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Most of the cotton-speaking world now knows that U.S. farmers are expected to plant 3 million fewer acres of cotton when the 2007 planting season gets under way in earnest in the next few days.
Conventional wisdom says cotton growers are shifting out of the crop because of $4 corn and $8 soybean futures although the truth may actually be that many have become totally disgusted with poor cotton prices and low equity offers.
But some producers may soon be forced to swallow a pill that could be even more galling, according to cotton program experts. They may have to pay merchants 1 cent to 1.5 cents per pound to get them to take their cotton out of the CCC loan to avoid paying 4 cents to 4.5 cents in USDA storage charges.
In other words, those farmers may pay a negative equity to cotton shippers because of changes in USDA's rules for handling those charges.
In 2006, USDA added an additional forfeiture cost to the CCC loan agreement to reflect the compression charges levied by most cotton warehouses. Compression charges can run about $7 per bale or 1.5 cents per pound for a 480-pound bale.
Growers will also be expected to pay CCC for any amount in which a warehouse tariff exceeds $2.60 per bale per month, for any storage charges incurred before cotton entered the CCC loan and for receiving charges by the warehouse. USDA previously covered those.
"The bottom line is that if a grower has cotton in a warehouse with a high tariff, it could cost him an additional 2 cents to 4 cents per pound to forfeit cotton to the government when loans start to mature in June," says Woods Eastland, president of Staplcotn Cooperative and former chairman of the National Cotton Council.
"The grower has always had two options: (1) to forfeit the cotton to the government or (2) sell his equity in the cotton to a merchant. This summer growers may have to pay a merchant to take the cotton off his hands."
The changes come from a final rule published by USDA last September. The rule was aimed at addressing the "wet cotton" and cotton flow issues merchants had been complaining about since part of the record 2005 crop had to be stored outside due to lack of storage on the Texas High Plains.
The rule established a uniform maximum storage credit rate of $2.66 per bale per month for all warehouses outside the states of Arizona and California where the rate was set at $4.37 per bale per month. It also said CCC would bill producers for any warehouse compression fees that were unpaid for forfeited cotton.
Although the rule was published in the Federal Register and articles written about the changes in Delta Farm Press and other agricultural media, the timing of its release — on the eve of harvest — may not have been the best for growers.
"I'm afraid a number of growers aren't aware of these changes and some of them — such as being billed for the compression charge — could really hurt," said Cecil Williams, executive vice president of the Cotton Producers of Missouri. "You're looking at costs of 4 cents to 4.5 cents per pound just to get cotton out of the loan."
In other years, the changes would be hardly noticed. When prices are higher — or lower — than they have been in recent months, growers could request a loan deficiency payment on their cotton in lieu of placing it in the CCC loan and sell their cotton to a merchant. Or they could sell their equity to a merchant who would redeem it from the loan and pay any charges.
In the 2005-06 marketing year, when U.S. cotton exports exceeded 18 million bales, growers forfeited only 125,000 bales of loan cotton to the government. This year, USDA estimates forfeitures could reach 750,000 bales, but some observers think the figure could be closer to 3 million bales.
Growers in northeast Louisiana have been receiving equity offers of –0.5 to +0.5 cent per pound. Some reportedly sold equities earlier for 1.5 cents to 2 cents per pound while some forward contracted cotton much earlier at 4-cent equities.
Some blame the demise of the Step 2 program for the current price woes. When Congress eliminated Step 2 in response to the WTO ruling in the case Brazil brought against the U.S. cotton program, the University of Missouri's Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute estimated the net effect was to reduce U.S. prices by about 1.3 cents per pound while increasing world prices by about 0.4 cent.
Eastland believes the high ending stocks currently being forecast for the U.S. market — an eye-popping 9.2 million bales or nearly 50 percent of total use for the 2006-07 marketing year — has changed the balance in the market. And China has been noticeably absent from the U.S. market.
"The marketing year for the U.S. crop has shifted to later in the year," he says. "The marketing year ends July 31, but more cotton is being sold after the end of the marketing year because mills know they can buy cotton cheaper."
When U.S. mills were the primary market for U.S. producers, they bought cotton year round, which helped smooth the flow of cotton. With domestic mills now accounting for less than 5 million bales of annual use, the focus has shifted to foreign mills, which tend to buy cheaper cotton first.
"USDA says the U.S. cotton program is broke, but I don't think it is," says Chip Morgan, executive vice president of the Stoneville, Miss.-based Delta Council. "In 2002, we had 4.5 million more bales going to domestic mills. In 2006, we grew 4.5 million more bales. That's a 9-million-bale swing in supplies the market has had to try to absorb, and the market is struggling to do that."
By this time of the marketing year, China normally has purchased at least 4 million bales of U.S. cotton. "So far they've bought 500,000 bales if we're lucky," he said. "So we've added more than 10 million bales to the supply of U.S. cotton."
"If you look at export sales as of this date in 2005-06 and compare it to 2006-07, they're almost identical — except for purchases by China," says Eastland. "Right now, China appears to be making sure Chinese cotton gets used first. They're paying their producers in the 70s (cents) for their cotton to get it in from the countryside.
"Chinese polyester is being quoted for 63 cents a pound so their mills are using more polyester in their blends to bring the price down from what they're having to pay for Chinese cotton. So we're also fighting another fiber."
If USDA moved the adjusted world price by 150 points, experts believe U.S. merchants could clear out much of the 11 million bales the Delta Council's Morgan speaks about.
Eastland, Morgan and the National Cotton Council's Craig Brown met with Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner about USDA taking administrative action to change the AWP. But USDA officials refused, citing the added cost.
At their annual meeting in February, Cotton Council delegates voted to ask USDA to adjust the AWP and take other steps to make U.S. cotton competitive in the absence of Step 2. But the merchant segment of the council later vetoed the resolution.
Sens. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., have also written Conner asking him to implement specific recommendations by the grower, warehouse and cooperative marketing contingent that met with him.
The recommendations:
(1) Modify the transition period from current crop to new crop quotations used to determine the world price of cotton;
(2) Change the calculation of the Adjusted World Price, by basing it on the three lowest-priced growths quoted Middling 13/32-inch cotton, CIF Northern Europe; or
(3) Modify the calculation of the location differential to reflect transportation costs to export cotton between the average U.S. location and Northern Europe.
Morgan said putting the storage charges on the backs of producers could have ramifications beyond the grower and warehouse communities. "When the farmer obtained his loan for the 2006 crop, his banker thought he had a 52-cent loan (for base grade and staple)," he said.
"If the producer has to pay the merchant 150 points to buy his equity rather than receive 300 to 400 points to redeem his cotton from the loan later, it reduces the loan rate. When you back out the storage charges of 400 to 500 points and negative equity, the loan rate becomes 46 cents."
e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Chrispcritters needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 23 designs submitted by 10 freelance designers.
WhatIsMyIPAddress.com provides visitors with a number of IP address tools (geo-location lookup, blacklist and proxy checks, tracerouting, email tracing) articles and forums. We have a wide range of users from all around the world.
Our audience tends more towards males under 35, without children, educated, accessing from home or work. Global audience.
Looking for two flash banners of each of the following 8 sizes: 120x600, 160x600, 728x90, 468x60, 300x250, 336x280, 200x200, and 250x250. We're thinking two sets of design concepts but understand that may not be possible due to ad sizes. We want the sizes, but don't need the concept to be the same across the sizes.
These banners need to promote our IP lookup & geo-location tool at http://whatismyipaddress.com/static…/lookup-ip
Check out the tool and see the results it gets for your IP address. Any references to IP address should be in a.b.c.d format where a/b/c/d is a number from 1 to 255.
Be creative, we're not looking for any specific color scheme or promotional language. You're the designer -- you do what you think will drive the most traffic! (No need to specifically promote the website name, we're not doing a branding campaign at this time.)
These banners will be used in Google Adwords and will need to meet Google's standards (https://adwords.google.com/support/…opic=16870).

subset: commoncrawl


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Last week we discussed the formation of the Alliance in response to the Horde invasion of and destruction of the Kingdom of Azeroth via the Black Portal, and the Alliance's eventual triumph over the Horde, expedition to Draenor, and the events of Warcraft III that saw the destruction of Lordaeron and creation of a new order. This week, we talk about the events that caused those events.
Yes, this week we're discussing the origins of the Horde, that organization that began as the manipulated, deceived and then ultimately demonic blood addicted orcs of Draenor. It's not a simple tale: we've already told parts if it before when we discussed Gul'dan, Ner'zhul, Teron Gorefiend, Grom Hellscream and many others. It all really began untold thousands of years ago on the planet Argus, home world of the Eredar and their Draenei, or exiled, cousins. Thus, ironically, while the existence of the Horde caused the creation of the Alliance, it was an Alliance race that helped start the events that led to the creation of the Horde. Symmetry in origin.


