text:
August 8, 2018 The Need for a Progressive Male Rights Movement: an Opinion Piece by Nathaniel Bates
August 3rd, 2017 Evolution and God's Intervention with Creation and the Garden of Eden: the Biblical Tradition is not Anti-Scientific
Creationists who try to replace the theory of evolution with "scientific" creationism have the same narrow mind-set as the naturalist and materialist scientists who debunk religion. Creation and the Garden of Eden need to be understood in a theological way as the entrance into history of God's plan of salvation. But this is not an attempt to reduce the grandeur of God. God created the heavens and the earth, but the Bible is not intended to be a scientific textbook.
July 31st, 2017: The Nephilim: Giants in the Earth: Genesis 6:1-4
What do you think of the speculation about the Sumerian 12th planet Nibiru, the Nephelim, and the Anunnaki? I looked at the biblical passages that these Internet apocalyptic scenarios come from and have quite a different interpretation.
January 10, 2017 Blogging my thoughts:
Meryl Streep rebukes President-elect Trump on moral grounds, but he seems all about win or lose and being in a power-defensive mode without seeming to indicate that he has a conscience. Let me give him the benefit of a doubt. He probably knows that he is vulnerable on moral grounds coming into the glass-bowl nature of the modern presidency from the sordid environment of the entertainment industry. The sordid side of powerful men could remain hidden when women knew their place and did not share positions of power. Women now have a say-so. So, he figures that he can't afford to be truthful. Meryl no doubt represents a real threat as opposition to him, just like the disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski was. (I'm getting these details from this morning's New York Times.) This New York Times reporter has a rigid and bent right arm, a condition due to arthrogryposis, a congenital fusion of joints.
But the president-elect should know that beyond win and lose, beyond power, there is human decency and truth involved with arguing an issue rather than turning it into an ad hominem argument. This fallacy in argumentation for him goes off the deep end and becomes tantamount to character assassination for anyone who dares to point out the truth. But if the shoe fits, wear it. When we are immature we often have to experience correction and taking it to heart makes for self-improvement.
Is lying all right in order not to be politically correct? Does being truthful constitute being politically correct? If the issue is a rebellion against political correctness, then are racist, sexist, misogynist statements allowed and to be celebrated because they are not politically correct? What don't I understand about all this opposition to political correctness? Does it mean one can't criticize a Black person and not be racist? Or to criticize right-wing Israeli politics immediately makes a person anti-Semitic? That could be explored. But "law and order" are racist code words: the law discriminates against Black people and our present order excludes them, for the most part.
Don't forget that racist language for some may be cathartic, but for others it is a speech act rehearsal calling for action. (Dylan Roof probably also considered Obama the worst president we ever had.) Is aversion to bullying, misogyny, and racism merely being politically correct? If so, then stands taken for human decency, truth, and justice become trivialized into mere, milk-toast expressions of political correctness. Thus, when a woman confronts him on his misogyny, he can counter that she must be having her period, and wow! He becomes a champion in the fight against political correctness! Even a boxer, a fighter not into argumentation, would be penalized for hitting below the belt. And ad hominem-s and in his case, character assassinations, assert speech act violence rather than honest and truthful argumentation and communication.
To pick up another issue: critical thinking easily exposes a fallacy when one person's plagiarism is defended by saying someone in the opposition also plagiarized. That is a "you, too" fallacy. And it is unethical as well, because two wrongs do not make a right and something does not become right because everybody does it.
Then there is the ethical problem when a broken law is relativized by pointing out all the other good in a person. If someone murders another person, it does not matter if they are a good husband or father. The guards in German concentration camps seemed to love their children. Breaking a law can be compared to falling through a hole in the ice. If there is a hole in the ice and the whole person falls through it, it does not matter how thick the ice is in other places. Breaking a law is like that. There may be mitigating circumstances due to considerations of equity. For example, putting a Black man in prison, when Black families are bereft of men may make the punishment a greater injustice than the crime committed. Using jury nullification or imposing community service or a financial penalty may be more just and the wiser course of action.
How about some feedback and critique?
Blogging my thoughts on January 7, 2017 by Peter Krey
Numbers are sometimes problematic in the literature of antiquity. Could they have indicated some kind of qualities and symbolic meanings before they really indicated determinations of quantity? Before Pythagoras conceived of forms and thus could attach numbers to them and count them, how could calculations and numbers in the sense of quantitative determinations have been thought? The quantitative may have well have been preceded by a symbolic meaning of numbers. (Pythagoras, of course, is one of the first philosophers, whose reasoning about forms and numbers and his conception of them is recorded in history, there may have been thinkers before him that have been forgotten, of whom we have no record, and who therefore never made history.)
In the case of the symbolic meaning of numbers: in Noah's flood, it rained forty days and forty nights, the children of Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness before reaching the promised land, and there are four hundred years of slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt, the House of their Bondage. These numbers refer to qualitative degrees of suffering in a symbolic way rather than being real quantitative determinations. Other examples of primordial use of numbers, perhaps for the sake of prestige, are the ages of the patriarch, e.g., Methuselah lived 969 years and died in due time. Nero's 666 may have stood for tyranny, and what can on make of 153 large fish in the miraculous fish-catch, when Jesus asks the disciples, "Have you no fish?"
Plato criticized Pythagoras for not conceiving of pure numbers, but always attaching them to geometric space or musical tone; the latter, e.g., in his study of music. Thus, for him mathematics could become a description of the universe, but music could as well, in terms of the music of the spheres.
Numerology must have preceded mathematics, like astrology preceded astronomy, and alchemy, chemistry. But How could the people of antiquity think about numbers before forms were conceived? At that point, the ability to count could not have been possible. But on the other hand, I believe that old cuneiform records count items of trade, so counting may have been possible long before Pythagoras reasoned about forms and numbers. It would be interesting to compare how a child learns to count (ontogeny) versus how the human species learned to count in a phylogenetic sense. This would be analogous to how a child learns to speak versus how our species learned to speak and created language. It may be fun to research the history of mathematics, but how does one research its pre-history?
Blogging my thoughts on April 10th, 2015 by Peter Krey
I just tweeted about Churchillian drift: this expression refers to attributing an apothegm (a pithy saying or instruction) to a well-known authority, rather than to an unknown writer. I just learned this concept by reading this morning's newspaper.[1] That could well have happened to biblical books. A gospel could have been attributed to the apostle Matthew and John, for example. But schools that follow an apostle or a prophet could also be an explanation. In philosophy, Plato speaking as Socrates can be an example. He may have identified completely with his teacher. Some mathematical insights attributed to Pythagoras may have been those of his students. A collective identity, where individuation has not yet taken place, could also be an explanation. Before I personally individuated, I really identified very much with my family. I felt as if I had a collective identity, being the eleventh of sixteen children.
[1] See Erin McKean's OP-Ed piece in the New York Times (April 10, 2015, A21), "The Wise Words of…Who Again?"
by Nathaniel Bates in Memory of Jason Zarri
To read Nathaniel's thoughts in a PDF:
Understanding the AntiNerd121114pdf
Why Not Sell California to Google? Blogging My Thoughtsadmin : July 12, 2012 1:03 am : Blog
Blogging my thoughts:
The Op-Ed page in the New York Times today was pretty inspiring. Milos Forman, the film director of "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" showed how those who claimed President Obama was a socialist didn't know what they are talking about. He described socialism as he had experienced it and there is no comparison.
He argued that we had to keep in mind the melody of our country and how some harmony is required for us to make it. "But if just one section, or even one player, is out of tune, the music will disintegrate into cacophony."[1]
I don't want to blame one party for the gridlock in Washington, because the real reason for the chasm between different political ideologies is the chasm that has grown between the rich and the everyday people of our country. In the words of Chief Justice Brandeis, "We can have democracy or the great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can't have both." Our representatives in Washington are caught in the social forces, the money, that is, issuing from our social and economic inequality.
In their piece Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer compare the economy to a garden and argue that it is not a rational machine. Harmful economic activity needs to be weeded out and healthy economic activity needs to be supported. Taxes and government spending is like watering the garden, when it spent for education and health, and is better compared to the circulation system than money that just goes down the drain.
In my blogging I have compared taxation to pruning of trees and bushes in order to make them bear fruit for the common good rather than wild, destructive, and contradictory growth.
Liu and Hanauer argue that
"Under the efficient market hypothesis, taxes are an extraction of resources from the jobs machine, or more literally taking the money out of the economy. It is not just separate from economic activity, but hostile to it. This is why most Americans believe that lower taxes will automatically lead to more prosperity. Yet if there were a shred of truth to this, then given our historically low tax rates we would today be drowning in jobs and general prosperity."[2]
The authors argue that jobs come from the organic feed-back loop between consumers and business, which requires a thriving middle class. The severe concentration of wealth kills middle class demand and jobs do not trickle down but emerge from the middle out. "To spend tax dollars on education and health is to circulate nutrients through the garden."
