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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20455 | Your address will show here +12 34 56 78
Results,͟ is a catchall term used to describe the desired outcome. In the context of leadership it is usually the measurement of the team’s output and effectiveness. It goes without saying that results of the team and its leadership can and are measured in many different ways. So when we talk about ͞Break through Leadership Results,͟ it will be critical to understand the metric or measurements that….. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20468 | Do That Dump
Do That Dump
The Do That Dump is a box that contains materials from anywhere and everywhere. Random items are collected and dumped into a box for students to explore and scavenge through.
4 - 7
Est. Time:
<15 mins
How we did it:
Materials List
1. box
2. labels
1. Get a box and label it the Do the Dump box! Explain to your child that it is a box full of materials to create different things.
2. Wait for his/her creativity to shine! |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20497 | skip to content
Cambridge Language Sciences
Interdisciplinary Research Centre
What is the value of languages in the UK?
The role and contribution of language to the UK economy and society is both rich and varied. It stretches from enabling economic growth and prosperity through the language and communication skills required to enable UK business to participate in the global market place; to the ‘soft power’ and diplomatic skills through which the UK’s role and authority in foreign policy is manifested; to enhancing the cultural capital, educational attainment and social cohesion within England and the devolved communities of the UK both now and in the future.
The following report by Cambridge Public Policy draws on discussions held at a workshop in Cambridge in October 2015 to discuss strategic issues in which languages play a part: national security, diplomacy and conflict resolution, community and social cohesion, migration and identity.
Representatives from government departments and bodies included: Ministry of Defence, UK Trade and Investment, Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure Northern Ireland, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Ofsted.
Where we are now
• Language contributes to UK prosperity: languages are a ‘value-added’ skill
• Language learning forms part of ‘cultural agility’ from knowing other languages and cultures
• Languages provide value-added skills across a range of occupations
• There is increasing understanding of the personal and societal benefits of bilingualism
• Recognized importance of ‘soft power’ and language skills in conflict areas
Key concerns
• Business lost to UK companies through lack of language skills
• Gaps in detecting incidence and spread of disease outbreaks and other health and security threats
• Loss of language departments and degree courses in UK higher education
• Lack of native English speakers in translating and interpreting departments of EU and UN
• Inadequate language services in courts and healthcare.
What we do
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20520 | 12 Natural Home Remedies For Chest Congestion Relief
The feeling of something not being able to swallow can be best described as one of the symptoms of chest congestion. It happens when the membranes (mucous or mucosa) lining the airways (respiratory tract) are activated in full force due to the attack from a foreign invader such as virus, bacteria, or dust. The membranes are inflamed, irritated, and your body creates extra mucus to eliminate the unwanted guests. Imagine yourself coughing uncontrollably in a public space? Wouldn’t the scene be awkward? So, to help you out, here are some herbal and home remedies for chest congestion. Before we list them to you, we will know its causes and symptoms.
What Is Mucus And How It Helps You?
Mucus is a jelly-like substance (white-yellowish or green) that is produced within the body to allow the smooth passage of irritants and unwanted foreign particles from the air pipes. They protect the lining of the lungs, which are pipes that connect your nose and mouth. These areas are often vulnerable to irritants, which then have to be pushed outside through coughing, sneezing, or have to be pushed into the body, which can later be dealt with.
It is important for the air passage to remain free to avoid choking and causing difficulty in breathing. However, this yellowish white substance sometimes even green needs to stay in control so that you do not feel heavy in the chest. As the name describes, chest congestion is something where you feel that your chest is congested with the mucus.
Chest congestion leads to a feeling of being ill; sometimes you are not able to taste and swallow your food properly, and nothing seems to help at that moment. Too much mucus in the body leads to constant coughing and even a blocked nose or maybe sometimes even a runny nose. This is not something to be worried about, but it can spoil your day’s events, and if not treated at the right time, it can be a symptom of some other major disease.
Causes of Chest Congestion
Home remedies for chest congestion
• Viral Infections: Viral Infections that can cause a cough are everywhere. We simply cannot flee encountering them. However, while some of us have a strong immunity system, some might not have the power to fight against them. Viruses can enter the body through the air we breathe, the food we eat, or the water we drink. They are smaller than bacteria, fungus, or parasites.
• Common cold: Common cold when neglected can lead to chest congestion. The mucus is easily stored and can give you a feeling as if your chest is heavy. The common cold is usually caused when there is a drastic change in the climate. For example; during the beginning of the rainy season or when the winter is coming. This is the peak time when doctors get many patients complaining about the common cold and eventual chest congestion.
• Bronchitis: A severe form of the common cold can soon turn into bronchitis (if not paid attention). When the airways in your lungs are inflamed, they produce a lot of mucus. There are two types of bronchitis: acute and chronic. The causes and period for coughing in the two types vary. Acute bronchitis is usually resolved within two weeks, but chronic bronchitis, on the other hand, can only be controlled but not cured, as warned by many.
• Pneumonia: Chronic cold can be pneumonia. It sometimes may be difficult to differentiate whether it is just normal cold or pneumonia. It damages the tissue lining your air passage, and you may cough out mucus. Pneumonia victims face difficulty in breathing, as the tissue becomes inflamed making it difficult for the oxygen to reach your lungs. The difference between bronchitis and pneumonia is that bronchitis causes a swollen throat whereas pneumonia infection causes fluids in the lungs.
• Smoking: Smoking kills and everyone knows this. Smoking is a major cause of chronic bronchitis. If not anything, smoking does hamper treatment for chest congestion. Your lungs are already sick of inhaling the toxic air that goes in through those cigarettes and to add on to it; you would not want to carry the extra load of the extra mucus. The tar that is stored in the lungs due to cigarette smoking affects the lining of the lungs, which are furthermore damaged. Even a slight cough can be painful in such a scenario.
• Irritants and Pollution: The air is filled with pollutants that can be troublesome at times. Indoor air pollution, wood or oil fumes can also cause irritation in your nasal passage. Beause of it, so many hair problems experienced by men and loosing confidence in themselves. If you have been having difficulty to breathe for a prolonged period, then it may be COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and needs special care.
• Allergy: If you are allergic to any particular thing, especially something that can be inhaled for example dust or pollen grains, then it may lead to chest congestion. Allergens can trigger a series of immune reactions that can widely affect your respiratory organs including your lungs and become a source of chest congestion.
Symptoms Of Chest Congestion
The symptoms are very difficult to distinguish from other ailments. Since the body does not get sufficient quantity of oxygen, you feel tired. Some of the common symptoms of chest congestion are chest pain and tightened chest. Coughing can be described as the most natural response of throat and lungs to eliminate the mucous deposited in the surrounding areas of the chest. In the mucous (or phlegm), you can find pollutants, pathogens, and allergens. A few of the common symptoms are listed below:
• Difficulty in breathing
• Drawing breaths in a loud noise
• Dizziness
• Constant coughing
• Loud noises while breathing (extreme snoring while sleeping)
• Wheezing
• Thick tongue
• Chest pain
• Discomfort
• Running nose
Note: Chest congestion sometimes can also be confused with other diseases like influenza or pneumonia. Chest congestion can be a symptom of some other disease or can be a disease in itself. The reason being that chest congestion can be a sign of future pneumonia or bronchitis. If difficulty in breathing is consistent for more than a week and too painful for your airways, then it is better to consult a doctor immediately and go through some tests.
12 Natural Home Remedies For Chest Congestion
Home Remedies For Chest Congestion
Note: Chest congestion may be the result of a minor infection, but if the person suffering from it has low immunity, then the condition can lead to bronchitis or pneumonia. So, make sure to give the treatment at the appropriate time. Normal chest congestion will be cured within 4 to 5 days. If the conditions prolong after a week, a visit to the physician is required.
12. Justicia Adhatoda + Solanum Trilobatum + Black Pepper
remedies for chest congestionJusticia Adhotoda: It is also commonly known in the English language as Malabar nut or Adulsa. It is a medicinal plant as one can notice its mention in Siddha medicine, Ayurveda and Unani methods of medication. Adhatoda herb is well known to cure fever, cold, cough, diarrhea, and so on. This evergreen plant grows upto a height of two meters in tropical climates. The leaves are bitter tasting and oppositely arranged. The flowers of this plant are white in color. It can be found in Asian countries including India, Pakistan, China, Nepal, etc.
what to take for chest congestionBlack Pepper: More than a spice, it is a medicinal herb. In ancient times, Greeks used them as currency. Black, round and pungent seeds of black pepper are a strong answer to the tough mucus that is refusing to come out. Pepper is highly recommended as one of the home remedies for chest congestion (if it is due to cold or a cough). Indian moms use these dried seeds of black pepper to add a spicy tinge to it. It adds flavor as well as acts as a medicine. Its effect can be seen immediately. Apart from treating congestion problems, it aids in digestion, improves skin texture, heals depression, etc.
get rid of chest congestionSolanum Trilobatum: This is a widely known thorny creeper herb. The flowers are bluish-purple, and the plant bears small sized fruits. The whole plant; its leaves, fruits, and flowers are known to have rich medicinal powers. It is also called as Thai nightshade or purple-fruited pea eggplant in the common language. The plant is full of thorns, and these thorns are believed to be mildly toxic, so you had better remove these thorns before using the leaves. You can even store these leaves for a longer period if you dry and churn them into a powder. But, store it in a moist free clean container. To try this remedy, follow the steps given below:
• Step 1: Take some Adathodha leaves and Solanum Trilobatum leaves.
• Step 2: Boil them in water. Add a few black pepper seeds to it. Boil them again
• Step 3: Filter and drink it weekly once to reduce the mucus.
How Does This Work?
This concoction is a perfect and one of the sure shot chest congestion remedies. The leaves of Adhatoda Vasica contain alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids that work effectively to treat chest congestion. Solanum Trilobatum on the other side is said to be a natural rejuvenator and has been used to treat respiratory diseases since ages. Experts also say that the plant possesses some antibacterial, antifungal, and antitumor properties. Black pepper adds some spicy flavor to the concoction and fastens the treatment process.
The Remedy Is Not Good If:
• You are pregnant or breastfeeding. It can cause miscarriage.
• You consume in high doses. It can cause diarrhea and vomiting.
• You are undergoing treatment for thyroid. It is better to avoid black pepper.
• You are allergic to any of these herbs or their compounds.
• You are continuing the remedy for a long time.
11. Cayenne Peppers
what to take for chest congestionCayenne pepper contains an active ingredient called capsaicin, which helps in reducing chest congestion. But don’t eat it raw. Cook and consume it with food. The other benefits of cayenne pepper are many. It helps in the treatment of inflammation, pain, headache, blood clots, etc. Hence, having chilies and jalapenos in the diet can reduce the discomfort caused by chest congestion since the mucus is loosened and the sinus area is cleared. To try a remedy with cayenne peppers and to help you relieve chest congestion, here is what you need to do:
• Step 1: Take one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and warm water.
• Step 2: Immerse the cayenne pepper in water for ten minutes.
• Step 3: Take out the cayenne pepper and gargle with the water.
• Step 4: Continue this practice three times a day. Let the gargling duration be ten minutes.
Note: Spicy foods contain chili powder. However, cayenne pepper has natural chemical components to clear the blocked sinuses along with bronchial tubes.
How Does This Work?
Although cayenne pepper contains many medical ingredients, the main reason for reducing chest congestion is capsaicin. This medical component can break the mucus and eliminates the fluid from the lungs. The other benefits are strengthening of lung tissues.
Cayenne Pepper Is Not Good, If:
• Be careful while performing the process of gargling and avoid the water encountering the eyes. Some individuals can have side effects of irritation, coughing, and runny nose.
10. Turmeric
best foods for chest congestionTurmeric might be one of the most effective and highly nutritional supplements in existence. In fact, many studies demonstrate that turmeric has major benefits not only for the body but also for the brain. Turmeric powder is easily available. The powder is best used for breathing problems such as blockage of nasal passages. It is used in ancient medicine for anti-viral actions and anti-bacterial purposes. Besides treating simple ailments, the Medical Center of Maryland University claims that the turmeric’s strong antioxidants can also help in fighting the free radicals that cause cancer. However, for natural chest congestion relief, use turmeric in the following way:
• Step 1: Take a glass of water and a teaspoon of organic turmeric powder.
• Step 2: Combine the mixture thoroughly.
• Step 3: After three minutes, consume the mixture.
• Step 4: Let the procedure be continued three times a day.
• Step 5: The chest will be cleared of mucus in one day or two days.
How Does This Work?
The main medical component of turmeric is because of the compound curcumin. The three different types of curcumin are desmethoxycurcumin, diferuloylmethane, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. The anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin relieve the individual of chest congestion.
Turmeric Is Not Good, If:
• Although turmeric is a natural resource, some persons might experience nausea, diarrhea or dizziness.
• You have a bleeding disorder. Turmeric might slow down the clotting of blood. If you are scheduled for surgery, avoid consumption of turmeric before two weeks.
• You are diabetic. The blood sugar level will be reduced.
• You are suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The symptoms are stomach upset and severe pain.
• You have a hormone-sensitive condition such as uterine cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine fibroids, and endometriosis. Turmeric acts similar to the estrogen hormone and makes conditions worse.
• You are planning for a baby. Men should exercise precaution in consumption of turmeric as it reduces the level of testosterone and movement of sperms.
• You have iron deficiency. Turmeric restricts the absorption of iron in the diet.
9. Ginger
home remedies for chest congestionGinger is one of the most delicious and healthiest spices. In fact, it is a common ingredient used in Indian and few other Asian cuisines. It has been traditionally used for preparing many medicines. It can heal many ailments like motion sickness, cold, cough, nausea, appetite loss, etc. Hence, chest congestion is no exception. The underground stems (rhizome) or roots of ginger plants can be consumed powdered, as a spice (dried form), oil, juice, or fresh. Ginger belongs to the family of Zingiberaceae. The main producers of Ginger are India, Fiji, Jamaica, Australia, and Jamaica. It is rich in bioactive compounds and other powerful nutrients to benefit your body as well as the brain. However, their roots have anti-inflammatory properties to reduce chest congestion. Apart from clearing the mucus, it improves body immunity too.
• Step 1: Take a ginger root and chop it into fine pieces. Add them to a cup of boiling water.
• Step 2: Cover the cup with a bowl and allow the mixture to get warm. Add honey (half tablespoon) to the mixture.
• Step 3: Consume the mixture three times every day until you get relief.
Note: The other mixture is grinding the pieces of one-tablespoon dry ginger, cloves, and black pepper together. Divide the powder into three doses and take the mixture three times a day with milk or honey.
How Does This Work?
Ginger contains chemical compounds known as polyphenol that inhibits the secretion of mucus.
Ginger Is Not Good, If:
• You are taking medicines related to the heart such as aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen).
• You are breast-feeding a baby. Although no adverse situations have been reported so far, physicians have advised against the use of this root and to be on the safe side.
• You have low blood pressure. Result – you might suffer from lightheadedness (side effect).
Note: Avoid ginger if you suffer from an allergic reaction like – the closure of the throat, swelling of lips, face or tongue.
8. Lemons
remedies for chest congestionLemons are one of the best home remedies for chest congestion. Health problems like colds, sinus infections, and allergies lead to clogged sinuses and a stuffy nose with mucus. In such cases, a hot lemon tea can be of great help. Drinking more fluids help in thinning of mucus and makes sure that the sinuses are unclogged. Also, the high quantities of vitamin C in lemons reduces the cold by 8% to 14%. So, whenever your chest feels congested, don’t forget to sip some healthy, warm lemon tea. To prepare one, follow the steps given below:
• Step 1: Take a lemon and cut it in half.
• Step 2: Make a cup of warm water. Squeeze half the lemon. Mix the lemon and water.
• Step 3: Add a teaspoon of honey and consume the mixture daily as many times as possible.
How Does This Work?
The juice of a lemon can be effectively used to treat chest congestion. The component is citric acid as it can reduce the thickness of mucus and gets it eliminated. The Vitamin C also enhances the body’s immunity.
Lemon Is Not Good, If:
• You are suffering from gastro-esophageal reflux disorder. The symptoms will be nausea, heartburn, and vomiting. If you are suffering from ulcer, acidic content in the stomach may damage the lining of the stomach, and the situation can be worsened.
• You are pregnant or breast-feeding a baby. It is safe if you use as part of the regular diet. However, doctors advise against the use of lemon juice or supplements in large amounts.
7. Horseradish
home remedies for chest congestionHorseradish (scientific name: Cochlearia Armoracia) can be effectively used for chest congestion, bronchitis, cold, and allergies. Believe it or not, horseradish is highly helpful in clearing the mucus and sinus infections from the respiratory passages. Whether you are consuming horseradish as an herbal remedy or using it with your favorite dish, its natural antibiotics clear the sinuses, remove excess mucus from the upper respiratory tracts, and increase facial circulation. This perennial plant belongs to the family of Brassicaceae (also includes wasabi, mustard, cabbage, and broccoli). To treat your chest congestion using horseradish, follow the steps given below:
• Step 1: Take a fresh radish and wash the vegetable.
• Step 2: Chop it finely. You can put the pieces in a blender.
• Step 3: Drink the juice daily.
• Step 4: You can also apply the oil on the chest to reduce the mucus.
How Does This Work?
It can be used as an expectorant. The component, glucosinolates responsible for the characteristic taste of horseradish, acts as an antioxidant against simple infections such as chest congestions.
Horseradish Is Not Good, If:
• You are administering it to a child less than four years. The child can suffer from digestion problems.
6. Vinegar
Home Remedies For Chest Congestion ReliefWhether the congestion is in the chest, throat or nose, vinegar is one of the best ways to get rid of them. Everybody knows that vinegar assists in eliminating the bacteria that cause harmful reactions in the chest. Yes, it tastes awful but is highly effective. The use of vinegar dates back to 10,000 years. Vinegar is prepared by fermenting the natural sugars of alcohol. Today, vinegar comes in different types. To name a few, you have balsamic, rice wine, rice, pineapple, raspberry, apple, etc. Vinegar is a rich source of beta-carotene, magnesium, iron, calcium, copper, potassium, proto-vitamin, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and vitamin B6.
• Step 1: Add three teaspoons of vinegar (raw and unfiltered) to cups of warm water.
• Step 2: You can also add raw honey.
• Step 3: Drink the solution two or three times a week every day.
How Does This Work?
By the consumption of apple cider vinegar, the mucus in the chest is thinned and makes you breathe easily. It also promotes the entire immunity of the body. Since the fermentation process is long, the bioactive components such as gallic acid, acetic acid, caffeic acid, epicatechin have antimicrobial, antioxidant and other properties. There are also polyphenols such as chlorogenic acid that can prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Vinegar Is Not Good, If:
• You have a tooth problem. The acetic acid in vinegar can erode the enamel if used to gargle or to have a drink.
• You have sensitive skin. In the case of topical application, you can mix with honey, water, juice or a pinch of baking soda.
• You are over consuming it. The stomach will get upset.
5. Onions
Home Remedies For Chest Congestion ReliefOnions have antibacterial and antiseptic properties to assist in fending off any infection. Hence, it is one of the best natural remedies for chest congestion. If you happen to have a mild sinus infection, just inhaling the scents of an onion (freshly chopped) may clear the nasal passages. But, their natural sulfur content can cause a burning and painful sensation in the eyes. If you don’t want this to happen, just slice a thin piece of onion and put it in a container of hot water. Let the onion boil for 5 minutes, ladle a little in a clean mug, and then inhale the aroma to relieve a runny or stuffy nose. However, there is another way too; here are the instructions:
• Step 1: Cut an onion into small pieces and extract juice from them. The other ingredients to be used are equal proportions of honey, lemon juice, and water.
• Step 2: Combine all the proportions to make a mixture.
• Step 3: Heat the mixture and make it warm. You can have the mixture every day for relief.
How Does This Work?
Since onion contains organosulfur compounds (strong smell), they possess sulfur and quercetin. These two compounds possess the ability to break down the mucus and relieve the chest of mucus. Honey contains natural ingredients that can increase the immunity of a person. Lemon juice contains citric acid known for regulating the acid balance of the body.
Onions Are Not Good For, If:
• You have a gastric influx disease problem. Do not follow the procedure if you have faced Heartburn before, while feeding on onions.
• You are on blood-thinning drugs, as onion contains major components of Vitamin K. It can interfere with blood-thinning drugs. The side effects will be similar to honey.
• Persons allergic to onions can have feelings of vomiting, nausea and gastric discomfort (similar side effects in honey and lemon juice).
4. Thyme
Remedies For Chest Congestion ReliefThe next time you suffer from a cough, cold, congestion, or a sore throat, make sure to sip some natural thyme tea. This herb is extremely good for upper respiratory problems, even including whooping cough and bronchitis. It has antibacterial, analgesic, antiviral, antioxidant, anticancer, antitussive, and expectorant properties. For medicinal use, thyme leaves are used. Once they are harvested, thyme is sun-dried, and their leaves are beaten off their branches. As a herb, thyme promotes immunity of the body and chest to fight against bacteria. To treat chest congestion using thyme, follow the steps given below:
• Step 1: You can take one-half teaspoon of thyme.
• Step 2: On the other hand, make a cup of boiling water.
• Step 3: Allow the thyme for 20 minutes to become warm.
• Step 4: You can add a little honey to the mixture to make it sweet.
How Does This Work?
The volatile components in thyme (oil) are thymol, geraniol, borneol and also contain flavonoids such as naringenin, apigenin, luteolin, and thymonin. These increase the antioxidant capacity of the herb and give a high number on the immunity enhancing herb list for thyme.
Thyme Is Not Good, If:
• You are allergic to Lamiaceae species or oregano.
• You suffer from bleeding disorders. It might enhance the risk of bleeding if used in large amounts.
3. Bay Leaf
natural remedies for chest congestionThe use of bay leaves dates back to ancient times when Greeks and Romans used them for making crowns (for crowning kings, Olympians, and war heroes). Scientifically known as, Laurus Nobil, Bay leaves are one of the natural herbs that can help in the treatment of chest congestion. It has immense benefits and medicinal properties to treat simple ailments like cold, cough, stomach ache, liver, and kidney problems. Though it is native to the Asia Minor, you can find this tree even in the Mediterranean regions. They grow in warm climates with a maximum height of 12 meters. However, the rate of growth is too slow. A matured bay leaf is about 10 cm in length and 5 cm in width.
• Step 1: Take five fresh bay leaves.
• Step 2: Boil them in a cup of water.
• Step 3: Allow the leaves to soak in the mixture and then strain the tea.
• Step 4: Strain the tea.
• Step 5: Dip a white cloth in the water and then wring it. The cloth has to be applied to the chest to clear the mucus.
How Does This Work?
There are many oils such as myrcene, linalool, eugenol, chavicol, geranyl acetate, etc. These compounds are all believed to have digestive, anti-oxidant and antiseptic properties. There are also other compounds such as caffeic acid, rutin, salicylates, and phytonutrients, which are known to enhance the better functioning of the heart.
Bay Leaves Are Not Good, If:
• You are taking medications for blood sugar.
• You are diabetic. It can interfere with the blood sugar levels.
• You have undergone surgery recently or going to have one.
2. Betel Leaves
remedies for chest congestionBetel leaves are used to aid digestion, and that is why in India, men and women both chew on betel leaves after their meals or sometimes even to pass the time. Betel leaves when mixed with certain spices and condiments for some, may even turn into an addiction. They are native to India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia but can also be seen in Madagascar and Africa. It is claimed that this herb was used in the Harappan Civilization and how far is this true, is still unknown. To try a remedy using betel leaves, follow the steps given below:
• Step 1: Take five fresh betel leaves.
• Step 2: Clean and boil them with 2 to 3 cups of water.
• Step 3: Drink this mixture 2-3 times a day to keep the body warm and healthy
How Does This Work?
The leaves contain amino and aspartic acid, which warms the body and thus helps, treat chest congestion. Betel Leaves are bitter to taste in its original form and so in case you are not able to drink it; you may add honey.
Betel Leaves Are Not Good, If:
• You are suffering from stomach ulcers, migraines, tuberculosis, acidity or epilepsy; it is good to avoid this remedy.
• People who are addicted to chewing betel leaves must be aware of oral cancer.
• You are using old betel leaves. Use only fresh Betel leaves which have medicinal properties.
1. Gymnema Sylvestre Leaves and Honey
Gymnema Sylvestre: Gymnema Sylvestre is a woody shrub, which is native to Africa and India. The leaves of this plant are used for making medicines. It is a bitter-tasting plant, which is also known as a miracle fruit. It has high medicinal properties and is the native fruit of the tropical forests in India and Sri Lanka. The entire plant can also be used, both its leaves and roots are consumable and good, as medicines. It is known to treat asthma, bronchitis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cough, weight loss, and is super effective for malaria. Also, it used as an antidote for snake bites.
natural chest congestion reliefHoney: This is nature’s wonder not just because it tastes good but also because of its super medicinal powers. Honey has been mentioned since ancient times in all kinds of medicinal procedures including Ayurveda, Unani and even today it is used in allopathic medicine. Honey provides an excellent base to prepare cough syrup and that too without any side effects. Honey if preserved well can last for more than a thousand years. To try a remedy using these two amazing ingredients, follow the steps given below:
• Step 1: Make a fresh juice of Gymnema Sylvestre leaves (1/2 or 1 glass).
• Step 2: Add a few drops of organic honey to it, as per your taste.
• Step 3: Drink the mixture. Repeat on alternate days for a week to relive chest congestion.
How Does This Work?
The leaves contain Alkaloids, Amino Acids, and Carbohydrates. It also contains various acids like Butyric Acid, Formic Acid, and Tartaric Acid. These elements help treat chest congestion.
Honey is a mixture of sugar and other compounds. It is rich in carbohydrates, mainly fructose, sucrose, and glucose. It also had tartaric acid, formic acid, and butyric acid. Honey makes this juice drinkable, which would otherwise be bitter.
The Remedy Is Not Good, If:
• You are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• You consume on an empty stomach. It may cause gastrointestinal disorders.
• You are allergic to pollen grains. Avoid consuming honey.
• You are using adulterated honey. It is easily available in the market, and one should be careful of them.
How To Prevent Chest Congestion?
These preventive measures go a long way, and we all know that you can be better safe than sorry.
1. Stay Hydrated: Drink lots of water and have a bath twice in a day to keep your airways moist. You may use hot water if you fear that you might catch a cold.
2. Inhale Steam: Slight irritation in the throat can also be an indication of future chest congestion, for this, you can inhale steam with a mist vaporizer to loosen the dried mucus. A bowl of hot soup can also give you some congestion relief.
3. Modifications in the Lifestyle: If you are affected by cold or flu, it is vital that you have to have a diet rich in vegetables and fruits. The immune system will get a boost, and the harmful pathogens can hardly get into the respiratory system. Dehydration should be avoided at all costs.
4. Avoid Cough Suppressants: If you are affected with a minor cough, refrain from taking a cough suppressant. If a cough is suppressed, the body will be unable to expel the mucus, and then the result will be congestion. Opt for an expectorant as you can get a productive cough.
5. Keep Away From Toxic Chemicals: If you are allergic to some plants and have asthma, it is better to avoid similar kind of places. Also to be included are toxic chemicals that can make the body produce mucus. The best way will be to perform consistently any exercise that can strengthen the breathing muscles and promote immunity. However, if you are one with heart problems or undergone surgery, a kind request from our side to seek the guidance of your personal doctor.
When To See A Doctor?
• In the case of a chronic cough, you need to go to a doctor.
• If you are consistently coughing for a week or more, then you should test your mucus for a Tuberculosis test. The right reason for a large amount of mucus to be generated needs to be analyzed before reaching any conclusions.
• Since there are many factors that can lead to chest congestion, it is important to conduct certain tests at a hospital if the home remedies for chest congestion mentioned above fail to work.
Natural Remedy vs. Pharmacy
Guaifenesin, CurcuminX4000™, Mucinex 600 and Vicks Vapo Rub are some of the over-the-counter medicines prescribed for chest congestion.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20538 | Residents of Long Island, New York, who are facing considerable debt, regardless of the source, may need to begin reviewing debt relief options. Although there are many options available, one of the most common options is bankruptcy. The decision to file for bankruptcy, however, should not be taken lightly. There are advantages and disadvantages involved, and there are multiple forms of bankruptcy to consider.
For individuals, Chapter 7 bankruptcy can offer numerous benefits. The process from filing to relief typically lasts between three to six months, so this is a relatively quick debt relief method. Additionally, filers are allowed to keep their earnings free from garnishment, as well as keep most of their property that is considered a necessity. Aggressive collection activities from creditors will immediately cease and a filer can move toward rebuilding their credit. Additionally, certain lenders may look favorably upon individuals who take steps to improve their financial situation, regardless of the method.
There are obvious drawbacks to such a decision as well. Filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be listed on a credit report for a period of up to 10 years. Credit cards and non-exempt property will have to be forfeited by a filer. There are certain debts, such as child support and student loans, that cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. Borrowing significant amounts of money in the future, such as for a mortgage, will be difficult after a bankruptcy. Finally, if a filer encounters an even worse financial situation in the future, bankruptcy may no longer be an option to relieve the new debt.
Many people encounter financial hardships at some point in their life. If the situation becomes severe enough, drastic action may need to be taken.
Source: Findlaw, “Pros and Cons of Declaring Bankruptcy under Chapter 7,” accessed on Aug. 2, 2015 |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20556 | Teaching is central to my story. I chose to leave government out of frustration with the lack of evidence in policymaking and political debate. I believe these problems are solved, in part, through teaching students to think like social scientists and apply evidence to solve problems.
I had the rare opportunity to design and teach three of my own courses to Stanford undergraduates and graduate students. To provide my students with an effective learning experience, I have spent considerable time discovering how to teach students to think about empirical and normative questions in politics. By emulating great professors and experimenting in my own courses, I have refined a teaching philosophy that emphasizes active learning, argumentation and writing, mentorship and advising, and continuous feedback and iteration.
Primary Instructor
Social scientists and policy makers increasingly operate in two completely different worlds. The purpose of this course is to help students bridge this gap. By the end of the quarter, students will be familiar with the major theoretical explanations of state behavior, instinctively assess world events from the perspective of social scientific theory, effectively identify evidence-based solutions to complex global challenges and develop policy-practitioner skills, including oral-briefing delivery and memo writing. In the final weeks of the course, we will leverage this evidence-based theory to develop policy solutions to important contemporary global challenges in policy-design labs. (syllabus)
Teaching Assistant
International Relations
Political Theory
• Introduction to International Relations (w/ Professor James Fearon)
• Introduction to International Relations (w/ Professor Mike Tomz)
• Liberalism and Its Critics (w/ Dr. Brian Coyne)
• Justice (w/ Professor Josh Cohen) |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20567 | Toxic Elephant
Don't bury it in your back yard!
Opinions about Ruby gem development, 2018 edition
Posted by matijs 31/12/2018 at 15h46
• Your next release should nearly always come from the master branch.
• When updating your feature branch, prefer git rebase master over git merge master.
• When merging your feature into master, prefer merge bubbles over squash merges and fast-forwards.
• bundle exec rake should run your tests.
• You still should not check in Gemfile.lock.
• Use RuboCop. Running just rubocop should do the right thing. If you need a specific version, add it to the Gemfile. In that case, bundle exec rubocop should do the right thing.
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Private Toolbox: An Anti-Pattern
Posted by matijs 10/04/2016 at 09h21
This is an anti-pattern that has bitten me several times.
Suppose you have an object hierarchy, with a superclass Animal, and several subclasses, Worm, Snake, Dog, Centipede. The superclass defines the abstract concept move, which is realized in the subclasses in different ways, i.e., by slithering or walking. Suppose that due to other considerations, it makes no sense to derive Worm and Snake from a SlitheringAnimal, nor Dog and Centipede from a WalkingAnimal. Yet, the implementation of Worm#move and Snake#move have a lot in common, as do Dog#move and Centipede#move.
One way to solve this is to provide methods walk and slither in the superclass that can be used by the subclasses that need them. Because it makes no sense for all animals be able to walk and slither, these methods would need to be accessible only to subclasses (e.g., private in Ruby).
Thus, the superclass provides a toolbox of methods that can only be used by its subclasses to mix and match as they see fit: a Private Toolbox.
This may seem an attractive course of action, but in my experience, this becomes a terrible mess in practice.
Let’s examine what is wrong with this in more detail. I see four concrete problems:
• It is not always clear at the point of method definition what a method’s purpose is.
• Each subclass carries with it the baggage of extra private methods that neither it nor its subclasses actually use.
• The superclass’ interface is effectively extended to its non-public methods,
• New subclasses may need to share methods that are not available in the superclass.
The Animal superclass shouldn’t be responsible for the ability to slither and to move. If we need more modes, we may not always be able to add them to the superclass.
We could extract the modes of movement into separate helper classes, but in Ruby, it is more natural to create a module. Thus, there would be modules Walker and Slitherer, each included by the relevant subclasses of Animal. These modules could either define move directly, or define walk and slither. Because the methods added in the latter case would actually makes sense for the including classes, there is less need to make them private: Once could make a instance of Dog walk, either by calling move, or by calling walk directly.
This solves all four of Private Toolbox’ problems:
• The module names reveal the purpose of the defined methods.
• Subclasses that do not need a particular module’s methods do not include it.
• The implementor of Animal is free to change its private methods.
• If a new mode of transportation is needed, no changes to Animal are needed. Instead, a new module can be created that provides the relevant functionality.
