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A classic Viennese sweet pastry with an autumnal twist. A deliciously simple, vegan version packed with autumnal goodness. Also sugar-free :).
Great with morning coffee, or served as a dessert with cream, custard or ice-cream. I've been collecting blackberries and apples in the last week or two, so I couldn't resist adapting the traditional version of apple strudel which usually includes raisins, and pack it with the flavours of autumn.
Hope you enjoy!
Apple and Blackberry Strudel.
8-10 slices
Ingredients and prep:
- 6 sheets of filo pastry: approx 28 cm. x 40 cm. Keep chilled until ready to use.
- 700 gms. apples (I used autumn eating apples with a tangy flavour). Peeled, cored, quartered and sliced.
- 200 gms. blackberries.
- 75 gms. sweetener: I used agave syrup. (If using sharp cooking apples, such as Bramleys, add more sweetener. Maybe another 50 gms. of agave).
- Juice of 1 small lemon.
- 2 tsps. cinnamon powder.
- 1/2 tsp.grated nutmeg.
- 100 gms. vegan spread suitable for baking.
- 65gms. breadcrumbs.
- Mix sliced apples, sweetener, spices, lemon juice and blackberries together. Stir gently to combine. Avoid crushing the blackberries.
- Melt 25 gms. vegan spread in a wide pan on a medium heat.
- When hot, add the breadcrumbs, and sauté until golden. About 5 mins. Stir constantly to avoid burning.
- Add the breadcrumbs to the apple mix, and stir gently to combine.
- Set aside.
Make the Strudel:
- Pre heat oven to Gas Mk. 5 / 190C.
- On a low hob heat, melt the remaining 75 gms. of vegan spread in a small saucepan, to baste the filo pastry sheets.
- Lay a clean kitchen towel, or pieces of kitchen roll out on a flat counter.
- Carefully unroll the sheets of filo.
- Lay one sheet out on the kitchen towel and baste with melted vegan spread, using a pastry brush.
- Lay the second sheet on top of the first.
- Baste the second sheet.
- Repeat this process until all 6 sheets are used. Baste the final sheet.
- Take the apple mixture, and spread it evenly along the pastry lengthwise, about 5 cm. in from the edge. (see pics.)
- Using the kitchen roll to assist, flip roll the pastry edge over the filling, and continue to roll until the seam of the pastry is under the strudel, and the roll is complete.
- Fold in the side of the end edges and then slide the strudel onto a large baking tray lined with greased baking parchment.
- Tuck the pointed ends under the strudel.
- Baste the entire strudel with the remaining melted vegan spread.
- Cut 8 diagonal slits in the top of the pastry approx:2 cm. long.
- Bake strudel for 40-45 mins. until golden. (You may need to turn the strudel once halfway through baking for an even colour).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Serve either slightly warm, or at room temperature.
As is, or with cream, or custard or ice-cream….mmm..
Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness


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Level 2
Karam Kriya School level 2 programs with Shiv Charan Singh: HERE
Karam Kriya School level 2 programs with other Karam Kriya Trainers: HERE
Conscious Communication Hold the teacher's voice. Empower your speaking. Deepen your listening. Sounding from the navel. Pitching from the chakras. Projecting & defending. Prayerful communication. Communication blocks; fear/anger. Hidden self, shadow self & the mask. Uplifting others through the frequency of your communication is a direct path to self-mastery.
Life Cycles & Life Styles Review your personal biography in a manner that will set you free from the dead weight of the past and turn lead to gold. Learn to harmonise the 7, 11 and 18-year cycles of your life and why this is important. Establish your future projection so that the flow of prosperity is a natural consequence of the balance of the rhythms. Step further into the practical science of transforming your life from habits that are soul-demoting to a discipline that is soul-promoting.
Authentic Relationships Include yourself in God by full participation in the human experience. From incarnation of your spirit through living conscious relationships to merging with the divine while alive. Practical discussions, exercises and meditations that give a deep insight into the most basic nature of man and woman as well as the methods to realize the highest consciousness through fulfilling your humanity.
Mind & Meditation Conquer the mind and you will conquer the world. The mind is the problem yet within it is the solution. This is the opportunity for an in depth exploration of the mind, its functions, facets and projections. Learn to recognise your own tendencies and experience the meditations that transform the mind into a truly great and helpful servant of your soul. The medatative mind provides the means to be still, intuitive and creative.
Vitality & Stress "God only lives in cosy homes", Yogi Bhajan. The body is the temple. With its biochemistry, neuro-transmissions, five winds, pranas, nadis and various physical and subtle organs. Subject to so much internal and external stress how can it become like gold and radiate?
Vitality is the capacity of the nervous and glandular system to respond and adapt. it is also a sign of a harmonious relationship to the vastness of the cosmos and its laws. Stress can be the training ground to develop this capacity or it can produce a degeneration of this capacity.
Level 2 modules with other Karam Kriya School Trainers
Mind and Meditation (English and German)
1-6 July 2020 Bachitar Kaur and Hari Krishan Singh in Yogahouse Prasaad, Engen, Germany EMAIL
Authentic Relationships (Dutch and English)
9-14 April 2020 Hari Krishan Singh and Bachitar Kaur in Antwerp, Belgium EMAIL

subset: commoncrawl


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Swiss Re Ltd. Chief Financial Officer David Cole expects consolidation in the reinsurance market as oversupply of capital squeezes prices.
"Selling property and casualty reinsurance is becoming more difficult for us as well," Cole, 53, said in an interview in Zurich this week. "In the current market environment where there is pricing pressure, we should recognize that it may lead to some consolidation in the industry."
Reinsurers' margins are under pressure as low interest rates push investors, such as pension funds searching for above- average returns, into their market. Below-average catastrophe claims have also left the industry, which shoulders risks for primary insurers in return for a share of the premiums, with abundant funds.
Consolidation could occur among insurers and reinsurers "who come to the conclusion that their business model is no longer appropriate given the current market circumstance and decide to transfer portions of their portfolio to other players," Cole said.
Reinsurance rates declined in the main renewals of annual contracts in January, April and July due to the absence of major catastrophes and an oversupply of capital available for coverage, according to reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter. Rates have declined in seven of the last 10 years, according to the Guy Carpenter World Property Catastrophe Rate on Line Index.
China Acquisition
"We remain open to organic and inorganic growth and we could see opportunities similar to what we have done in the recent past or potentially larger," Cole said.
Cole, a former CFO at ABN Amro, became CFO at Swiss Re on May 1, replacing George Quinn, who left to join Zurich Insurance Group AG.
Swiss Re's corporate solutions unit, which sells insurance to corporate customers, last month agreed to buy a Chinese unit of the U.K.'s RSA Insurance Group Plc for £71 million ($120 million) following a deal in February to buy 51 percent of Columbia's Confianza. Those purchases were part of strategy to shift capital to regions with higher premium growth prospects including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and China.
The group also agreed to buy the U.K. pensions business of HSBC Holdings Plc for an undisclosed sum in June for its Admin Re unit. Admin Re, one of its three business pillars, buys and manages blocks of closed life and health insurance funds, mainly in the U.S. and the U.K., no longer selling new contracts.
Excess Capital
Swiss Re wants to invest $3 billion of its excess capital at an 11 percent return on equity by 2015, the company said today. It does not disclose how much of the capital it holds.
"We've used our excess capital to invest in opportunities and we will continue to invest into our business," said Cole. "Investments need to meet our financial hurdles. As a proxy we look for a return on equity of 11 percent.
Swiss Re slumped in Zurich trading yesterday after reporting second-quarter profit that missed analysts' estimates, amid a decline in earnings from life and health insurance. Munich Re and Hannover Re also declined after reporting lower- than-expected earnings.
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Shalawam Family,
It has been much longer than I expected but here I am. I have had some challenges that have kept me from blogging but I am writing in hopes that I can encourage others to just hang on. Things happen that are out of our control but we can control our reaction to the things that occur. I had to reflect on my Let It Go and Let It Go (Part 2) entries because I am once again in a pinch. Not sure how I am going to make all of my ends meet but I know that He is faithful and He always comes through for me somehow and some way. I just have to believe, trust, and depend on Him even though it appears as if my situation is completely hopeless. I just want to encourage all of you because I know that most of us have been there through trying and hard times. During some seasons if it's not one thing it's another but it rains on the righteous as well as the unrighteous and the Lord is just. He has been so patient with me my whole entire life and the very least I could do is wait patiently on Him. It gives me a lot to think about and a few scriptures to meditate on that I will share below. Have a blessed evening in the Most High, keep the faith, and seek His face always.
Shalawam & Barak Atham,
Sister Amina
Matthew 5:45 (KJV) That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Isaiah 55:8 (KJV) 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
Matthew 28:20 (KJV)
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.


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Envisat captures California ablaze
This Envisat image captures fierce easterly desert winds blowing smoke from wildfires in Southern California. Gale-force winds have fed more than a dozen fires from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border since breaking out on Sunday, killing one person and forcing the evacuation of a quarter of a million people.
In the full image below, sand is visible being blown from Mexico's Baja California Peninsula over the Gulf of California to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Image acquired 22 October 2007 at 17:52 UTC by the MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) instrument aboard ESA's Envisat satellite while working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 metres. MERIS images are available on ESA's MIRAVI website, which gives access to Envisat's most recently acquired images.
MIRAVI, short for MERIS Images RApid VIsualisation, tracks Envisat around the globe, generates images from the raw data collected by MERIS and provides them online within two hours. MIRAVI is free and requires no registration.