They continue,
"True, not all spending is equally useful, and not every worthy idea for spending is affordable. But this perspective helps us understand why the most prosperous economies are those that tax and spend the most, while those that tax and spend the least are failures. More important, it clarifies why more austerity cannot revive an already weak private economy and why more spending can."[3]
After the misguided Bush tax cuts (and the two wars) we lost 8 million jobs beginning our Great Recession. Money that could have renewed our infrastructure was in part lost in the Wall Street bubble with irrational derivatives and credit default swaps, where more weeds like Bernie Madoff and other Ponzi schemes were hiding among the wild growth in our financial sector, which made up 47% of our economy. The other part of the tax cuts, I believe, made our government have to buy bonds and increase the debt by loaning money from those who would have had to pay it in taxes. Thus our government has been taken hostage by those who should have paid taxes.
To pay taxes is a patriotic duty and serves to socialize our inherent selfishness. The tithe, which means giving the first ten percent of income to the church or charities, demonstrates one's faith in God. Paying our taxes demonstrates our good faith as citizens of our commonwealth. It brings harmony into the garden of our economy. Liu and Hanauer argue well that their garden approach to the economy is pro-business and not at all anti-capitalist.
To me it seemed that politicians first promised tax-cuts in order to bribe voters into voting for them against their own interests. Now with Grover Norquist's no tax pledge, which so many have signed, what seemed irrational has attained the level of insanity, unless one believes in anarchy. (Norquist merely wants to shrink government down enough to drown it in the bathtub.) Governor Pat Brown running against Ronald Reagan wondered, if he hated government so much, why he would want to be the president. It was like an anti-Catholic wanting to become the pope.[4]
The huge deficits that Reagan and George W. Bush left because of their tax cuts show that they were using both to dismantle big government. When Reagan talked of the corner drugstore he was avoiding mention of the huge pharmaceuticals. Privatization does not give more power to the common person and get the government off an individual's back, but places us into the power of the corporations. As the state governments get into trouble and city governments here in California go bankrupt, more and more public facilities have to name themselves directly after corporations. A change of pitchers now requires one to hear about oil change or what not. You pay to see a movie and you have to watch commercials and the movie contains commercials in the feature. The market is colonizing our life world in places it has no right to be.
Why did FDR create big government? In order to bully the huge corporations into taking our national interests into consideration. Where is the allegiance of global transnational corporations, except for their own private wealth?
Public citizens standing up for public interests and the commonwealth have to take a stand against all this privatization. Private armies, private jails, private schools! If we could sell California's state government to Google, it could take care of our deficit in a jiffy. Why not let Google become one of the fifty states? What's in the name "California"? Why not privatize it? The CEO of Oracle just bought an island in Hawaii.
We have just been into downsizing, where hatchet men fired whole departments to replace them with temporary workers. There is an army of unemployed, making workers have to do the work of three or more laid off workers. Should you complain, there are ten other workers standing in line for your job. Then there is the out-sourcing of labor and the remark from a CEO in the down-sizing time: "We don't owe you a living?" For the sake of mega profits, productive workers were laid off in droves. Are the people there for the sake of the corporations or the corporations there for the sake of the people? Pray tell.
See Habermas: The Life-World and the Two Systems.
peter krey
Science should not Step Out of Boundsadmin : March 26, 2012 1:03 am : Blog
Blogging my thoughts:
Science should not Step
Out of Bounds
(In the Light of Polanyi's Personal Knowledge)
Dennis Overbye in his article "There's More to Nothing than We Knew" in the Science Times,[1] reacts to Lawrence M. Krauss' book, A Universe from Nothing, writing that physicists and cosmologists like Krauss are going into philosophical and theological territory. "He joins the chorus of his fellow physicists and cosmologists, who have been pushing into sacred ground proclaiming more and more loudly in the last few years that science can explain how something – namely our star-spangled cosmos – could be born from, if not nothing, something very close to it. And God, they argue, is not part of the equation."(D1)
When such scientists say that God is not part of the equation, then it is difficult to follow how they can say they are pushing onto "sacred ground." It is true that God creates out of nothing, creatio ex nihilo in Latin. Under human auspices you cannot get something out of nothing, or in Latin, ex nihilo nihil fit. It is a pretty heady thing to understand and theorize out there at the edge of material reality, but because scientists observe these wonders, does it mean that they author and create what they are observing or theorizing? I think not.
To get into philosophical territory, we could use Heraclitus, Parmenides or Hegel. Let's take Hegel. Scientists are exploring the deepest determinations of being and nothingness. In Hegel's logic, when every last possible determination is subtracted from the category of being, a pure "isness" is left that is identical with nothing, the second category of his dialectic. And when nothing passes into being or something, he discovered his third category, becoming. What Hegel was discovering in his dialectic of thought was the possibility of equating being and nothing and the passage of one to another as the third category, returning from something to nothing or building up from nothing to something. Philosophers have broken the ground for and worked out this thought-capacity, which scientists are unconsciously using.
Now Krauss as well as Overbye do not make the distinction drawn by Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) between focal awareness and subsidiary awareness, focal knowledge and subsidiary knowledge.[2] Like Thomas Kuhn, who in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions[3] points out that the actual history of scientific discovery and its history as presented by scientists is very different, [4] Polanyi shows that underlying the process of scientific discovery is not only empiricism, experimentation, and the scientific method, but also the search for truth, understanding, and other personal and human values shared in common, often in a subsidiary realm beneath the scientific focus of attention, awareness, and knowledge.
Krauss as well as Overbye (except for the perspicuity of his last question in the article) turn their focal attention to what physicists and cosmologists can say about nothing. They are not aware of the subsidiary motion of their thought and the comprehensive activity and motion of their thought by which they can describe the deepest determinations, of which science is capable of finding for some being, whether of quantum particles or some kind of dark energy in the nothing they are thinking about.
Of course, when I place our focus on their thought, I disrupt the matter that they are investigating and the meaning of their thoughts.[5] But along with most scientists, they lose sight of the subsidiary thought processes that make their scientific knowledge possible as well as eclipsing themselves, who are the thinkers of these thoughts. That's why Overbye's question at the end is a clincher: "But who is or was the dreamer?" (D3)
Reading this article, don't become bewitched by the verbal magic. Remember that philosophers have developed the words, concepts, and categories in which scientists think!
Dr. Krauss finds three different kinds of nothingness. 1) That of empty space: it is, however, filled with energy, vibrating electro-magnetic fields and so-called virtual particles dancing in and out of existence from borrowed energy consisting of randomness that characterizes reality on the smallest scales, according to the rules of quantum theory.
2) There is nothing even without space and time. "Following a similar quantum logic, theorists have proposed that whole universes, little bubbles of space and time, could pop into existence, like bubbles in boiling water, out of nothing." (D3)
Then 3) There is even a deeper nothing, in which even the laws of physics are absent. "Where do those laws come from?[6] Are they born with the universe, or is the universe born in accordance with them?" Overbye asks. (D3) Overbye criticizes Krauss for turning to multiverse theory, where nearly an infinite assemblage of universes, could each have its own randomly determined rules, particles, and forces that present solutions to the equations of string theory – the alleged theory of everything (and that Overbye feels could explain anything). (D3)
Now it is obvious that Krauss is finding deeper and deeper determinations of being and nothingness and his interchange of particles, bubbles of space and time, or even universes and thinking them through the thought-distinctions that long ago, Hegel, Parmenides, and Heraclitus worked out for him. The scientist's focal attention, however, is on his scientific description, but he could not discover it, present it, or even think it, without thought and without his own existence as a thinker of those thoughts, of which he is unaware because they are subsidiary to his focal attention. (This insight comes from understanding the comprehensive nature of Polanyi's theory of personal knowledge.[7])
Scientists with their focal attention fixed for knowledge on the very edge of the material, physical universe, have left their conscious thinking, their own selves, their values, and their history, in which they could pronounce these theories, far behind.
Now because Lawrence Krauss knows that God creates out of nothing and now he can almost take what is the philosophical term, "nothing," and put it under a microscope – he argues that "God is not part of the equation."
Here is where Polanyi, a scientist-become-philosopher, comes in again. Polanyi uses a metaphor of a machine to point out that the deepest analysis of the chemistry and physics of the machine will never give you a clue to why the engineers made it and nor about what purpose it was made to carry out.[8] Thus as much as in the flight from the personal and the divine, such scientists feel they are pushing into the sacred and into the territory of philosophy and theology, they are working on the level of chemistry and physics. Therefore it is not in their competence to make judgments about who the thinker, the dreamer – to use Overbye's word, nor what the spiritual reality of this world is. Human history, thought, morality, and the spiritual dimension is a level of reality that scientists methodologically ruled out for the sake of the space-time, quantifiability, and measurability of the scientific enterprise.[9] Now such scientists cannot suddenly make a claim about the totality of reality, when from the get-go, they have methodologically agreed not to consider a significant or even the most important level of reality.[10]
Because of the scientific method, the historical, the thought world, the realm of morals, and the spiritual realities are unspecifiable for science. They have become the subsidiary dimension of the scientific focus. According to Polanyi, the higher of the two levels of reality is unspecifiable in terms of the lower.[11] Thus science is not competent to make pronouncement about the purpose of human life on earth, the course of history, morality, and our life before God, because they are all unspecifiable on the rung of reality that science investigates.[12]
[1] New York Times, (February 21, 2012), pages D1 and D3.