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March 03, 2008
LabVIEW 8.5 Control Design and Simulation Module Introduced
Please note that contributed articles, blog entries, and comments posted on MCADcafe.com are the views and opinion of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the management and staff of Internet Business Systems and its subsidiary web-sites.
National Instruments (NI) announced the release of the NI LabVIEW 8.5 Control Design and Simulation Module, an extension of the LabVIEW graphical system design platform that helps engineers and scientists analyze open-loop model behavior, design closed-loop controllers, simulate systems and create real-time implementations. The latest version of the module introduces new design features such as analytical proportional integral derivative (PID) for improving system closed-loop stability and model predictive control to multivariable systems. The LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module also offers expanded support of LabVIEW MathScript with the addition of 18 new .m file functions to
simplify such tasks as creating models, defining how models are connected and analyzing system stability.
"The LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module significantly reduced the time it took us to develop the dynamic positioning on a split hopper vessel," said Miguel Taboada, control engineer with SEAPLACE, an offshore and naval engineering company in Madrid, Spain. "The module made it easy for us to simulate our different control algorithms and test the code without the use of any hardware. When we achieved the results we wanted in simulation, we were able to reuse the graphical code created with the module and deploy it to real hardware and debug it - all within a single day."
A new time-saving feature in the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module is analytical PID capability. Historically, engineers and scientists have identified the proper PID controller gain values by experimentally tuning their controllers. The analytical PID feature provides engineers and scientists with functions to find sets of PID gain values automatically for a given system model, making it easy for them to avoid undesired behavior at design time and improve system stability.
The latest version of the module also includes model predictive control (MPC), a popular algorithm used in industry to control multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems in complex process control applications. Engineers and scientists can use the MPC feature to construct controllers that adjust the control action before a change in the output setpoint actually occurs. This ability to predict model behavior combined with traditional feedback helps the controller make smoother adjustments that are closer to the optimal control action values.
"Model predictive control is a valuable technique for industry that may not be so accessible to engineers unfamiliar with text-based programming," said Michael Grimble, technical director of ISC Ltd. and professor of industrial systems at the Industrial Control Centre at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. "By adding MPC functionality in the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module, National Instruments is providing a very intuitive tool with a simple real-time implementation interface. This should deliver tremendous benefits to engineers performing process control or machine control applications in industries such as automotive and aerospace, and even in academia
where predicting model behavior is often a crucial step when developing advanced controls."
The LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module easily integrates with NI software tools such as the LabVIEW Statechart Module for event-based control design or simulation and the LabVIEW Real-Time Module for rapid control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop applications as well as system deployment. Engineers and scientists also can combine the module with the LabVIEW System Identification Toolkit and NI I/O devices to develop reliable measurement-based controllers.
For more information on the LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module, visit
Commentary By Jeffrey Rowe, Editor
This announcement by National Instruments reinforces the increasing need for simultaneous simulation of mechanical and electrical systems, also known as mechatronics. There was a time when mechanical systems and products were strictly mechanical, however, the majority of today's products continue to become more capable, and more complex, involving the marriage of mechanical and electrical subsystems.
A more comprehensive way to view mechatronics is the systematic integration of mechanical, electrical, electronics, and embedded firmware (software) components. When all of the various components are combined the result is an electromechanical system. In this context, mechatronics is characterized by software and electronics controlling electromechanical systems. This definition is widely seen in automotive engines and other automotive systems, as well as production machinery.
Mechatronics can also be a method used for achieving an optimal design solution for an electromechanical product. Key mechatronics ideas are developed during the interdisciplinary simulation process that provide the conditions for fostering synergy for discovering solutions to complex design problems. The synergy arises from the integration of mechanical, electrical, and computer systems with information systems for the design and manufacture of mechatronics products. In other words, many different distinct subsystems coming together to perform a complex function. Mechatronic products exhibit performance characteristics that were previously difficult or impossible to achieve
without a synergistic approach by applying information systems to mechanical, electrical, and computer systems.
A prominent trend is that as mechatronics systems get more complex and as functionality demands increase, in many instances software and firmware are replacing or at least supplementing hardware. A benefit of this transition from hardware to the burgeoning emphasis on software is called "postponement," that is, the ability to include or change major functionality features during the final stages of production via embedded software.
As mechatronic systems get more complex, the challenges associated with successfully designing and executing them also become more demanding due to the interoperability requirements between electronic CAD (ECAD) and mechanical CAD (MCAD) software.
Mechatronics systems present major design and production challenges because they bring together many different types of physical and digital parts, processes, and personnel to create a successful end product. Designing and producing a mechatronics system requires a well-orchestrated effort by a wide variety of job roles and functions – everything from industrial design to PCB layout to control logic design to production planning.
There are several positive effects of integrating digital simulation and modeling in designing mechatronics, and for good reason – it saves time and money, reduces risk, and results in higher quality, more innovative products. Several of the 3D MCAD packages and the mechatronics synergy is the result of working with companies such as National Instruments. This synergy between the companies has resulted in the greatest value being realized in moving from mechanical to electromechanical machine design. Customers have benefited by integrating simulation and controls with the help of National Instruments (with products such as LabVIEW) and 3D modeling and mechanical
In the past, simulating the performance of a machine containing both mechanical and electrical components was a difficult and time-consuming process that required skilled specialists. Today, mechatronics design tools from National Instruments and several of the MCAD vendors are bringing the electrical and mechanical worlds together to make simulation and subsequent design easier. With 3D CAD, mechanical engineers can design machine parts and assemblies using a familiar interface with 3D visualization, while also simulating mechanism motion through mechanism dynamics.
While motion analysis packages are well-suited for open-loop motion simulations, a typical electromechanical system involves closed-loop control. For a true closed-loop simulation, engineers need to simulate not only the dynamics of a mechanism but also the controls that act on that mechanism. The LabVIEW interface for mechanical analysis packages provides an interface between the two environments so engineers can simulate closed-loop control for complex electromechanical systems. Closed-loop simulation between mechanical and control development environments can help drive better design decisions for both the mechanical and control aspects of a design.
Closed-loop simulation with a control design environment, such as LabVIEW, and a mechanical design environment, can help accelerate the design process for complex mechatronics systems, resulting in superior products in less time.
The Week's Top 5
At MCADCafé we track many things, including the stories that have attracted the most interest from our subscribers. Below are the five news items that were the most viewed during last week.
Autodesk announced that the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), a research facility operated by the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, has been named as the Autodesk Inventor of the Year for 2007. Nominated as Inventor of the Month for May 2007, LNLS was selected by members of the Autodesk manufacturing community who logged onto the Autodesk community web site (
non-repeated parts inside the assembly.
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-- Jeff Rowe, MCADCafe.com Contributing Editor.
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Friday, October 29, 2010
Give Us Today Our Daily Bread and a Good Night's Sleep
I have a new video on how to use a pressure cooker to post tomorrow, but will treat myself to a good night's sleep before finishing it off. Stay tuned, and in the meantime I hope you enjoy this incredibly fascinating TED lecture on the art of baking bread by Peter Reinhart.
Speaking of bread, if you click on the picture above, you'll be taken to a great no-knead country loaf recipe that features a touch of pumkin that would make for a wonderful seasonal treat. If you watch the lecture I have a feeling you'll be inspired to get your hands into some dough.Enjoy!
6 comments:
- Connie T. said...
I use a pressure cooker all the time. I think it makes the food taste better for some reason.
- October 29, 2010 at 3:32 AM
- Cori said...
Geez this is such a deep and intellectual lecture! I like it!
- June 14, 2011 at 7:38 PM
- Cori said...
Geez this is such a deep and intellectual lecture! I like it!
- June 14, 2011 at 7:38 PM
thanks for this ted lecture--i thought i was the only one who pondered on the symbolism of bread. i never got quite as deep as peter, however. i think i need to make a loaf now.......
- November 9, 2011 at 8:55 AM
Are you a religious man, Chef? A Christian/Catholic? This lecture has lots of Catholic Christian themes, seems intentional, the lecturer even references the scholastics.
Just wondering why it spoke to you, since this isn't really about the art of bread-making, but rather the topic of "bread-making" seems to be more of a pretense to a pseudo-cryptic lecture on Catholic Christian mysticism and mystery.
- February 21, 2012 at 11:15 PM
- Sally said...
Hey, thanks for that Chef. It was very interesting.
- June 7, 2017 at 10:33 AM