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Speaking of brooches, Linda & Harriet has come up with a gorgeous way to reuse their letterpress misprints. These flower pins are each hand cut and sewn together with a vintage button. How brilliant! And how gorgeous are their gift tags? A perfect way to adorn your gifts this holiday season!
{photos from linda & harriet}
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Linda & Harriet Recycled
Posted by thoughtful day at 8:33 AM
Labels: Accessories, Gifts, Paper
1 comment:
- Joanna Goddard said...
these are so pretty, what a great idea!
- December 11, 2008 at 3:28 PM
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Saturday, October 16, 2010
Saturday Morning at Our House
6 comments:
What a great post Amy - and what a beautiful little girl you have there.ReplyDelete
They grow up so FAST!!
The only part of this whole post that was bad was that whole work conference call on a Saturday morning thing.
You HAVE to frame these & hang them up together in a series. She will love to see this when she is a young teen. I am glad you aren't asking us to pick out our favorite photo because it would be impossible. CarolinaReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 17, 2010 at 1:57 AM
Amy, this is such a wonderful site. I love the picture of her reading the book! Wonderful photos!ReplyDelete
Aunties lil Bday Baby! She is sooooo adorable she gives me "Happy Tears"! I <3 HER!!!ReplyDelete
Every time you do an "Ellie" Blog, I can't read it fast enough! I love them they tend to be my favs! I agree with the Muse of The Day 100%! I always think OH THIS IS MY FAV BLOG then you come up with a new "Ellie" Blog and I just fall in love with it...GREAT BLOG! As ALWAYS what a beautiful lil girl<3ReplyDelete
I love the shot of her reading!!!ReplyDelete


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Google Chrome is without doubt my favorite browser, but its recent update (v. 68.0.3440.75 to be exact) fixed a bug that was a feature to me and many others. Prior to the update, any external link outside of Chrome would be opened as a new tab in the last active window of Chrome, meaning that if you were using the Incognito mode, Chrome would open the URLs you click in Mail, Notes, or your PDF viewer in a new tab under that same Incognito window.
This has been a rather convenience feature, especially if you want to keep your browsing history clean. By clean I mean I want my browsing history to be filled with websites that are worth coming back to, not some unnecessary junk, like the links to "unsubscribe" from newletters you never mean to subscribe.
The solution turns out to be much simpler than I expected: just create an AppleScript, save it as an Application, register it as a handler of
http and
https schemes, set the default web browser in System Preferences as the application, and voila!
Here is the AppleScript I wrote:
on run theURL
tell application "Google Chrome"
if application "Google Chrome" is not running then
close window 1
end if
make new window with properties {mode:"incognito"}
tell its window 1
set URL of tab 1 to theURL
end tell
end tell
end run
If you don't really want to deal with all this, that's fine. Just download this zipped ChromeHelper.app, unzip and drag the
ChromeHelper.app to your
/Applications/ folder, and set it as the default web browser. Oh and btw, you might need to run:
sudo spctl --master-disable
to disable the Gatekeeper for macOS Sierra or later.
Hey, kudos for making it this far! Wanted to let you know that if you liked this, you might also like tmux Cheatsheet and Shortcuts.


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The Medieval Institute provides audio-visual equipment for sessions of the International Congress on Medieval Studies on the campus of Western Michigan University according to requests made on the Participant Information Form at the time the paper proposal is submitted for consideration (on or before Sept. 15). Late equipment requests can rarely be accommodated.
Data projector specifications
Data projectors are present in Congress meeting rooms only for those sessions for which they have been requested. They have VGA and HDMI connections and support 640 x 480 (VGA), 800 x 600 (SVGA), 1024 x 768 (XGA) and 1280 x 1024 (SXGA) resolutions. We encourage you to test your laptop with a projector using a VGA or HDMI connection before coming to the congress.
Most Mac users and any laptop user without a VGA or HDMI terminal will need to bring an adapter for the VGA or HDMI connection. All laptop users will need to bring power cords. Most of those coming from outside North America will need a plug adapter (although probably not a converter, since most laptops are designed to work with a wide range of voltage and frequency). Electrical current in the United States is 120 volts/60 Hz.
Please note that computers are not provided for congress presentations. Speakers who wish to make presentations involving a computer are expected to bring their own laptops or to arrange with the session's organizer or another colleague for the use of a computer.
Internet access
Those planning to use the internet during their presentations will need to establish a User ID in WMU's wireless system on their laptops in advance of the session. It is also possible, through a separate login and with an account established in advance, to have Ethernet access to the internet in Congress session rooms in Schneider Hall and Sangren Hall.
Other equipment
Document cameras, DVD players, Blu-ray players, audio CD players, and whiteboards are also available.
Audio-visual assistance
Audio-visual equipment assistance is available in the Fetzer Center, the Bernhard Center, Schneider Hall and Sangren Hall when sessions are running.


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Advanced Open Water Certification in Key Largo
Scuba Dive in the Florida Keys with Sail Fish Scuba
Advanced Open Water Diver Course Description
Key Largo is the diving capital of the world, the ideal place to take your scuba certification to the next level.
Go deeper, increase buoyancy control, navigate the seas with ease and advanced your diving skills. If you don't want to limit yourself to 60 ft dives relying solely on your compass to navigate, and instead dive to 100 ft comfortably while learning the secrets of natural navigation, this course is for you!
Advanced Open Water Diver Course Outline
Peak Performance Buoyancy
Swim like a fish without bumping into the sand / reef.
Underwater Navigation
Navigate the seas without solely relying on your compass, learn the secrets to natural navigation.
Deep Dive
Explore the deep abyss, get certified to dive to 100 feet where animals get bigger and air spaces get smaller.
Pick two of these suggested dives
- Boat Diving – Learn how we set up the boat and precautions when boat diving
- Underwater Photography – Perfect your picture taking skills underwater
- Under Water Naturalist – Identify Corals and learn to act responsibly with aquatic life
- Wreck Diving – Explore shipwrecks and take the first step to your wreck diving specialty
Advanced Open Water Course
$449.00 + eLearner fee + tax
Registration Step 1
• Follow the link to register and pay PADI for your virtual classroom and virtual manual.
Registration Step 2
• Book your dive course with us!
Schedule and Duration
*Check-in is an hour before each tour leaves!
Frequently Asked Questions
Review Medial Questionnaire
Scuba Diving Trips in Key Largo
Advanced Open Water Diver Photo Gallery
Scuba Diving in Key Largo with Sail Fish Scuba


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Dalton Courson Elected Co-Chair of the AIDSLaw Board
Dalton Courson has been elected Co-Chair of the AIDSLaw Board and will serve a one year term. AIDSLaw of Louisiana, Inc. is a Louisiana not-for-profit corporation formed in 1989 to provide free legal services to low-income persons living with HIV and AIDS. AIDSLaw is the only organization in the state dedicated to addressing the legal needs of the affected community and has served more than 10,000 residents.


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Ok so last time I promised I would return to Benny's to have a taste of their regular cheese slice. I also promised my fiance at that time (now my wife as of January 7th!!) that we would pig out after the wedding on a whole pie of pizza together. Today I fullfilled that promise.
First off being the fatties that we were we ordered it before we got there so it would be funky fresh as soon as we walked in – and it was. And for one of the first times in a long time we didn't panic and order a bunch of extra things like a side of spicy fries (mmmmm, spicy fries) or a falafel. We just focused on the pizza this time.
The pie was pretty good (I had 3 4 slices), but not as good as Rosa's in the city.
Let's break it down:
Dough: Perfectly cooked, just barely crispy with a good dough-e flavor
Cheese: Worse part about it? It still tastes good just not as flavorful as it should be. They may be using cheap or a low fat kind of cheese
Sauce: Perfect tomato-e flavor, not sweet like some places like to do
So overall the pizza was better than say La pizzeria or Benjy's but like I said not a Rosa's. Rosa's has them beat with better cheese.
I think they might have messed up on the price because we got the pie and a bottle of Fresca for $14.50 which was an amazing deal! Was it mistake or a Wednesday night special? I'm not sure and we were too afraid to ask!
Heres a tip: get a side of their creamy caeser dressing (even though I think it was 98% mayonnaise) to dip the crust in – it's delicious!
Def a top kosher pizza joint if you are ever looking to grab a quick slice!Price: $ Benny's Kosher 181-30 Union Turnpike
Fresh Meadows, NY (718)969-1928 map
Popularity: 2% [?]
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I went to the DMV yesterday to get my new car registered. It's not really new, but my mom's old 2000 Mitsubishi Montero. I had all of my forms in hand, ready to go. Their hi-tech push-a-button-give-a-number system was down, so I approached the first window to declare my business and get my number.
I presented all of the appropriate paperwork and asked about also turning in the plate for my old car that I sold. I explained to the lady behind the counter that my old car was registered under my maiden name. She asked for my maiden name, which is Wright, and then just happened to ask if I was related to Susan Wright-Garcia (listed on the title for my new car). I told her, yes, that's my mom. She then asked if I'd like to save $406.00. Duh!
Apparently, sales tax is waived in the state of Kansas if you purchase the car from a "lineal ascendant". This would be grandparents, parents, son or daughter or their spouses. Siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews do not qualify.
I took the photocopied form from the lady and headed home to fax it to my mom to sign. Now, I am pretty good at researching the proper procedures for dealing with the DMV, especially since their closest office is just far enough away to make the trip a chore. I thought to myself, how could I have missed this? I would have possibly blown an extra $400 if it wasn't for their faulty hi-tech push-a-button-give-a-number system. So, I went back to their site and looked on the page with all of the instructions for "Titling a Used Vehicle". Nowhere on this page do they mention this money-saving fact. I searched for the form, which is available on their site as a PDF. The form is TR-215, Affidavit of Relationship.
So, there you go all you used car buying Kansans! Save yourself some money and use that form!