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Try to avoid try
Posted by matijs 28/07/2015 at 10h52
Because of a pull request I was working on, I had cause to benchmark activesupport’s #try. Here’s the code:
require 'benchmark'
require 'active_support/core_ext/object/try'
class Bar
def foo
class Foo
bar =
foo =
n = 1000000
Benchmark.bmbm(15) do |x|'straight') { n.times { } }'try - success') { n.times { bar.try(:foo) } }'try - failure') { n.times { foo.try(:foo) } }'try on nil') { n.times { nil.try(:foo) } }
Here is a sample run:
straight 0.150000 0.000000 0.150000 ( 0.147271)
try - success 0.760000 0.000000 0.760000 ( 0.762529)
try - failure 0.410000 0.000000 0.410000 ( 0.413914)
try on nil 0.210000 0.000000 0.210000 ( 0.207706)
user system total real
straight 0.140000 0.000000 0.140000 ( 0.143235)
try - success 0.740000 0.000000 0.740000 ( 0.742058)
try - failure 0.380000 0.000000 0.380000 ( 0.379819)
try on nil 0.210000 0.000000 0.210000 ( 0.207489)
Obviously, calling the method directly is much faster. I often see #try used defensively, without any reason warrented by the logic of the application. This makes the code harder to follow, and now this benchmark shows that this kind of cargo-culting can actually harm performance of the application in the long run.
Some more odd things stand out:
• Succesful #try is slower than failed try plus a straight call. This is because #try actually does some checks and then calls #try! which does one of the checks all over again.
• Calling #try on nil is slower than calling a nearly identical empty method on foo. I don’t really have an explanation for this, but it may have something to do with the fact that nil is a special built-in class that may have different logic for method lookup.
Bottom line: #try is pretty slow because it needs to do a lot of checking before actually calling the tried method. Try to avoid it if possible.
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In Ruby, negation is a method
Posted by matijs 30/01/2014 at 06h16
Before, !foo was parsed like this:
Now, !foo is parsed like this:
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Some thoughts on Ruby's speed
Posted by matijs 02/03/2013 at 16h42
• In particular, they do a lot of memory allocation.
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How many s-expression formats are there for Ruby?
Posted by matijs 04/11/2012 at 13h34
Once upon a time, there was only UnifiedRuby, a cleaned up representation of the Ruby AST.
Now, what do we have?
• RubyParser before version 3; this is the UnifiedRuby format: "foobar(1, 2, 3)"
# => s(:call, nil, :foobar, s(:arglist, s(:lit, 1), s(:lit, 2), s(:lit, 3)))
• RubyParser version 3: "foobar(1, 2, 3)"
# => s(:call, nil, :foobar, s(:lit, 1), s(:lit, 2), s(:lit, 3)) "foobar(1, 2, 3)"
• Rubinius; this is basically the UnifiedRuby format, but using Arrays.
# => [:call, nil, :foobar, [:arglist, [:lit, 1], [:lit, 2], [:lit, 3]]]
• RipperRubyParser; a wrapper around Ripper producing UnifiedRuby: "foobar(1,2,3)"
How do these fare with new Ruby 1.9 syntax? Let’s try hashes. RubyParser before version 3 and Rubinius (even in 1.9 mode) can’t handle this.
• RubyParser 3: "{a: 1}"
# => s(:hash, s(:lit, :a), s(:lit, 1))
• RipperRubyParser: "{a: 1}"
And what about stabby lambda’s?
• RubyParser 3: "->{}"
# => s(:iter, s(:call, nil, :lambda), 0, nil)
• RipperRubyParser: "->{}"
# => s(:iter, s(:call, nil, :lambda, s(:arglist)),
# s(:masgn, s(:array)), s(:void_stmt))
That looks like a big difference, but this is just the degenerate case. When the lambda has some arguments and a body, the difference is minor:
• RubyParser 3: "->(a){foo}"
# s(:lasgn, :a), s(:call, nil, :foo))
• RipperRubyParser: "->(a){foo}"
# s(:lasgn, :a), s(:call, nil, :foo, s(:arglist)))
So, what’s the conclusion? For parsing Ruby 1.9 syntax, there are really only two options: RubyParser and RipperRubyParser. The latter stays closer to the UnifiedRuby format, but the difference is small.
RubyParser’s results are a little neater, so RipperRubyParser should probably conform to the same format. Reek can then be updated to use the cleaner format, and use either library for parsing.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20581 | How to fall Asleep Quickly and Easily
How to Fall Asleep Quickly
Every person longs for a healthy and sound sleep after a hectic and stressful day. It is one of the healthiest ways to regain your energy and revitalize your system. No energy drink or pill can suffice for a sound sleep. But whenever we retire to bed, we always have thousands of questions hovering in our mind which interfere with our quick sleep.
And in such a case you find yourself staring at the ceiling or rolling on bed. But inadequate sleep makes you unhealthy and leads to health problems. You may also get dark circles under your eyes by not having a proper sleep.
So, we present you with some of the tips which may help you fall asleep fast.
Following are the easy tips to fall asleep:
1. Remove all sleep killers:
Remove even a small spark of light in your room as it might let not allow sleep to enter in or you can also use blackout eye pads. Once everything is black before your eyes, you may feel drowsy and fall asleep. To get rid of light and noise, even remove LCD display clocks or noise-making clocks. Also remember to keep your mobile phone on silent or vibration mode.
2. Healthy Food:
Old people used to have dinner at the evening. This was because they could have enough time to digest the food before they go to bed. Try to have dinner at 8pm and go for a light food. Heavy dinners are tough to digest and thus might keep you away from good sleep. Don’t forget healthier you eat, the better you sleep.
3. Beauty Treats:
Treat yourself with aromatic beauty products such as Aloe Vera gels, Neem based creams, Cucumber pastes, Sandalwood and orchid night creams as they might give you a cooling effect and relaxes you. Avoid usage of peppermint, orange and lemon based products before sleeping.
4. See what you watch and hear:
Dreams are sometimes, just the result of what you go through and strikes your mind before you sleep. So before you sleep avoid watching action & horror movies or heavy music.Rather listen to some soft and soothing music or watch some comedy flicks to have a silent and sound sleep.
Hope the above best tips prove useful for you to make you asleep fast and have a sound sleep. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20600 | A New Bionic Eye Could Send Images Directly Into Your Brain
Bionic eyes, they're watching you.
A breakthrough from Monash University professor Arthur Lowery could do away with the need for organic eyes entirely. His concept features a camera mounted to a pair of glasses that bypasses your eyes and sends images straight into your brain.
Monash University
Of course, skipping over the need for eyes comes with some heavy lifting from whatever neurosurgeon's tasked with the job.
According to New Scientist, 11 small tiles, each with 43 electrodes — enough to create a crude, 500-pixel image — would need to be implanted into areas of the brain that deal with vision, like the cerebrum, visual cortex and the occipital lobe, which hangs out in the back of your head. Part of the skull is temporarily removed, and the tiles will be placed directly onto the visual cortex. When the tiles are triggered and the brain areas are stimulated, the brain, over time, will teach itself to interpret the signals as sight.
"The processor is like a cartoonist," Lowery told New Scientist. "It has to represent a complex situation with minimal information."
It's invasive. But by the end of the procedure, you wouldn't even need retinas — or an eyeball at all — to take in the world around you. The glasses would give sight to people with different forms of vision impairment, like glaucoma and macular degeneration, and anyone with trauma- or disease-damaged optic nerves.
According to Lowery's Monash Vision Group, the direct-to-brain setup could even be used in tandem with existing, healthy vision systems to shore up any weakness in areas of the person's vision.
So far, Lowery doesn't know if the process will work in people who've been blind since birth. But the volunteers, many of whom will have sight loss from injury, should wake up with the vision equivalent of a TV from the 1920s, Lowery told New Scientist. It's not much, but it's a step toward what's literally a brighter future. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20608 | A placard with the Canadian flag rests on the ground covered in oil as demonstrators protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Alberta tar sands.
Oil Politics
Is Oily Econo-Politics Behind Saudis’ Crude Canadian Diplomacy?
|
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20609 | Script That Actually Works! Our expert developers have created something amazing for you. See it yourself!
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20611 | Simple Ways To Stream Online Movies
There are a number of simple accepted ways to watch online streaming movies around the home and even at places of work too. Most applications of the movies are in entertainment but it is possible to find movies online that could be used for educational or even demonstrating purposes. Often the most important aspect to streaming in a movie is a good broadband connection and a device to watch the movie on. Discussed in brief are some common methods to bringing the streaming online movies to people.
Different ways to watch online streaming movies
Mobile phones: It could be said that movies were first started to be streamed in on the smart phones before any other platform. Thus when someone mentions streaming movies the first option that comes to anyone’s mind is the mobile phone. But there has been a change in the formats used earlier and the present day apps enable a faultless viewing experience no matter where the person is located.
Smart TVs: For the sheer presentation there can never be beating the televisions and the latest HD and Ultra HD formats take the viewing experience to a new level. Most smart TVs enable the use of apps just like the mobile phones to stream movies that are available online on sites like 123movie. The more recent formats of televisions are designed to take note of the requirements of streaming internet movies and thus would provide a memorable experience most of the time.
Movie stick: These are internet devices that are normally plugged into the televisions either as a USB device or in the HDMI ports to enable the access of streaming movies. The very specialized nature of these gadgets ensure that there is possible a great user experience possible than with most competing devices available.
Gaming console: The latest gaming consoles like the Xbox and the Play Stations offer streaming movies in real time. Most gaming experience nowadays involves logging on to the servers and thus streaming in movies is rather an extension of this activity. It is possible to purchase the latest titles right as they are released to the public making the function rather contemporary in nature.
The changing standard of online streaming movies
When movies were first streamed into devices it was more of a novelty than any particular use. Thus there were little or no benchmarks to speak of. As more platforms and more devices got to using the new technology it became evident to providers of the services as well as the equipment manufacturers to bring out a set parameter for providing services to customers.
Thus as markets for online streaming movies matured it was that better viewer experience than earlier was provided to the user. It would now be possible to compare and choose the best in terms of platforms to use as well as the most preferred app on smart phones and smart TVs. This
1 Comment
1. A USB DVD-ROM drive would likely identify itself as a “Mass Storage Device”; however, unlike your external USB drive that is probably formatted in FAT-32 format, your DVD-R discs are likely formatted in UDF format (normal DVD-ROM format), which the TV may or may not be able to read.
The Sony Blu-Ray player would likely be able to read any mass storage device hooked to the USB port, but might not like a read-only device… and if it can’t play some of the files from a 123movies directly inserted into the drive, it won’t magically be able to play it just because it’s in an external drive connected through USB.
However, it might be about as cheap to find a cheap DVD (not Blu-Ray) player that will play at least DivX & XviD AVIs, and hook that up to the TV via another HDMI port, or possibly composite cables.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20613 | MNN Galleries
Lazarus species: 13 'extinct' animals found alive
By: Bryan Nelson on Nov. 5, 2009, 12:43 p.m.
Monito del Monte, Takahe Lord Howe Island stick insect
Photo: Three animals previously believed to be extinct discovered alive
1 of 15
They're called "Lazarus species" — creatures that have disappeared, sometimes for millions of years, only to miraculously be rediscovered again in modern times. Just as Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus in the Gospel of John, so these species manage to survive. Their rediscoveries are a bewildering reminder that when given a chance, life finds a way to survive. Here's a short list of 13 animals long-feared extinct that, in fact, have been rediscovered. (Text: Bryan Nelson) |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20616 | MoboReader> Romance > Loved by Federo
Chapter 14 Indulge...
Loved by Federo By MarillaGarden Characters: 7360
Updated: 2017-12-28 02:31
Warning; Steamy yet heartwarming chapter...
My body was dripping inside and out.
My mind, well, that was gone.
My body, let's just say I can't move at the moment.
"This kinky shit doesn't-"
"I know, but it's a interest I indulge in, " he says, cutting me off as his fingers trailed up my legs. "I'll make you love this kinky shit more than I do baby girl." he whispers, pressing his lips inside my inner thighs.
"Can you untie me, I want to hold you."
"Where the fun in that if I don't get to see you lose your mind, hear you beg, moan, scream out for me to give you more."
My head lays back upon the pillow, my wrist tied against the headboard, his thighs spreading my legs wide open.
Those were the movements.
Over and over.
Both hands gripped the side of my hips.
My body was on fire.
Burning desires soared wildly.
"There's a rhythm to sex, a rhythm I will teach you, a rhythm that you will never forget. No matter what or who you're with, you'll always think of me. This is how I'm engraving myself in your memory, so you won't think of any man but me baby girl."
"I hate you old fart."
"Hate can be a doorway to love, I'll be that doorway beautiful. Thats a promise I hold to you, for you to, " he placed his lips on my pelvic bone.
Sea blue eyes I was drowning in.
"How do you feel?"
Hot & bothered.
"I feel your weak as fuck to do anything."
What the hell was I saying, this man made me lose all thoughts I had in me. I wasn't thinking about anyone but him.
"I see, " he backs away, just to lean upward.
On his knees, untamed dirty blonde hair fell over his face. His hand went to brush away each strand, revealing his handsome face. Trailing my eyes down his chest, each muscle upon his glorious body flexed without him even trying. It was a sin to look as good as he did, it was a bigger sin that he knew what to do as well.
Looks, body and a steady mind.
He had it all and yet he chooses to be with someone like me.
Young, inexperienced and fat.
Thoughts of woman he's
Tears fell uncontrollable from her eyes as she stare down at me.
" hug..y..ou.."
I smiled before getting off the bed, reaching her tied hands, I released each wrist, rubbing away the pain before pulling her into my arms.
I hugged him with every ounce of emotions that ran through my heart.
"I believe you Federo, I really do. It's just...I....I'm scared. Cause...this feeling is...I've....I don't know what it is."
"Baby steps my baby, don't worry, old frat got you, " he lifted my chin up, causing my eyes to dart into his.
A heavy sigh parted from his lips.
"You can let feeling stay, maybe grow, I don't mind, I actually want it to stay. Right there, " he placed his finger upon my left temple then caressed downward. His fingers skimmed along side my cheek, going lower toward my neck. My pulse was racing with every stroke, his hand stop above my heart. "Oh how I wished that feeling would lock in here."
Does he feel it?
My heart?
Why was it going crazy?
Why couldn't I breath?
What was he doing to me?
"I will kill you if you break my heart old fart, so don't."
He smirked before placing his head on my chest, I locked my arms around him, he did the same with his arms, pulling me closer to his embrace.
"Never will I do that my love."
My love...
Those words rang over and over.
Is this
Do I love him?
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20618 | 133 Popular and Traditional Amish Names For Boys and Girls
Amish Names For Boys and Girls
The Amish people are famous in the US and the world over for their old-world lifestyle, speaking Pennsylvania Dutch, and their keen sense of community. They are devout, and their religion plays a vital role in their way of life and naming of their children. Amish names mostly reflect ideologies dear to them or are some form of biblical names.
Usually short, most Amish names have a beautiful meaning. If you are among the few who like the old-world charm and are into beautiful short names, scroll down through the exhaustive list of Amish names for baby boys and girls that we have put together at MomJunction. Enjoy your read!
Popular Amish Boy Names:
1. Aaron:
A sweet short name, Aaron is Hebrew for ‘lofty’, ‘high mountain’. According to the Bible, Aaron was the oldest brother of Moses.
2. Abram:
This is a biblical name and a contraction of the name of Abraham, who was the father of Isaac. Abram means ‘father of many’ or ‘high father’.
3. Albrecht:
Do you believe that your baby boy is marked for success? Then this Amish first name of German origin is for your bundle of joy. Albrecht means ‘intelligent’ or ‘noble and bright’.
4. Amos:
Widely used in the 18th and 19th centuries, Amos continues to be a popular name in the Amish community even today. It was initially a Hebrew name and means ‘borne by God’, ‘strong’.
5. Andy:
Your little boy is going to be a reliable and brave man someday. You can hope that these qualities are imbibed in him from a young age by naming him Andy, a variant of the English name Andrew. Andrew means ‘manly’ or ‘brave’.
6. Baker:
A significant number of Amish names are influenced by the craft or profession they practice. Occupational names are very prominent in the community. Baker comes from the old Middle English word Bakere, which means ‘to bake’.
7. Beth:
Another name influenced from the Bible, Beth comes from the Hebrew word Bethel or ‘house of God’. It might have also come from Bethlehem, a place of religious significance. Beth also means ‘lively’.
8. Caleb:
This beautiful name has Hebrew origins and stands for ‘faithful’.
9. Camp:
Camp is a Dutch word meaning ‘field’. This is an occupational name for farmers. You could consider it as a nickname if not as a first name for your child.
10. Chandler:
A fan of Chandler Bing from the TV show “Friends”? The name, which has Amish roots, means ‘maker and seller of candles’. Pick Chandler, and who knows, your son might turn out to be as witty and sarcastic as the fictional Chandler!
11. Collin:
Collin is derived from the Gaelic word Cailean, which means ‘people’s victory’. This is a typical Amish first name.
12. Conrad:
The name Conrad originates from the German word Konrad, which itself comes from Conja or ‘bold’ and rad or ‘counsel’, giving it the meaning ‘brave counsel’.
13. Daniel:
The Hebrew meaning of Daniel is ‘God is my Judge’. This is a religious and philosophical name with a modern ring to it. You could choose this as the first name for your baby and can shorten it to Danny as his nickname.
14. David:
The Hebrew version of David is Dawid, which means beloved or friend. David was also one of the greatest kings of Jerusalem according to the Old Testament and an ancestor of Jesus. This is a choice Amish name and also one of the most common first names worldwide.
15. Eli:
Eli is a short name that is Hebrew for ‘ascended’ or ‘my God’. Eli was also the name of the priest who cared for the prophet Samuel..
16. Elijah:
A very familiar Amish name, Elijah means ‘Jehovah is God’. This is a traditional Christian name which you can pick if you are particularly religious or spiritual.
17. Elmo:
A short and cute name, Elmo has German origins and derives from helm or helmet, meaning ‘protection’. The name also refers to St. Elmo, or Erasmus, who is the patron of sailors. The name means ‘worthy to be loved’ in Italian and ‘noble’ in English. Elmo can be a great first name if you are into modern names.
18. Evan:
Evan is a Welsh form of John or the Yəhôḥānān in Hebrew, meaning ‘God is gracious’. Evan can be a great first name for your baby if you want one with an old-world charm.
19. Fletcher:
An Old English name, Fletcher stands for ‘maker of arrows’. This is an old occupational name that is in vogue even today.
20. Frederick:
Possessing German or Dutch roots, Frederick is composed of frid or ‘peace’ and ric or ‘ruler’. The name stands for a ‘peaceful king’. Although a little old-fashioned, this can be a beautiful and stylish name for your baby boy.
21. Freeman:
Freeman is a simple old-world name that means a ‘free man’. It has Saxon roots and is used quite often in the Amish community.
22. Gabriel:
Holding biblical roots, Gabriel was the name of the angel who informed Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus. Alternatively, Gabriel means ‘devoted to God’ or ‘God is my strength’ in Hebrew. This is a very popular name and has many famous namesakes.
23. Harley:
Harley is a typical Amish name that is sourced from Old English and stands for a ‘meadow’. It can be a cool name for your son.
24. Harrison:
Is your husband named Harry? Well, then why not call your baby boy Harrison? Harrison means ‘son of Harry’.
25. Henry:
Did you know that the given name of Prince Harry, of the Royal Family of Britain, is Henry? One of the most prominent first names in the world, Henry is derived from the German words heim or ‘home’ and ric or ‘ruler’. This was in vogue since the 18th century and never really went out of fashion.
26. Hunter:
This is a common name for hunters and bird catchers. This name falls in the category of occupational names and is entirely in use in the modern world as well.
27. Ike:
An ancient Hebrew name and a diminutive of Isaac, Ike means ‘to laugh’ or ‘laughter’. In the Bible, Ike was the name of the only son born to Sarah and Abraham. It is an unusual name if you ask us.
28. Isaac:
Choosing this name for your baby boy will make Isaac Newton his namesake. If that is not reason enough to pick this name, Isaac means ‘laughter’ in Hebrew, apt for your cheerful baby.
29. Ivan:
Bearing Hebrew origins, Ivan is a Russian variant of John, and stands for ‘a gracious gift from God’. It is a poignant name for your little gift from God.
30. Jacob:
In the Old Testament, Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebecca who founded the twelve tribes of Israel. He was born holding the heel of his twin brother, hence referred to as ‘the holder of heel’ or ‘supplanter’. Another Hebrew meaning of Jacob is ‘may God protect’. Recently though, the name is famous for being the name of a werewolf from the “Twilight” series.
31. James:
This Amish name is very prominent worldwide with several celebrities donning it. James is the Greek form of the name Jacob and means ‘supplanter’. This can be a great alternative to Jacob.
32. Jeremiah:
A common Amish name, Jeremiah is the most used name whenever an Amish character is portrayed on screen. In Hebrew, Jeremiah stands for ‘exaltation of God’. This is also a traditional Christian name.
33. Jesse:
Jesse, which comes from Hebrew Yishai, means a ‘gift’ and might be just the name for your son, who is no less than a gift to you. Jesse was also the name of the father of King David in the Old Testament, which fits if you are also religious.
34. John:
John is derived from Jehovah, which is Hebrew for ‘God has been gracious’. It is one of the most used names in the world with variations in every language.
35. Jonah:
A common Amish name, Jonah means a ‘dove’. Naming your son Jonah can be a great way to ensure that he brings peace to others, just as a dove which is a symbol for peace.
36. Jonas:
Jonas is the Greek version of Jonah and means a ‘dove’. It is another popular biblical name given to Amish boys.
37. Jonathan:
This exciting name is Hebrew for ‘Jehovah’s gift’ or ‘god’s gift’. It is an apt name for your baby boy, who is world’ most precious gift to you.
38. Joseph:
Another common Christian name, Joseph was the Husband of Virgin Mary and Jesus’ legal father. In Hebrew, Joseph means ‘May Jehovah give’ or ‘May Jehovah increase’. This is a favored name among all Amish communities.
39. Joshua:
Often shortened to Josh, Joshua is a prominent Christian name that means ‘savior’ or ‘deliverer’. According to the Old Testament, Joshua was supposed to succeed Moses as the leader of Jews to lead them to the Promised Land. A short but cute name for your baby boy according to us.
40. Josiah:
Josiah is a biblical name that means ‘fire of the lord’. The Hebrew meaning of Josiah, which has the old world charm, is “Jehovah has healed’.
41. Justice:
Justice means ‘upright’ or ‘righteous’ and is a variation of a biblical name Justus. Justice will be an unusual but unique name for the boy, should you decide on this name.
42. Kemp:
This name comes from Norse kempa which means a ‘champion’, just like your little son.
43. Kevin:
We found this name to be very interesting and perfect for your baby boy. You ask why? Because Kevin is Irish for ‘handsome by birth’ or ‘attractive’. The Gaelic meaning of Kevin is ‘gentle’.
44. King:
A simple name that does not need any explanation, King stands for ‘ruler’ and would be apt for your little emperor.
45. Lawrence:
The Latin word Laurentum, meaning ‘man’, is the root word for Lawrence. The biblical reference would be Saint Laurence, who was killed in Rome.
46. Leonard:
Who doesn’t love Leonard, the bespectacled physicist from “The Big Bang Theory?” But did you know that ‘Leonard’ name is very popular with the Amish too? Leonard stands for ‘lion-hearted’, ‘lion-strong’, or ‘lion-strength’. and is a cool pick for your boy.
47. Leroy:
This cool name has a French past as it is derived from le and roi, meaning ‘the King’. Suits the little ruler of your heart, doesn’t it?
48. Lloyd:
Lloyd comes from Llwyd, which in Welsh means ‘grey’. Lloyd was also used as an adjective during the medieval times, when it meant holy. Although it is also a surname, it is fast becoming a preferred choice for a first name.
49. Marshall:
Marshall is a current Amish name and comes from the Old French words for ‘horse’ and ‘servant’. It is mostly reserved for boys of horse rearers.
50. Matthew:
Matthew is a well known Christian name and was the name of one of Jesus’ Apostles who wrote the first gospel of the New Testament. The name continues to be popular across the world.
51. Noah:
Remember the story of Noah’s Ark? Legend has it that Noah built a giant ark that allowed him, his family and all species of animals to survive the Great Flood. Noah is derived from Noach, which is Hebrew for ‘rest’ or ‘repose’. Noah, although quite formal, is becoming popular in today’s world.
52. Oliver:
Made famous in a novel written by Charles Dickens, Oliver comes from Olivier, which is German-French for an ‘olive tree’. Oliver also stands for ‘peace’, as an olive branch is a symbol of peace. This name is oft-used in the Amish community.
53. Peter:
Originating from Greek word Petros, Peter means ‘stone’. This is also a common Christian name, as Saint Peter was the most prominent of the apostles. Peter may be common, but a short and sweet name for your baby boy.
54. Phillips:
Phillips originated from Phillippos, which in Greek means ‘horse loving’ or ‘fond of horses’. If you and your partner are equestrians or are fond of horses, Phillips would be just the name for your baby boy.
55. Samuel:
Samuel comes from Shem Alohim, which in Hebrew means ‘God has heard’. Samuel was a priest who anointed King David and was a significant character from the Old Testament. Samuel is a prominent Christian name used around the world.
56. Simon:
A well-known first name, Simon in Hebrew means to ‘hear’ or ‘listen’. Simon was one of the Apostles mentioned in the Bible.
57. Smith:
This name probably originated from the Old English words smit meaning a metal worker, and smite meaning strike. This is an occupational name for boys from families of ironsmiths.
58. Solomon:
Who hasn’t heard of the great King Solomon? This famous biblical character was known for his fairness and wisdom. The name could be a nice choice for your son, who might imbibe the same qualities if you choose this royal name for him.
59. Tanner:
Tanner comes from the act of ‘tanning hides’ and is an often used occupational name among the Amish. It is mostly given to boys whose families work with leather or are shoemakers.
60. Timothy:
Another formal name, Timothy in most cases is shortened to Timmy. Timothy originates from Timotheos, which in Greek stands for ‘honoring god’. According to the Bible, Saint Timothy was a companion of Saint Paul in his travels.
61. Turner:
Want to give your boy a name that matches his winning attitude? Pick Turner, which comes from Middle English and means ‘champion or winner of a tournament’.
62. Uri:
This uncommon name is Hebrew for ‘the god is light’. Though this name is still in use among the Amish, it is not as used by the rest of the world.
63. Victor:
A Roman name, Victor means the ‘conqueror’. A short but powerful name for your little king, if you ask us!
64. Walker:
Walker originates from walkere, an Old English word meaning ‘to walk’ or ‘to tread’. Walker is an occupational name for a road maker or a fuller.
65. Wayne:
This name is frequently used for young boys among the Amish. Wayne comes from Old English and stands for a ‘wagon-wright’ or a ‘wagon driver’. This name is popular in the modern world as well.
66. Willis:
Willis is a name originating from Old England and interestingly, means a ‘resolute protector’. The name is derived from Will, which is short for William.
You think these Amish boy names are interesting? Wait till you see the names that Amish girls get!
Beautiful Amish Girl Names:
The Amish have some of the most unique names for girls. Here are some of the popular ones.
68. Abigail:
Abigail is an excellent choice of a name for your little princess. Though a little old-world, Abigail means ‘the father’s joy’ in Hebrew. It is quite poignant if you ask us.
69. Amity:
A sweet name with its origin from Latin, Amity stands for ‘friendship’. You can name your daughter Amity as an ode to all the dear friends who helped shape your life.
70. Anke:
Bearing German roots, Anke is the Dutch version of Anne and stands for ‘favor’ or ‘grace’. We think it is a pretty unique name for your graceful girl.
71. Anna:
A form of Hannah, often mentioned in the Old Testament. Saint Anne is another name for Virgin Mary, from which Anna is derived. This explains the why the name Anna is popular among Christians in the Amish community and even the rest of the world.
72. Annie:
Annie is yet another variant of Anna, which means grace. Annie also means ‘prayer’ in Hebrew.
73. Barbara:
Barbara is derived from Greek Barbaros, meaning ‘foreign’ or ‘strange’. Did you know that the actual name of Barbie, the doll that girls love, is Barbara Millicent Roberts? If your baby doll likes to play with a Barbie, she’d be happy to share her name with her.
74. Bertha:
Derived from German ‘beraht’, which means bright or famous, Bertha is an old-fashioned but an excellent name for your baby girl. Picking this name would be ideal, considering you’d want her to be both brilliant and memorable in the future.
75. Betty:
Betty is a shortened version of Elizabeth. According to the Old Testament, Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist. Elizabeth continues to be one of the most favored names for young girls in the Amish community.
76. Bridget:
Gaelic by origin, Bridget originates from Brigid, which stands for power, strength, vigor or virtue. This name is steadily rising on the popularity charts for years now. This will be an unusual, but solid name for your daughter.
77. Catherine:
A prominent name that has its origins in French, and is derived from the Greek word Aikaterina, Catherine stands for someone who is ‘pure’ or ‘clear’. It can be shortened to Kate or Cathy.
78. Charity:
You are sure that you can teach your daughter to be kindhearted and generous. Then why not name her Charity? Derived from the Latin word Caritas, Charity means ‘generous love’
79. Collette:
This rather old but popular name has Hebrew origins and means ‘people’s victory’. You can choose this name for your baby girl if you want her to have a rare name. Though often used among the Amish, Collette is not heard of among other communities in the rest of the world.
80. Dawn:
Your baby’s birth marked a new morning in your life, so why not name her Dawn? This relatively rare name stands for ‘awakening’ or ‘daybreak’.
81. Dorothy:
Dorothy rightly sounds very formal and old-fashioned, as it is derived from Old English. Dorothy means ‘gift of God’. If you are into formal names, you can consider this for your daughter.
82. Eleanor:
This now rare name was once trendy in the 19th and 20th century England. Eleanor has its origins in Greek and means ‘bright’ or ‘shining’. It is an apt name for your bright, intelligent baby girl.
83. Eliza:
Eliza is short for Elizabeth. It is a Greek name with its origins in Hebrew. It stands for ‘God is satisfaction’.
84. Elizabeth:
Think Elizabeth and you think of the Queen, the longest reigning monarch of England. Elizabeth is also a preferred name by the Amish folks and comes from the old Hebrew word Elisheba or ‘oath of God’.
85. Emma:
Derived from the German word ermen, meaning ‘whole’ or ‘universal,’ Emma is a very prevalent name in the Amish community and across the world. Emma was also the name of the strong-minded heroine of a Jane Austen novel by the same name.
86. Esther:
Taking its roots from the Bible, Esther was the name of the Jewish wife of the King of Persia who prevented the extermination of all the Jews. Esther has a certain old-world glamor to it and could mean a ‘star’ in Persian. It could also be a derivative of Ishtar, who was a Near Eastern goddess.
87. Eva:
As a mother, you understand the significance of giving life to a new human and how precious your daughter is to you. You would like the name Eva whose Hebrew meaning is ‘giver of life’ or ‘mother of life’. It is such a graceful name for your baby girl, isn’t it?
88. Eve:
According to the Bible, Eve was the first woman that God created for Adam and was the progenitor of human life. It has Hebrew origins and also stands for ‘life’.
89. Evelyn:
Evelyn is a beautiful name for your beautiful daughter. The Celtic meaning of Evelyn is ‘life giver’. It has a poetic ring to it and could have been derived from the name Aveline, which means ‘desired’.
90. Faith:
Faith is derived from the Latin word fidere. A popular name among the Amish, Faith means confidence, trust or belief. This name is frequently used among devout Christians as well.
91. Fannie:
Fannie is another common Amish name that stands for being ‘free’. A variant of Frances, it is the perfect name for your free-spirited independent baby girl.
92. Gertrude:
An old-fashioned name that picked some popularity due to the Hardy Brothers series (Gertrude Hardy was their aunt). Gertrude means a ‘strong spear’ in German and would suit young girls of substance. It can be shortened to Gertie.
93. Grace:
Originating from the Latin word Gratia, which means ‘God’s favor’, Grace is a sweet name that can add to your baby girl’s charm and beauty. Grace also means ‘elegance’.
94. Greta:
Your baby is beautiful and precious as a pearl. Why not name her Greta, which means a ‘pearl’ in German? This Amish name, which is short for Margaret, was made famous by the stunning actress Greta Garbo.
95. Hadassah:
This Amish name is too antique if you are into modern names. Hadassah is Hebrew for ‘compassion’ or ‘female myrtle tree’. You can opt for this name if you want a unique name for your daughter.
96. Hannah:
A character from the Old Testament, Hannah was Elkanah’s wife and the mother of Samuel. This is a biblical name and quite often used in the Amish community.
97. Henrietta:
Henrietta is the female variation of the name Henry and means a powerful ruler. Although a long and bit stuffy for daily use, we recommend Henrietta because of its rarity these days.
98. Honor:
Derived from the Latin words honos or honoris, Honor stands for ‘esteem’, ‘dignity’, and ‘respect’. It is a dignified name for your daughter and will command respect from others.
99. Hope:
Hope is what we have when the future remains an uncertainty. Kids bring hope to our lives, so what better name to give your child than Hope! Hope is also one of the three Christian virtues that every religious person should have.
100. Irene:
Irene comes from Eirene who was the Greek goddess of peace. Hence Irene signifies ‘peaceful’ or ‘peace’.
101. Iris:
Iris also sources its roots to Greek mythology and means rainbow. Apart from being well-received among the Amish, it is a trendy name in England.
102. Ivy:
Ivy is a short name yet it carries a great depth. Ivy, derived from the name of the plant, means faithfulness in Old English. It would be an excellent name for your daughter.
103. Jacqueline:
Jacqueline is the feminine form of the French name Jacques, which is a variation of Jacob. Jacques stands for ‘follower’ or ‘supplanter’.
104. Jane:
You’re familiar with phrases like ‘plain Jane’ or ‘Jane Doe’. Have you ever wondered what Jane means? Jane is the feminine version of the name John and means ‘Jehovah has been gracious’. Jane, although a simple name, is well received in the Amish community.