[2] Michael Polanyi, The Study of Man, (University of Chicago Press, 1959), page 30: "We may say that when we comprehend a particular set of items as parts of a whole, the focus of our attention is shifted from the hitherto uncomprehended particulars to the understanding of their joint meaning. This shift of meaning does not make us lose sight of the particulars, since one can see a whole only by seeing its parts, but it changes altogether the manner in which we are aware of the particulars. We become aware of them now in terms of the whole on which we have fixed our attention. I shall call this subsidiary awareness of the particulars, by contrast to a focal awareness which would fix attention on the particulars in themselves, and not as parts of a whole. I shall also speak correspondingly of subsidiary knowledge of such items, as distinct from a focal Knowledge of the same items.
[3] Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, (University of Chicago Press, 1962).
[4] Ibid. "The depreciation of historical fact is deeply, and probably functionally, ingrained in the ideology of the scientific profession, the same profession that places the highest value upon factual details of other sorts." (page 137) and in rejecting previous scientific paradigms by means of textbooks, scientists renounce the books in which those paradigms were embodied, "The result is a sometimes drastic distortion of the scientist's perception of his discipline's past." (page 166) Interestingly enough, Thomas Kuhn compares science to theology, (pages 135 and 165) where a new paradigm has to be accepted on faith, (157) scientists have to be converted into accepting it, (149) and "Far more clearly than the immediate experience from which they in part derive, operations and measurements are paradigm-determined." (125)
[5] Michael Polanyi, The Study of Man, (University of Chicago Press, 1959), page 30.
[6] I believe that laws were first social determinations, which scientist then transposed onto the regularities of nature. But what sense do they make when nature is completely random and irregular?
[7] See Micael Polanyi's post-critical philosophy in Personal Knowledge, (Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1958-1964) in 428 pages.
[8] "Take a watch to pieces and examine, however carefully, its separate parts in turn, you will never come across the principles by which the watch keeps time." Michael Polanyi, page 47.
[9] Michael Polanyi, page 45: "Dismemberment of a comprehensive entity produces incomprehension of it and in this sense the entity is logically unspecifiable in terms of its particulars." (Polanyi's italics)
[10] In his book, Science, Faith, and Society: a Searching Examination of Meaning and Nature of Scientific Inquiry, (University of Chicago Press, 1946), Michael Polanyi writes, "The denial of all spiritual reality is not only false but incapable of consumption." (page 78)
[11] Ibid., page 59.
[12] Otto F. Kernberg, in his book, The Inseparable Nature of Love and Aggression: Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives, (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2012), writes of three vertices of reality, delineating one vertex for science, one for religion and values, and one for art, much like I posited levels of reality, material or natural and spiritual. Kernberg, like Polanyi, writes of an emerging spiritual realm, which he affirms and respects as a scientist. Scientists, who deny the existence of God and the spiritual vertex of reality, on the basis of science, end by falsifying science by making it a Weltanschauung. (page 381) Kernberg shows how Freud's atheism made him reject the religious basis of morality and base it on rationality, thus contradicting his own deepest convictions about the power of the irrational unconscious over humanity. (page 353)
Some Thoughts on William James and the "Science of Religions"admin : February 20, 2012 2:17 am : Blog
According to William James, religious experience is explanatorily prior to rational accounts of religion, such as those of philosophy and theology. In his The Varieties of Religious Experience he says, "I do believe that feeling is the deeper source of religion, and that philosophic and theological formulas are secondary products, like translations of a text into another tongue." [1] James thought, for example, that theistic arguments cannot be the basis of belief in God (476-478). First, theistic arguments have been subjected to intense criticism, and there are a great many people who do not find them convincing (476). This shows that theistic arguments are not likely to persuade those who do not believe in God. Second, the God whose existence theistic arguments attempt to establish is not the God who most people believe in (485-488). I am inclined to agree with these charges. I would wager that most people, for example, do not believe in a God who is a wholly simple and impassible being; a being who is pure Existence, who cannot be affected by anything creatures do and who is without any semblance of emotion. For most people God is a personal being, but the God of the theologians is not, despite their protestations to the contrary.
However, although we must grant that reason comes second in religion, this does not mean that it has no role to play. In what follows I will try to vindicate James's view that it plays a positive role by being a part of what he calls a "science of religions".
James thinks that reason can play a positive role in religion, in the form of a philosophically-based "science of religions" (496). What James says, basically, is that philosophy can make religion more universal by eliminating those aspects of it which are peculiar to certain times and places (496). It can strip "historic incrustations" from religious doctrine and worship (496). Finally, it can rid religion of those of its claims that are inconsistent with the results of scientific inquiry (496). Science can then take the remaining religious claims and test them just as they would any other claim (496). "As a result", James says, "she can offer mediation between different believers, and help to bring about consensus of opinion" (497).
What are we to think of this? Religious people might object that this science of religions does violence to religion itself. If science is the ultimate arbiter of religious truth, are not any potential conflicts between science and religion automatically resolved in favor of science? My answer is a qualified "yes"; but this is not as bad as it may sound. For we must keep in mind that religion can go beyond science without contradicting it. For example, it would seem unlikely that any scientific experiment could prove the existence of God, but it seems equally unlikely that any scientific experiment could refute it. The same could be said of moral claims.
Nevertheless, there are cases where science and religion genuinely conflict. Whether or not religion must give in such cases depends on the content of the scientific claim in question and the strength of the evidence supporting it. For in science claims can be accepted with various levels of confidence, and range from mere hypotheses to time-tested models to well established theories. While I do believe that science is our best means of coming to know the physical world, this does not commit me to thinking that it is perfect. It should not be assumed that a hypothesis ought to be believed simply because it has gained some acceptance in the scientific community. History provides us with examples of hypotheses, such as those that formed the basis of phrenology, which were accepted not because they were empirically sound but because they were, for the most part, flattering to their adherents. Were non-scientists obliged to accept such theories simply because they were embraced by a sizable portion of the scientific community? We must also consider that it is not always easy for non-scientists, who know next to nothing about a given issue, to evaluate studies which aim to test hypotheses concerning it. They may not even be able to understand the language in which the studies are framed, due to an excess of technical terms. For all these reasons, it is not incumbent on people to accept all scientific-sounding claims they encounter. (Of course, this is not to say that they should reject them either; the proper attitude may be one of agnosticism.)
It might be objected that those who lack the requisite knowledge to evaluate certain scientific claims ought to defer to the experts in the field. This is a good rule of thumb, provided that one knows enough to determine who is an expert and who is not. But even if one knows who the experts are, this may not be enough to solve one's problem. Sometimes experts disagree with each other, and when they do it can be well-nigh impossible for a layperson to determine which of them, if any, is right. When this happens, I think one is not obliged to defer to any of them.
From the foregoing we may conclude that, if a scientific claim is not yet well established, people may have reasons that justify them in not accepting it; and I see no reason why these reasons cannot be religious beliefs, provided that they themselves are justified.
But what about cases which are not like the above? What if one is reasonably well-informed about an entrenched theory, accepted by all the experts in the field, which has passed all experimental tests with flying colors, but which contradicts some tenets of one's religion? In such cases I think religion must give, but doing so is probably beneficial for it in the long term. For science is an empirical discipline, and whenever any theory becomes entrenched it is because there is a very large amount of evidence to back it up. If religion were to dig in its heels in such a case, it would pit itself against this evidence, and would either have to deny its existence or explain it away. I think such a gambit is unlikely to succeed, as I know of no cases in which a scientific theory has been overturned by an apologist defending their religion. When it becomes obvious that the apologists have failed, they will have achieved nothing besides making themselves and their religion look bad in the eyes of the public. If those who practice that religion had instead chosen to modify some of their beliefs to accommodate the scientific evidence, they would have spared themselves some embarrassment, and may have even gained new adherents by showing that they are not closed-minded.
Neither should the faithful be troubled by having to admit that their religious beliefs can be overturned. After all, no one takes science to be infallible. Many previously accepted theories have eventually been falsified, and some of our most well-confirmed theories, namely general relativity and quantum mechanics, are inconsistent with each other. In spite of that, science is the most successful knowledge-gaining enterprise that people have ever devised. If this fallibility is not enough to cause us to lose faith in science, why should it be enough to cause us to lose faith in religion?
In conclusion, the relations between reason—whether in the form of philosophy, science, or some hybrid—and religion are complex, and the question of which of them makes a stronger claim on our belief is delicate. James's view is that in the end science wins out. I have argued that this is true, but just barely. Thus science may have the upper hand when it comes to determining the truth of factual claims, but if religion is to give us guidance as to how we should live in the real world it should have nothing to fear from the facts. At the end of the day it may turn out that neither science nor religion gives us a complete or infallible picture of reality, but if we combine them we might get a better picture of it than we would have if we had to work with either alone.