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The Democrat debate last night in Philadelphia was the closest the Dems will ever get to the kinds of questions Fox News would have given them in this election cycle — addressing issues of character, history, and other vetting issues. Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous are feeling the pain for going against the MSM's Leftist talking-points by taking it to Obama in a way no MSM venue has — directly, forcefully and persistently.
Some pundits are cheering ABC, some are panning them. I'd like the candidates to have a time-keeper and just let the candidates have a dialogue for an hour on whatever comes up.
Anyway, I didn't watch the debate, I'm a "Ghost Hunters" fan on Wednesdays, so the 468th Dem debate lost to a spooky EVP caught at Mt. Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, NH. Nonetheless, I've seen the highlights, I've heard the spin, I've read the meat and potatoes and have come to the conclusion that both of the Dems had a weak night and are beatable in the Fall. Obama has character/issue/experience fallibilities and reacts too slow, and She Who Must Not Be Named has made too many gaffes that the Republicans will exploit with glee and there would be no greater fundraising device for Republicans than a SWMNBN general-election candidacy.
At the end of the day, I don't think the polls will change and the cards will fall as they were apt to anyway. Like many things with the Dems there was a lot of empty talk, a bit of mudslinging, plenty of promises and nothing changes.


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This was first posted on DXSUMMIT.ORG : A global platform for rethinking mental health on Tuesday 4th June May 2013. It was a response to an earlier posting.
Dr. Ronald Pies is, characteristically, correct in pointing out that language is important. Elegant language should be used to explain and contextualize the evidence of empirical research, not to obfuscate and not to serve as an alternative to scientific analysis. So I am sorry that Dr. Pies was confused, rather than inspired, by my essay. He raised several important questions that I had clearly failed to address adequately. In particular, Dr. Pies suggested my essay was extraordinarily broad and entirely unreferenced; if I had explained myself better, I'm hopeful that Dr. Pies might have found more with which to agree.
So… I highlighted what I termed "the poor reliability, validity, utility, epistemology and humanity of psychiatric diagnoses".
These issues have been discussed… quite a lot recently, and we could end up repeating ourselves. So I won't just refer to sources of those missing references (especially books by Richard Bentall, Jo Moncrieff and John Read and Jacqui Dillon), but also engage with Dr. Pies' specific questions.
First, Dr. Pies asked what I meant by a "psychiatric diagnosis"? He asked whether that referred "to any diagnostic conclusion reached by an experienced psychiatrist? To any or all DSM-IV or DSM-5 criteria sets? If a social worker diagnoses "obsessive-compulsive disorder", does that constitute a "psychiatric" diagnosis?" The answer, in brief, is "yes", that sounds like a fair conclusion. I certainly don't think that psychiatrists, as a profession, make flawed diagnoses and that other professions, such as social workers are somehow more (or less) skilled. I mean quite the reverse – that the theoretical approach, the carefully-crafted tools, and, specifically, the DSM-IV, DSM-5 and ICD criteria sets actively hinder caring and skilled clinicians as they try to understand and help their clients.
I'm genuinely appreciative that Dr. Pies set out his questions so clearly. Unfortunately – or perhaps rather positively – there are complexities in the answers that mean we have a lot to discuss. So Dr. Pies next asked whether I was aware "that the inter-rater reliability (kappa) of several psychiatric diagnoses has been shown to be comparable to, or better than, some diagnoses in pathology and internal medicine, when structured clinical interviews are used?" (and cited a specific paper).
So… I am aware that medical diagnoses are not perfect. I am, in fact, mildly concerned about the fact that I and my family put a great deal of trust in the judgment of medical professionals (and take medication as a consequence) without necessarily testing out possible alternatives. In general practice, for example, there have been a number of trials (with varying success) of the use of computerized 'expert systems' to take out the vagaries of human judgment.
In the field of psychiatry, my point was not to contrast the difficulties of the psychiatric diagnostic process with the supposed simplicities of 'medical' diagnosis – but to contrast the inadequacies of psychiatric diagnoses with a proposal for a problem-focused approach. Drawing this comparison is important and was the main point of my essay. Indeed, it might have been helpful – for me – if Dr. Pies had actually addressed this. Does he think, for example, that diagnosis adds clinical utility over and above the problem-focused approach I have described? And if so, what is this benefit?
But also… it's interesting that Dr. Pies focused on four very high kappa coefficients from DSM-III. Because, of course, the kappa coefficients for 'post-traumatic stress disorder' (0.55) or 'attention deficit disorder' (0.50) or even 'autistic spectrum disorder' (0.01) are not so robust. And it's interesting that we're talking about DSM-III diagnoses, because the inter-rater reliability for the DSM franchise has been falling… as they refine the brand, its performance drops.
But even despite this cherry-picking, I think that Dr. Pies and colleagues are in danger of comparing apples with pears. One study that Dr. Pies refers to compares the 'high' reliability of psychiatric diagnoses with the poorer reliability of medical diagnoses by looking at inter-rater agreement in stroke patients. But the two kappa coefficients being discussed refer to different things. In relation to the DSM-III, the kappa coefficients refer to two clinicians agreeing (or not) whether a particular putative disorder is present – whether the criteria are met for its diagnosis. The kappa coefficients in the stroke paper refer to raters agreeing not on whether there has been a stroke or not, but on its aetilogy (comparing "atherosclerotic large-vessel disease, lacunar infarct, cardioembolic stroke, stroke of other known cause, and stroke of undetermined etiology").
So I stand by my "psychiatric diagnoses are unreliable" claim (especially in routine clinical practice, when diagnostic manuals are more decorative than obligatory). And whilst I agree with Dr. Pies that validity is much more important, I worry about reliability when I see prominent psychiatrists suggest, for instance, that "Clinicians need to communicate to each other, and even a wrong diagnosis allows them to do so".
Predictive (In)validity
In reference to my claim that psychiatric diagnoses "fail to predict the course of a person's problems", Dr. Pies pointed out that "several studies of DSM-defined schizophrenia have shown good predictive validity". That's a very fair point. There have been several studies along these lines, and it's absolutely true to say that if you first receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia, then, 13 years later, you are much more likely still to meet that diagnosis (although there are some differences between the different diagnostic systems). But that wasn't quite what I was, perhaps inelegantly, groping at.
I wasn't suggesting that a person could experience a random collection of problems at one point in time and experience an equally random and unrelated variety of difficulties at a second time. I believe that a person's difficulties will have structure and meaning, and have explicable aetiological causes. So if people experience hallucinations (let's say) at one point in their lives, it is not particularly surprising that they experience hallucinations later. This merely speaks to the fact that human experiences are understandable and non-random, but does not necessarily speak to the existence of a valid syndrome called schizophrenia. Indeed it is very sad that the consistency across time is as high as is reported. If the 'treatments' for the diagnosed 'disorders' had been successful, then you would expect that the problems would be resolved, and you would hope that a few years later there would be relatively little concordance (if successfully treated, the symptoms would no longer exist).
But, as I say, I wasn't suggesting – this is not our contention at all – that people's experiences are random. The point is that diagnoses such as 'schizophrenia' do not efficiently predict the course or outcome for individuals – whether they will remain in hospital, remain reliant on medication, work, marry, raise children (Ciompi, 1984; Sartorius et al, 1987).
(Non)indicator of Treatment Success
And that leads on to treatment, of course. And I'm afraid, here, Dr. Pies and I may disagree a little more. Dr. Pies asked whether I "believe that a DSM diagnosis of bipolar I disorder does not predict, in general, a favorable response to lithium carbonate?" First, and I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself, the DSM-5 field trials revealed a kappa coefficient of 0.54 for the diagnosis of bipolar I disorder… so I wouldn't place too much faith in the reliability of the diagnosis.
Many of my medical colleagues have some faith in the effectiveness of lithium carbonate in stabilizing moods although (as I suspect readers will realize) I would prefer to use other effective, and less toxic, methods myself. But my argument – our argument – isn't to try to undermine and criticize established research. I don't think it's remotely sensible to claim that medication has no effect on our mood, or that those effects cannot be helpful. But, and probably partly because their reliability is so low, diagnoses are not as effective in predicting responses to drugs as are approaches based on specific problems.
To try to be as clear as possible: medication can be helpful and medical psychiatrists play a vital role. But they would be much more effective in helping people if they responded to specific problems than if they attempted to give the treatments predicated by diagnoses.
This is clearer still in respect to Dr. Pies' next question [would I believe that] "a diagnosis of major depressive disorder fails to predict a good response to cognitive-behavioral therapy?". Well… technically, yes… and no. It's pretty clear (although some of my colleagues seem to be more skeptical) that CBT is helpful for people with low mood… but also with a wide range of other problems. That's understandable. People make sense of their world. These frameworks of understanding are, in large part, consequent on the experiences they've had, especially in childhood and adolescence, and how they've learned to respond. And, of course, the way in which people make sense of their world has profound effects on their emotions and behavior; their "mental health". So, therefore, it's entirely unsurprising that CBT – a pretty straightforward, but highly skillful approach to helping people examine and change their framework of understanding of the world – is effective. But, again for entirely unsurprising reasons, CBT is helpful across a wide range of problems; any problem where a person's cognitive schema plays a role (which is, of course, true in many cases).
So CBT is very helpful… but it's not a specific treatment for 'major depressive disorder'. And this, technically means that while somebody with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder may well respond well to cognitive-behavioral therapy, so would someone without that diagnosis. Once again… it's the identification of problems, not the diagnosis of illnesses, that's useful.
That, then, is what I mean by "psychiatric disorders have poor 'utility'". They aren't useful over and above simply focusing on the problems people experience. Two people with the same diagnosis may have two largely (sometimes completely) non-overlapping sets of problems, with no established underlying pathology. Proponents of psychiatric diagnosis argue that a diagnosis is useful for communication, but since the information doesn't tell you what problems a person is actually experiencing, doesn't specify what treatment will be effective and doesn't point towards a specific set of causal agents, I find this claim hard to understand. I worry that what's actually being communicated is what Dawkins calls a 'meme' – a belief system (this person is suffering from schizophrenia, and we all know what that means, don't we?).
"What studies can Prof. Kinderman cite showing that psychiatric diagnoses lack "humanity"? In what sense is this true?"
Dr. Pies is absolutely correct – when I refer to 'humanity', I'm making a moral judgment. I fear that the 'diagnosis-treat' model leads to inhumane treatment. I absolutely do not believe that my traditional psychiatric colleagues are themselves inhumane, but I believe that, with great sympathy and with the best interests of their clients at heart, inhumane practices abound.
So… a study… well, rather sadly the United Nations recently published a report into psychiatric care suggesting that some practices were "akin to torture". Not "inhumane"; "akin to torture".
Sadly, these experiences are not limited to UN reports, nor to the stranger shores of experimental therapy.
I receive a fair number of unsolicited letters. One summed up the situation nicely:
