured that this could be a brilliant means to experience that kind of excitement without wading through bucketloads of gore...
However, upon reading the job description, I was incredibly disappointed to find that there was very little mention of fingerprinting, DNA testing, ballistics or indeed any kind of violent crime scene reenaction (involving mannequins, tomato ketchup and a claw hammer). Apparently dead numbers just aren't given the same degree of importance as dead bodies in the modern criminal justice system...
So, instead, I decided to apply to be a Radio Newsreader with TFM Radio. Now this all came about because, the other day, the producer of the TFM Breakfast Show got in touch with my via my blog and asked if I would like to come on the show and witter on about what I'm up to. I duly did so this morning (a friend has kindly agreed to host an mp3 file of the interview - go here: http://www.solsbury-hill.co.uk/Interview1.mp3 if you'd like to listen to it in full) but, during the email conversation between us beforehand, it was mentioned in passing that TFM are looking for a newsreader. Thus, like some kind of rabid pitbull I refuse to let that mention go! And so, after talking on the radio this morning, the Producer agreed to try and get me an audition! :-)
I have concluded that being a Radio Newsreader must be a great job - all you have to do is read out loud for two minutes every half an hour and you get the remaining fifty six minutes in the hour all to yourself. While everyone else is slaving away you'd be able to drink tea (and dunk biscuits), ride your chair about the office in a wayward fashion, make abstract sculptures out of polystyrene cups, draw rude caricatures of your work colleagues and just generally relax...
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Job No. 12: Newsreader
Posted by Oliver Davies at 3:00 pm
3 comments:
- TheThirdPoliceman said...
Well, there you have it - the power of technology! I've been enjoying reading this blog enormously over the last week or so - can it be that such a ludicrous, outlandish idea is about to pay dividends. A radio newsreader, indeed.
Go on my son!
- 8:01 am
- Jeanette said...
I have been reading everyday before I leave for work and it always make's me smile. Brilliant pure genius!
- 8:19 am
- Oliver Davies said...
Still no news (to read or otherwise!) but glad you're enjoying the blog!
- 8:03 am
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text:
Waking up I say: the power is gone, dear,
Can't pump water, but don't despair,
The fridge will not work, my dear,
For the food gone stale don't shed a tear.
My dear, it's dark because the lights are out,
Step carefully, and please don't you shout
At the servant. She is not the reason,
It's the doing of the ministry in season.
The cell phone battery is way down,
You can't call a taxi to go shopping in town.
Except in emergency you can't call or chat,
Until it's recharged from the very start.
They say they will fix it in two days,
That would mean a week, anyways.
Can't chat with our abroad-living son,
Without power the internet won't function.
There's no water so we can't bathe,
Let's eat stale food and go to bed straight.
Tomorrow, dear, is another day of powerlessness,
The government doesn't care for its uselessness.
Can I fix anything? At least, the back-up?
No dear! There's no liquid in that damn set-up.
Unfortunately, no television soap operas or reality shows,
This here is reality; not a chimera the world follows.
Note: On a recent trip to my home state of Kerala, following heavy rains, there was no power for almost a week. This was written then. Just to show how in a connected world everything we do is dependent on electricity.


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The following criteria outline who may be considered for lung transplantation -- and who is excluded from consideration.
Lung Transplantaton Inclusion Criteria
Patients may be considered for lung or heart/lung transplantation if they present with end-stage lung disease including the following conditions:
- No response to conventional treatment
- Limited life expectancy (less than two years)
- Severely impaired lifestyle and exercise tolerance, NYHA Class III - IV symptoms
- Oxygen dependence
- Less than 75 years of age for single lung transplants
- Less than 70 years of age for double lung transplants
- Less than 60 years of age for heart/lung transplants
Lung Transplantation Exclusion Criteria
Patients may not be considered for lung or heart/lung transplantation if they exhibit any of the following:
- Active or recent malignancy within two years of curative treatment without evidence of recurrence (within five years for breast cancer and melanoma)
- Irreversible left-sided heat failure with an ejection fraction of less than 45% may only be a candidate for heart/lung transplantation.
- High dose steroid therapy (more than 40 mg daily) that cannot be tapered or discontinued
- Untreated or uncontrolled psychiatric disorders such as depression and psychosis
- Extrapulmonary end-stage organ disease (multiple-organ transplant may be considered, when appropriate)
- Known active infection or infection with highly resistant pathogens
- History of noncompliance
- Absence of strong social support system
- Poor rehab potential
Relative Exclusion Criteria
The selection committee may use its discretion for the following relative exclusion criteria:
- Ventilator dependency
- Recent smoking history or substance abuse (within six months)
- Severe cachexia and malnourishment (BMI less than 19)
- Morbid obesity (BMI greater than 30)
- Severe extrapulmonary or systemic disorders (i.e. active autoimmune disease, poorly controlled IDDM, coronary artery disease)
- History of pleurodesis or pleural effusion
- Presence of significant esophageal dysfunction


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The Community College of Allegheny County provides a supportive and transformative learning environment that prepares graduates to meet critical needs in the region's workforce.
At CCAC, we believe that life outside the classroom is an important part of your college experience. Each CCAC campus has a variety of activities to enhance your lifestyle – including athletics, cultural events and personal development seminars.
The CCAC Educational
Foundation is the fundraising and benefactor arm of the college. It seeks to
create vital connections between the college and the wider community
to ensure the ongoing viability of the college.
PITTSBURGH-Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny
Campus will host a Part 107 Test Preparation Workshop on Saturday,
April 7, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in West Hall, room 142.
This workshop will prepare participants for the FAA small
unmanned aircraft commercial examination. Topics will include FAA
rules and regulations, aerodynamics, weather, aeronautical factors,
weight and balance, and loading and performance. Information about
the testing process will also be covered.
Cost of the workshop is $49. To register, go to shopcommunityed.ccac.edu or
call 412.788.7507. For more information, contact Dr. Lori Paluti at
CCAC Allegheny Campus is located at 808 Ridge Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15212.


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From A to Z - Aldi vs AIDS and the tale of the pickled rat
This won't come as a planet-shattering revelation, but very few high street brands have an unblemished record in treating both consumers and staff fairly.
Think your favourite store is all sweetness and light? Guess again. Our team of dedicated researchers have cut and paste from Google painstakingly trawled through news archives to highlight the best examples of bad behaviour.
Kicking off the alphabetical adventure is Aldi, which along with Lidl is our joint favourite German discount supermarket chain.
Not only are Aldi intolerant of high prices but they've precious little time for terminal illness, as store manager Mark Hedley discovered in 1999.
Hedly attempted to return to work after treatment for HIV, but was barred by Aldi and put on gardening leave. The chain claimed that colleagues were uncomfortable working with him, and that his illness could cause the store to lose money.
In evidence submitted ahead of an employment tribunal, Aldi stated its decision was justified "given the nature of the applicant's condition". Oddly enough, the tribunal never went ahead; Aldi settled with Hedley out of court, paying him substantial damages which The Independent put at £250,000.
ASDA haven't fared much better with staff relations. In 2006, the supermarket was forced to pay £7,000 in compensation to a worker sacked for leaving the shopfloor to take medicine for his epilepsy, on top of shelling out £27,750 to 37 Asian workers in Leicestershire for racial discrimination.
Merseyside Police took issue with ASDA in 2005, when a local store sold "special Halloween" packs of eggs, perfect for little sods to throw at windows and cars. And in 2007 the supermarket was fined nearly £80,000 for selling out-of-date food. Anyone for lamb chops a whole month past their use-by date? No?
Then there was the case of Jeanette Reinders, who in 2005 was less than thrilled to discover a dead rat in a jar of gherkins. Thankfully, ASDA customer services figured that a 49p refund wouldn't cut it in this instance, and Reinders was offered £100 plus a free trolley dash. Assuming she could stop throwing up long enough to take part.
Want to share your story of shameful service? Send the gory details to [email protected]
Photo by Unhindered by Talent on Flickr. Some rights reserved.


