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Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined. His wife still has the same smile. Having saved some earnings from two trips to the US, he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his dreams on the side by starting a band: Copa Kings. He cherishes the everyday moments with his family. The villagers think this year's crop will be bountiful. There is also...more
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Traders and investors typically have a wide range of options available when dabbling in the financial markets. On the one hand, there are conventional investments in assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, Forex, indices, ETFs and mutual funds and derivatives such as CFDs on the other hand. The aforementioned are usually the typical basket of investment opportunities. The degree to which traders allocate a percentage of their financial portfolio to each instrument depends upon the preferences of each trader.
However, the simplest way an investor can make money in conventional assets is to wait for the asset to appreciate – and this takes time. When companies use investment funds for growth purposes, they may also be able to pay dividends over time. Nonetheless, waiting for price gains and dividends is an agonizingly slow method of playing the markets. This piece provides insight on an interesting new way to participate on Wall Street.
Here's how CFDs work in practice
There are other trading and investment options available on Wall Street in the form of derivatives trading and the most popular of the options is CFD trading. A CFD definition submits that it is an agreement between a buyer and a seller to buy/sell a contract of an underlying asset at a specific price, and a specific date in the future.' The buyer may be purchasing on the assumption that the price of the underlying asset will rise at the contract expiry date.
Since no actual underlying assets are purchased, the CFD is simply a forecast on the price movement of the underlying asset. There is less regulation involved in CFD trading since no ownership takes place.By correctly speculating on the price movement of the underlying asset (bullish for an increase, and bearish for a decrease), the trader can pocket the difference at expiry time.
For example, if the price of platinum is $1400 per ounce, and it rises to $1500 per ounce at expiry, the broker that facilitates the CFD must pay the difference of $100 to the trader. Since CFDs are traded in a specific size, the size of the CFD trade must be multiplied by the price differential (ie $100). CFD trading uses leverage and margin – these are essential to taking out much bigger positions in the actual contract.
Unlike traditional trading and investing, there is significantly greater leverage with CFDs. This means that you can open a much larger trade size. Leveraging, however, cuts both ways: if the trader forecasts correctly, you'll book significant profits. However, if the price moves against you, the degree of leverage you have used in the trade will have a multiplier effect on the trade.
CFD trades are useful as a hedge against traditional investments in stocks, commodities, indices and currency pairs. In other words, your typical investments require an appreciation of asset categories, but CFDs can work in the opposite direction, price decreases. This is similar to a futures contract.
Traders can adopt short positions or long positions on CFD trades – it's entirely at the discretion of the individual in question. Another benefit of CFD trading over conventional investments is that traders have complete control over their contracts. There is no need for fund managers or investment gurus – only an understanding of basic macroeconomic variables and the underlying financial asset is needed. To protect against market volatility, traders have multiple tools available including stop losses, rollovers, and other resources.
What are the pros and cons of CFD trading?
One of the major pros of CFD trading is that traders do not need to have the money to purchase the underlying stock up front before they can join the market. Consider the price of Google is well over $1,000 per share, but with CFD trading you can take out a large position on Google by using less margin and high leverage. The profits that stand to be gained from buying GOOG for example with just $1,000 cash in hand would require significant appreciation without leverage. However, with a CFD trade, a trader can leverage that $1000, 10 times, 20 times, 50 times or 100 times+.
Given that there are less regulatory constraints with CFD trading compared to conventional stocks trading, there is more leeway to manage your financial affairs as you see fit. In addition, the timeline for generating profits is significantly short with CFD trades.
The downside to CFD trading is evident in the losses that can accrue with trades that don't go your way. Leverage once again plays a part in ramping up losses, and traders can lose their entire investment. If the broker does not offer negative balance protection, the investor may be on the hook for the full amount of the losing trade.
Click here to learn more about forex brokers and forex trading.


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While the poop isn't loose, this is certainly a loose recreation of the infamous Russian Hammer & Sickle. Is it too pun-ny to say this bears a shitty resemblance to the original?
Mockup Hammer & Sickle
Posted by fullofshart on March 7, 2013
The Mud Snake is indigenous to aquatic environments. It is known to be very poisonous and emits a foul smelling odor while under duress. It is also very protective of its young. Thanks to Drew over at the Frickin Deuce Podcast for finding a picture of this rare beast in it's natural habitat.
This poop collected very nicely in a decent pile at the bottom of the bowl. A classy poop, indeed. Thanks for Drew from The Frickin Deuce Podcast for submitting some excellent pictures of his terrible feces.


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Keeping an Eye On the Universe / Amateur astronomers in Bay Area make important observations that contribute to research by experts
When Lance Shaw, an amateur astronomer from Pinole, looks back over 1999, he remembers that his most spine-tingling moment occurred in the wee hours of February 25.
He was about to witness something extraordinarily rare, something that only one other person had seen since 1987, and then only hours previously: a nearly invisible star suddenly becoming brilliant, a star that didn't belong there.
"I had gotten an alert notice over the Internet from a guy in Germany," said Shaw, 35, whose day job is as a technician at the Tosco refinery near Martinez. "He said the star U Scorpii was in outburst for the first time since 1987."
It was pouring rain when Shaw received the alert at 3:30 a.m. Then, with uncanny timing, the sky cleared 45 minutes before sunrise, and Shaw was able to confirm the outburst with a pair of binoculars, standing in his bathrobe.
"It was the perfect moment. I knew where to look. I shot off a quick e-mail on the Web. It was like, let's crank it up (point your telescopes), guys, it's there!"
These are heady times for amateur astronomers, especially in Northern California, where there are more than 25 clubs and many more informal groups of observers, many of them working alongside astronomers with doctorates at NASA's Ames Research Center, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University.
The number of sky-gazing devotees has grown substantially in recent years, thanks in part to excitement over the discoveries of the comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp, the Galileo spacecraft now surveying Jupiter and its moons, and spectacular images from the Hubble space telescope.
More importantly, amateur astronomers are being taken far more seriously by their professional counterparts, who rely on them more frequently to track variable stars, like U Scorpii, or collect data on meteors, which scientists at NASA Ames in Mountain View are particularly interested in.
"With the Internet, we are in kind of a golden age of amateur astronomy," said Mike Koop, an electrical engineer for Lockheed Martin and a member of the San Jose Astronomical Association. "We can link together and get the word out instantly."
Amateurs themselves are beginning to make major discoveries, thanks in part to more sophisticated equipment.
The Hale-Bopp comet, for example, was co-discovered July 22, 1995, by amateur comet hunter Thomas Bopp of Glendale, Ariz., and professional astronomer Alan Hale of Cloudcroft, N.M., who independently found a tiny, fuzzy spot in the sky where catalogs list no star. Bopp was using a friend's homemade 17 1/2-inch reflector telescope.
The comet Hyakutake was spotted Jan. 30, 1995, by Japanese photoengraver and amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake, using special large binoculars. It was 166 million miles from the sun, or a bit farther out than Mars.
Astronomy happens to be one of the few sciences in which amateurs can make real contributions to research, said Seth Shostak, an astronomer with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View.
"Astronomy is, above all, an observing science," said Shostak, who regularly heads down to Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to monitor radio signals from stars in the hope of hearing an intelligent signal. "The tools professional astronomers use tend to look at very tiny slivers of the sky. The Hubble telescope is like holding a pinhole at arm's length. The amateurs with their binoculars and small telescopes may use far less sensitive equipment than we do, but they are looking at the whole sky."
In November, six Bay Area amateur astronomers accompanied scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on a meteor hunt during the Leonid storm. They rode alongside astronomers in two U.S. Air Force Boeing 707s using advanced equipment -- and some not so advanced -- to plot things like magnitude, orbits and velocities of meteors. The trip took them over England to Israel and the Azores during the course of four nights.
Equipped with special goggles that intensified the light from the meteors, video cameras and military electronics, the amateurs together were able to count up to 15,000 meteors in one night over the Azores. They observed meteors streaking through the aurora borealis, and they saw "sprites," upward lightning strikes thought to be induced by meteors.
"These dedicated people are absolutely essential to our work because there is not enough funding to employ enough people and train them," said Peter Jenniskens, a NASA Ames astronomer and principal organizer of the amateur astronomers for the Leonid project. "I am actually helping some amateur astronomers publish results. Amateurs can collect data, but to interpret it you need an astronomer, so these people really help us keep programs going."
NASA is eager for this kind of data to better predict when meteor showers and storms are going to occur, because meteors can damage satellites, said Jane Houston, 47, an astronomer from San Rafael who was one of the six amateurs aboard Jenniskens' Leonid project. Her day job is as an information technology consultant.
"Both NASA and the Air Force, which paid for the project, were very interested in finding out what these meteors were made of, what organic materials came to Earth through meteors," said Houston, who is president of the Astronomical Association of Northern California.
"We amateurs have our own equipment, and we can observe 365 nights a year if we so choose and we enjoy doing it. We are sort of like free labor for the professionals."
For Houston, part of the excitement of amateur astronomy is the sense that she is contributing something vitally important to the scientific community. But it's also social.
"You get to work with other people with similar interests, and while we look at pretty galaxies and make sketches of what we see, we get to know one another very well. It's a great hobby for women -- most of the amateurs are men. It can get very romantic on top of peaks at night."
Indeed. Houston met her future husband, fellow amateur astronomer Morris Jones, one starry night on Fremont Peak in the South Bay. They got married this past weekend and plan to honeymoon in the Blue Mountains, 200 miles east of Sydney, Australia, where hundreds of amateur astronomers will gather to gaze at the heavens.
Here is a sampling of amateur astronomy groups in Northern California. Most of the larger clubs have monthly newsletters, indoor lectures and outdoor star parties, weather permitting.
-- Astronomical Association of Northern California (www.aanc-astronomy.org) -- Web site includes a comprehensive list of clubs from Chico to Santa Cruz.
-- San Francisco Amateur Astronomers (www.zennla.com/sfaa/) Offers telescope loan program for members and in-town star parties. Meets monthly at Morrison Planetarium. Event hotline: (415) 566-2357.
-- East Bay Astronomical Society: ( chabot.cosc.org/eas/ ) Offers a Junior Astronomers section and telescope makers workshop. Meets monthly at Chabot Observatory in Oakland.
-- San Jose Astronomical Association (www.sjaa.net) Offers observational astronomy classes, in town star parties, and a telescope loan program. Hotline: (408) 559-1221.
-- Mount Diablo Astronomical Society ( members.aol.co/mdas101b/private/index.htm ) -- Meets monthly at Concord Policy Association Facility in Concord. Hotline: (925) 691-6362.
-- Tri Valley Stargazers (www.trivalleystargazers.org) -- Offers telescope makers workshop, observatory for members and rental telescopes. Meets monthly in Livermore.
-- Peninsula Astronomical Society (www.foothill.fhda.edu/ast/ pas.htm) -- Observatory in the Santa Cruz Mountains for members and star parties. Meets monthly at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. Phone: (650) 493-4742.
-- San Mateo County Astronomical Society (home.att.net/bob-black/smas.htm) -- Meets monthly at Bowditch Middle School, 1450 Tarpon Way, Foster City.
-- San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers ( members.aol.com/raycash/sidewalk.htm ) -- Offers online telescope making plans, telescope making classes and frequent sidewalk astronomy events. Event hotline: (415) 289-2007.
-- Sonoma County Astronomical Society -- Offers a Young Astronomers section and a telescope-building program. For information, write P.O. Box 183, Santa Rosa, CA 95402, or e-mail club president at firstname.lastname@example.com.
-- The Astronomy Connection (www.seds.org/TAC/) -- Offers online mailing list of active Bay Area observers, frequent observing events and maps to many observing sites. No indoor meetings.