105. Jodie:
Jodie is the female form of Jude or Judas which derived from Saint Judas. Jodie in Hebrew means ‘jewess’ or ‘praised’. It is a beautiful name for your beautiful baby girl.
106. Joyce:
Your happy baby girl deserves a unique name. Why not give her a name that means happy? Joyce, derived from the name of Saint Judoc from Medieval England, stands for ‘cheerful’ or ‘merry’.
107. Justine:
Justine is the female variation of Justin which stands for being ‘upright’ or ‘righteous’, qualities that you want your baby girl to have. Justine is relatively prominent among the Amish.
108. Kathryn:
Kathryn comes from the Greek language and means ‘clear’ or ‘pure’. It is a variant of Catherine and can be shortened to Katie or Kate.
109. Leah:
Taken from the Hebrew word Le’ah, this name means weary. Alternately, Leah was the wife of Jacob and sister of Rachael. It is a short and sweet name for your baby girl.
110. Louisa:
Loisa is a traditional Christian name that comes from the name Lois, who according to the Old Testament, was the pious and religious grandmother of Saint Timothy. It became a prominent name during the Protestant Reformation.
111. Lucy:
The female variation of the Latin name Lucius, Lucy is a well known first name across all Amish communities. Lucius stands for ‘born at daylight or dawn’ or ‘of light complexion’.
112. Lydia:
Lydia gets its origin from Ludia, which in Greek means ‘from Lydia’, where Lydia is a region in Asia Minor. Lydia would be a beautiful name for your little girl. What’s more, you can even shorten it to Liddie.
113. Maria:
Maria is a form of the Hebrew name Miriyam which means a ‘sea of sadness’ or a ‘sea of bitterness’. Maria is a very prominent name and has variations in almost every language. Maria is another name of the Virgin Mary and can also mean ‘wished-for child’.
114. Martha:
Martha is of Aramaic origin and means ‘lady’. However, in Greek, Martha means ‘bitter’. According to the Bible, Martha was the sister of Lazarus who was obsessed with housework.
115. Mercy:
Mercy was a popular name in the 19th and 20th centuries but is considered quite old fashioned now. Originating from the Latin word Merces, Mercy stands for ‘compassion,’ ‘forgiveness,’ or ‘pity’.
116. Mildred:
A very trendy name in the 1900s, Mildred is reduced to usage among only the Amish and scattered states. Mildred is of Old English origin and means ‘gentle strength’. You can still choose Mildred because of its rarity today.
117. Nancy:
Nancy has Hebrew roots and is based on the Hebrew word for ‘favor’ or ‘grace’. This name came into vogue again because of the fictional teenage sleuth, Nancy Drew.
118. Naomi:
A feminine name of Jewish origins, Naomi is an exotic name that stands for ‘pleasantness’. Naomi was the mother-in-law of Ruth, as mentioned in the Bible.
119. Patience:
Dealing with a newborn, patience is a virtue you would need to have. Name your baby girl Patience, one of the three fundamental virtues of Christianity, and was coined by the 17th century Puritans.
120. Penelope:
The Gaelic meaning of this trendy Amish name is ‘white shoulder’. In Greek mythology, Penelope was the faithful wife of Odysseus who waited twenty years for him. The name means ‘weaver’ in Greek.
121. Rachel:
Rachel was the name of Jennifer Aniston’s character on the hit TV series FRIENDS. Rachel is also a biblical character and was the second wife of Jacob. It has a Hebrew origin and stands for ewe or ‘female sheep’.
122. Rebecca:
Rebecca comes from the Hebrew word Rivquah which means a ‘tie,’ ‘join,’ or ‘bond’. Rebecca, according to the Old Testament, was the mother of Esau and Jacob and the wife of Isaac. It means ‘servant of God’ and well accepted by The Amish.
123. Rhoda:
For a baby as pretty and delicate as a flower, Rhoda is a good name. If you are into traditional Amish names as well, Rhoda would be appropriate and means ‘rose’ in Greek’.
124. Ruth:
In Hebrew, the meaning of Ruth is a ‘vision of beauty”., which makes it a fantastic name for your little girl. Ruth also has a biblical reference: it was the name of King David’s great-grandmother.
124. Sadie:
Sadie used to be a variation of Sara, which means ‘lady’ or ‘princess’. But Sadie is popular as a name on its own now.
126. Sarah:
In Hebrew, the meaning of Sarah is ‘princess, noblewoman’. Sarah is also a biblical character; she was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac. Although a common, Sarah can make a beautiful name for your girl.
127. Serenity:
Serenity can be a beautiful, but old-fashioned, name for your child. This popular Amish name stands for ‘calmness’ or ‘tranquility’.
128. Susan:
A prominent name in many countries, Susan is derived from Susanna and means ‘graceful lily’ in Hebrew. You can pick this one if you are into short and simple names.
129. Tessa:
A shorter form of Theresa, Tessa is derived from Latin and means a ‘countess’ or a ‘harvester’. Tessa can be a sweet and short name for your little countess.
130. Trina:
Trina is a short form of Katrina and derivation of the Latin word for ‘triple’, and used to refer to the Holy Trinity. Although a religious name and well-liked by the Amish, we doubt if it used much in the rest of the world.
131. Verity:
Modified from Verite, which is French for truth or reality, Verity is a trendy name that is liked by both the conservatives and the modernists.
132. Victoria:
According to Roman mythology, Victoria was the name of the goddess of victory. It is also considered as a feminine version of the name Victor. Queen Victoria of England is the most famous bearer of the name, apart from Victoria Beckham.
133. Willa:
Willa is the feminine form of the name William. William is derived from German words wil or ‘will, desire’ and helm or ‘protection’. William or Willa essentially stands for ‘valiant protector’.
Even though Amish names have the infamy of being way too formal or old-fashioned, some of them are interesting and would be great as first names for your baby. They are also suitable for devout Christians.
Which ones did you like and why? Let us know in the comments.
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Sweha (M. Optom)Sweha has a Master's degree in Optometry and Vision Sciences from the University of Hyderabad and a year's clinical experience from the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, She is proficient in subjects of allied medical and ophthalmic sciences like Ocular Diseases, Systemic conditions, Genetics and Pharmacology. Apart from writing articles on parenting and pregnancy full-time, she is a published poet working on her first book. She swears by Harry Potter, a cup of hot chocolate and funky retro music. Her LinkedIn profile is given below https://www.linkedin.com/in/sweha-hazari-242b1166/
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Half-starved and overworked by her stepmother, Yeh-Shen's only friend is a fish with golden eyes. When the stepmother kills the fish for dinner, poor Yeh-Shen is left with only the bones. But the bones are filled with a powerful spirit. When Yeh-Shen is forbidden to attend the annual spring Festival, the spirit grants her a gown of azure blue and delicate golden slippers. That night, everyone marvels at the beautiful, mysterious young woman at the ball.
Told with beauty and grace, this Cinderella story from ancient China is brought vividly to life with Ed Young's soft, glowing illustrations.
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Home / Entertainment / Raising a baby in Syria’s uncivil bloodbath
Raising a baby in Syria’s uncivil bloodbath
Director-producer-cinematographer Waad al-Kateab.
Director-producer-cinematographer Waad al-Kateab.Credit:Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
FOR SAMA (95 minutes)
Sofitel, August 8, 4.15pm
Sama is the daughter of Hamza and Waad al-Kateab, student friends who went through the Arab Spring together, stayed in Syria to defy the regime of Bashar al-Assad when the war began, and gradually fell in love.
Hamza was a doctor trying to keep the last, barely functional hospital in Aleppo alive. Waad became a journalist whose fearless excursions with her camcorder won her an Emmy for live coverage.
Waad gave birth to Sama in 2016 as bombs rained overhead and, from the first, she didn’t cry like normal children.
Waad’s extraordinary documentary, put together in collaboration with award-winning Channel 4 documentary maker Edward Watts, won both the jury and audience prizes for documentary at South by South-west.
By zig-zagging across the years from 2012 to the present and back again, Waad hopes to give her child some kind of explanation as to why they refused to leave Syria – at least until 2016, when Assad’s henchmen came after them.
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Space-time (also axis mundi) is the hexagon inside the hexagram where the three hands of time meet with three dimensional space.
The hexagram ABCDEF above is the sum of two triangles: ABC and DEF. The three sides of the triangle ABC are the three hands of time, and the triangle DEF is three dimensional s[ace.
The three hands of time are:
HourMinuteSecond The three manifestations of three dimensional space are: LengthBreadthHeight In triangle ABC, Hour = AB, Minute = BC, Second = CA. In triangle DEF, Length = DE, Breadth = EF, Height = FD.
Time is the circle of the sky, and the clock is the physical manifestation of time. Since the clock is made up of hour, minute, and second, triangle ABC is Time (the clock).
The three hands of time are manifestations of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity.
Hour (AB) = Father Minute (BC) = S…
Axis Mundi
The axis mundi is the center of the world, the point connecting earth and sky or an established line of communication between heaven and earth. It is a ladder reaching from the earth to the sky and a bridge between space and time.
A line of communication was established between Jacob and God. Jacob was the earth, God was the sky (heaven), and the line of communication between them was the axis mundi.
He dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:12) "NKJV"He: Jacob
Ladder: Axis Mundi
A ladder was set up on the earth: the axis mundi is a ladder connecting heaven (the sky) and the earth
Angels: messengers
Angels of God: messengers of God
God had direct communication with Jacob immediately the axis mundi was set up,
Orh Ein Sof
Ohr Ein Sof is the "Infinite" light representing the brightness or brilliance of the wisdom hidden inside the Ein Sof (the Wuji). Ohr Ein Sof is the manifestation of the light that was latent in the Ein Sof. It is the product of nothing, and the new life (or new existence) that is the light of non-existence.
Ein Sof or the Wuji is the glory (without light), and Ohr Ein Sof is the light of the glory which brings us to the sudden realization of our inner consciousness of God and the true nature of the universe.
We suddenly realize that we are the holy city described in Revelation 21. The Paradise we seek is hidden inside us, and we must look inward or search our hearts to discover it.
Jesus says the Paradise we seek is inside us,
For indeed,the kingdom of God iswithin you.” (Luke 17:21) "NKJV"The kingdom of God:Paradise or Heaven
We don't need sunlight or moonlight to show us what is inside us. Rather, we need to meditate or ponder deeply in order to unveil what …
Wuji (also Wu-chi) is infinity, the Ein Sof, and eternity. It is a circular pathway representative of the Ein Sof prior to the manifestation of the Ohr Einsof. It is the state of nothing or void at the end of existence and prior to the beginning of a new life or a new world or a new existence.
Wuji (the Ein Sof) is the glory fulfilling God's promise of a boundless universe and a world that has no end.
Jesus, after completing his time inside the Holy of Holies, was reduced to nothing before emerging as the light that is the new world or the new universe. First, He traveled to the end of the world; then he disappeared into void before emerging as the bright light of the afterlife or the world beyond.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. (Revelation 3:20-21) "KJV"Glory: Wuji (the Ein Sof)
World with…
Yin Yang
Supreme Ultimate Taiji
Taiji "Supreme Ultimate" is the absolute undifferentiated state of the singularity or oneness Yinyang formed by the complementary effect of the supreme polarity or duality Yin and Yang.
The last three stages of complexity are Si Xiang, Wuji and Taiji. Si Xiang is the third stage and Taiji is the first and final stage.
Taiji and Wuji are essentially the same thing except that Taiji is light of unity and Wuji is darkness of division. Although Taiji and Wuji are made up of Yin and Yang, Taiji is the product of the fusion of Yin and Yang and Wuji is the product of separating Yin and Yang.
Yin and Yang are darkness and light respectively. Separated, darkness (Yin) is dorminant; united, light (Yang) is dorminant.
The darkness created when Yin and Yang are separate is Wuji and the light created when Yin and Yang are united is Taiji. This means that darkness is the penultimate state and light is the supreme and ultimatel state.
Wuji (darkness) is the Ein Sof and Taiji is the Ohr of…
Bagua means the eight symbols or the eight trigrams that are the eight components of an octagon surrounding a Tao symbol of balance between Yin and Yang.
In Taoist cosmology, Bagua (also Pa Kua) is heaven. The term ‘Heaven’ was derived from “Fu Xi” Bagua (Earlier Heaven) and “King Wen” Bagua (Later Heaven).
“Fu Xi” Bagua is the old heaven or the first layer of heaven, and “King Wen” Bagua is the new Heaven or the second layer of heaven. The third heaven is represented by the Tao symbol of balance at the centre of the octagon.
Tao is the cosmic tree (the tree of life) at the center of the world, and Bagua is the chain surrounding the tree. This means that Bagua is the octet and the chains are the eight hexagons constituting the octet.
A hexagon is equal to 1 bit and the octet is equal to 8 bits (corresponding to the eight trigrams or the eight symbols).
Binary digits in Malkuth and the ten sefirot (ten decimals) are the cells of the tree of life.
John of Patmos described a vision of t…
Dao is a word describing the two black holes inside the Tao. The name Dao does not take into consideration the external circle enclosing the two black holes.
Since the two black holes are two out of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, Dao is the Father and the Son. The first black hole is the Father, the second black hole is the Son. God is the Father, and Jesus is the Son on the right hand of the Father: Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us! (Romans 8:34) “GNT” Therefore, the Dao is made up of the Father (God) on the left and the Son on the right hand side of the Father. Recall that one of the two black holes is the object and the other is its image. Jesus is the image of the Father (God). He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15) “NKJV” Jesus, a human, is the image of God because mankind is the image of God. God create…
Tao is the famous eternal Word described as follows, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) “KJV” The Word is Divine Information or Holy Wisdom, and the Tao is the physical manifestation of the Word. We know that information is intangible. Therefore the Tao is described as spiritual – the opposite of the physical. It is the Spirit known in Christianity as the Holy Spirit. This implies that the Word described in John 1:1 is the Holy Spirit (the Tao). Acts of the Apostles described the revelation of the Tao as the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was a sound wave transmitted by wind, And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:2) “ESV” Sound Wave: a sound like a mighty rushing wind And understanding the Tao was described as an act of speaking in tongues because the Tao is shaped like a Tongue, Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which sp…
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20699 | Skip to main content
The Foursquare Equals Sixteen Prophets of the Old Testament
The four sides of the square representing the two dimensional structure of the new Jerusalem are the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Four Gospels = 4
Considering that the new Jerusalem is a binary system, the square of the four sides is equal to 16 sides.
New Jerusalem = 4 × 4 = 16
Each side is a direction on the Bagua Square, and the sixteen sides are the sixteen directions of the 16-point compass rose. A direction is a prophet, such that the 16 directions are the following 16 prophets or 16 books of the Old Testament:
In 3-D, the square is equal to a cube. And in 4-D, the square is equal to a tesseract. A cube has eight vertices and the tesseract, comprised of two cubes, has 16 vertices that are the 16 directions of the 16-point compass rose.
Since the sixteen vertices of the tesseract are sixteen directions of the compass, the sixteen prophets listed above are the sixteen vertices of the tesseract. This is how the prophets are brought into the holy city.
Recall that the compass rose is a rose flower symbolic of love and affection. This means that the world is no longer condemned by the prophesies of the sixteen prophets. Rather, the world is blessed by the blessings pronounced by the prophets.
Isaiah said, "I will say to the prisoners, 'Go free!' and to those who are in darkness, 'Come out to the light!'" (Isaiah 49:9)
He also said, "They will never be hungry or thirsty. Sun and desert heat will not hurt them, for they will be led by one who loves them. He will lead them to springs of water." (Isaiah 49:10)
Jeremiah said, "I will restore the people of Israel to their land. They will eat the food that grows on Mount Carmel and in the region of Bashan, and they will eat all they want of the crops that grow in the territories of Ephraim and Gilead." (Jeremiah 50:19)
Qibla Compass
Every religion is a compass - the centre of the comp…
The Monad (1) is an encycled dot or point O, representing the Alpha and Omega, constructed using a compass and a pencil. The center of the circle is the origin or source of all things and the circumference of the circle is the end or crown of everything, such that the Monad is the first and the last; the beginning and the end.
Creation of the Cosmos is construction of geometric shapes. The most important part of the process of creation is the construction of the first day and the last day. The two days were constructed simultaneously.
God constructed the first day when he said "let there be light!" (Genesis 1:3) "NIV"
The light that appeared on the first day of creation of the Cosmos is the halo - a ring of light.
The last day is the seventh day when God rested from his work of creation of the harmonious world. "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work." (Genesis 2:2) 'NIV"…
Creation is, geometrically, construction using mathematical instruments such as protractor, compass, pencil, ruler, etc.
Heaven, the immaterial world, is visible on earth through geometric shapes and patterns, and could be revealed by the study of geometry and trigonometry.
Signs and symbols of worship in various religions are either simple geometric shapes, combinations of two or more geometric shapes or modified geometric structures.
Examples: the cross in Christianity is a net of cube, the kaabK in Islam is a cuboid, Mandala in Hinduism is a circle, and the Hexagram in Judaism is a product of two equilateral triangles.
God is a geometer, which means that he is a teacher and humans are his students. He (God) has been trying to teach humans the orderly geometric patterns defining the exact and accurate nature of heaven.
Question: why would God want humans to study the structure of heaven?
Answer: God wants the same law governing heaven to govern the earth.
The law of heaven is harmo…
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20712 | Formula Won: A Crash Course In Nailing New Business
Posted in Inbound Marketing, Posted in Talks by Claire Dibben
For the first time in history at Digital Gaggle, the Noisy Little Monkey team did something they have never done before...
They dared to fit three lightning talks on the topic of ‘nailing new business’ into a 30-minute slot at the Digital Gaggle conference. No big deal, right? Aside from the fact that it was a hella lot of content to get through in a short space of time and it was also James and Gertie’s first foray into public speaking at a digital marketing conference.
With just eight minutes each to get through quite a hefty topic, I thought it’d be a good idea to give you a roundup of the key bits of information Gertie, James and Jon shared at the event.
If you'd prefer, you can view their entire presentation here.
The Inbound Marketing Funnel
Each of the three lightning talks focused on either the ‘convert’ or ‘close’ section of the inbound marketing funnel (you might also know this as the sales funnel if you haven’t been indoctrinated by HubSpot yet). See handy image of funnel below.
The Inbound Marketing Funnel showing Attract, Convert, Close and ROI sections of customer journeyFirst up from the Noisy Little Monkey team was Gertie who talked about how to optimise landing pages and calls-to-action (CTAs) to convert more web visitors into juicy leads for your sales team.
Optimise Your CTAs
Gertie’s first pit stop during her talk was CTAs. If you don’t know what a CTA is, it’s basically a nudge on your website to get visitors to take an immediate action such as “download your free e-book!” or “follow us on social media!”
Gertie's biggest point was this: whatever action you want your visitors to take on your site, just make sure it’s really clear. To help you optimise your CTAs and make them really stand out, Gertie had a super helpful acronym: remember the LAWS of CTAs...
L - Less is more. Don't overcrowd your CTA with lots of text and images.
A - Action-orientated text. Use phrases like "register now" to encourage immediate action.
W - Who's it for? Before you start designing your CTA, think about the person who will be interacting with it - will it appeal to them?
S - Striking (make it big and bold). Don't be shy - make sure your CTA is noticeable otherwise your visitors will scroll straight past it.
If you're the kind of person who likes a visual aid, then you're in luck my friend. Here are some examples of good CTAs (stolen straight from Gertie's slides *evil laugh*)
An example of two great CTAs with clear actionable text and buttons.
Test, Test, Test
Gertie reminded the audience to put their CTAs to the test. She recommended experimenting with the position of the CTA: do you want it to appear as a pop-up or would you prefer it to sit in the sidebar of your site? She also suggested testing out different colours to see if this would improve conversion rates.
Here's a screenshot of some testing we've done on CTAs at Noisy Little Monkey...
Picture showing that a CTA without someone's face in it has better conversion rates than one with.
Once you’ve optimised your CTAs, it’s time to think about your landing pages (aka the page your visitors land on once they’ve clicked on your call-to-action).
Landing Page Pro Tips
1. Let there be no distractions on your landing page. See that menu nav at the top there? GET RID OF IT.
2. Make it trustworthy. Use testimonials and client logos on your landing page to indicate your credibility to your site visitors.
Once your visitors have completed the action you wanted them to take on your landing page - thank them and tell them what to expect next. For example, if they have downloaded an e-book, will you be sending them an email? Let them know.
You might also want to use your thank you page to signpost your visitors to some other useful content (and show them how awesome you are at what you do). Do you have a blog they might find useful? If they’ve been interested enough to download some content from you, why not encourage them to request a meeting with your sales team?
Nurture Those Leads
With CTAs and landing pages covered by Gertie, James’ talk set out to show the audience how they could nurture more of their leads through the inbound marketing funnel.
James kicked his talk off with an eye-opening stat:
“73% of B2B leads are not ready to be passed to the sales department.”
How do you fix this? You do it with lead nurturing workflows.
If you’re not sure what a lead nurturing workflow is, it’s essentially a series of emails designed to lead your prospect through the inbound marketing funnel and keep them engaged with your business until they are ready to buy.
Lead nurturing workflows are an absolute godsend for your sales team because it means that they spend less time faffing around with people who are not yet ready to buy (yes, faffing around is the technical term).
You can use all sorts of marketing automation tools to create email workflows and qualify leads but at Noisy Little Monkey, we prefer to use HubSpot.
HubSpot allows you to enrol prospects into email workflows based on a number of different criteria and behaviours. For example, you can enrol a contact into a workflow if they fill out a form on your site, download some content or view a specific page. The world is your oyster!
Here's an example of a lead nurturing workflow we use at Noisy Little Monkey so you can see how it could work for your businesss...
Example of a lead nurturing workflow
Nailing New Business Using Email
So you’ve mastered the CTAs, landing pages and lead nurturing workflows. But what about closing those marketing leads into actual sales?
Jon’s lightning talk (and the final talk of Noisy Little Monkey’s 30-minute session) provided delegates with some tricks they could use in email to convert more leads into ca$h money.
So concise were Jon’s tips that I’ve listed them out in a straightforward fashion for you below. Pens at the ready!
1. Have a game plan for your sales strategy.
Who is handling which parts of your sales process? Make sure that your leads - who are expecting to hear from you - aren’t sat around not being dealt with.
2. Stop talking about yourself.
Quit using words like “I” and “my”. No-one cares about your agenda! It should be all about the lead, so start using words like “you” instead.
3. Personalise.
When sending an email to a sales lead, personalise the subject line with their first name - it’ll stick out in the inbox. You're welcome.
4. Ask a relevant question.
Be direct and don’t skirt around the issue. If a lead hasn't got back to you, say something like, “did my email get buried?”, “do your web dev team have the time to deal with this?”. That way you know what the agenda is and your time isn’t wasted.
5. Give until it hurts.
Be as helpful as possible to your leads. Send them links to free resources and helpful blog content - they’ll remember you for that.
6. CTAs.
Get your leads to complete an action during the sales process. For example, get them to book a meeting in your diary.
7. Add a P.S.
Add a little note to your email with something important in it. Their eyes will jump straight to it.
8. Be rude.
Yes, there’s a caveat for this - don't be REALLY rude - but if you’ve sent a few emails with no response, don’t be afraid to be direct so you don’t waste any more time. Something like, “I can see I'm not a priority for you at the moment - ping me an email when you’re ready to increase your business’ revenue” will work a charm and prompt a response.
That's All Folks!
Can you believe they squeezed all of that into just 30 minutes? Me neither!
If you want to talk about how Noisy Little Monkey can implement the magic of inbound marketing for your business, just ping us a message by clicking the image below.
Let's Talk!
Claire Dibben
Claire Dibben
Meet Claire Dibben
Monkey Mail 💌🍌
Get monthly digital marketing tips sent straight to your inbox.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20771 | The Hunter: Call of the Wild review
Remind the animals who’s top of the food chain.
Our Verdict
Boasts some beautiful, convincing countryside to hunt in, but the glacial pace will challenge the limits of most people’s patience.
Need to know
What is it? A semi-realistic open-world hunting simulator.
Expect to pay £30/$30
Developer Expansive Worlds
Publisher Avalanche Studios
Multiplayer 1-8
Link Official site
Buy it Humble Store
Read our affiliates policy
Wild boar. Blacktail deer. Roosevelt elk. European bison. Beautiful, majestic creatures, all of which I’ve killed with a big gun in The Hunter, a semi-realistic hunting simulator set across two vast rural landscapes in Germany and America’s Pacific Northwest. But you can’t just sprint around firing your rifle like a Call of Duty protagonist: you have to be slow, quiet, and methodical if you want to bag one of the many furry trophies on offer.
Being a simulator, there’s more to a successful hunt than pointing your gun at the first creature you see then shooting it. There are a lot of places in the woods for an animal to hide, and your first job is usually tracking one down, which can take a while. As you creep through the trees you’ll see tracks highlighted on the HUD. Interact with them and your character will use his magical hunter senses to determine which direction the animal is moving in. Then it’s just a case of patiently following the tracks, trying not to make too much noise, until you catch up with it. But that’s only half the battle.
Walking quickly or through thick brush will alert the animal to your presence. If this happens, the best thing to do is crouch and move slowly. But the problem with this is that The Hunter is a game largely about quietly stalking animals, which means you spend most of it crouching and edging through the forest at an incredibly slow pace. I enjoy a slower-paced game, but it’s too ponderous even for me. And if you spook an animal it’ll sprint away and remain in a state of alert for a while, meaning the chances of finding them again are quite slim. This does give the game a nice sense of tension, and makes it genuinely challenging, but it requires—no, demands—an extraordinary amount of patience.
Once you’ve successfully cornered your prey, it’s time to shoot it. But even this comes with its own set of challenges. If your heart rate’s up from running, your hands will shake and make aiming more difficult. The wind is also a factor, affecting your accuracy. And even if you hit the beast, you might just clip its leg, and it’ll run away in panic. You can follow the blood trail to finish it off, but this has a negative impact on your final score. The best kills in The Hunter are the quick ones, preferably as a result of hitting a vital organ.
There are other factors to consider too. Animals will give a warning call if they sense you nearby, meaning they’ll be more likely to flee if you get close. Skulking behind trees and bushes will make you harder to spot, but the rustling will scare your prey. And your score for killing an animal is even determined by how ethically suitable the ammunition you used was. There’s a lot going on here, making it a fairly deep simulation, but at the expense of some accessibility and, crucially, fun. Actual entertainment is sparingly drip-fed in The Hunter, which makes playing it, for the most part, pretty tedious.
Weirdly, what I enjoyed most in The Hunter wasn’t the actual hunting, but the world. It’s a gorgeous game, and one of the most convincing digital recreations of nature I’ve seen on PC. The autumnal forests feel wonderfully organic, with foliage swaying in the wind, motes of pollen floating through the air, and realistic lighting and shadows courtesy of the engine’s global illumination tech. The sound design is fantastic too, from the crunch of dry leaves under your feet to the gentle chirp of birds. It’s so nice that it’s almost a shame you have to ruin the peaceful, serene ambience by shooting animals with a gun.
I love weird, niche simulators like this, but besides enjoying hiking through its stunning wilderness, I found The Hunter far too dull to hold my attention. But that’s exactly why some people will like it, so you’ll have to decide if you’re the type of gamer who can endure prolonged periods of inactivity for short, sweet rewards. It does at least have some depth and scope for mastery, and tracking and killing tougher animals like black bears is a genuine test of skill. But the real test is ultimately staving off boredom.
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The Verdict
The Hunter: Call of the Wild review
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20782 | What Do You Mean You Can't Read My Mind?
organisation Jan 09, 2018
Hmmm..... because I'm NOT a mind reader?
Here's the thing, as you get busier and the need to outsource some of your work rises to the top of your To Do List.... there's some things you might want to consider when working with Virtual Assistants - especially in the specialised field of course creation.... To make this easier to read, I've compiled a handy list for you
1. They CAN'T see what it's in your mind -
☞ so when you're explaining something, whether it's in writing or verbally, think about how clear you're making it for someone else to understand.
2. Think about this....
☞ you're more often than not paying by the hour, and the last thing either of you want is to work on a task that both parties have a completely different idea on. That's just a super waste of time and funds for you both. So the more detail you can give the better, and in the order that you want things finished.
3. Send over links....
☞ to websites or pdf's or images that you like to give your VA an idea....but be sure to tell him/her what it is about the other website that you like, ie colour, layout, fonts, words used etc.
4. Tell him/her about your target audience,
☞ and what the outcome will be for potential participants if they do your course....knowing this will help in even choosing the right icons, graphics and typefaces. Casual has a certain look and so does Corporate - getting the look and feel right can go along way in making your potential customers feel they're in the right place.
5. Give deadlines.
☞ This is crucial in the online course creation world - after all you're probably chomping at the bit to get your new business up and running, so definitely fill your VA in on what your timeframe expectations are. That way if there needs to be some extra hours slipped in at midnight to get that Sales Landing Page finished everyone can be pitching in!
In a nutshell - your time is precious and so is your Virtual Assistant's.... so make sure you utilise every second of it and get your amazing New Kajabi course completed by your deadline!
Feel free to reach out to see if any of my services can help you achieve your goals 😃
50% Complete
Get your copy of this Free 9 Step Infograph Now
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20806 | Yvette Greco
Phone: 816-436-9623 x. 3132
Degrees and Certifications:
Yvette Greco
World Language Teacher
Barry School and Platte County High School
I’m very excited to be teaching World Languages and Spanish at Barry and PCHS. I am originally from Los Angeles, California. I taught for 12 years in California. I have a Bachelor’s Degree and a Teaching Credential from California State University, Los Angeles. I am certified in California and Missouri to teach Spanish K-12, and Elementary Education.
I look forward to teaching and sharing my love of languages with the students at Barry and PCHS. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20825 | Meaning of Mary
Mary is an English name for girls.
The meaning is `great, mother, born in May`
The name Mary is most commonly given to American girls.
If it's too long you might use:
Jo, Mae, Mamie, May, Mayme, Mollie, Polly
Use for the other sex:
What do they use in other countries?
Mae (English)
Maya (English)
Mya (English)
The name sounds like:
Myra, Mira, Mera, Marra, Marah, Mahra, Mora, Mairi, Meara, Miri, Maraya
See also:
Maira, Mari, Maribel, Marigold, Marisa, Marissa, Mia, Miriam, Annamaria, Asia, Fatima, Khadija, Luz, Maery, Mairin, Marika, Marita, Maritza, Masha, Mirele, Mariella, Mimi, Marietta, Máirín, Marica, Mariska, Maja, Romy, Mitzi, Meike, Maike, Myriam, Manon
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20869 | Ecosystems - Online Quiz -
Use these words to answer the questions: food chain, omnivore, precipitation, abiotic factors, population, ecology, niche, evaporation, community, predator.
Enter answers into input boxes, then click Grade My Quiz.
A ____________ includes all the members of a single species in a given place.
Something that eats both plants and animals is a ___________________.
________________ is the process in which liquid turns into a gas.
A ___________ is something that hunts for food.
____________ is the study of how living and nonliving things interact in order to survive.
All populations have a unique ________ in their habitat.
Rain, snow, sleet and hail are types of ____________.
Water, minerals and soil are examples of _________.
Oak trees, deer and mice are all part of the _____________ of the forest.
A ________________ shows how energy moves from one organism to another. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20870 |
Blurring the line between real and virtual motorsports.
Yoshino (Date A Live) - '64 Austin Mini Cooper S Fia App.K Spec 1.0
And now the most anticipated skin i've shown on IG
1. RoyalFranzYT |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20872 | Try the 40 Dashboards Plan for 14 Days Free
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If you do not have a credit card or PayPal account and/or if you have any questions regarding sign up, feel free to contact us |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20879 | Body Modification
…multiply pierced, shiny and bristling in silvery steel. Rings through lips and nipples, nostrils and ears, long black tattoos and indelible color spiraling up arms, down bare backs and legs, bewildering visual treat but it was the metal she liked best; and beside her Bibi’s own sparkle, the flash of long silver rings, matte-studded nostrils like extruded drops of iron, flesh for the machine age.
Kathe Koja, Skin
This is my (one and only) piercing story:
I had always wanted to get my nose pierced. However, I am a world-class baby about pain, so it took quite some time to get up enough courage to have it done. Forget doing it myself or having a friend do it for me; I wanted a pro.
So, I go to the local tattoo place (the one where I had intended to have bands of Celtic knotwork tattooed around my wrists). I am sitting in one of the rooms waiting, when through the doorway comes a guy that looks amazingly like a walking penis. You know, short, soft, fat, none too bright. I figured, however, that he must know what he was doing or they wouldn’t have him working there. Wrong. (Remember what they say about what happens when you assume?)
He marked the targeted spot on my nose with a pen. Okey-dokey so far. Then he put this clamp with a hole in the ends on my nose that felt like an alligator clip on a jumper cable. I’m hurting. He pierces my nose. It hurt. This I expected, but I figured it would be over soon, and it was. He began to insert the hoop alongside the needle, which hurts a little more (everything is not so okey-dokey now, I’m loosing my smile and my happy thoughts) and then I hear him say “Shit! I dropped the hoop!”
Since it’s no longer sterile, Mr. Dickhead must go get another one. He takes the needle out of my nose, but leaves me sitting there holding the jumper cable which is still attached to my nose, and by now it hurts like a mother. He comes back with hoop #2 and REPIERCES (o my fucking god) my nose. He not only repierces it, he does it with such joyous abandon that he runs it through my nose and into my upper lip. By now I’m sweating. I am not going to cry in front of the Amazing Detachable Penis, but it hurts. Especially when he grabs my upper lip and starts yanking on it to pull it off the needle, rather than backing the needle out. I’m hoping that if I do have to vomit, I can get most of it on him.
