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Even when you're as talented as The Fat Man and his group, Team Fat, computer game music is better than working at a head shop or renting out videos at Blockbuster.
"Counterclockwise, yes; the smoke should go counterclockwise ..."
George Alistair Sanger closes his eyes and imagines a Lakota Indian warrior. Sage burns nearby in an oyster shell. Sanger and his band, Team Fat, are getting ready for a recording session, and they're trying to create an indigenous-people mood. It smells like a prairie fire to me.
We're in El Rancho Gordo, a one-story house 20 miles northwest of Austin, and I'm glad there's a police station next door, because the gray haze created by the smoldering sage is giving me a minor case of smoke inhalation. Through the haze, you can barely make out the decor: ratty sofas, assorted containers of glazed doughnuts, a coffee pot, a plastic container of Diet Dr Pepper,
a box of candy canes, a few cans of Ranch Style Beans. Scattered about are boxes full of unplayed computer games. There's also electrical equipment with bleeping lights and a tangle of cords that look like slithering black snakes.
Sanger, who looks a little like Lyle Lovett, straps on his glittering gold 1958 Gretsch guitar - the one with "Cousin Ernie" printed on the front. It was once owned by country-western legend Tennessee Ernie Ford, who grabbed the nickname during a guest spot on I Love Lucy.
Doiing, doiing, doiing.
The song sounds like the theme from Goldfinger. "Go from B minor to C and we're cool," he says to the other four guys in the room.
Doiing, doiing, do-ooiing.
This could be any band with hopes of getting a platinum album. Daydreaming about rock groupies ... tumbling into a receptive mosh pit ... getting totally stoned while jamming at a stadium concert. But these are not young rock studs. Guitarist "Country" Joe McDermott, 37, is a struggling songwriter who looks like a chain-smoking Don Knotts - except Joe has an earring. Kevin Weston Phelan, who calls himself The Professor, struts around on a pair of the skinniest legs I've ever seen while he simultaneously thumps on a bass and gives me nasty looks. Handling the sound today is David Govett, 29, who has a black beard and is trying to lose 20 pounds around his tummy. Govett, who also plays drums for the band, is a former marine, lives with his mom, and works as a movie projectionist for minimum wage. Dave Sanger, who sits in on drums,is George's brother. He's got the most street cred among the group, having won four Grammies with the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel.
Sanger and his band, Team Fat, are working through a song for No Man's Earth, a new game by Kinesoft, a 20-person company out of Buffalo Grove, Illinois. It's the company's first original title, and project manager Lou Zucaro says the sound has to be great. So he asked eight different groups to come up with music. The best gets on the disc; the rest go packing.
Sanger and Team Fat sit in the stale smoky room and ponder the preposterous instructions given to them by Kinesoft:"The music should have a cinematic quality to it in terms of a theme that can be revisited from time to time, as well as a memorable, melodic quality which will make people want to listen to the soundtrack on the way to work in the morning."
I can't help but snarfle. The friggin' game is about "Gray aliens (the Sekra) who travel the galaxy playing their little games with no regard for the life of others ... they get rid of us worthless humans - remnants from the victorious Primates in the Last Great Battle." Now they're back on what's left of Earth, fighting mountain goats, dolphins, cockroaches, and rats. Hard to imagine listening to the soundtrack on my way to work.
They're all looking at notes scribbled on a whiteboard and working through the song "No Man on Earth." The lyrics?
No Man on Earth
Makes this world a perfect world for me
No tiresome people, they bore me
In the world that I'd kill to have all around me
"So," says Country Joe, "it's like:
I hate you, I hate you,
I'm going to kill your entire kind."
Everyone laughs. Everyone but Sanger, who has his eyes closed and is transporting himself to this faraway galaxy. In front of my eyes, he turns into The Fat Man, his music biz alter ego. "I ask myself," he says, "What would Mozart do?"
This is not a joke. This is serious business. Because The Fat Man is not just another hack computer-game musician. His rich orchestral scores are a far cry from the bleeps and bloops that make up most game soundtracks. He's a superstar.
Sort of.
"The Fat Man is the guardian angel of all computer music," says a breathless David Javelosa, author of the forthcoming book Sound & Music for Multimedia. That's a semihefty responsibility, according to Yobie Benjamin, associate director at Cambridge Technology Partners, who says the computer game industry will generate US$1.25 billion this year.
While Sanger's name may be unfamiliar, you've undoubtedly heard his music if you're one of the millions of people who play make-believe through computer games. He's written tunes for LucasArts, Compton's NewMedia, and Electronic Arts and has done more than 100 computer game soundtracks, including monster sellers like The 7th Guest, Wing Commander, and The 11th Hour. If you consider how many times kids play these games, you realize they hear more Fat Man music than any Alanis Morissette tune. Some developers have even started advertising The Fat Man's soundtrack on their boxes.
But The Fat Man, 39, isn't really famous or rich - nor is he even fat (170 pounds and 6-foot-1). Sure, he has his little dweeby fans. Some know-it-all video addicts see him in his cowboy hat and ask for his autograph; boys at game conferences just want to touch his rhinestone-studded suit; others send him groveling email of self-loathing. A typical example: one Fat Man fan described himself as a "lower wormling" compared with the large one.
Come to think of it, he is strikingly similar to Michael Jackson: full of paradoxes that aren't - and maybe shouldn't be - easily explained. Michael Jackson has his Neverland Ranch; The Fat Man has El Rancho Gordo, a $900-a-month rented house. Michael has his glove; Fat has his thrift-store handmade Western suits inspired by the late Nudie, Elvis's designer. Michael is into being white, yet he's not; The Fat Man is into being a Texan, yet he's a Jewish guy from Southern California. And they have each sold more than 20 million CDs.
Losing fat
There are probably a few (game) boys who would give one of their recently descended testicles to be me. That's because I'm hanging with Sanger, and we're doing the junk again. We're no longer in the "studio" making music. He smiles as he pushes back his cowboy hat and rolls up his sleeves. "I love this stuff," he says. Many thriving musicians shoot heroin to kill time between gigs, but that's Little League stuff to Sanger. He battles a more insidious and deadly killer. He moved from California to Texas to get the purest juice into his system. He usually gets his fix three or four times a day.
Sanger is slamming grease again.
It's only 11 a.m. and he's already had two scrambled eggs with pico de gallo, queso, refried beans, three strips of bacon, two tortillas, and a Dr Pepper. Maybe heroin would be safer.
He's munching on a bacon cheeseburger with fries at a place called The Silverado Cafe. "Mmmmmm, another burger!" he says in his inflated Texas accent. Before my eyes he's transforming himself into The Fat Man, an obnoxious Texan good ol' boy who smokes cigars and yells "YEE-HAW!" It's not hard to get his belabored point: all music - even computer music - needs a little bit of showbiz.
But while insiders might form a cult around The Fat Man, it must seem odd to be one of the most popular musicians in the world and barely able to pay the guys in your band. What's it like to listen to alternative Muzak from Hootie & The Blow- fish and know that those dimwits are making about $3 zillion more than you?
"I honestly don't think about it," says The Fat Man. "I love what we're doing!
I'm searching for irony in his voice, but I don't find it.
The Fat Man smiles at me and jams a fry into his mouth. Ever since I've offered to pay for every meal on this visit, The Fat Man has been doing his best Bill Clinton impression with the junk food. "Are you sure you want to pay?" he asks, eyeing my bacon. "I mean ... I would ... but things are kinda tight right now."
The Fat Man still lives gig to gig. He makes about $12,000 for 40 minutes of music, plus he gets 1 percent of a CD's sales. But he hasn't had a hit since The 7th Guest came out four years ago. He won't tell me how much he made off the music, but most people estimate that he grossed $250,000. Not bad, except that he has to pay five employees and lots of overhead. He needs another hit to make that kind of cash again. He was able to buy a Miata, which he calls "Sweet Imagination," but the rest of his cowboy composers drive junkers.
"Making money and a name for myself gets me up in the morning," he says.
With most true innovators, the public initially believes the person is a loser or a crackpot. In fact, The Fat Man likes to compare himself to Walt Disney. "When Disney started in the cartoon business, it was considered a low art because it was," he says. "As he worked with it, innovating through Snow White, Fantasia, and eventually the great masterwork The Rescuers, it became a greater thing. Disney elevated cartooning by loving it and working hard at it."
The Fat Man hopes to do the same thing with computer game music. Some record companies are marketing game music (Astralwerks, for instance, has released the music CD for Wipeout XL, a compilation of electronic tunes that provided the aural backdrop for several Sony PlayStation games), but in general "music is a bastard cousin to these games," says Cambridge's Benjamin. "Game programmers are videocentric, and there's no room on the games for music. It's usually overlooked."
So is The Fat Man. And you could argue that Fat doesn't really believe in the sanctity of computer games. For all the Walt Disney talk, Sanger rarely plays them. He knows the games suck. But he also knows software companies are bankrolled. He doesn't want to be a starving musician. He has a wife and two young kids who live with him in Austin.
Says one Team Fat band member, "Once a year, George says, We have to play these games! For a day we all play them and get bored and then we don't look at them ever again."
What's the ultimate goal? Movie soundtracks? Commercials? Concerts? The Fat Man won't say. What will happen to The Fat Man if the likes of Soul Asylum, Pearl Jam, and Madonna get into the CD-ROM game act? Will The Fat Man simply go down in music history as a studio musician without a hit record but with a major cholesterol problem?
He knows the cornpone accent and brightly colored suits are a stretch. But he also understands the most important Hollywood axiom: It's OK to be talented, but better to be remembered.
Baby Fat
How does one become The Fat Man?
We know Sanger always had a penchant for playing dress-up. That's what his brother, Dave, tells me, anyway. While attending Coronado High School near San Diego, for instance, he showed up one day in an Abe Lincoln outfit. His band teacher, Bob Demmon, describes him as "a little skinny kid with large feet and a big mouth."
Demmon adds: "He was the kind of kid who would write the important directions to the next high school band review on his hand. Then George would go home and wash his hands for supper. Later on that evening, his mother would call me and have me repeat my directions so George would be where he was supposed to be."
Sanger went to Occidental College, where he majored in music. After college he spent a lot of time playing in his band, The Phlaix. They never signed a record contract and mostly played original tunes, plus the occasional cover from the British Invasion era.
Around that time, Dave Warhol, the roommate of Sanger's other brother Rick, was writing games for Mattel Electronics's Intellivision. George sensed an opportunity. So he asked Warhol if he could do something for him. "You know, if I could take out the trash or ... anything." Warhol asked him to write a tune for one of the games. Sanger wrote a 15-second piece using a guitar and a four-track recorder. Warhol translated it into electronics, and it came out in the game. Sanger received $1,000.
A bell went off in his head. The market was in its infancy, and music for the games was an afterthought consisting of annoying beeps. Hell, The Final Frontier needed music, right? And he could make his physician parents proud. Says Sanger: "I thought that videogames could be the rock and roll of the future!"
For several years he operated a mobile recording studio for struggling composers and musicians in Los Angeles, charging $10 an hour. He also sold coffeemakers and Amway products. After a stint at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, Sanger seemed destined for a life of sour notes. He decided to move to Austin, Texas, where his brother was making a go of it in the area's thriving music scene. It was 1985. Shortly after arriving Sanger told himself, "I'm going to be The Fat Man of Austin." He compared himself to the cheapo automobile paint king Earl Scheib - he'd write a snappy three-minute number for $79.95.
But he was also doing some stuff for games: Capture the Flag was one. A quickly defunct Atari 800 demo cartridge another. After establishing his reputation by doing some Nintendo games, He began to write the music for the LucasArts game Loom. Game designer Brian Moriarty didn't want beeps and boops. He wanted Tchaikovsky. With better sound boards, better music was possible. Sanger borrowed tempos from Swan Lake. The music in Loom was one of the first rich-sounding game soundtracks.
"Turn off the music on a movie like The Ten Commandments or E.T.," says Moriarty, "and watch what happens. The experience goes flat. The same is true of games, when the score is more than an afterthought."
Which is why The Fat Man gets a little bent out of shape when people dis computer game music as a backwater. "The record companies can't give you this music because it's too risky," he says. "We can make it any length. We can use any instrument. The lyrics can be about anything we want. We don't kiss anybody's ass."
Two weeks later, Team Fat has been given the thumbs-up from Kinesoft. "The music was out of the ordinary and had whimsy and was clever," says Zucaro, who sounds like he should be on American Bandstand. "They're fast and flexible. They came up with the music within a week, and it was great."
Great news for the team, but also somewhat depressing. His good song will be hidden in a computer game. But what the hell, it's a gig. When you're as talented as Team Fat, computer game music is better than working at a head shop or renting out videos at Blockbuster. At least they're not sitting in a Starbucks whining into their latte. Plus, if they keep at it, there's hope for real stardom. In Japan, computer game musicians are celebrities. Of course, we're not that lame in this country, but you might someday be able to buy a Fat compilation CD. They've had discussions with some record labels - Virgin, BMG, RCA, among others. Moreover, they were asked to write some music for a new Fox television show.
"If John Williams can go from scoring Gilligan's Island to Star Wars, then certainly a composer of music for interactive games will make it into the world of major feature films," says Bob Rice, Sanger's agent. "Perhaps even The Fat Man."
But even if they never score a bad television show or a movie; even if they never get on MTV's playlist, they seem to like their life enough. And they're not starving.
We wander around Sixth Street in downtown Austin and land in a noisy bar, puffing cigars and listening to a great blues band. The musicians are gray-haired African-American cats. "These guys are really great," says Sanger, a smile crossing his lips.
Only problem is that there are just a handful of people in the place. Even in music-manic Austin, performers don't always catch a break. We listen. Underneath their dumb image, The Fat Man and Team Fat are pretty damn cool and talented. They're passionate about their music and about other people's music.
But as we sit there, The Fat Man is quietly turning into George Sanger again. The twinkle in his eyes fades. His shoulders slump. He becomes introspective and almost sad, losing his blow-hole demeanor. Maybe The Fat Man is right. Maybe it is better to be unknown but listened to by millions rather than unknown and listened to by a handful. "These guys are great," he says. "But you know something? Real celebrities don't have to talk very loud for people to listen."


