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This is the weekly Q & A blog post by our Research Professor in Philosophy, Dr. William Lane Craig. This week's response is the third part of Dr. William Lane Craig's answer to a question that appeared in last week's Q & A blog post; you can view the first part of the response here and the second part of the response here.
Dr. Craig,
Thank you so much again for the spirited and great debates that you participate together with cosmologists. I have to say that I find this arena of Cosmology and God to be a very good ground to keep polishing primarily because when science proves a theory or finds very good evidence of it we come closer and closer to understanding more of that vast amount of matter and energy we can observe.
In any case I wanted to ask you about the latest debate with Sean Carroll. There were some strong points made in that debate that as a layman in cosmology make me want to seek further and further what are the theoretical physicists really saying on their theories. The media is not always clear on separating the cosmologist opinion/belief vs what their theory actually says without bias. So I went ahead and looked at Sean Carroll's post debate comments.
It seems to me that the objections that make me question the way the Kalam argument works as well as what the latest theories are showing vs cosmologists own opinion are Sean's answers to:
- First Premise of Kalam Argument (Aristotelean Causation). He digs deep onto Aristotelean analysis of causation being outdated.
- Boltzmann Brain problem. He mentions that the BB problem helps isolate those models of multiverses that are not tenable. So what about the models that do work?
- Fine Tuning. Sean mentions 5 points about Fine Tuning not being good argument for theism and he goes on and says that you did not respond to them. I understand that on your Q&A 49 you mentioned that the universe is fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life is a solid fact; so I get confused with what Sean says about "he didn't offer any suggestion that we actually do know the conditions under which life can and cannot form."
Anyways, I hope you can answer this questions for me and help me advance in my pursue to understand modern cosmology, its facts and its hopes. Also, will you also make contact with Allan Guth about the BVG theorem? I find it puzzling that the first one to say you were wrong about BVG was Dr. Krauss and then we saw your e-mail exchange with Valenking proving otherwise. It would be nice to see for us viewers what your interaction would be with Allan Guth, now that Sean Carroll is claiming you are mistaken in the interpretation of the theorem.
United States
Dr. William Lane Craig's Response
Now that the transcript of my debate with Sean Carroll is available, I am able to comment responsibly on the arguments offered in the debate. In last week's Q & A post and in the post the week before, I addressed Jahir's first and second questions respectively. Now I turn to his third question about the teleological argument from the fine-tuning of the universe.
Outline of the Argument
Here is an outline of my argument:
Teleological Argument
1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design.
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
2.1 Fine tuning is not due to Physical Necessity.
2.11 M-theory permits 10500 different universes with various values of the fundamental constants and quantities.
2.2 Fine tuning is not due to Chance.
2.21 Multiverse hypothesis (incl. Carroll's model) faces Boltzmann Brain problem.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.
The evidence of physical cosmology is relevant to the truth of premise (2), so that is where I spent my time.
Carroll had obviously come prepared with his five objections to the argument from fine-tuning. In a debate situation it is vital, given the time constraints, to determine which objections need to be answered and which may be safely ignored. In our debate I did not try to respond to every one of Carroll's objections but chose to respond only to those I deemed vital. So let's see how my argument fares in light of them. I'll skip my exposition in my opening speech and go straightaway to Carroll's objections.
First Objection: Denial of Fine-Tuning
Carroll says,
First, I am by no means convinced that there is a fine-tuning problem and, again, Dr. Craig offered no evidence for it. It is certainly true that if you change the parameters of nature our local conditions that we observe around us would change by a lot. I grant that quickly. I do not grant therefore life could not exist. I will start granting that once someone tells me the conditions under which life can exist. What is the definition of life, for example? If it's just information processing, thinking or something like that, there's a huge panoply of possibilities. They sound very "science fiction-y" but then again you're the one who is changing the parameters of the universe. The results are going to sound like they come from a science fiction novel. Sadly, we just don't know whether life could exist if the conditions of our universe were very different because we only see the universe that we see.
This first objection is actually an objection to premise (1). It does not offer an explanation of fine-tuning but rather denies that fine-tuning exists, so there is nothing to be explained.
Carroll's claim that I offered no evidence for the fact of fine-tuning is somewhat exaggerated. In my opening speech I said, "Scientists have been stunned by the discovery that the existence of intelligent, interactive life depends upon a complex and delicate balance of fundamental constants and quantities, like the gravitational constant and the amount of entropy in the early universe, which are fine-tuned to a degree that is literally incomprehensible." Here I explain what fine-tuning is, mention the attitude toward it which is widespread in the scientific community, and give an example of both a fundamental constant and an arbitrary quantity that exhibits fine-tuning. Carroll's complaint is that we cannot justifiably say that these constants and quantities are finely tuned because we don't know whether life would still exist were their values altered. The reason he gives for his skepticism is that we see only our universe, not others.
Most scientists are not persuaded by this flat denial of fine-tuning. Therefore, I did not want to waste time on this objection but wanted to get it out of the way quickly so that I could get on to more substantive matters. So in my second speech I simply said, "Here Dr. Carroll expresses skepticism that the fine-tuning is real. But a good many, if not most, of his colleagues would simply disagree with him here. Luke Barnes provides a list of just some of the scientists who have published works in defense of the reality of fine-tuning," and then I gave Barnes' impressive list: Barrow, Carr, Carter, Davies, Dawkins, Deutsch, Ellis, Greene, Guth, Harrison, Hawking, Linde, Page, Penrose, Polkinghorne, Rees, Sandage, Smolin, Susskind, Tegmark, Tipler, Vilenkin, Weinberg, Wheeler, Wilczek.[1] The point is that if Carroll wants to deny the fact of fine-tuning, then his bone to pick is not with me but with his colleagues, several of whom are even more eminent in the field.
Then I pointed out that Carroll himself recognizes the fact of fine-tuning, for he points to the universe's low entropy condition as "an uncomfortable fine-tuning problem" which he tries to explain. Carroll later characterizes my response as a clever "got cha!" move, but it is not that at all. The point rather is, as I explain, that Carroll goes to enormous lengths to explain away the fine-tuning via the World Ensemble, or multiverse, hypothesis. That is to concede the truth of premise (1) and dispute instead the truth of premise (2) by defending the alternative of chance. Carroll will later respond to my point by saying that the fine-tuning in the case of entropy is not for life: life could exist even if the entropy were not so low. What he means by this, I think, is that our local patch of order could be surrounded by a sea of relatively high entropy. This issue comes up again when we get to the question why God would create a universe with an unnecessarily low entropy. So we'll return to that issue momentarily.
Consider now Carroll's counter-response to my reply in his second speech:
Dr. Craig brings up the point that people disagree with me. It is true. I attempted to give an argument and not merely an opinion poll. If we're allowed to take opinion polls, I will poll my fellow cosmologists on whether God had anything to do with creating the universe, and I will win by a landslide. I suspect that Dr. Craig thinks the majority of the opinions of cosmologists is important for some issues but not for others.
This is a silly response. Of course, the opinions of cosmologists are important for some issues but not for others! For they are experts on some questions and not on others. Specifically, they are experts on cosmology and so may speak with some authority to the issue of the reality of fine-tuning; but they are anything but expert when it comes to theology and philosophy (as cosmologists like Krauss and Hawking have made painfully clear). So the fact that fine-tuning is widely recognized as a fact by scientists, even those who deny that God had anything to do with creating the universe, is important expert testimonial evidence for the reality of fine-tuning.
Carroll did give an argument, it's true, to which I did not respond, namely, that we don't know if life would exist were the fundamental constants and quantities to be appreciably changed, since we can observe only our universe. But this argument is easy to answer: because fine-tuning concerns only worlds governed by the same laws of nature as ours, but with different values of the constants and quantities, scientists can predict fairly reliably what would happen if those values were to be changed. The results would be catastrophic. In the absence of fine-tuning there wouldn't even be chemistry, there wouldn't even be matter, much less stars and planets where life might evolve. By life, scientists mean that property of organisms to take in food, extract energy from it, grow, adapt, and reproduce. And the point is that in order to permit life so-defined the constants and quantities of the universe have to be incomprehensibly fine-tuned. That's why fine-tuning is widely recognized as a fact of nature. I'm content to rest my case there, but if you want empirical evidence of the reality of fine-tuning take a look at the abundant resources on the topic.[2]
Second Objection: God Doesn't Need Fine-Tuning
Carroll's second objection is very curious. He says,
Secondly, God doesn't need to fine-tune anything. We talk about the parameters of physics and cosmology: the mass of the election, the strength of gravity. And we say if they weren't the numbers that they were, then life itself could not exist. That really underestimates God by a lot, which is surprising from theists, I think. In theism, life is not purely physical. It's not purely a collection of atoms doing things like it is in naturalism. I would think that no matter what the atoms were doing God could still create life. God doesn't care what the mass of the electron is. He can do what he wants. The only framework in which you can honestly say that the physical parameters of the universe must take on certain values in order for life to exist is naturalism.
Now what is this supposed to be an objection to? It is not a defense of physical necessity or chance, mentioned in premise (2). Initially, I thought that this was supposed to be an objection to the alternative of design, aimed at showing its implausibility. But then how is the objection supposed to work? Of course, the theist thinks that God could have miraculously sustained life or perhaps created a universe operating according to different laws of nature which were not fine-tuned. But how does that do anything to subvert the argument? When it is said that were the values of the constants and quantities found in nature to be altered, life would not exist, one is implicitly assuming ceteris paribus conditions—"all else being equal," that is to say, assuming no miraculous interventions take place. This is, after all, an argument aimed at showing the explanatory inadequacy of naturalism, not at showing that God could have created the universe in only one way.
So ironically, it seems that this objection is really an objection to premise (1): it's saying that the theist has more options than simply design. So perhaps we should add miracle to the list:
1*. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, design, or miracle.
Obviously, the inclusion of additional theistic options in premise (1) will be of no help whatsoever to the naturalist! So while I did not respond to this objection in the debate, it seems to me so lame that it can be safely ignored without detriment.
Third Objection: Denial of Fine-Tuning
Carroll's third objection is essentially a repeat of the first: fine-tuning is merely apparent not real. Carroll says,
The third point is that the fine-tunings you think are there might go away once you understand the universe better. They might only be apparent. There's a famous example theists like to give, or even cosmologists who haven't thought about it enough, that the expansion rate of the early universe is tuned to within 1 part in 1060. That's the naïve estimate, back of the envelope, pencil and paper you would do. But in this case you can do better. You can go into the equations of general relativity and there is a correct rigorous derivation of the probability. If you ask the same question using the correct equations you find that the probability is 1. All set of measure zero of early universe cosmologies have the right expansion rate to live for a long time and allow life to exist. I can't say that all parameters fit into that paradigm but until we know the answer we can't claim that they're definitely finely-tuned.
As already indicated, most scientists do not think that the fine-tuning is merely apparent and will disappear with the advance of physics. This conviction is based on two factors: first, the sheer multiplicity of instances of fine-tuning and, second, the independence of these instances from one another. Ernan McMullin, a prominent philosopher of science, concludes,
It seems safe to say that later theory, no matter how different it may be, will turn up approximately the same. . . numbers. And the numerous constraints that have to be imposed on these numbers. . . seem both too specific and too numerous to evaporate entirely. . . . A dozen or more constraints have been pointed out. . . . Might they all be replaced? . . . It surely seems a very long shot.[3]
The historical pattern has been than when fine-tuning is suppressed at one point, it only gets transferred somewhere else, rather like the stubborn bump in the carpet. For example, appeal to an inflationary era in the early universe to explain the fine-tuning of the universe's expansion rate merely shifts the fine-tuning to the primordial inflaton field and the coupling parameter linked to the density fluctuations that eventually became our galaxies.
Fourth Objection: Fine-tuning is the Result of Chance
All Carroll's objections thus far have been somewhat strained attempts to refute premise (1). But now he will defend chance as the best explanation of fine-tuning by appealing to a World Ensemble or multiverse in which our universe appears by chance. This is where the heart of the contemporary controversy over fine-tuning lies. Carroll explains,
Number four, there's an obvious and easy naturalistic explanation in the form of the cosmological multiverse. People like to worry about the multiverse. It sounds extravagant. I claim the multiverse is amazingly simple. It is not a theory, it is a prediction of physical theories that are themselves quite elegant, small, and self-contained that create universes after universes. There's no reason, no right that we have, to expect that the whole entire universe look like the conditions we have right now. But more importantly, if you take the multiverse as your starting point you can make predictions. We live in an ensemble and we should be able to predict the likelihoods that conditions around us take different forms.
As I explained in my opening speech, the multiverse explanation of fine-tuning depends crucially on two factors: (i) the existence of a specific type of World Ensemble and (ii) an observer self-selection effect. In the interests of time, I waived a discussion of (i) in order to focus on (ii).
Now as a professional cosmologist Carroll must be aware of how controversial each of these assumptions is, but he conceals this from our audience by his almost cavalier treatment of them. He tries to reduce the extravagance of assumption (i) by saying that it is a prediction of certain physical theories. This is disingenuous. It is not enough for a theory to predict a generic World Ensemble. That Ensemble must be sufficiently large to ensure that finely-tuned universes will appear in them by chance, which is far from obvious if the universe is temporally and spatially finite. Moreover, the worlds must be randomly ordered in both in their fundamental constants and physical quantities in order to ensure that our combination of constants and quantities will appear by chance. Most important, we must have some reason to think that the relevant theory predicting such a special Ensemble is true. But as George Ellis—whom cosmologist Tony Rothman once described to me as "the man who knows more about cosmology than any other man alive"—points out, there is no evidence at all that any such theory is true.[4] It is telling that Carroll passes over the question of what evidence there is in support of (i) in silence. "Obvious and easy," indeed!
As for assumption (ii), the observer self-selection effect turns out to be explanatorily vacuous in light of the Boltzmann Brain problem. We saw in last week's Q & A post Carroll's equally cavalier attempt to brush aside that problem.
Fifth Objection: Inadequacy of the Design Hypothesis
Carroll's last objection is deemed by him to be the most important:
Fifth, and most importantly, theism fails as an explanation. Even if you think the universe is finely-tuned and you don't think that naturalism can solve it, theism certainly does not solve it. If you thought it did, if you played the game honestly, what you would say is, "Here is the universe that I expect to exist under theism. I will compare it to the data and see if it fits." What kind of universe would we expect? I've claimed that over and over again the universe we would expect matches the predictions of naturalism not theism. So the amount of tuning, if you thought that the physical parameters of our universe were tuned in order to allow life to exist, you would expect enough tuning but not too much. Under naturalism, a physical mechanism could far over-tune by an incredibly large amount that has nothing to do with the existence of life and that is exactly what we observe. For example, the entropy of the early universe is much, much, much, much lower than it needs to be to allow for life. You would expect under theism that the particles and parameters of particle physics would be enough to allow life to exist and have some structure that was designed for some reason whereas under naturalism you'd expect them to be kind of random and a mess. Guess what? They are kind of random and a mess. You would expect, under theism, for life to play a special role in the universe. Under naturalism, you would expect life to be very insignificant. I hope I don't need to tell you that life is very insignificant as far as the universe is concerned.