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Many a 19th century patron had their portrait bordered with an elaborate frame, a work of art all its own, or one haphazardly chosen. Often highly gilded and ornate, these frames often overtook the painting or, at best, clashed with it. Will Hutchins, like others involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement, believed that the frames should compliment paintings, but not dominate them. He brought examples of frames created by Hermann Dudley Murphy to illustrate his point. Murphy was a painter and frame-maker in Boston who taught at the Harvard school of Architecture. He considered the design and making of frames to be an art form and signed and dated them accordingly.
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American frame maker Jim Felt has always had a need for speed, starting with his days as a professional motocross racer and mechanic, which built relationships that led to building time trial bikes for some of his motocross buddies in the late 1980s.
After retiring from the dirt circuit in the early 1990s, Felt used his engineering background to get a job at Easton Sports, where he learned more about metallurgy. When the opportunity came to build a frame for three-time Ironman winner Paula Newby Fraser, Felt unveiled his now popular matte black with stark white decals design, propelling Newby Fraser to another Ironman championship.
Felt branched out on his own in with Answer Products in 1994, then relaunched the brand with business partners Bill Duehring and Michael Müllmann in 2001, with Duehring heading up the Irvine, California headquarters and Müllmann running the Germany-based international distribution. Felt himself works out of his workshop in Auburn, California, one of the original gold mining towns with mountainous wilderness canyons and the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Range lying adjacent.
BikeRadar caught up with the 53 year-old Californian on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, where 12 Felt sponsored athletes from the US, Canada and New Zealand will be racing on the road, track and triathlon. This came on the heels of an enormously successful Tour de France debut for the Felt-sponsored Garmin-Chipotle team, which also led the Giro d'Italia after the Stage 1 team trial in May.
How on earth does such a small company get an opportunity to work with an organisation like Slipstream (the managing company behind Garmin-Chipotle)?
(Team director) Jonathan Vaughters called me four or five years ago for the 5280 junior development team after he got out of pro racing. My dream have always been to have a team in the Tour, 5280 didn't really fit the bill for that dream, obviously. A young American team, back then, wasn't how I envisioned getting into the Tour. I still believe junior development teams are the way of the future, just like I did back then. I think we're starting to see how the younger riders coming out of junior programs are now the ones doing well in the Classics and Grand Tours.
I originally had my eyes on European teams, but something always came up that either didn't fit our goals or things just fell through. A huge part of this next chapter of what's now called the Garmin-Chipotle team came a year ago when Jonathan called to say 'hey guys, we've just been invited to the Tour of California!' A year later it's the Giro and the Tour de France! No words can describe how we felt after that jump.
It's unthinkable the progress we've all made with the team. I don't think there's another bike company that could've responded as well as Felt did in such a short time. Preparations that we've made for all the key racers was a major undertaking.
It must've been a bit overwhelming when world-class guys like David Millar, Dave Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde and Magnus Bäckstedt came on board.
It was easier than you think, delivering the bikes for Slipstream. I had meeting with those guys during the team introduction in Colorado last fall. I made it clear and simple when I met those guys. I told them, 'My goal is to make you the best bikes you've ever ridden. If something's not right we'll make it right.'
I can't begin to tell you the versions of time trial bikes we built for Millar and Bäckstedt; Maggie puts out 2,000 watts of power! This guys got a huge motor, and he doesn't need to ride the sort of bikes the general public would ride. He needs special attention!
We were very open with the whole bike design and building process with the guys. I was looking for all corrective criticism. The payback has been due to the solid communication between designers, Vaughters, Allen Lim, the riders. Our goal was making the guys faster.
How many frames do you provide them in a season?
It's close to 200 frames. I got a call in the middle of the Tour from the head team mechanic. We introduced the AR right before the Tour, and not everyone was able to get extensive time before the race began. The mechanics reported no failures during the Tour, which is a big deal for everyone.
Tell us about the timetable for developing the Felt AR road bike.
The Felt AR didn't exist until Maggie asked about his Paris-Roubaix bike. I didn't know him that well; he emailed me his stats and specs, which were off the chart! I thought, 'Wow - I don't have a bike for him - this guy could break a Mack truck in half.'
Magnus Backstedt (R) leads Team Slipstream during Stage 2 of the Giro d' Italia
So we met at Interbike and designed his bike then and there. We talked about his race history and what he wanted to accomplish in 2008. He shared an idea he had for a new bike design, mentioning his style of going off the front now and then. He asked if I thought there would be an advantage to him having a more aerodynamic road bike. Cervelo made the Soloist with the same dimensions as their R3; Maggie wanted something that would help him literally time trial the last 10km of any road race. The gears started turning in my head, so I shared the idea with our engineers immediately. I used to think roadies wanted something specific: either they're time trialling or climbing. I told our guys we needed to do it for the team.
When Vaughters and I started getting serious about Slipstream's big step in 2008, he asked for some competitive advantage in the equipment, so I felt indebted to deliver something like the AR.
A paid athlete knows what their needs are; you seem to have built confidence among the Slipstream organisation.
Everybody at Felt rides, but not at the calibre of the Slipstream boys. There's a difference between their wide-open and my wide-open. Christian and Magnus have equipment needs that are off the charts compared to someone walking into a bike shop. Pro racing is very, very hard on equipment.
Aerodynamics plays an important role for you. How much time do you spend in the wind tunnel, and how much does it cost?
Aerodynamics has always been a huge part of Felt. I don't know if we've started a new movement, but we don't do it the cheap way. The guys that are going to survive in this business are investing in wind tunnel testing in the pursuit of squeezing every last second out of the bikes. We've invested in sophisticated equipment to help us scrutinise before (outside) the wind tunnel, and are so committed to the San Diego wind tunnel because we literally own most of their booked time!
It's so easy in the bike industry to do design time trial bikes backwards: design, develop tooling, create prototypes and let the marketing guys get involved in the early stages, the enter the wind tunnel. Felt studies its competitors bikes, tested them, and before we cut a tool, we CNC plastic bikes, snap in new tube assemblies in the wind tunnel in the pursuit of getting the numbers we're looking for. Then we go back and redraw it, then start cutting tools for a mould.
You could get away with backwards engineering three to five years ago, but not anymore. You can be humbled by the numbers in the wind tunnel. Numbers don't lie! It costs nearly $1,000 an hour in the wind tunnel. We've invited companies like Shimano to share the wind tunnel time, which helps everyone.
Felt will be well represented during the Olympics. How have you prepared, having such short notice that Felt-sponsored athletes like Taylor Phinney, Ryder Hesjedal, Julian Dean, Vande Velde and Zabriskie were going?
We knew that Sarah (Hammer) and Taylor were going to Beijing earlier in the season; Zabriskie and Vande Velde only found out July 1. Five years ago, if any Felt athlete needed a bike for any event in short notice, I'd whip something up myself. Now, we were so wrapped up in Garmin-Chipotle being in the Tour that the Olympics kinda came too quickly! I couldn't get to the Tour because having to prepare bikes for our Olympic athletes; we have 12 Felt-sponsored athletes racing road, time trial, track and triathlon. It was a lot of work, and we have a great squad representing the US [Two Garmin riders, Ryder Hesjedal and Julian Dean, are representing Canada and New Zealand - ed].
World champion and Beijing athlete Sarah Hammer
There's still a lot of good racing coming up after the Olympics; for me, it's been an extremely taxing year, but in a good way. I'm glad I was able to step in and help Zabriskie after his broken back early in the Giro. He may have an advantage missing the Tour and being a bit fresher than most.
So your being the glue of the company has freed you up to take care of the athletes in short order?
There's no way I could be a CEO of this company; being able to rely on Bill and Michael to take care of the things necessary allows me to do my best for the athletes and employees. I eat, sleep and breathe racing just like Jonathan. It's hard to believe Felt has had this corporate structure only nine years, we've come a long way in that time. What a leap.
You were instrumental in developing and ushering in 7005 Easton aluminium. How did you feel when carbon fibre was knocking at the door and you knew it was time?
I was a big promoter of 7005 alloy for its user and build-friendly properties. A lot of people don't know this, but I've always been a huge carbon fan. I've been dabbling with it in the `80s and '90s, even back in the motorcycle days. But the difference between technology then and now is way different; we didn't have any right as an industry messing witch carbon back then. Thanks to aerospace, we've been given the ability to build phenomenal materials for bicycles.
Paula Newby Fraser racing her Felt to Ironman glory in the 1990s
I'm not a 'steel is real' kind of guy; to me it's all about the materials. You have to use the right materials for the right applications when it comes to bikes and bike parts. Some materials shine, and some don't. Some shouldn't be thrown at a bicycle, period. It was great working at Easton because part of the job was working with different materials every day.
"I'm not a 'steel is real' kind of guy; to me it's all about the materials."
Having two co-company presidents in the US and Germany is rather atypical...
Bill, Michael and I get along well; we all have the same values and the same goal. Our message is exactly the same. Our personalities are completely different; Bill is the best in the world at negotiating deals from his 35 years experience in the Orient; Michael has the best business sense of all of us, and has been running a successful distribution business in Europe for several years. I bring more of the engineering expertise to the table, including the athlete relationships. It's been a perfect mix; there's not a day that goes by that we don't talk.
Today the promoter of the Tour of Utah called asking how Slipstream can get involved; Becky Lavelle, one of our star triathletes heading to Beijing, called needing some things, basically a new bike, so my days are full and fun.
Felt president Bill Duehring (R) keeps a watchful eye during the Tour
I stay in touch with our athletes and team managers, and living in Auburn frees me up to work on new projects while the guys in Irvine are getting the other important things done. Living here keeps me focused and allows me to create the futuristic stuff. For example, right now we're working on three new bikes, probably the biggest projects Felt has ever worked on, and probably the most rewarding.
Again, Felt is small compared to the competition (approximately 25 people in the Southern California headquarters), yet Felt has numerous models in multiple categories (140 models across 27 countries). Do you ever feel the need to simplify things and refocus, or is this where you want the company to be?
We're in a happy place right now. The three of us are easily distracted, but pull each other in and refocus. We've had several projects that never made it to market because we felt it was beyond our focus. I think you see some of that at Interbike this September. We're not going to be the bike company for everybody, but what we focus on will be really good stuff.
We are probably up to 27 employees now in southern California; Specialized probably has that many in their water bottle department! I have four engineers working for me now, and those guys don't have a spare moment.


