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Live Comedy in London |
Manchester |
Cheque to follow...
The contraction of the 'comedy boom' has been well documented. Green room chat and long car journeys are mainly being filled with negative stories, bitching and Mayan-like prophesies of impending doom.
The hard times become particularly frustrating though when they are being made needlessly hard by promoters who are slow to pay. I've just found myself skint and once again going crawling to promoters for money owed to me, just so I can afford the diesel to get to a gig.
I'm far from alone on this front, I've spoken to two other comedians this week alone who have had to pull gigs, at late notice, because money they were counting on didn't materialise and they were no longer able to get to the venue.
The knock-on effect of this is that those acts run the risk of being ostracised by other promoters for pulling out. You can hardly blame them after all, they've billed said act, had posters, mail-outs and tickets with their name on it for months only to be let down at the last minute.
With so many comedians in this day and age there is always someone just as good, so why would they take the risk in rebooking someone who's let them down?
At the minute I'm owed a grand sum of almost £3,000. Not a bad figure all being considered, so what am I moaning about? I'm owed that money from a total of five promoters, some of it dating back as far as six months.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the financial struggle and difficulties that the promoters endure as well as the constant struggle to get people to fill the seats in these inclement economical times, but that's a different discussion.
The promoters earn their money on the night, through ticket sales and, depending on the nature of their deal, food and booze, so it's galling to have to wait as other bills mount up. At the top end you have agents who bill us monthly for commission, quarterly VAT and the annual tax bill – and you can't argue with the HMRC.
What is often overlooked is the money spent in getting to gigs. A weekend in one of Britain's further flung cities can easily cost £250 including travel and accommodation. This will be reimbursed of course, but in possibly up to six months time…and counting. Not all gigs are as far away and as expensive, but even the closest of venues incur costs. A tank of fuel costs £70 for a small car, in the last nine months alone I've covered 25,000 miles. That's not counting train tickets, coach tickets and parking.
So we're left with a situation whereby the promoter has their money, the agent has his money, the tax man has his and I've paid out, and continue to pay out hundreds in travel costs – all while waiting to be paid.
There will be a breaking point, there has to be, because there are mortgages, rents and utilities to be paid and people have to eat. With more and more comedians returning to part-time status, perhaps they will drop out of the game, or through lack of practise fail to cut the mustard at the top level, which means the industry will plateau. In what other line of work would you wait for wages for half a year and continue to show up for work?
I grew up without very much money, and for me there's nothing more embarrassing than being skint and having to ask someone for cash. When that money is owed to you and you've earned it, it's even worse. But you can't be forceful, you certainly can't be rude and you can't threaten such things as legally recovering those funds like any normal company would do. Well you can, but you'll only ostracise yourself again, because who wants to book a troublemaker?
With so many comedians around who are just as good as you, all the power lies in the hands of the people who pay the fees, when they fail to play their part in the chain, or at least stall in doing so, that is an abuse of power.
Published: 4 Dec 2012
Past Shows
Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Edinburgh Fringe 2013
Ryan McDonnell: Stupid Hair and Skinny Jeans
Anita Elizabeth Holmes
Contact by email
Artist Management
Mobile: 0790 5310027


text:
NORWALK, Conn. —
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subset: commoncrawl


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Trending News
Is Norway the most pussified country?
-They surrendered to the Nazis in WWII.
-Anders Breivik murders 77 and injures 151 of its citizens, his punishment is living in a safe hotel for 20 years.
-Rape skyrockets as Muslim immigration grows, Norway does nothing.
Honestly, I can't believe these people are the descendants of the Vikings.
22 Answers
- Anonymous8 years agoFavorite Answer
They are pretty weak; yes.
- Binst is busyLv 78 years ago
Norway is a pretty self sufficient country that decided against joining the EU and the Euro. Nevertheless they've contributed a lot to the United Nations. I admire them for staying independent and integer, unlike the Swiss for instance, who earned their money from stolen Jewish heritage and acting as a safe haven for black money.
Psychopaths live in every country of the world, sadly one of them decided to make history in Norway.
Nowadays, like all countries in Europe (as far as I know), the Norwegian people think that the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment. What the verdict of Anders Breivik will be remains to be seen.
- Anonymous8 years ago
Norwegians did not surrender to the Nazis in WWII. In fact, when the Nazis came into their country and said all the Jews had to wear gold stars, every single person in the country started wearing gold stars. They chose from the beginning to fight the war in the their own way. Keep in mind, the allies were stretched pretty thin and the Norwegians knew they were on their own. They developed an intricate and highly developed underground resistance. No one had to send thousands of troops to Norway to free them, and if it weren't for the intelligence they gathered, I doubt very much the war in Europe would have been won.
Fast forward 65 years to a horrible incident, committed by a person who was under the same influence as others who have committed as heinous crimes in other countries.
I have not read the statistics on a skyrocketing increase in rape in any country directly related to an increase in Muslim population.
Keep in mind, Norwegian history is as old if not older than Roman or Greek history, but I don't see any gladiators coming out of Italy, no Spartans coming from Greece, to defend the world.
At least the Norwegians can take care of themselves, which is more than can be said of Italy or Greece.
Times have changed since the 6th century.
- Anonymous8 years ago
1. Nope, they were actually one of the few countries that did not surrender to the Germans during WW2. Despite being caught off guard and outnumbered 33 to 1, the Norwegians held off the Wehrmacht for three months before evacuating the government overseas to Britain. They then fought a guerrilla war with hundreds of commandos and tens of thousands of resistance people for the next five years. They tied up about half a million German troops, there just to keep the country officially in German hands.They provided vital intelligence for the Allies, stopped the Nazi nuclear programme, and in 1944 they had a chance to recapture their country, as 90% of the German troops were leaving in order to reinforce the Panzerjäger divisions that were closing in on the American and British troops that had landed in France. Instead of waiting for the Germans to leave and take back their country, they trapped about 450.000 German troops in the country, in one of the largest joint sabotage operations in history, as they destroyed all infrastructure leading out of the country and all ships large enough to carry troops. Without the reinforcements from "Festung Norwegen", the Panzerjäger divisions found themselves isolated and outnumbered in the Ardennes, and the American troops were eventually able to hold them off in the Battle of the Bulge. The Norwegian sabotage action is considered one of the most important actions in all of WW2, as anyone with interest for the period knows.
2. He will not stay in for 21 years. The Norwegian Civil Law system does not allow charges to stack, however indefinite containment is allowed, effectively creating a life sentence despite the culprit receiving an official sentence of 21 years.
3. The only place in Norway rape has increased notably is in Oslo, and even there only 49% of rapes are carried out by people of a foreign background (a misunderstanding initially led to a false news report that all rapes had been done by Muslims, which was first corrected two days after the newspapers had printed it). And given that the majority of foreigners in Norway are not Muslim, but European, the actual percetnage of rapes carried ut by Muslims probably lies closer to the 25% it should be, according to the demographics of Oslo.Source(s): Mister, I study in Norway and has already attained a degree in History, Would you please research your rethorical questions before posting them?
- How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- ShiloLv 78 years ago
The court verdict will not be known until July 20..........until then, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about the pussification of an entire nation.
- hironymusLv 78 years ago
That's what you get with political correctness and multiculturalism. I still don't know who came up with the stupid idea that overpopulated Europe has to accept millions of 3rd world immigrants that don't learn the language and don't assimilate. All they do is raise the crime rates and the costs of social services. Not all of them, but far too many.
- FrogLv 68 years ago
I know right? Whatever happened to lopping the heads off foreigners and sailing down rivers of blood to sweet sweet Valhalla. Sigh. Those were the days.
- Anonymous8 years ago
Yes indeed, they need to get some of that Fidel Castro style liberalism in there.
- RebeccaLv 58 years ago
And yet they have one of the strongest economies in the world today
- Anonymous8 years ago
Sweden is worse.
But yeah...******* abound in that part of the world. I do think the Finns are waking up however.
- Anonymous8 years ago
Wow! I'm amazed that I agree with you on this! (For future reference, I might have leaned more toward: "pusillanimous" rather than p----fied)
BTW, I was just thinking about MIDI equipment (musical instrument digital interface) and saw this question. Don't tell me you were, too. That'd be spooooky.