Then I hear…you guessed it: “Omigod! I dropped the hoop!” He looks at me (white and sweating) and shamefacedly asks if I want him to try again. I decline, stand up (after having to ask for some Neosporin so my nose won’t get gangrene and fall off), turn dead white and almost faint. My boyfriend had to get my $30 back; I would have walked out without it.
It’s been a long time since that happened. And someday, I’ll have the nerve to do it again. But not by a guy who looks like Mr. Penishead.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20904 | become become
Four years after Belgian web shops and merged into entertainment web shop, they will rebrand themselves as one store:
6 stores in a single location
The new portal website is built around six different web shops: one for comics, books, music, dvd's, e-books and English books. Its shopping cart will incorporate purchases from the six different web shops, which should make things easier.
Both separate web shops, and, have had turbulent pasts, both struggling while even closed down for a while. Now, as, the company hopes to give its customers a better shopping experience. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20964 | How strong is the economy?
The Economic Strength Monitor® (ESM) is a proprietary index produced by Saratoga. The purpose of the index is to signal, in general terms, the relative strength of the US economy.
ESM contains fourteen underlying metrics, including
2017-03-31 Saratoga ESM.jpg
ESM Factsheet
ESM is a strength-focused index, meaning that it is best used to help us understand the strength of the current economy, as opposed to the direction in which the economy is moving, i.e., strong economies may be well-rooted, but may not have significant momentum, and vice-versa. Another of Saratoga's proprietary indexes, the Economic Leading Statistics® index,
The index has historically helped us to figure out whether, and to what degree, the Federal Reserve is likely to adjust the Federal Funds Rate in the near future. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20975 | A new hominid species has been found in a cave in the Philippines | Science News
Science News is a nonprofit.
Support us by subscribing now.
The newly dubbed Homo luzonensis lived at least 50,000 years ago, scientists say
1:00pm, April 10, 2019
Philippines cave
CAVE SPECIES Fossils unearthed in this cave in the Philippines are from a previously unknown Homo species that lived at least 50,000 years ago, scientists announced.
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Fossils with distinctive features indicate that the hominid species inhabited the island now known as Luzon at least 50,000 years ago, according to a study in the April 11 Nature. That species, which the scientists have dubbed Homo luzonensis, lived at the same time that controversial half-sized hominids named Homo floresiensis and nicknamed hobbits were roaming an Indonesian island to the south called Flores (SN: 7/9/16, p. 6).
In shape and size, some of the fossils match those of corresponding bones from other Homo species. “But if you take the whole combination of features for H. luzonensis, no other Homo species is similar,” says study coauthor and paleoanthropologist Florent Détroit of the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
If the find holds up to further scientific scrutiny, it would add to recent fossil and DNA evidence indicating that several Homo lineages already occupied East Asia and Southeast Asian islands by the time Homo sapiens reached what's now southern China between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago (SN: 11/14/15, p. 15). The result: an increasingly complicated picture of hominid evolution in Asia.
Excavations in 2007, 2011 and 2015 at Luzon’s Callao Cave yielded a dozen H. luzonensis fossils at first — seven isolated teeth (five from the same individual), two finger bones, two toe bones and an upper leg bone missing its ends, the scientists say. Analysis of the radioactive decay of uranium in one tooth suggested a minimum age of 50,000 years. Based on those fossils, a hominid foot bone found in 2007 in the same cave sediment was also identified as H. luzonensis. It dates to at least 67,000 years ago.
fossil teeth
The fossils reveal a jumble of modern and primitive features. H. luzonensis had molars that were especially small, even smaller than those of hobbits, with some features similar to modern humans’ molars. The hominid also had relatively large premolars that, surprisingly, had two or three roots rather than one. Hominids dating to several hundred thousand years ago or more, such as Homo erectus, typically had premolars with multiple roots. H. luzonensis finger and toe bones are curved, suggesting a tree-climbing ability comparable to hominids from 2 million years ago or more.
It's unclear whether H. luzonensis was as small as hobbits, Détroit says. The best-preserved hobbit skeleton comes from a female who stood about a meter tall. Based on the length of the Callao Cave foot bone, Détroit’s team suspects that H. luzonensis was taller than that, although still smaller than most human adults today.
As with hobbits, H. luzonensis’ evolutionary origins are unknown. Scientists think that hobbits may have descended from seagoing H. erectus groups, and perhaps H. luzonensis did too, writes paleoanthropologist Matthew Tocheri of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Canada, in a commentary published with the new report. Evidence suggests that hominids reached Luzon by around 700,000 years ago (SN Online: 5/2/18). So H. erectus may have also crossed the sea from other Indonesian islands or mainland Asia to Luzon and then evolved into H. luzonensis with its smaller body and unusual skeletal traits, Détroit speculates, a process known as island dwarfing.
But some scientists not involved in the research say it’s too soon to declare the Luzon fossils a brand-new Homo species. Détroit’s group, so far, has been unable to extract ancient DNA from the fossils. So “all [evolutionary] possibilities must remain open,” says archaeologist Katerina Douka of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany.
The mosaic of fossil features that the team interprets as distinctive, for instance, may have been a product of interbreeding between two or more earlier Homo species, creating hybrids, but not a new species.
Or perhaps a small population of, say, H. erectus that survived on an isolated island like Luzon for possibly hundreds of thousands of years simply acquired some skeletal features that its mainland peers lacked, rather than evolving into an entirely new species, says paleoanthropologist María Martinón-Torres.
Those questions make the new fossils “an exciting and puzzling discovery,” says Martinón-Torres, director of the National Research Centre on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain.
If the unusual teeth and climbing-ready hand and foot bones found at Callao Cave occurred as a package among Luzon’s ancient Homo crowd, “then that combination is unique and unknown so far” among hominids, Martinón-Torres says. Only a more complete set of fossils, ideally complemented by ancient DNA, she adds, can illuminate whether such traits marked a new Homo member.
F. Détroit et al. A new species of Homo from the Late Pleistocene of the Philippines. Nature. Vol. 568, April 11, 2019, p. 181. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1067-9.
M. Tocheri. Unknown human species found in Asia. Nature. Vol. 568, April 11, 2019, p. 176.
Further Reading
B. Bower. The first known fossil of a Denisovan skull has been found in a Siberian cave. Science News. Vol. 195, April 27, 2019, p. 15.
B. Bower. New dates narrow down when Denisovans and Neandertals crossed paths. Science News. Vol. 195, March 2, 2019, p. 11.
B. Bower. Butchered rhino bones place hominids in the Philippines 700,000 years ago. Science News Online, May 2, 2018.
B. Bower. Hobbit history gets a new preface. Science News. Vol. 190, July 9, 2016, p. 6.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/20991 | Security Experts:
Hardcoded Password Exposes RSA Conference Badge Scanning App
SAN FRANCISCO - RSA CONFERENCE 2016 - Researchers at Bluebox Security discovered that the badge scanning application provided by RSA Conference organizers to vendors is plagued by a security bypass flaw.
At the 2016 RSA Conference, which is taking place this week in San Francisco, many vendors were provided with Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphones that run an Android app that allows companies to keep track of booth visitors by scanning their badges. The scanning devices run in what is known as “kiosk mode,” which means they cannot be used for anything except scanning badges, unless the app administrator unlocks it using a password.
Researchers at Bluebox Security downloaded a copy of the badge scanning app from Google Play and, after analyzing its code, they discovered that this security mechanism can be bypassed because developers embedded a default password in the application’s code in plain text.
“When we used that passcode we were able to gain access to the kiosk app’s settings. This, in turn, let us gain access to the device’s system settings, which then enabled us to put the device into developer mode to gain full access to the device,” Bluebox Security researchers explained. “This is concerning because if we can do this, an attacker can too, letting them root the device, pull any data off of it, or install malware to steal even more data.”
“We speculate that the default code embedded in the app is there as a mechanism so that the device can still be managed even if the admin’s custom passcode is lost. However, it is a poor developer practice to embed passwords into an app’s shipped code, especially un-encrypted and un-obfuscated,” experts noted.
Bluebox said the RSA Conference badge scanning application was developed by an unnamed third party.
This is not the first time experts have found vulnerabilities in RSA Conference mobile applications. In 2014, IOActive reported uncovering half-dozen flaws in the RSA Conference Android app, including man-in-the-middle and information disclosure issues.
While vulnerabilities in these types of applications might not pose a serious risk, such incidents demonstrate that many mobile apps, including ones developed for security companies, can be insecure.
“With the growing focus on mobile, enterprise CIOs are under pressure to accommodate end-user demands—provisioning secure apps to lines of business and partners, and ensuring fast time to market for customer facing apps,” Adam Ely, founder and COO of Bluebox, said in a recent SecurityWeek column. “As a result, a host of mobile application development platforms (MADP) and rapid mobile application development (RMAD) tools that facilitate app creation have emerged—there are now nearly 90 choices—that make it easier for the technical and non-technical alike to create apps. Now that anyone can create a mobile app, this has led to inconsistency in the security knowledge of a mobile app ‘developer’.”
“This variability in security knowledge, use of outsourced development houses, coupled with time to market pressures that favor usability over security features, results in less secure apps,” Ely added.
*Updated to clarify that the app was developed by a third party
Related: Users Lax on Mobile Security - Survey
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21041 | Tech Snacks
Byte Sized Treats to Transform Learning - 11/28/17
Win $500! Hour of Code Week is Almost Here!!!
Fayette County is joining the rest of the world to celebrate Computer Science Education Week. As we mentioned in the previous edition of Tech Snacks, take the chance to win $500 in technology for your classroom by participating with your students. There are a multitude of activities and lessons ready and waiting for you to experience. Read on to explore just a few of our favorites! You can also visit the Hour of Code site for even more tutorials.
Ready to Participate?
1. Visit the Hour of Code website to register:
2. Once you have registered to do an Hour of Code, register with Fayette County to let us know.
3. Once the Hour of Code week is over, we will ask you to submit a short summary of the activities you did and send a few pictures.
One elementary, middle and high school teacher will win a $500 classroom technology grant from Fayette County.
IAKSS Hour of Code Celebration
The annual Hour of Code celebration was held on November 27th at IAKSS. The Office of Instructional Technology provided lots of activities but the real stars of the day were teachers and students from Maxwell, Wellington, and Carter G. Woodson! Participants were "wowed" by their creativity, knowledge, collaboration, and engineering. Check out a few "tweets" from the event (click on each card for a closer look).
Dodo Does Math
Struggling for ideas on how to mesh an hour of code with all the content you need to cover? This coding activity from CodeMonkey does double duty by engaging students to practice their math skills while learning how to code. Although it’s targeted at 2nd - 5th grade, it would be a great refresher for older grades as well. Math content includes measuring distances and angles, and it displays actual code instead of just block programming so students can really start to understand that coding is a language. Give it a try!
Direct link:
Teacher notes
High School: Explore JavaScript with Globaloria Make Quest
Geared toward high school, students can learn to edit and write JavaScript code to defeat the 'Evil 404,' as they explore computer science concepts like variables and functions. Lesson Plan includes subject-matter extension activities for English, Mathematics, Science, History and Arts classes.
Box Island
Visit the tropical paradise of Box Island on your phone or tablet to learn about sequencing, looping, and conditionals. I found this a successful game for beginners. It is recommended for ages 6+ with a suggestion that younger students work in pairs or small groups (always more fun when the teacher allows you to talk to a friend!). Pairing students allows students to explain what they're learning, and more students can enjoy this game if devices are limited. Teacher Notes include a vocabulary list and a lesson plan -- and if you want the answers, a Solution Guide is available for download.
Web-based version:
Device: Android 4.4 and iOS 9.1 or later (Free and paid version available.)
More information:
Video overview: (7:29)
Yes, English Teachers, There Are Coding Activities For Your Middle and High School Students -- and Elementary, Too
When Hour of Code Week rolls around, most English teachers are baffled by how they could possibly connect coding to their classroom curriculum. However, there is one obvious connection that can be easily incorporated into instruction. Games involve stories -- or narratives -- and characters who face a series of challenges. Hmm... sound familiar? To find out more details, check out this this blog post to see how one teacher connected writing to gaming through the use of Scratch. Other language arts concepts that can be explored through coding, though, include sequencing, cause and effect, character interactions, theater staging (the idea of blocking is essentially the same), proofreading, and considering algorithms as a process essay. Hey, you can even get a little wild and crazy and allow students to do presentations involving coding. It's the ultimate in differentiated learning!
Snoopy Snow Brawl
“Snoopy” and “snow” go together like peanut butter and chocolate, or Mentos and Diet Coke, or...well, you get the idea. Now you can get your fill of both Snoopy and snow by coding with the app, Snoopy Snow Brawl! Snoopy Snow Brawl uses a word-free interface for pre-reading young coders, and up to 4 players may join in the game. The use of problem solving and strategic thinking separates this coding app from others. Inside the game, students must efficiently sequence their steps and actions in order to win the snow brawl round. Everybody is a winner as students learn how to program the Beagle Scouts and to create code in this wintery snow activity.
To get started, download the codeSpark Academy app. Open the app and click on the “Teachers” icon in the top left corner. Now click on the “Snoopy Snow Brawl” splash screen to download the app. Alternately, you can surf to the link below to play the game on a PC or Chromebook.
Want to see more about playing the game? Click on the video below to learn more on how to play. After your students have played this app, having fun with coding will “snowball” in your classroom!
No computers? No problem!
If you do not have access to a computer and want to participate in Hour of Code, try out these unplugged activities. No computer required.
Pizza Parlor lets students learn about algorithms used in the pizza business in this unplugged activity.
My Robotic Friends is a fun activity using cups. Students work together to construct an algorithm for their robotic friend to follow.
More! More! I Want More!
No matter what grade level... no matter which content level... no matter the current experience level...
Embedding Computer Science into your curriculum can spark students' interest in technology, inspiring them to become innovators. They will begin to design technical solutions to tasks in science, social studies, math, literature, the arts, and more! It's time to move beyond just "using" computers. Let's help prepare our students to be innovative and create new technologies in order to make a difference in a global society.
Take a look below at a few statistics provided by Then, look through the Computer Science Fundamentals course for your grade level. The courses are engaging, simple to follow, and fun to teach. If you are apprehensive, or don't have time for the full course, try a one hour tutorial with the Hour of Code.
Upcoming Technology Professional Development
Look below for exciting PD sessions led by the Office of Instructional Technology. Keep an eye on as Google, Canvas, Digital Learning and other PD opportunities are regularly added to the PD menu. What other topics are you interested in having training? Let us know here.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21056 | EVERYTHING flows from sitting at his feet and hearing his voice
Read Matthew 6:33
The word ‘priority’ came into the English language around 1400. It meant ‘first’ or ‘primary.’ For 500 years, the word was only used in a singular fashion. It wasn’t until the 1900’s that people started to speak of ‘priorities.’ Given the definition of the word ‘priority,’ it’s hard to reconcile using it in a plural tense. While we’d love to believe we’re capable of extreme multi-tasking, in reality, we can only focus on one thing at a time. Only one thing can be first. Only one thing can be most important. Only one thing can be our priority. Jesus clearly identifies this reality when he says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
When Martha welcomes Jesus into her house, she begins serving Jesus. However, her sister Mary begins sitting with Jesus. Mary listens to his teaching, enjoys his presence, and embraces his message. In Luke 10:42, Jesus commends Mary’s priority by saying, “one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Given the reality that we can only have one priority, Jesus a rms Mary’s choice to sit at his feet. Certainly, Mary has other options and potential distractions, but she knows what her main priority is – being with Jesus and learning from him.
These words of Jesus, “one thing is necessary,” give great clarity to the life of faith. The thing Jesus asks of us before he asks anything else, is that we sit at his feet. We must learn to abide in him – as a branch abides in the vine. To be clear, Jesus is not saying that sitting at his feet is the only thing he asks of us. That would diminish the other commands we read in the Scriptures. What Jesus says is that everything flows from sitting at his feet and hearing his voice. If we get our priorities wrong, we’ll view following Jesus as living for him, instead of with him. If we get our priorities wrong, we’ll end up killing our joy, dampening our life, and extinguishing our hope.
We live in a world filled with options. Clarity can be a hard thing to identify. All of us have a list of things that are important and tasks that we must accomplish. Today this passage reminds us that we all are called to embrace one priority – sitting at the feet of Jesus and allowing our life to flow from that connection. Mary gets it right. May we follow her example.
Reflection and Response
Take a few minutes to imagine yourself sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him teach. What has Jesus been teaching you about? How is he encouraging you and empowering you with his words today?
By Ryan Paulson
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21076 | From SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. wiki
SSBU Icon.png
Nia artwork.png
Official artwork of Nia (Driver form) from
Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Universe Xenoblade
Debut Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017)
Smash Bros. appearances Ultimate
Console of origin Nintendo Switch
Species Gormotti (secretly Blade)
Gender Female
Place of origin Gormott Providence
Created by Masatsugu Saitō
Nia (ニア, Niyah) is the tritagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Nia is a Gormotti Driver from Gormott Providence, accompanied by her Special Blade, Dromarch. Together they went on the run from the Indoline Praetorium until they were rescued by Jin and offer her to join his organization, Torna. During a salvaging mission with Jin, Malos, and Rex, when they reach a room containing the Aegis Pyra, she witness Jin kill Rex after touching Pyra's sword, prompting her and Dromarch to defect to the recently revived Rex's side and the first people to join him on his and Pyra's journey to reach Elysium. Eventually, it is revealed that Nia is a blade who was merged with the corpse of her former driver’s daughter. After the reveal, she can be freely switched between blade and driver forms.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
As a costume[edit]
Nia set for the Mii Brawler.
Nia’s driver form appears as a costume for the Mii Brawler. She also appears as an Ace spirit. Her blade form is completely absent from the game.
No. Image Name Type Class Ability Series
★★★ Water Attack ↑ Xenoblade Chronicles Series
External links[edit] |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21093 | Job Search
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The series is organized into three levels of problem and affords a minimal of four hundred vocabulary phrases and phrases. MBA curriculum with an accounting focus emphasizes normal administration and enterprise coursework as well as in depth accounting purposes and ideas.
On the backside left you will note small coloured boxes that correspond to the certificates containers alongside the Career Path.
Prestigious career paths in legislation, drugs, politics, and finance seem to attract pure-born leaders.
You will see a sequence of colored boxes, representing the credit score hours required to maneuver alongside a Career Path.
Reveals that nurses who are prepared at baccalaureate and graduate degree levels are linked to decrease readmission charges, shorter lengths of patient keep, and lower mortality rates in health care services.… Read More |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21111 | Written by wildchildtammy
10 Oct 2013
Lying next to Andrew, I said that I wanted him to show me what guys liked to do when having sex.
He was a bit reluctant at first, as he was still not sure that I was not going to change my mind about this and get him into trouble. I told him that I knew what I wanted, and that he was safe.
He thought about this for a while, all the time playing gently with my nipples.
My boobs were, as a young teen, very firm, with quite big puffy nipples which got very hard when I was turned on, a nice shape, and I was quite proud of them so I liked him playing with them. Then he started kissing them again, and moved down my tummy, licking and kissing.
His mouth got to the top of my pussy, and he opened my legs a bit and bent my knees up.
His tongue flicked at my pussy lips, inside my lips, and onto my clit. I had never experienced such a delicious sensation- my whole body tingled with pleasure.
As his tongue went deeper, he put one finger onto my pussy, and drew a line towards my bum.
I was not sure I liked this, but when his finger got to my bum-hole, and he moved it around a bit while his tongue licked my pussy, I knew I DID like it- a lot!
He licked and sucked faster and faster, one finger on my bum, and one inside my pussy, pushing in and out.
I lifted my hips, pushing against his mouth, and bucking up and down to meet his finger and tongue. I felt a warm rush of pleasure through my tummy and pussy, and with a loud gasp I came and came, for what seemed like minutes, although it was probably only seconds.
My pussy lips were swollen with stimulation, and very sensitive. Even after I came, I put my fingers there and played with the outer lips- the feeling was magical.
He took his mouth away from my pussy, and kissed me- the first time I had tasted myself on someone else.
I lay back panting, watching him. His hand was on his cock, still hard and big. I could see a little bit of what I now know is pre-cum on the tip of his cock. I touched it, and ran my fingers down the shaft. He was circumcised, and I played with the head of his cock, tracing the shape of the head and touching the front of it which made him moan and twitch!
I knew what I wanted to do.
I sat up and pushed him to lie down, so he lay on his back. Now I did the same to him- kissing and licking from his chest down his stomach, to the tip of his cock. I took a breath, and licked the tip of it- he groaned. I licked down the shaft, and back up again. He groaned some more. This was fun- I took his balls in one hand and felt them, and then I put the head of his cock in my mouth, not sure what to do next.
I had seen porn movies of course, but I could not imagine how the girls got the whole cock into their mouth- there was so much of it!
I slid his cock into and out of my mouth, as deep as it would go, all the while fondling his balls.
He pushed his hips up, almost forcing his cock deeper. I let it go in, and started sucking and licking as it went in and out.
Suddenly I felt his balls go tight, and he moved faster and harder. I knew his was going to cum, so I took his cock out of my mouth, wrapped my hand around it and stroked it fast. I pointed it at me, and within a few seconds felt the warm spurt of his cum on my boobs, tummy and over my pussy. In fact the first spurt almost hit my face, had I not moved it away quickly!
I kept stroking it after the cum had stopped, until he took my hand away.
I lay next to him with my head on his chest, and watched his cock get slowly softer.
After about 10 minutes I got up, took a towel from the pile in the storeroom and wiped myself down.
I got into my skirt, without putting my panties on, and put my bra and blouse back on. He got dressed also, and then held me close to him in a nice warm cuddle.
Just before I unlocked the door, I gave him my panties, and told him to keep them to remember me until the next time!
After that first time, we had sex on many occasions, both at school and after a while at his house. He taught me to play without letting the guy cum too quickly, and how to make my orgasm last longer and to cum more often. (My record with him was 6 times in one afternoon- me, not him, but I did get him to cum twice in one afternoon!)
With him I also felt a guy cum inside me, and felt that warm cum flooding through me.
He also taught me to let him cum in my mouth, although for a long time I would not swallow, just spit it out. I only learned to swallow much later when I was older.
I would lie in his arms in the afternoon as the sun went down, sometimes not even having sex, but just cuddling. Then he would drop me off near my parent’s house towards evening.
The sex ended when he got a girl-friend, and he said that he did not want to cheat on her. We had sex one last time one evening, when we went to Clifton beach late. We had a picnic on a blanket between the rocks at First Beach, and then made love.
I saw him one last time about 2 years later, when I was 17. I was at the Spur in Pinelands with a boyfriend, and he walked in with a woman who I think is his wife. They sat 2 tables away, with him facing me, and his wife and my BF with their backs to each other. I saw that he had seen me, but did nothing. When my BF went to the bathroom, I looked at him, took a celery stick from the salad and pushed it in and out of my lips. I am not sure what his explanation was to his wife as to why he suddenly choked and sprayed his mouthful of wine over the table!!
Although I don’t recommend seducing a teacher as the way for a girl to learn about sex, I don’t regret it at all- he was sweet, kind and safe, and I treasure my experiences with him. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21127 | Teaching Resource
Telling the Time Clock Template
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2 pages|This resource is suitable for Grades: K, 1 - 3
An educational poster to assist students with telling the time.
Print this clock template on tabloid size paper. Cut out the clock pieces on the second page and glue the yellow clock face on top of the red one. Attach the clock hands using a split pin. When learning to tell the time, students can open the tabs on the yellow clock face to display the minutes underneath.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21140 | Network Configuration in RHEL/CentOS Linux 7
Network Configuration in RHEL/CentOS Linux 7
Although numerous and significant changes have been introduced in recent versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS, one of the most hotly contested topics seems to center around network configuration. In older versions of RHEL/CentOS, the default means of configuring network interfaces was via network scripts and use of the Network Administration Tool, which is now deprecated. Additionally, the well-known net-tools are also considered obsolete, replaced by the less-familiar ip commands. From RHEL/CentOS 6 onward, emphasis is now placed on using NetworkManager for network configuration, as well as the aforementioned ip command set. As of RHEL/CentOS 7, NetworkManager is considered the default method for managing network configurations, though the RHEL development teams paid careful attention to ensure that the network scrips would still function, and that they play nice with NetworkManager. Note this passage from the RHEL Networking Guide describing the relationship between NetworkManager and the older networking scripts:
“Note that in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, NetworkManager is started first, and /etc/init.d/network checks with NetworkManager to avoid tampering with NetworkManager’s connections. NetworkManager is intended to be the primary application using sysconfig configuration files and /etc/init.d/network is intended to be secondary, playing a fallback role.”
Old habits die hard, however, and you’ll likely see a number of articles across the Internet that detail methods to workaround NetworkManager, describe NetworkManager as, “the devil,” or “the plague,” and claim that most of the difficulties that arise with network configuration in RHEL/CentOS 7 are due to NetworkManager. While I haven’t seen any catastrophic effects from NetworkManager’s use, if it isn’t properly configured or if you aren’t well versed in its syntax, it can certainly be confusing and produce unintended results. In this article we’ll attempt to reserve judgement, and walk you through both methods of network configuration and let you decide which you prefer. First, let’s begin with NetworkManager and some of the tools used for configuration.
NetworkManager is described as a “dynamic network control and configuration daemon.” Though the traditional ifcfg scripts are supported, NetworkManager is intended to the be the default mechanism for network configuration in RHEL/CentOS 7. It offers fairly extensive control of a variety of network interface types, including more modern connectivity such as Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, infiniband, as well as traditional Ethernet connections. At Teknophiles, we primarily deal with server environments in which our primary concern is the latter – traditional static Ethernet configurations. As such, much of the added functionality that NetworkManager offers will be superfluous to our discussion here. More detail on NetworkManager can be found here.
In a server environment, NetworkManager is primarily managed by two user interfaces, nmcli (command-line interface) and nmtui (text user interface). We’ll first detail nmcli, since that’s what many administrators will prefer. Additionally, we feel strongly that understanding the cli is important since it helps to understand what is being invoked behind the scenes when using the tui. In its simplest form nmcli produces basic interface information and DNS configuration:
More detail can be had by looking at a specific network device. This command is shorthand for “nmcli device show.” Note the connection name, “Wired connection 1”.
Using the connection name, we can also look at the connection detail, which produces quite a bit of output:
This is a pretty typical configuration for a RHEL/CentOS box in its default configuration. From this output we can determine a good bit of useful information which we’ll need to configure a static IP on our server. Note that these attributes all take the format “”, with the property value listed in the right-hand column. We can see here that the connection has a human-readable ID, called “,” which is arguably somewhat unwieldy:
We can also see that the interface device is eth0, the connection type is Ethernet (802-3-ethernet), and this configuration was set by DHCP (auto).
In a typical server configuration, you’ll likely want to change several of these parameters to match your environment or standard practices. We can use the nmcli command to bring up an interactive command line tool to edit an existing connection.
The “?”, “help”, or “h” command will bring up a quick reference of available commands.
First, let’s create a more friendly connection name. Since we know this is a “connection” setting, type “goto connection” to enter the connection setting menu. Typing “print” or “p” will display the current values of this setting. The print command is contextual – it will display the values for your current location, in this case the connection menu.
We can now change value with the “set” command. Since the commands are contextual, we simply need to invoke the command as shown below. If we were not in the connection sub-menu, we would have to use the full format,, in our command.
We can see that our is now static-eth0, which is much easier to type or call in scripts, since it now lacks spaces and is much less generic. Before we continue, however, there’s one more important step. If you’ve ever configured a Cisco or other enterprise switch, you know that simply updating a config and walking away can be disastrous if you do not commit the running configuration. NetworkManager’s interactive configuration works much the same way – though you’ll see the changes to your interfaces immediately, those settings will not survive a restart unless you save the configuration. This is done with a simple “save” command.
Now let’s activate the changes and take a look at the results by looking at the connection properties again.
If you’d prefer not to use the interactive editor, this can also be accomplished via the nmcli in a single command as follows.
Let’s move on to setting the interface to use a static IPv4 address. We’ll also disable IPv6 with this command as well.
As you can see, nmcli is quite powerful. With a single command, we can very quickly modify our network configuration, without the need for modifying networks scripts or other complicated configurations.
The nmtui utility is a text user interface designed to perform many of the same functions as nmcli. Though some Linux sysadmins distrust UIs (we’ve seen bugginess in some UIs ourselves), nmtui provides a quick way to configure a network interface via NetworkManager.
First, select the option to, “Edit a configuration,” then select, “Wired connection 1” from the list of Ethernet connections.
Next, edit the profile name, then highlight <Show> next to = IPv4 CONFIGURATION and press ENTER.
Set the following items, according to your environment:
Highlight <OK> when done and press ENTER.
Now go back to the initial NetworkManager TUI menu and select “Quit” to exit to the shell. Activate the new configuration as follows.
Finally, take a quick look at /etc/resolv.conf. You’ll notice that NetworkManager was kind enough to edit these values for you.
No School Like the Old School
As we previously stated, there’s still a great deal of loyalty to the old network scripts method for configuring networking in RHEL/CentOS 7. Since the RHEL devs made sure that network scripts still function as expected, there’s a fairly straightforward means of circumventing NetworkManager and using the network scripts. This is a boon to many sysadmins, who already have well-documented and streamlined processes in place for network configuration. To use the network scripts for configuring networking in RHEL/CentOS 7, first disable the NetworkManager.service.
You may also elect to use the “systemctl mask” command, but this might make swapping back and forth to test each method a bit less trivial. If you’ve settled on using the network scripts for network management, we do recommend using “systemctl mask NetworkManager.service” in your final configuration.
Now that the NetworkManager daemon won’t restart upon reboot and won’t interfere with our manual configuration, we can configure our eth0 interface by creating or modifying the appropriate network script.
Make sure this is the ONLY network script that references this device and/or MAC address. This is especially relevant if NetworkManager has been previously running things and you have made manual changes.
After saving the configuration file, restart the network service.
Alternatively, bounce the network interface.
net-tools vs. ip
Lastly, we’ll complete the discussion by looking at the old net-tools vs the ip command. There’s really not much to say here, as the net-tools have been deprecated and haven’t been updated in ages. Yet I’m sure there are those to will cling to the old tools for quite some time – I certainly find myself still relying on ifconfig and route quite a bit. On the surface each tool offers much of the same information, though truth be told, to my over-40 eyes, the old tools do provide more pleasing output.
As with most things Linux, there’s more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. Network configuration is no exception. Sometimes it’s difficult to let go of old methodologies and embrace the new, especially when you’ve been doing something the same way for many years. I think this is probably the case with some of the bad press surrounding NetworkManager, especially in server environments. On the other hand, older, simpler methods are sometimes faster and less error-prone than newer, less-familiar ones. In the end, it’s up to you decide which method you prefer, but both network scripts and NetworkManager should provide you the tools you need to successfully manage your Linux network configurations. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21177 | (redirected from reenacted)
Also found in: Thesaurus, Legal.
also re-en·act (rē′ĕn-ăkt′, -ə-năkt′)
tr.v. re·en·act·ed, re·en·act·ing, re·en·acts also re-en·act·ed or re-en·act·ing or re-en·acts
1. To enact again: reenact a law.
a. To perform again: reenacted the dancer's movements.
b. To act out or re-create dramatically (a historical event, for example): reenact a famous trial.
re′en·act′ment n.
re′en·ac′tor n.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Verb1.reenact - enact or perform again; "They reenacted the battle of Princeton"
2.reenact - enact again; "Congress reenacted the law"
3.reenact - act outreenact - act out; represent or perform as if in a play; "She reenacted what had happened earlier that day"
References in classic literature ?
He made a second trip into the boma and the former grisly tragedy was reenacted with another howling victim.
A reenacted budget arising from a House-Senate deadlock would result in a 'spending regime fraught with legal landmines,' which would grant the executive branch wide discretion on how public money will be spent, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto warned on Monday.
The President, on the other hand, criticized former President Arroyo's failure to pass the national budget on time, resulting in reenacted budgets.
As well as hosting a hog roast and Noson Lawen, current pupils and teachers reenacted a Victorian school photograph in period costume.
The twist is the daughter's part of the conversation is reenacted by a grown man, adding a different tone to what is otherwise a two year old just talking to her dad.
Turkish Special Forces team reenacted a hostage rescue operation exercise, in eastern Turkish city of Erzurum on Thursday.
According to LE FIGARO, The assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri will be reenacted at a military base in the French city of Bordeaux to allow international investigators a glimpse of the bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.
AN HISTORIC flight was reenacted to celebrate the centenary anniversary of the first powered flight between Liverpool and Manchester.
Members of the Sealed Knot first entertained visitors to the event four years ago when they reenacted the 1644 siege of Morpeth Castle, when the fortress was all but destroyed as royalist forces attacked 500 Scottish parliamentarians garrisoned inside.
Treasury regulations and interpretations [such as revenue rulings] long continued without substantial change, applying to unamended or substantially reenacted statutes, are deemed to have received congressional approval and have the effect of law.
In addition, scores of visitors flock here every summer to the famous annual Pageant of the Masters, where famous paintings are reenacted by live models on opulent sets. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21207 |
I’m giving y’all an ugly cry [laughs].
Thank y’all again. Thank you for allowing me to have a career. When I fall, you lift me up. When I’m hungry, you feed me. And I just want to give you my light.
Those were the words Beyonce spoke as she brought the hugely successful Mrs. Carter tour to a close. Hell, I’d be crying to thinking about all that money I made on a 132 stop World Tour. I’d be so emotional I wouldn’t even be able to contain myself. I saw the show here in New Orleans and Bey really does put her all into her performances. She wore me out just watching her, so she has my respect doing that 132 times over the last year. Congrats on a great run Bey. Now go take yourself a nap…you earned it!