In my opening speech, I concluded my discussion of the teleological argument with the caveat: "Therefore, we ought to prefer the hypothesis of design unless the design hypothesis can be shown to be just as implausible as its rivals. I'll leave it up to Professor Carroll to present any such objections." This fifth objection is precisely Carroll's attempt to do just that. Technically, his objection ought to be to the design hypothesis, not theism, since we have not concluded to theism but to a cosmic Designer. I should argue that theism is considerably more probable given the existence of a Creator and Designer of the universe than it would otherwise be, but that is an additional step in the argument. The question, then, is whether Carroll's objection makes the design hypothesis as implausible as the hypotheses of physical necessity or chance.
Carroll's objection is odd in a number of ways. For example, it is no part of the argument from fine-tuning to claim that every constant or quantity which nature exhibits is finely tuned, but just that enough of them are to make the probability of their all falling into the life-permitting range by chance practically impossible. So how is that argument in any way undermined by pointing to a quantity in the universe that is not finely tuned? It's hard to see the relevance. Moreover, it is not true that the values of the fundamental constants and quantities are "kind of random and a mess." They all fall into the life-permitting range. It's just that the life-permitting range of some is broader than it is for others. For example, gravity is fine-tuned to about 1/1031, the weak force to about 1/109, and the proton/neutron mass ratio to about 1/70. So what? So long as they are all life-permitting (or, better, permitting of embodied, conscious agents), what does it matter if the life-permitting range of entropy, for example, is much wider than that of gravity with respect to their assumable ranges? Furthermore, recall that Carroll thinks that the entropy of the universe is, in fact, fine-tuned, but not for life. That leaves it open that the entropy is fine-tuned by the cosmic Designer for something other than life. How will Carroll exclude that? How does he know that the Creator is not like an artist who likes to splash his canvas with extravagant colors and forms? Maybe Carroll's conception of God is just fundamentally wrong.
Carroll claims that if there were a divine Designer, then he would not have made the entropy of the universe so low as it is, since we could still exist in a higher entropy universe--for example, in an island of order in a sea of high entropy (rather like a Boltzmann Brain!). One might be justifiably skeptical about how Carroll knows what would be in the mind of the Creator of the universe--but leave that aside. Even granted the assumption (which is moot) that the Designer would not make the entropy of the universe lower than it needs to be, Carroll's argument gratuitously assumes that we on Earth are all the life there is and that the Designer could not have other ends in view in giving the universe its low entropy condition. So in response to Carroll, I replied in my rebuttal,
Dr. Carroll says that theism does no better in accounting for the low entropy condition of the universe. For why, he asks, did God make the entropy of the universe so unnecessarily low in order to create us? Well, I have two responses to this. First, it is no part of the fine-tuning argument to assert that the purpose for which the universe was created is us! There may well be intelligent life created by God scattered throughout the universe. But, secondly, as Robin Collins has pointed out, even if a general low entropy condition is not necessary for our existence, it is necessary for the discoverability of the universe. God hasn't given us an instruction manual about how the world works. But what he has done is make a world which is susceptible to rational exploration and discovery. And if God wanted to make a universe discoverable by embodied, conscious agents, he might well make it in such a low entropy condition.
My first response targets Carroll's claim: "The theistic explanation for cosmological fine-tuning asks you to look at this picture and say, 'I know why it is like that. It's because I was going to be here or we were going to be here.' But there is nothing in our experience of the universe that justifies the kind of flattering story we like to tell about ourselves." Carroll evidently misunderstands fine-tuning to entail that the object for which the universe is fine-tuned is the purpose of the universe. But that's not right. The universe is fine-tuned for zebras and flatworms as well as human beings, but that does not imply that the purpose for which the universe was created is flatworms! Fine-tuning is a neutral term indicating that the range of values which allows something to exist is exquisitely narrow compared to the range of assumable values. The question of why something is fine-tuned is another question, which the argument from fine-tuning does not address. Specifically, the argument does not claim that the universe is as it is because "we were going to be here." The Designer might have intended for life to exist at various places in the universe, which requires a general low entropy condition.
My second response targets a claim Carroll has elsewhere made that if God exists, then He would have given us Holy Scriptures containing scientific information about how the world works. What Collins' view suggests instead is that God wants us to discover those things ourselves and so has made a universe susceptible to scientific inquiry. That requires a general low entropy condition. The purpose of Holy Scripture is, more importantly, to make us wise unto salvation.
In his rebuttal Carroll fails to respond to these two points, as I point out in my closing statement. Rather he responds to something I said outside the context of the debate:
Now Dr. Craig said that we shouldn't expect to know things about the world simply because we say that God finely-tuned it. "Just because under theism," he says, "God made the parameters of the universe such to allow life to exist doesn't mean we can have any other expectation for predicting what those parameters are." This reflects something that he said on his website earlier. In a similar context he said, "Suppose God is more like the cosmic artist who wants to splash his canvas with the extravagance of design and who enjoys creating this fabulous cosmos designed with fantastic detail for observers." So, what this attitude is saying is that well, my point is that this is not some sort of sophisticated apologetic strategy. This is an admission of defeat. This is saying we should never expect theism to explain why the universe is one way rather than some other way. You know God—God is an artist. You know artists; they're kind of quirky and unpredictable. We can't expect to know what they're going to do ahead of time. Anything you might possibly observe about the universe, according to this view, I can explain as saying, "That is what God would have done."
This seems to get things exactly backwards. Consider the artist analogy. Finding a portrait of a person, we infer that it was painted by an artist. The pattern of colors is just too complex to be plausibly the result of chance. A skeptic points to a portion of the background which is slurry and says, "If this picture were painted by an artist, then we wouldn't expect him to have painted this background so indistinctly. It, too, should have been finely executed." We would be utterly unconvinced by such a claim, since the artist might well have reasons for having a blurred background. It is the objector who suffers the defeat of his objection.
Now does that mean that anything we might possibly observe on the canvas could justify the explanation, "This was done by an artist"? Of course not! Some works of modern art give no clue to having been the product of intelligent design. Looking at them, we might think, "That could have been executed by a chimpanzee." But maybe we are, in fact, looking at a Jackson Pollock, which was, indeed, painted by an artist with specific ends in mind. In such a case a design inference would not be justified, even if there were a designer. The problem is that an intelligent agent can deliberately mask his tracks and make something look accidental. This shows that the hypothesis of design can be verifiable even though it is not falsifiable. Carroll's point is that design of the universe cannot be falsified (which defeats his objection), but he wrongly concludes that we therefore cannot have good grounds for inferring design.
Summing Up
The bulk of our discussion concerning the teleological argument had to do with the Boltzmann Brain objection to the multiverse hypothesis, which I discussed in last week's Q & A post. Here we have considered Carroll's five objections to the argument from fine-tuning.
We saw that Carroll's first and third objections were essentially the same, namely, that the fine-tuning is merely apparent, not real. In response to this objection I simply rested my case on the majority view of scientists like Brandon Carter, Paul Davies, George Ellis, Roger Penrose, Martin Rees, and many others, that the universe is fine-tuned for intelligent life. To deny the fact of fine-tuning is really an act of desperation motivated, I suspect, by the naturalistic desire not to let a theist foot in the door.
The second objection I did not reply to. But it is so evidently misconceived that it plays no significant role in the debate over fine-tuning. It really amounts to nothing more than expanding the theistic explanatory options.
The fourth objection lay at the heart of our debate over fine-tuning. Carroll opts for the explanation of chance rather than physical necessity or design. In order to defend the alternative of chance, he recurs to the hypothesis of a World Ensemble or multiverse. So we are confronted with two competing metaphysical hypotheses for explaining fine-tuning: a World Ensemble or a Cosmic Designer. I explained that the World Ensemble hypothesis relies crucially on (i) the existence of a specific type of World Ensemble and (ii) an observer self-selection effect. Although I made no attempt to challenge (i), neither did Carroll provide any evidence for it. I strongly contested (ii), however, and as we saw in last week's QoW, Carroll failed to offer substantive, specific evidence in support of his appeal to it. So this objection is not only defeated, but with it falls the last ring of defense of the alternative of chance.
That leaves us with design as the best explanation, unless Carroll can show design to be as implausible as chance. He tried to do so by arguing that the excessively low entropy condition of the universe is improbable given design. But my two replies to this, namely, that life may be scattered throughout the universe and that the Cosmic Designer may have created the universe so as to be, not just habitable, but discoverable by created agents, seem to me very plausible and are in any case admitted by Carroll to defeat his objection. His complaint that this makes the design hypothesis unfalsifiable is of little consequence, since the crucial fact is its verifiability.
This post and other resources are available on Dr. William Lane Craig's website: www.reasonablefaith.org
Learn more about Dr. Craig's latest book, A Reasonable Response.
[1] L. A. Barnes, "The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life," Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 29 (2012): 529–564.
[2] E.g., John D. Barrow and Frank Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1986); John Leslie, Universes (London: Routledge, 1989); Martin Rees, Just Six Numbers (N. Y.: Basic Books, 1999); Robin Collins, "The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe," The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, Wm. L. Craig and J. P. Moreland (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009), pp. 202-81.
[3] Ernan McMullin, "Anthropic Explanation in Cosmology," at "God and Physical Cosmology," conference at the University of Notre Dame, 2003.
[4] George F. R. Ellis, "Does the Multiverse Really Exist?" Scientific American 305 (August 2011), pp. 38-43.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Ethnic, Social, and Political Tension in Cinema
Then there's the preachy Peasants in Distress (1994, pictured above), which features two brief kung fu scenes and a bizarre travelogue-ish coda. Authored by His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, its about jealousy and romance among Khmer rebel fighters and two peasants they encounter in the jungle. In it, handsome humanitarian rebel Cheyrith picks up cute peasant-girl Nit. But fellow rebel, and rival officer, Mân, a mean bastard and a genuine civilian-despising militant, doesn't like it, and sees to it that the romance is "tragically short-lived," as the video box copy puts it. (He even twirls his handgun after using it.)
I have no idea who or what this film was actually made for--Western audiences eager to see fictionalizations of problems that the UN has tried to address? Sufficiently un-humanitarian Cambodians? So I'm not really sure how it should be judged; it's an off-the-radar film for me, and I watched it for precisely that reason. Even so, I can't see how justified the film's moralizing is. Once again, we've got political differences--including unsavory political convictions and actions--reduced to character flaws. These sorts of films tell us that people who kill civilians for a cause are either deluded or bad people with any number of vices (smoking, arrogance, alcoholism...). Olaf Möller once icily identified this problem, in which films turn real political problems and disagreements into fiction fodder and personal psychology. (I don't have on hand the issue of Film Comment--at least I think it's in FC--where he wrote it, so no exact quote or citation at the moment.)
One can see this mentality on display in something like The Interpreter, too, Sydney Pollack's recent entertainment that's (kind of) smart and (kind of) has a conscience. For no good reason I can see, Sean Penn's character (and oh does Sean Penn love playing these tortured types) is dealing with his own tough personal tragedy that forms a "strong emotional bond" between himself and Nicole Kidman (a white African who used to be a rugged freedom fighter before she started to "believe in what the UN was doing," got the titular job there, and moved herself into one amazing and tastefully-decorated New York apartment). Penn's character's personal loss is, at least on some level, equated with Nicole Kidman's personal experience of huge social loss and strife. Even if Pollack & Co.'s intentions are good, I tend to view this sort of storytelling as demeaning telescopy of psychological issues onto social ones, and a reduction of sociopolitical realities ...
But that's all I've got for now. Take this as untempered venting rather than a "thesis."
Also, how do people who read this blog like the inclusion of jpegs? Is it good, bad, a nice occasional inclusion?
8 comments:
It's a nice touch, Zach.
And a very thought provoking post, too.
- Mubarak Ali said...
Zach, I haven't seen Roja in years but I think Mani Ratnam's loose political trilogy (Roja, Bombay, Dil Se) becomes slightly more abstract after every film. From what I remember, Bombay is pretty neutral - perhaps too noticeably so - and the political struggle in Dil Se is pushed to the periphery by the film's central (metaphoric) love story. Still, these films are among the more interesting in popular Indian cinema of the 90s, and it was nice to see Roja mentioned.
(Digging the pics, too.)
- ZC said...
Mubarak, I was lucky enough to find Roja at the local Hindi video store I've written about, but they didn't have Bombay or Dil Se, which I very much plan on seeing! I'll be intrigued to set up Bombay next to Khalid Mohamed's Fiza, which I own a copy of but have not watched yet, for their takes on the same incidents. (Unless I'm completely screwing my history up here.)
I'll keep up with the pics every once in a while then. Thanks.
- Brian Darr said...
I haven't seen any of these, though I've been curious about (recently abdicated) King Siyanouk's films since visiting that country. He's not the only Southeast Asian king to have considered it important (perhaps something of a duty, even) to make cultural contributions to his country as well as political ones. The king of Thailand is a composer who wrote, among other pieces, an anthem sung before every commercial film screening in that country.
Cambodians are very serious about the usefulness of art in remembering history. When I and my fellow American, European and Japanese tourists got off the truck from the Thai border to Siam Riep, the first thing our guest house hosts wanted to do that evening was show us the Killing Fields on their small television. We were in that town to see the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, but as incredible as they were, perhaps the most extraordinary experience there was a visit to a place called the "Landmine museum" which was a backyard gallery of decommisioned military equipment and paintings by the proprietor, who had been forced to fight in the Khmer Rogue army against the Vietnamese. It seemed like these paintings revealed more about Cambodia's recent history than any history book I've read or film I've seen. Though I do highly recommend the documentaries of Rithy Panh (I've seen a mere two, but they're among the best films in that genre I've seen in the past few years.)
- Jaime said...
I dislike ROJA intensely but applaud your continued use of pictures.
- Mubarak Ali said...
Yes, Fiza does begin with the '93 Bombay riots, but that film is more about Hrithik Roshan's biceps than anything else!
- ZC said...
Brian, thanks for sharing your knowledge: this helps put Peasants in Distress into clearer focus for me. It takes place about a year before the film was made, when the UN was coming into Cambodia in '93. I suppose the King felt (and justifiably so) that he was doing a public service by recreating recent history on film. It might also explain the travelogue bit: national pride is found in the cultural and historical monuments of Cambodia ...
Jaime, what bothered you about Roja if you don't mind saying?
- Jaime said...
>>Jaime, what bothered you about
>>Roja if you don't mind saying?
Actually, I'm sorry I brought it up. I don't think I have anything constructive to add to any conversation regarding ROJA, just as I don't expect much of anything constructive from people who hate films that I think are great.
I do share your befuddlement with the film's Hindu jingoism. But by the time it became the film's central concern I was already annoyed beyond reach.