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Lee Pullover (Out of stock)
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subset: commoncrawl


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Case Studies
Market Solutions
Visual solutions for controlling and monitoring information
Our integrated video wall solutions give users the tools to monitor and manage assets and infrastructure. These high impact displays can be connected to existing back office systems to communicate real-time information from a variety of database types, including MySQL, and programs such as Microsoft Excel or Access.
Video walls are also an effective communication tool, providing businesses with the means to seamlessly share large amounts of information. These display screens can be used to reach out to a wide range of end sources, from passengers in transportation applications to guests and visitors in corporate spaces.
These seamless video wall displays are suitable for a broad range of markets, including:
- Retail: video walls can be used for advertising goods and services, to inform purchasing decisions, and wayfinding. Content can be managed centrally and distributed to displays at participating outlets.
- Broadcast: The uses for video walls in broadcasting are wide, these large screen displays can be used for studio backdrops, broadcast or distribution monitoring rooms, screening, or post-production environments.
- Command & Control: video walls provide a central point of information for demanding mission critical command and control centres where the need for clear, usable information is paramount.
- Emergency Operation: video walls can display information from multiple end points to allow emergency operations staff to monitor and respond to any emergency situation.
- Digital Signage: video walls extend the boundaries of digital signage. With the database connectivity of A+K PADS4, users can integrate any type of multimedia content to create a high impact platform for targeted information, advertising and merchandising.
- Public Information: video walls can be used for digital signage, lobby displays, and other general use information. These HD displays can also be used for advertising goods and services to inform purchasing decisions.
- Security & Surveillance: video walls can display video and information feeds to allow security staff to capture potential security breaches within a range of end environments, such as airports, as well as computer security.
- Transportation: video walls can be used to transfer important travel information to passengers, such as departure times and wayfinding. The high impact displays can also be used as a platform for advertising.
- Utilities: the large display wall can hold data from multiple sources so users can capture and monitor real-time information in the most demanding operation centres and control rooms.
- Telecommunications: video walls can communicate detailed real-time information and activity for staff to monitor and act upon.


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text:
Evan W. Sandlin
Foreign Policy In Focus contributor Evan W. Sandlin is a PhD Candidate and Instructor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Davis.
Articles by this author
Sunday, March 26, 2017
If Aleppo Was a Crime Against Humanity, Isn't Mosul?
Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the last major Islamic State stronghold in the country, is nearly under Iraqi government control. The Islamic State, or ISIS, has occupied the city since June 2014. Now, with the help of U.S. airpower, the entire eastern portion of the city has been retaken,...
Read more


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Last Gasp Books
777 Florida Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone: 415-824-6636
Last Gasp is one of the largest and oldest publishers and purveyors of underground books and comics in the world, celebrating its 41st year in business. Over the years we have published, and in some cases brought to light, some of the most respected and talented artists working today. Today, we publish 12-20 new titles per year, focusing on 'lowbrow' and 'pop surrealist' artists, as well as graphic novels and pop culture titles. We also distribute all sorts of weird 'n' wonderful subversive literature, graphic novels, tattoo, and art books, supplying them to bookstores and art galleries on six continents.
Last Gasp Books is listed in the following categories:
@lastgaspbooks/ has Followers on TwitterTweets by lastgaspbooks/


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Fragile X syndrome
The fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a condition which causes mental retardation and is the most common form of retardation related to inheritance. It is named "fragile X" because of the appearance of the X chromosome when the mutation is present. This mutation affects the Fragile Mental Retardation 1 gene (FMR-1 gene) at the locus Xq 27.3. This gene contains tandem CGG trinucleotide repeats. The number of trinucleotide CGG repeats present determines whether an individual will be mentally retarded or not. There are many possible ways concerning the distribution of the number of trinucleotides, but the distribution according to "The National Fragile X Foundation" is as follows:
(i) Normal Population: 5 – 45 CGG repeats
(ii) Grey Zone: 45 – 54 CGG repeats
(iii) Premutation: 55 – 200 CGG repeats
(iv) Full Mutation: 200< CGG repeats
Normal Population is the people who are not affected. The definition of the Grey Zone is "alleles unidentified as to their behaviour to the next generation", which are still healthy individuals. In premutation, carriers can be affected with Fragile X Associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome (FRAXTA). In males this condition causes tremors and resembles Parkinson after exceeding a certain age (approximately 50 years old), while in women this condition causes Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI), meaning menopause comes earlier than the 40 years of age. Full Mutation is, of course, when the individual has the symptoms of the syndrome, like a low IQ score, but also visible characteristics, such as an elongated face, large and prominent ears, strabismus (misalignment of the eyes) and others.