–Jason Zarri
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. The Modern Library, New York 2002.
[1] James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience, page 470. All subsequent references are to The Varieties of Religious Experience, the numbers in parentheses being the page numbers.
"The Tree of Life" A Philosophical Film Reviewadmin : February 10, 2012 5:35 am : Blog
"The Tree of Life"
A Philosophical Film Review
It is rare that an American movie addresses philosophical themes with stunning visuals and a thoughtful macroscopic lens. "Tree of Life" (2011, directed by Terrence Malick, starring Jessica Chastain, Brad Pitt, and Sean Penn) does just that. In addition to stunning visuals representing the natural history of life on Earth, we see the microcosm of an American family in the 1950's forced to ask philosophical questions about the nature of life, love and compassion. The film revolves around the death of a son, the death of a brother, and the questions raised about the benevolence of existence. What makes the movie particularly moving is the degree to which the history of life, its extinctions and its struggles to survive, are portrayed with a humanity and compassion that few natural history films or documentaries give such a subject. One actually feels for the dinosaurs as they go extinct. The idea that the purpose of life is one of universal compassion is given serious consideration, as is its contrasting position, the idea that one cannot live life morally or one will be trampled. Good people who desire to believe the former position have to grapple with the inevitable disappointments attending a benign philosophy of life, and yet they still maintain their stance with dignity and grace.
The movie looks at a seemingly idyllic life, in many ways a truly idyllic life, through the eyes of the children. The innocence of the children is buttressed by the compassionate beauty of their mother, who teaches the children to love all people, and all living things. Nature for her is a wide circle of compassion blessed by God. Profoundly religious, she goes beyond conventional formal religion to a form of spirituality that encourages wonder and curiosity, along with a childlike innocence that she shares with her children. The father is a good man, a talented musician and inventor, but he sees the world as a competitive place in which the good suffer and the ruthless triumph. He attempts to discourage the children from listening to their mother's view of the world. Eventually, through persistence and emotional trauma, the children begin to adopt the view of their father. They reject the way of their mother and become bullies who devalue life, human, plant and animal. The father is never portrayed as an evil man, but as someone who was stolen from and cheated. He felt strongly that the world could not be lived by those who were weak or overly compassionate. He realizes throughout the film the harm he is doing but he continues to believe that he is acting out of necessity.
The film is a series of spectacular images and dialogues that are often segmented and choppy. This is a deliberate film style since the entire film is a memory and somewhat of a projection. The Nature scenes are spectacular, and reflect the innocence of childhood in the fifties. Yet, they are much more. They represent a macrocosmic view of life in which human beings are imbedded in a much bigger picture of ecological relationships. However, even more so, the Nature scenes provide the visual backdrop of the central philosophical problem of the movie; "Why should we be good when there is so much seeming cruelty in Nature?" Human beings are asked by the higher moral philosophies to widen their circle of compassion to all living creatures, yet all around them species go extinct. The family's mother lives such a life of compassion, and yet she is weak before a stronger father who represents a view of Nature predicated on the need to conquer or be conquered. The children begin to lose their innocence as they see cruelty as a stronger force than love. Whereas they once loved the world around them, its children, animals, plants, and beauty, they soon turn to bullying and the killing of small animals. There is tragedy in this turn of events, one made more tragic by the fact that it never was necessary, that life would have been so much better had the desire to love and be loved been nurtured. Eventually, death and poverty enters the picture as the idyllic childhood comes to an end and never returns.
The genius of the film is that it is not a tragedy in the end. The philosophical questions are never fully resolved, but there is reconciliation. The father is never portrayed as a villain. He is someone who eventually sees the beauty of life once again. He is capable of redemption, and so is the family. Compassion and the beauty of life triumph in the end of the movie. Even death does not destroy the beauty of existence. The cycle of the seasons and the flow of life continue to show that all is not cruelty, that compassion is not simply for the weak ready for extinction but a vital part of life. Much of the film deals with religious narratives, and questions about the goodness of God. There are scenes apparently played out in Heaven, but they are indicative of religious existentialism more than the portrayal of religious certainty. The same might also be said about the much heralded scenes involving the natural history of life on Earth. These are scenes played out from a human perspective. The film is an exercise in benevolent existentialism, the notion that a life lived for compassion is as much about the self as it is about the world around oneself.
"Tree of Life" can be criticized as somewhat disjointed and unsatisfying to those who want a straight plot. In addition, there are times when it appears to be two movies. I believe that this was the intent, to present us with two movies and a disjointed set of memories from decades after the events that can only be reconciled by a reflecting son who can view life through philosophy. He can imagine Nature, and imagine Heaven, but only through self-reflection can he really make peace with his own life. I believe that this movie is a "must see" for philosophers and the philosophically inclined and those who want a visual feast. A definite PLUS!
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The 2014 retail IPO explosion: what does this mean for retail technology?
In the past year there have been as many British retailers listing on the stock exchange as there were in the previous ten, as the online and discount players that are shaking up shopping flock to go public.
This flood of initial public offerings (IPOs) has been driven by fundamental changes occurring in the industry with the massive growth of ecommerce and evolving shopping habits.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pterygium / Pinguecula Trial
First Non-Surgical Solution for Pterygium & Pinguecula.
Trial of new eye drop for pterygium and pinguecula, to heal the eye without surgery
Clinical Trial of Dipyridamole For Pterygium and Pinguecula
Pterygium is a growth on the eye surface that affects one in ten people worldwide.
Pinguecula is a growth (early stage pterygium) on the eye surface that affects five in ten people worldwide.
Currently the only treatment available is surgery. Recent case reports have shown remarkable results of Dipyridamole in treating pterygium and pinguecula.
Dipyridamole, the focus of the study, has been in medical use as a tablet for over 60 years for treating angina. It is being formulated as an eye drop and placed directly into the eye. Patients will have immediate access to this treatment, once proven successful in trial, through their local compounding (special preparation) pharmacies.
With surgery the only treatment option currently available, there is a desperate need for research into non-surgical solutions. By repurposing an existing FDA approved drug for a new use, we will be able to offer a safer, easier and more cost effective option for the millions affected.
This trial, consisting of 40 patients suffering from pterygium and pinguecula, will be carried out at Wolfson Hospital in Israel, in coordination with The Center for Drug Repurposing at Ariel University. The trial is set to last for 1 year and will aim to determine the effectiveness of Dipyridamole Eye Drops, and formally quantify the extent of benefits. The trial is set to start in June 2016 pending completion of sponsorship.
This trial will be funded by We Fund The Cure. We Fund The Cure focuses on researching new uses for existing approved medications and technologies, or research that can yield rapid and significant patient benefit, using existing approved drugs with a track-record of excellent safety.


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Bible: Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Bible: Luke 16:13
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
When I was in Jersey, the 'cult churches' used to go on and on repeating 'Jersey for Jesus'
But it sounded hollow, vain repetition, along with the other games.
The problem with Jersey is, it is not for Jesus, it is an Island run on Finance, and an island injured by the occupation and not fully healed.
Jersey is not for Jesus, and cannot be for Jesus while it's governance is so conflicted by the crossovers between powerful and influencial figures who can be members of the government, judiciary, church and even financial industry, this group of people who hold too much power and who ensure that anyone who falls foul of one of these elite, usually ends up on trial, and ruined, because there is no fair and impartial governance and judiciary.
Other elements very present in Jersey are 'cult' practices, merged with certain churches, and Freemasonry.
I am not saying all Jersey people and churches are Freemasons or connected with cults, far from it!
But when Tim Dakin launched publicly on Jersey, he didn't seem to have either researched the Jersey culture, or taken into account what he was going up against.
But he isn't the one injured by the backlash, nor is that woman, Jane Fisher, who I guess, masterminded the utterly crazy public campaign against the Dean, which was as far from safeguarding as possible – publicly launching on a vulnerable person who is already destroyed publicly launching on an Island like Jersey, what did they expect, a Christian attitude of remorse and accountability and reconciliation?
Dakin's stupidity did me massive damage and caused the closing of ranks of that political/church/judiciary/masonic clique against me, and led to me being massively injured by a smear campaign run by people who had money, power and legal expertise and had forgot the basics of Christianity, and nothing was achieved.
I do not know how you deal with a culture like Jersey, I couldn't, and it drove me mad and left me thus destroyed, at the time not know why I was treated so badly and my complaint refused and covered up, but I do know that Dakin's way of doing things has left me seriously damaged and achieved nothing in Jersey except the knowledge that vulnerable people can be abused at will and will be destroyed if they speak up.
So, Jersey for Jesus? Or Jersey for money, cover-ups and destroyal of those who speak out, especially using the Victim's weaknesses and vulnerabilities against them.
As happened to me, and to Haute de la Garenne survivors.
Jersey isn't for Jesus until something changes, until those clergy and laity, who supported my abuser, and villified me, have a change of heart and put the cover-ups and vicious smear campaigns and love of money and security over Jesus' teachings, aside, and are accountable and honest, return to Jesus, and ensure that the vulnerable are not villified by their own mouths.