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Last Updated: Feb 03, 2017 Views: 176
Last Updated: Feb 03, 2017 Views: 176
Here's how you can determine if a username is taken, and the library of its owner.
1. In the BiblioCommons search box in your site header, select User from the dropdown list.
2. Type the username you want to find, and then click Search.
If the username is taken, you'll see the Completed shelf of that user, and the name of the user's library.


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Colon Cleansing Tea
Most colon cleanse teas on the market contains either senna or cascara sagrada, both of which stimulate the action of the lower intestines and colon.
These herbs are no joke. They're used in some popular herbal tea blends to help alleviate constipation. If you've not used them before, they really do work. Start with a gentle dose.
Senna can cause painful intestinal spasms in some people, so you may want to look for a tea made with cascara sagrada. It supports normal function of the bowel, while stimulating digestive secretions in the liver, gall bladder, pancreas and stomach.
If you decide to use a senna tea start with a mild dose the first time, and see if you get the desired effect. Drink it at night before bed time, by the next morning after being up and about for a while you'll know whether you need a stronger dose or not.
Buy it pre-made or make my own? It's easy enough to make your own if you enjoy going out and finding all the herbs and creating your own concoctions, or for convenience, there are so many on the market now, you can get a pre-made blend shipped right to your door.
You can choose a variety of other herbs to add to your personal tea blend, based on your own preferences. Here are a few to consider:
Aloe Vera Leaf - also supports normal bowel function, cleanses the blood, and is a liver/gall bladder tonic
Plantain leaf - helps break up mucoid plaque while also soothing to the intestines
Ginger root - relieves gas, bloating and upset stomach
Fennel seeds - relieves instestinal cramping and gas
Fenugreek seed - soothing to the intestines and promotes regularity
Barberry root - is considered a "bitter herb", supports the liver, gallbladder and bowel, and is also beneficial to the spleen (which filters the blood and supports a healthy immune system),
Peppermint leaf - stimulates liver and gall bladder, good for colon cleansing, digestion
Dandelion root - supports liver function, stimulates bile flow, help release toxins and also helps carry them safely out of the body.
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Join us for a special launch event of Brisbane based artist Michael Zavros' new monograph.
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Michael will be joined by Peter McKay, Curator, Australian Art, QAGOMA, for an in conversation on his practice and latest projects. The talk will be followed by a book signing.
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Beautiful Secluded Hardwood Timber With Income Potential In Northern WI
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- Hardwoods with marketable timber
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- Most of the land is enrolled in MFL-Closed, 3 acres left out of program for building site
- 2018 taxes $171.57
N6384 Shed Creek Road
Merrill, Wisconsin 54452