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21218 | Contact me
123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999
(123) 555-6789
Link to read me page with more information.
I talk and write about religion and politics a lot, which I'm pretty sure makes me the best kind of dinner guest.
On the politics side, I am the Chief of Staff for Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey.
On the religion side, I earned a PhD in Religion from Florida State University where I studied sexual slander and identity formation in early Christianity. I also hold an MA in Religion and an MDiv from Gardner-Webb University, and a BA in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
My dissertation analyzed the "heresy" of the 2nd century Alexandrian Christian Carpocrates and what it can teach us about sexuality and the soul in early Christianity (you can read a slightly longer introduction to my work here).
To read some things I've written, check out my Publications page.
All of my best content is on Twitter. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21243 | T&C Holiday Gift Guide: For the Sporty Billionaire
From leather hand weights to electric bikes, we've curated this season's best gifts for the champion in your life.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
1 A GPS Running Watch
$230, TomTom.
2 Something for the Cool Down
$1,890, Thom Browne.
3 Leather and Wood Hand Weights
Kevin Sweeney
$1,240, Berluti.
4 Waterproof Tunes
$160, Finis.
5 A Sleek Helmet
$500, Kask.
6 A Modern Bike with Vintage Appeal
$5,000, Icon.
7 A Shirt with Smarts
Kevin Sweeney
$295, Polo Sport.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21259 | Image 5 of 33
ST DRYDEN THE OUTLAW (proposed GRIMJACK character)
St. Dryden the Outlaw is mentioned in Issues 3 and 6 of the GRIMJACK: KILLER INSTINCT miniseries. Dryden is the disciple of another renegade saint, ST. JOHN OF KNIVES, in pre-Demon Wars Cynosure. They run afoul of their conservative church heirarchy by denouncing their denomination for getting too involved with Cynosure politicians-- wicked, selfserving men who are driving the Church headlong into the clutches of demonic darkness. Operating from John's Church of Ephemeral Salvation, the two friars become the first of a secret order of warriors-- the Goblyns-- and swear an Oath of Emnity against vampires, monsters, politicos, false zealots, and kings. We could use a few good men like them on our own world, seems to me. Of course, these are just my own thoughts. The characters and concepts are still in development so the above ideas are subject to change. In any event, I certainly hope that John Ostrander and I can chronicle their adventures some day. If you care to, leave word at my message board and let us know what you think. (Note: An inked version of St. Dryden in full regalia can be seen in the Grimjack Gallery section here at (2004-2005) |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21299 | Cardiology Clinic
Holter Monitor
Holter monitor testing is an “ambulatory” electrocardiogram (EKG) that measures and records your heart's electrical activity for 24-48 hours as you go about your daily routine. The monitor is a lightweight, battery-operated device that is worn on a strap over the shoulder or around the waist. The monitor is connected by wires to electrode pads that are taped to the patients’ chest and records electrical activity in the heart.
You do not need any special preparation for a Holter monitor testing.
Make an Appointment
Request an Appointment |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21305 | As I was growing up, these were the women I wanted to be: triumphant at the highest levels of commerce, assailing stereotypes of what a successful businessperson looked like, with smarts and vision and the will to outwork everyone in sight. Being a “one or only” in the room where it happens, I knew, was part of the bargain, the number of black or female fellow travelers diminishing with each level scaled, like oxygen at the planet’s highest peaks. As a black woman who spent years working in finance and technology, I’m both giddy to know that it’s possible to fill a room with black female entrepreneurs who have raised $1 million or more in outside capital, and acutely aware of the reasons that it’s still only one room.
All successful entrepreneurs imagine a problem, a product, and a market. But because the default founder in Silicon Valley is male, and white or Asian, a black woman must also “envision herself being the person creating the product or service that is in the world,” says Jessica O. Matthews, founder and C.E.O. of the renewable-energy start-up Uncharted Power —and then get funders to buy into that vision. The tech industry is an exercise in controlled failure, with as many as 81 percent of all funded start-ups washing out before exiting; “fail fast” is part of the religion. But black women must guard against even the hint of failure with every arrow in the quiver, lest naysayers see a shortcoming as evidence that blacks or women are categorically unsuited for the business.
(1) Lisa Skeete Tatum, co-founder and C.E.O., Landit. (2) Heather Hiles, founder and former C.E.O., P athbrite (sold company to Cengage Learning in 2015). (3) Marla Blow, founder and C.E.O., FS Card. (4) Helen Adeosun, co-founder and C.E.O., Care Academy. (5) Morgan DeBaun, founder and C.E.O., Blavity. (6) Jean Brownhill, founder and C.E.O., Sweeten. (7) Marah Lidey, co-founder and co-C.E.O., Shine. (8) Kristina Jones, co-founder, CourtBuddy. (9) Sherisse Hawkins, co-founder and C.E.O., Pagedip. (10) Etosha Cave, founder, Opus 12. (11) Tanisha Robinson, founder, Print Syndicate. (12) Catherine Mahugu, founder, Soko. (13) Alicia Thomas, co-founder and C.E.O., Dibs. (14) Kellee James, founder and C.E.O., Mercaris. (15) Viola Llewellyn, co-founder and president, Ovamba. (16) Reham Fagiri, co-founder and C.E.O., AptDeco. (17) Camille Hearst, co-founder and C.E.O., Kit. (18) Alexandra Bernadotte, founder and C.E.O., Beyond 1 2. (19) K. J. Miller, co-founder, Mented Cosmetics. (20) Nicole Neal, co-founder and C.E.O., Noodle Markets. (21) Amanda E. Johnson, co-founder, Mented Cosmetics. (22) Cheryl Contee, co-founder and strategic adviser, (23) Asmau Ahmed, founder, Plum Perfect. (24) Star Cunningham, founder and C.E.O., 4D Healthware. (25) Jewel Burks, co-founder and C.E.O., Partpic (sold company to Amazon in 2016). (26) Jessica O. Matthews, founder and C.E.O., U ncharted Power.
Still, these women (the 26 founders shown here completed their $1 million or more in fund-raising before November 15, 2017, according to start-up accelerator DigitalUndivided) are the most visible faces of a revolution. Over the last two decades, black women have become the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, owning nearly 60 percent of all black businesses. And if current efforts to diversify the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workforce have their intended impact, the number and scope of founders should increase as well: more than 90 percent of founders of “unicorns”—companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more—previously worked at top tech firms. That will mean more chances of finding “someone to identify with—someone to root for and aspire to be,” as Marla Blow, founder and C.E.O. of the credit-card venture FS Card, has put it. Representation matters, even in this rarefied air.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the name of Jessica O. Matthews's renewable-energy company. It is Uncharted Power. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21313 | I Tried to Find the Best New Party Hotspots Now That Our Nightlife's Dead
If all we're going to have left are cafes, new-build housing developments and shopping complexes, we may as well turn those into the next Fabric.
by Alex King; Photos: Theo McInnes
24 September 2016, 5:00am
London has lost half of its clubs in the last eight years. Well, so says mayor Sadiq Khan. If the same rate of destruction continues, that would mean a complete wipeout of the city's nightlife by 2024. Fabric recently joined a growing list of venues – from LGBT sanctuaries like the Black Cap to underground gems like Plastic People – that have been forced to close. When it's not due to rising rents, panics over "the drugs menace" or noise complaints, it's to make way for another gleaming set of pricey flats.
So if there's no party left to go to, what do you do? You make your own – and see if anyone joins in. Armed with some portable speakers, I set off to explore the not-too-distant future vision of post-nightclub London. I wanted to find out where will be left to dance and come together with strangers when the capital becomes even more sterile, corporate and privatised than it is today.
If coffee shops and luxury flats are the future, they're a good enough place to start. My first stop is Paternoster Square, one of many corporate developments, like Canary Wharf or Westfield, spreading across the city. While they might feel like public spaces, they're actually private land – and you have none of the rights you're entitled to elsewhere. Playing music, skateboarding or protesting are all banned. Top party vibes.
The afternoon sun is shining brightly as I crank up the latest Fabriclive album on my tinny speakers and start getting into it as unselfconsciously as possible. Pretty quickly, I feel awkward. Soon, passersby are doing everything they can to avoid eye contact. These people are embarrassed for me.
Gordon, 42, and Gemma, 33, both from Aberdeen, are the first ones who take enough pity on me to join in – purely out of respect to Fabric, they say. I pause to ask for their fondest memories of the club. "I don't remember – I was on a lot of drugs," Gemma says.
I expected security would have thrown us out 10 minutes in, but I clearly didn't kick off a movement worth bothering with. I got four people to shake their boots, but didn't quite recreate the sense of togetherness from a big drop in Room 1. Onto the next.
The London of the future may not have clubs, but it sure as shit will have chain coffee shops – which is great because after raving alone without the usual stimulants, I'm in need of some refreshments.
When I hit play inside a Pret, rapper D Double E is "on the rhythm combined", but he's battling to be heard above the tinkly background muzak. I realise that the speakers aren't on full volume, then crank that dial to 11. Now it's going off, the bass reverberating around the room.
Reinforcements arrive in the form of Haile, 37, from Texas. "I'm not from the city but my experience [of Fabric] was very positive, it's a culture worth preserving," he says, sympathetically throwing a few shapes in support before leaving.
Federico, the waiter, admits he let my little stunt run because he's a big fan of Fabric – and thinks its closure over drugs was bullshit. Afterwards, he puts things in perspective. "Where I used to work, there was a person who went in the toilet and smoked crack," he says. "I didn't sell the crack to him, he was just going into the toilet to smoke it. If he died it wouldn't be my fault, it's that person's responsibility."
Crossing the river, I head towards Elephant and Castle in south east London, site of a controversial £3 billion "regeneration". Residents of the Heygate Estate were kicked out of their social housing despite protests and at a massive loss to the local council, to make way for luxury towers. I approach the shiny glass entrance to One The Elephant, where a penthouse will set you back a cool £2.5 million. I don't have the required security keycard, so I slip inside behind someone else. As the sounds of Flava D begin echoing through the lobby, the two concierges adopt a good-cop, bad-cop routine to try get me out of the building quickly, with as little drama as possible.
The guy keeps smiling, answering my questions while repeatedly asking me to turn off the music and get out. The woman stays silent throughout but pins me with a piercing glare. Do the residents at least like dance music? "It's really strict here, they don't like any of that," the guy says, as a woman scuttles past and into the lift before I have a chance to drag her onto the makeshift dance floor. A huge security guard appears, forcing us to retreat before I lose my treasured soundsystem. If there's any partying to be had here, it's going on behind closed, security-card accessible doors – and I'm not invited.
Then I spot the playground outside. Could the fun-loving innocence of children resurrect a so-far pretty soul-destroying day? I approach a parent, Luke, who's pushing his son, Coen, and his friend, Waleed, both eight, on the giant swing. Luke is feeling the sounds of Flava D, but the kids are hesitant. I demonstrate the big fish, little fish, cardboard box routine. They're having none of it.
"What if they choose the tune?" Luke suggests, before asking the kids what they play. "Drake?" I whine to the opening bars of "Hotline Bling", trying to encourage two bemused eight-year-olds to dance with me. "Sorry, their sugar levels are running low," Luke says.
Maybe the next generation don't care about dance music? Is it even worth trying to save club culture for them, to preserve a legacy they won't appreciate? Either way, it's time to face facts: there's no replicating the feelings of those unforgettable nights out, in coffee shops or luxury flat lobbies. Club culture is irreplaceable. So let's pray this dystopian vision of a post-nightlife London never comes to pass. In the meantime, I'll be finding the best house parties I can.
@alexking89 / @theomcinnes
More on VICE:
If Sadiq Couldn't Save Fabric, What Chance Has London's Night Mayor Got?
I Held Parties on the Night Tube to Save London's Nightlife
Now Fabric Is Closed, It's Up to You What Happens to Clubbing |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21316 | A Potluck Invitation Left 25,000 State Workers Stuck in Reply-All Email Hell
After someone accidentally sent it to almost every government employee in Utah.
by Nicole Clark
Dec 10 2018, 8:46pm
Screenshot via Twitter user Joe Dougherty
Most of us who've been in a massive email chain know the number one rule: never, ever reply all. And especially don't reply all to tell other people not to reply all, a move that will only lead to heartbreak and rage, and probably encourage others to continue replying all to say the same goddamn thing. The second rule, obviously, is to not waste your time asking to be removed from the list. It's probably not going to accomplish anything, and you just wind up spamming everyone.
Unfortunately, people never learn. In an email nightmare come to life, someone accidentally sent 25,000 Utah state workers an invitation to what was supposed to be a small potluck on Friday, CBS affiliate KUTV reported. Starting at 9:30 AM, recipients began to reply all, with statements like "Perhaps people could not respond to all," "Please remove me from this email," and "STOP THE MADNESS!!!!"
Obviously, a 25,000-person potluck is way, way too big, and Utah State officials took to Twitter to share the immediate fallout from the cursed email. Joe Dougherty, the Utah Division of Emergency Management's public information officer, jokingly referred to the fiasco as "Replyall-gate 2018."
One state worker seemed particularly aggrieved about the mistake:
Even the Lt. Governor of Utah chimed in:
Around 11 AM on Friday, Dougherty tweeted that the email chain replies were finally beginning to die down. According to KUTV, "Neither the offending sender, nor the department they work for were identified."
All things considered, this could have gone way worse—let's not forget the time an IT contractor emailed all 1.2 million NHS employees, sparking a reply-all fiasco that resulted in 168 million emails and crashed hundreds of thousands of Outlook accounts. So remember, friends: Please, for the love of God, double-check the recipients before you hit send.
Follow Nicole Clark on Twitter. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21363 | Sorry, Sandra Bullock: A Fire Extinguisher Is a Lousy Thruster
Sorry, Sandra Bullock: A Fire Extinguisher Is a Lousy Thruster
Getty Images
Sorry, Sandra Bullock: A Fire Extinguisher Is a Lousy Thruster
Getty Images
Suppose you are an astronaut out in space. You have nothing with you except your wits and ... a fire extinguisher? Why a fire extinguisher? Because that's what Sandra Bullock's character has in the movie Gravity. Because a fire extinguisher shoots out gas (normally to put out a fire), it can also be used to produce thrust and help you maneuver in space. But would this really work? That is what the MythBusters, for whom I'm a science consultant, set out to test in a recent episode.
The MythBusters started by trying to create a similar situation on the surface of the Earth. They used a leaf blower to fashion a one-person hovercraft (it's not too hard to build one yourself). They let it loose on an ice rink, which pretty much eliminated the frictional force. Then they used a fire extinguisher for thrust and tried maneuvering around on the ice.
It turned out that the fire extinguisher wasn't so great for controlling the motion of the hovercraft. No one could avoid the obstacles set up on the ice. The problems with the fire extinguisher thruster are twofold: First, it doesn't push that hard on the hovercraft. So you would need to generate thrust for a significant amount of time to get a noticeable change in motion. Second, the way force changes the motion of an object doesn't agree with our basic intuitions about force. It's this second part that makes it difficult to fly a fire extinguisher in space.
We can get a good model of how forces make things move by reviewing your entire life. Yes, let's do it right now. For just about every event that you have observed, forces seem to obey the following rule:
If you push something, it moves in the direction of the push. If you stop pushing on it, it stops moving.
That force model seems to work just about all the time. One case where it doesn't work is with the hovercraft on the ice. In this case, the hovercraft is given a push to get it moving. After that, the person stops pushing—but the hovercraft JUST KEEPS MOVING! I honestly think that's why humans like ice. Things on ice don't follow our normal force models.
Since this model of "force equals motion" doesn't work on ice, it clearly isn't the best model. Here, I can describe a better force model with three gifs.
A constant forward force
Let's take a low-friction (almost frictionless) cart and push with a constant force. Here is what happens.
Rhett Allain
In case you can't tell, the cart is increasing in speed. Honestly, it's difficult for humans to detect changes in speed. Usually we just break motions into three categories: not moving, slow, fast. But trust me. This cart is increasing in speed. So if you push on an object with a force in the same direction that the object is moving, it will speed up.
A constant backwards force
Here is that same cart, but now the fan is pushing in the opposite direction. I have to give the cart a push, and then this happens.
Rhett Allain
In this case, the backwards force makes the cart slow down. It slows down so much that it eventually stops. Once it stops, the cart starts moving back to the right and speeds up—since it's now a forwards force.
A sideways force
I couldn't do this with the cart, so I used a yo-yo instead. Here is a top view of a yo-yo moving in a circle.
Rhett Allain
The force on the yo-yo is from the string and it is always pulling in a direction perpendicular to the motion of the yo-yo. This means the yo-yo constantly changes direction even though it's mostly moving at the same speed. What happens when I let go of the string? With no more sideways force, the yo-yo goes back to moving in a straight line at a constant speed (mostly constant).
What do all three of these cases have in common? The force always changes the motion of the object. It either makes it speed up, slow down, or change direction. Of course this is one of the fundamental models in physics—that the total force on an object is proportional to the rate of change of the velocity.
So, why do humans get this so wrong? We aren't so bad at making models, but we do have trouble seeing friction as a force. Since friction is just about everywhere, we think that pushing with a constant force makes something move at a constant speed. In fact, there is zero net force in this case. The force of you pushing balances out the frictional force to make essentially no force. No force means no change in motion. But still, it's caused by the always-present friction.
Test your own force model
OK, I get it. You weren't able to be on set when the MythBusters tested their hovercraft with the fire extinguisher. Don't worry, I wasn't able to be there either. But I have the next best thing—a fire extinguisher simulator. Yes. I made this for you.
Here's how it works. When you click the Run button, the big disk starts moving to the right. There is a constant force from the fire extinguisher that pushes in the direction of the arrow. You can use the mouse to move that arrow in whatever direction you think is the best. Now, can you avoid that wall? Here is your chance.
I guess I have a few more comments on this program.
• Remember, the arrow is the direction of the force. It's not the direction you would point the fire extinguisher.
• You can look at the code if it makes you happy. Warning: I get confused when adding buttons and mouse interactions and stuff.
• The pause and reset buttons should work.
• Nothing in the code prevents you from just going through the wall. There is no wall, there is no spoon. It's just there for decorations.
• No, you can't turn the fire extinguisher off. It stays on for 20 seconds.
You can see that it's not impossible to avoid the wall, but it's not trivial either. Just imagine if the hovercraft was also spinning. This would be crazy hard. You could change the rotational rate of the hovercraft with a fire extinguisher thrust that was not directed at the center of mass. This would then exert an external torque AND an external force. Coding that would be a bit more difficult, though, so I left that part out.
More Great WIRED Stories |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21377 | Did You Know
What is the Freezing Point in Fahrenheit?
In Fahrenheit, the freezing point of water is 32 °F.
What is the Freezing point in Fahrenheit?
Temperature is a key aspect of everyday human life; doctors use it to determine the health conditions of their patients, meteorologists use it to forecast the weather conditions, and nuclear physics make temperature readings in nuclear plants to prevent overheating. Thermometers are used to determine the temperature and depending on the scale reading used, one can ascertain whether the temperature is low, optimum, or high. The Celsius scale (°C) is the most common temperature scale and is used in different parts of the world, the Fahrenheit scale (°F) is common in the United States and the Caribbean countries while the Kelvin scale (K) is common among physicists.
The Fahrenheit Scale
The Fahrenheit scale is named after Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, an Amsterdam-based German physicist who began developing the scale in 1724. Initially, Fahrenheit designed the scale with two points; he placed the thermometer in a mixture of ammonium chloride, water, and ice to determine the zero mark while the second point of 96 degrees was determined by the human. Body's temperature. Two points define the contemporary Fahrenheit scale, the freezing point of water which is set out as 32 °F and the boiling point of water which is set at 212 °F. The difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 180 degrees apart unlike in the Celsius scale where the two points are 100 degrees apart.
The Usage of the Fahrenheit scale
The scale was adopted as the standard measurement of temperature, especially by medical, industrial and weather professionals. By early 1970s much of the world had adopted the Celsius scale except the United States and its territories. Goods made for the American market are expressed in Fahrenheit unlike in Canada where the law required both units to be used. In Europe is it mandatory to use Celsius when quoting the temperature but Fahrenheit and Kelvins can be used as supplementary units.
Converting Between Celsius and Fahrenheit Scales
The difference between the freezing and the boiling point is 180 degrees on the Fahrenheit Scales while the same points are represented by a 100-degree difference on the Celsius scale. While a degree is represented as 1180 and 1100 on the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales respectively. Therefore, 1 °F is equal to 59 degrees Celsius. The scales intersect at the at −40° which translates to −40 °F = −40 °C. The absolute zero temperature is represented as −273.15 °C or −459.67 °F. To convert;
• Fahrenheit to Celsius; Subtract 32 from the given °F, multiply the result by five and divide by 9.
• Celsius to Fahrenheit; Multiply the °C, divide by result by 5 and add 32.
The exact conversion formulae are represented as:
f °Fahrenheit to c °Celsius: (f − 32) °F × 5°C/9°F = (f − 32)/1.8 °C = c °C
c °Celsius to f °Fahrenheit: (c °C × 9°F/5°C) + 32 °F = (c × 1.8) °F + 32 °F = f °F
From the formula above, the boiling point of water is concluded to be 212 °F which translates to 100 °C. The body temperature is 98.6 °F or 37 °C, the room temperature 68 °F or 20 °C while the freezing point of water was determined to be 32 °F or 0°C.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21379 | - Having The Time Of My Life
Outstanding cover girl Anjelica is having the time of her life. She relaxes by the pool bar being alone. This goddess of beauty shocks with her seductive shapes. Long slender legs can make crazy any man. She rips her yellow pantyhose to give you a chance to admire perfectly looking pussy. Gorgeous WoWPorn model sits on a chair and presents all treasures that she has. Blonde doll-face smiles a lot and spreads her butt cheeks demonstrating the most attractive part of her body.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21381 | – Episode 1038 –
Core Beliefs Drive Outcome
Segment 1 (0:00) – Obama is not the problem in USA, but a manifestation of a greater problem. At the core, our beliefs ultimately shape our actions. To make an impactful difference, the focus should be on the beliefs.
Segment 2 (8:18) – Obama is not the problem. Beliefs shape our behavior. But great divide between beliefs based on God and those based on Man. Beliefs based on man are self-focused, live for today, etc., which leads to selfish behavior. For example, abortion is based on self interest and certain populations are conditioned to believe that is the right thing to do. Also, welfare, etc. allows laziness and getting free stuff. Man based beliefs result in behavior driven by senses and emotion. God based beliefs lead to Jesus, which transformed our thinking and ultimately our behavior.
Segment 3 (16:59) – Continued discussion on how beliefs influence actions. Political activism is not the only answer but balance that with involvement in local church teaching the purity of the gospel. Good teaching can lead to good beliefs, thinking and actions. In USA, beliefs drive voting choices and resulting politicians and country. If we find a local, Bible based church with sound teaching, we become teachers ourselves, able to share the Gospel and help shape beliefs, even in a small way, and can influence direction of country and society. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21400 | The Corrupted Machine
If you live with self-hatred – and this seems like a common thing across the entire self-hatred spectrum, whether you’ve descended fully into the void or if you’re merely hanging around at the edge considering your options – it perpetuates most in the way you speak to yourself. Everyone talks to themselves a lot, but if you’re an anxious and depressed person poisoned with thick, rich self-hatred (like me!) that interior conversation is a day-long slog overanalyzing every social interaction for clues as to just how much everyone hates you.
That conversation is fucking exhausting. Something as simple as a friend inviting you out – you’re happy to be validated, but then the questions come. Maybe some of this dry heaving sounds familiar:
“Do I look okay? I look like shit. Everyone knows I look like shit though, they won't care. I’ll drink too much, say something rude or knock something over and everyone will be annoyed with me. When’s the last time they invited me to anything? Does it seem like they really want me to be there? Did I go last time or did I stay here? Are they mad that I don’t show up sometimes? No, of course not – they invite me to be polite, I’m smart to notice that they don’t actually want me around, so I’ll stay here.”
If you’re convinced that you’re smart – maybe like a lot of self-hating people, that’s the only thing you’ll allow yourself to feel confident in, your intelligence – then there is no end to this conversation. You’re "smart about this stuff", that’s the one thing you do know – so you never stop listening to your own fucked-up emotional logic.
What’s going on here is pretty clear once you’ve climbed out of the pit, but when you’re down there it’s impossible to see. The churning hatred takes over your self-awareness - I like to visualize it as a literal machine - that positive emotions and validation can’t survive. If it’s taken root deep enough, eventually you will outsmart yourself at every corner, turning even the most unambiguously positive and validating experiences into shit you hate yourself for. Once it’s been corrupted, the machine takes experiences and emotions and instead of using them to validate and contextualize your life and teach you things, it turns them into fuel for your self-hatred.
And if you haven’t confronted your self-hatred for the disease it is and the impact it’s having on your life, this process feels like it’s just how you are. This is every day. This is you, the sum total of you.
If you feel this way about yourself, if you have that horrible day-long browbeating conversation with yourself where every happy feeling turns into a desperate anxious nightmare, I want you to know this is not the sum total of you. There is an escape, the conversation can end. I promise. You are fighting something enormous and consuming – conquering self-hatred this deep is incredibly difficult and you’re making amazing progress if you’ve even started to visualize the scale of what you’re trying to do here.
Just hang on tight. You are not alone. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21416 | API Reference
class xlwt.Workbook.Workbook(encoding='ascii', style_compression=0)
This is a class representing a workbook and all its contents. When creating Excel files with xlwt, you will normally start by instantiating an object of this class.
add_sheet(sheetname, cell_overwrite_ok=False)
This method is used to create Worksheets in a Workbook.
• sheetname – The name to use for this sheet, as it will appear in the tabs at the bottom of the Excel application.
• cell_overwrite_ok – If True, cells in the added worksheet will not raise an exception if written to more than once.
The Worksheet that was added.
This method is used to save the Workbook to a file in native Excel format.
Parameters:filename_or_stream – This can be a string containing a filename of the file, in which case the excel file is saved to disk using the name provided. It can also be a stream object with a write method, such as a StringIO, in which case the data for the excel file is written to the stream.
class xlwt.Worksheet.Worksheet(sheetname, parent_book, cell_overwrite_ok=False)
This is a class representing the contents of a sheet in a workbook.
You don’t normally create instances of this class yourself. They are returned from calls to add_sheet().
write(r, c, label='', style=<xlwt.Style.XFStyle object>)
This method is used to write a cell to a Worksheet.
• r – The zero-relative number of the row in the worksheet to which the cell should be written.
• c – The zero-relative number of the column in the worksheet to which the cell should be written.
• label
The data value to be written.
An int, long, or Decimal instance is converted to float.
A unicode instance is written as is. A bytes instance is converted to unicode using the encoding, which defaults to ascii, specified when the Workbook instance was created.
A datetime, date or time instance is converted into Excel date format (a float representing the number of days since (typically) 1899-12-31T00:00:00, under the pretence that 1900 was a leap year).
A bool instance will show up as TRUE or FALSE in Excel.
None causes the cell to be blank: no data, only formatting.
An xlwt.Formula instance causes an Excel formula to be written.
• style
A style, also known as an XF (extended format), is an XFStyle object, which encapsulates the formatting applied to the cell and its contents.
XFStyle objects are best set up using the easyxf() function. They may also be set up by setting attributes in Alignment, Borders, Pattern, Font and Protection objects then setting those objects and a format string as attributes of an XFStyle object.
The XF record is able to store explicit cell formatting attributes or the attributes of a cell style. Explicit formatting includes the reference to a cell style XF record. This allows to extend a defined cell style with some explicit attributes. The formatting attributes are divided into 6 groups:
Group Attributes
Number format Number format index (index to FORMAT record)
Font Font index (index to FONT record)
Alignment Horizontal and vertical alignment, text wrap, indentation, orientation/rotation, text direction
Border Border line styles and colours
Background Background area style and colours
Protection Cell locked, formula hidden
For each group a flag in the cell XF record specifies whether to use the attributes contained in that XF record or in the referenced style XF record. In style XF records, these flags specify whether the attributes will overwrite explicit cell formatting when the style is applied to a cell. Changing a cell style (without applying this style to a cell) will change all cells which already use that style and do not contain explicit cell attributes for the changed style attributes. If a cell XF record does not contain explicit attributes in a group (if the attribute group flag is not set), it repeats the attributes of its style XF record.
exception xlwt.Style.EasyXFAuthorError
exception xlwt.Style.EasyXFCallerError
exception xlwt.Style.EasyXFException
xlwt.Style.easyxf(strg_to_parse='', num_format_str=None, field_sep=', ', line_sep=';', intro_sep=':', esc_char='\\', debug=False)
This function is used to create and configure XFStyle objects for use with (for example) the Worksheet.write() method.
It takes a string to be parsed to obtain attribute values for Alignment, Borders, Font, Pattern and Protection objects.
Refer to the examples in the file examples/xlwt_easyxf_simple_demo.py and to the xf_dict dictionary in xlwt.Style.
Various synonyms including color/colour, center/centre and gray/grey are allowed. Case is irrelevant (except maybe in font names). - may be used instead of _.
Example: font: bold on; align: wrap on, vert centre, horiz center
To get the “number format string” of an existing cell whose format you want to reproduce, select the cell and click on Format/Cells/Number/Custom. Otherwise, refer to Excel help.
Examples: "#,##0.00", "dd/mm/yyyy"
Returns:An XFstyle object. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21435 | Lego Batman 3 - Walkthrough: Episode 21 - Power Of Love!
Published on Dec. 14, 2014
Channel: Nicktendo
Category: Comedy
Source: Youtube
In this episode of Lego Batman 3, we continue with Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Cyborg as we complete the level "Power of Love"! If u guys enjoyed today's video, leave a like, if u have any questions or something to say, leave a comment, if u guys enjoy all the other episodes of the series, Subscribe! |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21441 | XML Sitemap
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21444 | Skip to main content
Refresh live to development CMS
This article will take you through the process of safely refreshing your development (or test) CMS from your live CMS. We recommend that you refresh regularly to keep your content and versions of Contensis synchronised. How often you need to perform this maintenance task will depend on how much development work you do on your development CMS.
Note: We strongly advise that your development (or test) CMS is upgraded to the same version of Contensis as your live CMS before a refresh.
1. Take a backup/snapshot of the relevant servers. You will need a SQL backup generated from the LIVE CMS DB. If you opt to take a snapshot of the DEV SQL server you will need to make sure Quiesce guest file system is ticked before doing so.
2. Take screenshot backups of the following on the DEV server:
• Global settings (all pages)
• Live and Preview publishing server settings
• Live and Preview publishing server CMS config
• Live and Preview publishing server Web config
• All databases in SiteElements directory
• Crawl manager (if present on the server) for QA purposes
• The current dev version and current live version numbers
1. Transfer the LIVE CMS DB backup we took earlier to the the DEV SQL server (we use vcenter for this internally and disk swapping).
2. Log into the SQL admin account and delete the existing CMS DEV DB (make sure Close existing connections is clicked or it will fail). You might want to take a copy of the DB name for later but you can also find this in ContensisSettings.xml file on the server in the ProgramData directory.
3. Now that the existing DB has been deleted you can restore the LIVE CMS DB backup in it’s place using the same name we just copied.
4. Once the restore is complete - we need to restore the settings we backed up in step 2. This is so Contensis isn’t pointing to your live servers as this can cause critical complications such as content disappearing.
5. You will also need to update the global settings through the DB to list the correct CMS URL as it will be currently listing the live one. Use the following SQL:
To see which ID’s etc you need to update:
• Select * from GL_GlobalSettings (this is the update query - the URL will need to be in single quotes as below)
• Update gl_globalsettings
• Set gl_charValue = '***URL OF DEV CMS***’'
• Where gl_id = ***ID OF THE COLUMN FOR THE URL***
1. After all settings have been changed and the refresh is complete, you should run individual publishing server tests to make sure they are functioning as intended. Once complete run a system diagnostic test too.
Common issues
Can’t log in
Database does not exist: Cannot connect to the database
Once you have restored the db you will need to map DB OWNER permissions for the user under Security in management studio so that Contensis can load in browser. You might need to recycle the app pool or clear your browser cache after changing these settings.
Database does not exist: Cannot connect to the database
If you are still getting this error, please retrace the obvious steps such as ContensisSettings.xml details being correct for the new database. Database name matching etc. You might need to recycle the app pool or clear your browser cache after changing these settings.
Typical functionality isn’t working
Services are failing
This could be down to a few possible reasons:
• The services are not on the correct version, you will need to run the Contensis Install Manager for the version you restored to.
• They simply need the registration resetting - select all services and click reset.
• They require resetting on the server under services.msc
Content missing from site or failing to load causing object reference errors
Make sure the web config was switched over correctly and published out successfully. This may mean logging into the Web server and checking the last update time of the web config. The Web config on the server is located at the root of the site. If this isn’t updating then it can cause reference errors.
Content isn’t publishing
Make sure your services are on the correct version of Contensis after the refresh and are started on the application server.
Make sure your ftp settings are correct for both publishing servers for both webservers. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21448 | Request an Exam Copy
3 Reasons Why the Crusades Don’t Compare with Jihad
Categories Theology
andwering jihadSince 9/11, politicians and pundits have not only claimed Islam is a religion of peace, they’ve insisted Christianity is a religion of violence. Case in point: the Crusades.
Rodney Stark quotes such sentiments in God’s Battalions: “during the Crusades, an expansionist, imperialistic Christendom brutalized, looted, and colonized a tolerant and peaceful Islam.” (8)
But is this true?