Jersey isn't for Jesus until those running the Church return to Christianity and leave the love of money, power and ego behind, leave the lack of accountability and the closing of ranks behind.
Until then they are in a prison of their own making, and island prison where they cannot be for Jesus, because they are supporting the Jersey way, which is not Christianity, and the Jersey way is money and power and ego.
'Jersey for Money', is all they can truthfully chant at the moment, because the cost to the vulnerable and poor and marginalised is very high, and the Church of England in Jersey, just as the Church of England in England, is full of well off people, with very few poor, Jersey's Churches, if anything, are worse for this.
Jersey has a Statue of the Devil as a feature, I don't recall a Statue of Jesus, but they can't serve two masters, so they are not for Jesus yet, that 'Jersey for Jesus' chant was another manmade freaky Charismatic/Cult thing, as was their much more frightening 'fire on Jersey, fire on you!' chant, that was very prevelant in St. Matthews and St. Andrews, that used to make me feel physically sick and frightened, because it is unnatural, it isn't to do with Jesus, and to an outsider, it was terrifying 'fire on you' would be a masonic thing or a curse.
I did not like 'fire on you' being directed at me, it may seem like something to do with Jesus to people in these cult churches, but in reality, there is no link or relationship to Jesus, God, or the Bible in it. And thinking clearly about it, Jesus would not have condoned such games. Do you recall him reproving his disciple, Peter, for offering to build booths for Jesus and Elijah and Moses and other things?
'Fire on you' is worse than that.


text: This was the first shoot that I did with Catherine. We had never met and I was looking for a way to make starting to pose easy for her. The chair turned out to be a good idea. It was something she could work with instead of just standing there in space and trying to use only her body. We went on to make some pretty good stuff that day.


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If you're looking for the most comprehensive Zinus mattress review to determine if you should purchase from this brand, you've found it! While not the longest standing mattress brand out there, it's one that has made a name for itself quite rapidly. This is not only due to great quality but also quick shipping and longevity.
If you are thinking about buying from this brand yourself, then take a look at the information below to learn more about what to expect. From comfort on the edges to the different types of mattresses available, this will prepare you with all you need to know before buying.
-Company Information
-What Types of Mattresses are Available?
-How is it Made?
-Can I Return?
-What About a Warranty?
-Is it Comfortable?
-Is There Edge Support?
-Are the Reviews Good?
-Is it Affordable?
-How is it Shipped?
-Where to Buy?
-Pros and Cons
-Should You Buy a Zinus?
Company Information
Mr. Youn Jae Lee first started his business in 1979, building high-quality tents for the outdoors. Then, in 2004, he shifted Zinus to an indoor mattress company using his knowledge and experience in the comfort industry. A short two years later Zinus's compression packing and "SmartBase" was created, with "BioFoam" coming the year after.
Over the years this company has continued to introduce innovative comfort technology, such as patented gel infusion and Eco Foam. Now, there are distribution centers located throughout the country and many more planned for China in the coming years.
[easyazon_infoblock align="none" identifier="B012H0KA5A" locale="US" tag="aquapponics-20″]
What Types of Mattresses are Available?
Zinus offers many mattresses that fall into two categories: spring or memory foam. The type that you should get greatly depends on what you prefer when you sleep at night. The Spring mattresses are designed with special "iCoil" technology that allows you to sleep comfortably without being disturbed.
The memory foam mattresses are made with soft yet supportive memory foam that is designed to provide comfort in any sleep position, from back to side. The following mattresses are available in each category:
Spring Mattresses
– Mint Green Foam Hybrid
– Cooling Gel Hybrid
– Euro Top with Pressure Relief and iCoil
– Pressure Relief Pocketed iCoil Hybrid
Memory Foam Mattresses
– Pressure Relief
– Cooling Gel
– Green Tea Pressure Relief
As you can see, the hybrid beds are designed with both springs and memory foam. This gives you the best of both worlds and can help provide you with more support at night, as well.
How is it Made?
The design of each bed is unique, especially since different materials are used. To give you more insight into what to expect, take a look at the design information for each of the different mattresses below:
– Mint Green Foam Hybrid
This is available in 6″, 8″, and 10″ mattress sizes and begins with an innerspring support system. This is followed by two separate layers of Viscolatex foam and topped off with high-density foam for added support.[easyazon_link identifier="B07CYDM47T" locale="US" tag="aquapponics-20″]See the mattress.[/easyazon_link]
– Cooling Hybrid Gel Foam
This is available with thickness levels of either 10″ or 12″ and begins with a layer of high density foam for a supportive base. This is followed by several inches of the iCoil springs that are topped with high-density foam. This is then followed by a layer of comfort foam and gel memory foam that's soft, cozy, and supportive.[easyazon_link identifier="B01N1X5K70″ locale="US" tag="aquapponics-20″]See the mattress.[/easyazon_link]
– Euro Top Pressure Relief
This bed is available with thickness levels of either 12″ or 13″ and starts off with the brand's own iCoil pocketed springs. On top of this is high-density foam, comfort foam, and a top layer of additional high-density foam to create the best pressure relief possible as you rest.See the mattress.
– Pressure Relief Pocketed iCoil
With a thickness level of 10″, this mattress is soft yet firm so you get strong support rather than a plush feel. It's made with a base of the brand's iCoil pocketed springs that's topped with high-density foam. On top of this is a layer of comfort foam followed by a top layer of additional comfort foam that provides incredible comfort.See the mattress.
– Pressure Relief Memory Foam
You can choose between thickness levels of 8″, 10″, and 12″ if this is the mattress you go with. The design begins with a base of high-density foam that's followed by comfort foam and memory foam. The mattress is finished with a layer of quick response foam and micro-fiber padding for a cloud-like feel.See the mattress.
– Cooling Gel Memory Foam
This mattress is available in thickness levels of 8″, 10″, 12″, and 14″ and is designed for a plush feel with cooling technology for less heat buildup at night. The design includes a base of high-density support foam with comfort foam and gel memory foam at the top. With so much memory foam, this is one of the softest beds available.See the mattress.See the mattress.
– Green Tea Pressure Relief Memory Foam
This nice smelling mattress is available in thickness levels of 6″, 8″, 10″, and 12″. It begins with a base of high-density support foam that's followed by an additional layer of high-density foam. On top of this is a layer of comfort foam and one more layer of soft memory foam. With green tea infused into the foam, this should smell great from the time you go to sleep until the time you wake up.
Can I Return?
Zinus provides you with a 100-day trial in order to determine if your mattress is the right one for you. If you aren't happy with it, you can return within that 100-day period for a full refund. This is on-track with most other mattress brands today, so it can give you confidence with your purchase knowing you're covered if you happen not to like it. However, keep in mind that Zinus does say the mattress must be returned in good condition with no stains. If you are purchasing from Amazon, speak with a customer service rep to confirm returns process.
What About a Warranty?
Aptly named the "Zinus handshake", the warranty from this company covers mistakes in manufacturing. It lasts for 10-years total and will specifically cover any defects due to manufacturing mistakes. To claim this warranty, you'll have to contact the company and make sure you have your proof of purchase ready.
If you want peace of mind knowing that you have coverage in case manufacturing mistakes are made, then this is an important piece of your purchase. It's certainly long enough so that you'll have coverage over the time you own the mattress.
Is it Comfortable?
According to most buyers, yes! [easyazon_link identifier="B0070254C0″ locale="US" tag="aquapponics-20″]Zinus has great reviews[/easyazon_link]for comfort, especially since they have a variety of different mattresses to choose from. Even those who prefer a bed that's more firm are satisfied with the beds that come with springs. However, the plush memory foam seem to be the most popular and have some pretty great reviews from those who have bought. If you are looking for a bed that you can fall asleep on without constantly waking up, this is a top contender.
Is There Edge Support?
Since transparency in this Zinus mattress review is important, we'd like to note that edge support with this bed isn't as strong as it is with other mattresses. However, it does stand firm when you lie on it at night, so it's not something that should bother you if you sleep in the middle of the bed. The edge support with the spring mattresses from Zinus tend to be the best, so you may want to consider those if you prefer stronger support. However, the best way to tell if the edge is supportive enough for you is by trying it out!
Are the Reviews Good?
If you look online, Zinus has thousands of great reviews from those who have purchased from the brand. While it's easy to find negative reviews, it's important to note that some are due to issues that may not be concerns for you, such as the returns process. Like with any purchase, it's important to read both positive and negative reviews to get a better idea of what you can expect with the mattress yourself. When it comes to the good reviews, most people say that the bed is comfortable, the customer service is good, and the price is even better.
Is it Affordable?
Yes. Zinus mattresses are some of the most affordable on the market today, which make them a solid choice if you're on a budget. What's even better is that shipping is almost always free, which can help make it an easy choice to save money. If you were to compare one of these mattresses to luxury brands, you'll find that the price is vastly different although the quality is comparatively the same.
How is it Shipped?