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A blog for The Urutsk Cycle and Related Subjects,
including the URUTSK: World of Mystery RPG.
Shipwrecked survivors of a galaxy-spanning empire (ruined when the core exploded) settle upon a wetlands world occupied by humans and other species. They then poke through ruins of their Ancient ancestors as they strive to regain space and then, starflight.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
June 4 2015 Update
My Weekend crew keep going with a D&D 5e game and the Encounter Critical UWoM game I am writing. The writing is going along nicely. I'm working on vehicles right now. It'll have OS conversion built in, and a much faster CharGen than EC does, even with more stuff added.
I'd like to go into more detail about ECUWoM, but I don't want to jinx or overshare: show, don't tell.
I have plans to release material for Goblinoid Games Starships & Spacemen 2e, and also use GORE for another version.
4 comments:
Can give more info. on the Starships & Spacemen 2nd ed. material? That is a cool game...ReplyDeleteReplies
I have nothing to share yet. I'll announce when there is something.
Kind of glad we got in on the 5E version.ReplyDelete
Have yet to read Starships & Spacemen, but GORE is essentially BRP with the serial numbers filed off. Not a terrible system, but certain aspects of BRP don't rub me perfectly the right way.
I feel like Eclipse Phase was sort of BRP's spiritual successor as far as percentile systems go, and that EP made the mechanics of resolving inter-personal conflict a bit more streamlined (though character creation in Eclipse Phase is probably an order of magnitude more consuming than BRP).Replies
EP is too much for me.Delete
BRP / GORE is what the cool kids played after getting over AD&D. ;) I've played years of BRP. You'll hear no ill of it from me... except the roll = or under percentages are too low, and it should be add and roll high, and there are too many fumbles. But other than that... :D
5e is a nice compromise between 2nd Ed AD&D and 3.x. Using Skills & Powers, however, is not likely to make it better. :D


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When I first started playing rugby there were a couple
things that I wanted to accomplish.
First, I wanted to make friends and get to know people in the bay
area. Second I wanted to have an
enjoyable experience. In the back of my
mind I had hoped that I would be able to catch on to the sport quick enough to
be given an opportunity to compete at a higher level, but that was not at the
top of my goals. Now that I am training
full time for rugby at the Olympic Training Center it is easy to lose sight as
to what I set out to accomplish and succumb to the pressures of being in a
highly competitive environment.
When I am looked back as a rugby player, whether I am released tomorrow or I make a team I want to be remembered as someone who was always kind, helpful and someone who was always able to keep perspective on the important things in life. The reality is I have already accomplished what I have set out to. I have made some amazing lifelong friends and I have been living an experience that I did not think I would ever have. As long as I am able to remember those things I can get out on the field and just enjoy playing because I have nothing to lose. As exciting as it would be to make another Olympic Team I am honored to be considered and even more honored that I was given a second chance to enjoy the experience. Every day I work to keep myself accountable and wake up enjoying the opportunity I have been given to train and compete for Team USA.