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Akron, Ohio
GPD Group was selected by Akron Public Schools, the City of Akron, and OSFC to lead the architectural and engineering design efforts in creating the Imagine Akron Community Learning Centers master plan. The completed plan became the roadmap for the construction of 42 new buildings, the renovation of 14 buildings and the decommissioning of 2 buildings. GPD has worked on over 30 schools for the District, and was the architect of record for the following:Firestone / Litchfield CLCBuchtel CLCHatton CLCSchumacher CLCForest Hill CLCEast CLCEllet CLCHarris CLCCase CLCBridges Learning Center (limited renovation)Akron Alternative Academy (limited renovation)NIHF STEM High School (limited renovation)
- Owner
- Akron Public Schools
- Markets


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WeBlogNorth Featured Content Creator of the Week - A Mum Track Mind
This is a space that showcases all of you awesome WeBloggers in the North and gives everyone a chance to get to know each other, as well as raise your profile (and your DA!). This week we're chatting with Fiona, award-winning parenting blogger.
Interested in being featured? If you're a member, get in touch at [email protected]
NAME: Fiona Sarah
LOCATION: Fylde Coast
BLOG URL: https://amumtrackmind.com
How long have you been blogging/creating content?
I started my blog in Feb 2016 following the birth of my second baby, Sophie. I was only really playing about with it all for the first 12 months but started to take it seriously at the start of 2017.
Why did you decide to start your blog/vlog?
I first started writing my blog because I wanted a creative outlet to express how I was feeling amongst all of the sleepless nights and hormones. I also wanted to document motherhood this time around as I knew she would be my last baby. I've always been someone who kept a diary and it felt like a pretty natural step to make it into a blog. In all honesty, I'd never read a blog before and was clueless to the fact that people made a living from it.
Do you see this becoming a career or part of your career?
Yes, I hope so, in one form or other at least.
What do you hope to achieve for your content in 2018?
I don't blog full time for a living yet so I have to balance my blog and time carefully alongside my career as a social media manager. Because of all the travel and hours in the office, my only goal for 2018 is to put out three posts a week that I love and am proud of and that are true to myself. I think it takes a long time to find your true writing voice when you start out and after almost two years I think/hope I am just about getting there so I want to see that grow and bring in the right audience.
What is your favourite social media channel and why?
Definitely Instagram or YouTube! I love the social aspects of these channels and the interaction. I can tell you for certain it's never going to be Facebook though - bloody hate it!
What is your favourite tool or app to help with content creation?
I love Lightroom CC - I edit all of my images using this and I love the consistency it brings to my visuals.
Who is your blogging/vlogging/content inspiration?
This is such a tough one! I love so many different content creators for lots of different reasons. I adore Carly Rowena for a relatable health and fitness lifestyle and her infectious positivity. Also, Sarah's Day is good for this. I adore Hannah Gale as well for, well EVERYTHING and I often turn to Harriet from TobyandRoo for a good old dose of normality amongst the parenting trenches. These are probably the four I turn to the most often.
What do you like to do on weekends? Where can we find you hanging out?
You'll always find me with my family - weekends are for trips to the beach near our house, hikes, biking, feeding the ducks or splashing in any number of muddy puddles. We are a really outdoorsy family and at our absolute happiest out in the fresh air in our wellies.
If you could go anywhere in the world or experience any one thing, what would it be?
I would like to travel to Borneo and see Orangutans in their natural habitat. They're incredibly intelligent and beautiful animals and it makes me sad to think I might only ever see them locked up in the zoo. It would be such a privilege to see them in their own environment just once.
What're your tips for staying motivated and/or organised in your work?
Being around for my children, being available and working flexibly - this is the biggest motivation to keep going for me. It's the only thing that really matters to me in fact. In terms of staying organised, I'd say that I just love a list. I have daily, weekly and monthly lists that keep me on track.
What is the one piece of advice you'd give to other content creators?
"Be yourself - everyone else is taken." It's my favourite quote of all time and rings true for everything in life I guess. I also would say it's good to listen to other peoples' advice but its also good to ignore it and do what works for you. The blogging community is so full of "rules" for "success" but ultimately an authentic voice and clear, useful content is the only thing that really matters. Everything else is just opinion and conjecture and if you take it all onboard you will just end up chasing your tail and feeling overwhelmed.
Fun/random fact about you:
I have trained as a midwife and delivered well over 40 babies into the world - something I'm very proud of.
The Featured Content Creator of the Week series is available to all bloggers, vloggers, influencers and content creators subscribed to WeBlogNorth. If you are a subscribed member and would like to be featured, then please get in touch. You'll receive exposure to the entire WeBlogNorth family, as well as coverage across the @WeBlogNorth social channels and website. It's great exposure for any content creator looking to get noticed and grow their following.
Not subscribed yet? Don't worry, you can do so here!


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So where do we go from here? Is that the end of diesel? Will the even tighter restrictions that will be enforced in 2010 be so smothering that automakers decide to abandone diesel lines altogether? Well as of right now, all signs actually point to a bright future in the diesel arena itself. Several automakers are talking about adding diesel engines to their lineup including Honda who has a diesel Accord set to enter the market in 2009 and there are rumors of Toyota adding a diesel option to their Tundra, but guys can only hope right?
If we look again at the parallels between the two eras we can see a bright glimpse of hope for the diesel performance aftermarket in a couple of different ways. Since the end of the muscle car era in 1972, aftermarket performance has definitely changed. Even more so in the past decade with just the upload of a program from a diesel performance programmer you can be 100 horsepower or more above stock in just a matter of minutes. That is definitely a far cry from the performance modifications of old. It's my guess, and take it for what you will, but I see the diesels of the last decade or so becoming much like the muscle cars of the 60's and 70's, sort of the last of the fun vehicles, less restriction and more possibilities for big power. Although new diesels will continue to increase more and more in power, I think that the new restrictions are going to make it even more difficult for manufacturers to create programmers, chips, intakes etc. that will work without setting off check engine lights and throwing codes etc.
So in the end I say that the future looks bright for diesel vehicles as a whole. As for diesel performance, if you have a 1994-2006 diesel, either hold onto it or give me a call–because the value is going to increase, just watch and see. – Nathan Young
Nathan Young is a diesel performance enthusiast. His main areas of interest in the industry are VW TDI performance and diesel performance chips.
Visit Parley's Diesel Performance for all your diesel performance part upgrades.


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Thursday, October 7, 2010
College admissions--a state of the union interview
"Q. Tell me about one thing that you think is broken in the profession.
A. The number of ways to apply has grown. There's been an increase in the number of programs under the banner of early decision or early action. There's the increasing use of "snap apps," which make it easy to apply. It's hard for many of us who are long-term professionals to understand all the different ways to apply, and I think that it's worse for kids and parents. This process should be relatively transparent, though it can't be totally transparent.
Q. What's good about college admissions today that wasn't so good a decade ago?
A. Certainly there's more information out there about college admissions. When I first started, people had no idea what college admissions was or what it really did. Now there's far more info out there that's helpful. To sort through all that information and figure out what's good is the challenge. There's far more attention paid to the process.
Q. In some ways, the national dialogue about college admissions has helped demystify the process. But are some of today's enrollment-management tactics having the opposite effect?
A. Yes. Some of it has been demystified, but some of it has been replaced by other mysteries. There are two extremes. There are a huge number of kids who grow up in good homes where there isn't a history of going to college. They don't have the basic understanding that they have to have. Then there are other parents who are obsessed with admissions to certain institutions, and this leads to all kinds of mythology, or as I like to call them, suburban legends. Our challenge is to reach both of those populations—the ones that really need information for access that can change their lives, and those who are so obsessed about getting into a particular college."
3 comments:
- collegedirection said...
As a college admissions consultant in Denver, Colorado, I think that information is more available to students about applying to college and college admissions. However, I know that many families find the process overwhelming and feel they need more college counseling in order to make the right college decisions. High school counselors are dealing with so many students that they can't possibly help them with the individual attention they need.
Schools need to make information available to families about community resources for college planning, test prep, scholarship searches, etc. Then, at least, parents and students know where they can turn for help.
- October 7, 2010 at 10:34 PM
- Dokemion said...
Figuring out how you are going to afford the high costs of higher education can be an intimidating prospect for anyone. However, you should not be dissuaded from furthering your education because you think you will not be able to afford the expense. Instead, spend some time researching all of the financial aid or college grants you may qualify for; some of which may include federal school grants.
- October 7, 2010 at 11:42 PM
- Anonymous said...
Is there anywhere I can find out more about the career college admissions process?
- October 22, 2010 at 7:30 AM


