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Definition of depression
- 1.
severe, typically prolonged, feelings of despondency and dejection.
"self-doubt creeps in and that swiftly turns to depression"
synonyms:melancholy, misery, sadness, unhappiness, sorrow, woe, gloom,gloominess, dejection, downheartedness, despondency,dispiritedness, low spirits, heavy-heartedness, moroseness,discouragement, despair, desolation, dolefulness, moodiness,pessimism, hopelessness;
Major Depression, also known as clinical or unipolar depression, is one of the most common mental illnesses. In America over 9 million American adults suffer from clinical depression each year. This estimate is likely to be higher since depression commonly remains undiagnosed and untreated in a large percentage of the U.S. population. Major Depression is more than a temporary state of feeling sad; rather, it is a persistent state that can significantly impair an individual's thoughts, behavior, daily activities, and physical health.
Major Depressive Disorder impacts all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups and can occur at any age. The average lifetime prevalence of depression is 17%: 26% for women and 12% for men. The mean age for a first episode is in the thirties. Demographic differences show that rates are higher in urban rather than in rural areas. No racial significance has been noted. Along gender lines, women suffer from depression at twice the rate of men. Statistics have shown that one out of every seven women will experience at least one depressive episode in their lifetime. This gender difference is best explained by looking at the interplay between biological, genetic, psychological, social, and environmental factors.
Classified as mood disorders, major depression, along with other depressive disorders such as dysthymia (a chronic less severe form of depression), and bipolar disorder (manic depression) fall along a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is unipolar or major depression and on the opposite is bipolar disorder or manic depression, both with varying degrees of severity and duration. Along this spectrum, there are several categories of mood disorders, such as postpartum depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and psychotic depression, as well as variants of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by severe and disabling cycles of depression and mania.
Mood disorders are highly treatable conditions, with each type requiring different treatment approaches and forms. Antidepressant medications and psychotherapies offer useful treatment approaches and are commonly employed in treating the debilitating effects of depression. However, if mood disorders are left untreated for long periods of time, the debilitating effects of depression can lead to suicide.
SYMPTOMS OF MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDERSymptoms of Major Depression represent a significant change from the individual's normal level of functioning. Together the symptoms cause significant distress or impairment in the individual's life and his/her ability to function. Depression symptoms can occur with either a sudden onset or in a more gradual fashion, with the severity of symptoms ranging from mild to severe.
A Major Depressive Episode is defined as having five or more of the following symptoms present for the same two-week period, and represents a change from the individual's normal level of functioning when well. At least one of the five required symptoms must be (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest.
- depressed mood experienced most of the day, nearly every day;
- diminished interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities most of the day, nearly every day;
- significant change in appetite (increase or decrease) or weight (loss or gain);
- insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day;
- observable psychomotor agitation (feeling restless or fidgety) or retardation (feeling slowed down) nearly every day;
- loss of energy or fatigue nearly every day;
- feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt, nearly every day (not merely self reproach about being sick);
- diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day (either subjective account or observed by others);
- recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.
In psychotic major depression, the delusions and/or hallucinations only occur when the person is also experiencing significant depression. These symptoms do not occur when the person is no longer depressed. If one experiences these psychotic symptoms when they are not depressed, there are other diagnoses that would need to be considered.
SYMPTOMS OF DYSTHYMIC DISORDERThe differentiation of dysthymic disorder from major depressive disorder can be difficult. Key features of dysthymia are a mild to moderate depressed mood that has a chronic course (greater than 2 years). Dysthymia is characterized by the following:
- Depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, for at least two years.
- While depressed, there must be present 2 or more of the following: poor appetite or over-eating, insomnia or hypersomnia, low energy/fatigue, low self-esteem, poor concentration or difficulty making decisions, feelings of hopelessness.
- During the two-year period, the patient has never been without the symptoms in number 1 or 2 for more than 2 months at a time.
- No history of a major depressive episode, manic episode, mixed episode, hypomanic episode or cyclothymic disorder.
- The symptoms cause significant impairment or distress.
Manic Episode
- Distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive or irritable mood, lasting for at least one week (or any duration if hospitalization is necessary).
- During the period of mood disturbance, three (or more) of the following symptoms (four if the mood is only irritable) have been present to a significant degree:
- inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
- decreased need for sleep
- more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
- disconnected or racing thoughts
- distractibility
- increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
- excessive involvement in inappropriate social behavior
- The mood symptoms cause significant impairment or distress, or severity of illness requires hospitalization to prevent harm to self or others, or there are psychotic features.
CAUSES OF DEPRESSIONThe exact etiology of depression is yet to be determined; however, multiple factors, including biological, psychological, and environmental factors are involved in the presentation of depression. For example, an individual who has a first-degree relative with depression has a four times higher risk of developing depression than the general population. Twin studies have shown that an individual with a monozygotic twin with depression has as high as a fifty percent chance of developing the disorder.
Major depression is caused by imbalance of certain neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) in the brain, such as serotonin research, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Antidepressants work either by changing the sensitivity of the receptors or by increasing the availability of neurotransmitters in the brain.
In addition to genetic components, there are many psychosocial factors that contribute to the development of mood disorders. For example, an individual with little or no social support will have fewer resources to handle stress and thereby will be at a greater risk of developing a mood disorder.
Our role model for why is DEPRESSION with the unforgettable PRINCESS DIANA
Princess Di, as she later became known to her adoring public, was born The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer, the youngest daughter of Edward John Spencer, the eighth Earl of Spencer, Viscount Althorp and Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp.
The couple had five children; Diana's siblings are Elizabeth Sarah Lavinia (born 1955, now lady Sarah McCorquodale), Cynthia Jane (born 1957, now Lady Fellowes), John (died ten hours after birth, 1960) and Charles Edward Maurice (born 1964, currently the ninth Earl of Spencer). The family lived in Park House on the Sandringham estate.
By the mid 1960s, strain was beginning to show in the Althorp's marriage and in 1967, when Diana was only six-years-old, her mother ran off with Peter Shand-Kydd, the heir to a wallpaper fortune. Two years later, the Althorps divorced in April 1969.
Lord Althorp fought for and won custody of the children. A short time after the divorce, Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, novelist Barbara Cartland's daughter, moved in with the family. The children never liked her and nicknamed her 'Acid Raine'. In 1969, Diana's mother married Peter Shand-Kydd, becoming The Honourable Mrs Frances Shand-Kydd, and the couple went to live on the island of Seil, Scotland.
In 1975, when Diana's father became eighth Earl of Spencer, the family moved from Park House to the 16th century ancestral home of Althorp and the following year, Diana's father married Raine. Diana first attended school at Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School in Norfolk and later, at West Heath Girls' School (which subsequently has become the New School at West Heath, a co-educational special school) in Kent.
By self-admission, she was not much of an academic and left school in 1977, at age 16, after failing all her O-level exams. It was that same year that she met Prince Charles, a friend of her sister, at a hunting party. Following that, Diana's father sent her off to a finishing school, the Institute Alpin Videmanette, in Rougemont, Switzerland. She showed some talent as an amateur singer and was a good sportswoman. In her heart, she always longed to be a ballerina but her height prevented this.
In 1979, Diana returned to London and moved into an apartment in South Kensington with three friends. She got her first job working as a part-time assistant at the Young England Kindergarten, a nursery school and day-care centre in Pimlico. The memorable photograph of the extremely shy Diana in a flimsy skirt, holding a young child, backlit by the sun, and showing the outline of her shapely legs, was taken by John Minihan during this time. Prince Charles had reached the age of 31 without finding a suitable partner and, as heir to the throne, was under pressure to do so. A list of candidates was drawn up and Diana was chosen from the shortlist. Diana met Prince Charles for the second time in 1980, when she and her family visited the Windsors during their summer holiday at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, and the royal romance began.
On 24 February 1981, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of the 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, 32-year-old heir apparent to the British throne. It was a fairytale in the making, and the blonde, blue-eyed beauty posed with her husband to be for official photographs showing off her enormous diamond and sapphire engagement ring that matched her eyes and her royal blue dress. Immediately, jewellers around the world scrambled to make copies of the ring, which were snapped up by adoring Diana fans. Following the engagement, Diana moved out of the flat she shared with friends and into Clarence House, the home of the Queen Mother, in order to be taught her royal duties.