Zinus mattresses are compressed and then shipped out in boxes, which is similar to most other mattress brands today. The biggest benefit of this is the fact that it's much easier for you to move around your house and place where you'd like it to go. In most cases, it takes just a few minutes to take the mattress out of the packaging and allow it to fluff up. You will have to wait a little while to lie on this until it airs out, but this is the case with most other brands of mattresses today as well.
Where to Buy?
You can order Zinus mattresses straight from the manufacturer via their website. However, this is not your only option. [easyazon_link identifier="B00Q7EPSHI" locale="US" tag="aquapponics-20″]Zinus is also available on Amazon.com[/easyazon_link]and is one of the most popular mattress options available for sale. One of the best things about ordering via Amazon is their excellent customer service and the chance to read quite a few reviews. What's even better is that your address and payment information is likely already stored if you have an account. If you have any questions about making the purchase, you can call Amazon or chat with them directly on their site for added convenience.
Pros and Cons
Just like with any mattress, it's crucial to review the pros and cons before you click the "buy" button. This will help ensure you're making the right purchase for yourself. To help make this Zinus mattress review the best, we've gone ahead and listed the pros and cons here for you.
– Affordable
If you want a high-quality mattress that isn't going to break the bank, then this is it. It's one of the most affordable mattresses on the market today.
– Shipping
Shipping is generally fast with this brand, and because they ship in a box, you can easily place the bed where you'd like it to go.
– Design
The design of this bed is unique and there are several options to choose from. With different options, you're more likely to choose a bed that suits your preferences the best.
– Motion Isolation
These mattresses isolate motion pretty well, which means you are less likely to wake up if you're next to someone who tosses and turns.
– Supportive
The materials on these beds tend to offer excellent support, which can mean less pain when you wake up in the morning.
– Time to Expand
You'll have to wait from 4-8 hours for the mattress to expand after you take it out of the box and wrapping.
– Smell
Some buyers have reported a chemical smell after they take the bed out of the box, which can take a few days to subside.
– Not Made in USA
Some of the parts used in these beds aren't made in America.
Should You Buy a Zinus?
Overall, this Zinus mattress review has found more positives than negatives when it comes to the beds available from this brand. Ultimately, this makes it a great choice if you want something that's affordable and comfortable. What's even better is that you can find it on Amazon so it's very easy to order and you can read through reviews before you make the investment. With all of that being said, which mattress is right for you? If you like something more firm, go for the spring bed. If you like something a bit softer, than the memory foam is likely the best option for you.


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New parents are often amazed at how quickly their new baby grows out of things. After the first year, many parents look back and see that they've accumulated a bunch of gear that their little one can no longer use. Choosing to donate used baby gear in NYC allows you to help others provide for their families and helps you to clear out some room in your home.
There are many places where you can donate used baby gear in NYC:
Goodwill is a national charity that is dedicated in providing individuals with the support they need to get back to work. Their work, including job training, is funded through the help of donations of gently used items. Goodwill accepts clothing as well as baby gear that has all of the pieces. There are a number of locations in and around NYC.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army uses donations to fund their work in the city including five rehab centers. They accept clothing, toys, and furniture. For large or heavy donations, The Salvation Army will work with you to coordinate pick up of your donation.
Housing Works
Housing Works is a charity that is dedicated to helping those living with HIV/AIDS. Housing Works has a number of locations throughout the city that accept children's clothing. Additionally, Housing Works will pick up donated furniture that is in good condition.
Room to Grow
Room to Grow is a charitable organization dedicated to helping babies in poverty. Parents that are referred to Room to Grow receive support and all of the baby gear they need to get started with their new child. They accept baby items that are new or like new and will work to help you coordinate a donation drive with others in your area.
It is important to note that some gear, such as car seats, are often not able to be accepted for donation for safety reasons. For specific questions on what a particular charity accepts, please contact that charity directly.
Please click the link below to enter your information and New Hope will contact you, or simply call 212-517-7676. Thank you.
Looking for places to donate used baby gear in NYC? Read here to find out more.


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THE Speakmans are no ordinary couple. How many people can boast that they resolve pop stars' problems with "time travel treatment" - using the actual car from the film Back To The Future?
And how many couples do you know spend their working days curing weird and wonderful phobias ranging from fear of foil to the Magic Roundabout music?
Celebrities swear by the couple's techniques and they have helped hundreds of people across East Lancashire overcome their angst.
They are also passionate supporters of the Duke Bar Burnley Wood NCH Children's Centre.
BEING mean to a couple like Nik and Eva Speakman would be rather like kicking a puppy.
The pair share the same exuberance and even on a grim winter's afternoon come bounding into the room of their 13th Century Grade II listed Stubley Hall near Rochdale, wide-eyed with enthusiasm.
Eva, 38, carries a large mug of herbal tea and some of their own recipe, rather-disgusting-looking, wheatgrass juice - "I like to keep myself hydrated" - while 45-year-old Nik exudes a pumped-up, glowing energy that is tangible.
But that's really as it should be, because this husband and wife team have taken it upon themselves to show the world that you - yes, YOU! - can have the life you aspire to.
After their Living TV show, A Life Coach Less Ordinary, proved so successful, the Speakmans have decided to put their philosophy of life into a book so we can all be as happy as they are.
Their mantra is, "If it's possible in the world, it's possible for you!", and you'd better believe, they believe it.
Eva says: "We have a fantastic life, fantastic home, fantastic relationship, fantastic children, fantastic cars. Every night we go over the day and the wonderful things that have happened."
Their fantastic life is featured in their book, Your Life Can Be Fantastic, Too!, complete with pictures of the happy couple together, of their baronial home and their collection of Lamborghinis and even a Bugatti!
Their philosophy apparently works for the serious tragedies of life. When Nik's father died recently, he regarded this as a reason to celebrate what a wonderful person his father had been, rather than grieving his loss.
And while this perma-optimism may sound rather galling when the rest of us are struggling through dark days of creaky public transport, overwork, tricky relationships and a seemingly ever-increasing number of bills to pay with a decreasing amount of cash, it is hard not to agree that a positive attitude is better than the alternative.
"It is hard," admits Eva. "But if you practise, positivity can become a habit. And it's a fantastic habit to have."
To be fair, their lives have not always been charmed. Eva grew up with an alcoholic father and Nik struggled as a child with a series of illnesses and faced life-changing surgery.
It is, perhaps, this that makes the National Children's Homes (NCH) charity so important to them.
Over Christmas the pair visited Duke Bar Burnley Wood Children's Centre that helps vulnerable children, young people and their families. Eva is even running the marathon to raise money for the charity this year.
Despite difficult childhoods, the couple individually decided not to let life beat them, triumphed over their adversities and then joined as a team.
"We don't accept failure," says Nik. "People make mistakes but they don't fail. If you think about a scientist, they will experiment over and over again to get the result they want, sometimes taking years, whereas a lot of people will just try for something and then when it doesn't work out as they planned, just give up."
The couple have also been credited with helping a lot of celebrities with their personal crises, among them actress Kym Ryder and singer Liz McClarnon.
Nik said: "It amazes us that so many celebrities have problems with confidence. They are playing a role and that is the confident person and then when they step out of that role they can struggle with the reality of just being themselves."
It's definitely not something this couple suffer from.
Their overwhelming positivity can grate I'm sure, but try not to sneer and instead take a few tips.
After all, they could just be right . . .


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News Headlines - 26 January 2016
▽Japan's Emperor Akihito in Philippines to honour WWII dead - Channel NewsAsia
Japan's Emperor Akihito pledged Tuesday to honour those who died in one of World War II's deadliest battles, as he began a historic visit to the Philippines.
▽Tesco knowingly delayed payments to suppliers - BBC News
Tesco "knowingly delayed paying money to suppliers in order to improve its own financial position", the supermarket ombudsman has found.
▽Greece faces expulsion from Schengen to stop migrant flow in move that would create a 'cemetery of souls' - Telegraph
Greece will have its borders effectively sealed off from the rest of the continent under plans to tackle the migrant crisis, European leaders proposed on Monday night.
▽Denmark to vote on bill to seize migrants' jewelry - CNN.com
Danish lawmakers are to vote Tuesday on controversial legislation that would empower authorities to seize cash and valuables from asylum seekers to help cover their expenses.
▽France suffers 'black Tuesday' blockades and strikes | The Times
Riot police cleared blockading cab drivers from the Paris ring road and made at least 20 arrests as France faced a day of disruption with strikes by taxi drivers, air traffic controllers, teachers and civil servants.
| 固定リンク
- NewsHeadlines12(2019.03.13)
- News Headlines - 10 March 2019(2019.03.10)
- News Headlines - 11 March 2019(2019.03.11)
- News Headlines - 09 March 2019(2019.03.09)
- News Headlines - 08 March 2019(2019.03.08)


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Marriage Counselor
Jennifer Lee, M.A., LMFT
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
300 Harding Blvd. Suite 108, Roseville, California 95678 | 916-316-3198
You deserve the happiest, most fulfilling relationships possible. I can help you achieve optimal communication, balance, and intimacy in your relationships. I provide counseling for couples (married, unmarried, LGBT) and families.