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- Happy birthday Penelope Lively (Dragon Trouble), Zibby Oneal (The Language of Goldfish), Keith Baker (LMNO Peas), Ralph Fletcher (Fig Pudding), Riley Carney (The Fire Stone), and Patrick McDonnell (The Gift of Nothing).
- It's the birth date of Kate Greenaway (1846–1901), Under the Window; Ennis Rees (1925–2009),Brer Rabbit and his Tricks); and Lillian Moore (1909-2004), My First Counting Book.
- It's St. Patrick's Day, first celebrated in the United States in 1756 in New York City at the Crown and Thistle Tavern. Read Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert, illustrated by Michael Garland, and Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola.
Today illustrator Wendell Minor celebrates his birthday. Both Wendell and his wonderful wife Florence, one of the great teams in children's books, happen to be good friends of mine. Normally, that would stop me from writing this post because it is hard for me to be objective. But I think Wendell has worked so hard and given so much to the children's book field that I decided to use his birthday to sing his praises.
Someone who suffers from dyslexia, Wendell discovered that he had a particular talent for drawing. He pursued a career in graphic arts and in 1968 illustrated his first cover for an adult book. Over time he crafted fifteen hundred book jackets—including all the works of David McCullough, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, James A. Michener's Alaska, and Pat Conroy's The Great Santini. But that incredible output marked only the beginning stage of Wendell's career.
As Wendell says in Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book, he believes that children's books "are the last pond in the Serengeti. They are the one place we go to drink for inspiration." In the next stage of Wendell's work, he became a children's book illustrator. His natural love of the land brought him time and time again to depicting wildlife, and he has worked over the years on fabulous books with naturalist Jean Craighead George. Recently he and Florence created If You Were a Penguin, perfect for the preschool set.
Following in the tradition of N. C. Wyeth, Edward Hopper, and Norman Rockwell, Wendell became an accomplished and brilliant re-creator of American history for children. Known for his attention to historical detail, he always reaches for the emotional power of historical events. His figures are real people, not cardboard icons. And he goes the extra mile in research. For a book I wrote, Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot, Wendell discovered from David McCullough the exact breed of oxen that Knox used to carry the cannons of Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. Then Wendell visited a farm in New York State where they raised that breed, the Randall Lineback. Since an ox had just been born on the day the Minors arrived, it was named "Wendell" in his honor. Only in children's books! Whether he is illustrating stories like The Last Train by Gordon Titcomb, or showing the details of America's landscape in America the Beautiful, Wendell attempts to get every small visual reference right because children deserve only the best.
Someone with an amazing work ethic, Wendell will no doubt be working on his birthday. Please join me in wishing him happy returns of the day.
Here's a page from The Last Train:
Originally posted March 17, 2011. Updated for .


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About two thousand six hundred years ago, a group of monks (Buddha's initiates), after getting the initiation from Buddha went to the Himalayan forest to practice deep meditation. Upon arriving at the forest, each monk found a large tree for themselves and they settled down under the tree for meditation
However, they started meditation without giving respect or asking permission from the tree spirits or beings living there. As the monks practice intensified, the tree spirits could not stay on their abodes on the tree as they were disturbed by the heat of the monks practice.
This forced the tree spirits to come down to the ground to investigate. Realizing what's happening at the bottom of their tree, the tree spirits started to scare the monks away by harassing and torturing them in various ways.
After sometimes, the monks could not bear it any longer and went back to Buddha for help. It is upon hearing their story that Buddha taught the monks the loving kindness discourse (also known as Karaniya Metta Sutta) which is a preliminary meditation technique to permeate love to all beings.
The monks went back to the forest after receiving the discourse and started permeating the entire area with loving kindness to all the beings living there in the forest. The tree spirits were pleased with the love they were receiving and let the monks practice without disturbing them anymore.
Loving kindness meditation was developed based on this Metta sutta as taught by Buddha. Loving kindness meditation is not a meditation by itself but a preliminary exercise done prior to entering the actual meditation.


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Dentist's Defamation Lawsuit Against Yelp Preempted by Section 230–Braverman v. Yelp
By Eric Goldman, July 16, 2013
Braverman v. Yelp, Inc., 2013 NY Slip Op 31407 (NY Sup. Ct June 28, 2013)
Mal Braverman is a Manhattan dentist. He sued Yelp for defamation based on two allegedly defamatory user posts. I'm not sure which posts are in question, but when I searched for "Mal Braverman" at Google today, his Yelp page was the first search result and the 3 unfiltered reviews were not flattering (though there are 27 filtered reviews–90% of the total number of reviews!–including some positive ones).
His lawsuit against Yelp is a ridiculously easy Section 230 case. If the case were brought in a state with strong anti-SLAPP protections, Braverman would be writing a check to Yelp. To get around Section 230, Braverman argued that Yelp "authored" the user reviews by (1) filtering out any positive reviews of Braverman; and (2) placing a list of other dentists entitled "Best of Yelp: New York — Cosmetic Dentists" ("Best of Yelp list") on the same web page and encouraging users to use those dentists instead of Braverman.
His arguments go nowhere. Citing the Shiamili case (binding precedent on this court), the court says Yelp is entitled to immunity because this action is based on reviews written by other content providers — Yelp users — and not based on any content that Yelp itself created or developed.
Yelp's alleged act of filtering out positive reviews does not make Yelp the creator or developer of the alleged defamatory reviews. Yelp's choice to publish certain reviews — whether positive or negative — is an exercise of a publisher's traditional editorial function protected by the CDA. Moreover, Section 230 does not distinguish between neutral and selective publishers in its grant of immunity.
In addition, Yelp's placement of a Best of Yelp list on the same web page as the reviews does not make Yelp the creator or developer of the reviews. Yelp's choice to insert a Best of Yelp list on the web page is an editorial choice as to what content to display on the page, and it is a separate section from the user reviews. Not even close.
I've previously mentioned that dentists seem unusually litigious towards negative consumer reviews. Other dentist cases I've blogged on include Reit v. Yelp (also involving a Manhattan dentist), Wong v. Jing and Lee v. Makhnevich. See my complete and newly updated roster of doctor/dentist lawsuits over patients' online reviews.
New York Trial Court dismisses Braverman V. Yelp
"Online v. Offline Agreements: Braverman v. Yelp"
By Susan Ross, Social Media Law Bulletin, March 17, 2014
A New York state trial court recently ruled in a long-running dispute between a cosmetic dentist and Yelp, the online consumer review site. Braverman v. Yelp, Inc., No. 158299-2013 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Feb. 24, 2014).
The dentist originally complained that Yelp had defamed him by permitting negative reviews about him to appear on Yelp's site. That claim had previously been denied because the federal Communication Decency Act safe harbor protected Yelp as a publisher of third-party content.
In the current matter, the dentist complained to Yelp personnel that Yelp had been filtering out positive reviews about his services. He claimed that Yelp personnel advised him to become a paid Yelp advertiser, and then his favorable consumer reviews would appear on the same web page as the unfavorable consumer reviews.
The dentist enrolled as a paid advertiser, at $350/month. As a part of the enrollment process, the dentist agreed to Yelp's online agreement. The online agreement stated that:
- The purchase of advertising programs would not influence Yelp's automated software for online reviews or otherwise enable the purchaser to reorder online reviews;
- The agreement merged and superseded any and all prior oral, emailed, or written representations and agreements between the parties (a "merger clause"); and
- The forum for any litigation was California.
When the favorable consumer reviews did not appear on the same web page as the unfavorable reviews, the dentist filed a lawsuit in New York state court, claiming breach of contract. Yelp moved to dismiss the claim based on documentary evidence, or, in the alternative, based on the online agreement's forum selection clause.
The court agreed with Yelp and determined that Yelp's documentary evidence of its online agreement terms "flatly contradicts" the dentist's claim, and dismissed the breach of contract claim. But the court found that the dentist had adequately stated a claim for fraudulent inducement to enter into a contract.
The court then asked whether this potential fraud claim, by itself, was sufficient to invalidate the online agreement's forum selection clause. The court held that it did not. The court ruled that the dentist never alleged any fraud with respect to the forum selection clause, nor had the dentist demonstrated that litigating in California would be "so financially prohibitive that, for all practical purposes, plaintiff would be deprived of his day in court."
Therefore, the court dismissed the dentist's complaint in its entirety.