The Royal Wedding, which took place on 29 July 1981 in St Paul's Cathedral, London, was attended by 3,500 guests, photographed by Lord Lichfield, watched avidly by approximately one billion people on televisions around the world and marked as a national holiday in the UK. The fairytale Princess looked every bit the part, arriving at the church in a glass coach, wearing the family tiara and a massive silk wedding dress incorporating 10,000 pearls and sequins, with a 25-foot train, designed by David and Elizabeth Emmanuel. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runice, married the couple in a traditional Church of England service. On Charles' request, New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa sang a beautiful rendition of Handel's 'Let the Bright Seraphim' during the ceremony. The married couple rode in the open-top state landau to Buckingham Palace for the kiss on the balcony the crowds had been waiting to see. The couple then joined their family and guests for a private wedding breakfast feast at the Palace. Diana's new surname was Mountbatten-Windsor and her new title Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales. She was ranked as third most senior woman in the United Kingdom, after the Queen and the Queen Mother. The newlyweds enjoyed their honeymoon on board the royal yacht Britannia.
Wasting no time in starting a family, Diana gave birth, on 21 June 1982, to the second in line to the British throne, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor of Wales (Prince William or 'Wills' as he is sometimes known). Three months later, Diana made her first official appearance outside the UK, when she represented the Queen at the burial of Princess Grace of Monaco. It wasn't long before the Princess began breaking royal protocol, when she insisted Prince William accompany her on her tour of Australia, much to the delight of the Australian public. Two years later, on 15 September 1984, Harry was born. He is third in line to the British throne and his full name is Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales. The Princess had her Prince and two healthy and beautiful young sons.
The fairytale continued, with Diana gaining huge popularity, not only in the UK, but also worldwide, and she became known as the 'People's Princess', a celebrity in her own right. With her natural beauty, her height and her grace, her ease with people, her candid honesty and warmth, it was an easy task for personal stylists to help her become a fashion icon, a role model, and possibly the most photographed and famous woman in the world. In the winter of 1985, Charles and Diana made their first official visit to America. President Reagan held a gala party at the White House in their honour and it was the society event of the year.
Unfortunately, all was not as bright on the home front and Charles and Diana's marriage was starting to break down. Diana's popularity with the public and the media was beginning to overshadow that of her husband and, in photographs, he would often be seen standing glumly in the background whilst his wife was in the spotlight. Behind the scenes, more trouble was brewing. Having long known about Charles' affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, Diana was finding it increasingly difficult to hold up a strong façade for the public. In 1990, Charles and Diana moved into separate apartments and, during their state visit to India that year, it became obvious to the world that the marriage was in dire straits.
In March 1992, Diana's father died at the age of 68, which greatly affected her. In a move to have her side of the story heard, when the papers were filled with conjecture about the 'War of the Waleses' and the failing royal union, Diana approached British author Andrew Morton to write her biography. 'Diana: Her True Story' was published in June 1992. The sequel, 'Diana: Her New Life', was published in 1994, with both books becoming best sellers in the UK and the US.
On 25 August 1992, British tabloid newspaper The Sun printed intimate taped telephone conversations between Diana and car dealer James Gilby that had taken place in 1989, an indiscretion that was coined 'Squidgygate' and possibly speeded up the end of the Wales' marriage. Until that point, Diana had been seen as the wronged party, but now she had to shoulder some of the blame. However, she seemed to attract more sympathy than Charles did and, in fact, many believed her to be victim of establishment persecution, as the bugging of her phone had been undertaken by British intelligence agencies.
It was on 9 December 1992 that British Prime Minister, John Major, officially announced that Prince Charles and Princess Diana had separated. Her sons were everything to her and at this turbulent time of her life, Diana said she would have been lost without them. In 1993, Diana announced her withdrawal from public life, much to the dismay of her supporters. It transpired that Charles had also had a turn to have his telephone bugged and the taped conversations, between himself and Camilla on 18 December 1989, were splashed all over the tabloids in 1993. Things that he had said in 'Camillagate' left Charles blushing, open to ridicule, and with somewhat of a black mark against the public's view of his character. He maintained in an interview to David Dimbleby that he felt justified that his affair with Camilla was not adulterous, as he saw his marriage as already being over at that point.
The next scandal Diana had to face publicly was her previous involvement with military man, James Lifford Hewitt, also known as the 'Love Rat'. Having met at a party in 1986, they reportedly had an affair from 1987 to 1992, once Hewitt had become a personal riding instructor for William and Harry and was spending a lot of time with the Princess. In 1994, Hewitt sold his 'kiss and tell' story to the tabloids, forcing Diana to admit to the affair. She did this in an extremely candid 1995 'Panorama' television interview about her ongoing fight against bulimia nervosa, her crippling post-natal depression, her doomed marriage to Charles, the mental cruelty she endured over his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, her attempted suicide attempts and her own promiscuity. Through all of this, her complete loyalty to her children was obvious and their upbringing was constantly her priority.
The Queen could not stand the scandal to the royal family any longer and, in December 1995, she asked Charles and Diana to end their marriage. Charles agreed immediately, whilst Diana delayed her decision for another three months, only agreeing on 28 February 1996. After fifteen years of marriage, the couple divorced on 15 July 1996 and it was legally finalised on 28 August 1996, following six weeks of discussion. Diana ceased to be the Princess of Wales and could no longer use the title Her Royal Highness (HRH). She was, however, as former wife of heir to the throne and mother of his sons, granted permission by the Queen to be known as Diana, Princess of Wales, and the given the right to live in Kensington Palace, remaining a member of the royal family. Custody of Princes William and Harry was granted to both parents and Prince Charles remained living at Highgrove House, his private residence in Gloucestershire.
Following her divorce, Diana became no less popular in the press. In fact, it could be said that media scrutiny intensified, with the world eager to know her next step. She was first linked to married art dealer Oliver Hoare, to whom she reportedly made anonymous telephone calls. She then had a brief involvement with England rugby player, Will Carling. They met at an exclusive London gym and shared intimate coffee mornings but denied any physical aspect to their relationship. Following that, she publicly dated heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan, for whom she had great respect and, according to friends, with whom she felt a 'karmic' bond and truly loved. Unfortunately, due to cultural differences, their relationship could not have a future. Dr Khan, being from Pakistan and believing in arranged marriages, would not get his parents' approval to marry a divorced, Western, non-Islamic woman. Diana tried everything she could to persuade him that they should marry, including asking friend Imran Kahn, who himself had married a British aristocrat outside the Islamic faith, to speak to him. She approached his parents, writing letters and even travelling to visit them, but to no avail.
A few days after her break-up with Dr Kahn, Diana was photographed kissing Dodi Al-Fayed, son of Egyptian-born businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner (amongst other things) of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London. They enjoyed a brief time together and in 1997, Diana flew with her sons to Saint Tropez to holiday with Dodi.
A month after her 36th birthday, on 31 August 1997, Diana and Dodi were in a fatal car crash in the Pont de l'Alma underpass tunnel in Paris. They were en route back to Britain, after spending time on his yacht. On 30 August, Diana and Dodi had enjoyed a romantic dinner at the Hotel Ritz Place Vendome, Paris. The couple left the hotel via the rear entrance shortly after midnight, accompanied by bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, and French driver Henri Paul. On 31 August, at 00:25, the black Mercedes S-280 bearing the Princess and her party had an accident in the Seine Tunnel, near the Eiffel Tower. Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene, where Dodi and Henri Paul died, whilst Diana and her bodyguard were seriously injured but still alive. They were immediately taken to the closest hospital, the Pite Salpa Triere, where after intensive attempts to save her life, Diana died at 04:15. Rees-Jones survived and he was the only occupant of the car wearing a seatbelt. That afternoon, the Royal Squadron flew Prince Charles and Diana's two sisters to Paris to bring back her remains to Great Britain. The coffin, draped in the royal flag, lay in state in the Royal Chapel in St James' Place.
Fuelled perhaps by the beliefs of establishment persecution Diana had suffered with the 'Squidgygate' affair in 1992, speculation of conspiracy was once again rife, with many believing that the car crash was an assassination rather than an accident, notable amongst them was Mohamed Al-Fayed. It later emerged that Diana had written a letter to her butler, Paul Burrell, in October 1996, the year before she died. In it, she claimed there was a plot to kill her and she feared that the brakes of her car would be tampered with to cause 'an accident' resulting in serious head injury. She believed this would be to get her out of the way in order for Charles to marry Camilla. Following the French investigation into the crash, it was ruled an accident, caused by driver Henri Paul being under the influence of alcohol and driving at high speed. British police are currently undertaking an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Diana's death and the report is expected in 2007.