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Decades ago, our parents and grandparents slept on mattresses stuffed with natural materials, such as feathers, natural latex from rubber trees, straw and wool. While modern polyurethane foam may add a certain bounce to our beds, it comes with trade-offs. Specifically, the chemicals used to improve foam performance or to make it flame retardant.
Jackie Cuddy, a 35-year employee of Wallingford's Bedrooms and More, which sells natural alternatives to polyurethane mattresses, says many customers visit the store after having a bad experience—in particular, with memory foam products. People complain to her about odors, teary eyes and shortness of breath after being exposed to polyurethane products. "Memory foam…is polyurethane foam that's been tweaked so it's even more toxic," she says.
Erika Schreder, science director at Seattle's nonprofit Washington Toxics Coalition, says the subject of toxics in mattresses is complicated, particularly because most companies don't disclose what chemicals they might be using in their products, and because they don't usually make the foam, but purchase it from another manufacturer, who may or may not have treated it with flame retardants.
The subject of toxics in mattresses is complicated, particularly because most companies don't disclose what chemicals they might be using in their products.
"The safest bet is always natural materials," says Rachel Koller, a Seattle environmental health consultant and owner of the website Healthy Home Focus. That means mattresses, futons, crib beds and pads that are made with wool and/or natural latex—both of which are naturally flame retardant enough to meet government guidelines—and free of vinyl and toxic flame retardants.
Even if toxics aren't your first concern, you may be interested in avoiding petroleum products, or might just prefer the feel of more natural materials.
When shopping for natural bedding, it's easy to go into option overload without a few pointers, as some product labeling is misleading. For example, dozens of synthetic products are labeled "latex," although only those labeled "botanical natural latex" are guaranteed to come from a tree, and not a chemistry lab. Cuddy suggests asking a few key questions: Do you want certified organic wool or cotton, or can you go with a standard fiber? Will botanical latex suffice, or do you want only that from a certified organic forest, which guarantees that the rubber trees are sustainably managed and harvested? Would you like to support locally owned producers? Those decisions may affect the price of the mattress, if not the quality of your sleep.
Illustration by Joyce Hesselberth
At Bedrooms and More, latex beds start at $699 for a twin. One of the company's all-botanical latex best-sellers is a mattress made at a company in Tualatin, outside Portland. Layers of naturally flame-retardant wool and organic cotton flank three layers of latex ($1,699 twin, $2,799 king). A less costly bed, the Therapedic, is made from organic cotton and regular wool ($699 twin, $1,299 king). All mattresses at Bedrooms and More meet flame-retardant mattress safety requirements using either a rayon/Dacron pad, flame-retardant wool or cotton with a boric acid wash. No other chemicals are added.
Cuddy says she's lucky enough to snooze on a mattress from Organic Mattress Inc. (OMI). OMI uses only organic materials and maintains fastidious manufacturing practices at the company's California headquarters, including an ozone chamber to keep wool and cotton clean, and a no-fragrance policy for its employees. The fire-retardant organic wool is quilted to the mattress, and the mattresses pass more stringent European certifications without added chemicals. OMI mattresses run from $1,299 for a twin to $10,895 for a king.
At Soaring Heart Natural Bed Company on north Queen Anne, mattresses are hand-built on site using three natural materials: latex, organic cotton and eco wool, increasingly from local sources. Soaring Heart's wool, for instance, comes from small farms in Oregon and Washington. Mattresses range from $980 for the twin-sized Cottonwood, made from organic Dunlop latex surrounded by a thick layer of organic cotton, wool batting and organic cotton ticking, to $3,910 for a California King Madrona, made from latex wrapped with organic cotton ticking and wool batting, and a thick, wool, organic-cotton-wrapped topper. It also sells crib mattresses ($355‒$560) and futons.
Jason Goessl, sales manager at Soaring Heart, says people worry that wool will be hot, but explains that's probably because many wool items in the United States are actually cut with polyester, even if it isn't listed on the tag. Not at Soaring Heart. "Polyester reflects body heat right back at you," he says. "Wool is not hot—it helps regulate your body temperature. It keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter."
We lose about 1 pint of water, oils and salts each night, and much of that will go into a bed unless it is topped with a mattress pad. A cotton-topped, Gore-Tex-lined mattress pad at Bedrooms and More is $39.95, and a washable wool pad inside cotton is $149 for a queen size. At Soaring Heart, waterproof pads made from organic Northwest wool are $80 for crib size, $140 for twin and $200 for queen.
If the luxury of a natural bed doesn't give you more restful sleep, at least you can be sleeping on wool while counting sheep.
Bedrooms and More
Wallingford, 300 NE 45th St.
Soaring Heart Natural Bed Company
Queen Anne, 101 Nickerson, Suite 400
Healthy Home Focus
A Seattle resource for nontoxic home issues and products:
Washington Toxics Coalition
A nonprofit that provides information on toxics in home products and what to avoid