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Airwave looks at how we are working to deliver enhanced data capability for our customers, in advance of the arrival of true broadband for critical communications.
For users of the Airwave Network, fast and reliable access to data is becoming critical to the way in which they operate. Our customers use data across the Network every day for short messaging and image transfer, and there is an increasing desire for higher bandwidth data rich applications and business intelligence to drive efficiencies across operational services.
In looking at the provision for mission-critical data services, we are considering a broad range of users and an equally broad range of requirements.
At Airwave we are working on a number of ways to enable information to move faster, more efficiently, and more reliably, across the networks that exist today.
Typically, fire & rescue and ambulance crews are sent to locations to deal with an incident, and act on arrival, operating as self defined units, unless of course it is a major event or incident in which case coordination and information sharing is critical.
Rapid access to data can be of critical importance. Data is of course only another word for information – and the more information these emergency responders can gain about an incident and casualties, the more effective their response will be in terms of resources and reaction. Police Forces need different types of data – they need to see an overall 'picture' of unfolding events, and they need completely reliable and immediate group communication.
In terms of overall efficiency, all the blue light agencies need services such as Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVLS) and the ability to track the movements of their colleagues to ensure the safest and most effective response. Imagine the transformation of major event management if the location of each public safety officer was visible to colleagues on an interactive map on a hand-held device.
The challenge for us at Airwave is to equip our customers with data capability in the field, to enable full interaction. Data communications are more efficient, use less human resource, and offer less opportunity for error than speech. As consumers, we are all far more data-savvy with our smart phones and tablets, so there is a step change in user acceptability.
Some data communications capability is available today, offered by TETRA and the various public network data bearers including 3G. However, to ensure that our public safety users have the capabilities they need to operate effectively into the future, we need more dedicated bandwidth to handle the growing demand for data.
We have a vision for the future for public safety services and first responders.
We are constrained because of a lack of this bandwidth – particularly on the uplink – i.e. from the user back to the control room. In the consumer world, we 'consume' data, so the downlink is the important connection in terms of speed and capacity. For the emergency services, there is a critical requirement to be able to get information back from the user, so the uplink has greater significance.
The future solution will undoubtedly be Long Term Evolution (LTE) – dependent on spectrum – but until LTE networks are widely available and the standards issues have been addressed, there is a gap in data bearer capability. This needs to be addressed now, to ensure the public safety services have the capacity they need to take advantage of developments in data services and communications.
At Airwave we are working on a number of ways to enable information to move faster, more efficiently, and more reliably, across the networks that exist today. We are working on capabilities that will deliver increased uplink bandwidth over existing network bearers, so we can work with our customers and end users to determine the value and business benefits of new and enhanced applications. If we can successfully put that capability into a vehicle, then we can create a complete mobile operations centre for the emergency services, with all the associated efficiencies that can deliver.
One of the challenges we have as an industry is how to ensure reliable connections in rural areas. We are evaluating technology that uses non line of sight capability, enabling connectivity to base stations from the core switch that would have traditionally required satellite communications.
As we know from our Smartphone and tablets, commercial networks can provide high bandwidth data functionalities now for consumers. However, the benefit of a private dedicated service for critical communications is that it can be designed to provide a service and solution tailored to meet the specific needs of users.
We are already working with other critical communications organisations and supporting the TETRA and Critical Communications Association (TCCA) in its work towards achieving a dedicated broadband solution comprising frequencies plus modified LTE technology. A number of initiatives are in place to secure cross-border harmonised spectrum in Europe, and influence the standards bodies such as 3GPP and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US to incorporate public safety needs into the ongoing development of LTE. When this work is ready, around 2020, the first dedicated networks can be realised.
What will happen after 2020 is not yet clear, as many existing networks will not be ready for replacement, and voice services over LTE will be limited in early implementations. Replicating full TETRA functionality will take longer, so in many markets TETRA will be used for voice long into the next decade, with mission critical data on a combination of commercial networks and private LTE where justifiable.
Of course the network enhancements need to be matched by those of the terminals, and in the future we see devices collaborating to deliver more capabilities. We also see a greater exploitation of shared databases and applications that require data to be entered only once. These will build into a central resource and data repository for the public safety services, enabling faster, more efficient access to accurate information and reduced data storage costs.
Control rooms will become more efficient, as their complexity migrates to the core of an all-IP network and becomes a service at any point of delivery. A reduction in bespoke elements makes the system inherently more reliable, and resilience increases as the accessibility of core services increases (anywhere with IP connectivity can potentially access services). As the core is common to all users, there is wider availability of functionality.
We have a vision for the future for public safety services and first responders, and we are working hard on our customers' behalf to ensure that they are fully enabled to support the communities that they serve, today and for future generations.


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KULAI (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A one-year-old Malaysian girl who was allegedly left inside a car for more than five hours in Saleng here has died.
Kulai OCPD Supt Razak Md Said said the toddler's father lodged a police report at around 4.15pm on Tuesday (Sept 13) over the incident.
He said that based upon the report, the man's wife had placed their child in the back seat of the car for him to send to a babysitter's house at around 9.30am.
Supt Razak pointed out that the father drove from their house in Bandar Putra to his workplace in Saleng town without realising his daughter was in the back seat.
"The babysitter then called the father at around 3pm asking him why they did not send their child to her house.
"The father then went to his car and found his daughter in a weakened condition," he said, adding that the father drove directly to the Kulai Hospital but it was too late.
Supt Razak said a post-mortem would be carried out on Wednesday to determine the exact cause of death.


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Lucia has been dancing, singing and acting in various productions worldwide. She extensive expereinhas ce teaching children and adults alike and has recently begun collaborating with various artists in her own choreographic endeavours.
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"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
Imagine you are about to die. You have the chance of saying a few last words. What would you say? Jesus uttered seven statements before He died. I think seven is noteworthy, because God often works in a cycle of seven. The Bible tells us we are "crucified with Christ", and so these are words that should, in essence, be our words also. These are His first words, spoken shortly after the soldiers hoisted the cross into place. God wants us to forgive as Jesus forgave us. That's often not easy for us. Just as it says in the bible, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself" Luke 10:27 KJV Jesus' second statement was, "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 KJV As Jesus said in Isaiah (53:12) He died on a hill between tow thieves. Yet they both ask to be saved. What makes these two classes different? The thief on the left says, "And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Luke 23:42-43 KJV Jesus promised that if we believe, all things are possible. In His third statement, He says, "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." John 19:26-27 KJV In one sense, Jesus was simply setting His house in order. Yet how should you feel if you were on the cross as your mother watched? You would probably be preoccupied with your own suffering. In His fourth statement He says, " And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mark 15:34 KJV The Romans thought He was calling out for Elijah, because the Jews believed Elijah was coming back, and they mocked Him for it. So when Jesus said, "Why have you forsaken me," He was taking our place for our sin. Jesus' fifth statement was, "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." John 19:28 KJV After knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus is dehydrated from His long trials and the loss of blood. In His sixth statement, He says, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." John 19:30 KJV Christ's mission was a total success; that's wonderful news! He accomplished everything He came to do. But He had one last thing to say and this was the seventh statement, and He says, "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." Luke 23:46 KJV Christ did just that when He declared, "It is finished." He completed His plan for saving us, and He paid the debt. And not just part of the debt, all of it. Jesus knew His mission, knew the prophecies said He would rise again, and even though He felt He was facing eternal separation, He said, "Father, I trust you." Just as it says in the bible. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 KJV Jesus is the only One who can give eternal life to all who trust in Him. Have you considered God's offer of salvation? Why not put your trust and faith in Christ today? For He is the on that paid the penalty for your sins so you could have the free gift of eternal life. Amen
By: Jeff Ellinger


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Our Hugh Rogers Fellows having been taking over the Einstein a Go Go studio at Melbourne's independent radio station RRR.
RRR's radio program Einstein a Go Go, well known for its "Weird and wonderful science" and proudly described as a "discussion and dissection of science ideas, made digestible for public consumption" has already featured a couple of our Hugh Rogers Fellows over the past few weeks, and on Sunday, 3 May, Dr Sandor Kazi will also feature on the program.
In the meantime, listen to Ms Emily Rochette from Melbourne Girls College here discussing young women in STEM subjects.
Education fellowships were received by Mr Sandor Kazi and Ms Emily Rochette, both science teachers at Melbourne Girls College who focus on promoting science education among female students. Both these great teachers are alumni of The University of Melbourne.
Also in RRR's studio was Dr Natalie Thorne, Clinical Bioinformatics and Genomics Project Manager for the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance based at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
Dr Thorne received her fellowship in 2014 in the Hugh Rogers science field and went to Boston to further her research and share her knowledge in Genomics.
This type of recognition is excellent news for the MBSCA and allows for our fellows discuss their knowledge and share with the greater community. It also allows our Fellows to showcase their unique experiences.
Congratulations and thanks to our three Hugh Rogers Fellows.
You can find all the interviews on the Einstein a Go Go website.