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Omniscience by Susan Defreitas
I am the way, the truth and the light, the om and the omen—I am, seriously, the rock of ages and the roll of the die. Alone in that wilderness of hydrogen and helium—that ever-silent night—I could hardly believe when I heard it: the sound of my own voice.
I, alone!
I, unique.
I am—hot damn!—something the world has never seen.
I was born in a molten firestorm fourteen billion or so years back. I was born in a cloud of gas slowly coalescing into covalent bonds.
I was born a poor black child in the buckle of the Bible belt.
I was born to an unwed Okie as the Great Depression raged on.
I was born when the anaerobic winds shifted and everyone else in my family died. I was born in a biotech lab outside of Lyme.
I was born in the far north, in the den of the dire wolf. I was born to run.
I was born of meiosis and mitosis. I was born to become.
A little more about me: when I first discovered my cilia, I was like, whoa— propulsion! You should have seen me tooling around that soup. A single calorie back then was like a buffalo to me. I could eat on that all winter.
As a child I excelled at chemistry. I just kept building bigger and bigger molecules, cobbling atoms together like Legos until boom! Supernova to nebula in sixty million flat. I must have blown through a billion stars like that.
And I wouldn't take any of it back, but honestly, I've always wondered why—why I? Why just this one I? And why have I always sought some other, ultimately hypothetical I? I mean, really, who am I?
Through psychoanalysis, I've come to realize maybe I should have quit when I was ahead. As an anemone, maybe, or a mollusk. Maybe I should have quit before I had a head.
But all of this emergent complexity is just some style I've copped lately. When it comes down to it, I'm just that same old single cell, carting my mitochondria around like it's some terrific story I'm going to tell—and when I do, I'll publish the whole thing in microscope slides and celluloid, syllables and syllabi, assembled via a grammar more or less as complex as the knitting, splitting, and transmitting of that same old blues refrain, that handful of chords in a major key: ACT and G.
II. You
When you came along, I was clueless. Naïve, maybe, but who could blame me? There'd never been any such thing as you. Truth to tell, I just felt, well, not quite myself. No kidding—that's because I was also you.
Before long, push came to shove, and there you were: you! So wet and shiny and new, your organelles practically gleaming through your skin. These days, nobody bats an eye at this sort of thing, but this was back before eyes even were a thing.
The central mystery being that you were not me. Sure, you were like me; we had some things in common—as far as biological information goes, we had everything in common—but you, from the very first, were, indisputably, you.
First it was this solar-powered scheme that turned you green. Then you were filling the air with talk about this new trend, oxygen, which you thought was such a gas. (You turned me on to it just in time; before long, sulfate was seriously passé.) Ediacara, Cambrian, boom—suddenly the whole world was filled with you.
But oh, when your latest innovation fell flat, your confidence shaken by quakes, how you came running back! Seeking advice from someone older and wiser, or perhaps just a shoulder (so to speak) to cry on. You with your complex models and cunning tomato- fish, gene-spliced things—really, what can I say?
Nothing you could ever do will ever change the way I feel about you. But understand, you, being you, have problems that only pertain to you. Despite the fact that we once shared a skin, and every other thing.
Whatever it was that caused you to started assembling duplicates of what I had, you seemed to sense that something might happen to me. And so security consisted of redundancy—two mitochondria factories, two organelles, two sets of cilia…. You see where I'm going with this. From the first you were, shall we say, just a bit insecure.
I'd assembled my bits right out of the soup. Seriously, that's self-confidence. But you? You were always worried something might happen to me, and so you created you.
You always had this premonition that something, someday, might change—you were always preparing for it, shoring up our gains. For which I'm grateful, certainly; you're the reason I'm still here today. But it's really quite complex, when you think about it. Which I don't much—natch—'cause I'm me.
So when you get too big for this good old 'hood, and finally are fully fledged— when you launch yourself at last, beyond the wild blue yonder—just remember, you are everything you see: the galaxies, spinning like starfish—the black holes like octapi, cleverly disguised—the benevolent nebulae, that vast gaseous sea—you are the second- oldest swimmer, son and daughter—stardust, incorruptibly. (Believe me, I know. You get this from me.)
III. He
Before he came along, you and me? We were all she. The good book will tell you otherwise, but the truth is XX-rated: she wasn't born from the rib of him, but rather, he from she.
And believe you me, he was a big deal. Bigger than the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. He, that adolescent heartthrob, fighting off the girlie mob—oh, man! Hoo boy! What a doll.
Even in his earliest incarnation as a gymnosperm, dude was seriously sexy. Flowers bloomed at his feet. Peacocks strutted along behind him like queens. The whole world greeted him with birdsong, a seedcorn garland strung from tree to tree—that bit of stamen, moist with semen—he, the rockstar, impregnator of nations, planetary celebrity, he.
Son was he and son's son was he and so on and so on: he.
Around this time, pornography was invented—simple organisms flagellating in flagrante delicto, cunning little protists prototyping cunnilingus. There was hardly any discourse but intercourse! The Proterozoic was seriously erotic, and in the years that followed, absolutely everyone was just getting it on, going to town like James Brown—like it was the most natural thing in the world.
And it's not like he was subtle about it. Are you kidding? He wrote my name with an airplane. Brought me flowers every day of the week. Then split after he'd we'd done the deed—after I'd contracted this new thing that was going around at the time, a seed. A little something to remember him by.
That seed became a son (he begat him, and so on). Kokopelli, I called him, with that unique appendage; before long, my little one-man boy band was off on tour, sowing his own wild oats.
By now, of course, we're all well acquainted with he. He's the hero, often the protagonist; he who recommends he to him, getting the job, the raise, and so on; before you know it, he who set out simply to support his family is the CEO of Him, Incorporated.
See also: warrior, king. Because he's always got some beef with some other he over cattle or what have you. He on he violence is all over the news. He on she too. Murder ballads and tragedies; barroom fights and jealousies; always escalating, his amorous armories.
And yet, I'll never forget how brash, how bright he was as a young gymnosperm, as humble as a mustard seed—he, who shot up at puberty to the size of a redwood tree!
He offered me a seed cone the size of a traffic cone and asked me to carry it home with me.
Really, how could I refuse?
V. We
We, the people, hold these truths to be self-evident—and why wouldn't we? We all grew up together in the same neighborhood. Practically the same street. The same warm puddle at the end of the Mesozoic—however showy or stoic we, as individuals, may be.
Even in the sea, we were all over the place—trilobytes and amonites, fins and skins and scales, and more than a couple suckers who just plunked down on a rock a couple klicks from where we'd hatched, latched on, and never left. But the strongest swimmers caught the current, and the most ambitious landed on land. We formed families and tribes and principalities—wolf packs and Super PACs—boreal forests and a many a church chorus—not to mention ecosystems and economies.
We, like fireflies, synchronized—via art movements, civil rights movements, orchestral movements, our random applause coalescing intermittently into order. We, a generation of genius, in our rolled jeans and mullets—in our hobnailed boots and whalebone corsets—in our buckskins and braids—in our cunningly camouflaged skins, speckled like the rocks on which our ancestors had settled.
Though we've always had a bit of a dark side, haven't we? Like a plague of locusts, we, the stuff of motivational posters and sketchy statistics. Fear of a Red Planet; War of the Worlds—it was all about a fear of a we that is other, which some of us call them.
Maybe you wish you could stop them from turning up the thermostat, extinguishing certain species of which you are fond. I know I do. There's no one more unreasonable than them. (Sad to say, but you know it's true: no matter how many times they're told, they know not what they do.)
And yet, it's time to admit it: as far as we can tell—as far as we can see—it's just us down here.
Which means there really is no them, that boogie man thing. It's we who threaten we.
And how ironic, ultimately. That can do has been our middle name; all of us fierce individuals, the same. The Elks Hall vacant since the days of Fred and Barney, the Moose and the Eagle much the same, and the Ladies Auxiliary now auxiliary indeed. The churches echoing, increasingly empty. Even the Rotary is spinning its wheels—at precisely the point we could use a little traction.
But what do we want in the end, my friends, but the opportunity to cling like
those old suckers to this good old rock? We may fight and squabble, but the fact is, we're family, and the sooner we all own up to that, the happier we're all going to be. We've come through some hard times—remember the Permian? The meteor? Pompeii?—but I stand before you all in earnest today: the only way we're going to make it through, as far as I can see, is as we.
We come from a long line of survivors, biological and logical. We with our unrivaled engineering; we, with our best minds steering; we, who swim, walk, and fly; we who are born and born and born, and die and die and die.
We, crowded with our family on an eighth of an acre; we in our immense, hollow homes. We of the slums and the streets, of the veldts and trees; we, who have initiated, inherited this tragedy.
One of our number once said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Susan DeFreitas is a writer, editor, and spoken word artist. Her work has appeared in The Utne Reader, The Nervous Breakdown, Southwestern American Literature, Fourth River, Weber—The Contemporary West, and Bayou Magazine, among other publications. She is the author of the fiction chapbook Pyrophitic (ELJ Publications, 2014), and holds an MFA from Pacific University. Susan lives in Portland, Oregon, where she serves as an associate editor with Indigo Editing & Publications and a reader for Tin House Magazine.


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According to Time, Al Gore is willing to raise the big bucks needed to establish a liberal television-news network. The righteous and just (i.e., liberal) politicos, analysts, and pundits just know that somewhere out there is a great, lost tribe of liberal and progressive readers, listeners, and viewers, yearning to finally read and hear The Truth. Michael Moore, the fabulist filmmaker, touts the success of his stupid Stupid White Men as proof positive of this audience`s existence.
Read Original at: National Review