The day before Diana's funeral at Westminster Abbey on 6 September 1997, the Queen arrived back from her summer holiday at Balmoral Castle and made her first televised live speech concerning the death of Diana and praised her as 'an exceptional and gifted human being'. The funeral was very moving and was watched by millions around the globe. Diana's coffin, draped in the royal standard, was carried to the church on a gun carriage, behind which walked Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Philip and Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, followed by representatives of all her charities. Prime Minister Tony Blair read the lesson at the service and it was Prince Williams' idea to get Elton John to sing the unforgettable 'Candle in the Wind'. The Earl of Spencer gave a particularly moving speech about his late sister, which received a standing ovation. Following the funeral, Diana's coffin was taken to her family home, Althorp House, and buried on a small island in the middle of an ornamental lake, called The Oval, in the Pleasure Garden on the estate. This was to ensure protection of her remains and to provide a private place for her sons to visit her grave.
During her life, the Princess was known for her high profile charity work, starting with her support of AIDS charities campaigns in 1987. Diana was the first celebrity to be photographed touching a person with the HIV virus. She did this knowingly and willingly. In an instant, the photographs of her compassionate gesture went a long way to helping shift public awareness of AIDS. Diana often made unannounced visits to terminally ill patients in hospital but with the request that she remain out of the media on these occasions.
She also supported the International Campaign for a Ban on Landmines. Possibly best remembered was her International Red Cross VIP volunteer visit to Angola in January 1997, with the poignant photograph of her in a helmet with a visor, wearing a simple top and jeans, touring a minefield. She also visited Bosnia in August 1997, which was to be her last trip as 'Queen of Hearts', with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her special interest was in how the children are affected and often injured by buried landmines, long after the conflict has abated. She was actively involved in the Red Cross.
In a legacy to her unending support of children, the Diana Memorial Award was created. It is granted to young people who have unselfishly devoted themselves to causes the Princess herself defended. Mohamed Al-Fayed contributed £3 million to the foundation of The New School at West Heath, as a tribute to the late Princess Diana. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is located in Hyde Park, London. It was designed by American landscape artist, Kathryn Gustafson, with children in mind and was opened by the Queen on 6 July 2004.
An inquest into Diana's death opened and adjourned in January 2004. Former Metropolitan Police force chief Lord John Stevens was then asked to undertake an official Scotland Yard inquiry into whether or not Diana and Dodi Fayed were murdered. After nearly three years, the report by Lord Stevens was released in December 2006. It concluded that the allegations of murder were unfounded and the car crash that killed the pair in Paris on 31 August 1997 was a tragic accident. Stevens also confirmed that Diana had not been pregnant and was not engaged or about to be engaged at the time of her death.
A princess taken in her prime, who came into the royal family and the public spotlight as a shy young woman and grew into one of the most popular and copied women in the world. She brought an unexpected breath of fresh air into the Windsor household and helped to change public perception of monarchy. She reached out and touched so many people's hearts, whilst hers was often breaking. Diana did have her antagonists and she was maligned for having an unclassified mental illness and for manipulating the media for her own gain. For all her faults, however, she always did what she thought best and her children came first above all. Her two sons have grown into fine young men, with much of their mother's feisty spirit. Diana's memory will continue to live on, as she truly became a legend in her own time and stamped an indelible mark on history.
So, our conclusion to a princess story is that Depression has no borders, it can attack anyone at anytime and any place in the world. We must understand where did Princess Diana get the emotional illness of being alone. As we can understand the emotional intelligence in humans, when a child has lost its mother, the care is missing and the human's core existence to life is neglected. Depression is the lack of motherly care in the heart of a human. THIS LACK OF CARE CAN RESULT IN SUICIDE -A brief overview:Most suicides appear to be associated with a long-lasting depression; they are often "a permanent solution to a temporary problem." In North America, they seem to peak annually in the early springtime. One theory is that individuals decide to commit suicide while profoundly depressed in the dead of Winter, but lack the ability to organize their own death. Later, when the weather improves and they feel more in control and are able to arrange their suicide.
Others who commit suicide are not depressed. They kill themselves because of terminal illness, intractable pain, and/or the loss of dignity, control, and autonomy -- or anticipated loss -- which often accompanies terminal diseases.
Emergency support services are available to help persons with suicidal ideation, often on a 24 hour basis. Suicide prevention hot lines (sometimes called distress centers, crisis centers, hotlines, Contact, Telecare, etc.) offer non-judgmental, confidential, caring support by trained volunteers. Telephone numbers are often listed on the inside front cover of local telephone books.
Throughout North America, the act of committing suicide is no longer a crime. Except for certain cases in the states of Oregon and Washington, assisting a person to commit suicide remains a criminal act.
Certain groups within the population are much more at risk for suicide. These include Aboriginals, persons who suffer from various mental disorders, lesbians, gays, and bisexuals Persons who are transgender and trans sexuals may be at the highest risk to commit suicide.
Some facts about suicide:
U.S. Suicide rates are highest in the western and rocky mountain states. They are are lowest in the Northeastern states.
Canadian suicide rates are similar: highest in British Columbia, on the west coast, and lowest in Newfoundland, on the east coast.
U.S. data:
There were 31,204 deaths by suicide recorded in 1995; 30,535 in 1997; 33,000 in 2006 (the latest data available at 2009-SEP-10).
The actual number is probably significantly higher, because many suicides are recorded as accidents.
The most common method that men use to commit suicide (58%) involves firearms. Simply making firearms less easily accessible to a suicidal person can drastically reduce their chance of them taking their own life. Women more often choose poisoning (40%).
More females than males attempt suicide -- on average two to three times as often as men.
More males than females "succeed" at suicide, by a ratio of 4 to 1.
Comparison of groups within the U.S.:
The average suicide rate in the U.S. is about 11 per 100,000 per year. This amounts to one completed suicide every 16 minutes.
Between 1 and 2% of all the deaths in 1997 were by suicide. This compares to 31% from heart disease, 23 from cancer, 7% from stroke.
Whites commit suicide at a higher rate, than African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics. However, in 2007,
"Hispanic female high school students in grades 9-12 reported a higher percentage of suicide attempts (14.0%) than their White, non-Hispanic (7.7%) or Black, non-Hispanic (9.9%) counterparts."
Young Native Americans have a very high suicide rate. "Among American Indians/Alaska Natives ages 15- to 34-years, suicide is the second leading cause of death."
Older Native Americans commit suicide less often than do Whites of the same age.
Married folks have a lower rate of suicide than do divorced, separated, widowed and single people.
About one in three American teenagers has contemplated suicide. An Internet poll by About.com indicated that 50% of teens visiting that web site had considered it.
Suicide is the eleventh leading cause of death among the entire population.
Suicide has been reported as the second leading cause of death among teenagers, exceeded only by traffic accidents. However, the suicide rate among teens is actually lower than that of older persons. Teens tend to have few life-threatening illnesses. Teenage deaths from disease is quite low. Thus, the relatively few suicides among teens make suicide a leading cause of death.
The reported U.S. suicide rate for very young people (10 to 14 years of age) increased by 183% between 1970 and 1993. However, much of this increase may not be real. In the past, there was widespread denial that pre-teens could decide to end their lives.
Data concerning young homosexuals is somewhat unreliable. It appears that about one in three teen aged suicides is by a gay or lesbian. Since homosexuals represent only about 5% of the population, gays and lesbians are greatly over-represented.
Among the most common faith groups in the U.S., Protestants have the highest suicide rate; Roman Catholics are next; Jews have the lowest rate.
Followers of religions that strongly prohibit suicide, like Christianity and Islam, have a higher suicide rate than those religions which have no strong prohibition (e.g. Buddhism and Hinduism.)
A person has a higher risk of suicide if their parent, close relative or close friend has taken their own life
References:The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today. Some sources may have updated their information since we last downloaded it.
- Doug Martin, "Suicide as Deviance," at: http://www.nwmissouri.edu/
- "Suicide," at: http://library.thinkquest.org/
- "What is the second leading cause of death among teenagers." at: http://www0.mercurycenter.com/
- "Suicide in the U.S.: Statistics and Prevention," National Institute of Mental Health, at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/
- "Suicide: Facts at a Glance," Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009-Summer, at: http://www.cdc.gov
Introduction:The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) cosponsor the annual World Suicide Prevention Day on SEP-10 each year. The theme in 2009 was "Suicide Prevention in Different Cultures."
According to their news release, the purpose of World Suicide Prevention Day is:
"... to improve education about suicide, disseminate information, decrease stigmatization and most importantly, raise awareness that suicide is preventable."
The following is excerpted from their news release.
The magnitude of the problem:Suicide is a leading cause of death for people worldwide, and one of the three leading causes of death for young people under 25.
Every year, approximately one million people die by suicide - one death every two minutes. The World Health Organization estimates that by the year 2020, this annual toll of suicide deaths will have risen to one and a half million, and suicide will represent 2.4% of the global burden of disease.
Suicide deaths account for more than half of all violent deaths in the world - more than all deaths from wars and homicides combined.
Every year, many millions more people make serious suicide attempts which, while they do not result in death, require medical treatment and mental health care, and reflect severe personal unhappiness or illness. Millions more people -- the family members and close friends of those who die by suicide -- are bereaved and affected by suicide each year, with the impact of this loss often lasting for a lifetime.