text:
Fandom: X-Files
Notes: Written for the X-files Red Shirt Lyric Wheel. Thanks to Waterfall for the lyrics
Empty. Hollow. Have we won? Is this what we've fought for? I look around at the faces around me and see the echo of what is within me. Is it too late for us to live our lives? Two thirds of the world's population is decimated by the 'reseeding' a conglomeration of the efforts of the resistance to prevent the colonisation, against the scientific know how and reach of the colonists. If administered early enough, there was a 50% chance of survival. Even later, people were willing to take the risk. The other path led to madness. We had not enough resources to vaccinate the entire world. Not nearly enough people to save. Not nearly enough time.
The sun reaches over the horizon, staining the sky with light, the grey of predawn fading, spinning across the spectrum towards a pure blue. The purity of the light washes over the pale faces of the remains of the resistance, standing before the burnt ruins of a huge funeral pyre. Eyes, long used to darkness water in pain, but we do not turn away, staring into the cleansing fire. Comrades lost in this final Pyrrhic victory, friends lost in the flames, sent on their way, winging through the spiralling smoke.
Mind numb, I stare into the slowly dying coals of the pyre, fading finally after the night long vigil. After being rescued from a research centre of the Consortium, it seemed natural, logical to join the Resistance, aid in destroying what had almost destroyed me. A large part of the Resistance was of my type, with a similar history. We were the lost, the broken. The ones with little to live for, with little life left to live. Only a sense of vengeance keeping us on this earth. We were the fanatics, the zealots, but faithless, believing no longer in a god, no higher power. Innocence and faith long torn from our bodies, our minds through 'experiments' and 'enhancements' administered.
I had a sort of loyalty, I suspect. Deep seated confusion as to whether to thank or hate my rescuers for bringing me back. Swinging from an almost puppy dog gratitude to a soul deep hatred. They dealt with the mood swings of the 'rescued' well, I'll give them that. The small group of leaders, a mixture of intelligence agencies, America, Russia, China, all working together, all leading from the front, a tactic that earned them respect, it being so far from the Consortium's man behind the curtain attitude that the smoking bastard developed. The upper echelon also suffered casualties, losses felt far more than the majority of bodies lying in state, due to the focus bent on them. Huddled together, the remains of the day take comfort in one another.
A cool breeze, laden with morning fog wends its way across the forested edge, accompanying us as we bury underneath our feet the remains of what's been left behind. The morning chill soaks its way into our bones, aching already from the battle fought and we move slowly feeling twice our age. A solitary black marble headstone marks the focus of this mass grave, its unmarked surface awaiting the time when we could spare the work required to etch the lives of the lost into the stone. Blank gazes focus somewhere beyond the mound of freshly turned earth as muttered half remembered prayers are spoken by those that still believed, the murmur of different languages and religions blending into a soft mourning keen.
The sun, now over the horizon washes the area with a surreal glow, almost seemingly too cheery and bright for the scene contained within. It burns off the chill, the mist, the dew glistening like tiny jewels inset in green. The forest awakens slowly, the wildlife surprisingly unaffected by the destruction meted out. One by one we turn, facing into the light. There was only one way to go now. Into the sunlight, away from the darkness that we have lived too long in. Hoping that one day, we can regain what was lost, rebuild what has been destroyed.
For only hope remains.
Crown of Scars
performed by Lifehouse
lyrics by Jason Wade
Forget about
the fight to wear the crown of scars
Cause you've already won
Forget the pain and leave tears behind you
Bury underneath your feet the remains
Of what's been left behind
Cause you have got a long, long way to run
But now
you dance the rest of the way
And you don't look back
Can you hear that angel singing
As you rise
Now you
fly away
And you don't look down now
And you laugh til you can't laugh any longer
As you watch your chains fall to the ground
Will you
fall against the wall that you have built
With your own hands
When you trip upon the thorns that you have tied
Your legs together with
When you walk upon thin ice you know you should
Not be walking
Why do you wonder why that you fell through
Now you
fly away
And you don't look down now
And you laugh til you can't laugh any longer
As you watch your chains fall to the ground
I know you
And show tears
Smile down at your fears
From where you are
From way up here
You know nothing's ever looked so good
Nothing ever looked so good
But now
you dance the rest of the way
You don't look back
Can you hear that angel singing
As you rise
Back to index


text:
Trial Eights form a crucial part of The Boat Race season each year. The athletes will race the full length of the Championship Course from Putney to Mortlake. It is an important learning curve for new triallists and a chance for each squad member to show their potential. Trial Eights are also a great opportunity for the coaches to see how their athletes fare under the unique side by side racing and the unpredictable conditions on the Tideway.
The squads will be split in two, with the coaches hoping to create evenly matched crews to test the individual rowers on their ability to perform under pressure. As per The Boat Race, the crews will race from Putney to Mortlake along the full 4 ¼ mile course.
Oxford's Trial Eights will take place on Wednesday 11th December. Oxford University Women's Boat Club will start at 11:00, followed by Oxford University Men's Boat Club who will at 12:00.
Cambridge University Boat Club and Cambridge University Women's Boat Club will both have their Trial Eights on Monday 16th December. The CUWBC Trial will begin at 14:45 whilst the CUBC Trial will begin around an hour later at 15:45.
Each of the trials will be umpired by the respecting race umpire; Judith Packer for the women and Sarah Winckless for the men.


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cal tjader, cloudy bright, drums, Fantasy Records, Frank Butler, Gerald Wiggins, stories, tap dancing
Ain't no sunshine, JazzBabies, when it's gone, and the sunshine has been gone this week more than we like in San Diego. Those of us who headed south to get out from under the pale gray "cloudy bright" skies of the Pacific Northwest are feelin' the gloom.
Fortunately, it won't last long. She said. In the meantime, we have cool jazz to warm us up and keep the gloom at bay.
Today's post brings a happy confluence of drummer Frank Butler, pianist/composer Gerald Wiggins and one-time child tap-dancer, later jazz man, vibraphonist Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. Each of their stories could fill a book and taken together – well, JazzBabies, every story is a good one.
Cal Tjader is here with his early quartet on the tune "A Fifth for Frank," which was written by Gerald Wiggins for drummer Frank Butler. Tjader's quartet at the time of the recording included – in addition to himself – Wiggins on piano, Eugene Wright on bass and Bill Douglass on drums. The album, Cal Tjader's Quartet, was released by Fantasy in 1956.
Butler was a drummer who was not well known but praised highly among his fellow musicians including drummer Jo Jones who claimed Butler was "the greatest drummer in the world." High praise at a time when drummers like Buddy Rich were pounding the skins and creating their own storms.
Butler performed with many of the greats including Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Art Pepper in the 50s and 60s but didn't achieve the kind of public fame that others had. It's been said that there are many terrific writers and artists and musicians who toil in the vineyards, pay their dues, but just never become well-known. In Butler's case, he also struggled with addiction which never helps anybody.
Gerald Wiggins started his long and successful career in the 40s and continued into the 80s and 90s playing West Coast clubs when he was not touring.
Cal Tjader was born to a pair of vaudevillians and yes, true story, he became a young tap dancer who performed in the Bay Area as "Tjader Junior" before, many years later, becoming the terrific vibraphonist we know now.
Didn't I tell you? All stories are good stories. And now for some good jazz.
Enjoy, JazzBabies, enjoy.
Ciao, JazzCookie


text:
I'm a person who loves a good bargain, and that's one of the things I love most about my Kindle: Amazon has monthly and daily deals on various books, meaning you can often snap up an incredible bargain! I think this is amazing, but it's also led to me having a huge backlog of unread books on my Kindle…like literally, there's so many! Any time I see any book that I've even vaguely considered reading, I feel the need to buy it if it's on sale, even if I won't get to reading it for ages and ages. So I… Read more »
Tag: books I own but haven't read
10 Books I Own But Haven't Read
As with many bookworms, my TBR is endless, and for every book I read, I add about ten more. The problem is that every time I see one of the books on my TBR for a reasonable price I feel compelled to buy it, even though I know I won't get to it for a while (I mostly blame Tesco with their £4 books!). Which means I'm now drowning in unread books, and just keep adding more and more to the pile! (And lets not even start with the unread books I have on my Kindle…damn Amazon monthly deals!). So here are… Read more »


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CORR: Reposted from April 21, 2006April 21, 2006 at 12:00 am | Posted in Journal of Anti-Science meetings | 3 Comments
I have this strange feeling of peace. A feeling I haven't had in awhile. I feel good.