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Help out the Coupon Craze community by rating and commenting on your favorite stores!
GovMint is the store for you if you are interested in collecting old coins, currency, and other money-related products from around the world. At the GovMint store, you will find a wide range of products such as Peace Silver Dollars, Stocks and Bonds, Coin Watches and Pendants, British Virgin Islands coins, Native American coins, Morgan Silver Dollars, Proof and Mint Sets, money albums, folders and cases, half dollars, Eisenhower Dollars, Silver Eagles, Presidential Dollars and many more items for the currency collectors. The headquarters of the GovMint online store is located in Burnsville, MN. GovMint also provides you with superb customer service, and extra care is taken so that you will have no trouble when buying your products. A staff member is always available to help and guide you throughout your online shopping. Just use the toll-free number. You can also contact them via email, whichever is more convenient for you. The GovMint website is user friendly and convenient to use. The products available at the GovMint store have been divided into various categories such as World Coins, U.S. Silver Coins, U.S. Gold Coins, Paper Money, Other U.S. Coins, Hot Buys, and many more. Further the categories are divided into sub-categories such as Coin Watches and Pendants, Native American Coins, Gold Buffalos, Peace Silver Dollars, Eisenhower Dollars, Morgan Silver Dollars, and many more. You may shop for products such as Colonial American Coins, Shipwreck Coins, Commemorative Coins, Dollar Sets, Half Dollars, State Quarters, Cents, Nickels, Coin Sets, Dimes, and Quarters, etc., and get them delivered at your doorsteps safely and securely. GovMint provides you with an online catalogue. The GovMint website has a shopping cart, which makes your online shopping easy and time saving. It also lets you view the products you have added to your shopping cart. You can also sign up and become a member. After you have become a member you will get special discounts and other offers when shopping online. If you are looking for products such as British Virgin Islands Coins, State Quarters, Silver Eagles, Cook Islands Coins, Australian Coins, Dollar Sets, and Isle of Man Coins, etc., this is the place for you. When shopping at GovMint store, satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason you are dissatisfied with your GovMint products, you can exchange them or request a refund. To learn more about payment options, shipping, or to find the answer to any other questions, please visit the website.
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critic's pick 253
On the night after Hurricane Sandy made landfall, Andrew Bird and Tift Merritt gathered around a single microphone at NewYork's Ed Sullivan Theatre for a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. Given the city's post-storm trauma, there was no studio audience. Still, the two, with help from Bird bassist Alan Hampton, harmonized on a stark, lustrous version of the Townes Van Zandt staple If I Needed You. Between the wonderfully antique flavor of Bird's violin lead, the trio's similarly roots-directed singing and the theater's eerie stillness, the music suggested a scenario of significantly greater calm than what undoubtedly pervaded in New York that night.
If I Needed You is just one of the stylistic delights from Hands of Glory, a 35-minute EP disc cut as a sort of postscript to Bird's fine full-length album from earlier this year, Break It Yourself.
This rootsy persona is yet another side to Bird's expansive and growing musical profile. Along with the traditional yarn Railroad Bill, it presents Bird in an altogether looser context, one that is free of the loop effects that orchestrate his concerts and more formal albums.
But Hand of Glory also is something of a grab bag. The opening Three White Horses comes saturated in Ryan Adams-style Americana, with plaintive, autumnal harmonies and deep melodic hooks. The tune is reprised at the record's close as Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses, a nine-minute deconstruction that is more in line with the atmospheric folk fracture that has come to define Bird's music over the past decade. Falling somewhere between is a cover of the Handsome Family's When That Helicopter Comes, a mix of gypsy style fancy and jagged, noir-style ambience.
Cut entirely by Bird and the road band he brought to Lexington in September, Hand of Glory might be designed as something of an interlude between more proper album projects. But it also reflects the rapid stylistic growth and vocal/instrumental maturity that continues to distinguish the music of this folk/pop original.
Merritt's new Traveling Alone is perhaps less of a surprise, but it is no less satisfying. Its fine songs veer to confessions of cool resolve (the title tune), Americana meditations of isolation and hope (Small Talk Relations) and some righteously spry rock 'n' roll with guitar great Marc Ribot (Still Not Home).
Topping them all is the album-closing Marks, a wintry confessional of romantic uncertainly brought to life by Merritt's hushed singing and Eric Heywood's lush pedal steel orchestration.
A tasty duet with Bird (delivering a credible Roy Orbison falsetto) called Drifted Apart is an additional highlight. But as the album title suggests, Merritt's finest traveling companion here is her own artistic intuition.


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Emerald Coast Junior Tour
Established 2007
Ages: 9-18
Cost: $105-$135
1810 Huntington Rd
Niceville, FL 32578
(850) 585-8980
Contact Email
The Emerald Coast Junior Tour is organized and the events are run by local parents and teaching professionals to enable our junior golfers to gain regular tournament playing experience and allow them to become the best golfers they can be. As we all know, no sport builds life skills like golf!
The Core Values of our tour are: Affordability – Parents volunteer and we play primarily Sunday afternoons, Fun – For parents and the kids to ensure they come back. Competitiveness – Competition brings out the best in kids and increases enjoyment. Openness – We want to keep improving our tour and welcome feedback.
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the wind brushes against my body & i am aware.
the wind brings the smell of water, the ivy, the trees, the dirt.
in it i can hear the birds, the leaves, the dogs barking in the distance.
it is cool. it is forceful. it is soft.
it is not petty or false.
if you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Khalil Gibran
trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going & coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, & through space heaven knows how fast and far!
John Muir


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Larry is my youngest brother and a phenomenal leader of leaders. Just about every time we talk I gain a leadership insight or personal encouragement. He has merged an existing church into becoming a thriving Lifechurch.tv campus. He is one… Continue Reading →
Chris and Vanessa are personal friends and encouragers. I listen when Chris speaks and I asked him to write this guest blog. There is a war going on and it is happening in back yards, kitchens and dog houses all… Continue Reading →
Max Dupree says, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." This is a great quote and understanding to live by. I would add-… Continue Reading →
Gaining perspective is one of the most important tools to develop if we want to live a successful life. Perspective can be found in many places (usually relationships)- friends, spouse, kids, boss, co-workers and especially scripture. The secret is discerning… Continue Reading →
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ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — A St. Joseph man died when a piece of equipment fell on him at the Herzog plant.
Buchanan County officers say 40-year-old Robert V. Montgomery died Wednesday afternoon when the equipment fell on him as he worked on a piece of a railcar. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Workers at the Herzog plant do maintenance and custom work on railcars. Herzog, which is based in St. Joseph, does construction and railroad business across the country.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.


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Video of two Butler Traditional High School students helping a homeless woman get a meal has gone viral.
It's being called "The Kindness After Class," but the story behind one of the kid's compassionate act is where you'll find the real lesson.
Dean Brewer remembered days at home when food was hard to find Friday after school when he spotted a homeless woman outside the McDonald's off of Cane Rune road and Crumbs Lane. "I came from a one-bedroom apartment living with my mom, and she couldn't pay for much," he said.
He not only has his own room, but Brewer has his own T-shirt business to put money in his pocket. On Friday, he used those dollars to do good when he and a friend passed the homeless woman at McDonalds laying in the grass. "I couldn't just walk by," he said. "She said she wanted a cheeseburger with no onions and a sweet tea, so me and Alex walked in there, and I bought it for her and took it back out and gave it to her."
Brewer posted the video to Instagram, and friends shared it to Facebook. Days later, it has gained thousands of views. Struggles at a young age taught Brewer the kind of lessons in life you have to live to understand.
"Yeah, I think that really changed me, and I'm glad it happened," he said.
WDRB News paid it forward and bought Plunkett lunch Monday. We've also reached out to Louisville's Coalition for the Homeless for help getting her off the street.


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What a joy it is to introduce you to Inn Ministries! You'll discover that our passion is to provide a place where people just like you can have a life-changing experience with God. We believe God has called us to be a "A Refuge on the Jericho Road." A place where the Good Samaritan can bring men, women, and children to find peace and love along with healing and restoration, so that one day God looks at them and says "Go and do the same." (Luke 10:37)
Michael Lewis, the founder of Inn Ministries, came to Guatemala in 1986 and ended up in the small town of San Cristobal. He began by visiting the surrounding villages leaving his house early each day and returning late at night. In 1991 Michael started a small Bible School which gave birth to a fledgling congregation in the town of San Cristobal a year later. Michael had been waiting since 1988 when God gave him a vision for a Bible School, a Local Church and an Academic School. Finally in January of 1996 the school was opened! This marked the beginning of what would become Inn Ministries' greatest outreach.
Today, twenty years later, we have grown to become one of the highest academic acclaimed schools in our Department (State). This has opened doors to the public school system allowing us to go in and teach the students, teachers, and directors about Christ. It has also opened doors to the homes of so many people in our community giving us the opportunity to help mend broken homes and strengthen family relationships.
To help the lost, broken and hurting find restoration, healing and mercy through the love of Jesus Christ.
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
(Luke 10:30-37)
We have a two-pronged approach to reaching the needs in our community.
- We seek to enable the people of Guatemala to become God's Innkeepers. We do this through long-range programs such as our school, church, public school outreach, and leadership training.
- We also seek to meet the more immediate needs of our community through our food, water, clothing and hospital outreaches.
By meeting both the immediate needs of our community as well as seeking to bring long-term life change to this area we are able to reach a larger portion of our community and share with them the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.


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I feel exhausted but in a good way. Pulling late-night baby duty is bad for my sleep habits, but looking at his little pudgy face is what keeps me going....especially when he giggles in his sleep. It's enough to justify smothering our little bundle of joy with kisses. I hope he grows up to be a better person than me. Having been a parent for a month now, it's overwhelming to look too far into the future. One day a time is my motto and mantra these days. It's hard to imagine myself walking the path that my Dad took 24 years ago. Even during my undergraduate years, I felt that my peers were way more mature than me - I felt positively infantile next to them.
Apolitical is an adjective that would fit me, but for some strange reason, I've gone to some anti-Erap sites and others that rage against the Philippine political machinery. I don't have much of an opinion on politics, but it's hard for me not to see what a pompous poser douchebag of a president Erap was. What burns me up is that he likes to polarize the brainwashed underprivileged masses against the other well-to-do social classes. When the chips are down for him, he'll blow the whole thing out of proportion and turn it into a class war. I can't get over the fact that his supporters are totally blind to his bullshit. Come on, how can one claim to be a man of the people while living out a lifestyle none of them could hope to have in three lifetimes?? It's hypocrisy at its best. Sheesh.
More on this tomorrow - gotta finish up on some stuff...
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Posted by marko at Thursday, January 29, 2004
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CRO: data driven tests are 7.7 times more effective than UX tests
The 21st century marketer needs an extensive toolkit. As well as the 'standard' skills of creativity, organisation and management, these days they also need to be web literate, social media savvy and equipped with basic data science skills.
Amongst all of these areas of technology competence one that is growing in importance, but is perhaps still misunderstood, is website testing.
Testing is the new intuition in site development and optimisation. Rather than relying on hunches, the modern web marketer will test potential changes to their site before deploying them thus, we are led to believe, ensuring their efficacy.
However, if all changes are now tested, how come we don't all have perfect sites? If testing only tells us the truth, how come we still sometimes go down dead ends?
The answer lies not necessarily in the tests, but in the ways that they're applied. We've seen thousands of testing processes run across a huge variety of sites and what's struck us is that the issues that led to unsuccessful tests were common across industries.