Rather than engaging with the patients on the ward, the staff instead shepherded them around like sheep with bullying commands, threats of 'jabs' (injections), and removal to an acute ward elsewhere in the hospital, if they did not co-operate. The staff also stressed medication rather than engagement as a way of controlling the patients. And the staff closeted themselves in the ward office, instead of being out and about on the corridors and in the vestibule where they should have been. The staff wrote daily reports on each patient on the hospital's Intranet system; these reports were depended upon by the consultant psychiatrists for their diagnoses and medication prescriptions, but were patently fabricated and false, because the staff had never engaged or observed properly the patient they were writing about in their reports. The psychiatrists themselves were rarely seen on the ward, and only consulted with their patients once a week.
Is diagnosis part of this picture? Unfortunately yes. A few years ago, Erika Setzu and I, together with colleagues at the University of Liverpool, conducted a simple research study into serious mental health problems. We asked people who either had been, or were currently, in great distress and admitted to acute psychiatric units, about their own understanding of the circumstances of being admitted to hospital. One interview (with, it's perhaps important to note, a male participant) went as follows:
Erika: "Do you know why [the problems began]?"
Interviewee: "No, I don't know for certain. I had taken some pot before my first admission and I thought somebody might have dropped some acid on it. I also had a difficult childhood. I was physically and emotionally abused, sexually abused as well. This is very difficult for me to get my head round."
A little later, the interview continued:
Interviewee: "I started to hear voices, but they were not nice voices, they were horrible."
Erika: "Did you recognise them?"
Interviewee: "It was the man that abused me …I met this man that was a builder, in construction, you know? And he said that he wanted to give me a job, but they were all lies, he was trying to con me. He took me back to his house, he locked the door and he had sex with me. … And then other voices as well. I went to … hospital and the nurses were very good to me."
Erika: "When you went to hospital what did they say it was wrong with you?"
Interviewee: "Schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia."
Erika: "What do you think personally?"
Interviewee: "What do you mean?"
Erika: "Do you think it is what you've got?"
Interviewee: "Oh yes, that's what I have got."
To my mind, the reduction of this man's narrative from the understandable consequences of rape to the symptoms of schizophrenia is inhumane. It is also, as I'll suggest in a moment, an epistemological point, too. But I am concerned at how we become uninterested in what has happened to people and become interested in what they've "got" and what drugs we can give them. The point is that such diagnoses expunge our lived experiences from the narrative, rendering our stories pointless, and reducing our human responses to symptoms of illness.
Dr. Pies asked; "What studies can Prof. Kinderman cite showing that psychiatric disorders have poor "epistemology"? What can this claim even mean, since epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge? How has Prof. Kinderman measured the quality of the "epistemology" of psychiatric diagnosis?"
In epistemological terms, diagnoses convey the idea that people's difficulties can be understood in the same way as bodily diseases, which excludes the possibility of finding meaning in people's 'disordered' responses and experiences, and thus prevents people from understanding how they might use their own resources to address their difficulties. Worse still, diagnoses are used as pseudo-explanations for troubling behaviours (he did this because he has schizophrenia) without consideration of the circularity of that argument, and the broader context (e.g., whether a paranoid person has actually been victimised). And as a result of all these failings, the diagnostic tools that we are currently living with mean a person's social and interpersonal difficulties are often ignored in the hope that the right medication regimen will achieve the desired return to normal functioning.
Dr. Pies was confused by my use of the term "mapping"; and asked a few very pertinent questions:
What does Prof. Kinderman mean when he says that psychiatric disorders "fail to map onto an entity discernible in the real world?" What sort of "entity" does he have in mind? A lesion? A bacterium? A damaged section of the brain? Can Prof. Kinderman identify the "entity" in "the real world" onto which the diagnosis of migraine headache "maps"? How about chronic facial pain? What is the "entity" onto which the diagnosis of fibromyalgia "maps"? Do any of these three recognized disorders/diseases "map neatly onto biological findings"? Or are these not "real diseases" or disorders in the sense Prof. Kinderman would define these terms? What does it mean, "to map onto", anyway? Is this a scientifically-defined term or merely a metaphor derived from the now largely discredited school of logical positivism?
Well, first, I can't comment on the validity of "migrane", or "firbrobmyalgia". But if these disorders do not have identified biological underpinnings I would start to be skeptical of their validity. As a scientist, I recognize we might not yet know all there is to know, but I'd start to be worried if there were no biological abnormality, disease vector… as indeed we find with many psychiatric disorders, of course. I'm not a medical doctor, and I trust my medical colleagues are scientific and skeptical in this regard, but if "migraine" or "firbrobmyalgia" have no discernable 'biomarker', then yes, I'd be skeptical of their validity, too.
The mention of 'chronic facial pain' is very interesting, as that strikes me as exactly the kind of problem-focused identification of a difficulty that we're recommending. The person is experiencing pain, it's in the face, and it's chronic. That implies nothing but identifies the issue. It's clear, descriptive and makes no implications as to the underlying nature of the problem. 'Migraine' is different, and begins to make assumptions that need to be justified.
So "mapping onto real world entities" does include the notion of biomarkers. It also speaks to the construct validity of psychiatric disorders. That is, when we expose psychiatric diagnoses to factor analysis or cluster analysis or other statistical techniques, the wise and careful judgments of committees of experts turn out to be … wrong. If these diagnoses were valid, we'd see large numbers of people meeting the criteria for no disorder at all, some people meeting the criteria for one disorder, but not others, and relatively few meeting the criteria for more than one. The diagnoses should – in Plato's phrase – "carve nature at the joints". But I think it is hard to argue that they DSM and ICD achieve this. The reason – as Thomas Insel recently implied, but others such as Mary Boyle and Richard Bentall have been saying for years – is that few of the current diagnostic categories were "discovered" from the bottom-up. Rather, for a variety of reasons that can be traced historically, they were largely determined a priori, by committee and not on the strength of evidence. A recent example of this process in action is the inclusion of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder in the DSM 5. It is acknowledged that this diagnosis lacks validity and specificity and has a weak basis in empirical research. It has not been "discovered" by application of the scientific method but conjured into existence for non-scientific reasons (to solve an embarrassing problem for the APA, namely the enormous rise in diagnoses of childhood 'bipolar disorder' and consequent dangerous proliferation of medication).
What we see (and just one piece of research below) is a pattern of human experiences which has meaning and structure… but not support for DSM and ICD diagnoses, no matter how much the expert committees think constructs such as 'schizophrenia' must exist.
Diagnoses don't "map onto" real entities. They don't reflect biomarkers and they don't reflect the "joints" in nature.
Dr. Pies expands these ideas by asking, "Could it be said that one very relevant real-world "entity" is the suffering and incapacitated patient, and that at least some psychiatric disorders actually "map" quite well onto the self-generated description of that patient's suffering and incapacity?"
Absolutely. I can't agree more. That's exactly and precisely it. A "self-generated" description. That's precisely our point. But Dr. Pies spoils the moment. His comment goes on to describe:
"For example, when a patient complains of having had, for the past 12 years, command auditory hallucinations telling him to kill himself; the feeling that his arms are melting into the chair; the belief that a radio transmitter has been implanted into his brain by the KGB; that everyone around him can overhear his thoughts, and plant dangerous thoughts in his mind…"
And to that point I'm completely in agreement. But Dr. Pies– and this is, in a sense, the problem the point of the DSM – doesn't follow his own good advice. He doesn't stop at the client's "self-generated" list of difficulties but insists on applying the (flawed) logic of a committee of experts… "is there a legitimate and clinically useful sense in which the DSM-IV or DSM-5 category of schizophrenia "maps" onto this particular patient's experience and world-view?" To which the answer clearly is NO!
We can, we should, work with self-generated problem-lists. The difficulties arise when, completely unnecessarily, scientifically unwisely, we insist upon adding meaningless and misleading committee-generated labels to this useful and valid description of a person's problems. The labels necessarily obscure the real nature of the person's difficulties. My question to Dr. Pies would be: since clearly describing a person's problems seems so helpful, what additional benefit is offered by a diagnosis?
Dr. Pies points out that I have, myself, used psychiatric diagnoses. Of course. I would like to see a system whereby we all study, care for and talk about specific problems. But I don't yet live in that world. In the meantime I have to do two things; live in the reality of the academic and clinical world in which I find myself, and work to change it.
Dr. Pies was intrigued by my suggestion that "psychiatric diagnoses have 'ethical failings'" – meaning that diagnoses are "used as pseudo-explanations for troubling behaviours."
I think this does have huge ethical implications. The best (or perhaps worst) example of this is "coercive paraphilic disorder". In any ethical world, if we come across a man who repeatedly rapes women (or men), I would hope we would try to investigate and understand all aspects of why this happens. I can conceive of circumstances where this would lessen the culpability of the individual. But I think there are huge ethical implications of saying that "the rapes are in fact symptoms of his 'paraphilic coercive disorder" or that "he raped because he is suffering from coercive paraphilic disorder".
Framing the situation this way implies that his behaviours were CAUSED by the "disorder" to which the label refers. But, the idea that there might exist such a disorder did not come about – as we might reasonably expect – as the consequence of a process of scientific discovery. The disorder was brought into being by a committee of (as has been widely noted, financially compromised) experts who share a particular perspective. For me, this is ethically troubling.
Dr. Pies also was perplexed by the view that people claim that "psychiatric diagnoses imply that people's difficulties can be understood, or ought to be understood, "in the same way as bodily diseases".
He's right of course. This claim does not square with the "biopsychosocial model", which has been the predominant paradigm in American academic psychiatry since George Engel introduced the term. But [URL] the principles of the biopsychosocial model are often rather undermined by the tendency to see biological factors as dominant or 'primary'. So social factors are often regarded as moderating underlying genetic vulnerabilities… I think people often find it difficult to think of genetic factors mediating the effects of social factors (such as abuse) on outcome… although, in scientific terms, that is of course precisely what's happening.
And is it true that people say that psychiatric problems are essentially the same as bodily illnesses?
Well… I invite readers to explore this question for themselves. Our beloved Google reveals that the search "depression is a brain disease" textbook gives us several (actually thousands of) hits. I'll offer a prize (really, and it'll be fantastic) for the best example. My favorites include Charles Nemeroff making a typical robust offering… although here he does reveal some of his stock options. Or "San Diego's Voice on Mental Illness" which tells the citizens that depression is "an Illness Like Any Other: Mental Illnesses are Brain Disorders". This is important, of course, because the "an illness like any other" … approach actually increases stigma.
Am I aware that well-known psychiatric textbooks promote a much more humane and scientifically valid approach? Of course. But I would maintain that – as my correspondent above suggested – that's what's SAID. What's done in practice is often quite different and, in some cases, quite brutal.