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The Chateau Of Jemniště
The château is found approximately 50 km south of Prague.
In 1720, Frantisek Adam Trauttmansdorff entrusted the renowned Czech architect F. M. Kanka with the construction of a château corresponding to his social status, that of a prominent member of the aristocracy. The château is a typical seat of a nobleman from the height of the Baroque period, decorated by prominent artists such as M. B. Braun, V. V. Reiner and F. A. Scheffler.
In 1868, the Jemniste estate was purchased by Zdenek, Count of Sternberg, and the Sternberg family inhabited the château until 1943. Following the uneasy years of WWII and the ensuing period, the Jemniste château returned to the hands of the Sternberg family in 1995.
More >>>
Visiting Jemniste you can enjoy the interiors in a period style featuring collections of the Sternberg family, and ends in the St. Joseph Chapel. The historical interiors are available for wedding ceremonies, concerts, gala events, birthday parties and other social occasions.
The château is surrounded by a picturesque English-style park, offering rare species of trees and plants for admiration at the rockery or on the moor, or an occasion for a walk around several ponds with waterfowl.
Jemniste is definitely the best choice for your wedding full of romance.
Weddings at Jemniště are both civil and religious. Civil weddings take place in beautiful decorated wedding halls. Silvia Vezzuto-Průšková, an Italian painter, participated in their decoration. Halls are situated in Sala Terrena (in the vestibule of the château).
Church weddings take place in the Baroque chapel of St. Joseph, where the most beautiful Baroque productions of the chateau can be found - the fresco of the Ascension in the presbytery is by Wenceslas Lawrence Rainer and also Matthias Bernard Braun participated in the decoration of the great altar. From the side altars, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Francis of Assisi will look down on you. J.P.Molitor painted their portraits.
Jemniste is always ready to provide newly married couple with unique services. For example, accommodations in antique apartment with a breakfast to a room. Having a choice to pick up from three opportunities of apartments which are furnished in oriental style (Indian mirrors, aquarelles, draperies, cushions, Moroccan lamps, bed with baldachin, Italian fresco) you will have an illusion of being a real lord and lady.
Ceremony can be held in different locations:
Luxury Romance Package:
You are welcomed to personalize the basic package with additional services to accomplish your wedding dreams.
Please check the daily exchange rate stated by the Czech National Bank.
Price in EUR might vary based on the daily exchange rate.
Price is subject of change without prior notice.
>> Contact Us Now
Please note:


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May 21, 2009
~Blissful Weekend Thoughts~
19 comments:
- FEDERICA said...
All my prayers go to those people...
Have a wonderful weekend!
Blessing from Italy,
- May 22, 2009 at 12:51 AM
- Draffin Bears said...
Hi Miss Kris,
What a fabulous chadelier.
Is that a van in the water, can't quite figure it out? Wouldn't it sink!
Have a wonderful long weekend.
- May 22, 2009 at 12:58 AM
- A Gift Wrapped Life said...
I love, love that image too! Have a wonderful holiday weekend. You can go bike riding! LOL!
- May 22, 2009 at 7:47 AM
- Noel Solomon said...
That is a STUNNING photo. It looks like someone had to transport that chandelier across the water. GORGEOUS Find Miss Kris. Have a great weekend~
xxox Noel
- May 22, 2009 at 11:02 AM
- Unknown said...
Hello Miss Kris!
Lovely image, even on a street submerged in water a beakon to light the way and give us some beauty! Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!!!!
- May 23, 2009 at 4:56 AM
- email@example.com/ said...
what a great photo!!
- May 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM
- FrenchBlue said...
Missy Kris~
Aw!! I LOVE & ADORE this image too! I may have to steal it:)
It is like a treasure hunt when you find one like this!!
Have a safe week-end!
- May 24, 2009 at 9:37 PM
- Anna said...
for the first time on your blog!
I love it..
I've put your name on my favorite list...if that oké with you?
greetings from holland
- May 25, 2009 at 4:41 AM
- gina said...
Hi Miss Kris,
What an amazing photo!
and we Salute our Troops and Vetrans. Have a great weekend!
- May 25, 2009 at 11:49 AM
- ticklishfromadistance said...
Love this image. Amazing...and sweet and wonderful post!
- May 25, 2009 at 3:32 PM
- Fifi Flowers said...
Welllll... that's not my photo... but it is the van I was using to move my new chandelier... ooops... made a wrong turn!
- May 25, 2009 at 10:30 PM
- Ness Lockyer said...
That would make a great prop in a shop...the whole van, chandelier and the lantern in the water. Love it.
Ness xx
- May 26, 2009 at 1:50 AM
- Miss Kris said...
Fifi were the paparazzi after you again? That made you take the wrong turn...ending up on the front page of the ???
Fifi pleeeaze be careful!!!
- May 26, 2009 at 10:00 AM
- kate said...
Even I could go camping, if i could just deck this out a little more.....thanks
- May 26, 2009 at 8:02 PM
- Fifi Flowers said...
Oooooh no... the paparazzi have led the authorities to moi... I'm hoping a plane as I type this... going to lay low in the South of France... if you can sneak away... I will be at an escape party tomorrow... sssssh... keep it quiet... look for the lavender field with lots of laughing... it will be moi!
A bientôt mon amie!
- May 27, 2009 at 6:32 PM
- Absolutely Ladylike said...
I hope your weekend was great lovely Miss Kris. This image is so beautiful. Thanks so much for the Birthday wish :-) I'm always happy to see that you passed by my blog...Much love: Evi
- May 27, 2009 at 7:03 PM
- vicki archer said...
I am a little behind here but I love the image you have chosen for your tribute, xv.
- May 28, 2009 at 11:43 AM
- Fifi Flowers said...
Ooooh Miss Kris... I would tell you to get rid of the evidence... but the photos is sooooo beautiful!!! This is not the first time you have been an accomplice! hehehehe... Don't forget the pink to lime green car in Sud de France!
Still hiding in the lavender with champagne!
- May 28, 2009 at 12:31 PM
- Miss Kris said...
Oooo...Fifi! I am catching the next le Gare to Sud de France! Did we leave it parked behind the OLD MILL??? Ooo..I hear them coming...enjoy the bubbleee Fifi!!
Must run Le Gare is here...au...revooooire
- May 28, 2009 at 3:00 PM