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Week 17 will be more exciting than usual.
There are still four playoff spots up for grabs, with just one team locked into a playoff position and likely resting its regulars. The end result will be one day, 16 games, and a lot of drama.
This week's Against the Spread edition features many of the players and highlights of the 2013 season.
Carolina Panthers (11-4) -6.5 at Atlanta Falcons (4-11)
Luke Kuechly was in on 24 tackles and picked off a pass against the Saints in Week 16. Any more questions on him being the Panthers MVP? Tony Gonzalez didn't just have a good year for being 37, he had a good year period. With 79 catches, 803 yards and eight touchdowns, his 2013 numbers are in line with the rest of his 17-year career. ATS PICK: Panthers (LOCK)
Baltimore Ravens (8-7) +6 at Cincinnati Bengals (10-5)
The Ravens need a win and a Chargers or Dolphins loss to make the playoffs, or are automatically in with Ravens, Chargers and Steelers losses. The Bengals can land anywhere between the second and fourth seed. By default, Torrey Smith (1,101 receiving yards) is the Ravens MVP. Remember how the paperwork snafu involving Elvis Dumervil was supposed to haunt the Broncos? It might yet. Both A.J. Green (1,365 receiving yards, 10 touchdowns) and rookie Giovani Bernard (1,136 yards from scrimmage) met expectations, put Bernard as a mid-second rounder in fantasy drafts next August. ATS PICK: Bengals
Houston Texans (2-13) +7 at Tennessee Titans (6-9)
He frustrates fantasy owners by never scoring a lot of touchdowns, but Andre Johnson is now one of only two players in history to record 100 catches in a season five times. Titans receiver Kendall Wright (89 catches, 1,029 yards) has quietly broken out in his second year. ATS PICK: Titans
Jacksonville Jaguars (4-11) +11.5 at Indianapolis Colts (10-5)
The Jaguars finish the year being an underdog in all 16 games. Paul Posluszny is the Jags MVP, he gets enough chances to make tackles on this team. Honorable mention to tight end Marcedes Lewis, who is a plus blocker and has scored in four straight games. The team may even keep him next year even though he will count $8.25 million towards the cap.
In his 11th year, Indianapolis' Robert Mathis blew away his previous statistical high with 17.5 sacks. ATS PICK: Jaguars.
New York Jets (7-8) +6 at Miami Dolphins (8-7)
Miami is in the playoffs with a win and a Ravens loss or a Chargers win, but are done with a loss. A third-round draft pick in his second year, Olivier Vernon broke out with 11.5 sacks this year. The Jets named DE Muhaammad Wilkerson (10.5 sacks) as their team MVP. ATS PICK: Jets
Detroit Lions (7-8) +3 at Minnesota Vikings (4-10-1)
So this is how it ends for the Metrodome: two teams going nowhere and two coaches likely getting pink slips on the way out the door into the Minnesota cold. Calvin Johnson and Adrian Peterson let their fantasy owners down by being nicked up towards the end of the year, but are still the MVPs of their respective teams. ATS PICK: Vikings (LOCK)
Washington (3-12) +3.5 at New York Giants (6-9)
Trent Williams is an MVP candidate on Mike Shanahan's squad, through Week 15 he had only missed two snaps all season, but conceded nine and a half sacks. I am going to go with receiver Pierre Garcon, who has somehow caught 107 passes mostly from RG-Third String. With 90 tackles and six interceptions, the Giants' Antrel Rolle is deserving of a Pro Bowl berth. ATS PICK: Giants (LOCK)
Cleveland Browns (4-11) +7 at Pittsburgh Steelers (7-8)
We can't argue the Browns MVP. At one point Josh Gordon racked up 774 receiving yards and five touchdowns in a four-game period. He is a late-first round fantasy pick next year. Antonio Brown justified his team's decision to jettison Mike Wallace with a 101 catch/1,412 yard/eight touchdowns season. ATS PICK: Browns
Green Bay Packers (7-7-1) -3 at Chicago Bears (8-7)
We have a point spread! You could be excused for sleeping in and missing the early slate of games on Sunday. It is the late games where most of the playoff seeds will be decided. Whatever happens Sunday, the culture of Packers football changed this year with the punishing running of Eddie Lacy. It will take a lot of pressure off Aaron Rodgers going forward. Lacy is a mid first-round pick next year.
Alshon Jeffery (1,341 receiving yards) joins Josh Gordon as the fantasy late-round steals amongst receivers this year. One last betting angle, the over is 11-4 in games involving the Bears this year. ATS PICK: Packers
Denver Broncos (12-3) +12.5 at Oakland Raiders (4-11)
Peyton Manning may be Sportsman of the Year, but my vote for team MVP is going to Julius Thomas, the NFL's best tight end not named Jimmy Graham.
Finding standouts on the Raiders is hard, I'm going to go with running back Rashad Jennings, who became one of fantasy football's better running back options for part of the year. ATS PICK: Raiders
Buffalo Bills (6-9) +9.5 at New England Patriots (11-4)
Mario Williams is still in the league, he has 13 sacks playing in the anonymity of Buffalo. Lineman Nate Solder is a candidate for Pats MVP, but has dealt with a pair of recent concussions. You still cannot go wrong with Tom Brady as a default pick, I could settle for a projected 4,500 yards and 25 touchdowns as a "down year." ATS PICK: Bills
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-11) +12.5 at New Orleans Saints (10-5)
Vincent Jackson (1,189 receiving yards) would be a worthy selection, but second year linebacker Lavonte David has one of the better stat lines of any defensive player in the NFL: 101 tackles, six sacks, five picks, and 10 passes defended. He is another stud not noticed playing on a team that gets no attention.
Drew Brees is always a strong pick and Cameron Jordan (12.5 sacks) has emerged this year. But I have to go with Jimmy Graham and his 15 touchdowns while not being at 100 percent much of the year. He remains paranormal at the tight end position. ATS PICK: Bucs
San Francisco 49ers (11-4) at Arizona Cardinals (10-5) (PICK)
NaVorro Bowman brought a whole new meaning to bringing down the house on Monday night. His game-clinching interception return for a touchdown punctuated a stellear season (135 tackles) for the fourth-year player. The NFC West Group of Death will likely deny the Cardinals a playoff berth, which is a shame. There are several candidates for team MVP, which is a good thing. I will go with Karlos Dansby (109 tackles, 6.5 sacks, four interceptions). ATS PICK: Cardinals
Kansas City Chiefs (11-4) +9.5 at San Diego Chargers (8-7)
If Malcolm Floyd had not been hurt way back in Week 2, it is possible that Keenan Allen might be in a recording studio instead of on the field. It is a scary thought, but something to think about if things don't go Allen's way in the future. The Chargers are prohibitive favorites this week since Andy Reid has basically announced he will be resting his regulars with the Chiefs already locked in as a No. 5 seed. Jamaal Charles can show up in a sweat suit this week, his Week 15 performance at Oakland remains fantasy legend. ATS PICK: Chargers
St. Louis Rams (6-9) +10.5 at Seattle Seahawks (12-3)
Despite 18 sacks and a possible Defensive Player of the Year Award, Robert Quinn barely registers on the radar of casual football fans. And he no longer exists as a former football player at the University of North Carolina. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson has put up the quietest 25 touchdown passes in history against just nine interceptions, a carbon copy of last year's rookie numbers. Inside 'backer Bobby Wagner also gets a mention. ATS PICK: Seahawks
Philadelphia Eagles (9-6) +6.5 at Dallas Cowboys (8-7)
Nick Foles proves why drafting a quarterback in the first two rounds is not always a good idea in fantasy football. But it's not every year a QB1 suddenly emerges from the waiver wire. His numbers in 12 games are near-historic and the Eagles will be a tough out in the playoffs if they win Sunday night.
Tony Romo will not be part of the festivities, but I'm still naming him Cowboys MVP. Ding him all you want, but he led his team from behind with the season on the line on the road with a herniated disc in his back. Enough said. ATS PICK: Cowboys


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Far Infrared Thermal Treatment – (FITT)
FITT saunas offer an extremely comfortable, relaxing and efficient ways to help detoxify and rejuvenate at cellular level. Simply using low temperatures and safe far infrared rays it stimulates the body's natural healing and repair processes. The rays penetrate several centimetres through the skin and heat up subcutaneous tissues which are then mobilised and released. After 24 hours, chemicals redistribute from deeper tissues into the upper layers and the process can be repeated, drawing more toxins out each time. For this treatment to be truly efficient a course of treatment is recommended. Whilst FITT can be used as a stand alone treatment I combine it with massage and reflexology which I believe intensifies the results. I also recommend you rent a FITT as part of the treatment plan to get the best from your personal protocol. I charge £25 per week for rental.