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|Coming September 4, 2015
Coming this fall, Disney Book Group/Lucasfilm Press will enter Star Wars into the very popular world of Young Adult fiction.
YA, as it's known, can be simplified as "fiction for teens" but there's more to it than that. Current YA can be as edgy and challenging as "adult" fiction but generally has young protagonists deal with meaningful-to-teenager issues, regardless of how fantastical the storyline or setting may be. But YA isn't just about teens: good YA novels really speak to teens.
Arriving September 4th, 2015 among several other titles under the exciting "Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens" banner is Lost Stars by best-selling YA novelist Claudia Gray. Gray is known for supernatural stories that never shy from romance like her Evernight series and Spellcaster trilogy. Be sure to read her website's fun post about getting to write a Star Wars book!
Here's the publisher's description of Lost Stars: This thrilling Young Adult novel gives readers a macro view of some of the most important events in the Star Wars universe, from the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire. Readers will experience these major moments through the eyes of two childhood friends - Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell - who have grown up to become an Imperial officer and a Rebel pilot. Now on opposite sides of the war, will these two star-crossed lovers reunite, or will duty tear them-and the galaxy-apart?
|Author Claudia Gray
Star Wars "adult" novels have always been mostly PG to PG-13, so why does Star Wars need to be in Young Adult too? Can't young readers just go from the kids' novels straight to the Del Rey series?
Sure, they can, but they may not want to.
Teens may want to read about what teens really do in the Star Wars universe, and that's an area where Star Wars fiction has seldom gone. Traditionally Star Wars books focusing on teen characters are intended for kids 8-12, known as "middle grade" readers to the publishing world.
Imagine if Sabine could share her true thoughts with no frowning adults or impressionable children around, or if farmboy Luke could really unload about his frustrations with Uncle Owen. What about that Paolo guy Padmé spoke about? That's the kind of thing that could be in Star Wars YA. Not your thing? You're likely not a teenager then! Lost Stars and future Star Wars YA novels could become meaningful entry points for teenage fans wanting to get into Star Wars fiction.
While Star Wars Kidscast blog & podcast usually focuses on Star Wars stuff for children, this new expansion into teen readership will be something we, to paraphrase Senator Palpatine, will watch with great interest!
Learn more:
Author Chuck Wendig , no stranger to YA, will also have his first Star Wars novel published this fall by Del Rey (entitled Aftermath). On his site terribleminds.com he has a terrific breakdown explaining modern YA. Fair warning: the article contains some foul language but if you can't handle a few curse words then tread carefully into contemporary young adult fiction!


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The following are published papers and chapters describing SBML and core SBML supporting tools (e.g. libraries). Please note that none of these publications is normative in the sense of defining SBML. These papers and chapters only provide context and perspectives about SBML and its development. Only the SBML specification documents are normative.
This page does not cover associated standards to use in conjunction with SBML. Please consult the documentation of the COMBINE initiative for entries point to relevant documentation. This page does not cover end-user software either. Visit the SBML software guide for more information on tools supporting SBML.
Publications describing SBML
SBML Qualitative Models: a model representation format and infrastructure to foster interactions between qualitative modelling formalisms and tools
Chaouiya, Claudine, Berenguier, Duncan, Keating, Sarah M., Naldi, Aurelien, van Iersel, Martijn P., Rodriguez, Nicolas, Dräger, Andreas, Büchel, Finja, Cokelaer, Thomas, Kowal, Bryan, Wicks, Benjamin, Gonçalves, Emmanuel, Dorier, Julien, Page, Michel, Monteiro, Pedro T., von Kamp, Axel, Xenarios, Ioannis, de Jong, Hidde, Hucka, Michael, Klamt, Steffen, Thieffry, Dennis, Le Novère, Nicolas, Saez-Rodriguez, Julio, Helikar, Tomas
Paper published in BMC Systems Biology 7:135, 2013.
A paper describing a format for storing qualitative models such as logical model or some Petri Net models.
Keating, Sarah M., Le Novère, Nicolas
Chapter published in In Silico Systems Biology - Methods in Molecular Biology, Volume 1021, pp 201-225, Springer, 2013.
This chapter describes SBML from its origins, the rationale behind and importance of having a common language to represent models, the development of SBML and outlines the structure of an SBML model. It provides a section on libSBML and a description of the SBML Toolbox.
Finney, Andrew, Hucka, Michael, Bornstein, Benjamin J., Keating, Sarah M., Shapiro, Bruce M., Matthews, Joanne, Kovitz, Benjamin K., Schilstra, Maria J., Funahashi, Akira, Doyle, John, and Kitano, Hiroaki
Chapter published in System Modeling in Cell Biology: From Concepts to Nuts and Bolts, eds. Zoltan Szallasi, Jörg Stelling, and Vipul Periwal, MIT Press, 2006.
This chapter overviews the SBML project and its general goals, and some of the motivations for approaches taken in the development of libSBML. (Note: this is a portion of the chapter; we highly recommend getting the whole book rather than only using this excerpt.)
Gauges, Ralph, Rost, Ursula, Sahle, Sven and Wegner, Katia
Paper published in Bioinformatics 22(15):1879–1885, 2006.
A paper describing a proposed format for storing diagrammatic representations of models directly in an SBML model file or data stream. In SBML Level 2, applications can use it by storing the data in SBML
<annotation> elements, and for Level 3, it is expected to be turned into a full package, with the same constructs appearing at the top level instead of inside
<annotation> elements.
Hucka, Michael, and Finney, Andrew
Paper published in Molecular Systems Biology, doi:10.1038/msb4100015, 2005.
Comment paper about the increasingly larger and more complex models being developed by researchers, and the need to standardize representations at different levels for effective communication and sharing of those models.
Finney, Andrew
Chapter published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3082, eds. Vincent Danos and Vincent Schachter, Springer-Verlag, 2005.
This conference paper was presented by Andrew Finney at the Computational Methods in Systems Biology 2004 conference held in Paris, May 2004. It discusses early efforts to develop SBML Level 3.
Evolving a lingua franca and associated software infrastructure for computational systems biology: the Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) project
Hucka, Michael, Finney, Andrew, Bornstein, Benjamin J., Keating, Sarah M., Shapiro, Bruce E., Matthews, Joanne, Kovitz, Benjamin L., Schilstra, Maria J., Funahashi, Akira, Doyle, John C., Kitano, Hiroaki
Paper published in IEE Systems Biology, 1(1):41–53.
This paper summarizes SBML and the characteristics of SBML-compatible software tools as of early 2004. The article includes a matrix of capabilities that was the inspiration for the SBML Software Matrix now used on this site to summarizes known SBML-compatible software tools.
Finney, Andrew M., and Hucka, Michael
Paper published in Biochemical Society Transactions, 32:1472–1473, 2003.
Short paper from a conference in which Andrew Finney described the initial plans for SBML Level 2.
The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML): A Medium for Representation and Exchange of Biochemical Network Models
Hucka, Michael, Finney, Andrew, Sauro, Herbert M., Bolouri, Hamid, Doyle, John C., Kitano, Hiroaki, Arkin, Adam P., Bornstein, Benjamin J., Bray, Dennis, Cornish-Bowden, Athel, Cuellar, Autumn A., Dronov, Sergey, Gilles, Ernst Dieter, Ginkel, Martin, Gor, Victoria, Goryanin, Igor I., Hedley, Warren J., Hodgman, T. Charles, Hofmeyr, Jan-Hendrik S., Hunter, Peter J., Juty, Nick S., Kasberger, Jay L., Kremling, Andreas, Kummer, Ursula, Le Novère, Nicolas, Loew, Leslie M., Lucio, Daniel, Mendes, Pedro, Minch, Eric, Mjolsness, Eric D., Nakayama, Yoichi, Nelson, Melanie R., Nielsen, Poul F., Sakurada, Takeshi, Schaff, James C., Shapiro, Bruce E., Shimizu, Thomas S., Spence, Hugh D., Stelling, Jörg, Takahashi, Kouichi, Tomita, Masaru, Wagner, John M., Wang, Jian, and the rest of the SBML Forum
Paper published in Bioinformatics, 9(4):524–531, 2003.
Original publication about SBML. It describes SBML Level 1 Version 2.
Applications supporting SBML software infrastructure
Nicolas Rodriguez, Alex Thomas, Leandro Watanabe, Ibrahim Y. Vazirabad, Victor Kofia, Harold F. Gómez, Florian Mittag, Jakob Matthes, Jan Rudolph, Finja Wrzodek, Eugen Netz, Alexander Diamantikos, Johannes Eichner, Roland Keller, Clemens Wrzodek, Sebastian Fröhlich, Nathan E. Lewis, Chris J. Myers, Nicolas Le Novère, Bernhard Ø. Palsson, Michael Hucka, and Andreas Dräger
Paper published in Bioinformatics, DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btv341, 2015.
A Methodology to Annotate Systems Biology Markup Language Models with the Synthetic Biology Open Language
Roehner N., Myers C.J.
Paper published in ACS Synthetic Biology, DOI: 10.1021/sb400066m, 2013.
Dräger A., Rodriguez N., Dumousseau M., Dörr A., Wrzodek C., Le Novère N., Zell A., Hucka M.
Paper published in Bioinformatics, 27: 2167-2168, 2011.
Description of the JSBML library, a tool to help support SBML in software tools written in the Java language.
Bornstein, B. J., Keating, S. M., Jouraku, A., and Hucka M.
Paper published in Bioinformatics, 24: 880-881, 2008.
Description of the libSBML, a C++ library to help support SBML in software tools written in a variety of languages.
Keating, S. M., Bornstein, B. J., Finney, A., and Hucka M
Paper published in Bioinformatics, 22: 1275-1277, 2006.
Description of the SBMLToolbox, a tool to help use SBML in MatLab.