The meeting had a total of between 30-35 people in attendance at one time or another. Only 20 were remaining at the end.
Mr. Lehman started the meeting by showing a video starring Dr. David Menton, pictured above, that set the tone for the largest portion of the meeting. Dr. Menton calls himself a "creationist anatomist" and has strong ties with something known as "Answers in Genesis," a group that is obviously out to inject a literal interpretations of the Bible into science. He has a PhD from Brown University.
The topic of the video was Lucy, a famous fossil of Australopithecus afarensis, an extinct hominid species, that was found by a team of anthropologists in Ethiopa, Africa in 1974. The video is called, and I love this title: "Lucy: She's No Lady!" As expected, Lucy was also a major topic of the evening's discussion.
First, a brief background.
Lucy's fossil is a representative of a hominid species that existed around 3 million years ago. She's apparently, from a scientific perspective, one of our ancestors. While small in brain size and stature, about 3′ 8″, the morphology of her hips, knees, and skull show she walked upright, and her molars and front teeth are more similar to modern humans than to great apes, such as Gorillas or Orangutans. Lucy was an important find, but she is not unique. She was the first of many Australopithecus afarensis fossils found in the same area.
In the video, Dr. Menton expressed a profound knowledge of the thoughts of anthropologists, almost omniscent. He implied that they created evidence rather than discovered it, because they didn't know any other way to support it. He said that fossils were constructed and not discovered, and that they only proceeded to support it to promote their agenda. He used specific claims that anthropologists searched for a dating method that would make Lucy appear to be 3 million years old, among others. I wondered where he got this information.
Dr. Menton showed a painting of an Australopithecus afarensis holding a spear and looking into a field.
He made comments, in a tone revealing his displeasure, comically criticizing the artist for trying to fool us into thinking that Australopithecus afarensis is intelligent and appears to have something on his mind. That the artist is trying to fool us into thinking that Australopithecus afarensis is a human.
As a side-note, I'd like to mention that if you don't think that there's anything going on upstairs in any of the great apes, (like chimps, orangutans, or gorillas) I encourage you to go to the Sedgwick County Zoo and sit and observe them for yourself. Look at them honestly, and realize that there are many indications that Australopithecus afarensis were more intelligent than our remaining cousins.
Back to the misrepresentation, Dr. Menton continued with a criticism of a painting of Lucy. Here I must admit 2 things: 1. The following is not the painting from Dr. Menton's video, I couldn't find it. And I'm jealous of Dr. Menton because I admit that his picture of Lucy was more sexy. 2: I am of the philosophy that if you can't find a sexy painting of a single female from a hominid species, then you must use a painting of her nursing. So here you go:
With his sexy picture of Lucy, Dr. Menton criticized what he felt the artist was trying to portray a human. He commented on her sexy legs, slender figure, and human genitalia. Dr. Menton's video audience mixed between gasping and laughter at his criticism of the painting.
I must mention that during this video Dr. Menton only said one thing that was outside of the realm of a stand-up comedian or art critic. Oddly, it appeared to be in the form of scientific argument. It was that Lucy had locking wrists common in the great apes who do not walk upright. He said this one thing to prove that Lucy did not walk upright. While I do see locking wrists as indicative of knuckle-walking, I don't see why locking wrists and bipedalism are mutually exclusive. Also, I don't know whether or not Dr. Menton's statement was accurate and Lucy's morphology provides overwhelming evidence that she walked upright.
Here, Mr. Lehman made a transition from that video to a different one which main point was that scientists can not explain planet formation, therefore, in a wild conclusion, evolution is wrong. Its assumption is that with no designer/creator present, the sun could not form and that the planets forming in the same solar system would have the same composition. These unqualified assumptions ignore too many physical factors to have any scientific validity whatsoever. Thankfully this video was shown relatively briefly, as its content was extremely insulting and terrible. The graphics were decent though.
Then Mr. Lehman returned to the video with Dr. Menton. From there Menton becomes more scientific and less of an art critic, though his arguments were flawed and far less than impressive. Twice he made statements that implied that the parent species must die out in order for evolution to occur, which is not a requirement in scientifically accurate evolution.
As soon as this video ended I interrupted. I couldn't let it continue any longer. I asked Mr. Lehman for information on Dr. Menton, "Is he an art critic and stand up comedian or is he some sort of scientist?"
Mr. Lehman mentioned Menton's PhD and that he speaks to the top medical students in the country.
My reply: "Then why does he obviously fail to comprehend the basic concept that evolution does not require the parent species to die out? He doesn't appear to understand any fundamental ideas behind what he is criticizing."
Mr. Lehman tried to assure me that that's not what he said, but others in the room seemed to agree with me, and the issue was left unsettled. However, I noticed 3 people leave at this time, a trend that would continue.
I then asked Mr. Lehman, "I'm also wondering how Dr. Menton seems to get the information of some sort of omnipresent force. He makes statements that seems like he's witnessed conversations and read thoughts, and I don't see how they can be true."
Mr. Lehman said something like, "If anyone else made Dr. Menton's statements they'd be just as true."
My reply: "I agree. Because if I had said them I wouldn't have been there either."
I got no response, but I can understand. Dr. Moore-Jansen was in attendance, and not only that he brought a date in a suitcase. Here's an unrestored version of what she looked like:
You see, Dr. Moore-Jansen is an anthropologist at Wichita State. Lucy is in very much his realm of science. His studies focus on primates.
If I were Dr. Moore-Jansen I would see the lies of the Menton video as a personal attack, and so he defended himself, pulling a skull from his suitcase. He was the expert in the room, but he had to fight a bit to speak.
Dr. Moore-Jansen seemed to try to be as brief as he could. He answered fully any questions thrown at him while he spoke. I felt he was respectful to those who endorsed this travesty of a video as he did his best in the limited time to explain its inaccuracies.
A woman in the row in front of Dr. Moore-Jansen said, "Please, I will take your class. I will listen to what you have to say then. I'm here to listen to them now."
Dr. Moore-Jansen defended what he was doing, that what was being presented was what he does and he should have the right to address it. I interjected by saying, "The content of the video was scientifically inaccurate. This is a scientific discussion. We deserve better than that. This is Dr. Moore-Jansen's area and he can help us."
There Mr. Lehman said he was going to move into his presentation, Dr. Moore-Jansen said, "This is what I do. You have to give me a chance to address the lies of the video."
I think it was Dr. Van Stipdonk who seconded that, and I thirded it (if it was necessary). So, it was then decided that Dr. Moore-Jansen would have some time to address after Mr. Lehman's presentation.
The presentation was about 100 reasons why evolution is not possible. We didn't get through all of them. They were poetic musings and odd math that attempted to show how improbable evolution is to occur "by chance." The only one I remember is that the calculations it would take for the human eye to operate for 0.01 of a second is something like hundreds of differential equations that computers can not compute, thus evolution is not possible.
I waited until the end and said, "First of all, I don't understand how the assumption is made or who is making it. Second of all, it appears to me that the statement about the human eye seems to be a comment about the limitations of computing and not about the probability of evolution. Who are making these assumptions? I've sat here for 2 and a half hours wondering where these assumptions come from."
The answer was poetic math and nonsensical, so I won't trouble you with it.
So I continued: "Whoever said that anything about planet formation has anything to do with evolution?"
Mr. Lehman said that these show the improbability that evolution could occur by chance and went on to something to the effect that those who have a naturalistic worldview are atheists and evolutionists and none of their science works or can explain these things.
Dr. Van Stipdonk backed me up here, producing two recent and scientifically accepted papers about the formation of the moon. There was discussion but I'm not sure Mr. Lehman acknowledged the validity of those papers to the scientific community.
For a moment here it seemed like Dr. Van Stipdonk and I were in a relay of saying, "Why is it the job of an evolutionary biologist to explain astronomy or cosmology?"
Nothing came of it.
Then I tried to shut up. I wanted Dr. Moore-Jansen to speak, and he did. I thought he did an amazing job. Many people left during it, including the woman in the row in front of him. He had a chance, although brief, to defend himself, and I'm pleased that the other members of CORR allowed him the opportunity.
At this point, at the end, Dr. Ackerman somehow was set up to speak. He gave a personal story that included, "The existence of God causes a problem, and it's this problem of accountability. If there's a God you will be held accountable."
So, at the end I asked, "Are you expecting to be held accountable for endorsing misrepresentations and lies about science?"
He asked, "What lies or misrepresentations?"