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This discussion of the social order of an agricultural republic is Taylor's most popular and influential work. It includes materials on the relation of agriculture to the American economy, on agriculture and politics, and on the enemies of the agrarian republic. Both statesman and farmer, Taylor is often considered the deepest thinker of all the early Virginians.
John Taylor of Caroline (1753–1824) was one of the foremost philosophers of the States' rights Jeffersonians of the early national period. In keeping with his lifelong mission as a "minority man," John Taylor wrote Tyranny Unmasked not only to assault the protective tariff and the mercantilist policies of the times but also "to examine general principles in relation to commerce, political economy, and a free government." Originally published in 1822, it is the only major work of Taylor's that has never before been reprinted.


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School has ended.
I am grateful.
I am grateful school has ended.
School has ended well.
Part of the graceful ending of my master's program was an opportunity to record a "This I Believe" statement and have it played as I stood in the middle of the circle of faculty and classmates; each one a part of this transformational experience. The intent of the exercise was for each individual to be witnessed and celebrated at this journey end. Here is my statement:
This I believe…that each person has an eternal, spiritual essence that holds our deepest callings, purpose and desire for destiny.
I believe that creativity is birthed out of the place of spirit and that to nurture our spirit is to support our ability to do the unique and meaningful work that we are drawn to do.
I believe that that work is best supported when we recognize that every connection we have with people, places and things can be characterized as a relationship.
I believe that engaging our spirits in these relationships will bring the greatest satisfaction and deepest meaning to life.


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Something notable was missing from Governor Pat Quinn's State of the State address this week: talk about Illinois' finances. Presumably that'll come when he gives his budget address next month. This got me wondering: why not have just one speech?
Like Quinn, Senator John Sullivan of Rushville is a Democrat. Still, he says the State of the State speech was lacking detail, and it left him wondering what will happen to the state's budget.
"I would have to kinda wonder, maybe it's not as useful as it used to be. Or perhaps we need to combine the state of the state and the budget address," Sullivan said.
That has been done before – like when Quinn first became governor five years ago.
The Illinois constitution mandates the governor update the General Assembly at the start of session each year. It also mandates the governor submit an annual budget to legislators.
John Alexander was a delegate to the 1970 Illinois constitutional convention. He prefers keeping the speeches separate. Alexander says the State of the State is a long standing Illinois tradition, like the British prime minister appearing before Parliament.
"I like the idea of the governor presenting himself before the General Assembly at least once or twice a year," Alexander said.
Quinn's budget address is scheduled for Feb. 19.


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The new space-saving vending machine that accepts all forms of electronic payments
The VendEase is already a well established vending machine that provides soft drinks, snacks and everyday items in hotels across the country. Now, the team behind it has developed a wall mounted touch screen unit that takes up very little space and accepts all forms of electronic payments.
Measuring just 100cm high, 44cm wide and 29cm deep, the Slimline has a 23" touch screen interface and can be installed on any wall with a power outlet. It can also be used as a free standing unit. It stocks essential everyday items such as toothbrushes and razors, plus healthy snacks along with technology supports including mobile device chargers, USB charge/data cables, plug adaptors and wireless earphones.
"The machine is touch driven just like most modern shopping experiences," says VendEase Founder Dave Berman. " You simply press the image of the product, pull up the info and press the buy button. The machine doesn't accept cash but takes all forms of electronic payments so it's very quick and easy to use.
"The Slimline has already been installed in a selection of Central London Premier Inn and Hub hotels and the feedback we've had so far has been great. The hotel managers have reported that guests find the contactless payment very convenient and have said the machine is a great way to buy essential and tech items without having to leave the hotel."
VendEase provides the machines free of charge including installation and maintenance and the hotel receives a share of the revenue. The Slimline provides detailed sales data so the support team can restock the machines quickly. Machines are currently only available in central London but there are plans to expand across the UK in the future.
Another exciting feature of the Slimline is that a portion of the screen has been allocated for advertising space. Hotels can use this to advertise any internal promotions but VendEase also has the technology to load adverts remotely.
"Our plan is to use this advertising space to create extra revenue, not just for us, but also for the hotels," says Dave Berman. "We are in talks with certain brand owners about the opportunities not only to advertise their products on screen but to also sell the products in the machine.'


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Politics and Political Science
by Jason Yonan
Politics. It is possibly the most hated word in the English language. Most people hate politics and government without really knowing what they are. Many different definitions of politics exist. One definition defines politics as the conflict between groups over something they both want. Another similar definition calls politics the "who gets what, when, and how." Government is defined as the institution that has the enforceable right to control people's behavior. But why do people hate politics and politicians? Is it because politicians cannot be trusted, or maybe because they spend too much money? Whatever the reasons are for hating politics and government, both are needed as a mechanism for people to protect themselves. Possibly, if people developed a better understanding of politics and government, they would change their views about the subject. This could come about by looking at the various types of government and how they evolved.
Two types of governments exist. A government can either be classified as a monarchy or a republic. To be classified as a monarchy, a government must have some kind of royal family that inherits their position of power. Different types of monarchs exist. A monarchy may be a limited monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, or an absolute monarchy.
A limited monarchy is one in which the royalty have only ceremonial powers. An example of this is in the United Kingdom. While Queen Elizabeth is considered the queen, she has no authority in lawmaking and does not deal with the parliament. A limited monarchy merely has a royal family for ceremonies and in keeping with tradition.
The second type of monarchy is a constitutional monarchy. In this form of monarchy, the monarch has powers granted to him/her by the country's constitution. An example of this form of monarchy is in Sweden. Here, the monarch can only use powers granted in the country's constitution.
The third and final type of monarchy is an absolute monarchy. In an absolute monarchy, the monarchy has supreme and absolute authority to do what it wishes. An example of this occurs in the country of Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, the royal family can enforce any law it wishes- no matter how bad it could be for the country. Absolute monarchies are often very oppressive to its people. For example, Saudi Arabia has very strict laws that have been put in place by the royal family. The people living in the country have no voice in an absolute monarchy.
The second type of government is a republic. A republic is any government that does not have a monarch. Republics are also divided into three classes. A republic can be classified as a dictatorship, an oligarchy, or a democracy.
A dictatorship is a government ruled by one commander. An example of this is Iraq. Saddam Hussein is the dictator of Iraq. Whatever he decides becomes law. Dictatorships are similar to absolute monarchies in that they are very oppressive to the people of the country. The major difference between the two is that absolute monarchies are families inheriting their power while dictatorships often result from military takeovers or from an elected official who refuses to step down from his elected office.
The second type of republic is an oligarchy. An oligarchy is a country ruled by the few. An example of this was in South Africa during Apartheid. During Apartheid, the white population, which was about 25% of the entire country's population, commanded the power and the majority of the wealth of South Africa. At this time, blacks were not allowed to be involved in the political process and were forced to live only in certain areas. Apartheid has now been eliminated in South Africa, and the black majority now has more control over the political process and the government.
The final type of republic is a democracy, which is what most consider the United States to be. In a democracy, it is rule by the majority. This rule by the majority takes place by voting and electing officials. The people of the country elect officials who hold similar views to their own to represent them. While most people consider the U.S. to be a democracy, an opposing argument could be made. Since such a small majority of the population vote in the U.S., could it not be called an oligarchy, or rule by the few? This leads us to the question of how governments were formed.
Many people have wondered how government came about. There are four major theories as to the origin of government. They are the Divine theory, the Natural theory, the Social Compact theory, and the Force theory.
The Divine theory is the religious theory that government was ordained from God. Moses is an example of the Divine theory. It is essentially saying that government was created to serve God. The Divine theory has been around for many years and is still embraced by people today.
The second theory regarding the origin of government is the Natural theory, developed by the likes of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato. This theory states that people are political animals, and by our own nature, we must have government to survive. This theory believes that if some type of government were not in place, humans could not survive.
The Social Compact theory, advocated by great political thinkers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, proposes that government is deliberately created by people. The theory states that people did not always have government and realized their was a lack of protection for their lives or security. They then formed government for this reason. According to the theory, government is to protect and serve the people of the country. While both Hobbes and Locke advocated this theory, they disagreed concerning the head of government necessary to protect the people. Hobbes argued for a King, while Locke thought a committee would be best.
The final theory of the origin of government is the Force theory. The Force theory states that government came about as a result of conquest and force. Karl Marx strongly advocated this theory. Marx believed that government is bad and that people should try to revolt against government. Marx also predicted that government would eventually be toppled, and the world would have no government. While Marx supported revolt against the government, it never happened as he expected. The great poor and middle class uprisings that Marx predicted would result from the Industrial Revolution did not occur. Instead, more jobs gave people less reason to revolt.
The types of governments and the theories on the origin of government described in this paper have hopefully given a basic understanding of what government is. People often feel that they need to hate government without even knowing what it is or the theories of its origin. Hopefully, people will begin to understand more about politics and government and realize that it is not something to hate. The more someone learns about government and political processes, the more likely someone is to take action and become involved. That is why even a basic understanding of politics and government is so important for people of this country.
[Index] [Pos145]