Suicide exacts huge psychological and social costs, and the economic costs of suicide to society (lost productivity, health and social care costs) are estimated at many billions of dollars each year.
Because almost a quarter of suicides in the world are teenagers and young adults aged less than 25 years (250,000 suicides each year), suicide is a leading cause of premature death, accounting for more than 20 million years of healthy life lost.
Suicide is preventable: Causes of suicide: During the last three decades we have learned a great deal about the causes of this complex behavior. Suicide has biological, cultural, social and psychological risk factors. People from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds are at increased risk of suicidal behavior. Childhood adversity and trauma, and various life stresses as an adult influence risks of suicidal behavior. Serious mental illnesses, most commonly depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia, are associated with increased risk of suicide. Diminished social interaction increases suicide risk, particularly among adults and older adults.
Suicide can be prevented. Despite its often complex origins, suicide can be prevented. Communities and societies that are well integrated and cohesive have fewer suicides. Restricting access to methods of suicide (such as firearms or pesticides) reduces suicides. Careful media reporting of suicide prevents further suicides. Educating communities and health and social services professionals to better identify people at risk of suicide, encourage them to seek help, and providing them with adequate, sustained and professional care can reduce suicides amongst people with mental illness. Providing adequate support for people who are bereaved by suicide can reduce their risk of suicide.
Support for World Suicide Prevention Day:World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) provides an opportunity for all sectors of the community ‐ the public, charitable organizations, communities, researchers, clinicians, practitioners, politicians and policy makers, volunteers, those bereaved by suicide, other interested groups and individuals ‐ to join with the International Association for Suicide Prevention and [World Health Organization] (WHO) to focus public attention on the unacceptable burden and costs of suicidal behaviors with diverse activities to promote understanding about suicide and highlight effective prevention activities. Those activities may call attention to the global burden of suicidal behavior, and discuss local, regional and national strategies for suicide prevention, highlighting cultural initiatives and emphasizing how specific prevention initiatives are shaped to address local cultural conditions.
Initiatives which actively educate and involve people are likely to be most effective in helping people learn new information about suicide and suicide prevention. Examples of activities which can support World Suicide Prevention Day include:
Launching new initiatives, policies and strategies on World Suicide Prevention Day,
Holding conferences, open days, educational seminars or public lectures and panels.
Writing articles for national, regional and community newspapers and magazines.
Holding press conferences.
Placing information on your website.
Securing interviews and speaking spots on radio and television.
Organizing memorial services, events, candlelight ceremonies or walks to remember those who have died by suicide.
Asking national politicians with responsibility for health, public health, mental health or suicide prevention to make relevant announcements, release policies or make supportive statements or press releases on WSPD.
Holding depression awareness events in public places and offering screening for depression.
Organizing cultural or spiritual events, fairs or exhibitions.
Organizing walks to political or public places to highlight suicide prevention.
Holding book launches, or launches for new booklets, guides or pamphlets.
Distributing leaflets, posters and other written information.
Organizing concerts, BBQs, breakfasts, luncheons, contests, fairs in public places.
Writing editorials for scientific, medical, education, nursing, law and other relevant journals.
Disseminating research findings.
Producing press releases for new research papers.
Introduction:The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) distributed a press release at the time of the World Suicide Prevention Day on 2009-SEP-10. The release contained information on suicide prevention programs in various countries of the world.
The following is excerpted from their news release.
Some programs in various countries to prevent suicide:Efforts to decriminalize suicide: In some cultures (e.g.: Lebanon and Pakistan) suicide is still a criminal activity. This status determines the way suicide is responded to. It stigmatizes the families of those who die by suicide, inhibits suicide attempters from seeking appropriate help and hinders efforts to establish suicide prevention programs. As a fundamental step in suicide prevention, efforts have been made in India to decriminalize suicide and the International Association for Suicide Prevention is collaborating with the World Health Organization to support and facilitate these efforts.
Reduction of suicide by pesticide in Asia: Culture influences the methods that people select to commit suicide. Most suicides in the world occur in Asia, which is estimated to account for up to 60% of all suicides. In many Asian countries (including China, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia) a large proportion of suicides result from poisoning by swallowing agricultural pesticides. Suicide by this method is particularly common in females in rural areas. Given the large contribution to world suicide rates, reducing pesticide suicides could make a significant impact on global suicide rates. Current efforts to reduce pesticide suicide focus on removing the most toxic pesticides from sale, restricting access to pesticides by the use of locked storage boxes, improving access to emergency treatment and health care, educating about help‐seeking and providing crisis support for rural women in stressful situations.
Minimizing media reports of suicide methods. Culture shapes the way suicide is reported by the media. In Hong Kong, media reports of a novel method of suicide, charcoal burning, contributed to the rapid adoption of this method by people who did not previously make suicide attempts. Concerted efforts by suicide prevention experts in Hong Kong focused on persuading the media to adopt a more cautious and muted approach to reporting suicides by charcoal burning. At the same time, novel efforts were made to restrict access to charcoal by reducing access within supermarkets, and to train community accommodation owners to recognize people who might be at risk of suicide who were seeking a room in which to use charcoal burning to kill themselves. Implementation of these initiatives resulted in a significant reduction in suicides by charcoal burning.
Support for Immigrants. Increasing globalization, ease of international travel, and refugees and asylum seekers from war and disaster have swelled the number of immigrants worldwide. People who are alienated from their country and culture of origin are vulnerable to various stresses, mental health problems, loneliness and suicidal behavior.
Suicide prevention strategies, tailored to the specific needs of migrant groups, exist in many countries. These programs typically focus on understanding the specific cultural and religious attitudes to mental health and suicide of the migrant group, reasons for migration, and family and social structures.
Interventions include educational and social programs designed to identify stresses, teach coping skills, promote use of preventative health practices, improve access to health services and encourage socializing. Suicide prevention programs for migrants may require involvement, championship or leadership from religious or community leaders to be successful.
Promoting community enhancement, awareness and linkages to reduce indigenous youth suicide. In the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, rates of youth suicide are substantially higher amongst indigenous young people compared to their non-Aboriginal peers. Reasons given for this include the impact of change, colonization, disruption of family and social ties and a resulting lack of secure cultural identity. Suicide prevention programs for aboriginal youth focus on community gatekeeper training programs to better recognize at-risk youth and refer them for help, and promotion of activities to promote community involvement. An example is provided by the North Dakota Adolescent Suicide Prevention Project. Within a 4- year time span, this project demonstrated a 47 percent reduction in 10-19 year-old suicide fatalities, compared to the 10-year average in the 1990s, and a 29 percent decrease in suicide attempts in North Dakota youth. The project used a multi-faceted approach, including public awareness, education, gatekeeper training, and peer mentoring of teenagers.
Encouragement of safe drinking. Alcohol abuse is strongly related to suicidal behavior and population rates of suicidal behavior are influenced by population alcohol consumption levels, which in turn are influenced by cultural and religious attitudes towards alcohol consumption. Evidence from the Soviet bloc suggests that the imposition of regulations restricting access to alcohol dramatically reduced both alcohol consumption and suicide rates. Countries in which the dominant religion proscribes against drinking tend to have low suicide rates. Public education programs that encourage safe and moderate drinking may play a role in suicide prevention at a population level.
Mental Health de‐stigmatization programs. Cultural attitudes to mental illness influence people?s willingness to seek treatment or support for mental illness. Throughout the world investments have been made in public education campaigns tailored to meet the need of specific cultural groups. These programs are designed to promote awareness and
understanding of mental disorders. These types of campaigns may contribute to suicide prevention by encouraging better utilization of services and support for those with mental disorders.
Suicide rates in different countries:There are substantial variations in suicide rates among different countries, and, to some extent, these differences reflect cultural differences to suicide. Cultural views and attitudes towards suicide influence both whether people will make suicide attempts and whether suicides will be reported accurately.
Suicide rates, as reported to the World Health Organisation, are highest in Eastern European countries including Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus and the Russian Federation. These countries have suicide rates of the order of 45 to 75 per 100,000.
Reported suicide rates are lowest in the countries of Mediterranean Europe and the predominantly Catholic countries of Latin America (Colombia, Paraguay) and Asia (such as the Philippines) and in Muslim countries (such as Pakistan). These countries have suicide rates of less than 6 per 100 000.
In the developed countries of North America, Europe and Australasia suicide rates tend to lie between these two extremes, ranging from 10 to 35 per 100 000.
Suicide data are not available from many countries in Africa and South America.