Marriage Counselor
Daryl Temkin, Ph.D
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Available for Online Therapy
Dr. Temkin specializes in individual and marital or relationship counseling including issues as, commitment, loyalty, communication, trust, sexuality, infidelity, conflict resolution, children, adoption, blended families and relatives.
Marriage Counselor
Kevin Fleming, Ph.D.
Coach/Change Agent/Consultant
At Home or Private Discreet Intensives
Though we are not licensed marriage counselors, Grey Matters International, Inc. provides cutting edge brain optimization and rebalancing technology to better align the minds of partners to reduce conflict, increase hope---for the brain has the final word on change.
Marriage Counselor
Vanessa Hughes, MA, SEP
Alternative and Integrated Practitioner
Available for Online Therapy
We want connection- a space to be vulnerable and truly seen. But emotional intimacy is risky, and that scares us, especially with a difficult history! Instead of being vulnerable, we build up walls to protect us. Let's break down the walls and build a loving connection.
We Believe In Saving Marriages And Restoring Relationships. Find Family & Couples Counseling in Granite Bay, CA.
Thank you for visiting our California search of caring relationship and marriage therapists in Granite Bay. Marriage Counseling through Theravive believes that your marriage is worth saving and our hope is to see brokenness healed to the joy of all parties involved. We know sometimes that is not possible to save a marriage, and in those cases we seek to restore the individual. Find the best marriage therapist in Granite Bay, CA above and reach out to us, we want to hear from you. Contact forms are "open" 24/7.
Granite Bay is located in Placer County, California. It has a land area of 21.52 square miles and a water area of 0.04 square miles.  The population of Granite Bay is 22,646 people with 7,795 households and a median annual income of $112,718. .
Therapy Affordability Meter for Granite Bay, CA
Widely Affordable
Licensed, professional counseling in Granite Bay is considered widely accessible by the majority of people who live here and budget is often not a concern for mental health treatment. Low cost counseling and affordable therapy are also sometimes offered by listed city and university level clinics, check with your local Granite Bay public health department.


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DFHS ROTC students volunteered at the Irmo Branch
Library Habitat Garden for the second year in a row.
Habitat Garden
Earth Club
Dutch Fork High School has its Earth Club up and running again this school year. (Earth Club is featured from 0:35 – 3:30)
Reuse Books
The Dutch Fork administration, custodians and Earth Club sent a truck of used books to Books for Africa in Atlanta, Georgia. This effort provides books for students who have limited access to instructional materials.
Beaufort County Green Steps Kickoff
Weaving Plarn
Enjoying the School Deck Garden
First National Green Ribbon School from SC
Koinonia of Columbia Summer School
Scaring away cabbage moths
Solar Hut
Dutch Fork ES students show us how to build a solar hut for a raised bed garden.


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Corey's Life
Corey was a boy who felt like a girl. Corey got bullied and had to switch schools. Read to find out more.
Oh and btw, this is also a video on YouTube.
If you are interested, the name is: Transgender Teen shares a powerful message
( YouTube Channel: ABC News )
Enjoy :) !
Corey Maison is the name of the girl.
Ps, apologizes that this book doesn't have a book cover :(, I am having tons of trouble doing this book cover that it is super complicated ( I have %0 idea in how to do it :( )
Hi. I'm Corey. I'm 14 years old. I might look happy now, but I haven't always been. I've known I was different all my life. When I was little, I loved to play with dolls and play dress up. I loved painting my nails too. Wearing my Mom's high heels was my favorite ! But only in the house. NEVER outside. Because I was born a BOY. I never had many friends. I didn't fit in with girls, and the boys made fun of me :(. In 5th grade, I was bullied SO bad, almost every day I came from school crying :(. They would make up lies to try get me in trouble. One of the kids told me that I should KILL myself because no one liked me anyway. He told me that no one will miss me if I was dead. They were SO mean I just wanted to die. So my parents took me out of that school and homeschooled me. I was thankful SO, SO thankful. I asked my Mom if I could wear a dress and high heals and she said YES ! So I did, and it felt AMAZING until..... A woman in the store started taking pictures of me with her phone. Another lady was pointing and laughing. I felt so stupid. Like a freak. Like a MISFIT. One day, my Mom told me to come watch something online. It was a documentary about a girl named Jazz Jennings. She was a beautiful girl..... That had been born a BOY !! I said to my Mom " OMG ! I'm just like her, I AM a girl !! " It finally made sense ! I AM a girl that was born in a boy's body. There's no thing
" wrong " with me. I'm transgender :). My parents found a therapist that worked with other transgender kids. The therapist helped me start my transition from a boy to GIRL ❤ I let my hair grow out, and started learning how to do my make up, EEEE ! When I turned 14, I started taking female hormones to start puberty as a girl. The day I took my first dose was the happiest day of my life :). I told my parents that I was ready to go back to public school. I was scared, but I felt like if I was ready. My Mom found a small school and set up a meeting with the principal. He was SO awesome and %100 ACCEPTING ! He even let me use the girl's locker room and bathroom !!! AND I play on the girl's soccer team !
I am SO HAPPY now :)
To All Kids Out There....
I want to tell anyone being bullied.....
This is temporary and WILL get better ! Know that though it may not feel like it right now....
You are * Incredible *
You are * Beautiful *
You are * worth so much *
You are
———— ❤
About the Author
Alessandra Saavedra León was born in La Paz, Bolivia, South America.
She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in May 29, 2017 at the age of 9 and a half. Alessandra wrote this series at the age of 10 and a half. She re-edited this story by herself and is SOO excited to continue this series, Dear Diary.


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Evolved Men's Leadership Conference
- Menla Retreat & Spa
- Mar 16 - 18, 2018 (3 days)
- Deluxe Queen - $1,215.00 Standard Shared Housing - $895.00
About This Event
Evolved Men's Leadership Conference (EMLC) has been created to propel men personally and professionally to succeed in the complex workplace environment.
EMLC is targeted to men that currently hold management/leadership positions for 10+ years, men that have ambitions to be in a management and entrepreneurs that are looking to drive their teams to success.
Male Leaders require skills today that are counter-intuitive to traditional male leadership role models. Based on current trends and what research shows, it is imperative for male leaders to understand and implement the skills of agility, malleability and flexibility while maintaining a heart-centered structure in today's business environment.
This weekend retreat will bring together thought leaders who will focus and educate attendees on developing skills that are found in performance Athletes, Navy Seals, and successful entrepreneurs who have been able to influence their organizations leading to optimal success. These newly learned skills will enable you to build unsurpassed team unity and strengthen interpersonal relationships at work, community and at home. The key techniques taught in this curriculum, have been endorsed by many major institutions including, McKinsey, Patagonia, Google and Deloitte.
This is a mandatory curriculum for anyone with the desire to achieve their own optimal success.
Through the Science of Flow and interactive workshops attendees will get a better understanding of individual conscious masculine energy, providing key learning, training skills, as well as resources and tools individuals can use for themselves and bring to their organizations to drive unparalleled success.
The conference training will develop new skills and tools to be implemented in more effective communication enabling you to claim and utilize your masculine energy. These newfound communication and management skills will release you from limiting beliefs and enhance your access to learning, motivation, creativity and happiness.
(Networking with like minded team leaders)
Friday, February 16
3-6pm Check-in for Those Attending
4-6pm Explore Grounds. Spa, Yoga
6-7pm Dinner
7:30-8:00pm Opening Ice Breaker (Don)
8:00-9:00 Trust exercise
9:00- 9:30 pm Group Recap
9:30pm Quiet Evening for Journaling or Meditation
Saturday, February 18
7-8am Morning Meditation/ Yoga
8-9:30am Breakfast
9:30- 10:45 Workshop 1
10:45-12:00 Workshop 2
12-1pm Lunch
1-3pm Workshop 3
3-6pm Free Time for Relaxation, Spa Treatments
5-8pm Sweat Lodge – Weather permitting, optional
6-7pm Dinner
7:30-9:00 Improv
Quiet Evening for Journaling or Meditation
Sunday, February 19
7-8am Morning Meditation
8-9:30am Breakfast
10am Closing Ceremony
Reviews To review this event, visit the page for the venue or retreat leaders (above).
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Thank you!
We're glad you've joined our retreat community. See you around :)Return to my event ×


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BOOK: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
WHEN: Sunday, May 6, 2012 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
WHERE: Vittoria Caffe, 296 Hanover St, North End
RSVP: Leave a comment here or on Facebook if you're coming.
In The Marriage Plot, Eugenides' third novel and first in ten years (following the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex), Eugenides describes a year or so in the lives of three college seniors at Brown in the early 80s. There is Madeleine, a self-described "incurable romantic" who is slightly embarrassed at being so normal. There is Leonard, a brilliant, temperamental student from the Pacific Northwest. And completing the triangle is Mitchell, a Religious Studies major from Eugenides' own Detroit. What follows is a book delivered in sincere and genuine prose, tracing the end of the students' college days and continuing into those first, tentative steps toward true adulthood. This is a thoughtful and at times disarming novel about life, love, and discovery, set during a time when so much of life seems filled with deep portent.