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There is already a sequel of sorts to the Alfonso Cuarón film Gravity, written and directed by co-scenarist Jonas Cuarón. If you have seen the film, it will make perfect sense and add another touch of (dare I say it?) "gravitas" to the feature.
If you have not seen Gravity, then consider this a major SPOILER ALERT. Don't watch.


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Goose Island Brewery Matilda December 23, 2014Posted by Bacchus in : Beers , Email This Post , trackback
Goose Island Brewery Matilda
1999 brought an additional brewpub, and today, what was once one man's pint-filled dream has become the Goose Island empire you know and love. It turns out that making awesome brews is quite the science. Luckily Goose Island brewery facilities have all the equipment necessary to deliver results.
Buy Goose Island Brewery Matilda
Wild in character, with a slightly fruity aroma and a spicy yeast flavor that is as unique as it is satisfying – Matilda is an intriguing choice for beer and wine lovers alike. Dry and quenching, it's the perfect accompaniment at the dining table or for casually socializing at the bar.
Price: $11.10 Size: 4 pack 12oz. For more information and to buy it, Click Here!
eMail this offer to a friend: eMail It


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Fashion month is in full swing and the inspiration just keeps coming! Like any good festival-goer, I am always thinking about outfits for upcoming events. Here are a few of the more reave-ready trends I've spotted on the runways this season.
|Elder Statesman, Naeem Khan, Rachel Zoe Collection, The Row
Perfect for hot summer festivals with long sunny days, kaftans are light and breezy, while also providing more protection from the sun than your standard ravey outfit. They come in tons of prints and colors, as well as a bevy of varying necklines. Wear your kaftan with flat sandals and over a swimsuit for when you decide you need a little more vitamin D.
Feathers and Fringe
Betsey Johnson, Proenza Schouler
Special embellishments like feathers and fringe add a luxe feeling to any outfit. These fun details even move with you when you dance!
Bodysuits and Cutouts
|Anna Sui
Bodysuits and leotards are an ever evolving trend. I'm loving leotards with cutouts paired with simple accessories for a more sophisticated feel.
Fanny Packs
|Elizabeth and James, Anna Sui
Fanny packs have always been my go-to rave bag. These chic refreshed versions are the perfect hands-free way to keep your belongings safe.
An duster-style open dress is a fun way to add drama to your look without too much bulk. Leave it open when its hot, and wrap yourself up when the night cools down.
|J. Mendel
Plush accessories have always been a rave staple. Trade your fluffy boot covers for sophisticated pieces in bright colors, like this pale yellow faux fur vest.
Clear Vinyl Everythangggg
|Lisa Perry
Clear vinyl clothing can add tons of dimension to an outfit. Bonus: its raver-rain-proof and won't be totally wrecked at the end of a long sweaty night.
|Maison Martin Margiela
Don't think I forgot about country music festivals. Chaps are a great way to cover up that American flag bikini as you toast to the country it represents. Extra points for fringe down the sides!
Boot Covers
Although these awesome lace-up boots wouldn't be very practical at a rave, lace up "boot covers" for your legs would look fantastic with some booty shorts.
Kreative Kandi
|Jeremy Scott
Miley Cyrus' jewelry-making skills rival her other talents, as she proved with her plastic beaded pretties at the Jeremy Scott show. I love the idea of taking kandi beyond bracelets, cuffs, and masks, and expanding to long necklaces and asymmetrical earrings.
I especially loved the headdresses paired with some of the outfits! The combination of colors, textures, and media could be customized to any personality or match any outfit. I see a DIY project in my near future!
What trends did you see at New York Fashion Week that you would get festy in? Would you try any of these ideas? Which of these would you like to see a DIY tutorial for? Leave a comment and let me know!
[All photos from Style.com]


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Rihanna Responds to 'Snorting Coke' Allegations: 'It's Tobacco!' (VIDEO)
Rihanna responded to allegations that she was snorting cocaine on video in Coachella this week. She made a comment to the user who uploaded the video on Instagram writing:
"N—- your lame ass got some f—— nerve!!! Any fool could see that's a joint that I'm basing with cigarette! Who snorts tobacco??!! FOH witcho 'never been to a rodeo so someone squeezing their nose means they're doing coke' lookin ass!!"
She then posted a video on Instagram showing that she was indeed rolling a blunt. Although, you know, I can't tell really. You should watch it.
Afterwards, she posted a photo of her holding a Coke can with the caption: #petty.
Nice one! But is this enough damage control? Or are we just going to accept that she does drugs. She is a "bad girl" after all.