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Do we have those Halloween costumes ready yet? One week to go!
I love Halloween because of the wide variety of costumes we see in the neighborhood! I like to make them for my kids and it's fun to hear what they come up with. In fact my oldest son has such a random idea this year that I'm going to have to ask him again what it was! All I remember is that it involves a shiny, black sheet. Anyway, whatever your young ones are wanting to be this Halloween, I bet there's a good chance you can add flair to it by using shiny satin! Yeah?
Let's be honest, though. Working with satin for the first time may seem a little scary! Like going on a stroll through the cemetery on Halloween night and seeing a black cat cross your path, under the full moon. (Have you ever done that? It's scary!) But sewing with satin doesn't have to be. We have some great tips and tricks to share with you today, and before long you will be sewing satin like a witch! I mean... like a pro!
I know you can do it, and even in time for Halloween. Here's the link to our downloadable PDF:
And guess what! To make your knowledge of satin even more complete, on Monday we will show you how to make a couple different kinds of satin flowers. Your little ghouls will love that.
Let's create! ~ Kristen

subset: commoncrawl


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Curlew lodge is our latest modern style lodge. Built to the highest standard incorporating the latest modern building techniques. These studio style lodges offer the highest insulation of any lodge on the market and are warmer than a modern home all year round. Designed to sleep up to 4 people with a double bed and full size bunk beds. It even has a sofa bed for that fifth person if needed. With full central heating double glazing modern bathroom with shower and W/C. All lighting is LED.
With fully equipped simple kitchenette including fridge, two-ring hob and built in microwave kettle toaster and all crockery and pots and pans for six people. The dining area has seating for 4 to 6 people inside and outside it has a decked patio with table and chairs as well as the latest in eco hot tubs. The lodges are available all year round and have parking for a large car at each cabin. The price includes bedding and towels for up to 4 people.
The cabins are equipped with the following:
- Leather two-seater sofa bed
- Folding dining table and 4 chairs
- Two separate folding chairs also provided
- A range of kitchen cupboards
- Fridge with freezer compartment
- Sink with hot and cold water
- Two ring gas hob
- Built in microwave
- Electric kettle and toaster
- Range of plates, mugs, glasses bowels etc.
- Cutlery sharp knives, Kitchen utensils, tin opener and cork screw
- Washing up bowl. Mop and bucket, sweeping brushes and dust pan,
- Mixing bowls, chopping boards. Cullender, spud peeler etc.
- Outdoor sweeping brush, vacuum cleaner
- Rugs and door mats
- Double bed with under bed storage and head board
- Bunk beds with full-size mattresses
- Wall-mounted 32inch flat screen TV with free view.
- Wooden decking area with ramped easy access entrance
- Wooden decked patio area
- Outdoor table and 4 chairs rattan style
- Parking area for one large car
- A hot tub for 4 to 5 people
- Free WiFi is available
- On-site laundry facilities are available for a small charge.
Tariff rates for 2019/2020
Minimum stay 2 nights
Midweek prices Sunday to Thursday
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|7 nights
Weekend prices inc Friday and Saturday
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Pets rates
Well behaved pets are welcome in our cabins, a charge of £2.50 per night per pet for up to two pets please ask if you wish to bring more than two pets.
Book Online
Use the widget below to check availability and book online. Enter the desired start date, the number of nights you want to stay and click to check availability. When booking multiple nights please select the multi-night discount.
Terms & Conditions
Click to download the Wallace Lane Farm terms and conditions
Access Statement
Click to download the Wallace Lane Farm access statement
To make an enquiry, use our contact form
or use the contact details below.
Janet & John Stanyer
Tel: 016974 78 188
Mob: 07770 232 944


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Saas Fee has the honor of playing host to the last and final tourstop of the TTR for this season. The Snickers Classic & Popcorn Wallride is looking at it's sixth edition this year, and will no doubt carry on the tradition of good vibes, a laid back attitude, a super fun course and some good ol' springtime shredding. The only thing that will have really changed is the contests status in regard to the TTR, as it recieved an additional star to the three it already had.
Like every year, Fredi K will be playing host alongside Marco Schwab, who both undoubtedly know what it takes to organise an event that pro shreds can sink their teeth into. In respect to that, a slopestyle course will especially be designed for the event, with the all-to-well-known 8 m Wall waiting at the bottom of it for riders to get their steeze on. Fredi and Marco have already sent out invites to their favourite shred buddies such as Gian Simmen, Beckna, Morgan Lefaucheur and Tonton Holland just to name a few.
One is not to forget about the 'Living Room Bar' at the Popcorn where various music acts will be underlining all the craziness going down. You will get to see a diverse bunch of music acts from Scott Sullivan's classic acoustic singalongs to Dj Stylewars' Hiphop beats.Event Dates
April 17th-20th!!!!


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This wasn't always a candidate for the answer. I grew up in a situation where I'd alternately be begging to go home and then the next day I'd want to be anywhere but. I still bear the marks of that time, but this is a lighter day, a brighter time, and I'm not going to put a damper on the day by going back there.
My job is an exhausting one, and by the end of the day there is nothing more that I'd like to do than just go home and flop over onto the side of the bed (and sometimes I don't even get that far, as tired as I get after a shift of hauling laundry, making beds, and generally rendering a portion of the hotel I work at presentable and rentable for the guests). I live on my own, which means that everything that has to be done has to be done by me—I get to do MORE housekeeping, my own cooking, and the like.
But that means I get to do my own housekeeping and my own cooking and the like. 🙂
I love not having to answer to other people's whims when it comes to doing things that I want—you have no idea how much I danced around when I found out that I got this place for myself and wouldn't have to deal with the peanut gallery anytime that I wanted to eat something that wasn't—well, let's just say that my tastes in food can run a bit underground, and having to listen to family members insisting that my taste in food is strange and that "we" didn't eat such things because that wasn't part of our heritage? That got old quick.
You may have noticed that I seem to mention food a lot in these posts. Well, to be fair, I do like food. I'm a 167lb woman, tiny in some places and bigger in others, and because of my metabolism I had to deal with the problem of eating enough in a day to make sure that I didn't just drop off to the point of turning around and vanishing.


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Yes the kids are back in school. And yes, it is quite a bit cooler outside, but technically fall doesn't begin until September 23. With that date in mind, the team is heading to the beach this weekend. We won't be swimming, mind you, but we will be watching hundreds of kites take to the skies at the Ogunquit Kite Festival.
Beyond checking out kites of all kinds, CP#1 and #2 are looking forward to the morning kite building workshop. The Ogunquit Rotary Club will provide 300 free kits, so that kids can design their own kites. And little ones will be awarded prizes for their creations.
According to the folks at the Ogunquit Chamber of Commerce, the popular event draws big crowds, so be sure to get there early for kite making. Or arrive at noon when the sky is bursting with color.
Ogunquit Kite Festival
Saturday, September 11
10 a.m. -2:00 p.m.
Ogunquit Beach
Directions to the beach
Note: While the event is free, beach parking can cost up to $20 per day, so carpool if you can.


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Maready Tire Co.
location on Google Maps.
in new tab.
on social media.
Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle. Michelin also publishes travel guides, hotel and restaurant guides, maps and road atlases. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America employs more than 22,750 people and operates 20 major manufacturing plants in 16 locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Business Hours
Monday 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Tuesday 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Wednesday 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Thursday 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Friday 7:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Saturday Closed
Sunday Closed