In his new book Answering Jihad, Nabeel Qureshi brings clarity to comparisons between Christian Crusades and Islamic jihad. “If Christians fought in the Crusades," writes Qureshi, "does that not show that Christianity is violent? If it doesn’t, then how can I accuse Islam of being violent?” (132)
Of course, the question rests on the assumption the two—both the religions and their violent expressions—are comparable, even equatable. They aren’t, for at least three reasons.
Jesus Explicitly Taught Peace, the Quran Doesn’t
“If Islam’s final and most succinct commands on peace and violence can be found in surah 9 of the Quran, Jesus’ final and most succinct commands on peace and violence can be found in the Sermon on the Mount.” (126) What we find in each is striking.
For example, the Quran commands violence against enemies (9:5, 30 38–39, 41), but Jesus commands enemy-love: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:43–45) While Jesus connects enemy-love to salvation, Islam connects salvation to jihad, insisting “the sword wipes away sins.” (50)
Violence was part of Muhammed’s life and teaching: he waged war against Byzantine Christians and taught salvation by violence. In contrast “Jesus’ radical stance against violence coheres with the life he lived and the message he preached.” (131) By contrast, there is no room for violence in Jesus’ ethic.
The Crusades Don’t Reflect Christianity, Jihad Reflects Islam
In last week's column we addressed claims that Islam is a religion of peace. While not all Muslims are violent, Qureshi insists it would be neither thoughtful nor honest to claim Islam is devoid of violence. Instead, “jihad reflects the religion of Islam, whereas the Crusades do not reflect the Christian faith…Holy war is the very foundation of the Islamic faith.” (132, 134) Two Quranic passages illustrate:
"kill the polytheists wherever you find them, lay siege to them, take them captive, and sit in ambush for them everywhere. If they (convert to Islam) leave their way." (9:5)
"The Jews say ‘Ezra is the Son of God’ and the Christians say ‘Christ is the Son of God.’ These are the very words of their mouths, they imitate what disbelievers say before them. May Allah destroy them!" (9:30)
Unlike the Quran, there is no concept of holy war in the New Testament, primarily because Jesus did not commission anything conceptually similar to what the Quran and Muhammed did with jihad. Which means the Crusades departed from, rather than reflected, the Christian faith.
The Crusades Weren’t Commanded, Jihad Is
As Qureshi reveals, “jihad was commanded by Muhammed and the Quran, both in principle and in reality.” (132)
By contrast, "for the first 300 years after Jesus Christians never fought a single battle," reflecting his commands against violence. In fact, it took nearly a thousand years for his followers to radically depart from his teachings enough to engage it with the Crusades. Not so for Islam:
“It should be clear there is a great difference between jihad and the Crusades.” (132)
Qureshi's book provides further insights into questions we’re all trying to answer when it comes to jihad. Engage Answering Jihad yourself to learn the truth about Islam and a better way forward for loving our Muslims neighbors.
Get the Newest Online Course on Jesus and the Gospels: Four Portraits, One Jesus
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21453 | Session Overview
Pacific Ballroom C
Beginner Site Building
Update: Here are the slides and the video .
Drupal offers a lot out of the box, but most likely you'll be drawing on the enormous contributed module repository for more. If you haven't been using Drupal for long, you might not be aware of the goodies that long-time users know. This session will offer an overview of the some of the best contributed modules for Drupal 7, helping you get off to a good start. I put "top" in quotes because that's subjective, although I think what I show will be considered the good stuff.
I gave a presentation like this last year as well, so depending on the audience, I might either skip the modules I talked about last year, or cover the same stuff, but leave off everything that was only for Drupal 6.
If you have suggestions or ideas, leave a comment! |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21493 | Sunday Book Review
April 16, 2000
Nobody Does It Better
A journalist looks at the sensitive issue of how black athletes came to rule American sports.
t is pretty obvious that certain racial and ethnic groups are naturally gifted at playing certain sports. Take basketball. That's a Jewish sport. So, at any rate, people thought in the 1930's. After all, the star captain of the original New York Celtics, Nat Holman, was Jewish, as were four of the starters among St. John's famed ''wonder five,'' who ruled college basketball in the late 20's. Jews were believed to have a genetic edge, being endowed by nature with superior balance, greater speed and sharper eyes -- not to mention, in the words of one sportswriter, a ''scheming mind'' and ''flashy trickiness.''
Oddly, though, Jews soon vanished from the top ranks of basketball. Did evolution suddenly rob them of their natural advantage? A more likely explanation is that basketball has always been an inner-city game, and in the early 20th century New York and Philadelphia teemed with Jewish immigrants, whose children saw the sport as a ticket out of the ghetto. By the late 40's their place was being taken by blacks migrating out of the agricultural South, and basketball's ethnic profile began to change.
So it is culture, not nature, that explains the onetime Jewish dominance of basketball. Ditto, presumably, for the continuing Canadian dominance of ice hockey, the Japanese dominance of sumo wrestling, the English dominance of . . . um . . . darts. But the case of black athletes seems somehow different. They are pre-eminent in such a broad range of sports today. African-Americans make up 65 percent of the N.F.L. and 80 percent of the N.B.A. The world's top sprinters and marathoners nearly all trace their ancestry to Africa. Blacks have excelled even in sports where, for reasons of culture or geography, they are unlikely competitors -- bobsledding, for instance. Could it be that they have some sort of physical advantage, one that evolution encoded in their genes?
This conclusion has been embraced, more or less recklessly, by sports figures ranging from Al Campanis and Jimmy the Greek to O. J. Simpson and Carl Lewis. It has also been promoted by a somewhat marginal group of scientists, who have accumulated a body of genetic and physiological evidence that, they claim, lends it support.
In ''Taboo,'' Jon Entine, a journalist, brings this evidence together to make a painstaking case that race and genetics are indeed ''significant components'' of the ''stunning and undeniable dominance of black athletes.'' The book, a highly readable blend of science and sports history, had its origins in a 1989 NBC television documentary on black athletes that Entine wrote with Tom Brokaw. That show drew charges of racism when it was broadcast, and Entine clearly expects that ''Taboo'' will do the same, judging from all the space he devotes to defending his decision to write it.
Why should it be taboo even to raise the hypothesis that evolution has given people of African ancestry an athletic edge? There are several reasons. On the one hand, the idea rankles white racial chauvinists, who until the last century clung to the myth that Africans were inferior to Europeans not only mentally but physically too. On the other, it seems to diminish black sports achievement, making it a matter of biology rather than of training, drive and heart.
Entine, for his part, could not be more admiring of the courage black athletes have shown in triumphing over barriers put in their way by the white sports establishment. He gives stirring profiles of figures like Jack Johnson, the flamboyant heavyweight who won the world title in 1908, and of lesser-known ones like the black jockeys who dominated horse racing after the Civil War. Yet just talking about people of African ancestry having ''innate'' athletic aptitudes, as Entine does, seems to legitimize race as a natural category and hence to play into the hands of racists. And there lurks a more unsettling implication. If there really are genetically based physical differences between the races -- differences that go deeper than skin color -- then there might be genetically based psychological differences too. Compounding this is the disagreeable notion, drawn from 19th-century race science, that brains and brawn must be inversely correlated. As the sportswriter Frank Deford put it, ''People feel if you say blacks are better athletically, you're saying they're dumber.''
It would be nice, of course, if there were no innate differences of any kind among racial groups, at least besides the obvious cosmetic ones. A lot of modern science has seemed favorable to the view that traditional notions of race are biologically meaningless. Research in the 1970's, for example, suggested that genetic variation among European, African and Asian populations was minuscule compared to differences between individuals within those populations. DNA studies in the 1980's indicated that the human species emerged less than 100,000 years ago, insufficient time for significant physical or mental differences among the races to have evolved.
More recent discoveries in molecular biology, however, have muddied matters a bit. The split between African and non-African populations is now estimated to have occurred more than 200,000 years ago, and genetic variation between population groups looks as if it may be greater than previously thought. ''The claim that there are no functional differences between populations or ethnic groups appears increasingly passe,'' Entine declares.
The alleged ''functional differences'' are in physique, musculature, metabolic efficiency, hormone levels and reaction time. Entine cites credible research, for example, that blacks of West African ancestry (which would include most African-Americans) have a higher ratio of ''fast-twitch'' muscle fiber than whites do, which gives them an edge at leaping and sprinting. East African blacks have more energy-producing enzymes in their muscles and seem to process oxygen more efficiently, which translates into greater aerobic endurance.
But why conclude that such differences are encoded in the genes? Mightn't there be an environmental explanation? It is true that Kenyans have won every Boston Marathon since 1990, but these runners come from a mountainous region whose altitude is perfect for building aerobic capacity.
Hoping to bolster his case that athletic superiority is at least in part genetically based, Entine notes that some racial differences are apparent from birth. Black babies mature faster on average than their white counterparts, even when they are poorer and eat a less healthy diet; they show better hand-eye coordination and walk earlier by about a month. Suggestive though such data may be, the claim of genetic innateness remains completely speculative. Geneticists today hardly understand how traits like size and weight are inherited in fleas, let alone how athletic aptitudes are passed along in humans.
Still, it seems wise to keep an open mind, as Entine urges. The explanation for why every men's world record at every standard track distance belongs to an athlete of African descent may turn out to be purely sociological -- hard work, a dearth of opportunities elsewhere. But the possibility that genetics has something to do with it should not be ruled out a priori for political reasons.
That said, there remain three caveats to make. Entine gets partial credit for making two of them. First, as he observes, the competitive nature of sports magnifies even the tiniest physical differences. (In the 100-meter dash, one-hundredth of a second can separate the gold medalist from the also-ran.) Second, as Entine also observes, the genetics of sports ability has nothing to tell us about the genetics of intelligence. Differences in endurance or reaction time, which depend on relatively few genes, can evolve quickly among population groups; not so differences in intelligence, which are rooted in an organ -- the brain -- that is the product of nearly half the human genome.
A third needed caveat is missed by Entine: any genetic differences that may exist between racial groups are, in the long run, utterly swamped by environmental influences. This has become obvious for I.Q., which, in defiance of genetic determinists, has been rising by an average of three points a decade over the last half-century. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the sports world. Does anyone doubt that a decent college basketball team today, whether predominantly black or white, would clobber the best pro team of 50 years ago?
Anyone who writes a book like ''Taboo'' can expect to have his motives questioned. When Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein published ''The Bell Curve,'' which also dwelt on interracial differences, they did not attempt to disguise their antiliberal political agenda. Entine, by contrast, disclaims any political agenda at all; nor is it obvious how the thesis of his book, if true, would support one. Then why go on about how, genetically speaking, ''white men can't jump'' if it has no practical effect other than to deepen our sense of racial separateness? Because, Entine replies, science itself is ''on trial.'' That may be. And considering its highly fallible record on matters of race, science should be assumed guilty until proved innocent.
Jim Holt writes about science and philosophy for Lingua Franca and The Wall Street Journal.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21499 | Nikolai Gogol
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"In passing, it may be remarked that his fellow tchinovniks were a peculiarly plain, unsightly lot, some of them having faces like badly baked bread, swollen cheeks, receding chins, and cracked and blistered upper lips. Indeed, not a man of them was handsome." --Dead Souls by Gogol
“What an intelligent, queer, and sick creature!” —Ivan Turgenev on Gogol, cited in The New Criterion
“I don’t know whether anyone liked Gogol exclusively as a human being. I don’t think so; it was, in fact, impossible. How can you love one whose body and spirit are recovering from self-inflicted torture?” —Sergei Aksakov, cited in The New Criterion
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Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (31 March 1809 – 4 March 1852) was a Russian dramatist of Ukrainian origin.
Bibliography of Nikolai Gogol
Even before the publication of Dead Souls, Belinsky recognized Gogol as the first realist writer in the language and the head of the Natural School, to which he also assigned such younger or lesser authors as Goncharov and Turgenev. Gogol himself seemed to be skeptical about the existence of such a literary movement. Although he recognized "several young writers" who "have shown a particular desire to observe real life", he upbraided the deficient composition and style of their works. Nevertheless, subsequent generations of radical critics celebrated Gogol (the author in whose world a nose roams the streets of the Russian capital) as a great realist, a reputation decried by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as "the triumph of Gogolesque irony".
Gogol's impact on Russian literature has been enduring, yet his works have been appreciated differently by various critics. Belinsky, for instance, berated his horror stories as "moribund, monstrous works", while Andrei Bely counted them among his most stylistically daring creations. Nabokov singled out Dead Souls, The Government Inspector, and The Overcoat as the works of genius and dismissed the remainder as puerile essays. The latter story has been traditionally interpreted as a masterpiece of "humanitarian realism", but Nabokov and some other attentive readers argued that "holes in the language" make the story susceptible to another interpretation, as a supernatural tale about a ghostly double of a "small man". (At least this reading of the story seems to have been on Dostoevsky's mind when he wrote The Double. The quote, often apocryphally attributed to him, that "we all [future generations of Russian novelists] emerged from Gogol's Overcoat", actually refers to those few who read The Overcoat as a double-bottom ghost story (as did Aleksey Remizov, judging by his story The Sacrifice).) Of all Gogol's stories, The Nose has stubbornly defied all abstruse interpretations: D.S. Mirsky declared it "a piece of sheer play, almost sheer nonsense".
Gogol's oeuvre has also had a large impact on Russia's non-literary culture, and his stories have been adapted numerous times into opera and film. Russian Composer Alfred Schnittke wrote the eight part Gogol Suite as incidental music to the The Government Inspector performed as a play, and composer Dmitri Shostakovich set The Nose as his first opera in 1930, despite the peculiar choice of subject for what was meant to initiate the great tradition of Soviet opera. Most recently, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Gogol's birth, Vienna's renowned Theater an der Wien commissioned music and libretto for a full length opera on the life of Gogol from Russian composer and writer Lera Auerbach.
In Marathi, P. L. Deshpande adapted his play "The Government Inspector" as "Ammaldar" (literally 'the Government Inspector') in late 1950s, skillfully cladding it with all indigenous politico-cultural robe of Maharashtra, while maintaining the comic satire of the original.
Some attention has also been given to Gogol's apparent anti-Semitism in his writings, as well as those of his contemporary, Fyodor Dostoevsky. Felix Dreizin and David Guaspari, for example, in their The Russian Soul and the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentricis discuss "the significance of the Jewish characters and the negative image of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol's novel "Taras Bulba," pointing out Gogol's attachment to anti-Jewish prejudices prevalent in Russian and Ukrainian culture." In Leon Poliakov's The History of Antisemitism, the author mentions that "The 'Yankel' from Taras Bulba indeed became the archetypal Jew in Russian literature. Gogol painted him as supremely exploitative, cowardly, and repulsive, albeit capable of gratitude. But it seems perfectly natural in the story that he and his cohorts be drowned in the Dniper by the Cossack lords. Above all, Yankel is ridiculous, and the image of the plucked chicken that Gogol used has made the rounds of great Russian authors."
Gogol in popular culture
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Nikolai Gogol" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
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3/16/2018 / Devotionals
GodTracker 669
The e-devotional helping to keep you on-track with God’s plans for your life
GodTracker is published by Sure Reality Media at
23 February 2018
John 15:7
Checking my Facebook feed this morning I noticed a quote posted by my wife, Karen. Karen is one of the wisest and most efficient people I know (after all, she keeps me in check). The quote was by C. H. Spurgeon, which said, “If you want to know God you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive his power, you must see his works in his Word. If you wish to know his purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by his Word.” God-tracking is all about seeking and tracking the purposes of God for our lives. It’s clear from what Spurgeon says, therefore, that as a GodTrackers, if we wish to get to know God and his working in our lives, we need to get into his Word and Get his Word into us.
I have been writing GodTracker for 15 years. It’s been my thrill and privilege to write these weekly thoughts, based on God’s Word, to inspire us to seek and track the plans and purposes of God for our lives. Many people subscribe to GodTracker by email, while others read it via blogs and our website, I am grateful that, over the years, people have occasionally responded to what was written. It is vital for us to receive feedback and comments from our readers to help us better produce these e-devotionals. Therefore, from wherever you’re reading this publication, I am asking you to email me at [email protected] and tell me how GodTracker has worked in your life.
Scripture tells us that God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path. And God’s Word does not stand alone; it is always accompanied by the power of Holy Spirit. God’s Word and Spirit are synonymous. The Word confirms the actions of the Spirit while the Spirit activates the precepts of the Word. God watches over his Word to perform it. So dear GodTracker, I say again, get into God’s Word and Get God’s Word into you.
God-tracking is Word based
John 15:1-11
Psalm 119:105
Jeremiah 1:12
Help me to get into your Word and get your Word into me
O Lord, thank you for giving us the written Word of God. Thank you for all those heroes of the faith who you inspired to pen your Word and collect it together in what we call the Holy Bible. Thank you for preserving the Bible through the centuries so that I can hold it in my hands, today. And thank you, dear Father, for sending Jesus to open the way for me to receive your Word. Thank you too, for the Holy Spirit who makes the written Word come alive in my life. Help me to get to know you by your Word and Spirit. Help me to perceive your power by the works in your Word and know your purpose before it comes to pass, by discovering it in your Word. Help me to get into your Word and get your Word into me. Amen.”
If you require more prayer, please email me at [email protected]
What is GodTracker?
GodTracker is a weekly e-mail devotional based on the premise that God has a plan for our lives. His word calls us to seek his plan by acknowledging him in all our ways and by tracking his purposes, in faith. Subscribe by email at
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21506 | Friday, April 21, 2017
"Yeah we did that. That was totally us."
You know how I feel about that.
Inconveniently, however, that is how things turned out.
james said...
IIRC Chesterton wrote about some of these memes--pre-Stalin. Some of these ideas were around already, but it does appear that the Soviets did their best to amplify them. I think the true movers and shakers in this are a little more clever than we humans, though.
Assistant Village Idiot said...
Excellent point, and others have traced the poison back to Rousseau.
jaed said...
A rudder is small. compared to a ship's bulk. The ship already has a lot of momentum, but nonetheless you can profoundly influence its direction by applying a relatively small amount of energy, especially if you take advantage of the direction it's already headed to apply a different vector.
I don't actually know how much the Soviets did in this regard, but I'm not that skeptical about the ability—given skill, luck, and timing—to profoundly influence cultural development with a lot of small, coordinated efforts over decades. It may or may not have happened, but it seems obviously possible to me. First you influence people to take what's fashionable as a determinant of what's good and worth paying attention to; then you gain influence over a critical mass of tastemakers; then you inject concepts into the culture that successively weaken it. If choose your memes well, you can get many more people to echo your ideas, for their own reasons—moral amour-propre, feeling as though they're in the in-group, and so on.
Regarding the Kennedy assassination, I may have mentioned before that I didn't realize until I was in my 20s that Oswald was a Communist. What I was taught in school, what I read, what people talked about... just never mentioned this (one would think rather important) fact. I had the impression he was some sort of hateful right-winger or conservative extremist.
Then, when I learned a little about his history—his membership in CPUSA, his defection, his m arriage to a Russian woman, his return—it occurred to me how very strange it was, that there was apparently no conspiracy theory involving the Soviet Union. I mean, you'd think it would be the first thing to occur to anyone. It was the height of the Cold War. The President of the United States was killed by someone who clearly sympathized and adhered to our enemy in that war, even going so far as to move there. He had (obviously) been available to/under the influence of the Soviet government. And yet as far as I can tell, "the Russians did it!" was never a thing at all. The popular movies, the books, the muttered asides in newspaper columns... if there's a conspiracy theory, it involves internal enemies. The CIA killed him. The Council on Foreign Relations. A conspiracy of the rich. No one talks about the Russkies.
And yet that is not only a plausible conspiracy theory, it's the one that's obvious and sitting right under everyone's nose!
I have kind of a hard time accounting for that without positing some sort of deep cultural leverage on the part of someone who preferred that "The Soviets killed Kennedy" not become a widely-held view.
Assistant Village Idiot said...
@ jaed - there is also Jonathan Haidt's analogy of the elephant and rider.
The impression that Oswald was somehow a right-winger was a masterful creation. No arguments were made, just the recitation of well, Texas...Marines...gun...
Jackie Kennedy said very soon after the assassination that she didn't want Jack to be remembered as having just been shot by a dirty little communist. The word "Camelot" was not used until after he died. It wasn't just liberal bias, it was also a national grief reaction that chose to allow royalty its prerogative of how the narrative would unfold.
jaed said...
Hmm. The smear against Texas was a bonus, now that I think about it. Politically useful. Divisive.
Your point about Jackie is well-taken and brings up a different issue, which is that a wise propagandist takes advantage of trends and memes that are already there, enhancing the favorable ones (such as, arguendo, Jackie's preferences plus media willingness to abide by them), while muting the unfavorable. The subtle ways for the Soviet Union to have influenced culture like this would also be the most effective ways... but they're also the hardest to tell from what naturally would have happened anyway.
It wasn't hard for me to look at our culture in the wake of 9/11 and see something badly wrong. The repeated cries of "But why do they haaaaate us?" and the eagerness to ferret out and display causes reminded me very much of a battered wife who keeps looking for ways she could have avoided the beating. "Well, if dinner hadn't been late... Well, if I'd been more understanding... Well, if I hadn't snapped at him a week ago, he's very sensitive..." Or the delusions that accompany clinical depression.
It's tempting to say that something like that—the self-blame reflex, the mindset that whenever anything goes wrong in the world it's America's fault, the frantic search for "root causes" that can be attached to some misdeed of your own country—can't hit an entire culture without someone doing it to you. But I don't know.
RichardJohnson said...
I have read several Oswald-related books recently- DeLillo's Libra, Mailer's Oswald's Tale, Mallon's Mrs. Paine's Garage, Jean Davison's Oswald's Game. All but Davison's book were novels. I can't say that I am any wiser for having done so. Before reading those books, my unproven hunch was that Castro did it, in retaliation for all the assassination attempts on him. But if that were the case, there was a lot of misdirection regarding Oswald's visit to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City. But if the Cubans did it, it would have made more sense for them to have had contact with Oswald only in the US- and not have the red flag of Oswald's visit to the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City.
From what I have read about Oswald, he seemed too erratic a person for the KGB to use as an operative.
John Barron's Operation Solo is about Morris Childs, who for 17 years acted as the CPUSA's liason with Moscow while reporting back to the FBI all he had seen and heard. Childs had known Suslov, the Kremlin's eminence grise, back in the '30s when he spent time in Moscow in a training course. Childs visited Moscow not long after the Kennedy assassination. The Russians were vehement in telling Childs that they had nothing to do with it. The Russians didn't realize that Childs understood Russian, but Childs saw no contradiction between what was said in Russian and what was translated into English about the Kennedy assassination.
The way Texas got smeared for a Marxist killing a President was a masterpiece of deception.
Is it possible that someone is lying about what happened? Yes, indeed. Which is why fiction gets written about it.
Uncle Bill said...
I had the same experience as you - I was very surprised to belatedly find out that Oswald was a communist. It was well-known by those in power, but hardly reported at all. I think the fact that a Democrat president was killed by a communist caused some sort of mental short circuit in a lot of liberals, and they were grasping at any straw to avoid having to deal with this fact. I can sort of understand it at the time, but by now you would think it would be a lot more widely known and understood. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21517 | 11 thoughts on “Zocalo” Spoiler-Free Discussion of “Objects in Motion””
1. According to the script books it was actually the assassination plot that came from Harlan Ellison. It’s based on an actual event that happened in the 1930s with the Mayor of Chicago. JMS tried to get Harlan to write the script as well, as it was basically the last possible time to get Harlan’s script to the show.
I’ve also always loved how B5 takes its time with proper ending, not just in the five-year story, but in the episodes as well. I’ve been watching some TNG episodes lately, and the endings often feel very abrupt. The main plot is usually resolved about two minutes before the end of the episode, and there’s not any kind of denouement.
JMS always said that he doesn’t want to end the story with just another grand adventure, like many other shows do. Some people feel that season five is mostly just filler, but considering that the Earth civil war was originally supposed to end in the first third of season five I don’t think the pacing of the last half would have been much different even if season five would have been confirmed earlier.
1. Yes, this one really is all for the long-time viewers. Objectively, I think Objects in Motion is probably something that I shouldn’t like as much as I do. There’s a lot of shameless schmaltz, yet another [expetive deleted] assassin-of-the-week, and when you get down to it, by all orthodox storytelling standards this episode should probably have been ruthlessly cut. To pick an obvious point of contrast, for all that I don’t like TNG very much, it does everything that this episode does far more elegantly with a single poker game scene at the end.
But, come on, you have to have a heart of stone to begrudge JMS this victory lap, after pulling off something like this against the odds.
2. Our hosts raised an interesting question when they talked about B5 being a model for current prestige TV.
I wonder how true that is. Is there any evidence for it in the form of people working in current TV actually citing B5 as an inspiration? It might be one of those cases where one has to distinguish between a predecessor and an influence. The TV market changed (largely due to technology), and as a result certain things are now common that B5 did when they were uncommon, but B5 itself didn’t cause anything significant to happen.
In fact, thinking about it, one might argue that B5 isn’t really all that much of a predecessor. I don’t mean this to criticize B5, but to suggest that it may be *more* ambitious.
Because how close are those lionized TV series to B5? I think one has to go beyond long-running plotlines and heavily-serialized (vs. episodic) storytelling, because those weren’t new or unusual before B5 did them. Soaps had done them forever (also, think of things like Upstairs, Downstairs – which, I believe, is, despite being British, more likely to be influential even in American TV than Babylon 5, thanks to its level of very snobbish success on Masterpiece Theater). B5 was just new in doing them in its particular genre.
And B5 did these things less than a soap did at the time, and less than is now normal. On an episode-by-episode basis, a lot of B5 is pretty episodic, and generally very good at allowing new viewers to pick it up. The exception is S4, but that’s an accident – it wasn’t supposed to be like that. And arguably some of the problems with S5 are precisely because JMS was committed to getting back to his usual partially-episodic model designed to bring new viewers up to speed in the early part of the season, as soon as he could.
B5 also is very fond of the absolutely standard ‘90s A-plot/B-plot, which was originally devised (and is well-suited) to deal with some of the problems of episodic television, and has faded as longer-running, more serialized structures have come into vogue as viewing habits have changed.
But what does make B5 different is the closely-plotted 5-year arc, the whole “novel for television” thing. And I think that’s still not normal. TV shows nowadays assume long-time viewing, but they’re plotted for the most part on a season-by-season basis. There are plans for events in future seasons, seeds are sown for stuff years down the line, etc. – but there’s a looseness to the plotting that B5 doesn’t have. You don’t get episodes like Babylon Squared.
To take an obvious instance from The Wire, they’ll sideline McNulty for season 4, knowing that they’ll bring him back in season 5 as the main character. But they don’t write season 1 with an exact plan laid out for season 5. In this sense, if we’re going to pick out a ‘90s science-fiction fantasy TV series as influential, it’s more likely to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with its relatively tightly-plotted season arcs culminating in the defeat of the “Big Bad,” but much looser plotting from season to season.
(And the case for BTVS being an influence on later TV is stronger for other reasons. BTVS was a more highly-praised show than B5, and with a much more visible media profile – it is, in hindsight, very significant how much positive media attention BTVS received despite never being a particular success in terms of ratings. That was something very new for the genre.)
But really, this is basically about how television is made and viewed. The kind of TV that people made changed because DVDs made it possible to store an entire season in a short space, and then streaming turned that up a notch.
(Although, judging by Netflix “release it all at once” shows, the main effect of streaming is to slow the pace way down. I am tempted to become a cranky old man who complains about kids today having too long attention spans, and too much goddamn patience. In my day, things happened every few minutes, dammit, and that was the way we liked it.)
But things didn’t change completely, because TV is still an expensive collaborative thing to produce in which making precise plans for several years in the future gives hostages to fortune.
So I think B5 may deserve the credit of having attempted and basically, if not entirely, succeeded in doing something that the conditions of television production make extremely challenging and which is still not at all common.
To some degree, this may be a success in creating the illusion, of course. It’s now clear that more changed in the B5 story than JMS made public at the time. (Although it is worth remembering that the Babylon Prime stuff represents what the plan was at the time of The Gathering – or at least that’s what I think is the case – , and most of the significant changes may have been decided before Midnight on the Firing Line.) Babylon Squared is even the best example, because we know absolutely for a fact that the eventual resolution in War Without End must be substantially a new story.
But War Without End does a fabulous job of making it all seem like a plan. And in TV, successful illusion counts. Arguably, that could only be done then, not now. Spoiler and set report culture means that viewers nowadays are far too informed not to know how the sausage is made.
1. Of course to some degree it’s an illusion. I’ve never heard of the author of a science fiction (or any other genre) series of novels who didn’t make revisions as they went along, introducing new characters, reducing the importance of others, and generally making substantial changes. That doesn’t mean the initial plan was flawed, or not achieved.
The difference is that with novels we only see the finished product. in TV, even back in the 1990s, we see the process unfold, and there’s no going back and rewriting the earlier chapters.
And I remember JMS as being quite open about it back in the day. Somewhere or other I still have his Usenet reply to someone who charged him with, in stronger language than you’ve used, with faking it and not having a long term plan because this, that, and the other had changed. His reply boiled down to “what the hell else can you do when actors leave/break their arms/etc?”
1. Moderately open about it. JMS definitely didn’t give the impression that as much changed as his later release of the Babylon Prime storyline revealed that it had. I think it’s fair to say that he was open about it, mostly (there are exceptions*) when it would have been silly to pretend otherwise, but contrived to minimize it.
This is not a criticism! Part of the success of Babylon 5 was how JMS used an online presence in pioneering ways to communicate that there was a plan – it was something that made B5 different from other science-fiction series, above all Star Trek. Bluntly, given how close-run a thing it was keeping it on the air at all, I doubt that it would have survived without that added element keeping a loyal (if comparatively small) fanbase making sure to watch every single episode for fear of missing a clue to where things were going.
It’s like I always say about Stan Lee: he really doesn’t seem to have done all that much of the writing, and wasn’t all that important as a writer. But Lee was an absolutely brilliant editor and art director, and an even more brilliant publicist, and those things were essential to the success of Marvel in the ‘60s.
(Plus Lee *was* responsible for creating one classic, compelling character, which is of course “Stan Lee.”)
Now JMS isn’t Stan Lee – he is a genuinely brilliant writer. But he was also extremely good at being the public face of the show and managing the way in which the show was perceived by its fans. That’s also a significant thing that shouldn’t be ignored when we talk about Babylon 5.
1. Loving this thread, being that I’m from the long form arc comic books used since way back. In the UK we got segments as small as three pages a week, and with much more certainty of publication, the ground could be fertile for long form. In critical and popular readings of TV, B5 is still widely overlooked as impacting with the honours going to Twin Peaks. Maybe it is the soap factor. But B5 got there first in terms of a clear structure. I do wonder if Vince Gilligan was a fan.
3. In the technical history Babylon 5 is also the show that demonstrated what was possible with computer graphics: all your spaceships, set extensions, entire virtual sets. Sure, the increase in computing power and hence CGI no doubt meant the change was inevitable, but the creators of Babylon 5 deserve full credit for taking the risk and being the first to do so.
4. I really like the Edgars boardroom scene inn this episode. It’s quite similar to the Mooby board scene in Dogma, which I think came out only a few months later.
5. I’m a Chinese food delivery driver. I work 11am-9:30pm. When I get home I drink from 10pm-3am. I consider myself as having an alcohol problem. I’ve never had the Pizza Delivery Call moment from a couple episodes ago, it really made me feel like they were playing up a fictional version of Alcoholism; also I’ve detoxed a few times, which never involved the excessive vomiting shown in this episode. They hit the character and emotional beats of Alcoholism pretty well, but the individual details feel off the mark for me. Maybe, since I’m “in control” enough to not drink from the time I wake up to the time I’m done driving, I don’t have as big a problem as Garibaldi, and thus wouldn’t have as severe a detox. But his Alcoholism this season has really felt like a PSA caricature, with the exception of his conversation with Zack.
1. To be clear, when I’ve detoxed, I’ve experienced a bunch of distressing symptoms, just never vomiting, and I suppose none of them would be dramatic on-screen. I don’t know, I’m not sure Addiction and Detox can really be accurately portrayed on TV. I’m also a smoker, who’s tried to quit several times, and while irritability is the most obvious and dramatic symptom of nicotine withdrawal, it is hardly the most significant one.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21521 | Visit some poor people in Karangasem together with CTRIP Indonesia
Category: Activities, Publish
On July of 7th 2018 we accompanied our donor from CTRIP Indonesia visiting some poor people in some villages in Karangasem District. On that occasion the donor were leaded by BCC Volunteer in Karangasem area; I Wayan Sudarsana (0852-3840-0091).
Here is the documentation.
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Pranic healing
The word Prāṇāyāma derives from the Sanskrit words prāṇa and ayāma, translating as “life force” and “expansion”, respectively. It is a common term for various techniques for accumulating, expanding and working with prana. Pranayama is one of the eight limbs of yoga and is a practice of specific and often intricate breath control techniques. The dynamics and laws of Prana were understood through systematic practice of Pranayama to gain mastery over Prana
Many pranayama techniques are designed to cleanse the nadis, allowing for greater movement of prana. Other techniques may be utilized to arrest the breath for samadhi or to bring awareness to specific areas in the practitioner’s subtle or physical body. It can also be utilized to generate inner heat as in the practice of tummo.
In Ayurveda and therapeutic yoga, pranayama may be utilized for many tasks, including to affect mood and aid in digestion. A.G. Mohan stated that the physical goals of pranayama may be to recover from illness or the maintenance of health, while its mental goals are: “to remove mental disturbances and make the mind focused for meditation”.