I said, "We've been addressing them and these meetings are so saturated with lies and misrepresentations of science I don't see how anyone honest can endorse them."
He asked for me to give him something specific and we could address it and get to the bottom of it.
I said, "All of these presentations are so vulgarly scientifically inaccurate to address them you'd win by time limitations alone."
Things got a little disorganized, but Dr. Ackerman mentioned we need to stop having "shotgun sprays." I guess that means we'll focus on one thing, one argument, at future meetings. I'll give him credit for that. It will give them a better shot at presenting a valid argument, and either way, 0/1 looks better than 0/100. Hopefully these meetings do not descend into valid arguments against bull headed equivocation, but you never know.
That was the end of the meeting. I talked for awhile to a very nice woman who was a creationist. She appeared to have an open mind and I enjoyed speaking with her and another member of CORR who I don't know the name of.
I'd like to thank the support for science that was present. I know it's hard to sit through, but your presence was both appreciated and is important.
Thank you for sending creationists/ID supporters my way.
Reposted from April 20, 2006April 20, 2006 at 12:00 am | Posted in Essays | 1 Comment
I believe that children, young children, are very intelligent creatures. We start out in this world with no real knowledge and so we conduct ourselves with open minds at the start, simply because we know no different. So we go along absorbing information, this and that, pretty much whatever is presented, and it's the summation of these things that we absorb that builds the knowledge from which we later draw references from.
Whether or not this knowledge makes us more or less intelligent really, I think, depends on the situation presented. For example, while we're taught in school to "Stop, Drop, and Roll" in the event we catch fire. Not having such knowledge in the event that that we burst into flames could be fatal to even the most intelligent of us. On the other hand, having "Stop, Drop, and Roll" on our mind at all times may bias us, may close our minds, and we may find ourselves rolling furiously while burning in a boat on a lake.
By making these statements I don't mean to imply that having knowledge of "Stop, Drop, and Roll" is bad for a child to have. I think it's incredible knowledge for a child to have. But say that "Stop, Drop, and Roll" was substituted with "Run as fast as you can." We all must admit that at one point in our life the "Run as fast as you can," approach made sense. But we all now know that running simply makes the fire burn faster by supplying more oxygen.
The point I'm trying to make is that we need to make certain that the information we take as our knowledge is as accurate as possible. It does not matter how intelligent we are, if we're told that running faster would put a fire out and we don't already have a concept of what is physically going on while a material burns to dismiss that misinformation, that's all we have to go on and we accept it. Another evil is that to accept the "Stop, Drop, and Roll" method after accepting the "run faster" method, we have to qualify that it is in fact a better course of action to take when in flames. Whether or not we do that to our satisfaction before the time comes will determine how badly we're burned.
You're thinking that this is a ridiculous example, and it is. I agree. But this type of misinformation is constantly thrown at us by television, literature, and even well meaning people. When this sort of thing happens to other people I feel that we must interject, for the health and safety of those involved. As an example, I'll give a situation of where I failed to do so.
Over the summer I had two classes. One was Organic Chemistry and it got out at 11 AM. The second was Calculus 2, and it started at 7 PM. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm basically a homeless guy. I had no way to leave campus comfortably during these 8 hours in between so I spent this time studying on campus.
One day in June, about 11:30 in the morning. I'm walking along, minding my own business, sipping my coffee, hauling my gigantic backpack from the RSC to Jabara getting ready to stare at my Calc book. Everything was going along as it normally would until a woman who appeared to be in her early 30s finished walking in my direction carrying a bullhorn. She said something like, "Here we are." As I was passing by, 20 8 year olds stopped by her.
Their destination was a statue on the Wichita State campus. It's of 3 indian women. Indian as in from India in Asia. It's between Sri Lanka and the Himalayas. They appear to me to be mature women, in their native dress, barefoot, and a little chubby.
I couldn't help overhearring, not by snooping she had a bullhorn, her ask these children, "Now what do we notice that's different about these women?"
One kid said, "They're poor."
She said, "Yes, they don't appear to have much. Anything else?"
Another kid said, "They're fat."
She said, "Okay, okay. But what ELSE do we notice about these women?"
The kids said nothing.
She punctuated, "These women are Native Americans from India."
Obviously this woman meant well. I refuse to assume she's some sort of demon who gets off by teaching children the most inappropriate thing possible. She was trying to expose these children to other cultures through a work of art. She was attempting to do so senstively by using what she must have thought is the politically correct term. The only problem was she did not know what she was talking about.
I stopped in my tracks. I may have fainted, but I'm not sure. The next few minutes are fuzzy. I remember turning around and the kids were well on their way to another statue. I thought about tracking them down and clearing things up, but I didn't. I don't know why I didn't, because it seems like something I would do. Maybe I was in shock.
I didn't see either of my two young nieces until a month or so later. The minute I saw them I sat them down and explained the them that the term Native Americans is used for people who were in America before the Europeans came and took over, and that Indians are from India which is in Asia. Native Americans were called Indians because Christopher Columbus thought he was in India, and they're generally called Indians in the movies and the Cleveland baseball team. It's a misnomer and the correct term is Native American. I showed them India on a map. I showed them a necklace a Native American made me. I made sure they understood and then I made them repeat, "Native Americans are Americans, Indians are from India," a few times to really make sure my point was made.
They looked a little scared but I had to. I love my nieces.
CORR: Reposted from April 9, 2006April 9, 2006 at 12:00 am | Posted in Journal of Anti-Science meetings | 3 Comments
I've been angry, very angry, since Thursday night. Almost to a point of not being functional. I'm becoming obsessed with defending science, if I wasn't already. And if I was already, I'm definitely more so now. I'm in this until the end.
My failures Thursday night were because my anger made me hide my honesty. I was more concerned about using etiquette, finding a language to speak to the crowd, and concern for my ally once things turned ugly than I was there to do simply what I was there to do.
Many readers of this blog may wonder what that is. I may look like the devil to some of you. I know I look like the devil to many. I must have looked like some random young man simply out to cause trouble to Thursday night's crowd.
The big answer is to defend science and our species. We can't make nature change its policies, but we can make a policy to ignore or edit our understanding of nature to make it say whatever we need it to say for whatever reason. That behavior is poison because it wouldn't make what we want science to say to be true. So when we do that, that will be the end of our pursuit of truth and progress. All we'll have left is a wait for our inevitable extinction. There will be no more growth and the only knowledge that will be accepted as truth will be whatever is voted on, whatever the dominant demographic decides what fits their needs, instead of what is correct. These statements may sound overdramatic to some of you, but trust me when I say that's what the Intelligent Design/Creationism movement can potentially do if it has success. Rest assured that the qualification of my statements will come with the precedent.
You may also think that's too self-important, that I'm only defending science, and that I place so much importance on science because I am a student of science. If that is your thought, then please sit there and think about what science has given you. I'm a student of science for that reason, because understanding the universe makes us stronger and I want to help.
The big answer may not speak to many of you, and I can understand that. The big answer wouldn't have spoken to me 2 years ago either. So let me give you a smaller part of the big answer, the part of the answer that touched my nerve on Thursday night and the reason I've been pissed off since, but first I have to provide a little background.
Anyone who knows my parents know that they're fine, upstanding people and are about as christian as it gets. They're both also habitually busy people. Busy with work. Busy with me. Busy with my sister and her family. Busy with the house. Busy with their health. Busy with our health, which isn't the best. They've been busy since before I was born, and busy with things that lie far outside any study of natural science.
My parents seemed to believe that my acceptance of evolution showed that I had been possessed by some sort of demon. Either that or I was rebelling. They worried for my very soul, even more so than usual. They felt that I was betraying God by feeling that I had studied enough, partially through Dr. Moore-Jansen's Biological Anthropology class, my own research, my further study of biology, and my own observation of living things, and felt that I had seen enough evidence to see that evolution, as the concept that biological organisms change over time, is undeniable.
Anyone who knows my father knows he's as good a man as you will ever find, but he can be a bit hardheaded although reasonable and rational. He teaches industrial arts, technology, and drafting and he's been a multi-sport coach for over 30 years. He also had no reference to understand evolution, but let me know he doesn't see the problem with creationism/ID in science classrooms and that he doesn't accept evolution. It took me about the length of a commercial break to help him understand by telling him a simple story that I made up on the spot but is sound in concept. It had to do with a school of fish.