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Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Catholic school in Toronto: Boy must be allowed to share bathroom with girls
A mother whose young daughter attends the school in the Toronto Catholic District School Board is concerned about the implications of allowing a biological boy to share her daughter's washroom and changing room, especially as the boy moves into puberty. The mother, under condition of anonymity, shared her concerns with Phil Lees, president of Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity (P.E.A.C.E.), who published a report on his website.
"My greatest concern is that its going to lead to confusion in the minds of children of faith about what's right or wrong for them," Lees told LifeSiteNews.
The mother related how the boy attended junior kindergarten with her daughter two years ago. At the end of the year, the lesbian parent withdrew the boy. Now, after a one-year absence, she has reenrolled her child in grade one, claiming he must now be treated as a 'girl.'
The lesbian parent allegedly told the principal that under the federal 'gender identity' Bill C-279, along with the provincial 'gender identity' Bill 33 (Toby's Law), her child could not be discriminated against and must be allowed to use whatever washroom he chooses.
Bill C-279, which life-and-family leaders warned would open society to a host of "problematic sexual activities," stalled in the Senate in June 2013 prior to its third and final reading. Parliament being prorogued two months later had the effect of killing all legislation being considered by the government, including Bill C-279. The fate of the bill has yet to be determined.
The lesbian parent used the two bills to insist her biological boy use the girl's facilities, even though the bills contain nothing about bathroom usage. The lesbian parent was not content with the suggestion to let the boy use the single stall handicap washroom or the teacher's washroom.
The mother told Lees that the principal instructed the children and parents that the biological boy was now to be treated as a "girl" at the request of the parent.
When the mother approached the principal with her concerns, the principal expressed surprise that the matter was a concern for anyone. The principal heard the mother's concerns and brought them to the attention of the superintendent of education. The matter has not yet been resolved.
LifeSiteNews asked the Toronto Catholic District School Board for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.
Lees told LifeSiteNews that the mother is 'deathly afraid of being targeted' by activists if she were to go public with her concerns.
According to the mother, even school staff are afraid to say anything about the situation for fear of losing their job or being dragged before a human rights tribunal.
Lees told LifeSiteNews that he believes 'LGBT' activists are using the woman and her boy as a 'test case' to advance the homosexual agenda in Catholic schools.
While Lees said he has "no problem" with persons who express themselves in a way different from their biological makeup, he does have a problem when they force everyone else to comply with their demands.
Lees said the case emphasizes what happens when society rejects God's ways, such as the creation of human beings as male and female, and replaces them with man-made laws and norms that run contrary to the created order.
'Man desires to rule and to be god,' he said.
'The reasons why we have these problems in our schools is because for the last two or three generations, people of faith have withdrawn. People of faith have become so busy with other aspects of their lives and they don't know how to reengage.' See here.
Indeed Pope Benedict XVI, in a Christmas Address given in 2008, denounced the contemporary notion that gender is a malleable definition and said, "The Church speaks of the human being as man and woman, and asks that this order is respected."
Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., has noted that, "It has been a special scar on the worst pagan cultures and the worst idolatrous religions that they openly attacked the gender identities of the sexes. They celebrated sexual indulgence, sexual experimentation, sexual symbols, fertility rites, temple prostitution, seasonal sex orgies, sexual abuse and enslavement of young women, girls and boys....But sex is not an accidental characteristic of man and woman. A human person without sex is a monstrous abstraction. Sex entails the very identity of each person; sex plunges to the deepest mystery of each person. Hence the sexes and the vocations pertaining thereto are not interchangeable. Each person is called to serve God and his fellowman, accepting gladly the sex with which one is endowed and the vocation attached to that sex." (The Antichrist, P. 231).
In the comments section of a previous post, Mr. Michael Cole noted how, "Homosexuals, lesbians and transsexuals are often afflicted by evil spirits. Gender confusion is often a sign of demonic possession. Fr. Malachi Martin recounts the story of a possessed transsexual in his bestselling book 'Hostage to the Devil.' In the chapter titled 'The Virgin and the Girl-Fixer,' he writes, 'At one moment, Father Gerald, the exorcist, was bending over the possessed, Richard/Rita, who had sunk his teeth into his own instep. In the next instant, the glaze in Richard/Rita's eyes broke, melting into a lurid gleam of mockery. Greenish. The teeth loosened their grip on the instep. The mouth opened, baring gums and throat, the tongue protruded, quivering on a stream of gray foam bubbles. The whole face was furrowed in irregular lines, as Richard/Rita broke into peals of laughter. Great buffeting gusts of mocking, jeering, Schadenfreude laughter. Laugter pouring from a belly of amused scorn and contemptuous hate.'"
How quickly we forget this. Gender confusion represents something more than a cultural revolution. It is often the result of demonic possession. The more a culture rejects the Living God and His Commandments, the more it sinks into an abyss of depravity.
3 comments:
Great, this way he can expose his privates to the girls or sexually accost them if he wants. Demonic. Where are the rights of the girls or their parents? Or don't their rights matter?
- Unknown said...
I'm so fed up with this present world, I almost have to throw up. I feel so estranged, I don't fit in. If you don't act or dress "worldly" = indecently , you're pushed in a corner.
This world is so sick
since it removed the brick
the cornerstone, the pillar
and became the "GOD" killer
The only healing medication
is not a "vaccination"
but a remorseful return
if not, this world will burn
When plagues afflict us
we act like a wuss
We freak out about Ebola
" try some Granola"
a worse disease is rampant
it comes to us very lambent
it's the disease of immorality
of lawlessness and bestiality
God, the infinitely Merciful and Just
keep challenging Him, He'll combust
who do we mortals think we are
a new sparkle shining Dog Star ?
We beg of You, Our Lord and Savior
bring a halt to the world's barbaric behavior
As Your loyal followers, to You we cry out
help us even if You have to use a knout
2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Rita Biesemans August 6 2014 Feast of THE TRANSFIGURATION
They don't like to talk about sin or the abortion and sodomy agendas at OLI in Athol.
They have succumbed to the spirit of the Times.


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Email us for current delivery status of this product
Product Description
Jeep Wrangler (TJ) (1997-2006)
Has your hood been fluttering? Original hood catches degrade and fail and most aftermarket hood catches look spindly. These adjustable, durable, and aesthetically pleasing aluminum hood catches are proportional to the vehicle and offer a direct fit.
Manufacturer - Rugged Ridge
Rugged Ridge develops and sells Jeep parts accessories for the growing Jeep and off road enthusiast market. Rugged Ridge is a division of Omix-ADA, one of the the market leaders for replacement and restoration Jeep parts. With this know-how and experience the Rugged Ridge pedigree is well established in the Jeep market and with the Jeep enthusiast. Realizing that there was a need for new Jeep accessories, the Rugged Ridge brand was established in 2005 to fill that need. Rugged Ridge has designed and manufactured over 3,000 products for the Jeep market and continues to develop hundreds of additional Jeep accessories each year. Many of the recent developed Jeep accessories are patented, like the Jeep floor liners, Jeep snorkel and Jeep XHD modular bumpers. Count on Rugged Ridge to provide you with true and proven Jeep parts and accessories.
Need help or have a question?
Chat to us online, call our office (weekdays 9am-5.30pm) or email us and we'll get back to you!
01482 666 491


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Stanley R. Bier, Ph.D.
Dr. Bier, clinical psychologist and nationally certified as a national compulsive gambling counselor, has founded "Gambling Problem Kansas City" as a clearinghouse of information to help compulsive gamblers, their family and friends.
Compulsive and pathological gambling are increasing problems in Kansas City and the Midwest.
While millions of people successfully keep their gambling as a social activity, thousands of others need help to keep it from taking over their livesand the lives of loved ones.
If you, a loved one, a friend or business associate are fighting compulsive or pathological gambling, this Web site offers help.
Compulsive Gambling is a progressive behavior disorder in which an individual has a uncontrollable preoccupation and urge to gamble. This results in excessive gambling, the outcome of which is the loss of time and money.
The gambling reaches the point at which it compromises, disrupts or destroys the gamblers personal life, family relationships or vocational pursuit. These problems in turn lead to intensification of the gambling behavior. The cardinal features are emotional dependency on gambling, loss of control and interference with normal function.
© Stanley R. Bier, Ph.D. • email@example.com
South Office: 8301 State Line Road Suite 116 Kansas City, Mo. 64114 • Phone 816-361-7400 and Fax 816-361-8180
North Office: 2029 Buchanan North Kansas City Mo. 64116 • Phone 816-474-7322 and Fax 816-474-6202


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Our mission is to deliver the best long-term performance with a strong emphasis on risk. Based on a systematic and objective approach to investment - and a great commitment.
Sparinvest is an international asset manager with a specialised business and broad distribution.
Chosen for our long-term and unique products and know-how, driven by strong corporate values and based on a Danish culture.
This page uses cookies to gather statistics, to personalize and improve our content and for marketing, including targeted ads. This website uses third-party cookies. By browsing our website, you consent to our use of cookies. Read more


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Welcome to Viper Fuels Inc.
BBB accredited member since 2002.
Your trusted source for re-qualified and re-furbished propane tanks in B.C. since 1999.
Whether you are looking for a tank for barbequing, your recreational vehicle, or home heating, our experienced and knowledgeable staff will help you find the right one for your needs.
We also carry a selection of new tanks and propane accessories.
Viper Fuels Inc.
3127 Henry Road
Chemainus, B.C.
Hours of operation
Mon to Sat. 8:30 – 4:30 Sunday Closed
Ask about our Tank Exchange Programs for BBQ and forklift tanks.


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Letter from Ohio: Bracing for cuts
@Carol writes about the economy in her neck of the woods:
I live in rural Ohio. Small towns surrounded by mostly family farms. Industry has pretty much left for the South or overseas, or downsized to a fraction of their past size. Foreclosures take way more pages than help wanted ads in local papers. The one bright spot is Smucker's. They don't call us "Jelly City" for nothing!
Federal and state cuts are a disaster waiting to happen. Personally, we are at the high end of our 60's, and fearing the worst. If SS is cut, Medicare costs rise, and property taxes go up again, we'll be hard pressed to keep our mortgage-free home. Local governments need to cut services and consider raising local taxes. These are the "golden years" we worked so hard to reach?
Jobs? There are few openings. Those with jobs hang onto them. Local businesses occasionally hire, but just over minimum wage. Underemployment (part-time, low wages) is better than nothing. Business booms at yard sales and low-end grocery and Goodwill stores.
Reminds me of the old story of the town that kept afloat by taking in each other's laundry!


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Walking with the Ancestors at Lughnasadh
As John Barleycorn readies himself for the harvest, at this time of year I reflect on what I've personally harvested from the year so far.
Over the past two weekends I've walked the landscape where I grew up looking for clues.
I was born and grew up in a Nottinghamshire mining town. Everything centred around the pit. In the 1980s the government forcibly broke these communities, spilling blood, killing pride and leaving millions without hope. In its place a 'me' culture was established based upon endlessly sustaining economic growth through selfishness, grasping, selling-off the country's assets and separating people into two groups: The 'haves' and the 'have nots'. The idea being that the latter aspired to become the former through hard work.
Were seeing the return of those days. Landlords who own most of Britain's houses and those that sleep rough. Those with private healthcare, and those that cannot afford a dentist. Fine dining and food banks. A divided society.
This is my old school gate. Eight hundred children used to pass through them each morning to be educated. Now only a dozen builders pass through them, creating a handful of luxury homes for property developers to rent out.
I have walked the disused railway lines which supported the industrial revolution and carried good across Britain to sustain use through world wars. I used to explore the old bridges and infrastructure as a child, fascinated.
Now green pathways, the ghosts of Britain's rail network lie silent, the clouds mimicking the plumes of steam from the passing trains.
We may look back on the 'good old days' with a mixture of anger and also nostalgia. Anger at the social inequality mentioned above. But communities stuck together. They fought as a collective, rather than as individuals. They had pride. They mucked in. They survived.
Were it not for the regeneration I would not be able to walk these lands. They would remain dirty spoils of a lost industry. Nature and communities have brought something back to life for the common good.
I finish the day grateful for what my ancestors have done. Grateful for what communities have pulled together to do. Grateful for mother Earth's ability to reclaim, covering our mistakes with greenery, given time and patience. Grateful for what I'm doing.