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Image URL: http://danamotor.ir/Anshan_Cyrus_Seal.jpg
Image Remarks: Cyrus (Kurosh) of Anshan Seal, son of Teispes Clues&Views:The Jewish Bible's Ketuvim ends in Second Chronicles with the decree of Cyrus, which returned the exiles to the Promised Land from Babylon along with a commission to rebuild the temple. 'Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth hath Yahweh, the god of heaven, given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all His people -- may Yahweh, his god, be with him -- let him go there.' (2 Chronicles 36:23)
Tags :Anshan , Cyrus , Seal , Achaemenid -Section :Arts


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The destabilization in one more country is being attempted in Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM) by the West, namely USA. This time, the sine qua non local "liaison" is the leader of the opposition party Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), Zoran Zaev.
According to international Media, this attempt is one more recognizable sign of the American and NATO imperialism and another brick in the wall of Cold War between USA and Russia (after Ukraine and Syria).
According to CIA's World Factbook about FYROM: "A couple of major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and hashish; minor transit point for South American cocaine destined for Europe; although not a financial center and most criminal activity is thought to be domestic, money laundering is a problem due to a mostly cash-based economy and weak enforcement. Since its independence in 1991, Macedonia has made progress in liberalizing its economy and improving its business environment, but has lagged the Balkan region in attracting foreign investment and corruption remains a significant problem".
"Consolidation", "need of reforms", "democratization", "freedoms", "liberalization of economy" are the pretexts and eventually a change of government or of regime is attempted, and there are certain steps which follow and usually lead to destruction. These used methods seem so distinctive that they could barely miss the eye of even the most "innocent" observer although, according to an exhaustive analysis by Strategic Culture Foundation, this specific issue has a couple of hidden sides.
Apart from these, the pattern for toppling Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski (of christian democratic VMRO-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) and a government change attempt strictly follows some main features, factors and principles which remain unchanged.
Let's examine some of the facts:
I. FYROM has been declared as "potential candidate" member of EU back in 2003 – 12 years after country's declaration of independence in 1991 and two years after the insurgency of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) militant group in 2001.
Furthermore, in 21 – 22 June 2002 "at the Seville Conference, the European Council expressed the willingness of the EU to take over from NATO in fYR Macedonia".
It is worth noticing here the existing objection of Greece against the use of the name of the Greek region Macedonia. In EU the country's official name is FYROM, which is though not used in numerous other occasions such as media, social media or by the USA et al.
Greece has vetoed FYROM's NATO accession in 2008, and has been hindering the start of its EU accession talks.
The report of EU "Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament "Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2010-2011" about FYROM, notes:
"However, relations with Greece continued to be adversely affected by the unresolved name issue. The country is engaged in talks under the auspices of the UN on resolving it. Actions and statements which could negatively impact on good neighbourly relations should be avoided. The direct meetings at the highest political levels are positive steps, although this momentum has not yet led to concrete results. Maintaining good neighbourly relations, including a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution to the name issue, under the auspices of the UN, remains essential".
The point here is (very) relevant to the economic crisis in Greece.
The meet of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with Russian president Vladimir Putin alarmed USA and the announcement of a possible cooperation for a gas pipeline, alarmed both USA and EU.
Greece has longed suffered under the fear of "threat from the East" (i.e. Turkey).
Although the relationships of the two have not and will not normalize as long and the Cyprus issue remains unsolved, it is possible that a destabilized FYROM could be used as an additional "threat from the North" and therefore, as a means of pressure on Greece for "compliance, conformity and obedience".
II. Government is set under pressure by the "revelations" of scandals (Accusations for wiretapping by the government, Purchase of an expensive car by the Prime Minister). After the above said accusations two ministers and the head of the intelligence have resigned while government denies the allegations about tapping, reports BBC.
Alleged use of vicious methods and wealth owned by leaders have been used in almost every case of regimes or governments overthrows. They are a common instrument of propaganda in order to "touch" sensitivity of public opinion.
III. In case that politics and accusations do not succeed in toppling the government and in order to impose faction and destabilization, people are "motivated" through social media to protests which resemble to these which led to destabilization in Ukraine, in "Arab Spring" in North Africa but failed and turned into war in Syria.
Additional pressure is applied by internal discord between ethnic, political or other groups which is incited by the opposition (SDSM and Zaev). Specifically, SDSM appears to have orchestrated protests in Kumanovo in May 5 and 6.
The protests turned violent and resulted to the death of six policemen (eight according to other Media) after clashes with albanian ethic groups.
The groups are said to be "terrorists who crossed the border and entered the territory of the Republic of Macedonia on May 5th and 6th". SDSM has planned a rally for May 17th.
"For this purpose, SDSM already mobilized the membership with focus on collecting abusers and people with multiple file of offenders and former prisoners with series of crimes", comments local Kurir. Earlier, opposition leader "in an interview with the show '360 stepeni' which is aired on Alsat television again revealed state secret and said that he knew of the terrorist group, but did not report to law enforcement authorities. Zaev admitted that the SDSM had evidence of movement of criminal structures, shared with the former leader Branko Crvenkovski, SDSM recognizing that there is parallel security service", reports Kurir.
"The strategy here is to apply dual mechanisms of pressure that can engage in 'friendly competition' with one another in seeing which can overthrow the government first. The only reason that this concept is even considered and that the Color Revolution hasn't totally fizzled out by this time is because it's gained some support from dissatisfied youth groups who have been manipulated into joining the anti-government protests. With the Color Revolution kept alive by a collection of youth and their heavily publicized tweets and protests, and the Unconventional War dependent on terrorism, the regime change operations' social foundations are extremely weak, yet they have the potential for massive expansion if the 17 May destabilization events can gather more adults and Albanians (either through enticement or provocation)", notes Strategic Culture Foundation.
IV. Foreign diplomats, potiticians and governments, all of them US alliances, criticise the government. After the clashes, EU said it was "deeply concerned", which is worrying for country's candidacy to become EU member.
The opposition leader "refused to participate at the reconciliation meeting between the four largest parties, which was reportedly scheduled to take place on May 14th", reports Novinite and continues: "According to media reports, Zaev would accept a meeting with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski only in the presence of international mediators and representatives of the international community. The opposition leader dismissed the possibility of Gruevski heading a broad coalition government. Zaev called for the establishment of an interim government, which should prepare Macedonia for the holding of free, fair and democratic elections. The SDSM leader ruled out the participation of the incumbent prime minister and other people involved in crimes in an interim cabinet".
The intentions of Zaev become more and more obvious. He displays his contempt to Prime Minister and challenges his authority. At the same time he demands the presence of "mediators and representatives of international community" as if Gruevski weren't the elected leader.
Thus, after constructing the background, he calls into question the sovereignty of the government and uses external sources to essentially support the toppling.
The country is thereby driven to extensive conflicts and doomed to destabilization or:
V. If needed, in the next stage the methods of propaganda, public discontent and protests are degenerated to violence with the use of militant groups supported and armed by the US as is the case of Ukraine and as has already happened in FYROM.
Meanwhile, after clashes with police, "Russia accused 'Western organisers' on Saturday (May 16) of trying to foment a 'colour revolution' in the troubled former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, where political tensions are building ahead of an opposition rally on Sunday" and "the EU and NATO have called for a transparent investigation into last week's killings", reports Reuters.
The reaction of Russia could be taken for granted and as mentioned above, one more front opens in order to further demonize the country of Putin and to further implicate EU in case that Angela Merkel's visit to Moscow on May 10th, a day after Moscow's vast military parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, would be translated as sign of reconciliation.
Conservative government of Skopje will have to resist pressure and fraudulent practices and any change has to be peacefully conducted by people and not from Western interests.
The most important challenge though is to avoid internally and externally "submitted" violence and conflicts.