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Do you need help dealing with your Toxic Parents?
Then it's time to take action! Book your free Discovery Session with me today and lets talk about how you can begin to make the changes you need to get your life back in your control.
I have helped many people transform their relationships with their parents in ways that they never thought were possible.
I want to help you do it too.
Book your free, 20 minute Discovery Session now!
This is a recording of a webinar from 2014 which explains the effect of toxic parents and gives you tips and strategies to help you deal with them.
This video has clocked up well over 1000 views on youtube. I hope it helps you too.
"Thank you Kerry for addressing such an important topic. It's something that's not being talked about, it's like a big elephant in the room that nobody wants to see.
I feel like you described me personally in your presentation.
To anyone looking in from the outside, it would look like I was the one with the issues but those close to me know and understand just how toxic my family is. Thank you for the validation that it's not 'just me'."
Toxic Parents: How do you know if it's time to let go?
Our parents are the ones who should love us the most.
So we think and so we believe and in an ideal world, it would be true.
In our hearts and in our minds, we WANT it to be true.
But sometimes it isn't.
Sometimes for whatever reason, we as adults come to understand, maybe after years of guilt, frustration, hurt, emotional abuse and manipulation, financial burdens or relationship break ups and lots of disappointment that one or both of our parents are toxic people.
As much as we wish they were different. As much as we long to believe that they do really love us and care about us and will be there for us, when you have a toxic parent, there will come a day when you have to face the facts.
Our relationship with them is full of emotional, physical and spiritual poison and it feels like it's killing us.
By definition, any toxic relationship is primarily characterized by actions and behaviours that are emotionally damaging. It is riddled with feelings of guilt, insecurity, self-centredness, control, manipulation, insult and threat.
A healthy relationship is one where there is mutual love, caring, respect and compassion, where there is care for the welfare and well-being of the other, where we feel loved and accepted for who we are and the relationship feels SAFE.
A toxic relationship does NOT feel safe.
It feels anxious and destructive and drains us emotionally, physically and spiritually.
It feels like a burden, an obligation and a trap and because it's our parents, it's not generally a relationship that we talk about or even consider ending.
It's acceptable to divorce your partner, it's acceptable and encouraged to leave any sort of toxic, abusive relationship in fact, it is actively encouraged, EXCEPT when the toxic person is your parent.
That's where the guilt really kicks in!
This is the person who helped create you and shape you and gave you life.
This is the person who raised you and put a roof over your head and put you through school.
This is the person who is supposed to love you the most and always be there for you and love you no matter what.
But instead, your parent is the person who is constantly criticizing you, who is always putting you down and manipulating you with guilt.
This is the person who is telling lies about you and to you, sabotaging your relationships, attempting to control you and demanding all of your time and your energy.
This is the person who is spiteful, malicious, contemptuous or impossible to please.
This is the person who always lets you down, who breaks promises and is unreliable and tells you that you are never good enough.
This is the person who who will not be happy until your life is as miserable and unhappy as their own.
You cannot appeal to your toxic parent's better nature and hope they will "get it".
You cannot reason with them or depend on them.
They do not care how tired you are, how sick you are, how overwhelmed you are. They want what they want when they want it.
Loving your toxic parent will not protect you from who they are or how they behave.
Being the best daughter or son in the world will not change your toxic parent or make them finally approve of you.
A truly toxic parent has no concern about what his or her behavior does to you or those around you. They will have no hesitation in destroying your mood, your relationships, your finances, your goals or your physical or emotional health.
In my clinical practice, I have had many clients who are the victims of toxic parents.
- Parents who pit one child against the other.
- Parents who delight in planting seeds of malice and mistrust and doubt.
- Parents who see their adult children as competition or who are jealous and resentful of their success or relationships or family or lifestyles.
- Parents who want to keep dragging their child down into their own pit of misery and bitterness and addiction.
If you found a venomous snake in your house, you wouldn't reason with it, analyze it, google it to see if perhaps you were doing something to attract it in the first place.
You would take action to get it out of your life!
A toxic relationship with your parent needs you to take action!
This doesn't mean it will be easy because it won't. It will be one of the most difficult things you have ever done.
- It will involve dealing with masses of guilt and lots of soul searching and tears.
- It will mean finally giving up the dream that you can have a close, loving relationship with your parent and giving up those dreams brings feelings of grief and loss.
- It will mean risking the disapproval of extended family and friends and may cost you some relationships from people who cannot accept your choices.
- It will mean making a decision on the action you will take that will make you feel as safe as you can be when dealing with your toxic parent.
- It will mean deciding how much of a relationship you will have, setting strong boundaries and doing what you can to protect yourself and limit the toxic fallout.
The GOOD news is, it can be done but you WILL need support, understanding, clarity, good advice and lots and lots of self love!
Here are some tips to help you start the process:
Accept the fact that you cannot change your toxic parent.
You know this logically but you really need to get this emotionally. This is the way they are and it has NOTHING to do with you!
You may have been trying to figure them out for years, looking for the way to make things right, trying to find the right words to please them but what you need now is to just accept that this is who they are.
It is not your job or your task or your responsibility to change them into who you want them to be or who you think they should be. Accept your toxic parent exactly the way he or she is right now.
Don't give in to guilt.
Toxic parents are experts at manipulation and their key weapon is guilt. They have spent years knowing exactly which button to push and when to get the result they want.
You may have been trained for years to put their feelings before your own or have given in to them to keep the peace. Ask yourself this question: "Am I making my parent's feelings and needs more important than my own?"
Guilt is a method of controlling you and making you do what they want. Learn to recognize when you are being manipulated by guilt and refuse to take it on board. If you have trouble with this, get help.
Years of chronic guilt is difficult to overcome as you may not be able to see things clearly and guilt is often associated with strong anxiety, which is why when you give in to guilt, it initially feels better as the anxiety goes away. However, this is usually followed by resentment and anger and more anxiety.
Limit contact with your toxic parent wherever possible.
Decide how much contact you can handle with your parent and start setting boundaries.
Make or take less phone calls. Let it go to voice mail or set a time limit for the length of calls.
Make yourself less available. You need to honour your own time, relationships and limits.
Learn to say "no" by starting small and working up to bigger things.
Again and I can't stress this enough: dealing with a toxic parent, taking actions steps is NOT EASY. But IT MUST BE DONE!
- For your emotional and physical health.
- For your happiness and well being.
- For your relationships with your partner and your children and your life.
- For your right to live the best possible life you can have, in safety and peace and love.
You are not responsible for your parents happiness.
You are not here to live the life they want you to live.
You are not here to live up to your parents expectations or dreams. You are here to live your own dreams.
You are not here to sacrifice yourself for them. They as adults have made their own choices and will continue to do so.
Here are some tough questions you have to ask yourself:
- Am I willing to sacrifice my own health and happiness for my toxic parent?
- Am I willing to sacrifice my relationship with my partner for my toxic parent?
- Am I willing to sacrifice my job or my income or my finances for my toxic parent?
- Am I willing to give up my dreams and my needs and my career for my toxic parent?
Ultimately, this IS your decision, it IS your choice even though at the moment it may feel that you have no choice at all.
If you need help to find your choices, to explore your options and get help and support in your relationship with your parents, I will help you find your way and do as much as I can to help you take the steps to freeing yourself from your toxic relationship. One little step at a time.
It will be challenging, it may be full of sadness and grief and fear but you can do it! I have seen relationships change in amazing ways and sometimes, in ways people never thought possible!
Have a look around my website and if my work feels like a fit to you, contact me so we can talk about how I can help you free yourself from your toxic parent and live your life on your terms.
Kerry Jeffery ©2014.
My most popular Blog Posts
The only question you need to ask yourself.
What most of us don't really realize is that to our subconscious mind, everything we think is real.
When you imagine an event, your subconscious mind cues your body to create the chemical reactions that create your emotions including anxiety, happiness and everything else in between.
Worrying is essentially telling ourselves a scary story that our bodies react to as if it were real and anyone who has ever been stuck in worry story, can testify as to the very real affect it has on our bodies and our emotions.
So many of the things that we react to are really nothing more than a story in our heads.
"I don't think she really likes me."
"Maybe he thinks that I'm rejecting him."
"If I fail, it's going to be a disaster."
Get the picture?
All of these types of thoughts whether it's worry about what someone thinks of us or labeling ourselves and our behaviours, is just a story about what we imagine may happen or may be real.
Read the rest of the blog here.
Are you stuck in anxiety, depression or worry about what other people think?
This blog will help you.
Do you suffer from "Self-Limited Happiness Syndrome?"
It's the ultimate thing that we all want isn't it?
"Being happier" is one of the key goals that sends many of my clients to work with me.
They want to "feel happier" about their bodies, relationships, jobs and lives.
The funny thing that happens when we start examining exactly what "happier" means to them, is that all these fears, anxieties and limitations about happiness start coming up.
The biggest and most self-limiting belief goes something like this:
"If I really allow myself to feel happy, then when my life turns back to shit, it will hurt too much and I won't survive it."
When we dig a little deeper, the logic behind this belief becomes something like this:
"I know how to deal with being unhappy or lonely or depressed. I know the rules, I know what to expect, it's familiar and there is something safe about it, even though I feel miserable.
But if I let myself get too happy, if I starting believing that happiness can last, if I start getting too comfortable feeling good or loved or looking forward to things, if I get dumped, if I am rejected, if I am disappointed or deceived or wrong, I can never go back to how I was before I knew what real happiness was like.
I will know what I have lost and what if I can never be that happy again?
I will end up worse off than I was before."
Read the rest of the blog here
Do you self-sabotage your happiness and peace or are you scared that the happiness you have now will not last?
This blog will help.
Think you can't sleep? Why your Sleep Beliefs are keeping you awake.
We all know that feeling. Tossing and turning. Looking at the clock and mentally adding up just how many hours sleep we could get before the alarm goes off if we could JUST GET TO SLEEP NOW!
Waking up in the morning feeling tired, cranky and very sleep deprived and thinking thoughts like "I haven't had enough sleep. Why can't I sleep? If I just had more sleep I would feel SO much better." Every night worrying about not getting to sleep, not staying asleep or not getting enough sleep. Sound familiar?
You have tried hot milk, alcohol, counting sheep and even sleeping tablets but you are still having trouble getting to sleep, getting enough sleep and staying asleep.
It's time to go to the source of the problem. It's time to start changing your thoughts and beliefs about you and sleep from you + sleep = trouble to you + sleep = peace.
Read the rest of the blog here
"Busy" brain, insomnia or belief that you just can't sleep?
This blog will help.
Free Hypnotherapy Mp3.
If you are having trouble sleeping, switching off your
"worry mind" or just need to feel deeply relaxed,
comfortable and calm, this hypnotherapy MP3 will help
you do just that.
Download it here from Drop Box to your computer and
Deep Sleep Mp3
Recommended Reading.
I love books and reading has always been an important, rewarding and enriching part of my life.
Here are my Top 3 Most Essential Books and in the spirit of transparency, these are linked to my affiliate account at the Book Depository.
Since I found the Book Depository a few years ago and discovered that they ship free to anywhere in the world, my book collection has been growing rapidly and I have been sending everyone I know to them.
Becoming an affiliate was the next logical step. Click on the book cover image for the link.
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay is the book that I credit as a major step and inspiration in my journey to get from where I was, to the life and career I have now. Reading this amazing book and actively working its principles made such a huge, positive change to my life at a very difficult time. It also sent me in search of finding a therapist who could work with me using her amazing principles.
I didn't find that person, but I became certified as a Workshop Leader and Life Coach and thus began my journey.
Why do I love it?
Louise writes simply, using practical advice with a positive, spiritual approach to life, work, forgiveness and the immeasurable power of learning self-love.
You can get the plain print edition but this is the one I own. I love the gorgeous, full color illustrations on every page. It feels lavish, lush and beautiful.
Louise will take you by the hand and lead you through every area of your life with simple yet powerful steps, new beliefs and challenges to get you looking at your life in a very different way.
From page 9: "We are each responsible for all of our experiences. Every thought we think is creating our future. The point of power is always in the present moment. Everyone suffers from self-hatred and guilt. The bottom line for everyone is 'I'm not good enough.' It is only a thought and a thought can be changed." Louise Hay.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is one of those simple books full of profound wisdom. We have so many ways of making ourselves suffer by how we think and how we choose to see the world.
Why do I love it?
The 4 Agreements are:
- Be Impeccable With Your Word
- Don't Take Anything Personally
- Don't Make Assumptions
- Always Do Your Best
Don Miguel Ruiz gives clear examples of the power of each of these agreements to change your life for the better.
From page 92 "Whatever life takes away from you, let it go. When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment. Letting go of the past means you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now. Not enjoying what is happening right now is living in the past and being only half alive. This leads to self-pity, suffering and tears." Don Miguel Ruiz
I love Byron Katie and use many of her techniques in my therapy. Her simple but powerful technique that she calls "The Work" is capable of eliminating so much of the pain, anxiety and suffering that we unknowingly inflict upon ourselves.
Why do I love it? This book gives chapter after chapter of case studies with Byron using the work with real clients and very common thoughts and beliefs.
From the back cover:
"This book is a collection of fifteen dialogues with Byron Katie. Some of the people who worked with Katie had painful illnesses, others were lovelorn or in messy divorces, some were simply irritated with a co-worker or worried about money. What they all had in common was a willingness to question with Katie's help, the painful thoughts that are the true causes of all suffering."
Powerful and transformative techniques that once learned, you can easily apply to your own life.