First I had him agree that him and I aren't twins by any stretch of the imagination, and that generally, while similarities do exist, children are different from their parents. I asked him to pretend that we were fish and I was still his kid, but I was born with an unusually long snout, and because of this long snout I was able to reach food that the other fish like him can't reach. Because of that I grow up to be big and strong and have kids, who will also have long snouts. That alone means that evolution has taken place because there are now more fish in our school with long snouts than there were before. But that concept is never the big obstacle in accepting evolution, the problem is always with speciation, the changing from one species to another. So, I continued to say that my fish children grew up big and strong because they have the same long snout that I do, and so on and so forth until our numbers are big. At some point my fish won't follow his fish because we'll need to follow the food, and no one from my school will have a chance to breed with anyone in his school. Generations later, the isolation between our schools will cause a difference that will make it as impossible to breed naturally between the schools as it is between lion and house cat. Different species.
There it clicked. It made sense to him. Pop has been around the world. He's seen some things, and he knew what I was telling him was true. Since then he's trusted my position.
How does that fit in with the smaller answer? Because of the fact that if it wasn't for my intervention my father may have been in that crowd Thursday night, taken advantage of by a man willing to lie to promote himself and his faith. Dad, who is pretty intelligent, would not have known difference because natural science is not his area. He may have bought some of the propaganda of the meeting, which offered many books, videos, and DVDs. And unwittingly and with good intentions, my father may have turned into a pawn that down the road votes in some election that cripples science and arrests human progress, a result that I know my father, a good man, would never endorse.
I looked into the crowd on Thursday and I saw a collection of people much like my parents. People that I grew up with and was raised by. I know these people. They're good people with good intentions. Busy people, like my parents are busy, and not students of science, much like my parents and most of my friends. These are my people, I love them dearly, and I would do anything for them. To allow someone to come in and lie to them, to misrepresent the truth, only to use them for either profit or cause is unacceptable.
I also looked into the crowd and saw many children and I felt sorry for them. I didn't know what science was until I was 22, feeling as I grew up, much like the crowd, that science was a tool of the devil and invented purely to be a pain in the ass for school children. Ever since I learned that science is the study of nature, the universe, I feel as though I was robbed of those 22 years, and wish I had them back so I would have had more time with science. All I am now is a student of science, and that's all that I will ever be. Everyday I understand more, and everyday is better than the last. It is my happiness and it makes others happy that I share it with. Many of these children may never get to experience what I have with science, something that may make sense to them like it has to me, because they've been told to ignore it which is a mistake I would not make again. The lives of those children are being compromised the same way as mine has.
Those present may have thought so but neither I nor my ally were present to fight against the crowd on Thursday night. We were there only to represent the truth, and, if needed, to fight against Dr. Lucas to defend the crowd, not to attack them. We were there in an attempt to defend well meaning people from being taken advantage of, people who don't have reference to what is claimed to be being represented, science, which is something that I study.
There is no science in Intelligent Design/Creationism, but it also doesn't need to have any. All it needs is enough people like my parents and the crowd to succeed, a success that will be damage all of us which are intentions I know that the crowd did not have. To think that the people I love are being manipulated into making decisions based in lies and that these children will grow up as ignorant as I did pisses me off to no end.
That's the smaller point, and I think it is one that all of us can relate to. I'd do anything to protect my family, which is what I'm doing. We deserve enough respect to not be lied to and used.
Thank you for letting me borrow your eyes.
CORR: Reposted from April 6, 2006, Lucas RecapApril 6, 2006 at 12:00 am | Posted in Journal of Anti-Science meetings | 1 Comment
There were over 100 people there. I don't know a specific number, but it was definitely over 100. There were a few of my classmates there, but they left before the questions and answers segment, leaving Dr. Van Stipdonk and I as the only 2 people there who were not completely scientifically illiterate.
That's the way I like it. However, the format was different. While Dr. Lucas misrepresented basic geology, and nuclear chemistry, and claimed to make a super duper physics equation that solves everything, something which Einstein was working fervorously on before he died, the Theory of Everything. Because of the format I did not interject sanity until after the misrepresentation of science, long after it was already accepted as gospel by the audience. I will not make this mistake again.
As soon as it was question time, I asked him to go back to his first slide, where he had a list of laws and theories, which include such classics as the Theory of Relativity, the Laws of Motion, and the Laws of Thermodynamics. He made a statement that all of these theories are being replaced. What he implied was that evil atheist scientists are finally being caught and made to tell the truth.
I said that science is composed of working models that are refined when needed and asked, "So, you're saying that none of these theories are valid because they're still being worked on?"
His response was, "They're not valid because they don't allow for the existence of God." He then tried to cover that slip up with, "They just don't fit the data."
Most simple point here is that you can't consider a supreme being when conducting a scientific investigation because you can not control for it. The existence of God is irrelevant to science. Nor can science prove or disprove the existence of God, because natural science only studies the natural world, also known as the universe. Nor does science really care. You won't find any reputable scientific journal that weighs the existence of God in any of its conclusions.
Dr. Lucas said what I wanted him to say. To state his purpose, which wasn't science. However, I don't think the crowd understood its meaning.
Continuing down this road in an attempt to tie a conspiracy that "they" (who were never clearly defined but constantly referred to. I assume them to be publishers and scientists) have been protecting these laws to continue funding and keep down Christians and God, Dr. Lucas made a statement that Isaac Newton did not know what mass was.
My response was, "Wasn't that the first paragraph of Principia Mathematica?"
Dr. Lucas answered with a fuzzy wiggler that kept him safe. I didn't challenge though I made a mistake in not telling the crowd to read the first paragraph of probably the greatest scientific work in history. I am however hoping they will have a mind to do it on their own.
Here quoted is the first paragraph of Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton (translated from Latin, though not by me):
Definition 1: The quantity of matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly.
Thus air of a double density, in a double space, is quadruple in quantity; in a triple space, sextuple in quantity. The same thing is to be understood of snow, and fine dust or powders, that are condensed by compression or liquefication; and of all bodies that are by any causes whatever differently condensed. I have no regard in this place to a medium, if any such there is, that freely pervades the interstices between the parts of bodies. It is this quantity that I mean hereafter everywhere under the name of body or mass, And the same is known by the weight of each body; for it is proportional to the weight, as I have found by experiments on pendulums, very accurately made, which shall be shewn hereafter.
So apparently not only did Isaac Newton know what mass was, he actually defined it in the first paragraph of what is the most important work in the history of the world.
I let him go in hopes that those in the audience would consult their copy of Principia Mathematica.
Dr. Van Stipdonk, my ally apparently to the end in this madness, then asked Dr. Lucas to demonstrate the use of his unified theory. Dr. Lucas claimed it was too difficult to show here. So Dr. Van Stipdonk moved to another major topic of the misrepresentation, the Robert Gentry situation.
Robert Gentry worked on radiohalos at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and is a Young Earth Creationist (YEC). A YEC is a person who believes the Earth is only about 6,010 years old, the age that fits with the Bible. This age is given by the Biblical scholarship of James Ussher. It's the most extreme type of creationist to be, especially when the YEC is a scientist who misapplies science to prove it. 3 of Gentry's articles were published in each Science and Nature, which are each at the apex of scientific publications. Here is a link to a Robert Gentry interview where he talks about his relationship with Oak Ridge and mentions his visit to Wichita State University.
Long story short, while researching radiohalos he came to the unqualified position that the rapid decay of "primordial" polonium-214, which has the very short half-life of 164 microseconds, proves that the granite it was found in was formed in less than 3 seconds, implying an instantaneous creation of the Earth.
Gentry however did not prove that his rock would provide a primordial source because he did not know where he got it (he didn't get it himself) and he refused to do the geology because it contradicts his beliefs as a YEC.
His science was good though incomplete, and his interpretations were bizarre. Gentry then left Oak Ridge under what I will call here "mysterious circumstances." The creationist/ID movement has picked this man to be their martyr, claiming he was fired because he was persecuted against for being a christian. Actually this is not what happened.
Dr. Van Stipdonk knows a bit about the Gentry situation. He was much closer to the situation than anyone else in the room because he worked in the same circles. While he was trying to get Lucas to clarify what he misrepresented he was working to make the point that if Gentry was so persecuted against and there is this huge conspiracy keeping Christians out of science, how did he get all of these articles in Science and Nature?