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Welcome to Amaluuk research station, we hope your stay is a productive and pleasant one.
Adds to the atmosphere.
I like that!nice!
Wonderful details here! I especially love that you can see the actual hand that has cleared the door window :)
Nice work!!
Only thing that seems off to me is that the front windows are cleared contrary to where the windshield wipers would swing. Otherwise it is great imo.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.
Model and textures by Adam Sanders


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Ofcom has reportedly announced that it will not launch an official investigation into complaints made about Sunday night's X Factor result.
Around 3,000 viewers are said to have contacted the media watchdog after judge Simon Cowell made the controversial decision to vote against Lucie Jones at the weekend.
According to BBC News, Ofcom has now indicated that while it considers complaints about flawed voting processes and treatment of contestants, it does not investigate the outcome of programmes.
However, a representative for the organisation added that it reviews "every complaint" it receives.
Sunday's show saw Cowell's vote forcing a deadlock following a sing-off between Welsh singer Jones and twins John & Edward. Dannii Minogue's 18-year-old hopeful was then eliminated after producers reverted to the earlier viewer poll.


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Happy Thanksgiving Quotes: Happy Thanksgiving Quotes, Thanksgiving wishes, Thanksgiving Messages, Thanksgiving Greetings: Much in life we come across many people who have assisted us, made our lives better and taught us good lessons. They may or may not be family, but are truly treasured. On Thanksgiving Day we express our gratitude towards them. Let people know how much they mean to you.
Pen down what your heart says here are some thanksgiving wishes wording. Thanksgiving is more than the festivities, it affords us time to ponder upon what lessons we have memorized and how we can spread happiness around, to look back at all the neat memories and good people who came into our spirits. Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your loved ones!.
Happy Thanksgiving Quotes
Thanksgiving Quotes, Wishes, Greetings & Messages
Below are the best thanksgiving quotes, thanksgiving wishes, thanksgiving greetings, thanksgiving messages to wish your friends.
Best Thanksgiving Quotes
- Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.
– Oprah Winfrey
- Being thankful for all that we have paved the way for receiving even more…this is the very essence of Thanksgiving!
- "After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations."
― Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance
You can also check out: Happy Thanksgiving Images
- Thanksgiving is a blessing in disguise. With your friends and family near, make this day as special as you can and thank them with your heart. Happy Thanksgiving!
- A great brother, that's what you've been to me. I'm so glad to have you in my life and in our family. Happy Thanksgiving!
- "The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness."
— Dalai Lama
- As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
– By John F. Kennedy
- "I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land."
Happy Thanksgiving Sayings
- "The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest."
— William Blake
- Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
– William Arthur Ward
- Some friendships become more beautiful over time. Thank you for the color you add to my life! I wish you a heartfelt Thanksgiving.
- Wishing you the greatest Thanksgiving ever. We are so grateful to have a grandson as amazing as you! Happy Thanksgiving With Love!
- Grateful is what I feel in my heart that I have been blessed with a sister who I can look to for love, comfort, and support. You mean the world to me not just at Thanksgiving, but every day! Happy Thanksgiving, Sis!
- "Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all."
— William Faulkner
- The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
~H.U. Westermayer
Happy Thanksgiving Day Quotes
- Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.
~Johnny Carson
- Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
– Melody Beattie
- But see, in our open clearings, how golden the melons lie; Enrich them with sweets and spices, and give us the pumpkin-pie!
– Margaret Junkin Preston
- Some hae meat and canna eat, – And some wad eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit.
– Robert Burns
- Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!
– Henry Ward Beecher
Happy Thanksgiving Wishes
- Wishing you the happiness of good friends, the joy of a happy family, and the wonder of the holiday season. Have a magical thanksgiving!
- Wishing you every happiness this Holiday Season and throughout the coming year! May
your life is filled with love, peace, and harmony!
- We are deeply thankful and extend to you our best wishes. May you enjoy a bountiful Thanksgiving!
- At this time of Thanksgiving celebration, our thoughts turn gratefully to you with warm appreciation. Our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving.
- I am enclosing with this greeting abundant love and God's blessing for a beautiful long life. May you wake up every morning with renewed hopes and great values, Have a joyous Thanksgiving.
- Have a healthy and joyous, wealthy and generous, prosperous and humble thanksgiving. Enjoy to the hilt.
- Pray for those who have been less fortunate, in sickness, in pain. May this day bring peace in their lives and better their days. May God relieve them from their Miseries?
Thank you, GOD for your unbounded blessings and generous harvest. It is because of you that we cherish life each day. May your blessings keep us on the path of righteousness always?
Make me a good child, to take care of my parents. Make me a good lover, to take care of my partner. Make me a good person, to service mankind. I want to better the world from this Thanksgiving Day.