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Wendy Tunison Deisgns has got another fun template set for you this week! 3 in a week? WHAT?! Awesome! Temptations Vol. 31 is 50% off through July 10th.
Check out the beautiful layouts our CT created with this set…
Don't forget to pick up Temptations Remix 12 and Temptations 30 this week while they're only $1.00 as well!
Here are my two layouts using this kit
Have a great day!


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Finds of the Week – December 30, 2007
I have been a little bit busy this past week enjoying the holidays and playing some of my old favorite games like Rome Total War and The Elders Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
No big news in .NET world this week. We are still waiting for the .NET framework source code to be released.
Here is a screenshot from the game Rome Total War:
And this is from Oblivion:
Happy New Year!


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Book Description:
Published: September 27, 2016
Format: Audio/Audible
When you can't beat the odds, change the game.
Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.
Review –
I truly find it hard to relate everything I feel about this book. The conclusion to this epic duology delivered in EVERY way possible. Crooked Kingdom enthralled and delighted, even while some of the content reduced me to tears. Kaz, Inej, Nina, Matthias, Jesper, and Wylan will forever be marked as one of my most beloved fictional crew.
Crooked Kingdom is filled with character bonding, as well as interaction and development within the numerous friendships within the main group.
Even while the crew work seamlessly together, they remain distinct and unique individuals, driven forward by their own goals and personal backstory. The amount of character development in this book is phenomenal. By halfway through the book, I was fully invested in every single story – even for characters we previously did not see much of like Wylan.
Besides the characters bonding more as a unit and also as romantics pairs there is an arresting storyline, filled with cunning tricks and plot twists. Leigh Bardugo absolutely shines during her fight scenes, with the action becoming almost cinematic. The constantly turning wheels of Kaz Brekker's mind is also equally formidable. We all love a story about an underdog, and watching Kaz scheme his way numerous setbacks had me on the edge of my seat, but the payoff is always so immensely satisfying.
Not all couples end up together-there is a death of a major player- I won't say who but it was worthy of several Kleenex and I still can't believe he's gone.
I wish the author had Kaz pronounce his real feelings for Inej, instead he just holds her hand, without gloves. This may not sound like much to those who have not read Six of Crows, but it's a major deal for Kaz Brekker!
The catch phrase of this series is NO MOUNERS, NO FUNERALS and we learn more about it in this book. This is what the author has to say about the quote:
"No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose."


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Leigh Varley contributed to this article.
Jack Wynn enrolled in the Marine Corps three weeks after watching the twin towers fall on 9/11. He was 18 years old and had graduated from high school just three months before. I spoke with Jack during his lunch break at the Southface SWEET Center on his third day of Southface's Home Energy Rating System training. Nine years after completing his military service, Jack is using his veteran education benefits to get the training he needs to start his own home energy improvement business.
During his four years in the military, Jack served in the United States Marine Corps 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California where he worked as a parachute rigger – packing, repairing and jumping parachutes. In 2004, Jack was deployed to Iraq where he served on active duty in the Battle of Najaf and the Battle of Fallujah.
After returning from a physically and mentally tolling deployment, Jack decided to leave the service. He eventually returned to work for the Marine Corps as a civilian in their parachute program on weekdays, while working as a skydiving instructor on the weekends. Jack and his wife settled in Valdosta, Georgia and last spring, they bought their first home together. They loved everything about their new home – except for their utility bills, which were running around $230 each month. Jack did some research to see what they could do to lower their energy bills. Soon he had air sealed his home, upgraded his HVAC system, added insulation and replaced all of his light bulbs with LEDs. Now Jack's utility bills cost him about $70 per month.
Impressed by the dramatic difference in his utility bills, Jack was inspired to start a home energy improvement business to help other homeowners make similar changes. He began researching the training and certifications he would need in order to start his own business, and soon he enrolled in the BPI Building Analyst class at Southface with his wife, who is also his business partner. Following the BPI course, Jack took Southface's ASHRAE course and he is currently enrolled in the Home Energy Rating System training.
As soon as Jack completes his Home Energy Rating System certification, he and his wife will begin helping others make home energy improvements through their new business, Southern Home Energy Solutions. Services will include initial evaluation, blower door and duct blaster testing, lighting renovations, air sealing and other minor renovations. Jack's focus is on simple changes that have a big impact and a short payback period.
Jack was one of the first students to take advantage of Southface's veteran education benefit program, which was established in 2014. The program gives students who have served in the military, who are currently on active duty, or are dependents of a disabled or deceased veteran the opportunity to take courses at Southface that are funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs. "The process was seamless," said Jack. "I found the courses online, sent a few emails and my veteran education benefits were accepted by Southface. I don't have to deal with the payments or anything."
Southface is proud to provide green building training to veterans transitioning into a career in energy efficiency.