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Joe Redington Sr. had a dream of men and women racing teams of huskies across Alaska in an event like no other. The race he helped start, the iconic Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, is now the dream of many people from all walks of life and from all over the world.
Among those entered in 46th edition of the race to Nome is Shaynee Traska, a 28-year-old rookie from Two Rivers whose dream began nearly 20 years ago when she was a girl living in Gladwin, Michigan.
"I first heard of the Iditarod when I was 9 years old after my aunt and uncle visited Alaska and met Joe Redington," Traska said. "They came home telling stories of sled dogs and teams that raced across the wild vastness of Alaska, and I fell in love with the idea. I had never seen sled dogs before, but told my parents that I wanted to race the Iditarod someday."
Children's notions about what they will do as adults are often as fleeting as they are grand, and Traska's mother, Toni Seipke, said she remembers thinking, "We'll see." But in Traska's case the idea kept pawing at her.
"She read all the books and everything she could find out it on the Internet," Seipke said.
Traska also continued to hound her parents about acquiring huskies.
"Originally they told me that when I was older and had my own home, I could have as many dogs as I wanted," Traska said. "I prayed and dreamed for years to start a sled dog team."
Traska learned all she could about the sport, and when she was 11 she took a step closer to her dream. Her parents took her to watch the UP200, a 230-mile Iditarod qualifying race in Michigan that goes from Marquette to Grand Marais and back again.
Watching the 12-dog teams burst from the starting chute made Traska more determined to stand on sled runners behind her own team of huskies.
"I was hooked even more," she said.
After that she met Ken and Lori Chezik, champion sprint racers from Fife Lake, Michigan. They provided her with firsthand information about life as a musher and offered her a few dogs to start her off right.
"What I remember most about Shaynee was her absolute conviction to train, race, care for and love sled dogs," Lori Chezik by email. "She has a quiet determination. Many people underestimate her quietness with being timid, but they are completely wrong. She sets a goal and goes after it."
When she was 14, Traska's parents finally agreed it was time to let her give the sport a whirl and get her first dogs. The Howling Ridge Kennel was born.
"I was told from the beginning that I would be totally responsible for their care and training. I couldn't have been happier," Traska said.
Over the next few years, while balancing schoolwork and mushing and overcoming logistical challenges, Traska began running dogs.
"Gladwin was not a very good place to train dogs due to lack of space and trails (so) all of my training had to be done by trucking the dogs to country roads or further north to state land," she said.
Traska's parents were part of the process. Her mom would drive down those country roads in front of Traska and her dogs with her flashers on, and her dad drove behind her in the dog truck.
"We did that for years," Seipke said. "Then she got her driver's license and started going about 12 miles north to run on state land by herself."
Traska said it was a struggle to log the miles needed to ready the team for a race, but once she decided to enter her first race, the Midnight Run on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she didn't let anything stand in her way – even an age requirement that she didn't meet. She was 17 and race rules required racers to be 18, but she obtained permission to run anyway. Despite tricky terrain and inclement weather, Traska and her team finished the race.
Then she refocused on the big dream. At 19, she began breeding her own dogs to build up her kennel while simultaneously looking for a way to get to Alaska. At 23, she found a way by accepting a job with Gold Rush Sled Dog Tours in Juneau.
Glacier gigs are where many young mushers first cut their teeth in Alaska. The summer job mostly entails giving rides to cruise ship passengers and other tourists, but it allows those aspiring to run the Iditarod the opportunity to make money doing what they love during racing's offseason.
"I spent the summer saving my money and desperately trying to figure out a way that my 25 dogs and I could stay in Alaska come winter," Traska said.
"… I had no permanent place to live. I stayed a week in Willow, then spent a month in Kasilof, training and caring for my dogs while they lived on the truck. I finally learned of a cabin and dog yard for rent in Two Rivers, so in early November, I loaded up the dogs and all of my belongings and drove north to Fairbanks. I lived in a dry cabin that first winter while learning the local trails by dog team."
Since then, Traska has continued to work in the tourism business in Juneau every summer. She married Jeremy Traska, a musher from Idaho she met on the glacier, and she completed the Copper Basin 300 and the Yukon Quest 300 to qualify for the Iditarod.
Now she's ready to make her long-awaited Iditarod debut.
Lori Chezik thinks Traska will fare well on her 1,000-mile odyssey to Nome.
"Will she finish the race? If it's based solely on her toughness and ability, she will," she said. "But, she cares deeply for her dogs. She knows and understands there are inherent risks. If there comes a time that she has to choose between the race or the dogs, she will choose her dogs."
Traska admitted she has the usual rookie jitters now that the race is so close, but she said she is eager to experience firsthand what she has spent much of her life thinking about, planning for and working toward.
"The Iditarod will be the biggest adventure of my life and I am most excited about seeing these images I've had since a little girl come to life," she said. "I remember having this vision of traveling with my best friends – the athletes – across the Alaskan wilderness and enjoying all of the beauty that so few will ever see, and meeting the people in the villages and enjoying their company.
"… When you have a dream, it's very hard to be patient and wait for the timing of it to come true. It's been 20 years since I first told my parents I wanted to race Iditarod, and at times it seemed like it would never happen. I've wanted this for so long, so I want to soak it all in – all of the hard work, tears, joy, that has come with pursuing this dream since the kennel began when I was 14. This is our big moment."
Joseph Robertia is a freelance writer living in Kasilof with his wife, Colleen, and their daughter, Lynx. Joseph's first book, "Life with Forty Dogs," published by Alaska Northwest Publishing, was released in April.


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The 'Hyderabad Declaration on Promoting Eye Health and Eliminating Avoidable Blindness and Visual Impairment' was signed by the IAPB President and endorsed by acclamation by the 1600 assembly delegates at the Closing Ceremony of the 9th General Assembly (9GA) on the 20th of September 2012.
Supporting the 9GA's theme – "Eye Health: Everyone's Business" – the Declaration calls on international organisations, regional entities, governments, civil society and the private sector to work together to ensure that blindness and visual impairment are adequately and comprehensively addressed within an inclusive international development framework and as part of primary health care and health systems.
The declaration is a rallying call that spells out key issues in eye health and proposes clear strategies to address them. It will shape future discussions on eye health and is a key outcome from the Assembly.
Signing the Declaration, the IAPB President, Mr Bob McMullan, commented, "Eye health affects every individual and the economy of every country. Avoidable blindness and vision impairment is a massive problem, but it's a problem that we can do something about through cost effective solutions. 9GA was about Action – developing programmes of action that make eye health a priority area in the national health agenda of every country, particularly developing countries. The Hyderabad Declaration plays an important role in advocating the importance of eye health around the world".
Read the declaration below (PDF and Word):


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Melipona quadrifasciata
Melipona quadrifasciata is a eusocial bee in the hymenopteran family Apidae. This species belongs to the Meliponini tribe of stingless bees, which is the only other lineage of bees with a complex social organization, comparable to that of the honey bees in the Apini tribe [1]. Similar to honey bees, M. quadrifasciata colonies are perennial and have a single reproductive queen with many non-reproductive workers. Several aspects of the social behavior of M. quadrifasciata differ substantially from that of honey bees, however. First, M. quadrifasciata colonies typically have 300-400 workers and are thus much smaller than honey bee colonies [1]. Second, like all stingless bees, M. quadrifasciata workers provision cells with all the pollen and nectar the larvae will need to consume during development at the time the queen lays the egg [1]. Third, whether a female develops as a queen or a worker has both a genetic and environmental (i.e., larval diet) component [2]. Finally, M. quadrifasciata foragers recruit nestmates to food sources, but are limited in how well they can communicate distance [3].
M. quadrifasciata is found throughout southeastern coastal Brazil, where they nest in tree holes, abandoned mud bird nests, or in the ground [1]. These bees are also kept for greenhouse pollination and honey harvesting, and thus play an important role in agriculture in Brazil.
References cited
Community contact:
Image Credit: Thiago Mlaker, Public Domain. View source
Organism Image
Feature Summary
The following features are currently present for this organism
Contig N50
Scaffold N50
Community Contact
Community Contact:
Karen firstname.lastname@example.com
Hailin firstname.lastname@example.com
Image Credit
Thiago Mlaker, Public Domain. View source
Assembly Information
|Analysis Name
|Melipona quadrifasciata genome assembly Mqua.v1.0 (ASM127656v1)
|SOAPdenovo (2.03)
|BioProject PRJNA279820
|Date performed
|Materials & Methods
|Details of the assembly are available from the following publication:
Social evolution. Genomic signatures of evolutionary transitions from solitary to group living. Science. 2015 Jun 5;348(6239):1139-43. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa4788. Epub 2015 May 14.
|Assembly Metrics
|Contig N50
|Scaffold N50
|GC Content