Before Dr. Van Stipdonk could reach the point with Dr. Lucas however, the crowd turned ugly. The fact that Dr. Van Stipdonk had reference to something being presented was perceived as a threat by those in the audience. Names were called, perhaps threats were made. Dr. Van Stipdonk was forced to give up his question and sort of asked to leave, though he didn't. Poorly masked references were made to the rudeness of Dr. Van Stipdonk by many of the others who asked questions, which brought about laughs from the audience. I must note here that Dr. Van Stipdonk was many orders of magnitude more respectful to the speaker and the audience than I was. He is also a christian.
As a side note about why the crowd reacted this way, I later witnessed Dr. Van Stipdonk being told by Dr. Ackerman (the chair of the Psychology department at WSU and long time advocate of creation science), J. David Lehman (who is the unofficial leader of CORR), and Dr. Lucas that the problem with his questions were that they were "too dominant." I suppose that is open to interpretation.
I feel that I was not met with this type of hostility, but from there I was ignored until the end where I offered, "I have two questions, really brief. First of all, you seem to really be going out of your way to make the point that only what is "politically correct" makes it into textbooks, outside of what is accepted in the scientific community to make it into textbooks, who would you rather do it, you and you alone or anybody at all?"
Dr. Lucas gave a long winded answer that boiled down to that he believes everything in textbooks are wrong, non-"politically correct" outsiders like him are not accepted, there's no room made for the maverick, and the scientific community refuses to accept anything that disproves fundamental theories because of a conspiracy theory aimed at continuation of funding, which were also discussed during my first question that lead to his statement that Isaac Newton did not know what mass is.
Dr. Lucas did what I wanted him to do. He showed his paranoia and made statements that those like him everywhere are being fired and not being published.
So, I finished, "Philosophical question here Dr. Lucas. Say you go to a doctor because you have a headache, and first thing he does is cut off your leg, should he lose his medical license?"
Dr. Lucas answered by telling a story about his wife almost dying of cancer because a doctor failed to treat her because her doctor was given money for research by the NIH and needed her for a study group, and that she was later refused treatment for eating fresh fruit. This was an appeal for emotion for which he was rewarded with an ovation.
All I could say was. "Wow, that truly is bizarre Dr. Lucas. So back to my original question, you go to the doctor…"
"Yes, his medical license should be pulled."
"Thank you doctor, I totally agree."
His chemical equations made absolutely no sense. Based on his presentation, Dr. Lucas does not know the difference between isotope and ion by showing chemical equations that said that an atomic species will change by losing an electron. A very small point in light of many other, there's a decay series for Uranium. Thorium (Th) is part of that series. Dr. Lucas used the symbol for Thallium (Tl), for which he called Tellurium (Te). This was his Thorium. I'm a reasonable man. I understand mistakes are made, but based on his argument and presentation this mistake should have never been made, and would not have been made by anyone who knew what they were talking about.
The geology was butchered and interpretations were simply remolded to make unqualified statements that support his desired result. It was too bad to pick apart here. He also said he's not a geologist, although geology was a major part of his presentation.
I feel that basic errors in nuclear equations and a demonstration of a very poor understanding of basic chemistry and geology, which were not his points but sold as scientific jargon to support his points, would make any rational human being think that he did not have a clue about what he was talking about.
Unfortunately, I feel I let the crowd, which have no frame of reference for anything Dr. Lucas talked about, get away believing what he said was truth. That all of his bizarre science was valid. That scientists were evil and that there's a giant conspiracy against Christians.
I tried and I failed but I have learned from my mistakes.
Next week, Thursday, at the RSC at WSU. 7pm. Keep them coming.
CORR: Reposted from April 5, 2006April 5, 2006 at 12:00 am | Posted in Journal of Anti-Science meetings | Leave a comment
This Thursday night, 7PM, in room 208 of Hubbard Hall on the Wichita State campus Christians for Origins and Religious Research (CORR), which, may I add, is a legitimate student organization, will have the third installment of what the group calls "Creation vs. Evolution." Here's the poster, click on it for a larger size.
Now, if you know anything basic about radiometric dating/radioactive decay and geology that poster may seem a bit bizarre (yes, it really says what you think it says). These are the methods of creation science, and that's why I go to simply ask for clarification. There's no need for debate. Only a need for understanding and an embrace of what works.
I've attended the first two meetings and each more or less descended into chaos. This time we'll be in a new room and I'm excited that Dr. Bill Lucas will be attending. Unfortunately Dr. Moore Jansen will not be due to a prior engagement, however Dr. Van Stipdonk and I will both be there and I very much look forward to this meeting. What Dr. Lucas will be talking about is more in Dr. Van Stipdonk's area.
Now please everyone, and this may sound bizarre, but please help me and help yourself, help us all, by TELLING supporters of INTELLIGENT DESIGN or CREATIONISM as a valid science to please attend. It's free and open to the public. The more supporters of INTELLIGENT DESIGN and CREATIONISM that are there the better.
And if you have nothing to do on Thursday please come yourself. I hear I'm entertaining at these things. I'll post how it went afterwards.
Please get the word out. We have a problem and I'm trying to fix it.
Thank you.
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Mini%20Project-Kumihimo%20heart. Kongoh-gumi (Friendship Bracelets) Send us your design with or without a photo of your finished braid.
Link to your design - share your pattern with your friends Remember pattern (requires cookies) You should be seeing the kumihimo braid design tool here. If you are seeing this text after the page has finished loading, either javscript is disabled or your browser does not support some features required. DMC code: Work for Idle Hands: Mother's Day, and Mirrors. « Books in February | Main | Knitting BAFTAs » Mother's Day, and Mirrors When I first joined the Creative Fibres group - Spinners Weavers and Dyers - the one thing I was sure about was that I was not at all interested in weaving - how long ago that seems...
Since then I have been seduced into trying my hand at braiding - both Kumihimo and ply-split. [See the extended entry to understand how this came about!]. Anyway, it's Mothers Day today in the UK and this gave me the incentive during the week to finish off some little braided items I've in mind for quite a long time. A close up shows the colours but they are not as vivid as in reality. I had to be quite inventive as to how to finish off the ends, and attach them to retainers to attach to your glasses, [note that Jacqui Carey supplies the ends, and they are fine if you want a lot of them, but I found it cheaper to go to the optician in the village and buy a low quality cord at 75p in order to cannibalise it for the ends].
Kumihimo snake pattern. Kumihimo tutorial: flat braid with hearts. I got the pattern for this braid from a friend of mine, who found it here: .
It makes a flat braid, with a heart pattern running up the center. I am using 10/2 Uki red cotton weaving yarn for the background of this braid. The hearts are in an unlabeled cream colored cotton from my stash, that is about twice the thickness of the red. The finished width is about 1/8", which makes for a cute little delicate braid. I'm picturing using this as friendship bracelets, as necklace cording, as drawstrings, or as trim on a little bag. Here's the finished braid: And here's the process on my foam disk. Here's the starting position. We'll start with the threads at the top of the disk. Take the right hand, inner thread on the top. Take the left hand, inner thread in the top position. Take the two remaining threads in the 12:00 position, and move them closer together.
Spiral with Sequestered Colors. This week's project was yet another in a series of projects that required multiple attempts before I achieved the result I was looking for.
I tried several different spiral braids that were unsatisfying. I wanted the braid to echo the spiral of blue and orange in the pendant, and there were lots of options. I felt that there was too much black in a plain kongoh spiral alternating orange-black-blue-black. I considered doing a spiral braid like the one in the Spiral Snake Necklace, but I didn't like the idea of the stripes of blue and orange mixing around the black center. I even tried experimenting with a square structure with long floats to see if I could get it to spiral, but the resulting braid was not attractive to me. This braid is a variation of the ridged spiral structure on pages 21 through 24 of Makiko Tada's Comprehensive Treatise on Braids Volume VI: Kumihimo Disk and Plate, although I added an extra set of four tama and worked the braid on the maru dai. Kumihimo 4 designs. Design your own kongoh gumi friendship bracelet. Send us your design with or without a photo of your finished braid.
Link to your design - share your pattern with your friends Remember pattern (requires cookies) You should be seeing the kumihimo braid design tool here. If you are seeing this text after the page has finished loading, either javscript is disabled or your browser does not support some features required. Go to original (Java) version of Kongoh-gumi (Friendship Bracelets) DMC code: Leopard - Craft Design Online » Craft Design Online.