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Barbara Kiefer
Faculty Emeritus, Department of Teaching and Learning
Program Areas:
- Reading and Literacy in Early and Middle Childhood Education
- Literature for Children and Young Adults
Barbara Kiefer is the Charlotte S. Huck Professor of Children's Literature at The Ohio State University. She was formerly Robinson Professor of Children's Literature at Teachers College, Columbia University. Originally trained in art education, she taught grades one, two, four, and five in several regions of the U.S and in overseas schools. She served as the elected chair of the year 2000 Caldecott Award Committee of the American Library Association and was a member of the 1988 Caldecott Award Committee. She has also served as chair of the Elementary Section Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English and as a member of the NCTE Executive Board. She is currently a co-editor of Language Arts, a journal of the NCTE. She chaired the NCTE/CLA Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts Committee and the Children's Book Council/ International Reading Association Joint Committee which oversees the IRA Children's Choices project. She has published numerous articles and book chapters about reading and children's literature and is author of The Potential of Picturebooks: From Visual Literacy to Aesthetic Understanding, and the co-author of the books An Integrated Language Perspective in the Elementary School: Theory Into Action, with Christine Pappas and Linda Levstik, and the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Editions of Children's Literature in the Elementary School, with Charlotte Huck, Susan Hepler, and Janet Hickman.
Selected Publications
- Kiefer, B. with S.Hepler and J. Hickman. (2007) Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature, 9th Edition. New York, McGraw-Hill.
- Pappas, C., Kiefer, B., & Levstik, L. (2006). An integrated language perspective in the elementary school: Theory into action, 4th, edition. New York: Longman Inc.
- Kiefer B. Z. (1995). The potential of picture books: From visual literacy to aesthetic understanding. Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
- Kiefer, Barbara. (In Press) The current state of picture books: What's new, what works? In S. Lehr (Ed.), Trends, issues and controversies in children's literature. Needham, MA: Christopher Gordon.
- Kiefer, Barbara. (In Press) Reading the art of the picturebook. In Flood, J., Heath, S. and Lapp, D. (Eds ) Handbook of research on teaching literacy through communicative and visual arts. Mahwah, NJ, Laurence Erlbaum.
- Kiefer, B. ( 2004) Preparing teachers to know and love children's literature. Slater, W. H., Saracho, O. N., & Spodek, B. (Eds.) Language policy and early literacy education. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishers.
- Kiefer, B. (2003). Nonfiction literature to study the arts. In J. Kristo & R. Salesi, (Eds.) Nonfiction children's literature in the K-8 classroom.2nd Ed Needham, MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers.
- Kiefer, B. (2002). Children's literature. In James W. Guthrie, (Ed.) Encyclopedia of education, Second edition. New York: Macmillan Reference, USA..
- Kiefer, B. (2001). Books for the very young. In B. Cullinan and D. Person, (Eds.) Encyclopedia of children's literature. New York: Continuum Publishing.
- Kiefer, B. Z., (2007). Profile: Kimberly Willis Holt. Language Arts 84(4)
- Kiefer, B. Z., Price-Dennis D. & Ryan, C. (2006). Children's books in a multimodal age. Language Arts 84(1) 92-99
- Kiefer, B. (2001), Understanding reading. School Library Journal, 47(2), 48-52.
- Kiefer, B. Z., (2001), Inside picture books. Book Review. Teachers College Record, 103(1), 28-29.


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A tale of two women: Reaching across the political divide to push for peace in Yei
We are tired. We are losing our husbands, we are losing our children. How long are we going to talk about peace? cries Alice Senna Philip, as she sits alongside other weeping women in a dark, humid tukul (hut) in the heart of Yei town.
Leaders are supposed to lead us. They are our shepherds and we are their flocks. Do they want to kill all of us? Can they rule without us? We need an answer today.
Alice lives in the Government-held town of Yei, in the central Equatorias, which was once the breadbasket of South Sudan. Farmers in the area used to cultivate enough crops to feed their own people as well as communities right across the country. Diverse groups lived together in peace and women felt safe travelling around the town and to neighbouring villages.
Today, the town is a shadow of what it once was with the six-year civil war taking an enormous toll, forcing thousands of families to flee their homes and land, heading for protection sites elsewhere in the country or to camps across the border as refugees.
For Alice and the women of Yei, the signing of a peace deal eight months ago has not materialized. Suffering continues and the frustration is so immense that she is considering leaving if the country's leaders don't make real progress towards peace soon.
If they don't want to hear from us, the local people, we only have one option, she says. We are going to decide as women, we better leave this country and go for asylum. We leave them to fight because they like fighting.
A short helicopter ride away from Yei is Panyume. This is the heart of Opposition-held territory, where hundreds of men emerge from the bushes and nearby grass tukuls with ammunition strung across their shoulders, clutching guns and RPGs, as the United Nations helicopter touches down.
Among the mass of military fatigues is Mama Joyce Kela. She's been living in the bush since conflict erupted in the area in 2016 � choosing to stay with her people rather than flee to a protection camp. Her husband is dead and she's raising their children on her own.
While she's on the opposite side of the political divide, her experience of war and hopes for peace are the same as her counterpart, Alice, back in Government-held Yei.
We do hear of peace, but we are still suffering, says Mama Joyce. Rapes have even taken place within this supposed period of peace. We have heard of peace but there are still atrocities taking place.
Why is it that when war breaks out, the victims are the women. We are not happy. Do the fighters fight because of women or because they are just soldiers who like killing?
In the midst of this suffering, arrives a high-powered delegation of peace brokers. The Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan has joined together with the Special Envoy for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional body that helped broker the peace deal, and the interim chair of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, which is overseeing its implementation.
They are visiting Yei because it is the only area in the country where political violence is continuing despite the peace deal. The delegation listens intently to the concerns of both parties, but their message is clear � the solution has to be found within, not imposed from outside.
Everybody is talking about peace. We want to know how you profit from this peace, says IGAD Special Envoy, Ismail Wais. We heard a lot of grievances, but these grievances are the product of war and we don't have any alternative to peace. War is not the option.
The peace we are talking about will not come from outside. It comes from inside and from you. This is why we are here to help you come to peace with one another.
While there is a huge appetite for peace among the population, regardless of their political affiliations, there is also the looming threat of fresh violence if the fragile process fails.
In Panyume, that possibility is laid bare by the so-called Iron Lady of the area, also known as the Minister of Gender and Social Welfare, Hon. Hellen Abure.
I hope the peace is there. Go in peace and leave us in peace. But we expect peace to be complete because, if we have to stay in the bush, you know what that means.
While progress has been made towards implementing the peace agreement over the past eight months, several significant issues remain unresolved, despite the parties' commitment to form a new transitional Government in less than a month's time.
The delegation of UN and regional leaders recognize the risk that poses and have committed to travelling together around the country to encourage rapprochement and peace-building activities.
The three of us travelling together means that we have a lot more firepower in showing the international community is focused, that it is together, and it wants to make real progress on the ground, says the Head of UNMISS, David Shearer.
Obviously there are some challenges here with regards to the ongoing fighting. Although we have seen a lull in the last little while, it's the one area of the country where fighting still continues. But we, as the UN, want very much to push forward as much as we can with our patrolling to give people the confidence to start moving back and with our efforts to support peace in the area.
The R-JMEC interim chair, Ambassador Augostino Njoroge, has a strong message for the parties to the conflict to fully implement the peace deal, but also makes a personal plea to the women of Yei.
The silencing of the guns has happened across South Sudan, but it appears not to have happened here in Yei, he says. We need you, as the mothers, to talk to your husbands, your brothers, and your sons to bring peace. We need you to fight � to fight for peace.
Source: UN Mission in South Sudan