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ND Challenge #1
one dream for today…
I think im sort of stressed because of many things at the moment, do you know that; having no real motivation to do some autosuggestion etc before going to bed?
One dream for Monday. It's the previous superhero incubation
Carnun…200~~~ Unfortunately has had to resign form participating in this challenge.
There are still some votes to be cast so I'll keep y'all updated.
Had another long dream last night. I do remember music, but only when I woke up, meaning it could've been created in a dream and I only remember that song now. Not to mention it was a song I've never heard before. What do you think?
I had a ridiculous dream where I would realize something was off and say "This can't be real! I'm dreaming!" (or equivalent) and immediately have a FA and continue on in another but similar dream world. This happened 4 times before the final time I realized I didn't say anything out loud.
The result: I fell to the ground in paralysis and the dream faded except for one character, and I stayed there trying to move (knowing it was resultant of SP) with that DC poking me for about 5 minutes.
Oh yeah and music seeped in twice.
I have NO clue how to count that. 5 different dreams that all ended when I got lucid (so a bunch of .5LD's? One dream that I got lucid several times? or just insanity.
(Side note, I never get FA's, especially not more than one)
[EDIT]Denied Lucidity
No music this time, but instead trains, malls and bombs
Mind if I hop on the bandwagon? Here's my DJ.
Wow, just wow. Um, let's just count it as 5 LDs since each was a separate instance/dream in which you realized that you were dreaming. If nothing else we can count it as bonus points for your torture.
I have a predicament. It is about your Personal Goal. Do you feel that you have completed it, as in purposely dreamed about a train station, or not? If so, I'll add it to your points and you can choose a different goal, if not then…nevermind…
Welcome aboard.
Sorry for the confusion earlier.
I will go on and give you points for the dreams that you have recorded during the Challenge period already.
Do you have anything you would like to try to dream about as your personal goal?
EDIT: Oh, and I've decided that if you complete a goal that was posted on a sunday on a wednesday night it will still count for a full 30 points instead of the past goal points (20). This is because the week has an odd number of days making it so that the first goal of the week has only 3 days to complete and the latter has 4.
I'm just digging myself a hole with all these rule tweaks aren't I. haha
dreamt about going to the disco yesterday. --> music
Bad that my notes cover only the middle part of the dream, I feel that it was longer
Another good thing: I think I will have more time and motivation to write my dreams after Thursday.
Scores. New goal tomorrow, current one still gets full points tomorrow night as explained above.
hunaynay…20…New participant
3 dreams for Tuesday. no music … but i did give them all music titles
Well, all I remember from my dreams last night is what I wrote, Minecraft. There was another song in my head when I woke up too.
Well, I'll be visiting my Gram's until Friday. I'm still going to be recording my dreams, but I won't be able to keep everything updated on here. I was thinking that if you had the next incubation challenge ready you could pm it to me before I go, but we're leaving pretty much right now. Good luck to everyone while I'm gone!
Sorry everyone. I was able to sleep in today so I did.
Next goal:
Planet Discovery
Go to a distant planet, create your own, talk with aliens, fight them, just dream about a planet other than our own or about being in space in general.
Oh, and don't forget to vote. (even though I kinda forgot about it myself… )
The train station is a certain train station, of which I dont want to mention the station in name /me remembers a dream from today involving trams etc.
Ok, got it. Just let me know if you accomplish it
Oh, and I had 4 dreams last night. Pretty high level of detail.
no dreams (stupid school essay D: )
Spaaaace! Augh! This goal's showed up many times, and I really really want to do it, but haven't been able to yet! D: focuses
I have four NDs and an LD from last night, but I'm going to be late for school, so I'll have to post them in the afternoon.
In the LD, I was flying around, and we (me and two DCs) /just/ got into space when my alarm went off. No planet discovery for us.
EDIT: Ohhh I totally forgot a personal goal! Mine is to meet my characters in a dream.


text: King's Kids is the children's ministry at Steelville First Assembly of God. We would like to welcome you to our website page, and invite you to join us on Sunday morning. We start out with a great breakfast at 10:30 A.M. every Sunday morning. Then we have a great time worshiping and praising God through song, skits, puppets, memory verses and the lesson from the Word of God. You will be welcomed by a wonderful children's ministry staff who is excited to meet you ! So, come and join us!


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Is disrespecting Black women the new norm for Sean Spicer?
For many Black women in America, there is a certain amount of patience and struggle they go through because of stereotypes. From eye rolling at a ridiculous statement to facial expressions, there is a certain message you get when a woman is displeased with the words coming from your mouth. For White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer it was too much and he decided to single out April Ryan for her "Black woman" body language at a recent press conference.
Ryan is a well-respected correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and was asking a question about the Trump administration and the recent scandal over Russian influence. Specifically, she asked Spicer how the administration was going to improve its image and Spicer bristled at the question. He stated to Ryan, "No, we don't have that. … I get it, but I've said it from the day that I got here until whatever, that there is no connection. You've got Russia. If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a Russian connection."
As Spicer was speaking, Ryan shook her head at his response and got a reprimand from the press secretary who told her "I'm sorry, please stop shaking your head again." Ryan was surprised at Spicer's admonition and later stated to the media, "I've been here for 20 years, since 1997, the second term of Bill Clinton. … We've never seen anything like this before. And my question was simple. How do you change the perception problem basically? I don't know verbatim what I said, but that was the impetus and the crux of my question. And it went off into this Russian dressing, no shaking my head or whatever. I understand what Sean is doing. Sean is being the White House press secretary talking about and trying to make this administration look better than what it does right now. Unfortunately, I was roadkill today."
This public attack on a Black woman by a powerful conservative public figure was the second one this week after Bill O'Reilly's infamous "James Brown wig" comment against Sen. Maxine Waters.
Ryan has also claimed that she felt physically threatened by Trump staffer Omarosa Manigault outside the Oval Office last month. Apparently, if you are a Black woman and do not follow the Trump agenda, expect to be singled out.


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The result was announced during the market hours today, 13 August 2019.
Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex tanked 623.75 points or 1.66% and closed at 36,958.16.
On the BSE, 9.04 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 2.91 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock hit a high of Rs 444.8 and a low of Rs 420.8 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 678.8 on 06 Sep 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 350.4 on 13 May 2019.
The company's earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at Rs 1881 crore with an EBITDA margin of 22.8% in Q1 June 2019.
The company's R&D investments stood at Rs 422 crores (5.1% of sales) in Q1 June 2019 as compared to Rs. 500 crores (7% of sales) in Q1 June 2018.
Commenting on company's Q1 performance, Dilip Shanghvi, managing director of the company said, "We have recorded growth across most of the markets for the quarter and our performance is in-line with our full-year guidance. We are consistently focusing on improving our efficiencies and cost structure to ensure reasonable returns for our generics business. At the same time, we continue our unwavering efforts on building the specialty business and are encouraged by the potential of one of our pre-clinical research molecules which is likely to enter clinical trials next year.
Sun Pharma is the world's fourth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company and India's top pharmaceutical company


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Streetlight Manifesto Add Dates To Farewell Tour
New Jersey's own ska band Streetlight Manifesto have added two more dates to the upcoming final leg of their End of the Beginning Tour, beginning in October. The two new dates are for October 3 at the Waiting Room in Buffalo, New York, and October 7 at Le Cercle in Quebec City. Full list of dates can be seen after the jump, you can buy concert tickets or purchase a CD here Please follow and like us:Read More


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Scratching your head over what "kief" is?Since many of our learners are newbies in the cannabis industry, you might see confusing words or phrases in the community. Browse our glossary to find a variety of cannabis term definitions and become more educated on industry terminology. This glossary will clear up the confusion and get you speaking like a native GC'er in no time! Also, please add new glossary terms if you see anything missing.
Motionless air or water - for healthy cannabis growth, water must drain and not become stagnant as well as you need good air circulation.
The cannabis male floral organ, bearing the anther, which produces pollen to fertilize female flowers.
Male, pollen-producing flower having stamens but no pistils.
A cylindrical pipe usually made from glass that is open on both ends with the bowl extending from the top near one end. The smoker covers one end with her hand while filling the pipe with smoke, then removes her hand to clear the chamber.
To make super clean by removing dirt, germs, and bacteria; disinfect pruning tools to avoid spreading disease.
The tip of the cannabis flower's pistil, which receives the pollen.
One of a pair of small, leaf-like appendages found at the base of the leaf-stalk of many cannabis plants.
The tiny holes can be found on the underside of the cannabis leaf (and just about every other plant). They're called 'stomata' and they require a microscope or at least a magnifying glass to see. Small mouth-like or nose-like openings on leaf underside, responsible for transpiration and many other life functions - the millions of stomata must be kept very clean to function properly.
If you haven't figured it out by now, being stoned is a euphoric sensation you experience following the consumption of cannabis. It is a result of the cannabis plant's many psychoactive components, though mainly Tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC). It is certainly possible to get uncomfortably stoned, but nobody has ever died from it.
Stoner Film
Stoner film is a subgenre of comedy films that revolve around the use of cannabis. Generally, cannabis use is one of the main themes and inspires much of the plot and they are often representative of cannabis culture.


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Rowdy Randy - Now Available!
Introducing the NEWEST book by award winning childrens author Casey Rislov - a picture book based on the wild west and the legend of 'Rowdy Randy'. Rowdy Randy is the toughest cowgirl around. Never mind that this broncobuster is a horsefly. She acts taller than any tall tale. She might be easy to overlook, but Rowdy Randy definitely can't be ignored. Saddle up and hold on tight for a story that will jangle your spurs and blow your cowboy hat clean off.
About Casey's Books
Casey has 4 other award winning children's books. Time Together, Time Well Spent! was her big debut, Love is Forever has gained international attention, Come In: Open the Doors to You encourages children to try new things, & Imagination Bigger Together engages kids on topics like friendship & exploration.


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With the International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014 now over a week underway, there are still plenty more exciting shows to look forward to before the month is through.
After their eagerly anticipated openings last night, both Sylvie Guillem's 6000 Miles Away and the Aakash Odedra Company's double bill Murmur & Inked will be returning this evening to the Birmingham Hippodrome, on the main stage and in the Patrick Centre, respectively. Widely hailed as one of the world's greatest dancers, in 6000 Miles Away, Sylvie Guillem performs William Forsythe's Rearray and Mats Ek's Bye, set to Beethoven's last sonata. Meanwhile, in Murmur and Inked, Aakash Odedra collaborates with choreographer Lewis Major, the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Oliver Award-winner Damien Jalet, to explore themes of dyslexia and the transformation of the body through scarring and tattoos.
From Thursday through to the weekend, you'll be able to catch some awe-inspiring acrobatics from groundbreaking Montreal circus company Les 7 Doigts de la Main in Séquence 8 at the Birmingham REP, as well as some impressive work from Birmingham City University's School of Architecture, which will be displayed in a Millennium Point open exhibition titled All of Birmingham is a Stage.
OOn Friday and Saturday, Company Decalage will present a world premiere double bill of Match & Half Way to the Other Side in the Hippodrome's Patrick Centre, while outside, Corey Baker Dance will be giving passers-by the chance to experience some traditional Maori Haka dancing in Centenary Square.
Next week's festivities will kick off on Tuesday with Border Tales from Luca Silvestrini's Protein, a witty, satirical show blending dance, dialogue and live music, and taking place in the Patrick Centre. From Wednesday, the Hippodrome's main stage will be taken over by Matthew Bourne's New Adventures for a chilling yet beautiful dance adaptation of William Golding's The Lord of the Flies. Finally on Saturday, those a little more strapped for cash can enjoy an array of free, outdoor dance performances at Put Your Foot Down in Spiceall Street, near the Bullring.
There'll also be lots to see and do during the last week of the festival (more on this soon), including DJs, dancers, workshops and demonstrations and Sadler's Wells's Breakin' Convention, and an exploration of Argentinian tango in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's M¡longa, both in the Hippodrome theatre.
For more information on all upcoming shows and to book tickets, visit the IDFB website.