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The dark side of oxytocin, much more than just a "love hormone"
There's a chemical that can subtly shift your childhood memories of your own mother. In some people, it paints mum in a more saintly light, making them remember her as closer and more caring. In others, the chemical has a darker influence, casting mum as a less caring and more distant parent.
All of this becomes heavily ironic when you consider that the chemical in question – a hormone called oxytocin – is often billed as the "hormone of love", and even marketed as "Liquid Trust". As a new study shows, the reality is much more complicated. Describing oxytocin as the "hormone of love" is like describing a computer as a "writing tool" – it does other things too, some of which aren't pleasant.
Oxytocin is a versatile actor, whose resume includes all sorts of jobs in sex, reproduction, social behaviour and emotions. It can increase trust among people and make them more cooperative (this works in meerkats, too). It can increase the social skills of autistic people. It's released during orgasm. It affects lactating breasts, contracting wombs and the behaviour of sheep mothers towards their newly born lambs. The list goes on: drug addiction, generosity, depression, empathy, learning, memory.
Despite these many roles, oxytocin is often reduced to a misleading label. While "hormone of love" may be great for catchy headlines and compelling marketing slogans, they are ultimately misleading. Jennifer Bartz from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has found that oxytocin can have completely opposite effects on the way people behave, depending on how they view their relationships to other people.
She recruited 31 men* and asked them to sniff either an oxytocin nasal spray or another spray with the same ingredients minus oxytocin – a placebo. A few weeks later, the sprays were swapped so that the men who took oxytocin now took the placebo, and vice versa. At the time, neither the scientists nor the volunteers knew which was which – that was only revealed after the experiment was over.
Before all of this, the men completed a series of widely used questionnaires to measure the state of their social ties. The questions assessed the nature of their bonds with their families and friends, how sensitive they are to rejection, how comfortable they are at being close to other people, how much they desire that closeness, and more. Shortly after using both sprays, the recruits also answered questions about their mother's parenting style.
Bartz found that when she averaged out the volunteers' results, the sniffs of oxytocin hadn't seemed to colour their memories of their mothers. But things changed when she looked at them individually. Those who felt more anxious about their relationships took a dimmer view of their mother's parenting styles when they sniffed oxytocin, compared to the placebo. Those who were more secure in their relationships reacted in the opposite way – they remembered mum as being closer and more caring when they took the oxytocin.
These results show that oxytocin is far from being a simple "love hormone". As Bartz says, it has a "more nuanced role… than previously thought," and one that varies from person to person. It's "not an all-purpose attachment panacea."
For now, Bartz isn't sure why oxytocin can have such different effects. Her most educated guess is that the hormone triggers a biased trip down memory lane. Under its influence, people are more likely to remember information about their mother that fits with their current attitudes to relationships. If they are anxious, they're more likely to remember the negative side of their early life. It's a reasonable enough idea, and one that Bartz intends to test in the future. It will also be good to repeat the study in a larger group – 31 men make for a relatively small study.
But this isn't the only study to show the subtle side of oxytocin. Just three months ago, I wrote about research from Heejung Kim at the University of California, which showed how oxytocin's effects vary across different cultures. To fulfil its many roles, oxytocin has to dock at a protein called the 'oxytocin receptor', encoded by a gene called OXTR.
Kim found that when Americans who carry a particular version of the OXTR gene are more likely to turn to their friends for support when they are distressed. But Koreans react to social stress in a different way – for them, it's less socially acceptable to turn to friends for support during tough times. And distressed Koreans who carry the same version of OXTR are less likely to seek support from their friends.
As I wrote then, "In cases where genes affect our behaviour, the same stretch of DNA can lead to very different deeds, depending on individual circumstances. Just as a production defines a play, environments and cultures alter the effects of certain genes."
*Bartz only worked with men because there are risks involved in injecting women with oxytocin – if she's pregnant, it could induce labour, and it might affect the foetus in as yet unknown ways.
Reference: PNAS http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1012669107
Photo by Ian Riley
More on oxytocin:
- How to make meerkats even more sociable
- Genes and culture: OXTR gene influences social behaviour differently in Americans and Koreans
- Can a sniff of oxytocin improve the social skills of autistic people?
- Maternal hormone shuts down baby's brain cells during birth
If the citation link isn't working, read why here
Comments (14)
So after sex I think of my mum differently? Gross! How long do I need to keep my phone off to avoid this?
Since I enjoy wild speculation about things that aren't in my field (based on interesting articles on the internets): sounds like oxytocin enhances emotions. I don't know much about its natural production; is it always around in a person's system?
Do doses of it enhance anger? Fear?
It would have been interesting if Bartz had asked about *both* parents' parenting styles. (Spoken by a guy writing a book on fathers.) It would have been easy enough; just add another question. Any differences between perceptions of mothers and fathers might have been illuminating. But, as in so much family research, fathers were once again ignored or excluded. (As if fathers don't have parenting styles…)
How not surprising on one level that a hormone involved in the formation of primary bonds, those that can have serious impacts on your survival, would be discerning. After all, if you had a mother who was dangerous, abusive, etc., how counter productive would it be for you to bond so tightly to her that you were all over her all the time, increasing your chances of pissing her off and killing you. And, how beneficial for you to be more bonded to a mother figure who was good to you, and provided you with nurture.
After all, bonding or not is ultimately about "what will help me survive." We are social because it benefits us, and an indiscriminate bonding agent probably would have led its possessors into extinction in the face of "cheaters" a long, long time ago.
Wonderful column. My expertise is the psychology of risk perception, and I have done some reading on oxytocin and trust (not the kind you want to boost in a bar with Liquid Trust – you can the stuff with pheromones – to boost THAT kind of trust). It turns out there is a high concentration of oxytocin receptors on the amygdala, the area of the brain where fear starts. As oxytocin levels go up, the ability of the amygdala to be warry and more mistrustful goes down. I describe this in Ch. 3 of How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts. A few graphs of which are below. I wonder whether the influence of oxytocin on the amygdala might be connected with the finding of the study you write about.
Humans are social animals. Our individual prospects depend to a significant degree on the prospects of the group(s) to which we belong, and how well we get along with the group(s). Survival means being acutely sensitive to who is on our side and who is not. So it isn't surprising that trust matters so much to how we go about protecting ourselves. And it isn't surprising to find the instinct for trust rooted deep in the brain.
Few forms of trust are more basic than that between a newborn and its mother. Scientists have discovered that this relationship is strengthened by the hormone oxytocin, released when the baby stares up at mom while breast feeding. Staring lovingly at your boyfriend or girlfriend can trigger their release of oxytocin too, as can warm physical contact like touching and hugging. (Levels increase during sex and peak at orgasm, which may help explain the age-old question "But will you love me in the morning, when your oxytocin levels have dropped?") Oxytocin reduces stress in arguing couples, helps us recognize faces, even helps us look at a face (in fact, just a pair of eyes) and identify the mood that person is in. The stuff is magic.
Based on the evidence that oxytocin is involved in social bonding, researchers tested its impact on trust.
A Risk Quiz; Let's say you are one of the volunteers to whom researchers gave $100, and this option: you can either keep the money, or give it to an anonymous trustee who will either invest it and double it to $200 and return half of the extra hundred bucks to you–$50–or keep all the money for herself. So you can either increase your money by 50%, or lose it all. What would you do? Would you trust that anonymous trustee? (Remember Loss Aversion from Chapter Two, where in a similar experiment most people decided to avoid the gamble and take the sure cash.)
An hour before the start of this actual experiment, half the volunteers were given a sniff of oxytocin. The other sniffed a placebo. The oxytocin-exposed group was much more trusting. More volunteers who had sniffed the hormone trusted the anonymous investors and gambled with their money.5
A later experiment by another group took it a step further. This time the volunteers were told how they did, and in half of the cases, they learned that the trustee had burned them and kept the money. The volunteers who were burned were asked whether they wanted to try again. What would you do? This would be like getting that spam from the Nigerian Prince a second time and sending him $5,000 again, right?
Half the group of burned volunteers got a whiff of Eau de Oxytocin, half got a sniff of Eau de Placebo. Those who sniffed the oxytocin were more trusting and ready to invest with an anonymous trustee a second time than were the placebo-exposed subjects. And when they were asked "Do you want to try this again?" the oxytocin-treated volunteers responded more quickly than the volunteers who hadn't gotten the nose full of Trust Spray.6
Like I said, it's amazing stuff. And it shouldn't come as a surprise that it affects that amazing part of your brain so intimately involved in keeping you safe…the amygdala. Remember, trust has a lot to do with survival among social animals who depend on each other for safety and protection. Show someone an untrustworthy face, and the amygdala is one of two areas that become more active than anywhere else in the brain.7 It is apparently programmed for reading trust just as it is for snakes or spiders.
But we have to be just as good at recognizing who we can trust, so the system needs fine-tuned control. That's apparently where oxytocin comes in. The amygdala, that critical organ for our biological risk response, has a high concentration of receptors for oxytocin. In the second set of those gambling experiments with the volunteers and the trustees, researchers used fMRI to watch the brains of the volunteers as they made their choices. As the levels of oxytocin in the brain went up compared with the placebo group, activity in the amygdala went down! Oxytocin diminishes the amygdala's ability to send out the message "Warning! Warning! I don't trust this guy."
These fundamental biological underpinnings deep in the self-preservation systems of the brain suggest why trust plays such a powerful part in our risk response. As we learned from how the public reacted to the way the governments in Japan and Germany handled the outbreak of Mad Cow disease.
Oxytocin production does not exist separately from the evolved neurophysiological mechanisms that regulate gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) pulsatility. There are mammalian pheromones that are known to directly influence the GnRH pulse, for example androstenol. Oxytocin is not considered to be a pheromone by anyone I know who is involved in olfactory research. Sniffing it is simply a delivery method that we now can see might have negative consequences.
@david ropeik
Your whole comment goes against the very content of the blog post and is just a rehash of the "classic" view of oxytocin without anything new whatsoever.
Please explain, are you a PR employee of some vendor?
May the increased violence in recent years be reduced by inducing oxytocin and orexin (hypocretins) on those belligerent and bellicose?
haven't read the study but initial thoughts are – no way is that a big enough sample to perform a subgroup analysis. I assume thats what they did? Were the analyses established a priori? Could another interpretation be that oxytocin had no effect? Happy to be wrong!
Cheers Ed – that'll teach me not to go read the paper. Interesting findings
Based on the article and comments, Oxytocin seems to produce symptoms similar to marijuana, enhancing whatever feelings one has at the time. If you are feeling mellow, you will continue to do so. If you are nervous, you might start feeling paranoid.
Good points #3. Paul Raeburn and #4. Alysons.
This mother-child bonding is the most glorified myth that is not re-thought as often as it should. Its apparant purpose is just to make a dangerously selfish mother (such frustrated mothers do exist a lot more than we read in the news) to think twice before harming her defenseless child which is oftentimes in her sole custody in our society. Acts of such mothers are branded as mental illness rather than plain cruelty. While most people (men and women alike) tend to protect, and not harm a child, the real bonding can happen beetween two independent, mature adults.
Also, a lot of responsible and caring fathers' work is seldom given credit for in most societies.
Studies like this – with narrow focus and based on non-scietific generalizations of human behaviors – are just for getting publications for the researchers conducting it, to keep the grant flowing.
Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I'm trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I'm not seeing very good results. If you know of any please share. Appreciate it!