According to Georg Feuerstein: “The two most important species of the life force are obviously prâna and apâna, which underlie the breathing process. Their incessant activity is seen as the principal cause for the restlessness of the mind, and their stoppage is the main purpose of breath control (prânâyâma).Swami Yogananda writes, “The real meaning of Pranayama, according to Patanjali, the founder of Yoga philosophy, is the gradual cessation of breathing, the discontinuance of inhalation and exhalation”
The ancient concept of prana is described in many Hindu texts, including Upanishads and Vedas. One of the earliest references to prana is from the 3,000-year-old Chandogya Upanishad.
Prana is typically divided into constituent parts, particularly when concerned with the human body. While not all early sources agree on the names or number of these divisions, the most common list from the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, Ayurvedic and Yogic sources includes five classifications, often subdivided.This list includes Prana (inward moving energy), apana (outward moving energy), vyana (circulation of energy), udana (energy of the head and throat), and samana (digestion and assimilation). Early mention of specific pranas often emphasized prāṇa, apāna and vyāna as “the three breaths”. This can be seen in the proto-yogic traditions of the Vratyas among others. Texts like the Vaikānasasmārta utilized the five pranas as an internalization of the five sacrificial fires of a panchagni homa ceremony.
Similar concepts exist in various cultures, including the Islamic and Sufic barakah, the Greek pneuma, the Chinese qi, the Polynesian mana, the Amerindian orenda, the German od, and the Hebrew ruah. Prana is also referred to as “bioplasmic energy”,subtle energy”, or “life force”.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21532 | Do you use blush?
I don’t use blush…ever! Since I have freckles its kinda like I have a built in blush (lol…in a weird way). But I have heard great things about the Nars Blush in Orgasm ($25). It’s like one of the top blushes on the market.Â
Check out Total Beauty’s top blushes
Photo from Nars
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1. Viv May 28, 2009
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21541 | Core Curriculum for grades 6-8 consists of Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Grade 6 core courses are taught by one teacher in a self-contained classroom; grade 7 and 8 core courses are taught by teachers specializing in each subject.
Enrichment Curriculum for all three grades consists of Bible, Phys Ed, and Music—students may participate in choir and may opt to participate in band or orchestra. Grade-specific courses include Family and Consumer Science (FACS) and Digital Communication (grade 6), Visual Art and Photography (grade 7), and FACS and Art (grade 8).
Interterm: During this one-week term in March, students in grades 4-11 participate in hands-on, experiential-learning focused courses. Middle school students take two courses, split between morning and afternoon. All courses are primarily on campus but can take half-day or day trips. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21545 | From The Big Cartoon Wiki
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Grossology is an animated television series loosely based on a series of books of the same name. It is called Glurp Attack in French in Canada. Ty and Abby Archer are a brother-sister team secretly working for the Bureau of Grossology. Their job is to investigate a variety of gross happenings and crimes. Scientific facts are explained on every adventure.
Sloppy Joe to Go (S02E04)[edit]
Ty gets bloated from the large portions served by Sloppy Joe's fast food joint. He spends several instances bloated and gassy throughout the episode, with one scene being visible weight when they mention "packing on the pounds" while discussing the effects of the food. Lab Rat is also being visibly bloated in one scene. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21551 | The miracle of Google
Hmmm….Google….God….could be…it’s close. Miracles are a possibility where powers abound.
After someone tracked down my old personal page (which hasn’t been updated since Nov. 1998) through Google, I decided to check myself out in their search results. It’s a scary proposition if you spend any kind of presence on the Web. Let’s see….Tons (and I do mean tons) of references to my ODP editor profile page. The odd reference to my profile at other forums. That old personal web site coming back to bite me in the butt (I really should dismantle it one of these days). Geez, I really get around, don’t I. Who knew I’d been so many places (and who knew there was a little town near Jerusalim called Upper Motsa?).
Ah, and I see now why I get so much crap spam email at one of my email addresses. How nice of them to post my email address on the page like that. See, this is why I use Hotmail for my spam-catcher email address.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21562 | Monday, January 23, 2012
Slope Overlays
Hillmap now lets you create slope overlays for arbitrary slope angles fo most of the united states. To try it first zoom to your area of intest and then, click on the "Hillmap Slope Analysis" tool on the "Data and Analysis" tab.
The default values work well for identifying slopes steeper then 30 degrees which is useful in planing trips to avoid avalanche terrain. You may find that other values work better for identifying steeper or lower angle slopes.
Once you have created a slope overlay you can zoom and pan to explore it using the standard Google Maps interface.
This tool uses modern web technologies so you will need a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox or the Internet Explorer 9 or higher. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21612 | A Cancer on the American Dream
A recently released report with the stunning but purposeful title “Healthcare USA: A Cancer on the American Dream” details the degree to which our health care market lacks any reasonable level of reciprocal value for American consumers. Issued by Willis Towers Watson in collaboration with the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, the report shows how premium escalation for most American workers is edging out salary increases and denying middle and lower-middle-class families their shot at the American dream. And it contains this critical admonition…
“If we continue ignoring the reasons for our out-of-control health care spending, the deleterious effects on workers will exact an ever-higher claim on the American Dream of the economic program for all those willing to work for it.”
There are, of course, any number of reasons for this “out-of-control” spending, but we should be clear about two reasons that are NOT driving it. Higher utilization and higher quality. Americans use about the same or even less health care than countries that spend far less than we do. And the US ranks 13th of the 13th largest OECD countries in terms of good outcomes according to the Commonwealth Fund. It is the decreasing affordability of health care – driven largely what appear to be unjustifiable prices and profit taking by for-profit and non-profit players alike – that is hurting us all.
While there may be many reasons why our health market lacks reciprocity and while it would only be fair to say that we all contribute to them to some degree – providers, purchasers, and consumers alike – one clear and distinct fact precipitates out when we boil down the solutions for what must be done: only employers have both the means and the incentive to improve a value proposition in the health market that is so completely skewed toward the sellers and away from the buyers. Transforming how we purchase care will be the sine qua non for transforming value. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21623 | Thursday, June 17, 2010
The Future of Cities
In Asia, the Chinese T'ang Dynasy capital of Ch'ang-an (A.D. 618-907) contained hundreds of thousands of residents, and drew in the wealth of all Asia: The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics.
Even today, you need to rent a bicycle to tour the vast ruins of the old Thai capital of Ayuttaya, which had a population in the hundreds of thousands in the 15th century.
If cities are so fragile, how did they grow to vast size without any high-density fuel other than wood, and no transport other than animals and human energy?
Yes, these were not "modern" cities in terms of energy consumption, but it terms of exotic goods available, plentiful food, high culture and intrigue, they were thoroughly modern.
1. 68% of all trips within Tokyo are by foot, bicycle or subway/transit. 95% of the trips in Houston are by private vehicle. Houston is not Tokyo, but this is a way of suggesting that when liquid fuels become costly/scarce, not all cities are equally vulnerable to implosion.
One can rather easily walk across central Paris (about 7 miles/10 kilometers). I did so in 2004 and called it "Paris Transect." On a bicycle and on flat terrain, 10 kilometers is a modest distance.
2. Over 100 million recent arrivals in Chinese cities are domestic immigrants from the countryside. Should the urban zones become unliveable, or if jobs dry up, they will return to their home villages. They have that option, as do millions of recent residents in Mexico City and other mega-metropolises.
Many cities have a large transient population who have an "opt out" alternative to fighting it out for the dwindling resources of the city.
3. Cities have thrived for thousands of years because they provide an opportunity to arbitrage the value of goods and labor brought in from the countryside.
The value of labor in rural areas tends to be low, and opportunities to earn cash tend to be limited. The opportunities to sell one's labor are more plentiful in cities, and so the easiest way to increase the value of one's labor is to move to a city.
The value of goods in their region of origin tends to be low. Almost by definition, there is a surplus of local goods and thus a low price for the surplus. By moving the surplus to a city, where demand tends to be higher, then the value of the goods can be arbitraged to the benefit of the transporter/merchant.
In this way, cities are natural magnets for skilled labor which is often undervalued in rural/village settings and for goods which are in surplus in the countryside but in demand in cities, where they will attract a much higher price.
All this is laid out in fascinating detail in Braudel's books. Thousands of people earned a living carting kindling and wood to Paris, and thousands of others earned a living removing the human waste from Paris to the countryside for use as fertilizer.
4. Cities had huge capacities for producing food and meat within their own boundaries.
5. Marriage and mating opportunities are more abundant in the city, and this also makes cities magnets for young workers.
6. As Braudel notes, everything costs more in cities, but then wages are higher.
7. Cities attract talents which are generally not valued in small-scale settings. Here is a chart of cities, arranged by the density of college graduates per square mile. Very densely populated cities such as San Francisco and New York obviously have more college graduates per square mile because they also have more residents per square mile.
San Jose (Silicon Valley) very likely has as many college graduates per capita as San Francisco, but it is 16th on this list.
Despite this somewhat misleading metric, the chart shows two things: A. College graduates tend to be attracted to large cities with many other highly educated people, and B. "Sprawl" cities with low population densities per square mile will have fewer college graduates per square mile. This in itself has little meaning, but it does suggest that it is more time-consuming and troublesome for people to get together in low-density cities. These barriers to meeting others of like mind may make cities more or less attractive to those seeking such connections.
I have written about density and related topics over the years:
Here are the population densities of a few well-known cities around the world:
San Francisco: 16,652
Los Angeles: 7,990
New York City: 25,925
London: 11,192
Tokyo: 33,611
Paris: 52,180
Will cities consume less resources in the decades ahead? Yes. Did great cities prosper on much lower energy densities in the past? Yes. Will the financial and social benefits of cities vanish simply because cheap energy is no longer abundant? No. Will some cities wither or lose population? Undoubtedly. Will low-density cities move to higher densities? Probably. Will mega-cities become unviable? Possibly. Cities are in some important ways akin to organisms; they will adapt to the flux of energy and commerce.
Here are a few books of interest on cities:
The Works: Anatomy of a City
Planet of Slums
Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century
The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
Streets for People: A Primer for Americans
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity
Global City Blues
The New Transit Town: Best Practices In Transit-Oriented Development is now open for aggregating our collective intelligence. New Posts.
Thank you, Bonnie C. ($30), for your extremely generous donation to the site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership. Thank you, John E. ($10), for your much-appreciated contribution to the site -- I am greatly honored by your support and readership.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21625 | Tuesday, October 18, 2011
It's Official!
My short story "The Silver-Tongued Queen of the Prom" is officially out, published by Harper Teen. Check it out in their Teen Classics Edition of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream!"
I shall leave you with this:
"Give me a chance to tell the Bard's tale, and I give you my word on humble knee, whence you shall not say it wasn't e'er to be."
~ Tobias Funke |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21628 | XML Sitemap
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21635 | Calendar module icon
June 19, 2019
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Kearney, NE 68847
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Edible Book Festival: Public Voting and Awards
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
View the entries for the 6th Annual Edible Book Festival and participate by voting for People's Choice. Voting opens at 1:30pm and winners will be announced at 2:00pm. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21644 | Archive for the ‘MySQL’ Category
CLTV27: EuroPython 2007 – David Axmark about optimizing MySQL
Monday, July 30th, 2007
David Axmarks was another one of this year’s keynote speakers but instead of just giving his keynote he also gave a regular talk about how to optimize MySQL (which is also applicable to other databases).
David Axmark is one of the founders of MySQL.
Alternative versions
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21652 | John Wainwright
John Wainwright is an experimental poet. He helps run SpeedPoets, a monthly open mic event in Brisbane, and prepares and prints the associated magazine. He also wrangles poets into a critiquing huddle on the second Tuesday of each month.
All the Birds Between Us
What happens when birds fall? Do birds always fall? a broken jet wing fills the river-flat today What if a bird fell between us? let it be swift old cat How many birds would it take to spin a cyclone? …
Posted in 47.0: COLLABORATION | Tagged , |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21655 | Gallery view
White Studio (New York, N.Y.)
Wallace Clifford Forbush
Formal portrait of Forbush, member of the Class of 1913 (Pomology), of Rutland.
University Photograph Collection
1913-1914 Massachusetts Agricultural College Rifle Club
Photocopy of a group portrait photograph of the 1913-1914 M.A.C. Rifle Team. Standing, from left: Ernest S. Clarke Jr., '14; George F. Hyde, '15; Frederick D. Griggs, '13; Wallace C. Forbush, '13; Philip F. Whitmore, '15. Seated, from left: Earle I. Wilde, '12; Allister F. McDougall, '13; [Coach - Corporal Major of UMSC]; Edward R. Lloyd, '12 (Captain); Albert F. Ed... more
University Photograph Collection |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21668 | Facebook Ad Library API had “major bugs” during EU elections
"“Our documentation of the broken API provides Facebook [with] a clear roadmap to make the necessary improvements to deliver a functioning and useful API,” said Marshall Erwin, senior director of trust & security at Mozilla.
“There are no excuses. Important elections are expected to take place almost every month around the globe until the end of the year. We need an API that actually helps – not hinders – researchers and journalists uncover who is buying ads, the way these ads are being targeted and to whom they’re being served. We need Facebook to be better.”" |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21694 | Bob Dylan’s Nobel Achievement
Thursday, October 13th, 2016
old bob dylanby Seth Rogovoy
BOB DYLAN’S BEEN a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature for many years, but I don’t think any of us really thought he’d ever win. Now that he has, the question remains, what’s left? He’s already won all the other awards – medals of honor and freedom from the American and French governments, Grammys, Oscars (he loves his Oscar so much he brings it with him on tour and places it onstage each night that he performs), a Pulitzer. Really, now that he’s won the Nobel, there’s nothing left for him to win.
Of course, Dylan isn’t in the award-winning business, which makes it all the more so surreal that he’s won everything. He started out as the anti-everything candidate, with an agenda to overturn the tables and disconnect the cables. And he succeeded in doing so, along the way alienating probably more people than he won over to his side. He didn’t even win his first Grammy Award until 1979, nineteen albums into his career (and that one, ironically, was for his vocals of all things – not his songwriting).
Ah, but those on his side included a huge swath of outsiders – writers, artists, poets, filmmakers, and, of course, musicians. His unique achievement – nearly impossible to replicate – was to blow up the songwriting form and recombine the pieces, scattering in elements of the Jewish prophets, Shakespeare, the great English poets, the Beats, the New York Times, movie dialogue, history books, old folk and blues icons, combine it with a twist and shout all his own, and presto, he came up with the most brilliant literature of the second half of the 20th century (and running over into the 21st). And ever since then, everyone has been trying to figure out, how did he do that? What did he do? What happened? And why do I love it so much that I’ll buy 16 CDs just to hear all the versions of the recordings that weren’t good enough to make it onto the finished albums?
Yes, it’s literature, and I’m not going to argue that point beyond saying that anyone who spends time “reading” Dylan closely understands that. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s some other thing. Something utterly sui generis, perhaps. So what? It combines thought and expression, using words and meter and line and melody and rhythm and call-and-response as tools of communication to say the most important things that anyone’s said about what it means to be living in our world, in our time.
Is the Bible literature? Not really. Is it the greatest – certainly the most influential – book ever written? Absolutely. Does Dylan’s work find its proper place in that tradition, where it can best be heard, read, studied, picked apart, and understood? Positively.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s worth a Nobel Prize.
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21702 | P11241: Smart Data Collectioin
Mission Statement
Table of Contents
Collecting Project Background Raw Data
Interactions with Sponsors
What you need to capture in this section is the raw data that will allow you to complete the information in the remaining headings. The outcome of this sections need to be the following:
Prepare a report on your sponsor interactions. Following the text by Ulrich and Eppinger, this report may include
1. Transcripts of Interview(s) with sponsors
2. Audio Recordings
3. Notes
4. Video Recordings
5. Still Photography
Provide a transcript, or at least a paraphrased version of the interviews that you conduct. Allow the students interested in this project to understand the types of questions you asked the sponsor, and to hear how the sponsor responded. Be sure to note the date, time, location, and participants in the interview. The format below may be helpful.
First Sponsor Interview
Interviewers: I.M. Student, S.R. Yu
Sponsor: Ms. Smith
Date 1 September 2006, Mobil Conference Room
Interviewer: First we would like to introduce ourselves ....
Would you please introduce yourself as well?
Sponsor: My name is Ms. Smith, and I have been with my company for 73 years. I am interested in working with your design team because ...
Interviewer: Question 2 ....
Sponsor: Response 2 ...
Interviewer: Question 3 ....
Sponsor: Response 3 ...
Interviewer: Question 4 ....
Sponsor: Response 4 ...
Product Description/Project Objective Statement
Key Business Goals/Project Deliverables
Primary Market/Project Opportunities
Secondary Market/Project Opportunities
Assumptions and Constraints |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21709 | Saturday, May 31, 2014
Palm, Blue Sky, Bougainvillea
My neighborhood, Los Angeles 2014
Islands and Figs
The sky
on and on,
The Mediterranean
down the cliff,
These fields,
Dead weeds
And the weight
of sun.
In the weeds
an old woman
lifting off
two trees
of ripe figs.
The heart
never fits
the journey.
one ends
Jack Gilbert
Saturday Soundtrack
This morning when I tried to put on an earring, it was as if the hole in my earlobe had closed up overnight. I kept poking and pushing the thin band of gold wire to no avail so I finally gave it a rest. Later, I tried again and it slipped right through. It made me think of holes in the heart and resistance and mystery and age and surrender.
Someone posted this on Facebook today, and I can't get it out of my head.
Nina Simone: I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl by ninasimonemusic
Friday, May 30, 2014
Westward Ho
La Brea and Melrose, Los Angeles
May 2014
On the way to my 17th IEP this morning, my eyes leaked tears and I swore to myself as I wiped them away. I won't bore you with the litany of complaints that preceded the tears, many of which are valid and most of which are pathetic, but at La Brea and Melrose, I got into the left turn lane behind a long line of cars and asked for help -- not from God, per se, although I still have vestiges of duty toward that possibility, but rather from the air, the universe, the divine, the whatever. I turned my head to my left and saw what you see above, felt an enormous slap upside the head as they say in the south. Yes, I took that photo while sitting in my car, my head smarting from the force of the blow, waiting through a few red lights, inching along, stripped of impatience, anger, sorrow and panic. Even tears, or tears, even.
That's all I've got for today. The IEP went just fine. When I came home, I lay down on my bed, closed my eyes, thought of other things.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
The Self-Cleaning Litter Box Was the Last Straw
That will be the last time I mention or picture cats on the blog. For the record, I do not care about cats, nor do I even like them. I have fond memories of Tigger, my childhood tabby cat, but they're only fond. This afternoon, my friend D texted me this question along with a screen shot of the product in question:
How much money do you make from the self-flushing litter box ads?
Last time I checked, my earnings -- however effortless and passive -- from the old blog were about $101.24, and it seems almost whorish to keep them up. I personally pay no attention at all to ads on others' blogs, and am even offended, often by the overwhelming presence of them on some of those big time blogger blogs. I confess to thinking that maybe one of my posts would somehow go viral, and every click would bring me some cents and before long I'd be buying us all a trip to Bora Bora. Instead, ya'll report on the tedious wait to comment while ads for kitty litter load, and I don't collect a check until my earnings hit $100 which, according to AdSense, hasn't happened since January.
No more ads and no more cats.
Death and Sex, Tigers and Tightrope Walkers
The first dead person I saw was my grandmother in her open coffin when I was twenty-five years old. That doesn't count the shadow of a dead person I might have seen when I was sixteen years old, the flash of blonde hair through the windshield, the eyes, before our cars were irretrievably smashed together. Like I said, I'm not sure that I really saw this or imagined it, afterward, as I recovered. That is another story. I walked up to my grandmother's coffin holding my father's hand tightly. I've never seen a dead person, I said to him, right before we reached his mother and bent over to kiss her cold cheek. I know he wouldn't have said it then, but at some point afterward my father said, How could you never have seen a dead person? I probably saw scores of dead people before I was half your age! That photo above is some dead relative of mine. The little girl, perched on the stool, is my aunt, the woman behind her my grandmother.Perhaps that is my great-grandfather. Evidently, posing with your dead relatives was a common thing in southern Italian culture. And my father apparently posed in much the same way as my aunt, many times during his childhood. They were accustomed to death.
When I show this photo to people, they peer at it and wonder if it's real. Death. We don't like to think about it very often, we do our damn best to avoid it, and when it comes we're shocked, shocked. Sex and death. We're shocked by both. And we certainly don't write about it until we do.
I am an animal today, pacing my cage or circling the tightrope walker above me. She doesn't see me, doesn't remember how she shed her tutu, plunged from the wire, naked, and wriggled into this skin. How do I get back? Where is the Master of Ceremonies? Sometimes we need the proverbial provocation -- the stick, the prod, a crack of the whip, the leap, a roar, talons unsheathed, the naked body devoured or devouring the beast.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
I had to do some culling on my Facebook page this afternoon when a spirited debate got ugly. Can I tell you that I love the back and forth of argument, the challenge of it? I know a lot of you deplore this kind of thing and are much better than me at monitoring the type situation that any fool could see was going to get out of hand. I, on the other hand, have a bit of the fly attracted to shit kind of temperament, and unless it affects me really, really personally, I get a charge taking on anyone. Humor me! My life is often made up of dealing with minutia when it isn't, so when given the chance to sharpen the old tongue -- well -- I leap (backwards on the evolutionary scale, maybe). This exchange was about gun control, though, so the person with whom I was arguing (a self-professed orthodox Christian, I can't help but add) naturally went down the path of liberty and freedom and protection, and somewhere in his poorly executed argument (where he called me intelligent but sadly foolish, a sheeple) assured me that, if necessary, his brave and courageous people would protect mine as we ran away, cowards.
I loved that photo of sheep culling for many reasons, the paramount one being that we really do run in herds, don't we?
Here's a poem, too:
The first four leaders had broken knees
The four old dams had broken knees
The flock would start to run, then freeze
The first four leaders had broken knees
‘Why is the flock so docile?’ asked the hawk.
‘Yes, why is the flock so docile,’ laughed the dog,
‘The shepherd’s mallet is in his hand,
The shepherd’s hand is on the land,
The flock will start to run, then freeze—
The four old dams have broken knees,’
The dog explained.
The hawk exclaimed:
‘The shepherd leads an easy life!’
‘I know, I know,’ cried the shepherd’s wife,
‘He dresses me out in a narrow skirt
and leaves me home to clean his dirt.
Whenever I try to run, I freeze—
All the old dams have broken knees.’
‘Well, I’m so glad he doesn’t dare
to bring his breaking power to bear
on me,’ said the hawk, flying into the sun;
while the dog warned, in his dog run:
‘Hawk—the shepherd has bought a gun!’
‘Why is the hawk so docile?’ asked the flock,
‘He fell to the ground in a feathery breeze;
He lies in a dumb lump under the trees,
We believe we’d rather have broken knees
Than lose our blood and suddenly freeze
Like him.’
But the oldest dam gave her leg a lick,
And said, ‘Some die slow and some die quick,
A few run away and the rest crawl,
But the shepherd never dies at all—
Damn his soul.
I’d will my wool to the shepherd’s wife
If she could change the shepherd’s life,
But I myself would bring him low
If only, only I knew how.’
Judy Grahn, via Poetry Foundation
Maggie May
My writer friend Maggie May Ethridge has a short memoir published today and available for purchase on the wonderful new website Shebooks. The memoir is called Atmospheric Disturbances: Scenes from a Marriage and is easily downloadable at this link or on Amazon.
I've been reading Maggie's blog Flux Capacitor for many years and given the honest and intimate nature of her writing, I feel almost proprietary in promoting her writing -- surely you've read it and surely you must if you haven't! I've already started Atmospheric Disturbances and find it difficult to put down -- there's something about Maggie's ability to articulate the pain and joy of marriage, of serious mental health issues, of her own identity as a woman, that makes you feel as if you lived right next door and were carrying on a conversation over many years. The book is both intensely erotic and utterly matter of fact, if that makes sense, and I'm certain that no matter the state of your marriage or whether you're married or not, you will find something deep and wise and resonant for you in this memoir.
Oh, and it's $2.99 -- really.
Click here and download it today!
Shebooks is a new online publishing platform working to promote women in publishing -- in case you've been hiding (and reading) under a rock, you might not realize that women are very under-represented in the literary world. They recently launched a subscription program that is incredibly reasonable -- and yours truly will have a short memoir published very soon!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
We the people
That's the last bit of sangria that I drank just up the street and around the corner from my house this evening. I sat at a large booth by myself and drank it, along with some mussels, french fries and a grilled artichoke whose leaves I smeared in aioli.
I wish you'd been there.
I've gone all day without sitting here. I've been looking at the jacaranda trees whose purple flowers hang in grape-like clusters. People love to complain about them -- their rotten smell, the mess they make, the sticky layer of them on the sidewalks -- but I think they're fine. I could drink that purple, roll in it naked and glorious. And no, that's not the sangria talking. It's just me, making purple prose.
Oliver and I are exploring the American Revolution, the Constitution of these United States, the amendments to the constitution, all that we the people. To tell you the truth, reviewing it all makes me a little sad. Such glorious ideals, such purple prose, such disconnection from what we have and know today. Money and influence, the triumph of oligarchy -- it seems, in many ways, that the whole democratic "experiment" has gone to shit. I don't even know how to explain these things to Oliver other than to convey that there's much for his generation to do. I have to bite my tongue not to say what I feel, which is more often than not, we're f**ked.
I hesitated to do so (because it's so de rigeur to be tired of people's postings on social media), but I posted a link on Facebook to an article from the Washington Post that I read -- an article where Mr. Martinez, the father of one of the victims of Sunday's murder spree in Santa Barbara, angrily denounced politicians and the NRA for their collusion in refusing to pass more stringent gun laws. Martinez was glorious in his grief and righteousness, and I hope that given his military service and criminal justice background, he might knock some sense into these craven people. I feel compelled to join him, to curse and rail at anyone, anyone, who claims owning guns like the ones used by this young man is part of the liberty we are entitled to as citizens of the United States. The misogyny, the mental health debate, the disaffection of our youth --yeah, these are all part of it, but this gun bullshit has got to stop. As Henry said when he heard that my home state of Georgia had passed laws allowing guns into most public places, Sometimes I hate this country, mom. We the people are stupid.
What are ya'll thinking about? Drinking? Posting? Fire them at me -- just not with guns.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Gnaw your crust
Pray for Peace
Pray to whomever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the bo tree in scorching heat,
Adonai, Allah. Raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekinah, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.
Then pray to the bus driver who takes you to work.
On the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus,
for everyone riding buses all over the world.
Drop some silver and pray.
Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latte and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.
To Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, pray.
Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.
Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.
Making love, of course, is already prayer.
Skin, and open mouths worshiping that skin,
the fragile cases we are poured into.
If you're hungry, pray. If you're tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.
When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else's legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheelchair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer as the earth revolves:
less harm, less harm, less harm.
And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail,
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, twirling pizzas --
With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.
feed the birds, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.
Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your Visa card. Scoop your holy water
from the gutter. Gnaw your crust.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.
Ellen Bass
Sunday, May 25, 2014
The Fish, The Clouds, The Slipstream
My friends are seeing their first born children graduate from high school this month. They are preparing to take these children to college sometime this summer, and they are, to a one, filled with trepidation, with the bittersweet grief and certainty that in some respects, it's the end. You know where this is going. For a moment this morning, as my writing percolated in my head, as it does, the wonderful phrase what fresh hell is this? flitted through, a cloud, a fish, the slipstream. We are going to a graduation party this afternoon for the oldest child of one of my dearest friends. Sophie would have graduated from high school last May, so this May is the year that the younger children of my friends pass her by. Again. Despite the many years and all the experience under the proverbial belt, despite the strength, thickened even under the armor imposed upon me by circumstance, the return of pain, the pinprick of it (the fish, the clouds, the slipstream) takes my breath away. If I hold it, it grows, so I give it a nod and admire its shimmer, watch it go.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Saturday Three-Line Movie Review
The Immigrant
The reason why I was particularly happy watching this movie was not because it told the sad story of an immigrant from Poland whose luck ran out the moment she hit Ellis Island, but rather because I sipped a fruity draft beer while doing so, having literally run out of the house in the late afternoon to a 21+ theater after punishing both of my sons for -- well -- that has nothing to do with the movie. I love Marion Cotillard's face, and she appears in nearly every single frame of this poignant film, as does her co-star, Joaquin Phoenix who I grew to love after his performance in Her, but that has nothing to do with this movie either. I think the only thing I have left to say is that The Immigrant was beautifully crafted and well-acted but entirely predictable (the sacrifices of our forefathers! the dismal outlook for women! the promise of America dashed!) except for the fuzzy yet brilliant opening shot of the back of Lady Liberty which should have told me right then how it would all turn out.
More 3-Line Movie Reviews
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Labor Day
Friday, May 23, 2014
One of Those Perfect Poems for Me and My Peeps (especially Denise)
Open Window at Collioure
Henri Matisse
French Chocolates
If you have your health, you have everything
is something that’s said to cheer you up
when you come home early and find your lover
arched over a stranger in a scarlet thong.
Or it could be you lose your job at Happy Nails
because you can’t stop smudging the stars
on those ten teeny American flags.
I don’t begrudge you your extravagant vitality.
May it blossom like a cherry tree. May the petals
of your cardiovascular excellence
and the accordion polka of your lungs
sweeten the mornings of your loneliness.
But for the ill, for you with nerves that fire
like a rusted-out burner on an old barbecue,
with bones brittle as spun sugar,
with a migraine hammering like a blacksmith
in the flaming forge of your skull,
may you be spared from friends who say,
God doesn’t give you more than you can handle
and ask what gifts being sick has brought you.
May they just keep their mouths shut
and give you French chocolates and daffodils
and maybe a small, original Matisse,
say, Open Window, Collioure, so you can look out
at the boats floating on the dappled pink water.
Ellen Bass
Philippe Petit
It's blurry, but that's a photo of Philippe Petit signing a photo of himself (that Oliver had printed out on the computer earlier): To Oliver. Last night, I took him downtown to our central library to hear the man read from his new book, Creativity, the Perfect Crime. Here's an excerpt from the book:
My attitude as an artist grew out of the realization I'd arrived at from an early age: that my intellectual engagement, my imaginative freedom, had a price, that of the forbidden. Whatever I decided to do, it was not allowed! "Creativity is illegal!" became my byword.
The creator must be an outlaw.
Not a criminal outlaw, but rather a poet who cultivates intellectual rebellion. The difference between a bank job and an illegal high-wire walk is paramount: the aerial crossing does not steal anything; if offers an ephemeral gift, one that delights and inspires.
Despite my outlaw approach -- or because of it -- a network of personal creative principles imperceptibly emerged. Lawlessness doesn't mean lack of method: in fact, the outlaw I became needed method all the more, because I was swimming alone to the island of my dreams.
I can't express how thrilling it was for me to see this strange and funny man come on the stage. He wore an orange pullover and khaki pants tucked into weird leather boots. He's of medium height and quite muscular for his age, and if you've seen any of the wonderful documentary Man on Wire, you'd recognize his quirky mannerisms and mischievous smile. In fact, he did less reading from his fascinating new book, and more explaining in a thick French accent and demonstrating his own creative processes. He involved the very small audience throughout the performance, asking us to come up with interesting uses for a plastic fork that we were given when we walked in, and even doing some sleight of hand magic tricks. He was utterly charming and subversive in the best way.
I did find it hard not to stare at him, consumed by the thought this man walked on a wire between the World Trade Center towers. Don't ask me why this has always thrilled me to the point of obsession. I'm not a risk taker. I hate roller coasters and heights make my knees quiver. There's a tightrope walker and trapeze artist in one of my favorite movies, Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire. I often wear a necklace with a tiny medallion on it of a tightrope walker holding that long balance stick. Come to think of it, it might be Petit between the Towers. I guess I could make metaphor with my obsession -- why it resonates so much with me. I've done that plenty of times even here on this blog.
The funambulist is a person who walks the wire or dances on the wire, messing with boundaries, balancing dark and light, acknowledging the fine line between them. As the mother of a child with such severe disabilities, who is so utterly dependent upon me, I am a funambulist of sorts, alone and agile.
But enough of that.
Oliver and I were smitten by Philippe Petit and grateful to live in such a fine city where we had the opportunity to see this great artist in such a small and intimate space, for free.
He's legit, Oliver declared after meeting Petit and shaking his hand. When we walked out into the softly lit evening city, we felt enchanted.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Sophie and Oliver
I asked Oliver to sit with Sophie this morning while I quickly got ready to take her to school. I heard Oliver talking to Sophie, asking her questions, insistent that she answer yes and no with varying tones. I took these photos as a testament to their conversation.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Cracking Up in the Best Way
to Sandra
Oliver and I made that little bamboo fountain and placed it on a tile table right next to the lavender fields (I say fields because it's sort of incredible how many lavender are growing -- it's actually just a patch). The fountain doesn't have a strong motor, so the sound isn't as loud as I'd like, but it's peaceful and very beautiful and we definitely need peace and beauty around these parts.
You know how everyone likes to bash social media and go on sabbaticals and say how much they hate it and how it's ruining their children, and it's a time suck and all that jazz? I say bullshit. During these trying times, I've never felt more connected to certain people -- some of whom I only know online. If that sounds pathetic to you, know that I have a wide circle of human fleshy friends, and I love each and every one of them. I also have a lot of family, and I love each and -- well -- most of them, too. I am, in fact, a rich person as far as my social life goes. But these people I've met on the internets? I'd like to hope that the feeling is mutual, but those certain someones really do sustain me. After walking a much more chipper Sophie all the way to CVS to pick up her medication, and finding out that they processed it wrong and that our co-pay is huge and it's for one of the drugs that she's just ON and we're trapped to being ON it despite its inefficacy because of the hideous nature of weaning/withdrawal -- well, I walked home crying the whole damn way behind my big purple sunglasses. I had myself a bit of a pity party where I cursed pretty much everything and everyone, including those who think I should welcome Jesus into my life. I had a funeral in my mind for what it means to be alive in the 21st century and beholden to big pharma and capitalism and family and marriage -- well, you get the gist. When I got home, I checked out the website for the upcoming Epilepsy Pipeline Conference that I'm attending in early June, where I'm participating on a panel about medical marijuana, and I saw my name listed alongside the big honchos of neurology and Big Pharma, and all I could think was that I need a title, something to convey my rage and despair and love and pride in this life I'm leading with my children. I thought Elizabeth Aquino, FUCK YOU, might work, and I told one of my friends from the etherworld, and she suggested Elizabeth Aquino, Messenger. That cracked me up because it was so weird, so I countered it with Elizabeth Aquino, Daughter of God and then she said, Elizabeth Aquino, Messenger from God.