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Posted by: Through The K Hole13 May 2016
A secret set of instructions has been found hidden inside NHS England's new plan by encryption expert Prof Candid.
'The Forward View isn't a list of whimsical ideas' says Prof 'it's actually a very specific set of directions. After using some pretty sophisticated techniques we discovered that resilience fund is code for 'go down the road', the bit about providing mental health services for GPs means 'keep to the right until you reach the traffic lights' and when it talks about employing 500 overseas GPs and in-practice pharmacists we decoded it to mean 'when you see the pub on the corner take a left, you can't miss it'.
Prof's team guarantees that if you follow NHS England's directions from anywhere in the UK you'll end up at the immigration office where you can get your 457 skilled migrant visa for Australia. 'The Forward View doesn't offer much of a way forward,' admits Prof, 'but it does tell you how to make a giant leap downwards.'
Dr Kevin Hinkley is a GP in Edinburgh
Readers' comments (3)
I think its actually instructions on how to turn yourself into a great big self-destructing dirty bomb
The Forward View is asking for brave gals and lads to sacrifice themselves for their country, kamikaze style. Thank you RCGP for allowing us to die for a just cause. All those poor patients who see their GP at least once a week ,because they can, deserve our sacrifice. Long live the NHS ( Right arm fully extended and pointing to the sky )
I'm walking backwards for Christmas.


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Thursday, April 12, 2012
I'm not good with stairs.
I'm not bad at walking up and down them, not normally. I've had years of practice, having gained the ability to put one foot after the other when I was little. I'm not frightened by steps, spiral or otherwise. I'd rather take the stairs than wait for a cop-out lift. I can walk up several flights without collapsing in a knackered heap on a midway landing. Really, I'm not a decrepit mess when it comes to switching floors or changing level. But I'm not good with stairs when it comes to walking up and down them abnormally.
I'm not good with taking stairs two at a time. It ought to be simple, it's only raising my leg twice as far as usual. If I can step up six inches I can surely manage a foot, it's not top level gymnastics. Other people cope with ease, striding up staircases two or even three steps at a time. No need to grab hold of anything, straight up the middle like a rocket, getting to the top quicker as a result. And there's me over by the handrail, clutching cautiously, because it's the only way I trust myself to take stairs in pairs. I look down and I can see the step I'm aiming for, but somehow its precise location appears temporarily uncertain. My foot wobbles, perhaps only mentally, and I fear I'm going to miss and tumble. I don't, I land two steps up, but then I have to climb again and the whole unstable cycle repeats.
If I concentrate hard when climbing steps two at a time, then I can do it. But I'm never confident, never secure, never sure-footed. And I'm sure I used to be better at it, even until a couple of years ago. I could stride up unsupported, double height no problem, never considered it might one day cause difficulties. But now, if I don't think carefully every step of the way, I'm an ascending mess. It's a bit unnerving, this degenerative condition, particularly the way it's slowly crept up on me. I think it's a balance thing, rather than an eyesight thing, like some internal stabiliser's tripped out. And that's why you'll now most likely find me climbing one step at a time, nipping quickly upwards, because that feels inherently safer.
As for going downstairs, I've always done that one at a time. One's always felt like the right number, never two, because that would be outstretching myself. My subconscious has had years of training, it expects the next level to be a certain distance down, and I don't trust myself to reach further. One step good, two steps wholly inadvisable, at least where I'm concerned.
And I always walk. Steps are for walking down, that's what I've always believed, and never ever ever running. I absolutely can't bring myself to run downstairs, not even in cases of mild emergency, for fear of risking life and limb on the way. Running would help me reach the bottom quicker, but my brain always assumes I'd do quicker the bad way, slipping and sliding and tumbling in an embarrassed or injured heap on the floor. A deep-seated survival instinct kicks in and absolutely completely forbids my feet from doing anything other than walk, in ones.
I live in awe of the stair experts. Blokes who stride confidently past me, climbing two or even three at a time. Talented athletes who can launch up a staircase in seconds but never need to grasp the handrail. Ladies in unstable stilettos who overtake my flat-footed descent, leaving me trailing in their wake. And the real stars, the men who run nonchalantly downstairs like it were the easiest thing in the world, which to them it is. My step negotiation skills are inherently inferior to the god-like Downstair Runners, those fleet of foot souls blessed with perfect balance and natural talent. If there's a train pulling into the platform below they'll be the ones who'll catch it, and I'll be the one arriving as the doors shut, safe but boring, slow but sure.
I'm not bad with stairs, don't get me wrong. I can walk up one at a time with no difficulty. I can still run up steps when necessary. I can hold my own in a rush hour crowd without appearing inept. And I've never, touch wood, had a nasty step-related accident. But I can't tackle stairs confidently, neither in twos nor at speed, not without some subconscious wobble kicking in. It's probably long-term clumsiness, but might be middle age kicking in, or could be one compounded by the other. Whatever, my apologies to any vertical athletes who might be stuck behind me on the way up or on the way down - I am not good with stairs.
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Regular price
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Dimensions: 460w x 440d x 830h
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This is my 100th blog post! *throws confetti* 100 posts in six months –I don't know if that's something worth celebrating, but I felt it was worth a brief mention.
Now on with the post! Here is my response to this week's See*Photo*Write Challenge at 1st Writes:
The Lonely Mist
Veronica felt as bleak as the lake looked. Summer was over. Everyone had gone home -everyone but her. Living near a popular summer vacation spot wasn't so sweet when fall rolled in like the voluminous veil of vaporous haze swirling above the water's surface, shrouding the lake and Veronica both in melancholy.
The longer Veronica sat, the more expansive the fog became until Veronica could no longer see the rock beside her — a big problem when Veronica suddenly felt trapped within wispy walls of soupy clouds, as if the mist was alive, breathing, throbbing and pulsing with energy, feeding off of Veronica's loneliness and desolation.


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Life isn't always easy. Sometimes, even the strongest people amongst us need a little bit of help to work through some of life's more challenging problems.
Everyone has battles to fight and hurdles to overcome at some point. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, self-esteem, or any other issue, you should know that there is hope for a better tomorrow.
You might be initially hesitant to seek out help and support for personal matters, but when you do, you will feel confident that you are taking a courageous first step towards getting to a better place and being a better you.
If you're interested in becoming a better, happier, more fulfilled you, get started and please get in touch today!
Looking Forward to Working With You
Shameela Keshavjee
I want to offer you a supportive environment where you can explore your worldview, your relationships, and how you cope with stress. Through compassion and respect, I will do my best to create a trusting relationship with you that allows you to feel safe enough to explore everything on your mind, including your hopes, fears, and dreams.
I work well with couples, young adults, and older teens who struggle with identity, communication, connection, and family dynamics. You can meet with me by yourself, with your partner, or with your family members.