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Well, probably the smartest attitude is "don't get your hopes up." But the lite SF series "Dragonriders of Pern" by Hugo Award winner Anne McCaffrey has been picked up for film by Copperheart Entertainment, makers of…well, some film called "Ginger Snaps", which is apparently horror. While this has gotten some fans in a bit of a tizzy, caution is advised. The Pern rights have been sold before a couple of times and nothing has ever come of it. As, so far, the only news from Copperheart for several months has been the same press release issued in different forums, whether there will be an actual movie is yet to be seen.
I really don't want to go back to work. But I am not hung over. Well, I have con hangover. Close enough.
New quote: "I can't wait for the teen years. I want my kids to hide in their rooms and never come out." (Kelly, Mother of the Year)
I actually was good at GenCon. It was the auction what done me in. I am the proud owner of a Caitlin Shindler original Princess Leia gown. And it is pretty but it takes up way, way, way too much space in my suitcase.
I wish JadeCon were more often. But I think the lack of sleep would kill me. But it might be worth it.
If Anyone Still Cares about "Dragonriders of Pern" …
After the last one, I'm not sure why I do, but for those who are interested, the newest book in the apparently neverending Pern saga, "Dragonsblood", will be released in the US on January 25, 2005. Information is available both at Anne McCaffrey's website and at her son the author's website.
The plot? Well . . . watchwhers, time travel, dragons and firelizards getting sick, more time travel, and probably the now-typical massive continuity problems that characterize the Pern books. But the cover, especially the UK cover, is purty.
Okay, so there are tiny dice everywhere! I think they're multiplying!
And is it really bad that I can't type and I can't be hung over from alcohol because I didn't really drink last night?
I think I'm glad that I don't have to leave today, because I'm not sure I could find the airport to find my flight. Driving is better. (Provided Drunc isn't hung over tomorrow when she has to drive us home.)
Not going to see Spider-Man in Imax. And I am not the only person who gets vertigo and motion sickness from Imax! Yay! I guess we're getting a suite key–maybe we can watch the DVDs with the pretty men in them again….
Okay, my first JadeCon blog…and it's mostly about what it takes to get me off a comfortable seat at JadeCon. James is only alive because Deet and I lacked the motivation to get up and cross the room to strike him down. But GA Sean promises a video involving Winnie the Pooh music and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I can summon the energy. This is a sad commentary.
But hey, I'm a Luser. I can be proud of that.


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Last weekend we decided very spontaneous to do the 300km Road Run at Radmarathon.ch. Its always at the first weekend in july and therefore a perfect fitness test for the bike marathon season, which starts shortly after. We were a good team of 4, whith two stronger leaders and two less stronger followers. Our aim was to do it again (last time 2009) in around 12.5 hours with 4 breaks of 15min each. Finally we made it exactly in 12.5 hours while needing 5 breaks…because 30min after start my front tube exploded with a loud boom and I had to replace the tube. Anyway, it worked but I had a lower and unknown pressure in the front tire for the rest of the day.
Otherwise all worked perfectly nice, weather was ideal and not to hot. After about 170km we had a rather important second break, since slowly my bottom started to hurt (even if the nice carbon saddle is called Komvor…) and my legs and feet ankles felt less good too. After the break however the body worked fine again and we were heading with speed to the next two shorter stops.
Well, in the end all worked perfectly good, we kept our steady pace at around 26-28 km/h nonstop and besides one of us having stomach troubles we were fine and good until the finish. A week later my bottom is good again and the marathon season can come. Jiha!! 🙂
Picture: Me and the team of 4. Our powerhorses and windshades are to the left and right. Man, they have a pressure on the pedal….


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"Ballad Of A Thin Man", Bob Dylan, from the album "Highway 61 Revisited", (1965)
A number of my recent posts have been focused on the distraction, drama and noise with which "the world" and the Father of Lies, the Lord of This World, strives continuously to keep us away from reality and focused on the self love and self interest of this world.
This noise and distraction is not one sided, but employs streams of noise from all parts of the spectrum in the never ending river of distraction.
For example, this morning a message popped up in my inbox from a writer and blogger who I used to subscribe to who espouses a point of view which I am sympathetic to and have been since I was a teen.
Now, even though Canada has pretty well shut down ALL discussion in a tidal wave of leftist propaganda, it still seems that our southern brothers in America are still able to muster an articulate response to evil.
But the distraction and noise of this discord is even more apparent now that I am starting to see my love of my own opinion and those who agree with me as just another worldly attachment distracting me from the Truth.
So here is an example of "noise and distraction" in action … a far cry from Robert Cardinal Sarah's writing about "silence".
First it was censoring conservative content on Google, by downplaying content they disagree with as "not generally accepted".
Then it was censoring conservative content through the "Web Of Trust" spyware ratings system, branding content and sites they disagree with as "dangerous" and redirecting browsers when they are searching.
And now we have YouTube actively censoring conservative content on YouTube by the following means (some of this content is from an email in my inbox this morning):
Hi everybody, it's Bill Whittle here with some disturbing news: There has been a zombie outbreak of unknown size at YouTube!
These brain-dead zombies are being QUARANTINED by YouTube Censors, who systematically see to it that conservative common sense DOES NOT GET VIEWED!
YES! Unbelievably, YouTube is ACTIVELY attempting to prevent their target audience of zombies from being exposed to any opinion which they disagree with …
WTF guys, wasn't I just writing about exactly this logical and moral disconnect in the two posts about the Left hating anyone who disagrees with them and their moral relativism?????
How do they do it?
Well, in many cases they simply tell the sharing algorithms to suppress conservative messages, meaning they don't get shared among subscribers as frequently. Because they don't want the "Useful Idiots", the hate bigots screaming their message on the streets, exercising their "Right" to free hate, to ever get a clue.
They suppress conservative videos when people search for a topic. They restrict certain videos — on the Korean War, or the Electoral College, for example — with a "YOU MUST BE 18+ TO VIEW THIS VIDEO," guaranteeing that very few young people get the message.
And they also quarantine the left-wing zombies by de-monetizing conservative content. The self appointed herders of this hate stampede don't dare let the street cattle bellowing their thoughtless chanting to ever get the whole picture.
Gotta keep them stampeding down the streets in the world of their dreams. Just have to prevent them from being exposed to any other view and everything will develop according to plan.
They isolate their target audience of sensitive young minds by inserting their opinion that this content is "NOT SUITABLE FOR MOST ADVERTISERS".
They thereby actively discourage advertisers from sponsoring any content they disagree with – and you maybe thought I was exaggerating in my posts about how the Left reacts to differing opinions. That demonetizing process looks like this:
And why is YouTube doing this?
So I'm asking you to join us in getting into these quarantine zones and inoculating young people while there is still time.
We have to buy page views that used to be free to us, because these self-described socialists at YouTube will censor a message they do not like but they will still take our money.
We are winning hearts and minds out there. They have George Soros and his billions.
I have you.
Become a member today, and we will whip these Social Justice Zombies out of their boots (and out of our throats).
Bill still seems to be able to get a different point of view out to the folks in spite of the huge opposition of the Left and the Socialist Progressives who have been so successful in monopolizing the media message, the "socially responsible narrative" as they so fondly describe their point of view … here is just a bit of one of Bill's recent emails:
Fellow American,
We began this week by paying homage to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We paid tribute to all those who lost their lives on that day which will live in infamy, when radical Islamic terrorists struck at the very center of American strength and power.
We remember those who perished, including the first responders who sacrificed their lives in order to save the countless innocents who were trapped in the Twin Towers and the courageous and fearless heroes who confronted the hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93.
These individuals were the epitome of what it means to be an American.
It is our duty to never forget that day, when the whole country stood still, shellshocked by what was happening. The events of September 11, 2001 may fade away from the mainstream, but they will remain as fresh as ever in the minds of all patriotic Americans.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Here is a review of this week's videos.
Is this (on the left) what we want? Or is it this on the right?


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As you can see, I have given in and added Blogger Reactions to my site.
If you enjoyed a post, thought it was interesting or boring, you can let me know without having to make a comment.
All too often, I read great things on other people's blogs but can think of nothing pithy or pertinent to add to all the other comments left before me.
Reactions is the answer :-)


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Nelson County Jail Logs–Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018
Editor's Note: The Nelson County Gazette believes the public has a right to know who has been arrested by local officials and lodged in the Nelson County Jail. The information below is a compiled list of daily booking logs from the jail. The bookings state the person(s) arrested and the charge(s) against them. This information is public record.
Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018
David Mitchell Lucas, 34, receiving stolen property under $500; license to be in possession; no insurance; possession of drug paraphernalia.
Luis D. Batian, 24, driving on a DUI-suspended license.
James Tyler Smith, 29, parole violation.
David Scott Schmetzer, 45, contempt of court.
Douglas C. Miller, 37, contempt of court.
Gary Joe Meriweather, 38, probation violation.
Justin Lee Foss, 28, probation violation.
Brett Allan Hamilton, 27, probation violation.
Corey Thomas Mallard, 45, non-payment of fines; no registration receipt or plates; no insurance; no insurance card.
Gary Brent Weatherford, 45, possession of marijuana; violation of a Kentucky protective order.
Daniel Glen Wilson, 43, flagrant non-support.