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Impact Menus introduced metal menu covers and metal binder covers to the bindery industry in 1998.
Acrylic menu covers distinctive quality.Acrylic and Plexiglass are used interchangeably.
Impact Menus manufactures fabric and grasscloth menu covers in many colors, tones, textures.
These distinctive menu covers compliment their famous chefs, and emphasize the quality of the food and beverages selected by the chefs
Impact Menus menu cover material options and menu cover category options are extensive.
Impact's passion for innovation and design is unsurpassed in the industry, and, in fact, was the catalyst that introduced true customization to the bindery industry in 1987.
Since 1987 Impact has been successfully introducing new materials, new designs, and new manufacturing techniques for custom menu covers, guest directory covers, and wine list covers. Innovation, design, quality, and customer service are words we take very seriously; words that reflect who we are. Reinforced spines, durable materials, and unique designs are features of our custom presentation products that are an extension of our customer service; we believe our customers deserve products with a potential for long life when properly cared for. Our custom menu covers and binder covers are featured in discerning restaurants, hotels and resorts globally.
Impact's passion for design infuses design limitations by expanding design options resulting in custom menu covers that are interesting and thought-provoking; menu covers that become an incentive for your customers to want to peruse your menu selections more carefully, which, in turn, contributes to the likelihood of increased orders resulting in increased revenue.
Impact is internationally recognized for its innovative designs, manufacturing accomplishments, and its environmental initiatives. We are a woman-owned company certified by both WBENC and WOSB, and are a Founding Sponsor of Green Lodging News, the hospitality industries most widely read environmental publication.