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Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has a message for residents in his jurisdiction: You can't rely on him anymore. You need to arm yourself.
On Friday, the nominally Democratic sheriff issued a recorded public safety announcement on the radio and on the Web that encouraged residents to take their lives into their own hands.
Here's the full transcript:
"I'm Sheriff David Clarke and I want to talk to you about something personal: your safety. It's no longer a spectator sport; I need you in the game. But are you ready? With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You can beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back. But are you prepared? Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family."
Crime is relatively rare in Clarke's jurisdiction: In 2010, the Sheriff's Department reported two burglaries, nine robberies and zero murders. (Preliminary data from 2012 were not available, and it's not clear if the department submitted its crime statistics to the FBI for 2011.)


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Telecomguy needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 13 designs submitted by 6 freelance designers.
We build software for managing telecom expenses, and deliver it as SaaS. Since we're a small company, and we sell to large companies, our image must be of a stable, solid organization.
Our clients are large companies. The users are mostly telecom administrators, finance people, and IT managers.
We want the application to look more sleek, more modern.
Of course, it must be very easy to use, and efficient in layout so that users don't have to scroll more than necessary, etc.
See attached screenshots of our current application.


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Hello all,
A lot of you will know what happened to me at Laguna this year and I questioned RicksMotorsportsElectrics what they intend to do as a long term solution for the stator failure after 4500 miles.
This is their firm response - Take a look at the photo below as this is the stator that I received in the mail. pst pst - Did I say free of charge?
Evidently they have made some manufacturing changes and are now using heavier gauge wire with less turns. It is still wrapped in Delta connections or 2 wires per pole. All Stators for our bikes will built in this configuration as a result of my failure in Laguna Seca.
The Version2 Stator is now installed and the bike is running at a very slightly lower voltage across the rpm board - by .1 to .2 ( 14.1 as opposed to 14.3 at upper rpms) I believe this is to be expected due less turns but should last longer and more effective.
So, here I go again and I'll keep updating the thread as I send my status report to http://ricksmotorsportelectrics.com/.
ALSO - Thanks to Ricks Electrics for letting me be the 1st to try this and allowing me to be the "Test Bunny". Of course in return, I have to send a status update of how the stator is holding up on a regular basis. A small price to pay for the benefit of a lot of folks.
Here's a side by side comparison of the Original vs Version 2
Version 2
Original version that I installed at Laguna Seca MotoGp. It has approximately 2k miles. Yeah...I ride.
Another Version 2


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Movies: 'The Lego Movie,' 'Labor Day' & 'The Great Beauty'
Following are Susan Granger's reviews of the latest movies in area theaters:
Totally redefining product placement, this energetic, eye-popping 3-D animated comedy/adventure celebrates the childhood experience of creative play with Denmark's Lego interlocking plastic construction toys.
In the miniature city of Bricksburg, the benevolent wizard Vitruvius (voiced by Morgan Freeman) confronts power-hungry Corporate CEO President Business (voiced by Will Ferrell) with an ancient prophecy that a Special will someday arise to dismantle the rigid conformity that keeps its citizens confined to their respective realms.
Eight and a half years later, Wyldstyle (voiced by Elizabeth Banks), an anti-corporate Goth girl activist, enlightens lowly construction worker Emmet Brikowski (voiced by Chris Platt), who is an obedient conformist, repeating instructions like: always use a turn signal, park between the lines, root for the local sports teams, drink overpriced coffee and don't forget to smile. When he inadvertently stumbles upon the mysterious "Piece of Resistance," Wyldstyle misguidedly envisions generic Emmet as the master-builder leader, even though he isn't "the most important, most talented, most interesting and most extraordinary person in the universe."
Meanwhile, as Business plots total domination, using a secret super-weapon, his henchman, swivel-headed Bad Cop/Good Cop (voiced by Liam Neeson), is determined to catch Emmet, who's aided by Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) and other cohorts (voiced by Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Charlie Day). There's also Lando Calrissian (voiced by Billy Dee Williams), Green Lantern (voiced by Jonah Hill) and Superman (voiced by Channing Tatum).
Screenwriters/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs") have created a cleverly satirical allegory, subversively filled with sight gags, amusing jokes, imaginative spectacles, a potent message and an unexpected plot twist at the conclusion. Plus, there are timely references to NSA surveillance, random public shootings, trigger-happy cops and erratic weather conditions. Inspiration comes from "The Truman Show," as a man suddenly begins to suspect that his perfect life might be manipulated, along with "Toy Story 2" and the "Star Wars" fantasies, among others.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Lego Movie" snaps together with an audacious, awesome 8, proving ordinary can be extraordinary.
Screened for the press in November, Jason Reitman's romantic melodrama sinks in a plot quagmire, proving that even the most seductively delicious peach pie goes stale when it sits on the shelf for several months.
Narrated by now-grown Henry Wheeler (Tobey Maguire), it recalls what happened over Labor Day weekend in New Hampshire in 1987, when precocious, then-13-year-old Henry (Gattlin Griffith) and his depressed, agoraphobic, divorced mother, Adele (Kate Winslet), encounter Frank Chambers (Josh Brolin) on a back-to-school shopping trip. He asks them for a ride and a place to clean up since he's got blood on his shirt -- and there's more than an implied threat when he adds: "Frankly, this needs to happen."
So Adele takes him home and tends to the wound on his side. Frank says he jumped out of a window, but she soon learns that he's actually just escaped from prison, where he was serving a 20-year sentence for murder, and there's a manhunt to find him.
Then, what was originally a hostage situation inexplicably -- and improbably -- turns erotic as, during a three-day idyll, Adele seriously considers leaving with him for Canada, where they can make a fresh start in life together.
Based on a pulpy 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard, it's most memorable for Brolin's peach pie crust-making sequence. As he and Winslet knead dough, it evokes memories of Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore's far-better "Ghost."
Food stylist Susan Spungen ("Julie & Julia," "Eat, Pray, Love") was charged with making the bakery goods camera-ready and the actors look convincing. But, according to interviews, Brolin was so determined to acquire the necessary skill, that he created one juicy, homemade pastry after another, dutifully following the recipe in Maynard's book.
Screenwriter/director Reitman tackles this maudlin fantasy with gusto, filling it with flashbacks and telltale details -- in addition to the sugared peaches -- leading to a safe, if contrived, compromised conclusion.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Labor Day" is a soggy, often silly 6, a problematic choice for Valentine's Day.
Visually dazzling, Paolo Sorrentino's Golden Globe-winning film is an extravagant odyssey through Rome, ostensibly examining the hedonistic lifestyle of Jep Gambardella, an acclaimed writer. Fittingly, his story begins at a bacchanal celebrating his 65th birthday. With hundreds of revelers romping around him, Jep confronts not only the camera but also his squandered years, devoted to being the sort of charming socialite who not only could throw the best parties but who could ruin other people's parties at will.
Forty years ago, Jep wrote a novel, "The Human Apparatus." He's lived on his literary laurels ever since, scribbling superficial celebrity profiles. "Rome makes you waste a lot of time," he explains. Dwelling in a sumptuous flat that overlooks the Coliseum, he surrounds himself with friends and admirers. Accompanied by a middle-aged stripper, Ramona (Sabrina Ferilli), he attends fashionable events with the upper bourgeoisie, strolls along the banks of the Tiber, meanders through deserted palazzos and impertinently questions his mysterious upstairs neighbor.
Until, one day, a stranger appears on his doorstep, introducing himself as the widower of the woman who was Jep's first true love. Together, they commiserate about her passing as Jep is overwhelmed by nostalgia, evoking the film's opening quote from Louis-Ferdinand Celine: "Our journey is entirely imaginary. That is its strength."
Using thematic imagery that evokes fond memories of Fellini's "La Dolce Vida" and "Roma," along with Antonioni's "La Notte," it's written by Umberto Contarello and director Paolo Sorrentino, who works once again with his charismatic "Il Divo" star Toni Serbillo, to create a pulsating, satirical portrait of a suave, world-weary journalist searching for his long-lost idealism while experiencing the exquisite sights and sounds of the glorious Eternal City, distinctively depicted by cinematographer Luca Bigazzi. Indelibly amusing episodes include a less-than-spiritual visit from Sister Maria (Sonia Gessner), a recipe-obsessed Cardinal (Roberto Herlitzka), and slavish devotion to a Botox technician.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Great Beauty," in Italian with English subtitles, is an elegant, existentially enigmatic 8, a magnificent meditation on opulence and decadence.