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The part that drives me batty is the math. I feel somewhat ridiculous saying this, but I find that numbers fail me. A perfect example is when I hung the fabric frames in our living room. I did the math the ensure that they would all be perfectly even. But somehow, once the nail was in the wall, they were off by an inch or two. This is why I save myself the time and just eyeball things. This greatly annoys Mr. Fix-It - he says I'm cheating and cutting corners. I say it's saving both of us from the aftermath of a hammer being flung across the room. (It's pathetic, really, my patience is ZERO when things don't make sense.)
So, when I came across a post about No Sew curtains recently and I knew they were for me. No sewing, no threading needles. But, yes, some math and measuring.
Simple enough, right? I'll let you know how it goes.
I actually don't want to make curtains. Well, I do, some day. Right now, I want to make a new shower curtain. It seems like a really feasible project and I already have a template - you know, an existing shower curtain. (That gets a big plus on the measurement front.)
I bought a really loud, fun, pink and green floral shower curtain from Pottery Barn for my first apartment out of college. I looooooved it. It was bold and awesome.
For $75 I considered it a splurge, but I loved it that much. It's been around for seven years, and it lived a good life. Looking back it definitely worked best in small-space bathrooms. It gives a perfect burst of color. Unfortunately, in our current master bath it's just a little off. Something about the scale and the colors and the fact that I've looked at it for seven years. It's time for a break. Anyone want it? Seriously.
Not too long ago I picked up this guy at World Market:
I'm really into the gray, but I'm just not sold on the overall look. (Frankly, the whole master bath needs an overhaul, but I'm not convinced we'll get a sufficient return on investment when resell our condo.) So for now I'll stick with the shower curtain. That leads me to my next question...
What's your favorite place to buy fabrics?


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More About Domino's Near 98422
Pizza Near 98422: Tasty & Fresh From the Oven!
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At Domino's near 98422, it's never been easier to get the fast and fresh pizza your tastebuds are begging you for! Order your pizza at the Domino's nearest you, give us a call, or place your pizza order online!
Get started by picking one of our homemade crusts, including a fluffy, garlic-seasoned hand-tossed crust, a pan crust featuring two colossal layers of cheese, a crunchy thin crust, or even a gluten-free pizza crust! Then, choose your sauce and your favorite pizza toppings. Pick as many as you want! Whether you're all about the veggies like green peppers, spinach, and onions, or you prefer the sweet and savory combination of ham and pineapple, your nearest Domino's location has it all.
With over 34 million different ways to make a single Domino's pizza, you can be sure we've got a slice for any taste. Build your own pizza from scratch or choose from one of our specialty pizzas, like the popular Honolulu Hawaiian, Philly Cheese Steak, or Memphis BBQ Chicken, and have it delivered fresh and hot to your door, today!
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When you order from your Domino's near 98422, you'll see that we're pretty serious about pizza delivery. In fact, we're so serious about it that we'll make you a promise. We guarantee that your pizza will arrive toasty hot and fresh at your doorstep, straight from our oven! Use our patented Pizza TrackerⓇ to follow the progress of your pizza order from the time it's placed till it arrives at your doorstep… and do your best not to drool on your computer's keyboard in the meantime.
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Letting Go is book one in Holly Renee's contemporary romance The Garage Series!
The last thing Blake expected was for Kat Archer to storm into his world and turn it upside down. He thought he had her pegged from the beginning, but she destroyed everything he thought he knew. Blake was willing to fight to push his way into Kat's heart, but she put up a wall at every turn as she clung to her past.
If she stayed, she'd risk the only family she had left. If she left, she'd lose Blake and every piece of her heart that he'd managed to steal.
Kat's brother has been running with the wrong crowd for a while and after their father's death he has only fallen further. To keep Kat safe he forces her to leave their family home to live with their Uncle Gary in Tennessee. Before their father moved he used to run a custom car garage and its there than Kat goes to when she arrives. Hoping to find her Uncle she's shocked to find a drop dead gorgeous guy with a naked blonde screaming his name on the table. Not the best way to meet one of your new colleagues.
Kat knows Blake is trouble, he's cocky and arrogant but she can't seem to get him out of her head. No matter how he makes her feel she isn't staying, she needs to get back to her brother, but she didn't count on Blake. Kat stormed into his world and turned it upside down. Women who used to catch his eye now don't even register. And now he's had her he isn't letting her go.
Really enjoyed this book! Absolutely love Blake and the other boys, they're all just so funny and damn hot! As for Kat & Blake, their chemistry is off the charts HOT! A book full of sass, hilarity, drama and scorching scenes I can't wait for more!
Read it for yourself…
Bookaholic, firm believer in grand gestures, and obsessed with happily ever afters.
Holly Renee is from the small town of Maryville, TN where she was born and raised. She currently lives with her husband and fur baby, Luna. (Yes. She was named after Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.)
Holly Renee is the author of her debut novel Letting Go.
During the day, Holly spends her time as a nurse, but once her shift ends, she falls deep into her passion of reading and writing.
Connect With Holly
For your chance to win a $25 Amazon giftcard enter the giveaway below…


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Leadership changes at UW Law
Liz Porter, William Covington, Elana Matt named to new dean roles and will oversee Academic Administration; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Student and Career Services, respectively.
UW Law's longstanding commitment to diversity is an extension of our commitment to excellence. At UW Law, we believe the best legal education integrates legal theory, doctrine and practice that must be delivered by a diverse faculty to a diverse student body. This is evident in the number of alumni who are prominent in the legal profession, many breaking through the barriers of gender, race and ethnicity along the way.
With the Dean's Advisory Committee on Diversity and mentor programs of peer, faculty and alumni mentors, the law school promotes diversity by creating an open, inclusive academic climate that is welcoming to and supportive of all students of color, LGBTQI students and students with disabilities.
Our students have the benefit of UW Law's minority student organizations, diversity events and a student population who come from myriad races, ethnicities, LGBTQI identities, economic backgrounds and life experiences to help inform them and support our commitment to diversity.
UW Law pursues diversity and inclusion purposefully and rigorously; in this sense, our work is a continual progression. As an institution that shapes the law locally and globally, the law school recognizes that law is a powerful tool for social change. The entire UW Law community is therefore committed to using our privileged leadership position to advance equality and justice throughout Washington state, the United States and the world.
The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations.
Liz Porter, William Covington, Elana Matt named to new dean roles and will oversee Academic Administration; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Student and Career Services, respectively.
Our commitments to justice, each other and the rule of law provide us tools to respond, even in dark times.
The university announced a $250,000 gift from UW Regent Blaine Tamaki and his wife, Preciosa Tamaki, to the School of Law to support efforts to increase diversity, provide students with greater access to mental health resources, and support the work of the Tribal Court Clinic.
As UW Law's new Moderate Means Program staff attorney, Kristina Larry sees giving back as both a personal and professional imperative.
Read the latest updates on UW Law's work related to diversity, inclusion, equity and multiculturism


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How to express "over exaggerating" in a feeling of 有點不爽 不高興?
It all depends on your tone and the sentence you use to amplify your dislike.
You can try using the following phrases following the way as illustrated in the examples below:
Blow out of proportion
=> You are blowing out of proportion. Your behavior is not acceptable.
Blow smoke
=> You are truly blowing smoke. It is just unimaginable the things that you can come up with.
Go overboard
=> You have gone overboard this time. Your speech has deeply hurt Mary's feeling.
Over the top
=> Your argument against Paul was way over the top. It is inappropriate to say something like that.
Talk big
=> You just like to talk big. All of it is pure nonsense.
** 版權所有 - Elisa


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Meru University's spiritual courses assist people in raising their consciousness to the highest level they can accept and maintain day by day and week by week and continue moving upward.
Livingston, MT (PRWEB) January 09, 2013
Meru University is announcing new spiritual courses for 2013, such as The World Economy and the Threefold Social Organization, and a course on Divine Love and Twin Flames. Meru University offers higher education in the sense of higher consciousness. It's live and on-demand online courses have the latest webinar technology providing lively interaction between students and faculty. Also, these spiritual courses are awe inspiring, as the ascended masters speak and share their perspective on current events in the world, and principles of practical spirituality.
A new academic year of dynamic spiritual teachings opens on January 12 with The World Economy and the Threefold Social Organization. This two-day spiritual course will present Rudolf Steiner's philosophy of economy and governance, and give the ascended masters' perspective on the current economic crisis.
On February 3rd, the Seven Holy Kumaras provide illumination on Divine Love and Twin Flames. This course will look at the nature of love beyond the yearning for a twin flame or soul mate, beyond the desire to experience love in a human relationship. It will present a higher reality of divine love, and how students can attune to and experience higher frequencies of love.
Meru University's spiritual courses assist people in raising their consciousness to the highest level they can accept and maintain day by day and week by week and continue moving upward.
Students will discover a new way of seeing and experiencing life. They will educate their minds and hearts through these wisdom-love teachings. Course participants can practice all of the virtues and gifts of the Spirit in community. Student are inspired, illumined and empowered to co-create a new life, a new world and a new earth!
Check out what Meru University has to offer by visiting http://www.meruuniversity. org