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THE story of Motown Records can be told in many ways. It can be presented as a tale of musical revolution, the creation of a sound steeped in gospel and blues but packed with endlessly inventive pop hooks. There is also the business story of the founder, Berry Gordy Jr.; for a time in the 1960s, Motown was the largest black-owned company in America.
Then there is the label's sociocultural impact, which is the focus of an exhibition called "Motown: The Truth Is a Hit," on display at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library system, through July 26. The introductory text to the show says its goal is to "explore Berry Gordy's conception of the truth by tracing black music from its African roots" and "up to the present day."
That is a lot to take on in a modest-size gallery; the Schomburg's exhibition space is one room divided in half by two panels. If the space doesn't allow for an expansive take on the history of African-American music, "The Truth Is a Hit" does offer an outline of the Motown narrative, highlighting some of its less familiar aspects.
In 1959, Mr. Gordy, a 29-year-old songwriter and former boxer, founded the label initially known as Tamla Records in his hometown, Detroit, with an $800 loan from his family.
The company's first major hit came the next year with Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)." In 1961 came Motown's first million seller, "Shop Around," by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and its first pop No. 1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman," by the teenage girl group the Marvelettes.
In the deluge that followed, such giants as the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder released more than 180 No. 1 hits worldwide. In 1968, Motown had five records in the pop Top 10; it also held the top three spots for a full month. And through soundtracks, radio, samples, commercials and covers, Motown's songs remain almost as ubiquitous today as they were in the label's peak years.
"When we went to Europe and Australia, they knew all about Motown," Otis Williams, the last surviving member of the original Temptations, said in a 2009 interview. "They didn't know about Warner Brothers or Columbia or whoever, but when we went behind the Iron Curtain, to Gdansk, or to Africa, and people knew about Motown, that's when I thought, 'Man, we are a very unique company.' That let us know that it was really reaching far and wide."
"The Truth Is a Hit" represents this triumph with a select few artifacts: Mr. Wonder's chromatic harmonica, one of Diana Ross's sequined dresses, the musicians' chart for "You Can't Hurry Love."
Classic Motown songs play continuously in the gallery, but the video screen showing performances by the label's acts is used only as a visual element and has no audio; on a recent visit, several young children were pressing their ears to the monitor hoping to hear music from the Jackson Five clip that was showing.
The exhibition illustrates Motown's historic crossover to a mainstream pop (read: white) audience, but it also highlights a less familiar side of the label's history, which was its connection and commitment to the civil rights movement.
Motown's involvement manifested itself both through the company's increasingly politicized music in the late 1960s, culminating with Gaye's groundbreaking "What's Going On" album in 1971; and through its recordings of speeches and poetry by leading black cultural figures. One of the wall panels is dedicated to LPs documenting an early version of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, as well as albums by Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes and Stokely Carmichael, mostly issued on a Motown imprint called Black Forum.
"We looked at Martin Luther King and we thought, he's doing the same thing on foot that we're doing on the radio," Abdul Fakir of the Four Tops, known as "Duke," said in a 2009 interview. "I like to think that we were softening the blow for him a little bit."
A sizable portion of the space in "The Truth Is a Hit" is devoted to the current Broadway hit "Motown: The Musical," one of the exhibition's sponsors.
The Schomburg exhibition is a reminder that the sounds that emerged from one building in Detroit truly did have a permanent global impact.
"We represented a social environment that was changing," Mary Wilson of the Supremes said in 2009. "The experience we had known being black was not being bona fide citizens, not being able to drink out of the same water fountains, playing to segregated audiences. When that started to fall away, and you saw that music was one of the components that was helping it fall away, that's when it really felt like we were doing something significant."


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Moderate Fun with Feature Toggles
A Feature Toggle is just a way to enable of disable certain software features based on several criteria (configuration flag, time, user, some complex context,…).
The problem feature toggles try to solve is: how does one release code that is not totally finished without any apparent impact on users. Let's say your team is working on two features simultaneously, one large and one small, and we want to get the small one "out of the door" (that is, deployed to production) as soon as possible while disallowing users to operate the large, unfinished one.
This simplistic concept has made into the hotspot recently as the suggested alternative for feature branches in environments in which Continuous Integration/Delivery is dogmatically advocated.
And I say dogmatically because I have not been in the position in which a feature branch (in SCM) did not solve that problem while still being confident in the integrity of my build (safe-guarded by my CI server). It should be really easy to "clone" an existing build definition in the CI server into another one and listen to changes in a different branch. If it isn't I think it might be time to change your CI Server instead of discarding features branches altogether.
As you can imagine I am pretty much against feature toggles as I believe they are the doorstep to happy feature branching in multiple places, with the corresponding readability/maintainability nightmare.
Having said so, feature toggles are just another tool that one needs to pull from the tool-belt when almost every other tool failed.
The Challenge in Hand
Big feature: almost a complete sprint.
Small surface of activation: it all starts with a scheduled tasks that perform a state transition on certain entities under certain conditions and everything else goes on from there. No task ⇒ whole feature is invisible.
No feature branch upfront: code is in trunk and it would be risky to fiddle with SCM to pick commits out.
Whoever validates the big feature as correct is on holiday and some other smaller features need to get to production.
A simple solution
Given the small activation surface, it makes sense to have a feature toggle that prevents the scheduled tasks from running and hence, the feature is virtually not there.
When the feature can be validated by the business owners, it will be enabled in configuration and eventually the toggle will disappear.
Some Implementation Details
Instead of rolling my own, I spent a couple of hours looking at what was already out there and I finally chose FeatureSwitcher. Why? I think we'll wait for that until next post on the subject.
Categories: Udvikling


text: You simply must be more confident. This is a choice. It's not something bestowed on you by a fairy godmother or earned like the Eagle Scout badge. You just wake up one day and decide you're going to take some bigger chances with your life. You decide it's time to push your seeming limits. You arrive at the point where you must be your own authority, and consciously boot the vestiges of your parents and various other control freaks out of the way. You seem to have been hesitating for a while; you may have run into the same limits repeatedly. One factor to unravel is any fear you might have of going out of control. One mental meme that's been circulating goes something like this: If I let go a little, I won't be able to reel myself back in. Or, if I have some fun, I won't want to work. Or, if I smile at that person, I'll get stuck in a 20-year relationship. These thoughts, which come in a thousand other forms, do nothing but undermine confidence and creativity. They interfere with your ability to live your life rather than have your life live you. In these very weeks, ultra-serious Saturn is ending a long, three-year run through Sagittarius, which is your 5th solar house of pleasure, play, and passion. It's time to move on.


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If you've not been in the market for tile in 10-15 years or more, you're going to be pleasantly surprised at all the new options in 2017. Daltile, producer of…


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Boxing's Biggest Payday is All About Branding for Mayweather and Pacquiao
It is not exactly the Superbowl. It's bigger. One of the most anticipated sporting events of the decade occurs May 2nd. Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao. Ring side tickets on StubHub for $351,005.25 a pop. In fact, this fight is so universal in its appeal that Sen. Harry Reid looked into buying his notably pugilistic […]Read the Article


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Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Be the first MLive.com user to add photos or videos of Jake & Lils Fresh Produce
Jake & Lils Fresh Produce is located at 1760 44th St SW, Wyoming, MI. This business specializes in Grocery Stores.


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Do trees have brains and talk to each other? They are intelligent, express emotions and make friends, claims a new book. Read this brief fascinating story from the Daily Mail. Judge for yourself and then read my short story The First Child's Plan. I call it fiction but you will understand….. here is the story from the Daily Mail:
- Some research claims trees are able to communicate with each other
- Forester Peter Wohlleben believes they are able to transmit information
- Scientists are starting to ask whether trees possess intelligence and brains
There's increasing evidence to show that trees are able to communicate with each other. More than that, trees can learn.
If that's true — and my experience as a forester convinces me it is — then they must be able to store and transmit information.
And scientists are beginning to ask: is it possible that trees possess intelligence, and memories, and emotions? So, to cut to the quick, do trees have brains?
It sounds incredible, but when you discover how trees talk to each other, feel pain, nurture each other, even care for their close relatives and organise themselves into communities, it's hard to be sceptical.
Read More From The Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3792036/Do-trees-brains.html
My Comment: This BASIC concept is frequently found in my "sci-fi" stories; however, when you think about what this article discloses, if you can think outside the box, you might begin to wonder, if trees talk why not planets? Why not solar systems? Why not Galaxies? In our egocentric religious dreams of being the center of God's universe, science to its own myopia and self deception supported the religious myth by defining the intellectual superiority of man over all. Man, who uses scientific justification to destroy the environment out of an illusion of his grand scientific understanding of all around him and self his self importance. …………….. Read on and then possibly wonder how the Earth might rid itself of a parasite called humanity, The First Child's Plan.


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Quad - Band
This is essential for somebody who often finds themselves in other countries or on other sides of their country on a whim. Other cell phones only work on dual band or tri band frequencies. This means that they only work on two or three of the frequencies used by cell phone companies around the globe. This could annoying when you need to make an important call to your boss or secretary and can't a signal. Quad band cell phone automatically switch their frequency band to connect with nearest GSM network when they are turned on.
One consideration you would want to think about before buying a quad band phone is the fact that some features are going to be unavailable to you in other countries. You will always be able to make phone calls, however, if you have a data package with Internet, that might not comply with the frequency you are on. When you do buy a cell phone, be sure to ask your service provider what countries your features will work with and ask them if they have global connectivity.


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It's still the season for butternut squash.I came across a recipe for butternut squash mac and cheese. It sounded so tasty that I couldn't resist trying it out.
4 cups butternut squash (half of a good sized squash)
1 head of fresh broccoli
2 tbsp chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
1 box elbow macaroni
1 package shredded red fat sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded skim mozzarella cheese
1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper (can add more)
Squirt of mustard
2.5 tbsp breadcrumbs
Once the mixture is combined, that the pan off heat and add the cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Salt and pepper the mixture to taste, and add just a squirt of yellow mustard.As for the pasta, just make it the way it tells you to on the box. I used whole wheat elbow macaroni, which cooked in about 8 minutes. Pour the drained and cooked macaroni into a large casserole pan. Pour the squash-cheese mixture over the pasta, and add the broccoli on top. Stir just until combined, then sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top.
Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Fair warning: this recipe makes a lot. For just Dan and I, this recipe covered dinner, lunch for both of us the next day, and we even had at least 3 servings left over after that.It was a really tasty dish, though I was surprised at how little you could taste the butternut squash. I think this would be great for kids to slip some veggies into their diet without then noticing. It's good that way for adults too.