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New furnishing solutions for workstations. Versatile, fresh styled and functional, a range with an extremely easy assembly system.This series fully furnishes operative and executive spaces, in line with today's work evolutions. Formal lightness and style are the main ingredients of an operational system characterized by tables with trestle legs in the new "bench" version. E-Place Operational line The new E-PLACE series is mainly characterized by the metal structure of the desks, and typically by the beams-rail system on which peculiar trestle legs are fitted in free position, as well as a range of accessories for the functionality of the workspace. Worktops have rounded corners. Range of elements: desks; extensions; bench tables for team-work and for multiple workstations; shaped tables; meeting tables with trestle leg or free-standing legs; corner elements; service units; pedestals; shaped modesty panel; fabric covered screen panels; wire management; accessories for different applications. Main materials: melamine, pressed steel, ABS, nylon, aluminium, fabric. Unique selling points: functionality and topical aesthetic of the new trestle leg in terminal and intermediate position, ease and speed installation, large modular configuration possibilities, wide range of accessories; sophisticated and functional wire management, big choice of colours. Finishes: metal structures in aluminium or white colour, worktops in all finishes listed in the catalogue.


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> select price
Patriotic Salute
Standing Spray
Product DescriptionSend your beloved patriot off with a standing spray that encompasses the passion they had for their country. The Patriotic Salute standing spray will bring comfort to the hearts of those who are mourning by embodying the patriotism of the hero you lay to rest. This spray features calming white lilies, radiant red Gerbera daisies, and accenting blue delphinium to truly embrace their patriotic spirit.
You might also be interested in these arrangements
When you order custom designs, they will be produced as closely as possible to the picture. Please remember that each design is custom made. No two arrangements are exactly alike and color and/or variety substitutions of flowers and containers may be necessary. Prices and availability of seasonal flowers may vary.
Our professional staff of floral designers are always eager to discuss any special design or product requests. Call us at the number above and we will be glad to assist you with a special request or a timed delivery.


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When life is unsteady and a sudden thrust of unsettling news unexpectedly hits I am faced with the uncomfortable reality that life is fragile. A smile from my sweet baby becomes more precious, the happy shrieks from the boys makes me joyful rather than annoyed, and the popcorn kernels littering my floor continue to reside there as I'd rather enjoy a prolonged snuggle than interrupt that time with the roar of the vacuum.
The poignancy of those moments fade more quickly than I care to admit. The monotony of everyday life returns as does the ability to take it for granted. The screams become as offensive as chewing on egg shells and the baby's smile fades as she becomes bored playing alone while her mother tries to retain some sort of order and sanity in the house.
An image pops up on the computer – victims of the tragic devastation in Japan. Their is a terror in their eyes that I have never known. With water raging behind them they cling to a slumped body of a child who is tired and afraid. Their faces are stained with mud and confusion seemingly asking what's next? where do we go? what the hell just happened?
The gift of such catastrophic events is an appreciation of simplicity and a awakening to the reality that life is fleeting. But the harsh truth is in this moment thousands of lives are wrecked. My mind can not comprehend the fear, pain, and destruction that abounds in Japan at this very moment. My heart breaks for everyone involved and I continue to pray for all those affected. If you feel so inclined and are financially able to give the CHC organization is a great way to take action and there are so many other ways to help.
I'm a once again devastated with grief and overcome with joy for the gifts that I have today. I don't know what tomorrow will bring but today I will savor the smiles, the rowdiness of young boys and the comfort of homemade bread.
I can not think of a more comforting combination than fresh baked bread and tomato sauce. In one bite you are faced with sweet, salty, acid, and chew. The familiar feel of warm dough worked between your finger tips and knowing that the very thing your are coaxing into a supple round is alive and well.
The dough rises and falls gaining elasticity and flavor. With simple ingredients and a safe environment the bread thrives rewarding you with a dinner that reminds you to slow down and appreciate today. In the heat of the oven the brightness of the tomato sauce subtly invades the baking bread creating a taste reminiscent of my mom's homemade pizza that I lovingly remember from my childhood. The pillow-like crust pleasantly took center stage then as it does now. Sometimes all you need is red sauce and bread.
Foccacia with Red Sauce
inspired by Tessa Kiros, Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook – a delightful book, I highly recommend.
This dish is made even simpler with the addition of store bought marinara. I know, I know. It's so simple to make your own but there are days when even making marinara seems an impossible task. For those days I recommend using Newman's Own. I like it best.
1¾ cups warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 tsp honey
1 tbl olive oil
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 tsp salt
1 (24 oz) jar Newman's Own Marinara (or homemade red sauce)
Pre-heat oven to 375º. Put the water, yeast, honey,
oil and 1½ cups of flour in a bowl and mix. Whisk together. On top of that add the rest of the flour, salt and garlic but do not stir. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and leave for 20 minutes. Mix the dough together and knead the dough for 4-5 minutes.
The dough will feel soft and slightly sticky. Cover and leave for 1½ hours or until the dough has doubled in size. Lightly oil a
9″x13″ pan. Punch down the dough and spread evenly over the base of the pan. Cover and leave to rise for 45 minutes or until puffy. Carefully dimple the dough with your fingers and gently spread Newman's Own Marinara. A few torn up leaves of fresh Basil makes a great addition.
Bake in a 375º oven until edges are golden, about 20-25 minutes. Let cool slightly then serve.
*This post was part of an ad campaign in association with Newman's Own. But the words are mine. I wouldn't write about it if I didn't love it. I think you'll agree. 🙂


text: Meow Meow stars in Victorian Opera's 'Tis Pity. Pia Johnson/Victorian Opera Februari 6, 2017 Whores through the ages: 'Tis Pity entertains but fails to cut through Sophie Boyd-Hurrell, University of Melbourne Victoria Opera's 'Tis Pity brings a litany of harlots to the stage, but doesn't give its female lead many characters to play with. Indeed it risks capitulating to the very 'male hypocrisy' it seeks to address.


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Rockies hold on, edge Giants in slugfest
Denver, CO – Jordan Pacheco's first homer of the year resulted in his first career grand slam, and it helped the Rockies snap a 10- game skid against the San Francisco Giants.
Pacheco's blast broke a tie in the fifth inning and carried Colorado to a 10-9 win at Coors Field in the second portion of a four-game series.
The Giants rallied from a six-run deficit Thursday for an 8-6 win and nearly came back again Friday night.
Buster Posey's solo homer in the eighth inning brought the Giants within a run, but Rafael Betancourt struck out the side in the ninth to pick up his 10th save of the year.
"It's important for us to put away games, no matter who we're playing against. It's just nice to be able to fight back and put away a game at the end," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.
Pacheco drove in five runs and Carlos Gonzalez also homered for the Rockies.
Jorge De La Rosa (5-3) allowed nine hits and five runs over five innings for Colorado, while Madison Bumgarner (4-2) yielded eight hits and nine runs -- seven earned -- in 4 2/3 frames for the Giants. Bumgarner had a six-game winning streak against the Rockies broken.
Pablo Sandoval went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI in the loss, while Marco Scutaro also had three hits and drove in a run.
"This offense is doing a good job of coming back, but we have to get this pitching back on track," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
Scutaro singled to left field with one out in the opening inning to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. Sandoval then doubled and Posey followed with a sacrifice fly to right for a 1-0 San Francisco lead.
The Giants widened the gap in the second inning. Eric Young failed to make a diving catch on a ball that Brett Pill hit down the right-field line that resulted in a double. Pill then scooted to third on a fly ball to center from Andres Torres. Replays, though, showed Pill was out at third on a great throw from Torres, with Nolan Arenado applying a shoulder tag. Brandon Crawford followed with an RBI single to right.
Scutaro and Sandoval singled in runs later in the second to make the score 4-0.
The Rockies got their first run in the bottom half on Pacheco's RBI groundout, soon after Bumgarner threw the ball into center field trying to start a double play.
Colorado tied it at 4-4 in the third thanks to four consecutive singles, the last two by Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki.
Sandoval's single plated Angel Pagan in the fourth, but the Rockies scored five times in the fifth. Wilin Rosario's single to left scored Dexter Fowler for a 5-5 tie. D.J. LeMahieu then walked to fill the bases for Pacheco, who blasted a pitch from Bumgarner well over the wall in left field.
Gonzalez made it 10-5 with a homer to center off George Kontos in the sixth, but the Giants battled back with three runs in the seventh.
Hunter Pence's triple to right scored Posey for the first run. Pence came home on Edgmer Escalona's wild pitch, and pinch-hitter Joaquin Arias singled in Pill later in the frame.
With a runner on third and two outs, Pagan lined out to a diving Fowler in center field to end the frame.
"It's a game changer. He's so valuable roaming that center field for us. That was a big-time play," Weiss said.
Game Notes
Scutaro is hitting .485 (32-for-66) during his hitting streak ... Giants pitchers have allowed 44 home runs this season in just 42 games ... San Francisco left nine men on base.


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From SELinux Wiki
Revision as of 00:43, 10 December 2008 by JamesMorris (Talk | contribs)
sVirt is a community effort aimed at integrating Mandatory Access Control (MAC) security and Linux-based virtualization (KVM, lguest et al).
- SVirt TODO - list of things to be done.
- Code drops Prototype release v0.10
- KVM kernel-based virtual machine project.
- lguest The Simple x86 Hypervisor.
- Qemu generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer (used by KVM).
- libvirt the virtualization API.
- libvir-list mailing list for libvirt development.