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Logarithms on the Graphing Calculator
A graphing calculator is a handheld device that is capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing other tasks with variables. Graphing calculators are generally programmable. So the user can create customized programs for science, engineering and education applications. Because they have large displays, it can display several lines of text and calculations at the same time. On using the graphing calculator the goal is to be able to turn the graphing calculator on and off and also to cover how to enter various expressions on the graphing calculator including fractions, exponents, radicals, scientific notation, evaluating expressions, matrices, logarithms and regression. Graphing logarithmic functions on TI-84s isn't much different from graphing any other functions. You just hit your "Y=" button an enter your equation. The only complication occurs when you have a log with a base other than 10 or e . To do this, just go to your "Math" key, and scroll down till you find "LogBase".
Hook Questions
1. How do you graph logarithmic functions on a TI 84?
2. How do you change the base of a log on a TI 84?
Learn Logarithms on the Graphing Calculator Online One on One
Struggling with Logarithms on the Graphing Calculator? Need help for homework? You are not the only one. Fortunately our experts in Logarithms on the Graphing Calculator are online now and are ready to help.


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George Ritzer coined the term used in the first half of the title of this article in his 1993 book, "McDonaldization of Society". He used the world-famous fast food franchise as the exemplar of a phenomenon of dehumanization that is sweeping through systems being used by industry.
My simple take-away from the book is that McDonaldization is a strategy to get a customer to provide service to himself and to convince him that this is better for him (but read the book, it has a deeper analysis). Would a rational person want to pay good money to go to a place where he has to stand in line to first pay for the food, then pick up and carry it to the table himself, eat it sitting on uncomfortable benches, and then put the remains in garbage disposal himself? On top of that, the food is always the same taste, and is seriously bad for health – see Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary. Yet McDonald's services more than 58 million customers daily.
McDonaldization is not restricted to burgers. This strategy has spread to many other places:
- banks (ATM's),
- airline check-in counters
- airline baggage return
- grocery store self-checkout counters
- gas stations
- customer-"care" phone lines of telcos, airlines, etc. who have a computer system, not a human, responding to menu choices on the other end
All of above are examples of self service where all these tasks were formerly done by other people, not the customers themselves. The workplace is also moving to the self-service model. If you are an employee, see what applies to you:
- Do you type and print your own letters?
- When you need copies, do you operate the xerox or scanner yourself?
- When something breaks down at work, do you log a service request into to a computer system?
- Do you do the paperwork and data entry for claiming expense reimbursements yourself?
- who books a conference room when you are setting up a meeting?
Once society accepts self service as the norm for comparatively mundane tasks, it would be a natural progression for the McDonaldization phenomenon to spread out into more technical or specialized areas. I call this extension the coolification of professions.
coolie n. – An unskilled laborer (Hindi)
Just as the work of stenos, secretaries, data entry operators is being done by the common employee (and these particular jobs are becoming obsolete), the coolification of professions results in some of the work done previously by professionals now being done by the customer as self-service. Let's look at some examples:
The physician or family doctor: almost a God-like figure 50 years ago. When common killer diseases were being conquered, and penicillin was king. The patient was cured by the doctor, else it was God's will. Today the patient is well-informed about procedures, risks, and treatments, and expects the doctor to explain all the details. The patient will also go for a second or third opinion. Minor ailments are completely self-serviced using the internet, how-to books, and over-the-counter medications or treatments from alternative medicine. So today the tables have turned – the patient was cured by the medical system, else it may be a malpractice suit.
These days many people draft and print legal documents themselves, such as sale deeds, gift deeds, and wills, without involving a lawyer at all.
Most in-house documentation in companies and institutions is produced by non-specialists. There may be a separate publications department, but it typically produces brochures, flyers, and user manuals for the end customers. And it is not just enterprises – churches, clubs, home owners, schoolchildren – all can manage their own publishing using DTP software. Authors can now bypass publishers all together, since authors can themselves compose and format their books and directly place them on the internet marketplace as pdf, epub, or kindle format (this major shift needs to be expanded as a different post).
Ordinary users can compute and file taxes online using easy-to-use software. This used to be done by tax consultants who would compute taxes and file the returns on behalf of their clients.
Information Technology
Programming used to be done by software professionals is now being by people from other walks of life. People solve their programming problems themselves using spreadsheets for financial analysis, accounting, even engineering calculations such as beam design. A mathematician will conduct research by programming Mathcad or Mathematica herself. The trend in IT is to create general purpose tools which the end users can themselves program and customize to their needs.
Coolification of IT Professionals
There was a time when building a car was an art. Skilled craftsmen would build a car one at a time. Henry Ford changed that into the assembly line. Now cars were cheaper, but the assembly line worker had little sense of worth – his job got coolified. Something similar is happening in the IT industry too. There was a time when programming was a black art and computer equipment was extremely expensive; a few talented individuals were programmers; their ability to squeeze the last bit of performance with ingeneous tricks was a highly regarded skill. But today, programming cost is a major cost factor and now today millions of people are employed in IT – coolification is inevitable. Evolution of higher level languages, frameworks, ready-to-use software components has led to a shift in skill sets need for the usual IT professional.
What today's IT professional needs to know is how to translate business logic into a composition of high-level building blocks. The quality assurance team equals the size of the development team; QA needs to know how to write test cases that fits into existing testing frameworks.
No doubt there are still people writing the tools, frameworks and components. But how many automobile engineers are employed today compared to the number of cars produced?
The other shift is I guess the maturation from art to engineering. Now there are standards, processes, and some level of control and predictability is in place. The IT professional too is morphing from craftsman to assembly line worker.
I am not passing judgment here, nor bemoaning the passing away of a golden age, but rather just noting that the cheese has red-shifted. A lot of IT is now run-of-mill – consider that many non-CS graduates also end up working in IT. The day may not be far off when a high school pass or high school fail who took up low-paying jobs like gas station attendant will be able to take up low-paying jobs like IT executive.
Of course, there will always be some teams that are building the core systems, frameworks, and components. That is the place to be in. But it will get harder and harder to get in.
End Notes
Somewhat out of context, but I must refer you to a hilarious spoof on Agile Methodology.
Filed under: commentary | Tagged: Agile, Assembly line, Coolie, coolification of professions, henry ford, mcDonaldization | 1 Comment »


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From Coastal Command to Captivity (Kindle)
The Memoir of a Second World War Airman
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Thanks to the perseverance and editorial effort of his son Allan, Jim Hunter's splendid war memoirs of flying and captivity can now be enjoyed by a wider audience. In the first part there is the account of his flying career in RAF Coastal Command, culminating in an extraordinarily brave attack by him and his Beaufighter on the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst. Shot down, he became a POW and the second half tells of his experiences in Stalag Luft 3.All this and more make From Coastal Command to Captivity a superb read and a late, but great, addition to the bibliography of POW life during the Second World War.
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Announcing NFTS Platform!, a New Initiative to Support the Next Generation of Filmmakers
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Today, we're excited to team up with one of the world's leading film, games, and television schools, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the UK, to launch NFTS Platform!, a new initiative to support the next generation of filmmakers.
As part of NFTS Platform!, students will launch Kickstarter campaigns for ambitious short film projects outside of the school curriculum. They will receive mentorship from the Kickstarter Film team, learning fundraising and community-building skills that will help them tell important and timely stories and find dedicated audiences eager to support their projects. In addition to the funds raised through the Kickstarter campaigns, NFTS will make a financial contribution to each project.
The initiative is a response to the challenges of funding independent films, and recognizes the important role that community funding can play in the success of short film projects.
"Independently raising budget for a project gifts creative independence to filmmakers, as well as the opportunity to grow their own audience from film to film," says Elise McCave, Kickstarter's Director of Narrative Film. "We're excited to see how these early-career directors take advantage of the opportunity and benefit from this diversification of funding options beyond the limited available public funds."
"The partnership is an excellent opportunity for our students and recent graduates to create work that might not otherwise get made," adds Jon Wardle, director of NFTS. "The Platform! will enable teams of students to collaborate that might not otherwise work together, and it will also help students learn about the crowdfunding process, which is an important and often empowering funding option in addition to public funding."
The first three NFTS Platform! projects are now live, and they represent a breadth of genres, subjects, and styles:
- End-O, directed by Alice Seabright, is a comedy-drama that aims to raise awareness of endometriosis.
- Pigeons, a political allegory directed by Nick Cinelli, will merge live action with cutting-edge animation techniques.
- Dark Is Her Shadow, written and directed by Molly Manning-Walker, will explore the emotional impact of sexual assault.
Twice a year, a panel chaired by Wardle will select six to 10 new NFTS Platform! projects to launch on Kickstarter. Visit kickstarter.com/NFTS to find new projects launched as part of the initiative.
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