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Myanmar is burning. The military offensive against the Rohingyas in northwest Myanmar has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, fleeing from torture and death at the hands of the Burmese military. The rhetoric of the Burmese government stokes anti-Muslim sentiment while Rohingya refugee camps serve as potential recruitment spots for Islamist extremists. The entire conflict undermines the principles of human rights and democracy and is creating massive security risks for Southeast Asia and the world at large. The United States should take immediate and decisive action to halt the violence and reduce the suffering of the Rohingyas.
The conflict started when Rohingya militants attacked police posts in the Rakhine region on the 25th of August this year. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 12 security personnel, sparking a crackdown in the region by the Burmese military. Amnesty International reports that the Burmese military has undertaken an 'orchestrated and systematic campaign' to drive out or murder the Rohingyas and destroy their villages. Over 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since. Local reports highlight occurrences of torture, killings, gang rapes, arson and other grave human rights violations against the Rohingyas at the hands of the Burmese military and allied mobs. The Burmese government, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have been silent in the face of the military action in the Rakhine state.
In 2011, Myanmar began the process toward a long-awaited transition to democracy from a military dictatorship of over six decades. In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the state elections and formed the first civilian-led government since 1962. The position of President is held by Htin Kyaw, but Aung San Suu Kyi made clear her role as the de facto leader of Myanmar. Suu Kyi holds the title of 'state counsellor' as the Burmese constitution prevents her from ever becoming president. Despite the enormous effort toward democratization, the Burmese government remains overshadowed by the influence and power of the repressive military.
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi may essentially be president, but the military is the real center of power.
The United States revived diplomatic ties with Myanmar in 2012, following its transition to democracy. The strategy employed was of acknowledging steps toward democratization and incentivizing further reform via economic assistance. However, this policy has failed to establish meaningful dialogue with the Burmese military leadership or Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader, over the question of repression of the Rohingyas.
The United States should publicly condemn state inaction in Myanmar. It should urge the United Nations to institute travel bans on military officials responsible for the violence, freeze their assets, and institute a comprehensive arms embargo against the Burmese military. The United States should use this pressure to negotiate with the Burmese government to open channels of humanitarian aid to the conflict areas and to stop the use of antipersonnel landmines at key border crossings between Myanmar and Bangladesh. The United States should also be prepared to cut off all economic assistance to Myanmar in case an arms embargo fails to materialize or is not an effective deterrent.
Targeted sanctions against the Burmese military officials will be a personal motivator to stop the military offensive in the region. International actors such as the EU and UN can sanction the military to give the civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, room to take decisive action to stop the violence and to open channels for humanitarian aid to reach the afflicted regions. These steps will help suppress the influence and power of the military, something that has constantly threatened the young democracy in Myanmar.
The violence against the Rohingyas must be stopped, not only because of overwhelming moral concerns, but also for strategic reasons. In its years of isolation from the world, Myanmar maintained strong economic, military and diplomatic ties with North Korea. Myanmar also has robust trade relations with Russia and China and has allowed China to establish military presence in the country, a move which gives China better access and control over the Indian Ocean. As the United States strengthens ties with India to counter Chinese and North Korean influence, it must make inroads with the Burmese civilian government to help shift the balance in the United States's favor.
Myanmarese politician Shwe Mann led a delegation to North Korea in 2008.
If China and Russia oppose sanctions and a trade embargo against Myanmar, the United States has the option of stopping all financial aid. The United States can stop all investment into the Burmese economy and re-impose all previous sanctions, while also requesting that European Union states and other allies institute similar policies. Curtailing investments and imposing sanctions on Myanmar could adversely impact its fragile economy. Myanmar is adjusting to a recently opened economy making it vulnerable to changes in investments flowing into the country.
Although the violence in Myanmar is concentrated to a small geographical region, the most worrying consequence of the Rohingya crisis is that the displaced and marginalized people, especially the youth, could easily be proselytized into joining extremist Islamist groups. The Taliban, ISIS, and other extremist organizations have exploited fragile borders and conflicts in the past to recruit for their militias. Terrorized, battered, and desperate for hope, the Rohingyas would be vulnerable to extremist recruitment if they see association with an extremist group as the price to pay for a full stomach and security.
The United States cannot risk further escalation of the conflict in Myanmar. The moral and strategic reasons are compelling. Immediate and decisive action against the Burmese state and military is necessary to halt the violence and facilitate steps toward resolution of the conflict. These actions will strengthen the U.S. credibility in Southeast Asia and strengthen regional stability and security. These actions will demonstrate our commitment to democracy and human rights and offer the Rohingyas relief, hope, and the opportunity to live a life of dignity.
* * *
Priyadarshini Rakh is a first year Master's student in the MAIA program at the Elliott School of International Affairs. She studied Political Science, Economics, and Law at Symbiosis International University in Pune, India. At Elliott, her focus is conflict and development in South Asia.


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Tag Archives: crafts
Puzzle of December 15, 2009
Knit by synecdochic, based on a design by Brooklyn Tweed.
Posted in Puzzles | Also tagged colors, textiles | Leave a comment
Puzzle of December 13, 2009
The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, Moraga Street between 15th and 16th Avenues.
Posted in Puzzles | Also tagged architecture, tile, urban | Leave a comment
Book of November 17, 2009
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Before the agricultural revolution, there was the String Revolution: how and why women invented textiles, and why textiles are quintessential women's work.
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Puzzle of November 14, 2009
Crocheted Flu Virus, by Anita Bruce.
Puzzle of October 26, 2009
A "peasant painting" from Fengjing, a suburb of Shanghai. These developed out of regional folk art and craft tradtions, but have become a local industry in recent decades. Source: Boxing Dragons.
Puzzle of October 23, 2009
Yarns and knits at Dancing Leaf Farm.
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In 2002, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops rolled out a plan: they were going to reach out to survivors, remove abusive priests, allow independent lay people to review abuse, and miraculously transform the church into a safe haven for children and vulnerable people. They were going to do it all through self-reporting, self-auditing and transparency.
Little did we know how calculated the sham really was.
In short, the Bishops have used and continue to use their lay people as political and public pawns to protect the clerical power structure. How do they do this? The cunning Bishops have given lay people auspicious titles and duties, but denied them access to priest personnel files and removed any authority they could have to protect children. Bishops made these lay people ultimately accountable, but gave them no power.
The Bishops' grand plan has played out in four distinct modes of tactical deception: National Review Board, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The Gavin Group, and diminishing enforcement.
The National Review Board
After the Dallas 2002 USCCB meeting, even some critics believed a real metanoia had occurred. People hoped that the Bishops had experienced true shame and actually wanted reform and change. That repentance and change of heart was to be embodied in the National Review Board and former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating.
Keating, who is also a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor, soon realized that he was being played the fool. He publicly blasted the Bishops acting more like La Cosa Nostra than a moral religious authority: "To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my church."
Since Keating's public resignation from the board, the National Review Board membership has done little, if anything, to force the Bishops to adhere to the law, their own reforms or common moral decency.
The John Jay Study
In another crafty tactic by the Bishops, they hired the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York to conduct a "study." Competent and world renown as the college is, John Jay was utterly dependent upon the information each Bishop decided to give them. You can review the 2004 study here.
The study was nothing more than a third-party rehash of only the information that the USCCB wanted to be publicly disseminated. Confused? Think of it this way: imagine a police detective is investigating a murder. Then, imagine that the only evidence the detective can examine is the evidence that the murderer himself freely turns over.
Now you understand how the Bishops work.
The Gavin Group
One of the bishops' most cunning moves of all? Hiring the Gavin Group to conduct annual "audits" of child sex abuse prevention policies in individual dioceses.
For those of us in the real world, an audit is when an independent third party is allowed to freely comb through records, accounts, data and witnesses. Think IRS. Audits by definition are intrusive and force an individual or corporation to be transparent and accountable. In fact, an annual audit of the US Catholic Church makes sense: in 1971, church assets in the US were valued at $34 billion dollars. Through its education and other programs, the Catholic Church impacts the lives of every citizen. (See James Gollin, "Worldly Goods").
However, the Gavin Group's annual "audits" are conducted in a manner stunningly similar to the John Jay Study. William A. Gavin admitted as much just a few weeks ago: "We didn't have the benefit of drilling down into personnel files to see what might be there," Gavin says. "They were off limits."
The Bishops ONLY give the Gavin Group what the Bishops want the public to know. And that's what the USCCB calls transparency.
In the meantime, we learned that the Philadelphia Grand Jury found 37 alleged perpetrators in ministry – the same Archdiocese of Philadelphia that PASSED the Gavin Group audit every year.
Diminishing Enforcement
In 2011, nine years after the Dallas meeting and 26 years after the Collegeville meeting, the fourth prong of the deception policy is now in full gear: diminishing enforcement. Instead of increasing participation and compliance with the Bishops' own policies, we hear that 55 Catholic Dioceses and Eparchies received "Management letters" from the Gavin Group. The bishops are getting bored and complacent and can't even keep up their own charade of compliance.
Not only that, but according to Mary Jane Doerr, associate director of the secretariat of child and youth protection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, THEY WON'T TELL US WHICH 55 DIOCESES ARE NOT IN COMPLIANCE. Some of the problems include (taken from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune):
—Allowing clergy who had been barred from ministry to lead public prayers
—Downsizing local child safety offices, partly due to the recession, leaving key tasks undone
—Failing to meet with leaders of all religious orders that have priests working in a diocese
—Not checking whether safeguards were in place on the parish level, despite a directive since 2006 to do so
—Failing to collect written notice from parents who decide to keep their children from abuse prevention training
What does it mean when the Bishops can't even play along with their own cover-up? It means that men like William Donohue of the Catholic League have to publish full-page ads in the New York Times to try and point fingers at everybody else.
Until recently, the deception has been quite successful. One only needs to look at the careers of Cardinals Bevilaqua, Law, Mahony, Levada, George, and McCarrick to see how abusers and enablers can continue to remain above the law. These Bishops were the men who had the final say about molesting priests. Through artful deception, they manipulated lay people and secular organizations to do their dirty work and secularly bless the cover-up.
The tide is changing, however, and three Philadelphia grand juries are leading the way. Laity groups across the country and the globe are beginning to see through the façade. And as they were used, the laity will now use law enforcement to finally demand accountability. Time and statutes of limitations are not always on the Bishops side.