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As explained in my last column, the rule of thumb that relies on time horizon and risk tolerance to make investment decisions is flawed. The simple math of "100 minus your age equals your stock allocation" creates more danger than most investors realize — often until it is too late.
The true test of whether investment decisions are right for you is whether you can secure your financial well being no matter how the investment market performs. To make smart investment strategy decisions, you need to understand your "financial risk capacity." Financial risk capacity is a holistic, objective evaluation of many factors that make up your ability to sustain the risk of investment losses.
For the sake of your financial well being, take an in depth look at the following 10 factors that define financial risk capacity:
1. How important is the goal?
The more important the goal, the less risk should be taken with the money earmarked for that goal. Think about it: Most people won't bet the rent money. In general, the more you care about a goal, the less risk you should take to achieve it.
2. What's the relationship between your paycheck and the stock market?
If your paycheck goes up and down in perfect harmony with the stock market, pare back the stocks in your investment strategy. Take diversification to a new level, and treat your career as an asset class.
3. How secure is your job?
The less chance of being out of work, the greater your investment risk capacity. A tenured professor with a steady paycheck and lifetime pension falls into this category. On the other hand, a commissioned sales person in a feast or famine cyclical industry is better served with a lower risk investment strategy.
4. How strong are your financial safety nets?
The foundation of a secure financial house is built with cash, savings, and a full suite of insurance — health, life, disability, home, auto, and liability. Investors without a strong foundation are wise to batten down the financial hatches before heading into risky investment strategies, or choose a safer path altogether.
5. How much debt do you owe?
If you have credit cards that you can't pay off every month, or if your combined debt payments total more than one third of your income, forget about aggressive investing. You are better off building safety nets and lightening the debt load.
6. What are the options if there's not enough?
If you are short on money for a goal, and also out of ways to make up the shortfall, don't take chances with what you have saved. There's a tendency to amp up investment risk if you feel you won't have enough. Remember that the stock market is one of the least reliable ways to play "catch up" financially.
7. What's your financial and risk IQ?
The more knowledgeable you are about investments and risk, the better equipped you are to make informed decisions that serve your best interests. If you're investing with a learners' permit, drive safely.
8. Are you naturally risk averse or thrill seeking?
Tune into your bias: Do you see opportunity or danger? Thrill seekers must resist the urge to pile on 'exciting' high risk investments when goals can be met with lower risk, albeit boring strategies. Likewise, scared-y cats may be more capable of surviving risks than they perceive.
9. What are your future financial commitments?
Take the long view, and see what lies ahead financially. If an aging parent or boomerang child may need financial support, or a balloon payment is due on the mortgage, you may have less capacity for investment risk.
10. What is your time horizon?
This classic tenant does have a place in investment decision making. In general, and everything else being equal, the sooner you need the money, the less investment risk you should take. However, the opposite is not always true, and caution is in order: The financial security of a young investor is not a sure thing with a high risk investment strategy, especially over a long time horizon.
Coming up: Your risk capacity and investment strategy.


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Hello, Friend!
Amin Khelil
Mohamed Kouri
Tawfik Djemai
Human resource
Noureddine LOUAHEDJ
Every year, globally Conference series LLC organizes series of International robotics conferences, Artificial Intelligence conferences. On behalf of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Conferences, we extend a warm welcome to the distinguished Nobel laureates, speakers, delegates related to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence research, robotics research, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence industries, Robotics industries and Policy Makers, from around the world to Osaka for attending 4th world congress on robotics and artificial intelligence during October 23-24, 2017 in Osaka, Japan.
The theme of the conference is "Smart living machines for sustainable future" aims to bring together leading Robotics Industrialists, Artificial Intelligence Industrialists Researchers, Policy Makers, and Academicians, including Nobel Laureates to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence industries.
This event will focus on variety of advanced research topics including Robotics,Robotics and Screw Theory,Human-Robot Interaction, Industrial Application of Robots, Bioengineering and Biomechanics , Robotics and Mechatronics , MEMS and Micro robotics, Robot manipulators, Artificial Intelligence, Medical Robotics, Multi-robot System, Remote and Telerobotics, Robot Localization and Map Building, Mobile Robot, Humanoid Robots, Neural Networks.
Robotics and Artificial Intelligenc includes invited plenary lectures, symposia, workshops, invited sessions and oral and poster sessions of unsolicited contributions.
Join us for two intensive and interesting days of discussing contemporary challenges and new advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence research. We invite you to contribute and help to shape the event through submissions of your research abstracts, papers and e-posters. Also, high quality research contributions describing original and unpublished results of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, or theoretical work in all areas of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence research are cordially invited for presentation at the conference.


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My small nation. It is located south of the United Systems Alliance (Space DR under Space USA)
The Army and backstory coming soon
Moderators: Zahru II, Natalya, RedRover
DJ Squidley wrote:Do they have fancy-fold resort napkin jets? Are they elegantly dressed and hiring Haitian militias?
Omega Prime wrote:Oh god, it's an original OTC... Are those renegade Iceworlders?
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PLAINWELL, Mich. (AP) >> People aren't the only ones suffering through Michigan's record-breaking winter.
Waterbirds such as grebes, mergansers and loons are struggling, too, because their normal areas of open water have frozen over.
In foggy, snowy conditions that create low visibility, exhausted birds are landing on iced-over highways, roads and driveways, which may resemble open water from the air.
Once they are out of the water, the birds are helpless, unable to take flight or even walk on land, state Department of Natural Resources biologist Mark Mills said. Grebes, mergansers and a few other species have feet that are placed far back on their bodies to allow them to dive for fish. Because of that placement, the birds are not able to take off from dry land.
"They can't get any traction to run and take off," Mills told the Kalamazoo Gazette (http://bit.ly/1pJZqDx).
The stranded birds can starve if they are not found and returned to the water in a timely fashion.
The phenomenon happens nearly every year, but reports of stranded waterfowl have been high this winter, officials said.
"Plainwell was (a) hot spot in January," Mills said of the Kalamazoo-area community, with a few calls coming in each day.
DNR staff members were able to retrieve one young loon and keep it in the Plainwell operations building overnight.
"They took him out to the Kalamazoo River, and he swam and swam," Mills said.
The DNR is asking state residents to keep an eye out for stranded birds and to contact a local wildlife rehabilitator if they spot one.
Information from: Kalamazoo Gazette, http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo


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Fake a Fresh Face
For many of us the day doesn't end at 6 p.m., in fact, sometimes it's just getting started. Parties, dinners, and nights out on the town mean sometimes being a little tired is the badge of a fun life--but looking tired is no fun at all. The solution? Perfecting an a.m. routine to look and feel fresh and rested! So we checked in with a few of our favorite "It" girls for their post-party regimen. For these tastemakers, burning the candle at both ends means fashion week, award season, premieres, and early mornings to match--so naturally we had to know their secrets.
1/6Late nights are the name of the game for musicians like Thomas, drummer for The Like. "In the morning I make a smoothie loaded up with whatever fruit or veggies I have in the fridge and a few supplements," she says. "And I love The Russian and Turkish Baths in New York for the hottest sauna and iciest plunge pool in town," Thomas says. "Then I use whatever natural and organic products I have on hand from Dr. Hauschka."
2/6Model/designer Dexter-Jones recovers from a night out with a lineup of hot and cold: Dr. Hauschka's Facial Steam Bath ($35), the brand's Cleansing Clay Mask ($50), followed by an ice mask, like TheraPearl's Eye-ssential Pack ($12).
3/6Models are on the go 24/7 during fashion month, so who better to trust regarding instant face refreshers? "I apply a teaspoon of raw, organic honey as a pre-bed face mask," Aldridge says. "Cleanse your skin well and leave it on for 15 minutes." In the morning the model grabs a fresh juice: "Drink an antioxidant-rich drink that is made fresh, and it's so simple, but an eyelash curler really gives you that extra perk."
4/6Leyland opts for a jolt of nutrition the morning after a party. "A green juice is key for me," says the jet-setting DJ. "I don't drink coffee so it's my replacement. I love Dr. Green Juice from the Juice Press, and I also make a smoothie every morning with maca for energy. It really helps when I'm run down."
5/6Model/DJ Viera-Newton reaches for a lineup of skin-saving potions. "For post-night out help, I rely on Clinique's Even Better Eyes Dark Circle Corrector ($40) to cool the eyes and help with puffiness, Dior's Hydra Life Beauty Awakening Rehydrating Mask ($40) to give my skin a moisture boost, and Cle de Peau's Concealer ($70) for covering dark circles and any blemishes." Once she has her face whipped into shape she smoothes Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream ($20) onto her lips: "It's my savior! That and water, water, water!"
6/6"Removing your makeup before bed eliminates so many of your problems before you wake up and have to look at yourself in the mirror!" Port says. In the morning the designer applies Finer Skin Institute's Hydrating Masque ($36) before using an old-school trick. "Put two spoons in the freezer in advance. When you wake up, take them out of the freezer and lay the backs on your eyes. The coldness really helps reduce swelling and redness," she says. "Then grab a refreshing fresh juice."