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4 Quick Ways to Improve Website Performance
4 Quick Ways to Improve Website Performance
With all of the attention placed on web design, very few understand the importance of optimizing for seamless performance. This is unfortunate, since today's users are incredibly fickle and impatient.
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With all of the attention placed on web design, very few understand the importance of optimizing for seamless performance. This is unfortunate, since today's users are incredibly fickle and impatient.
4 Steps to Better Website Performance
While the visual appearance of a website certainly matters, there's so much more to success than simply designing an aesthetically pleasing website and then stepping away. Even more important than design is performance and functionality. An inefficient website with poor user experience will render a page completely useless and unable to drive conversions.
Every website faces unique challenges and restrictions, but there are a handful of ways to actively improve website performance and increase conversions. Let's check out a few of the top tips and techniques.
1. Minimize HTTP Requests
Did you know that 80 percent of a page's loading time is dedicated to downloading and presenting the various parts of a page? This includes things like Flash, scripts, images, stylesheets, and more. The quickest way to speed up page loading time is by reducing the number of individual components a user's browser has to load in order to render the page.
The best way to reduce the number of HTTP requests is by simplifying your design. Tips include streamlining the number of elements on an individual page, reducing scripts and placing them at the bottom of the page, combining various style sheets into one, and using CSS instead of images (when possible).
2. Optimize Images
Images are used with the intention of enhancing a website's overall user experience, but sometimes they do the exact opposite. If images aren't properly optimized, they can actually hurt website performance. When considering the images on your site, think about the following three things:
Size. Large and oversized images take a long time to load, so you need to keep images to a reasonable size. Crop them, reduce color depth, and make sure to remove image comments. If you have lots of images to show, consider using thumbnails – such as in this example. Thumbnails allow you to incorporate lots of images, without negatively impacting the page loading speed.
Format. You should focus on using the JPEG format, but there are other options. PNG can be good, but this format can have issues on older browsers. BMP and TIFF formats should be avoided.
Src attribute. Finally, the Src attribute needs to be correct. The HTML code for an image includes the following section: <img src="">. You must include the source inside the quotation marks or the browser will make additional requests that may overload your servers and/or corrupt user data.
As you can see, it's not always as easy as slapping some images into a website and moving on to the next step. There's a lot more to think about from a website performance perspective.
3. Enable Browser Caching
As previously mentioned, HTTP requests increase the average page loading time of a given page. In addition to simplifying site design to increase page loading speed, you can enable browser caching to provide a seamless experience for visitors who have already been to your page in the past.
The very first time someone visits your site, they have to download all of the files and HTML documents associated with your webpages. However, by enabling browser caching for your website, you can actually store these components in a user's cache. This means they only need to download a handful of files on subsequent visits. According to one test, enabling browser caching was able to reduce page loading time by more than 60 percent.
If you're unsure of how to enable caching, then check out this helpful guide on the topic. It'll walk you through some of the different methods and practices. Depending on your current setup and/or experience, one option may work better than others.
4. Minify Resources
When developing a website and writing code, it's fairly common to use human-friendly formats that are easy to read. Unfortunately, these same formats aren't always ideal when it comes to website performance. In order to eliminate issues and reduce the likelihood of errors, it's suggested that you minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
When it comes to minifying code, there are a variety of tools available at your disposal. For example, you can use the PageSpeed Insights extension for HTML, YUI Compressor or CSS Minifier for CSS, and Closure Compiler or JavaScript Minifier for JavaScript.
Make the Necessary Tweaks
A website is designed to facilitate a seamless connection between the business and the customer. If your site fails to establish this relationship, it's ineffective and low returning. However, the good news is that it only takes a few small tweaks to get back on the right track. Identify your weaknesses and actively work to improve performance in a way that resonates with your specific user base.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.


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Catching up the scences around since Tet holidays coming…
Tag Archives: love
Rose in a sunny day!
Sunday & rose at home… 🙂
Revival & energy with moments around
Now, how amazing world we are living is!
Thanks to man-made, home-made & nature-made things just happening around us for our realization & creativities (^.^)
Chrysanthemum for Moon Festival!
Just by chance, I took them to home these days ^^
How mystic is the color of flowers as if they're talking about this autumn, yeah?
Orchid's petals
The lovely orchid's still there due to my mother's caring ^^
And she's in blossom this day over the rains…
My beloved roses
So, today I found them in time & take to my home!
Dear chrysanthemum!
Then, I realized,
not around but in front of me,
she looks so lovely in home yet it's raining outdoor…
Morning hibiscus…
At the moment of glorious hibiscus this morning in summer festival…


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What If You're Not Freaked Out By "Jonerys" on Game of Thrones?
#Jonerys Okay, so incest on Game of Thrones is nothing new. But as we've slowly come to realize that Jon Snow is technically Daenerys Targaryen's nephew, a lot of fans have been watching the slow-motion trainwreck of them falling in love with something less than disgust. Something a [...continue...]


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Significantly reduces shift throw lengths for crisper shifts and sportier driving feel.
Fits Impreza, STI, WRXSHORT THROW SHIFTER 6MT
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MEDIATION papers at Adaptation Governance Symposium
MEDIATION team members presented two papers at the international symposium on Adaptation Governance, held from 22-23 March 2012 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (http://www.adaptgov.com/ ). Jochen Hinkel presented a paper on the question "Which framing of adaptation is adequate?" in which a number of decision-trees were proposed for a number of policy and research questions that climate change adaptation decision-makers can have, dependent on the stages in the policy cycle. In the integrated methodology that will be developed by MEDIATION, these decision trees will be coupled to available decision-support methods and tools. Saskia Werners presented a paper on "Turning points in climate change adaptation" in which adaptation turning points are proposed as a way of framing adaptation questions that better matches the questions that decision-makers have than the traditional top-down approach that starts with downscaling climate model information. Adaptation turning points address the timeframe until when current policies, practices or infrastructure will be sufficient to withstand projected climate impacts, and by when alternative strategies will be required.


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The view of Saturn that we're used to is a sunlit planet in yellows and oranges, with beautiful, massive rings at a 15-degree angle.
For only the second time, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured a view of perhaps the solar system's second-most-beautiful planet from "behind" — opposite the sun. The result is that the planet is backlit, and the sun's rays stream through, illuminating the ring divisions.
Cassini's imagers took exposures using an infrared camera, plus red and violet filters on a visible-light camera from 500,000 miles distance. NASA then combined the images to build the final color-enhanced picture. Image scale is about 30 miles to the pixel.
The pictures don't just look pretty, they also reveal important scientific information. NASA said that this "special, very-high-phase viewing geometry lets scientists study ring and atmosphere phenomena not easily seen at a lower phase."
If you look closely, you can also see two of Saturn's moons in the image: Enceladus and Tethys. They're tiny — you may have to clean your monitor — on the left side Saturn, under the rings.
And here's the more traditional image of Saturn, sun-side version:


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When you're one of the more discerning set, finding your "home sweet home" isn't always easy. If you've grown tired of your search for the ideal private country club community in Boca Raton, stop by Bocaire Country Club. Once you've arrived here, you won't want to live anywhere else. We offer a lifestyle of casual elegance and laid-back luxury, complete with the service, amenities and tranquility that you've been searching for.
Discover: World-Class Golfing!
Bocaire Country Club memberships are in high demand, and one big reason is our golfing facilities. Members here say that Bocaire Country Club is an absolute dream for golfers at every level. When you join our private country club community in Boca Raton, you gain access to our stunning par-72, 18-hole Joe Lee designed golf course, our gorgeous driving range, well-appointed putting greens, and much more. Of course, the rolling greens of our course make a stunning visual centerpiece for our community.
Discover: An Active Social Life!
If you're looking for a boring, bland neighborhood, Bocaire probably isn't for you. When you join our private country club community in Boca Raton, you become a part of a warm, lively, friendly group. There's always something exciting happening around here, and our gorgeous club house is always a hub of activity. You can drop by for drinks or dinner with friends, or you can participate in any one of our numerous social occasions throughout the year. It's just a fun place to be, and it's a brilliant community if you're hoping to make some new friends.
Discover: The Good Life!
Bocaire Country Club revolves around the good life. Folks here know how to enjoy life with all of its little luxuries. From great golfing, tennis and sports to a lively social scene to a gorgeous, exclusive neighborhood, Bocaire Country Club is the full package. To find out more about this stunning private country club community in Boca Raton, give us a call at 561-997-6556. Act fast though, because homes here don't stay on the market for long!