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What\'s on
THE Casey Choir invites the public to join them for their concert, featuring a new program of songs including songs from musical theatre including All That Jazz from Chicago and American spiritual songs. The Melbourne Mandolin Orchestra will be guests on the night. An afternoon tea will be served following the concert.
– Hillcrest Christian College Theatre, 500 Soldiers Road, Clyde North. Sunday 23 August, at 2pm. Entrance through gate three. Tickets available online. Visit: www.trybooking.com/145596 or at the door. Cost: Adults $25, concession $20, under-12 free.
Book launch
FROM 'Genocide to Generosity' is a book of stories about healing and forgiveness by victims and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. It touches on sanity and hope in a fearful world.
– 27 Childers Street, Cranbourne. Tuesday 25 August, 3.45pm to 4.45pm. RSVP by 20 August.
Cost: Free. Signed copies of the book will be sold at $20. Contact: St John's Office. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Website: http://www.2live4give.org Telephone: 5995 9364
Intro to Photoshop
A COURSE designed to teach photographers basic photographic editing skills. The introductory course will include adjusting and enhancing photos as well as removing and moving parts, adding borders and type and stitching panoramas. Students must have basic computer skills to enrol in this course.
– Balla Balla Community Centre Building 03, 65 Berwick Cranbourne Road, Cranbourne East. Thursday 27 August for four weeks, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Cost: $100. Bookings essential, phone: 5990 0900.
Native plant sale
ATTRACTING more than 1000 visitors every year, the Wilson Park Berwick Branch of the Australian Plants Society is holding its 17th annual native plant sale and this year has expanded its coverage to include bush foods, wood working, quilting, food stalls, kids craft activities, a specialist book stall, native flower display, raffles and a guessing competition.
– Wilson Botanic Park, 668 Princes Highway, Berwick. Saturday 5 September, 9am to 4pm. For more information visit: www.apswilsonparkberwick.org.au
Cirque Africa
Having toured the globe for eight years and performed in Hollywood and for Dolly Parton in France, the new show will tour Australia and New Zealand for the next two years.
The 90-minute performance combines acrobatics, theatre, song and dance and Mr Berman said it is a great celebration of African culture.
The cast will be dressed in more than 200 bespoke African costumes and will be joined by an eight-piece live band.
– Marriot Waters Shopping Centre, Thompsons Road and Marriott Boulevard, Lyndhurst. Friday 24 July until Sunday 23 August. To book tickets visit www.cirqueafrica.com.au
Netball competition
JOIN the Cranbourne Indoor Sports netball open mix, open women's and under-18 ladies competition and be in the running to win.
The tournament needs a minimum of 10 teams to run and the winning team will receive $500. The runner-up will win $250.
– 14 Smethurst Street, Cranbourne. Register by Sunday 20 September for the competition on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September. Phone 5996 5411. Team entry costs $150.
Indoor bowls
JOIN in on the fun at the Casey Indoor Sports Centre. Tea, coffee, bowls, prizes and coaching is available.
– Casey Indoor Sports Centre, New Holland Drive, Cranbourne. Fridays 10am to noon. A first day fee of $5 applies per person. For more information phone Ron on 5990 9048 or 0411 126 946.
Portrait show
A COLLECTION of portraits and art are now on display.
The City of Casey is hosting an exhibition called Unique Identity by Casey resident Surya Murali and portraits by Stacey Chan and Hong Xu. Mr Murali's works feature portraits of prominent individuals including the City of Casey's namesake Lord Casey, Nobel Prize winners Madame Curie and Howard Florey, well-known Indigenous Australian, inventor and writer David Unaipon and Louis Braille, who invented the Braille system of reading and writing for those who are blind or visually impaired.
– Civic Centre Art Space in the Customer Service area at the City of Casey Civic Centre, Magid Drive, Narre Warren. Open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday until 21 August. For more information, including upcoming exhibitions, visit www.casey.vic.gov.au/artspace
Hand sewing workshop
JOIN acclaimed textile artist Leesa Chandler and her team, who are holding a week-long series of workshops exploring the art of hand sewing and stitchery techniques.
There will be a pop-up design studio, sewing studio and shop with workshops run by Leesa.
Suitable for people with some experience in sewing.
– Corner of Ballarto Road and Botanic Drive, Cranbourne, off South Gippsland Highway. Meet at the Visitor Centre, 10am to noon and 1.30pm to 3.30pm on Tuesday 18 August and Sunday 23 August.
Mental health
GROW is offering a unique 12-step recovery focused program to those suffering from stress, anxiety, depression and other emotional difficulties.
Gold coin donation appreciated.
– The Berwick Group meets at the Berwick Neighbourhood Centre, 112 High Street, Berwick, on Wednesdays at 10am. Contact the GROW Community Centre on 1800 558 268 or visit www.grow.net.au for more information.
Free hearing tests
BETTER Hearing Australia will offer free consultations and hearing tests in Lynbrook to help people who suffer from hearing loss to better manage their condition.
The not-for-profit organisation provides hearing tests, hearing screenings, understanding hearing test results and advice on managing hearing loss or tinnitus.
Better Hearing Australia (Vic) also runs the Victorian Hearing Aid Bank where eligible people can access free hearing aids.
– Lynbrook Community Centre, corner Lynbrook Boulevard and Harris Street, from 9.30am to 4.30pm on 6 August, 3 September, 1 October, 5 November and 3 December. For further information contact Better Hearing Australia on 1300 242 842 or visit www.betterhearing.org.au
Walk the centre
CRANBOURNE Park offers health walks where participants are taken by a qualified instructor from the YMCA.
Registrations can be taken on the day and participants are encouraged to wear loose fitting clothes and comfortable walking shoes.
– Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.40am in the fresh food area and the walk finishes at 8.45am.
Bowls and bingo
HALLAM Senior Citizens Centre is open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and offers carpet bowls, bingo, games, clubroom events and day tours.
New members are welcome.
– 4 Princess Domain Drive, Hallam. For more information contact president Paul Lorenzo on 9703 1068 or secretary Dorothy Mickelson on 9796 7580.
Indoor bowls
ENJOY an indoor full size regulation bowls day with all bowls supplied and coaching for beginners along with a cup of tea afterward.
– Casey Indoor Sports Centre, 65 Berwick-Cranbourne Road. Friday mornings 10am to noon. No charge on first day. Phone Ron on 5990 9048 or 0411 126 946 for more details.
Park run
PARTICIPATE with more than 100 others in a free five-kilometre timed event every Saturday morning.
The event caters for serious runners and for those wanting a jog or even a walk.
– Saturdays at 8am at Berwick Springs, visit the Berwick Springs Parkrun website for more information.