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Good Sunday Morning,
Life is busy and I'm not very good at this "facebook" culture thing, however, I am in need of some guidance and you all seem most eager to engage.
Thank you for the warm reception Atheist Nexus has extended to me. I suspect I have never felt this alone in my life, and it is scaring the hell out of me. I've not yet devoted enough time to pursue any group involvement, until today. Still a bit skittish, I guess.
Though I am certain /confident about my decision to abandon "The Faith", I am very UN-certain about the way forward and what I suspect for me is "Atheist-by-Default". I am truly concerned about just replacing one faith for another, that is, to operate under ANY paradigm using the same principles of faith I have exercised for the past 30 years . I am reading voraciously, but I am sinking into a black pit faster than I know how to dig. I wake up with terrible bouts of anxiety most mornings and terrible bouts of guilt as I sent my family off to church without me. My christian friends are hammering hard (in Love, of course!) to see me back within the fold. I cannot go back, but I can't afford to go crazy, either!
I was "born again" at age 16 in 1978 at the explosion of the Charismatic Movement. Not quiet as hardcore as what Rich Lyons came out of, but very fundamentalist. I helped start New Life Church in the '80s and watched 14000 people revile and reject Ted Haggard when he "fell" in 2006. I continued as a fully committed, invested member of "The Body of Christ" until last November, 2011 when, after 5 years of reflection and struggle, I announced to my family that I have abandoned my faith. My family has been downright supportive, though not understanding. They remain believers and I'm fine with that.
Certainly, at first, I felt like I had slipped unnoticed through a hole in the fence surrounding my "Christian Ghetto" .
I felt exhilarated, dancing unashamed in the sunlight! I knew at once I have chosen to never go back. However, as night began to fall... over this past year I see my efforts in the past 30 years at "thinking Christian" have been thorough and effective and I find myself ill equipped to manage my own destiny, The full force of my conclusion that god does not exist (and all which that implies!) has me shaken to the very core! I am terrified by the permanence of death, Crushed by the prospect that my 19 yr. old son, who died in 2010, did not survive the grave, struggling mightily to redefine meaning in a universe that does not endow us with meaning.
My head feels empty like a very large house from which the long overdue departure of once invited relatives has finally come! My head and my heart are my own, the transition has been as natural as... waking up, refreshed and excited about a new day! I don't wish to go back, NOR do I wish to simply replace faith in the "Word of God" for faith in the Words of Darwin or Dawkins or Dennett. I'm wandering about in this big, beautiful house, excited by the possibilities, but fairly overwhelmed by the scope of the task to tear down the parts of my old world view that are rotten and untrustworthy and to rebuild or to start afresh somehow.
Look, I could go on for pages here... (it's been refreshing! I've no one to really talk to), but I think you get it!
Views: 630
Gosh Mark, I feel your pain. I was about 32 when I quit believing and went through some withdrawals at the time. I'm 66 now and still haven't come out to my family. My father was a preacher. Maybe when Mom moves on to the next adventure, I'll finally tell everyone. Wish you were in southeast Indiana because I am very alone in this area and could use some freethinkers to talk with here.
What is it that you crave the most? I needed books to read and I'm still doing Bible study just to be prepared if anyone confronts me. A good book along those lines is "Misquoting Jesus" by Bart Ehrman. There are lots of books to read and they are very helpful.
The only people I've "come out" to is my immediate family. However, when asked directly OR indirectly (So, how's your walk with the Lord, Brother?), I am honest and forthright. I hope, in the New Year, to start telling my friends and relations actively, purely from a spirit that we claim to love each other. I do not wish to convert people to non-theism nor do I seek negative attention, but my silence is a mild form of deception. Besides, I'm as excited by my new perspective as when I was "born again" minus the need to proselytize.
"What is it that you crave the most?"
Roy, I crave fellowship with like minded people. I crave a deeper understanding and confidence in this new world view I've adopted
That's my feelings exactly.
I have to second the reading of books as a way of coping. Here's a list of books I read that I really liked:
Ehrman - Misquoting Jesus, Jesus Interrupted, God's Problem, Lost Christianities
Elaine Pagels - Beyond Belief, Adam Eve and the Serpent, The Gnostic Gospels
John Dominic Crossan - The Power of Parable
Richard Elliot Friedman - Who Wrote the Bible
Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman - The Bible Unearthed
It does get better and life suddenly seems more important. I can relate with the fear of death but I would equate it with going to sleep. Does it upset you that you lost several hours while sleeping. The problem is people think they're more important than they really are. I just came to terms with the fact that in the grand scheme of things I'm just a blip and I should just focus on enjoying the life I have while I have it.
I have tossed around such thoughts without much support for 27 years and until recently had few resources to rely upon. Suddenly, there is a multitude of resources that have become available on the Internet, but they still feel rather impersonal.
It is most difficult because we were not given the tools to solve personal issues outside a church setting. Religions do not equip us to function without them as our guide. Very slowly now, I have begun to realize that I must become acclimated to the sensations that self-direction brings. This means setting my own goals (though first I must find them) and follow them to the extent that I feel satisfied in the level of achievement I have attained. Having attained these goals, it is not always something we are able to share with others in our immediate neighborhood, since most people are of the religious variety.
Thankfully, there are some religions which have secular goals and ethics and downplay the supernatural aspects, if any. We need not always be doing things to attain the end of being "to the glory of God."
Most therapies, whether done by oneself or by a therapist, suggest becoming slowly accustomed through use, little by little, to the sensations of your new chosen lifestyle. Sometimes it feels empowering, sometimes it feels like we are adrift without an anchor or blowing in the wind.
Really, it sounds to me like you are well on your way. I don't think you are going to have too many problems. My main worry is losing my old friends. I haven't lost any yet, but then I only of the closet door slightly ajar. It would be helpful if I didn't live so far out in the country.
Thanks for your encouragement! I really appreciate your perspective and struggle and indeed wish we could meet up face to face as that is a very important part of being human. I have yet to find the time and courage to go to a meeting of freethinkers/atheists and I have plenty to choose from between Colorado Springs and Denver! I've no excuse.
"I have begun to realize that I must become acclimated to the sensations that self-direction brings."
This is F'ing brilliant! This directly speaks to what I have been experiencing and guessing at! When I'm certain I can't go on like this, I realize I MUST give it time and "acclimate". And to pinpoint it as "sensations" is so insightful as it mirrors my struggle. This has such a visceral component that is often easy to discount in favor of the intellectual aspect, but you have helped me see that I neglect the "whole man" to my peril!
As with the other 2 gentlemen who have responded to my post, I am SO Thankful to be the beneficiary of your trials and experience! I feel a bit embarrassed being such a "whiner" after only a year! I do not think, however, I have the endurance or patience that you all seem to exhibit. As you so rightly point out , "Knowing that this life is the only one I'll ever get to have makes me want to This exactly mirrors my thinking and experience! I am very anxious to "get it right" and get on with it!
I have yet to view your video suggestion, but I will let you know what I think
GoodNight All
I have no idea what you are going through, since I have never been in the grips of religion of any sort (regardless of being surrounded by it in my formative years), but I wonder if a harmless transitional phase would help. Perhaps try reading about Spinoza (good info on wiki), or search out some other patheistic writings to acclimate yourself to a world that appears to have order without having eternal judgement and all the other negatives that probably led you to your current position. I don't think it would be like trading one ideology for another - it's just a safe place to think about your transition out of mental enslavement.
Mark in some of my darkest hours these two videos have brought me a lot of comfort and reassurance, I keep them bookmarked to return to again and again when I find myself lonely or angry and in need of calm. I hope they'll be of some benefit to you. The first one is from one of my all time heroes Carl Sagan:
Pale Blue Dot
I have pretty much worn out all my Sagan books too!
The second is from philhellenes on Youtube, I highly recommend all his videos, this one in particular is beautiful, absolutely stunning actually and he makes the case quite well:
Roy mentioned a writer I quite enjoy as well, Bart Ehrman, all his books are fabulous. Also having come from a more fundamentalist background, I enjoy listening to this guy - Jerry DeWitt - he just makes you feel better about everything and anything you can get your hands on by Dan Barker I would highly recommend, for those of us coming from the fundamentalist background it doesn't get much better than Dan and Jerry, they were both preachers and were there with us in the quagmire of that madness and now they are part of the Clergy Project, helping other Clergy members break free from the madness and find a new place in the world, so what they have to say will probably resonate with you, as it did with me! Found this and edited it back in, this may be a better DeWitt piece for this purpose Jerry De Witt on Hope after Faith at Reason in the Rock 2012
We're here Dan, a lot of us are hiding in this corner of the web. I'm one of those that is out with the family but I don't feel exactly safe being out to the larger community down here, it's a RED STATE! I don't get over to the Nexus as often as I'd like to these days, I used to read it every day but lately I'm working a lot and don't have time, but I do check every few days to see what's new here in the neighborhood. I just happened to see your post and wanted to help a fellow former prisoner out!
Can you tell me more about your "darkest hours"? I'm pretty sure I won't go crazy, but it helps me greatly to hear of the struggles of those who have gone before!
I will try to watch the vids you suggested and let you know what I think.
Great input from all! I'm eating it up and digesting. Heavy stuff. Keep it coming!
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Strong Storms Pound West Michigan, More Coming [Video]
Extremely strong thunderstorms ripped through portions of West Michigan on Saturday, leaving some pretty significant damage.
Strong winds knocked down trees and power lines, leaving thousands with no power. Consumers energy expects most to be resorted by late Monday night.
Power By The Numbers
The hardest hit was Muskegon County with 25,835 sitting in the dark. Mecosta with 12,918, Kent 12,569, Ionia 4,799, Oceana 1,985, Newaygo 1,499, Mason 1,009, and Ottawa 594.
The Damage
There were reports that funnel clouds were spotted, no actual tornado touchdowns were reported. 80-mile-per-hour straight winds are responsible for most of the damage, including ripping part of Kent City High School's gym roof off.
What's Next?
WZZM reports that more showers and thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and this evening, with temperatures being fairly mild in the mid 60s.
Heavy rain between today, tonight and tomorrow could cause flooding along the Grand River.