text: Are falling vaccination rates in Oregon tied to outbreak of measles in Texas? Galveston County Daily News September 10, 2013 Vaccine Smarts By Dr. Richard Rupp and Bridget Hawkins, Ph.D. Dear Vaccine Smarts, I recently heard news reports on children's vaccination rates falling in Oregon and the recent outbreak of measles in Texas. Health officials were worried that disease rates would start rising due to a loss of herd immunity. Can you please explain herd immunity? Caesar, League City Dear Caesar, There has been quite a bit of buzz about parents opting out of vaccinating their children in Oregon and in certain communities in California and Texas. As a result, Oregon approved a law requiring that parents speak to a doctor or watch an educational video before sending their kids to public school without receiving their vaccinations. The reasoning behind the law is that unimmunized individuals place others at risk. It is important to understand that vaccines are not effective in 100 percent of the population; that is to say, that not everyone who is vaccinated responds. "Non-responders" are not protected because they don't have a good immune response. Vaccination response rates vary but in general they are about 90 percent. Let's say an entire population consists of 100 people who are all vaccinated. Out of these 100 people, 90 are protected and 10 did not have a good enough immune response to be fully protected. Luckily, it turns out that the 10 people who didn't respond are protected indirectly by the other 90 vaccinated people because they are disease-free and can't spread the disease to the 10 non-responders. This phenomenon is called "herd immunity." The disease can't spread within the population because most of the members are immune. Herd immunity becomes weaker as the number of protected individuals drops. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children and send them to school place everyone at risk. These unvaccinated children benefit from herd immunity, but when the community's numbers of unvaccinated children become high enough, disease can spread freely. This places the vaccinated students who didn't respond to vaccination at risk. It also places at risk those students who can't be vaccinated because of medical conditions such as cancer or immune deficiencies. According to recent reports, the measles outbreaks in Texas began with someone who traveled to another country where measles is prevalent. The person returned and introduced measles into a community with a low immunization rate. Reports also mention that a 4 month-old baby who was too young to be vaccinated caught measles at church. It's recommended that non-immunocompromised children receive two vaccinations, the first one at 12 months of age and the second (booster) around 4 to 6 years of age. Adults who travel out of the country should also talk to their physician about receiving a measles booster before their trip. The person who infected these people did so unknowingly because it takes a week before symptoms to appear. This situation is tragic, but some argue that it's the parents' right to not vaccinate their child. Others feel that it's wrong for these parents to place other children at risk. Perhaps the Oregon law requiring parent education on vaccination is a good compromise and will help maintain herd immunity. Only time will tell. .Dr. Richard Rupp is a pediatrician and member of UTMB's Sealy Center for Vaccine Development. Bridget Hawkins, Ph.D., is the assistant director of the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development. This column is supported by a UTMB President's Cabinet Award to provide information about vaccines. Visit www.utmb.edu/scvd/vaccinesmarts for more information. « Back | The Newsroom »


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Egalitarianism makes things sound so good, right? Both parties get equal vote. It's fair and good, right???
Let's say we have egalitarian marriage. Now wife wants to do something, but husband says 'no!!!'. They argue, but no one budging! What does egalitarianism say?
Answer: they both cast vote, but on opposite side. So tie.
But then guess what! Wife does what she wants to do anyway. So what does egalitarianism say now? She got 'extra vote', becomes 'tie-breaker'! Also, vote of husband of hers didn't even matter. 'Fair and good'!!!


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Jun 5, 2013
Sampler bag start
20 comments:
- Edgar said...
I love the new start - when I got my copy of the mag it was something i wanted to do also.
- June 5, 2013 at 11:46 AM
- backporchcarver said...
I think I am falling in love!!(with the new sampler!)
- June 5, 2013 at 12:31 PM
- Vera said...
Love your start Marly! Looks beautiful. Thanks, too, for the pictures the other day of your "hankies" -- love what you have done.
- June 5, 2013 at 1:41 PM
- Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...
Great start on the sampler bag, Marly and I love the little changes! I especially like your comment about the stitch or color when you get bored! OMG, I want to do that all the time.
- June 5, 2013 at 1:43 PM
- Peggy Lee said...
Love your new start!
Now if I could just rip myself off of this chair with wheels I'd like to stitch a little myself.
I have NO self control.
WOW ~ Gorgeous flowers!
- June 5, 2013 at 2:40 PM
- Margaret said...
Good luck with all the renovations. Yikes! Love your sampler bag start! It's looking pretty so far! Nice flowers too. That's quite a difference in size!
- June 5, 2013 at 4:36 PM
- Shirlee said...
The sampler bag start is great! Love the flowers & the birdies : )
- June 5, 2013 at 5:21 PM
- Samplings from Spring Creek said...
Renovations sometimes make me want to pull my hair out. Great start on your sampler
- June 5, 2013 at 5:50 PM
- village folk art said...
You are off to a super start, it looks wonderful. I have not dared to change colors, yet ... The 'full house' is adorable.
- June 5, 2013 at 8:26 PM
- village folk art said...
You are off to a super start, it looks wonderful. I have not dared to change colors, yet ... The 'full house' is adorable.
- June 5, 2013 at 8:26 PM
- Penny said...
What a pretty start on your sampler bag! WOW - that is a full house! :)
- June 5, 2013 at 8:50 PM
- Lynn said...
Wonderful start on your new sampler! Brought a smile to my face when I read that you spend as much time deciding which to stitch as stitching. I do that all the time! I love how you're changing the colours as you go. You're a brave lady, lol!
- June 5, 2013 at 8:52 PM
- Cricket-bug Corner said...
Your stitching is so pretty!! Love the flowers and birdies!!
- June 6, 2013 at 12:40 AM
- Barb said...
What a great start on the sampler. Your basket is so beautiful!!It's huge!
- June 6, 2013 at 12:43 AM
- mariateresa said...
I love the sampler bag start!
have a nice day
- June 6, 2013 at 1:25 AM
- Chris said...
Great start on your sampler bag!The flowers are gorgeous.
I hope that flooring goes smoothly :)
- June 6, 2013 at 6:29 AM
- Dirty Martini Queen said...
Just can't wait to all the new changes in he house. And I just think your flowers and birdies are so sweet.
- June 6, 2013 at 7:33 AM
- Mouse said...
ooo good look with the flooring etc and love your new start :) and awwww cute wee birdies too :)
just love the way you change and adapt things to suit yourself too ...I do do that on occasions and its great when it works out ..lol love mouse xxxxxx
- June 6, 2013 at 8:32 AM
- BARBARA said...
What is the name of the magazine you are referring to? Thanks! Barb
- June 6, 2013 at 8:33 AM
- Carol said...
I don't know how you find any time at all for stitching with all you've got going on in the home remodeling realm, Marly! Hope the floor installation goes well!
Amazing how those squished in birdies can survive, isn't it?! What a great photo...
- June 6, 2013 at 9:45 AM


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The progress of Delhi Waveriders and Jaypee Punjab Warriors during the early stages of the second edition of the Hero Hockey India League was rather similar till Friday's game at the National Stadium in New Delhi. Both teams had knocked over the rookie Kalinga Lancers. The Waveriders blanked the Lancers 5-0 at home on Thursday.
A couple of days earlier, Warriors had let in three goals against the Lancers but were good enough to score seven. The Waveriders and the Warriors had played an extra game each, were equal on points (11) but the former were on top of the table because of a superior goal difference.
Three of those goals came in Waveriders' 3-1 win in the opening match of this season against the Warriors.
The side from Punjab had bounced back and won their next two games. But they still needed something special to get past the Waveriders at home.
Sandeep Singh, the drag-flicker, gave Warriors the goal to cherish in the eighth minute of the game by converting a penalty corner to the right of Nicolas Jacobi, the towering German goal-keeper. A couple of minutes later, Jacobi's counterpart, Dutchman Jaap Stockmann pulled off two saves – the first to stop Rupinder Pal Singh from coverting a penalty corner and the second to keep out a field goal – to help keep intact the advantage Sandeep had created.
It wasn't to be the last time Stockmann was to leave his mark on the game.
The lead increased in the 64th minute when Satbir Singh pounced on a lose ball to make it 2-0.
However, Rupinder Pal Singh converted a penalty corner in the very next minute to reduce the margin.
The goal gave the Waveriders a much needed boost. Or so it should have been. But at the other end, Warriors' Shivendra Singh beat Jacobi from close range. The field goal coming within the same minute of Rupinder's pentaly-corner conversion effectively ended the game.
But the Waveriders believed that there was enough time on the clock for them to make a comeback. They earned two more penalty corners in the dying moments of the match, but once again Stockmann denied Rupinder.
The 3-1 full-time scoreline was an apt margin for the Warriors to avenge their loss in the season opener against the Waveriders and top the table.
Punjab coach Barry Dancer said, "This was our first win against Delhi and it took us four games to get this victory. Sandeep was outstanding today and his contribution was the key to this win."
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
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No one embodies the word classic quite like actress Audrey Hepburn. Everything from her beauty, to her style, even her mode of transportation was an instant classic! Audrey loved to ride her bike so much that she was known to drive it on set with her little yorkie in tow.
Recently, we set hearts aflutter when we brought some of our own classic touches to the stage. We took a vintage bicycle with an adorable wicker basket and added flowers to match those on stage. Fanciful butterflies floated over our white millwork panels while the white bike blended perfectly in front.
Classic with a twist has always been one of our mottos and we think Audrey would have approved!
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Gods, one just has to love the wisdom of the lads at Google. I decided to street view my home, just to guess at when the picture was taken. What did I discover? My license plate is quite readable, but a bumper sticker is blurred out. Interestingly enough, my Obama/Biden one isn't — it's not clear, but that seems to be an accident of angles … and my passenger side door handle is a bit blurred. By hell they blurred the shit outta that Anti-Fox News sticker, though!
Oy, maybe I oughta wash my truck some time.