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Join Dr. John Leung, a gastroentergologist and allergy specialist at Boston Food Allergy Center, as he shares his step-by-step process for identifying and referring patients with food allergy symptoms.
Announcer: You're listening to ReachMD. Welcome to Cracking the Code on Peanut Allergies, brought to you through an independent educational grant from Aimmune Therapeutics.
On this episode, we'll hear Dr. John Leung, Director at the Center for Food Related Diseases at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachussets. Dr. Leung speaks to the critical role of gastroenterologists in food allergy management. Here's Dr. Leung now.
Dr. Leung: When a patient comes in complaining of food allergies, the first step is to get a detailed history of what symptoms they have. Do they have swallowing difficulties? Do they have abdominal pain? Do they have bloating? Do they have diarrhea? Do they have constipation? Do they have skin finding? Do they have any other symptoms to suggest it is a food allergy that I have to worry about and have to refer to my allergy colleagues? For example, if someone described a severe reaction after eating peanuts; they pass out, their blood pressure becomes very low, and they develop anaphylaxis, then those patients will be referred to the allergist colleague directly. If someone comes in with some abdominal pain, some swallowing difficulties, then we may have to think about a diagnosis such as eosinophilic esophagitis, which is a food allergy affecting only the esophagus, but does not have any potential to develop into anaphylaxis. So, our approach is to take a very detailed history and ask about every single reaction. How soon after they eat their food do they develop a reaction? What is the reaction? And is there any other associated symptoms? What other organs are affected? The timing of the event; does it happen again, and again, and again? Does it respond to antihistamine? Do they need to use Epi pen? So, there's a whole bunch of questions that we ask until we have a very clear picture of whether this food allergy can develop into anaphylaxis or this is a food allergy just affecting the GI tract. Sometimes, because I'm also an allergist, if the patient complains about symptoms that is consistent with reaction that can lead to anaphylaxis, then we may do some skin testing or blood testing to confirm the diagnosis. Sometimes we even have to do supervised oral challenge in cases that is not clear. For patient who have a food allergy that affecting only the GI tract such as celiac disease or eosinophilic esophagitis, we may obtain more labs, and sometimes endoscopy with biopsy may be needed to confirm the diagnosis. So, this is how the gastroenterologists can contribute to improve the outcome by correctly identifying those patients at risk.
Announcer: The preceding program was brought to you through an independent educational grant from Aimmune Therapeutics. To access other episodes in this series, visit ReachMD.com/PeanutAllergies.
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Dining out more at restaurants, cafeterias and fast-food outlets may boost total levels of potentially health-harming chemicals called phthalates in the body, according to a study out today.
Phthalates, a group of chemicals used in food packaging and processing materials, are known to disrupt hormones in humans and are linked to a long list of health problems.
The study is the first to compare phthalate exposures in people who reported dining out to those more likely to enjoy home-cooked meals. People who reported consuming more restaurant, fast food and cafeteria meals had phthalate levels that were nearly 35 percent higher than people who reported eating food mostly purchased at the grocery store, according to the study.
"This study suggests food prepared at home is less likely to contain high levels of phthalates, chemicals linked to fertility problems, pregnancy complications and other health issues," says senior author Ami Zota, ScD, MS, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University.
"Our findings suggest that dining out may be an important, and previously under-recognised source of exposure to phthalates for the U.S. population."
Lead author Julia Varshavsky, PhD, MPH, who did the work while she was at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, Zota, and their colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collected between 2005 and 2014.
The 10,253 participants in the study were asked to recall what they ate and where their food came from in the previous 24 hours. The researchers then analyzed the links between what people ate and the levels of phthalate break-down products found in each participant's urine sample. – Science Daily


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The EERAM I²C PICtail™ Kit demonstrates the features and abilities of the 47C04 and 47L16 I²C EERAM devices in standard development platforms. By designing this daughter board with the PICtail Plus and mikroBUS™ connectors, it will operate with the Explorer 8 Development Board, the Explorer 16/32 Development Board, and many other tools. Package contents includes an Info Sheet and two EERAM I²C PICtail Plus Daughter Boards: (a) 47C04 (4 Kbit, 5V EERAM) and (b) 47L16 (16 Kbit, 3.3V EERAM).
4 Kbit and 16 Kbit I²C serial EERAM devicesFollows the published recommended capacitor selection for the EERAM deviceTest points with probe loops for SCL, SDA, VCC and GNDOn-board pull-ups for I²C bus operationSMD jumper options for 3.3V and 5V operationOn-board RC filter ensures VCC ramp rate adheres to data sheet requirements0.1" two-way jumper for VCAP/VCC operationPICtail™ Plus and mikroBUS™ connectors
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As you get older, the substances that give your skin firmness start to decline. When a person reaches a certain age, the skin becomes dry and wrinkled. In time, fine lines and wrinkles are bound to appear.
While wrinkles are common on aging skin, they may be more prominent on skin that has been through years of exposure to the sun such as the neck, face, forearms and hands. Heredity may be the reason for your skin texture and structure, but exposure to direct sunlight is the number one cause of wrinkles besides aging. Pollutants in the air and smoking may also contribute to wrinkles.
There is usually more than one cause of wrinkles. Some are preventable and some are not. Some of the most common causes are:
• Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light that speeds up the aging process by breaking down the skin's connective tissue in the deeper layers of skin. The UV light may be natural sunlight or the light from a tanning bed.
• Aging makes every part of your body more fragile. You lose the natural oil and the skin becomes less elastic.
• Smoking is a major accelerator of the aging process. It blocks tissue repair and reduces the amount of oxygen that reaches your skin.
• Repeated facial expressions can result in wrinkles. If you squint, laugh or frown repeatedly, it will affect the structure of your face over time.
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I grew up in a fun-loving household. My parents were more interested in creativity than they were in being organized. Consequently, I´ve struggled with punctuality, meeting deadlines, and organizing my paper piles. In spite of some executive functioning deficit, I did well in college and graduate school and in various teaching jobs, but time management and organization were never my strong suits.
In 2002 on the other side of an almost divorce, I started blogging about what my husband and I had learned in order to have a successful marriage. I ended up teaching a curriculum that I developed and writing 3 books to help my students. Visit my website at Lovingforkeeps for more information.
One thing that I kept hearing from my relationship students was how they never had enough time to have fun with each other. In fact, most couples told me they didn´t even share meals together they were so over scheduled. It dawned on me that they didn´t know how to plan because they were lacking an essential executive function (EF). Could I teach them that skill?
I realized that I could, but I first needed to take Marydee Sklar´s Seeing My Time course. After I integrated more executive functioning skills into my own life, I got certified by Marydee to become a teacher of her program. Now I share this life-changing information with my relationship students and honestly tell them I´m practicing what I´m preaching. It´s gratifying hearing how couples have enhanced their relationships just because they have learned EF skills.
By the way, better EF skills mean your annoying habits change, too. Your relationship automatically becomes less crazy making. Your understanding and consequently your support of executive functions are at the heart of a healthy relationship with your partner as well as with yourself.
Teaching has been my passion since 1975. I´ve taught thousands of kids and adults classical piano, French, Spanish, relationships, and more recently executive functioning skills. EF is what makes you successful in everything that you do. Every day I´m becoming a better and more creative teacher because of what I´ve learned from Marydee Sklar.
Your hopes and dreams can come true because you know and implement the strategies and tools of The Time Professionals.
I look forward to working with you in California or online.
I particularly love getting the executive function skill conversation going at high schools, colleges, and universities where I teach everyone on campus — students, faculty, and staff.
In addition to my regularly scheduled classes, I also help individuals on a one-to-one basis at their work to organize files and set up projects. Cost is $80 per hour, plus travel.
Melissa Smith Baker, MA
707-228-0287 (call or text)
smith at thetimeprofessionals dot com
Thank you so much. You are a fantastic teacher!
Just so you know the class is more than useful. It truly has transformed how I feel about tackling certain aspects about myself/ life and how I do things and/ or function that I thought would be somewhat impossible to change. I already feel less stressed out. I really I enjoyed our time to together. I feel illuminated.
I would love to take more classes from you. I'm thrilled in spite of my unemployment to have time to work on these personal projects. Your class was particularly useful for me. And, I am quite confident that it will serve me during my unemployment phase or as my friend says, "my reinvention sabbatical.