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Board of Trustees Approves Freedom of Expression Philosophy
By Benjamin Pontz, Managing News Editor
Almost a year to the day after Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, spoke on campus, sparking debate over whether the college should impose limits on institutional freedom of expression and prompting President Janet Morgan Riggs to charge a panel to explore the issue and draft a statement of institutional philosophy, the Gettysburg College Board of Trustees approved that statement at its final meeting of the year last weekend.
The Trustees' decision comes after the faculty and Student Senate ratified the statement by large margins, and, with the approval of all three groups, the college has now officially adopted it as its statement of institutional philosophy on freedom of expression.
Since last October, Dr. Jennifer Bloomquist, Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Dean of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Programs, led a committee that Riggs charged to hold conversations about freedom of expression and then to draft a statement of institutional philosophy that would provide context and guide future decision-making around the issue.
Bloomquist said Friday that the strong support from each of the three constituencies is affirming to the process her committee undertook.
"That tells me that even though the process was long, it was thorough and meaningful. I am happy that we saw overwhelming support of the final draft from campus stakeholders," she said. "Looking back, I am thankful that I was asked to lead the effort and I feel that I learned so much from the work we all did. I am especially impressed with the time and energy put in by some of our students in particular. The discussion of the philosophy fostered conversations within and across different groups on campus that otherwise might not have happened so I'm grateful we all had that opportunity."View Fullscreen
Bloomquist was pleased with the engagement of the campus community around the issue, but she said that she wished there was a "more inclusive voting mechanism" for those on campus who were able to participate in discussion, but were not represented by one of the three groups that ultimately ratified the statement.
With the new philosophy in tow, the Student Life Committee and other organs of College Life will review college policies to ensure they are in alignment with the statement. The only revision to the statement after it was initially released to the campus struck a clause that said the college may seek to restrict speech that violates college policy; the drafting committee noted that the college had promised a review of existing policy in light of the new statement and did not want to implicitly endorse such policies by including the clause.
Moving forward, Bloomquist hopes that this statement will not mark the end of conversations about freedom of expression.
"I would also like to see continuing discussions across campus about the free expression of ideas," she said, "and am hoping that we will continue to think about the ways in which we can better support civil discourse here on campus."