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dimanche 10 août 2014
Turkmens desperately call on Turkey to be let in
Turkmens seeking refuge in the Kurdish region have not received a warm welcome from the Kurdish government and are reportedly barred from going to Kurdish cities such as Arbil.(Photo: Cihan)
August 09, 2014, Saturday/ 17:00:00/ AYDIN ALBAYRAK / ANKARA
Turkmens fleeing the terrorist group "Islamic State" (IS) in Iraq have been crying out to be granted entry into Turkey, but their calls seem to have fallen to deaf ears in the Turkish capital, which is so far only sending humanitarian aid to those whose lives are in jeopardy.
"We ask Turkey to let us cross the border," Yasin Muhammed Yunus, a 55-year-old Turkmen who arrived in Turkey about a month ago, told Sunday's Zaman.
Members of the opposition parties have criticized the government for ignoring the plight of Turkmens in Iraq and for denying them entry into Turkey despite the fact that the country is currently hosting around 1.5 million refugees from Syria.
It is estimated that several thousand Turkmens have died since the IS launched its offensive in Iraq. At least 300,000 Turkmens are believed to have fled their homes in the past two months because of the IS terrorist attacks.
Yunus, a civil engineer who was based in Mosul before the IS captured the province in June, was only able to make it to Turkey thanks to a Kurdish friend who works as a civil servant. The peshmerga forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq do not allow Turkmens to pass through the Kurdish region which has a border with Turkey.
In an official car, his friend took him to the Habur customs gate at the Turkish-Iraqi border. Yunus had to leave his family, who are struggling to survive in the difficult conditions in Iraq.
Most recently, in an offensive over last weekend, the IS seized three more towns in northern Iraq. These towns were home to Turkmens and Yazidis, tens of thousands of whom were forced to flee from Zumar and Sinjar to the KRG territory in northern Iraq. The UN has said that some residents remain trapped in a rugged and open area on a nearby mountain that has been surrounded by militants.
The issue was hotly debated in Parliament at the beginning of the week. During the discussion, Sinan Oğan, a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), stated that the government is not allowing Turkmens without passports to seek refuge in Turkey. In stark contrast, as was noted by Oğan, Turkey does not demand to see the passports of hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing civil war when they arrive at the border.
Sharply criticizing the government, Oğan said: "[Turkmens] say: 'I am also Turkish [and] Muslim. I will come if you open the border.' Why are you closing the border to Turkmens? Are they to blame because they are Turkmens? If they were Arabs, you would have immediately opened the border."
"Why won't you open the border when Turkmens are being slaughtered there [on the other side of the border]?" Oğan added, and he challenged ruling party deputies to speak out if his remarks were untrue. None of the ruling party deputies disputed Oğan's comments.
Yunus finds it hard to understand why Turkey asks to see fleeing Turkmens' passports, as most Turkmen do not have passports. Most of the people who have been internally displaced in Iraq over the last two months have taken refuge in the Kurdish region. According to Kurdish officials they currently host 1.5 million displaced people. There are not enough camps for the number of refugees, a significant number of whom are Turkmens, and many have no choice but to live in tents or in the open under the cruel summer sun.
Turkmens seeking refuge in the Kurdish region have not received a warm welcome from the Kurdish government and are reportedly barred from going to Kurdish cities such as Arbil.
"We do not want to stay in the Kurdish region because we are not treated well by the Kurds," Yunus confirmed. "If Kurds do not want to host us [in their region], then they should let us leave and establish a corridor to the Turkish border," he suggested, hoping that the few Turkmens with a passport would be able to come to Turkey.
After capturing Mosul in June, the IS also seized towns in the surrounding area, where thousands of Turkmens live. Turkmens then fled to the mountains and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq that borders Mosul province.
Following their expansion into Mosul in mid-June, the IS seized Tal Afar, a city with a population of nearly 400,000 people in northwestern Iraq, the majority of whom are Turkmens.
An aid worker from Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There?) who, during one of his trips to transport aid to Turkmens, had the chance to get information about the Turkmens fleeing the IS occupation of Tal Afar, said Turkmens do not feel safe and just want to get into Turkish territory.
Before Sinjar, a city in northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border, was captured by the IS, Turkmens fleeing the attack on Tal Afar wanted to take refuge in Sinjar. But the Kurdish peshmerga forces controlling the city did not allow the Turkmens to enter the city, which is under the KRG's administration.
Kimse Yok Mu's aid worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said that Turkmens from the Sinjar area had told him that Turkmens had not received all the humanitarian aid sent by Turkey as the aid was distributed by peshmerga forces. "I was told that there are no doctors in the camps where they are kept and their children don't have access to proper medical care," the aid worker told Sunday's Zaman, adding that Turkmens had said, "Take us to Turkey, we want nothing more than that."
Having done nothing other than send humanitarian aid to the Turkmens, Turkey is at long last now preparing to establish a campsite for displaced Turkmens near the Turkish border in Iraq.
Turkmen representatives called on Turkey to mobilize the UN to establish a safe zone in northern Iraq where Turkmens would be protected against the threat of the IS. The calls apparently fell on deaf ears in Turkey, and Erşad Salihi, the leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), submitted a petition to Nikolay Mladenov, a UN representative in Iraq at the beginning of the week. The petition reiterated the request for a UN safe zone in areas populated by Turkmens in Iraq.
During the US occupation of Saddam-era Iraq in the early 1990s, a US-led coalition imposed a buffer zone in northern Iraq to protect Kurds from potential attacks by the Iraqi army.
Noting that Turkmens have been the biggest victims of the IS terrorist attacks, Salihi told the Doğan news agency in Kirkuk: "The land populated by Turkmens is on its way to being depopulated. We are sandwiched between the two sides. Either the armed groups will seize our land or we will, in cooperation with peshmerga [Kurdish military] forces, fight against the armed groups."
Salihi noted that, unlike the Kurds, Turkmens do not have an armed unit of their own and that he is making these calls on the UN because the Turkmens' survival is being jeopardized by the swift advance of the IS.
Like the MHP, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has also criticized the government for ignoring the plight of Turkmens.
Faruk Loğoğlu, deputy chairman of the CHP told Sunday's Zaman: "In terms of humanitarian law and morals and [because] Turkmens are our kinfolk, it is completely the wrong attitude to close the borders to Turkmens. The AK Party [Justice and Development Party] has been insensitive to the plight of Turkmens [in Iraq]. It has left Turkmens to their own devices," he added.
Professor Suphi Saatçi, a Kirkuk-born scholar from Mimar Sinan University, recently said that Turkey was refusing entry to Turkmens fleeing violence in Iraq. Highlighting the conditions that the Turkmens live under while fleeing the extremists, Saatçi said, "They are living under the harsh sun, without shade, food or water and are left to die right under our noses; we are overwhelmed."
Although in recent weeks Turkey seems to have increased the amount of humanitarian aid sent to Iraq for Turkmens and others facing threats from the IS, many Turkmen children have died due to heat exposure, diarrhea, malnutrition, thirst and scorpion stings while struggling to stay alive in desert areas where they have had to settle. Many children and their parents are living in extremely unhealthy conditions, sleeping in the open air when they cannot find a place in refugee camps and tent cities, and thus have no access to services or food.
Turkmens in Iraq are disappointed by the government's insensitivity to their plight. "Turkey has not backed us politically. This is what saddens us most," Riyaz Sarıkahya, a Kirkuk-based leader of the Turkmeneli Party, told Sunday's Zaman.
Although expressing his gratitude for the humanitarian aid Turkey has been sending to Turkmens, Sarıkahya said: "Turkey has not submitted petitions to any international organizations regarding the security of Turkmens. We are deeply disappointed by that."
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