~ D. Johnson, Campo Fina, Healdsburg, CA
My boyfriend and I have bought a planner and it has been working great for us! I have taken your method and adapted it for us with my planner and it works great. The best thing is that we are planning our weeks every Sunday and our days every evening.. it's good stuff! Thanks, Melissa.
~ M.B., Forestville, CA
Yes, I enjoyed the class. I wasn't sure I could actually comprehend everything. So…finding myself awake with "To Do's" at 3am, I finally got out of bed and went out in my studio with my orange over-glasses and typed up the Executive Function Notes, (took me until 4:30am). When my 6:30 alarm went off I really had a hard time deciding whether to sleep in or get up and begin my new regime. I'll have questions, but for now thanks again.
~ A.S. Accountant, Sebastopol, CA
Your Time Management for Success System is clear, concise, and very well organized. Your explanations are simple and direct and the pacing is great.
~ C.W. Geyserville, CA
I´m so strong in every EFS except for metacognition and response inhibition. Now I know why I´ve been divorced 3 times. I´m a clueless guy.
~ M.S. Santa Rosa, CA
I hate having to think about managing my life, but I know I have to do it to make my crazy life better.
~ J.L. Sebastopol, CA
I´m 66 years old and I would have known about these executive function skills earlier, I could have realized my dream of becoming a doctor. Now I´m teaching my granddaughters so that they can reach their potential. They can do anything but not without these skills.
~ C.L. Mountain View, CA
I really enjoyed the class and want to help you connect with more folks thru FB! t's so easy really and would expose you to so many women who need this.
I am excited to get started and implement some of these tools. For me, task initiation is my biggest challenge. Good job! Thanks!
~ D.D. Massage Therapist
Giving Back
In 2008, Melissa co-founded The Kindness Project – a small organization that anonymously gives small gifts to people in need of kindness. Their gifts range from cards of encouragement, flowers, meals or Christmas gifts to scholarships, school supplies and military care packages. The Kindness Project has touched all corners of the world: Bolivia, Ghana, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Palestine, Darfur, Chad, and Bangladesh — as well as most states in the USA including Sebastopol, CA where they are based.
Over the last eleven years, The Kindness Project has given over $6000 to individuals and organizations locally and globally. If you would like to contribute to The Kindness Project, you may contact Melissa here.


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THE TRANSPORT union RMT last week expressed serious concern over a front-page article last Friday in the Evening Standard headlined: "PURGE OF EXTREMIST WORKERS ON LONDON TRANSPORT". The editor in chief of the Standard is former Tory Chancellor George Osborne.
The article said that the Minister of State for Security, Ben Wallace, was carrying out a "purge of London's transport system to protect the public from another Islamic State attack".
It continued on inside pages with a claim that 3,000 terror suspects were under active scrutiny.The article has prompted a spate of racist attacks on Transport for London staff.
Mick Cash, the general secretary of the RMT, has wrote to Wallace on Monday: "I am writing to you in respect of the article on the front page of the Evening Standard in the final edition on Friday 6th April.
"Headlines as we know are important to any newspaper and a story like this was always going to be of particular interest in London. However, I wanted to share with you that I have received a number of urgent calls from staff working over the weekend who have been racially abused and threatened by passengers. The inference from the passengers involved being that the staff are all part of a terrorist cell operating in London Transport.
"The headlines do not reflect all the good work that takes place with the RMT through consultation on safety and security matters. RMT Regional organiser for London Transport John Leach was at a meeting with Director of Health and Safety and Transport for London Head of Security last Friday and none of this was mentioned. The headline was the first that RMT had heard of it.
"John also spoke to London Underground Managing Director, Mark Wild on Sunday and he told John that the whole subject as a news story came out the blue and the Standard did not use London Underground's quote backing their staff.
"I appreciate that you, the police and the security services have a role to play in helping to protect those using the Tube, but the staff are right in the front line, every day ensuring that passengers are safe and secure.
"With an employer the size of Transport for London there may well be people who are under investigation. I would urge caution about the use of lurid headlines though and highlighted figures that state 3,000 people are under active scrutiny could lead people to believe they are all in London transport. Such an impression can only fuel racism and the possibility of violence against staff which is not something any of us want to see.
"The Standard also referenced Transport for London autistic staff by headlining that extremists 'are grooming autistic people for terror'. This is appalling scapegoating of a vulnerable group of employees who now also feel singled out and has no bearing in fact.
"Staff do not need to be the focus of smears, abuse or threats given the crucial jobs they have to perform on the transport network in London keeping people safe.
"I hope you will therefore join with me to support responsible reporting of such sensitive matters which is in the best interests of staff and passengers alike."


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to..... Pegg for winning the Stamp It magazine from Thursday's Stamp It 3-Ways post.
Pegg S said...
What a cool effect with all the stamping - looks AMAZING. I will have to try this out!!! So creative!
February 25, 2010 6:05 AM
Please be sure to email me your address so we can send it off to you. :) email@example.com
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Silhouette Cameo 4 vs Cricut Maker 2020
1 month ago


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Our 100 Favorite Backyard Wedding Themes
Thanks for stopping by Backyard Huppah. We've reorganized the site. You can now find the article here: Our 100 Favorite Backyard Wedding Themes
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December 2, 2006 00:00
Craig Jones, Buell Motorcycles professional extreme rider with two solo stoppie Guinness World Records, has been busy rewriting the record books and rules of extreme riding once again. This time, however, Jones has set the Guinness World Record for the longest two-man stoppie. Riding an astonishing 305 meters (1,000 feet) on the Buell Firebolt XB12R's front wheel, Jones and former European champion and co-rider Wing Chui set the new milestone at the UK's Donington Park race circuit. Chui was (...)


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West Indies cricketers sidelined as CSA postpones inaugural T20 league
Seven West Indies cricketers were among those left in the lurch following Tuesday's shock announcement of the postponement of South Africa's inaugural Twenty20 Global League.
West Indies batting superstar Chris Gayle, along with Dwayne Bravo, Chris Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Nicholas Pooran and Rayad Emrit, were all down to participate in the tournament scheduled to bowl off in early November. Barbados-born England all-rounder, Chris Jordan, was also expected to participate.
Decision not taken lightly
"We have not come to this decision lightly," Cricket South Africa's acting CEO, Thabang Moroe, said following a meeting with the T20 Global League board and consultation with franchise owners.
"Having discussed the situation with all our stakeholders including the franchise owners, we believe that the interest of the League should be our first priority.
"We have re-assessed our strategy and believe that postponing the first edition of the T20 Global League to next year will serve us well."
No reason given
While organizers gave no reason for the postponement, it is understood that the failure to secure a viable television broadcast deal and central rights sponsorship, was the main issue behind the decision.
The build-up to the tournament had also been less than smooth and the resignation of CEO Haroon Lorgat two weeks ago, further complicated matters.
The 2018 date for the tournament has not been announced.
For recent news on West Indies cricket, click to read the following link: West Indies Cricket Players Sympathize


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10 Biggest Boss Battles In Video Game History - Ranked By Size
The bigger they are, the faster we run.
As anyone that has ever read any H.P. Lovecraft will tell you, there exists within mankind a size to sanity ratio.
Facing off against MGS V's 15-metre tall, unpronounceable Metal Gear Sahelanthropus might test our robot-killing skills the maximum, but – save for the occasional rage quit – we can keep a cool head, persevere, and hope it's sophisticated AI has an off-moment.
Equally, Resistance 2's Leviathan might remind us of our favourite city-destroying mega-monsters, be it King King, the Cloverfield monster, or Ghostbuster's Stay Puft Marshmellow Man, but he's not enough to distract us from firing our rockets down it's throat when it roars in our faces.
However, there is a limit to what the human mind can take. Much like in the tales of the Necronomicon when any unfortunate character dares to glimpse the "Elder Things", there is a point when something can be so big as to become difficult to comprehend.
Rather than protect us from such absurdities, video game developers are increasingly enjoying showing off their exploitation of ever-improving computer hardware by having our video game protagonists face increasingly humongous bosses. Not only are these bad guys often some of the strongest and toughest in a video game, but there mere presence is enough for our protagonist to wonder why they're even bothering trying to kill the damn thing. Here are the bosses so big that it's made us question our own insignificance.
Writer, aspiring author, and I won't stop travelling until I've seen it all. Whilst I might take a break now and then to rant about politics or muse over philosophy, I'm not afraid to roll up my sleeves, buckle down, and spend some solid hours gaming!See more from Dan