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Beyond cardiac surgery: the expanded education of a false god
Medicine speaks a universal language. Commonalities of health and disease defined by the human genome transcend acquired cultural differences, produce predictable consequences, and permit the restoration of balance and harmony with the application of evidence-based restorative or curative techniques. Unique to this process is the gratification and sense of well-being enjoyed by the practitioner as well as the patient.
From the practitioner's viewpoint, the delivery of cardiovascular surgical care requires the synthesis of multiple disciplines acting in concert to create a carefully orchestrated sequence of events that, like the notes of a symphony played by a union of diverse instruments, flow to an inevitable conclusion. From the patients' viewpoint, though they appreciate the years of training, the hours of practice, even the inevitable failures that have brought predictability to our ministrations, they wish to be spared technical details when placing their lives in the hands of a stranger. They do not relish details of the clamping, stitching, and rummaging about their insides. Consider the feelings engendered during an interim visit to the mechanic who has disassembled a prized classic car for a repair. With assorted nuts, bolts, and springs scattered over an oil-slicked floor, the owner despairs that anyone could possibly re-assemble it. All that matters is that the car returns in a fully functional state, looking as it did when it first arrived in the repair shop. Similarly, when reading a book, no one, unless a philologist wants to wade through the cuts, pastes, and strikethroughs that result in an exquisitely turned phrase such as Helen Macdonald's insight that "grief is love with nowhere to go". After a performance of "The Phantom of the Opera", I had the opportunity to see backstage how its spectacular stage effects had been achieved, but declined. Seeing the ropes and pulleys that allowed the candelabras to rise through the mist overlying the lagoon in the bowels of the Paris Opera House would have destroyed the magical effects I still retain of that scene from more than 20 years ago. Had I been a student of theater arts, I would have jumped at the opportunity. As an audience member, however, I didn't want to know how it had been done. So it is with our patients. The frightened patient simply needs the reassurance that his/her condition has been corrected. Indeed, after the psychological and physical discomforts of a procedure have been forgotten, all that remains is the scar. As thoracic surgical pioneer Richard Overholt once said, "You have to take special care with the incision. It is all the patient will see. Your incision is your signature".
I majored in art history in college, specializing in Chinese landscape painting of the Sung Dynasty while taking pre-medical courses. I never considered earning a living in the arts. The chance of establishing a major career in the art world by discovering a multi-million dollar purchase by a major museum to be a fake was remote. I knew that I wanted to help people in distress and ease their suffering, but had no idea whether to do it as an internist or a surgeon. Nor did I realize at the time that surgery is as much of an art form as it is a technical skill. I realized, however, that I would be spending a lifetime in the clutches of that jealous mistress, medicine, with little time for anything else. I was also aware that each patient brought a personal set of life experiences along with his illness and that I could be a better physician by being able to relate to them. I also knew that when I started down the other side of the hill and either did not want, or was unable, to engage in medical practice, that I would be better served by having something creative to fall back upon.
The humanities are in my family genes. My father was a professor of English and journalism and Vice Dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Other immediate family members have distinguished themselves in the literary and theater arts. In the family tradition, I published a medical thriller on the organ donor shortage ("The Donation") (1), a textbook on complications in cardiac surgery ("Near Misses in Cardiac Surgery") (2), as well as abstracts, research papers, and book chapters during a 40-year career, the latest a report on a new technique for the repair of ventricular rupture following mitral valve replacement (3). Sometime during those years, I learned how to needlepoint detailed landscapes and portraits, each piece requiring up to 160,000 stitches or more. This improved my hand-eye coordination, eliminated hesitation, and facilitated my accurate placement of stitches with a single pass. Needlepointing thus became a bridge between surgery as an art form and art itself.
Recently retired from Cardiac Surgery, I am President of the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra. In addition, in collaboration with composer-conductor Victoria Bond (www.victoriabond.com), I have written four librettos to accompany her orchestral works, each of which is a presidential portrait similar to the "Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland, three of which have been performed professionally. Already familiar with anatomy, I have studied modeling techniques with a sculptor. Finally, having been introduced to the Point Lobos State Reserve near Carmel, California, and Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, sites of some of the most beautiful seascapes and sandscapes in the world, I have evolved into a fine art photographer.
Surgery and photography are lonely professions. As surgeons, although we depend upon a large team of people acting in concert to achieve a desired outcome, it is a solitary, deeply personalized effort. We obsess with detail. It is not only that our procedures require magnification loupes. We obsess over the depth of a stitch, the spacing between stitches, whether or not it caught the back wall of an artery, dooming it to closure. We learn through painful experience to resist the temptation to say "it will probably be all right" if a stitch is not as perfect as possible. It is so much easier to replace a questionable stitch than spend a sleepless night worrying whether or not a patient's artery will remain open until morning. Frequently, these are concerns known only to the surgeon. In fine art photography, there is a similar loneliness and preoccupation with detail. It involves the selection of the scene, what part of the scene upon which to focus, which lens to use, and other myriad variables such as aperture, shutter speed, "film" speed, single or rapid sequence shooting, mirror up or mirror down technique, all of which invariably require re-adjustment during a shoot. Photography also requires knowing in advance where in the sky the sun will be at a specific time in the various seasons, when it will rise or set, whether the tide will be in or out, or the moves a great blue heron will make just before taking off. A photographer not familiar with local conditions requires many tedious hours to learn such details. Photography is replete with the regret of not having waited just a little longer, or not having stopped one's travels, to capture a fleeting instant otherwise lost forever. To avoid inconveniencing, annoying, or boring others, therefore, most of my photography trips are solitary.
It is difficult to take a bad picture in Big Sur amidst such entrancing beauty. Starting with postcard snapshots using a point-and-shoot camera, I asked myself, as scientist and artist, what imparted such beauty to these scenes? I began to crop areas of interest characterized by bright colors or unusual patterns. Graduating to more sophisticated photographic equipment (Nikon D810, Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) that amplified the resolution of my images, I more clearly discerned the secrets of nature's techniques and her palette of colors painted with broad strokes, trailing wisps, evocative veils, impressionist dabs, pointillist dots, random splashes, cubist lines, and contorted angles—what master painters had somehow discovered with their own eyes. Without powerful lenses, artists from Renoir to Rothko had identified this palette and devised transformative ways of interpreting what they saw and felt. The art of these masters were exquisite demonstrations of art imitating life. After some years, I learned to view an ordinary ocean panorama with a more educated eye. I searched for special patterns in a small area of open sea caused by vagaries of the wind, current, and waves, then captured it primarily without having to lose image quality by cropping from a larger image. In addition, I began to learn what the camera itself was going to see, for there are details seen by the camera invisible to the naked eye, even to a master painter, situated 75 yards away atop a cliff 50 feet above the water's surface. With my camera, I discovered life imitating art. In the process, I learned not only to look, but to see.
Like surgical training, this was not a painless process (I have never forgotten breaking the purse string during my first appendectomy one sweltering August night at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, USA). I found prized images ruined by not appreciating, for example, the importance of depth of field, especially if the camera lens was not perpendicular to the subject but, rather, angled downward from a cliff top. This resulted in blurring of the foreground with a focused background, or vice versa. I learned to increase the depth of field in subsequent outings by using smaller apertures. I encountered a similar depth of field problem with macrophotography and ameliorated it by increasing the distance slightly between the camera and the subject.
Other than adding a polarizing effect to remove glare from water shots, or an occasional adjustment of black point, white balance, or exposure, I employ minimal manipulations in the digital darkroom, unless I want to create a specific "artistic" effect. "Photoshopping", in my view, is frequently intrusive and overdone. Inserting the image of a polar bear walking down the snow-covered steps of the New York City Public Library is an inventive but obvious fabrication. While I recognize that "photoshopping" is an art form itself, such photography is as concerned with, even overwhelmed by, the shock value of the means, rather than the end itself. Like the candelabras rising through the mist from the lagoon under the Paris Opera House, I prefer to achieve an end with the means not readily apparent.
As most of my images are abstractions, I view each of them upside down, right-side up, or on either side, as a test of the integrity of the composition and the balance of the color fields. Figure 1A is an image of water in a narrow inlet with high rock walls on either side. It is dusk. The sun is to the left of the image. The black areas are shadows of rock on the swells, the white is residual sunlight on the swells, and the light green area is sand on the bottom. Rotating this image 90 degrees counterclockwise (Figure 1B), I still saw a coherent image but, struck by its resemblance to pine trees silhouetted by the Northern Lights, decided to name it "Aurora Borealis". By receiving a name, this abstraction acquired an additional depth of significance. The beauty of the naming process is that individual viewers can interpret the same image in totally different, and equally valid, ways.
Figure 2 is an image of a small patch of open sea about 100 yards away from where I stood, 50 feet above the water's surface. As in the previous image, there was a chill in the air as it was dusk with a gentle wind blowing. Originally taken horizontally (90 degrees clockwise from the orientation shown), when rotated to its present position I interpreted the light on the main swell to be the Milky Way and the light reflected from the kelp in the water to be stars in the universe. I entitled it "Cosmos". An astrophotographer, looking at this image while it was on exhibit at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California and referring to the French astronomer Charles Messier [1730–1817], thought "M.111" a more appropriate title, a reference that would be understood only to cognoscenti aware that Messier had identified 110 major celestial objects during his career. In the astrophotographer's eye, "Cosmos" had become Messier's 111th.
On occasion I have been unable to resist a bit of photographic manipulation for art's sake. Figure 3 contains mirror images of a cropping taken from a larger photograph that had remarkable color and clarity, but was not a balanced composition. This image is from the same body of water seen in Figure 2 but fifty yards to the east with the sun high in the sky. The golden colors are reflections of rock walls on the opposite shore. The blue represents a deep crevice in the rock wall. Title? Perhaps "Rising Curtain", "Falling Curtain", or if imagined as the dessicated skull of a large animal long dead on a desert floor, "A Tribute to Georgia O'Keefe".
Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California is known as the "purple beach" because of its manganese garnet sand (purple), along with basalt (black) and quartz (off-white), all visible in Figure 4.
Waves from the Pacific Ocean continuously wash over this beach creating infinity of different patterns. On this day, the tide was partially in, and I had time to set up and capture this image mere seconds before a wave washed up and obliterated it forever. I call it "Lift-off", a paean to space travel. Much of photography is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Figure 5 is another image from Pfeiffer Beach. On this day, no manganese garnet was visible, only basalt and quartz. I, therefore, rendered this image in pure black and white and called it "Sand Castles".
There are numerous varieties of eucalyptus trees in southern California. In April, old bark detaches from the trunk to reveal the bright colors of new bark underneath. Figure 6 represents an area roughly 4 inches square on the trunk of Eucalyptus Dalrympleana, a species native to Australia. Entitled "Re-entry," the image suggested to me a man-made object or a meteor burning up in the earth's atmosphere, leaving a fiery trail and bits of debris in its wake.
Like images of expressionists or impressionists, my photography explores features of a scene that communicate its essence or life-force. Though nature does the painting, I try to see as painters did after photography obviated the need for journalistic representation, even to imagine what a painter like Monet might have done with a Nikon D810 instead of a brush. In doing so I have subordinated the reality of scenic photographs to abstractions, dominated by form, composition, balance, color, texture, and light.
This intellectualization of natural scenes produces images that provoke the viewer to assume an interpretive role, to give each image a personalized meaning, similar to the interpretive role of the photographer who decides what, and how, the camera will see. I use photography to create painterly images. Fashioned and altered by the elements, these images give permanence to the evanescent. In the process I have discovered how life imitates what we call art.
But how do the humanities relate to our work as physicians? As surgeons we spend our careers confronting realities of life and death. The patients think we are gods and wish us to be infallible, but we are only too aware of our weaknesses and shortcomings. We know we are false gods—that after the chess game the king and pawn return to the same box. The humanities provide us a necessary diversion from this harshness. We have art, Nietsche said, to save ourselves from the truth. Art is a pleasurable, even necessary, diversion from the truths we know as physicians.
But art has its own truths. The truths of artistic genius are a capacity for experimentation and perseverance, laboring under difficult emotional or physical circumstances to communicate a personalized vision of reality. The truths of my photographic efforts are that, though armed with a background knowledge of art history and the rudiments of photographic technique, it took many hikes along trails and beaches, in the wind, through sandstorms, in heat and cold, not only in the hopes of arriving in the right place at the right time but also to conjure a way to present otherwise ordinary subjects in an interpretive and personalized manner. In this sense, like Picasso's representations of disjointed figures that express psychological turmoil or the destructiveness of war, an artist's art is a lie. In any given instance, the artist selects only one from many techniques to render a perceived reality. So what can we conclude?
Art, whatever form it takes, provides challenge and pleasure to both the creator and the observer. But as Tolstoy observed, the "enjoyment lies in the search for the truth, not in finding it" (4). Oscar Wilde put it another way: "In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it" (5). Physicist Robert Hofstadter observed "man will never find the end of the trail" (6), or as Frankie Valli put it so poignantly in the Broadway musical, Jersey Boys, "I just keep going and going and going..chasing the music, trying to get home" (7). These epigrams apply to both artist and observer. We can conclude that life's universal truth is the process of becoming. Life's work, then, like a work of art, or staying abreast of the latest advances in surgery, is never finished, just abandoned for various reasons, leaving for those who follow us the fulfillment of assuming these splendid burdens themselves. In art, as in life, it is the journey that matters. Not the means. Not even the end. We are all fellow travelers on an endless journey, trying our best to get home.
Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
- Lee ME. The Donation. New York: iUniverse, 2008.
- Lee ME. Near Misses in Cardiac Surgery. New York: iUniverse, 2008.
- Lee ME, Tamboli M, Lee AW. Use of a sandwich technique to repair a left ventricular rupture after mitral valve replacement. Tex Heart Inst J 2014;41:195-7. [Crossref] [PubMed]
- Tolstoy L, Kent LJ, Berberova N. editors. Anna Karenina (Modern Library College Editions, The Modern Library). 2nd edition. New York: Random House, Inc., 1965:173.
- Wilde O. Lady Windermere's Fan in The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Boston: The Aldine Publishing Co., 1910:114.
- Hofstadter R. The Mind as Nature by Loren Eiseley. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1962:45.
- Brickman M, Ellice R. Jersey Boys. 2005. Available online: www.scribd.com/doc/254317918/Jersey-Boys-Script
Cite this article as: Lee M. Beyond cardiac surgery: the expanded education of a false god. J Vis Surg 2016;2:120.