And then I cracked up laughing, the thought of me sitting straight-faced on that panel telling my story as a messenger from God. My earlier tears, lately just pricking at my eyes seemingly all day long, retreated, my anguish was stilled, I went and sat outside in the sun, heard trumpets in that water in that little fountain, smelled the lavender in the breeze, all of it, all of it, a message writ large of LOVE.
Vehicle Repairs
That's a sign from the parking lot of the Arclight Cinemas, the very fancy movie theater where I go to see movies when I go to see movies. I used to joke around with my friend D that one day we'd become bank robbers, and lately I've felt like busting out. Hitting the road, getting the hell out of Dodge, starting over, forgetting the past, to hell with the Zen stuff -- you know, right? Or not. Maybe I'm just sort of simpatico with Sophie, who must feel like peeling off her skin as that drug is eliminated from her system. Wait. Who am I kidding with that presumption? While I battle, often, with the mixed identity thing -- where does Sophie begin and I start or where do I end and she begin? -- she is on her own path, and as much as I like to think I'm in charge, in control, I'm really just walking beside her. Except for when I am forced to make outrageous "choices" and decisions for her general welfare, like putting her on those 21 (yes, I mis-counted, and she's been on 21) drugs despite the sick feeling in my stomach each and every time. There's a lot of f**keroo bonzai to process here, so humor me. I've always had a problem with Authority. Sophie seemed better, today, thank Jesus -- went off to school with a bit of spring in her step. This is to be expected, evidently, the on again off again nature of the waning wean days. We upped the CBD in hopes that it'd help with the detox, so let's see what happens.
In the meantime, buck authority.
Drink all you want in a parking garage.
Loiter with your friends and rotate your tires.
Repair your vehicle.
Hell, exercise your body and your mouth.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Peonies and Benzos
Yeah, I know. Those peonies.
I was all Wallace Stevensy the world is ugly and the people are sad and then I walked into the dining room and saw them. There aren't even words to describe such a sight.
Thank you for your kind words and emails in response to my last post. I did a lot of digging around on the interwebs last night and read a whole lot more about benzodiazepine withdrawal. There wasn't much that I didn't already know, and what I knew was that it's all fucked up. It's insane that these drugs are used at all -- and I mean at ALL, and I know there are a lot of people out there who think a little bit of a benzo can nip anxiety right in the bud. Smoke some pot, people, find another class of prescription mind-numbers, in lieu of popping the benzos. And when people worry about the amount of THC in marijuana, about not wanting children to get high (as opposed to the real concern that THC at certain levels can exacerbate seizures), or when physicians worry about the long-term cognitive effects of marijuana on the brain -- holy shit. Take a look at what the benzos do and the level of suffering people -- children -- experience when you take them off.
I'm assuming that Sophie is going to have really bad days, off and on, for maybe even more than a year. I'm going to have to push through my rage about this SIT U A SEE OWN, but it's going to be difficult to not constantly compare the clusterf**kery of the current mindset in epileptology to what's been going on with the approved AEDs for all these years. I'm going to keep on banging on my drum, too, until the media takes it upon itself to do some kind of story on what the alternative to medical marijuana has been like for many kids. Like mine. And yours.
Humor my rants for the time being or shut me up with peonies.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Jesus! and the Benzo Wean
The Annunciation
Fra Angelico
Florence, Italy
I've never gotten any comfort from praying to any of the gods, including Jesus. Oh, I take that back. There was a time when I got down regularly on my knees in the middle of the night and plead for mercy. And, yes, I'm aware that faith has little to do with appeals and entreaties being granted or denied. I was raised a Catholic, loved the saints as some little girls love horses. I saw dancing spots in church multiple times, was just about to faint before boredom crept in. I read Simone Weil in college. How many of ye with little faith or a lot of it have read her? I saw the world in a grain of sand or something like that one night about six weeks into my first year in college, lost myself in eternity and bliss, and no, I didn't do drugs. I had a near Stendhal Syndrome-like reaction to the frescoes at San Marco in Florence, Italy, including the several Annunciations of Fra Angelico. That being said, I'm not so much an unbeliever as someone who doesn't believe. In that way.
All of this is to say that I sat by Sophie on her bed tonight and looked out the window as the sun went down. It's day fourteen of a benzo wean, and things are hard. Not as hard as they were in the past, before the cannabis, but they're still hard. Sophie is drooling a lot, and she doesn't want to eat very much. When she does eat, she chews so slowly, if at all, that I feel a frisson of fear that she's developing another round of ESES (and because I don't want to exacerbate this fear, I'm not going to type it as you can do a search on the internets or this old blog and find out plenty). Then I decide that it's the benzo wean, and I feel rage. I've read all the bad things happening to good people stuff, God is beside you, with you, around you, within you. If prayer is breath, the in and the out can tamp down rage, but it's my experience that Jesus doesn't come and take it. So, ye of faith, I don't feel like a good person when I feed Sophie during these times. She holds food in her mouth and slowly, agonizingly moves it around. She lets it fall out. I have to pour liquid down her throat. I am impatient and maybe even mean in my thoughts. There's despair and ruination, and I'm certain Sophie knows this. Maybe not certain, but there's that air that I'm breathing out. It can't be good for her.
Here are the symptoms of withdrawal of benzodiazepines that I took from the website of the NYU Comprehensive Medical Center last night:
An important concern when people with epilepsy take clobazam or other benzodiazepines is the risk of “withdrawal seizures” or increased, repetitive or more severe seizures if the medicine is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal symptoms usually begin upon stopping the medicine and can last for up to 8 to 10 days. Early symptoms might be agitation, anxiety, restlessness or even fast heart rate, though seizures might begin immediately as well. The longer the person has been taking clobazam and the higher the dose, the greater the tolerance and therefore the higher the risk of withdrawal seizures. Even small, gradual dose reductions can temporarily increase seizure activity, but your doctor may suggest these changes since the long-term decrease in effects like drowsiness and depression often makes this worthwhile.
Besides increased seizure activity, other symptoms of withdrawal include:
• drowsiness
• dizziness
• poor coordination
• drooling
• restlessness, aggression, anxiety or agitation
Tell your doctor if you notice any of these symptoms when your dosage is being reduced.
Are there long-term side effects of taking clobazam ?
Clobazam and other benzodiazepines are the medicines that are most likely to cause psychological dependence. When someone takes a benzodiazepine at a certain dosage for more than 2 to 4 weeks, the body (or specifically, the brain's receptors for the neurotransmitter GABA) becomes accustomed to it. Then if a dose is missed or reduced, a withdrawal process starts, characterized by:
• anxiety
• increased heart rate
• tremor
• generally feeling unwell
Taking another pill relieves all of these symptoms, confirming the person's belief that he or she "needs" the medication. This is a very dangerous cycle, since long-term use can cause long-lasting changes in the brain's GABA receptors that lead to significant problems such as impaired cognition, decreased motivation, and depression. In this setting, rapid dose reduction can cause severe symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, and illness, as well as seizures.
In many of these cases, very gradual reduction of the benzodiazepine (often over many months or years) can lead to a dramatic improvement in attention, concentration, memory, and mood without worsening the seizures, insomnia, or anxiety for which the medication was originally prescribed. This gradual reduction must be performed under the guidance of a doctor.
- See more at:
Peonies and Peeps
So the heat wave in Los Angeles has broken, and the breeze rustling the palms is decidedly cooler. It's glorious outside, which is a good thing because I'm off to yet another baseball game. After I dropped Oliver off for his pre-game practice, I lowered the windows in my sexy Mazda and cranked up my song du jour, the Byrd's Here Without You, those harmonies, the memories it stirs up, what ties us to another.
It's all a big, fat mystery. We're mules with burdens and impossibly free.
P.S. My peeps: I changed my comment form to a pop-up window. Please let me know if that helps the situation.
Divine Comedy
Dante in Doubt by Salvador Dali
illustration from Dante's Divine Comedy
What else is there to do on a Monday morning but begin again? I sit on Sophie's bed and listen to her breathe. I hear the men working across the street, ripping down a house only to build it back up. Our new toilet is like a throne, higher than the one before. You're all shrinking, Henry commented to me and to my friend. Why are we so insistent on being tall? I hear a rustle in the palms in my backyard and watch two hummingbirds quarrel. I remember to breathe in to calm myself and to breathe out and smile. I doubt the existence of anything but that.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
A New Tradition: Sunday Selfie
Perhaps, Defeated Ass
Cry Uncle Ass
(fleeing the ship momentarily for dinner with girlfriends. Wish you were here.)
The Post-Trader Joe's Life
This happened:
That's what happened while I innocently meandered the aisles of the store, planning on the shrimp and vegetable stir-fry I was going to make, and texting a friend about how I was ready to drive off the rails. While I purchased a bag of cinnamon and apple "fries," I was also wondering if the reason why my derailment seems imminent is because I haven't visited Dr. Jin in more than six months. Maybe it's just a matter of balance and some herbs, I thought, heroically. Yes, heroically.
Back to the window.
Henry was doing his usual lacrosse practice of throwing the lacrosse ball against the side of the house (above the window) over and over and catching it. Except for this time when the ball crashed through the window and shattered glass flew everywhere in the dining/homeschool/cluttered room, including all over Oliver who was preparing his lemonade stand:
He evidently cried for a moment in shock and fear (which was, I'm certain, resoundingly mocked by his older brother), but he's laughing in that photo because the first photo was snapped with Valentine in the background, peeing, and as I'm slightly frazzled and mad (in the unbalanced sense of the word, not angry) from walking in on the shattered glass scene, a very grumpy chef, an ineffectual Teenager trying to clean up the larger glass, and a seizing daughter who appears to be acting much as she always does right after I declare that she's doing just fine weaning from her benzo, I began to chant:
Milk, milk,
Round the corner,
Perhaps that's inappropriate and not the best way to market The Entrepreneur's wares.
Especially given this a few yards away from his stand:
Yesterday, we had to have a new one installed and where else does one put the old one? I am wondering whether it could be a planter or even one of those charming little libraries that dot the suburbs -- I've been dying to make one.
I have thus cleaned up glass, vigorously vacuumed all the rooms of the house (because why not while I'm at it?), bathed my seizing daughter while musing about the cost of redoing the bathroom so that it'd be safer to give her a bath (which moved into how am I going to do this? how am I going to do this?), put Sophie's seizing self safely in her chair post-bath, put the groceries away and trimmed the peonies that I bought in a reckless moment at the store, thinking that peonies might keep the train on the rails, peeked in on The Teenager to make sure that he's studying for finals and not playing games.
My thoughts have progressed from how I'm ready to drive off the rails to a bemused wondering about the extraordinary life I'm living as a quite ordinary person. And it's just too much, sometimes. Too, too much.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Saturday Three-Line Movie Review
So, if you're into food and really good music, sweet-looking children, the ubiquitous Scarlett Johannson and the tattooed, disheveled,and very sexy Jon Favreau, by all means you will enjoy Chef, a light-hearted look at what it means to be a chef in this day of tweeting, celebrity reality shows and the all-consuming nature of the industry itself. As the wife of a chef and a former professional cook, though, I'll also add that you need to believe that chefs are really just sweet and lovable under their crazy exteriors, and that redemption lies in food trucks and doing what you love. Oh, and I'm Sofia Vergara.
Other 3-Line Movie Reviews:
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Labor Day
Friday, May 16, 2014
An Open Letter to Councilman Tom LaBonge and Carolyn Ramsey, Chief of Staff
Dear Mr.LaBonge,
I am writing you this letter in an emotional state and understand quite clearly that writing anything in an emotional state is often not the wisest course of action when one is trying to get something done. However, as a mother of a severely disabled young adult and two active teen-aged boys, I get things done regardless of emotion. Today, for perhaps the hundredth thousandth time, I took my daughter for a stroll up to a neighborhood restaurant on La Brea. We live in the Hancock Park Adj. neighborhood, a neighborhood of near-one hundred year old modest California bungalows housing diverse families, the elderly and, in our case, a disabled nineteen year old.
As you can see in the above photo, taken one block from my house, many of the curbs are NOT cut away to provide access for those using wheelchairs. I have lived in this neighborhood for nearly eighteen years, and on this particular street for fourteen. Curb cuts are random in our neighborhood and have been for years, despite repeated calls and inquiries about getting it done. Is there a method to the madness of how these things are done?
It's one thing to struggle with a stroller and a small child up and down these curbs -- I would say that in that case, it's a convenience to have the cuts. However, maneuvering an 80-pound individual in a 75 pound vehicle up and down, in some cases, an 8-inch curb is near impossible. A person with disabilities in a wheelchair would probably find it impossible to do so. The alternative, which I do regularly, is to walk in the street and just take my chances that the cars in both directions will give me room, that someone parked on the side of the road won't open his car door into my daughter or that the person driving fast in his luxury vehicle won't honk his horn and make an obscene gesture while I do my best to stay out of his way. Get out of the road! he cried, today, as I struggled over potholes and dodged those prickly seedpods that litter the streets this time of year.
Hence, my emotion. I thought, today, that the construction just down the street, the herculean Subway to the Sea Project, will probably happen faster, and we've been told that the work there will be completed in ten years. I sure hope that when I'm nearing sixty years old and can hop a train at the end of my street to ride to the beach that I'll be able to get my near-thirty year old daughter there, too.
Please, Mr. LaBonge, get it done. Get the dang curb cuts put in throughout the neighborhood, not just randomly (particularly in the -- ahem -- richer parts of the neighborhood, where I've noted they have been completed for years).
Please, get it done.
Respectfully, your constituent who voted for you,
Elizabeth Aquino
Los Angeles
Dispatch from the Revolution: Cannabis Update
Sophie continues to do remarkably well after nearly four months on Charlotte's Web. She goes weeks without any truly discernible seizures (she used to have from 1-5 tonic-clonic episodes and many partial complex/absence a day), and the breakthrough ones are mild and short. She has no more clusters of myoclonic seizures (they used to happen several times a day and lasted, sometimes, for 45 minutes or more). We have done three weans of her Onfi, the benzo that she's been on for six years. We've reduced the drug very slowly, about 33%, and the difficulties she had formerly, whenever we weaned a benzo, have just not happened. Yes, she's had some "bad" days when she appears uncomfortable and agitated. She has had some mild withdrawal seizures on around the tenth day of the wean, but for the most part she is good, and I attribute that good to the presence of cannabis in her system.
I listened to a podcast the other day of Dr. Orrin Devinsky from NYU. He was quite positive about cannabis and epilepsy, albeit cautious, and seemed far more understanding of families' desperation and desire to obtain the medicine for their children with refractory seizures than he was a few months ago when he wrote an Op-Ed in The New York Times. He even went so far as to state how "promising" the treatment looked. The Epilepsy Foundation of America has been surprisingly supportive of families (part of its charter and mission, after all), so I feel hopeful, too, about that. I type all of this, though, with reservation, because I also sense a growing rift between neurologists (The American Epilepsy Society), who remain obdurate and arrogant, and families, and this rift is sensed as a rumble, a muttering, an antagonism inherent, it seems, in the industry (because let's face it, medicine as it's practiced in this country is as much if not more an industry than a healing art), despite all the efforts for "family-centered care." I've heard of neurologists, still, completely disdainful of this therapy, towing the party line of testing, testing, testing, with a couple arrogant dismissals of "anecdotal" evidence. And I've heard from several people whose neurologists are downright abusive, going so far as to call some parents uncompliant and reporting them to "authorities," making it difficult to get traditional medications for their daughter and other horror stories.
Here's Sophie's story -- call it anecdotal or call it Truth. It makes no difference to me what you think, what they think.
I know it's truth.
Sophie never had a day free of multiple seizures for the first nineteen years of her life and was subject to all manner of approved double-blind tested placebo controlled and studied drugs. Many of these drugs were not approved for use in children under the age of seventeen and most were not studied for long term use in combination with multiple other drugs. She was on nineteen different medications, was evaluated for surgery, had two six month trials of the ketogenic diet. She suffered from serious side effects from nearly every medication and endured considerable suffering when medications were withdrawn because of inefficacy (including one rare complication called pseudo-tumor cerebri -- look it up, not for the faint of heart). She took medications to mitigate side effects, went through several periods of anorexia and sat for hundreds of hours with an IV drip of immunoglobulin. She began taking Charlotte's Web in late December of 2014 and within a few weeks of treatment had periods of seizure free days for the first time in her life. Side effects noted were smiling, alertness and relaxation. When we knew things were looking "up," we began a slow process of weaning her from one of the two powerful anti-epileptic drugs that she's been on for years (and only on for years because we were afraid to withdraw them and put her through that shit). So far, she's off more than 30% of a powerful narcotic and continues to have large stretches of time free of debilitating tonic-clonic seizures, partial complex seizures and myoclonic clusters. We have not used Diastat, the Big Gun, in months. We will continue to slowly withdraw the benzo and then, hopefully, the Vimpat. If she continues to do well, the world is our oyster, no? Or is it the pearl?
How's that for anecdote?
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Armageddon and Cake
Salted Caramel Cake
I made one yesterday from a recipe in a magazine. It called for 8 yolks and 4 eggs, nearly four cups of sugar and 1/2 pound of salted butter for the cake alone. The icing was three cups of brown sugar and two cups of confectioner's sugar and more than a pound of salted butter. It had five layers with more than a cup of icing between each layer. I know -- that's not even sort of gross. I felt guilty making it, especially given that it was for a crowd of fifty-somethings. I guess there's a case to be made that given the fires just to the south, the crude oil spillage in a nearby neighborhood (where, evidently an above-ground pipe burst and crude oil was knee-deep in some places), the outrageously dry and hot conditions here, the insistence by many that global warming is a liberal hoax, the Clippers fiasco, the rumors of Beyonce and Jay-Z having trouble -- well, why the hell not eat Salted Caramel Cake? And throw some rose petals on top that you've plucked off a wilting rosebush as a final devil-may-care gesture.
Let us eat cake.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Brother "Conversation," No. 457***
The Brothers were instructed to make dinner -- cook the chicken for the tacos and dispense the sides -- salsa, grated cheese, shredded lettuce, refried beans. Oliver is a Master Griller (I'm not joking), and Henry - well -- he always looks glamorous. When faced with the plastic top covering the container of salsa, this conversation ensued. Add in irony and humor, because that was the general tone.
Henry: Mom, how do I open the salsa?
Me: Henry, you get a small knife and pierce through that plastic and then peel it off.
Henry: I'm gonna starve in college, right?
Oliver: Henry, you're so bad in the kitchen.
Henry: Oliver, shut up or I'll kill you.
***The word "conversation" in quotes is intentional.
The Distance Between Things
I dabbed a bit of ointment for canker sores on the white flesh of Sophie's inner lip this morning while she groaned and squirmed. I had to hold her down almost roughly, and that reminded me of holding her down years ago when we stuck those needles in her leg that delivered the drug that was supposed to stop her seizures but didn't. I gave her an Advil for the pain and forced liquid down her throat. These things are harder to do than you think. Later, as I sipped my coffee in a yellow cup, I watched through the still wavy panes of glass in the dining room a bird hustle out of the bougainvillea that grows wild through the cracks of the rickety fence that we share with the neighbors. Tears leaked from my eyes because I was thinking of those shots we gave her and our growing trepidation that the reason why she seized was because of those shots we had given her one month before, the shots that were supposed to guard her from terrible diseases. We could never be sure. Henry was our next baby, and you must understand that we couldn't give him those shots because we were afraid. Maybe you don't understand, and I understand that. Why would you? A tiny plastic figurine in your cocktail sits perfectly in the sea glass some kind person gathered on the beaches in the Pacific Northwest. I will take Henry to the doctor in less than a month, and we will begin to give him those shots, and I will still be afraid. There's only a small distance from a yellow cup of coffee to that kind of fear, a drowning. You should understand. Fear is flung off with anger only sometimes and usually it's rue that dispels it. What if Henry had a seizure following his shots, my mind said next. Would you write a post on it and call out those who had mocked you and others like you? It's a short distance from The Mermaid in her glass dome to Dante's Inferno, right behind her.
***I've decided to drop the comment feature for this post, because to tell you the truth, I don't want to read them. Thank you for your patience.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
It's hot
When you're squinting even in sunglasses and the temperature's in the triple digits, when the wind is blowing hot and dry and you're feeling angry for no reason, it's time for something to happen. In the south you'd lie down someplace cool or in the shade, sweat beading on your neck. Languor. Out here, in the desert, you bare your skin and feel flayed. You want to make trouble, kick up some dust, strip the steam out of steamy, expose yourself. Even the crows are silent, leaving you to murder.
Monday, May 12, 2014
A Dinner Invitation for Realm of Caring and Access to Cannabis with Updated Links!
OK, folks. You asked, and I'm here to deliver. Each of you has been a part of this very long and crazy journey to find something, anything, to help Sophie's seizures. Many of you have been reading this blog when I began what I then jokingly referred to as my Drug Mule days -- the beginnings of my research and then slow process of obtaining cannabis for Sophie. I know most, if not all, of you held your breath when we were one of the fortunate few families to obtain Charlotte's Web, and all (well, maybe not all because I know there are many dubious neurologists out there!) of you rejoiced when Sophie's seizures began to diminish and then completely stopped for weeks at a time.
Realm of Caring is the non-profit foundation, headed by Ray Mirzabegian and a myriad of volunteers, who have made this all possible -- for Sophie and for the few (very few) others who had the great good fortune to see success with Charlotte's Web. Did you know that there are currently over 800 families on Realm of Caring's waiting list. That's right. 800 families are literally waiting for possible seizure freedom and, in some cases, it's a matter of life or death. Even this past weekend, a young girl whose parents were instrumental in getting the conservative Wisconsin legislature to pass a bill making medical marijuana legal, died in her sleep, and this is happening all over the country.
Here's what you can do. You can click on this link and either buy a ticket to the upcoming fundraiser or make a donation. The purchase of your tickets and any donation are tax-deductible and will help fund a Charlotte's web grow which will provide medicinal oil to 800 children currently on the California waiting list and give them an opportunity to grow, improve and enjoy their lives as well as their families.
Here's the link again:
Here's a link to make a donation of any kind to Realm of Caring.
Do it, please -- any amount. Do it for Sophie and the hundreds of children like her.
And please let me know if you buy a ticket and plan on coming to the event, because we for sure can sit together!
Sunday, May 11, 2014
curious window display on La Brea, near my house
I feel a strange lethargy this preternaturally sunny, dry and windy day. Perhaps it's the two hours I spent lying on Sophie's bed watching Rosemary's Baby, one leg thrown over Sophie to keep her from trying to get off the bed and hurt herself. She is going through the difficult part of the wean process -- withdrawal seizing, agitated and clearly uncomfortable. Perhaps it wasn't such a good choice of movies to watch on Mother's Day, except those clothes! the misogyny! the spectacle of Mia Farrow's infantilism! what we know about Roman Polanski and Woody Allen! the Dakota! Ruth Gordon! Perhaps it's the Sunday blues. Perhaps it's the desire to be somewhere else sometime other -- you know the feeling that belies all the meditation, the Buddhist study, the admonition to be here now. That's it.
There's my very glamorous mother and me, circa 1965. Why were many of our mothers so much more glamorous than us?
Happy Mother's Day to you if you're a mother, if you wish you were a mother, if you're grateful for your mother and if you wish your mother had never been born, and in that case, the Universe is your mother and happy, happy to it, too.
I've had a lovely Mother's Day morning, gifted with a wishing bracelet from Oliver that he tied on my wrist. Evidently, my silent wish will come true when it wears off. I'm already so excited by that wish fulfillment that I can't stand it! Oliver also wrote me the sweetest of letters. Here's what it said:
Dear Mom,
I love to the bottom of my heart or something like that, but that's not the point. The point is you are awesome and I love. I got you this bracelet so wishes can come true. Happy Mother's Day!
P.S. I wouldn't trade a mom like you for anything!
Henry gave me this stunning watercolor of Yosemite that he made himself! He knows that Yosemite is probably my favorite place on earth. Who knew that glamorous boy could also paint?
Sophie came home from school on Friday with a little package that I opened today. It was a gorgeous beaded necklace, and when I exclaimed over it and thanked her, she smiled! I know she liked it, however little or much she contributed to its making. Here, let me go out into the backyard, crouch down in all my glamour and show you what it looks like:
Never mind:
I also made myself bacon, ate four slices with one egg and two slices of toast, one with butter and the other with jam. It was a fine morning that catered both to my capitulation to the commercial aspects of the holiday and general f*^kyouery to the inevitable disappointment in its very unrealistic expectations. That might have been one of the most poorly written sentences in the English language, but you get my drift. I think.
And now, on the sweetest note, here's a photo from last night of Oliver (the best Mother's Day present one could possibly receive, thirteen years ago!) blowing out the candles of his Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with pigs in the trough:
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Teenager, Number Three: Happy Birthday Oliver
The Big O is thirteen years old today, and it'd be impossible to write anything over than cliche to describe what being the mama of the last child, the baby, to turn out of childhood into teenagerdom is like. As you can see, Oliver got a Japanese saw and a huge Simpson's Lego set. We ate donuts this morning, and he is going with two friends, his father, brother and Uncle to the Dodgers game this afternoon. Sophie and I will be staying at home, me to bake a cake for Oliver and Sophie to rest after a sort of harrowing week of being weaned a bit more from Onfi.
I will post photos later. For now, can I tell you how blessed I am to be this boy's mother? How he keeps me on my toes and wows me every single day with his unique charm and intelligence? How the moment I held him to me, thirteen years ago, he's been my dessert, the sweet and perfect finish to the meal.
Happy Birthday, Oliver!
Friday, May 9, 2014
Collective Dissent
A few years ago I wrote about Pasquino the Protester and joked about my probable relation to him. You can click the link and read that post, or, for the purpose of this post, just know that a pasquinata is an anonymous lampoon, usually written in verse that hearkens back to the tradition of Roman dissent. The oppressed can lodge their written complaints against government or religious authorities by posting the accusatory poem at the base of a statue. I joked in that post that if you remove the p and the s, you'd have my last name, and that therefore I must descend from a long line of protesters. That being said, though, when you're in possession of a sharp tongue -- however articulate -- you feel the sting of fear and sometimes shame in provocation.
I've been mulling about a few things of late, inspired by the awesome success we've seen treating Sophie with cannabis oil. I've given a lot of exposure to our experience here, and given the subsequent community that's grown out of it, and my offline work of advocating for children and youth with epilepsy with several national non-profit epilepsy foundations, I have the advantage of maybe, sort of, knowing what the buzz is. And the buzz is beginning to grow, and, I'm afraid, is beginning to grow antagonistic. Not a week goes by that I don't hear from several people, -- emails, telephone calls and the like -- asking my help or advice regarding their own situations with their children and adult children with uncontrolled epilepsy. As a rule, these are people who are struggling with their own neurologists who are resistant to cannabis, ignorant of it and, at worst, downright condescending and scornful of the treatment.
I'm going to be provocative here and suggest that despite the growing publicity, and the turning of the tides in many state legislatures, the Powers That Be, namely the neurology community, is explicitly resisting what looks to be a radical change in epilepsy treatment for the 30% of people who have drug-resistant epilepsy.
Is it ego? Neurologists are, I'd venture to say, among the most egotistical of physicians, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when your own child has been more harmed than helped by their "brilliance," you wonder whether the arrogant are drawn to the profession or the profession makes the arrogant. Arrogance breeds contempt -- contempt for the very real anguish of these families -- and a sort of blindness and stubborn refusal to take responsibility and acknowledge that one's way is simply not working.
Is it that they're scared shit-less that they themselves did not come up with this? This also has to do with ego, I imagine, but it's been my solid experience that with the exception of one visit to our own neurologist, the fact that Sophie SEIZED DAILY FOR NINETEEN YEARS AND THEN STOPPED SEIZING DAILY WHEN SHE BEGAN TO TAKE CANNABIS, and not a single neurologist (and I've know many and I know they know what's happened to Sophie!) has made any effort to contact us and find out what's up is outrageous. I've long suspected that these doctors simply don't care. I'm now almost certain that they actually don't.
A man from New Jersey who contacted me last week told me that despite having a daughter who is 29 YEARS OLD, with severe autism, self-injurious behaviors and seizures, he found no support in a recent visit to her neurologist when they consulted him about cannabis. In fact, the neuro told him that he found much of the talk "anecdotal" and even incorrect. Outrageous. And you'd better believe that Pasquino would tell this person to take his daughter and get thee to a state where it's legal and buy some stuff and try it because you have nothing, nothing to lose.
Is it some grand conspiracy with Big Pharma? Well, don't get me started. There's an industry out there worth billions of dollars, dependent on people's lifelong addiction to whatever meds are prescribed. We're stoning an entire generation of children on drugs to keep them "focused," "less anxious," "less depressed," etc. with little to no long-term evidence of efficacy, so why would I trust the collusion of neurology with pharmaceutical companies? Let's just say that a little green plant that anyone can grow, extract from and make an oil that stops seizures would be of interest only if you could make a case that it's dangerous.
Is it a stubborn resistance to anything that does not conform to the high and almighty tenets of traditional Western medicine? Since medicine is now firmly entwined with not just politics but industry and commerce, I confess to not trusting it at all, to tell you the truth. Call me provocative. Call me nuts.
Another person I spoke with recently told me that her neurologist had reported her to the child welfare office because he disagreed with the way she had decided to treat her child's epilepsy -- namely, to wean her off the drugs and begin a course of medical marijuana. Outrageous.
I maintain that there is a growing resentment toward neurology in the air, and that the ball lies in the neurology court. Most reasonable people -- and let me tell you, most people who care for those with uncontrolled seizures are formidably reasoned and resilient -- agree that testing needs to be done so that our children can have access to a safe product at a decent price. What we resent, I think, is the stubborn refusal to acknowledge what's going on, the systematic throwing up of walls to make it more difficult to obtain cannabis when your child has failed multiple standard treatments, the outright lies told about so-called established, tested, safe, studied drugs and perhaps most importantly, the lack of compassion and real understanding of what we have endured as families with children who seize constantly.
I was asked to speak on a panel about our experiences with medical marijuana at the upcoming Epilepsy Pipeline Conference in San Francisco in early June. I am doing so reluctantly as I imagine there will be a number of people who are not just averse to what I might have to say, but actually not interested in what I have to say. Maybe I'll bring along a statue stuck with numerous pasquinatas and sit it in the inevitable gray folding chair next to mine on that panel. Instead of telling Sophie's story, I'll read others' protests in a stentorian Roman voice, a collective dissent.
In the meantime, here's my pasquinata:
I let you take my baby and twirl her around,
show your students what was wrong.
You called her disaster
I let you take my child and fill her up with poison
Darts that you shot at a board
The closest to the center was first
Riddled, she was called unlucky
When it was your bad shot
and all those darts that ruined her.
I turn away from your protests now,
I don't care what you think
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#$EPIC: usrip.txt,v 1.3 2006/08/29 18:22:56 sthalik Exp $
This command is available on VERY OLD hybrid servers, and possibly other (unknown to me) servers based on very old hybrid versions. It is better to try using the USERIP command first.
-cmd take the output from /usrip as input to other commands
-direct force /usrip to query the server
usrip.txt · Last modified: 2006/08/29 20:18 (external edit) |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21723 | fortress ’round my heart
“[Your eyes so full of wonder]
I have crossed the horizon to find you
[Your heart, an innocent warrior]
I know your name
[There’s a task for you]
They have stolen the heart from inside you
[My dearest one]
But this does not define you
[And your deep thoughts]
This is not who you are.
You know who you are.”
i have no regrets, and my mind rests.
i’ll bite
or write, rather.
losing friends
i was looking back in my e-mail for an old logo, and i found pictures of cole. i had searched for them for months on my phone and computer files when he passed away in 2008, and i couldn’t find them. i beat myself up for so long thinking i had deleted them. i nearly passed out upon seeing them today. i will treasure them as long as i can keep them.
it’s funny how things become like little idols once someone is no longer present. how words become vow. how we squint to keep fuzzy memories. a note, a photo, a present, a movie ticket becomes a treasure. when cole died, when wesley died, when my grandparents died–when i broke up with K & J years ago, i realized the fragility of relationships. the linear nature of time made me grow to expect you and maybe even resent you each day, but the separation of time from your presence made me appreciate and possibly even idolize you.
right before hospice came into their house, meme told me to watch cartoons, because it would keep my heart feeling light when things were dark. i’ll catch myself whistling like my papa or getting a little excited when i see a gray headed man riding a wal-mart cart. it makes me smile to see mcdonald’s stickers for all the times dada wanted to but never got to take me on saturday mornings when i was a kid. when i see boys riding on lawn mowers like the last time i saw cole riding one against the sun a few days before the accident. when i see a scary movie or a brown haired boy picking on a girl as they walk down the neighborhood street, i think of wesley and me.
and when i look out at the water, a little to the right, i see that dock. i’ve only sat on it once. as ridiculous as it truly is, it’s one of the reasons i moved here. it wasn’t that it was you, though you are still the most significant relationship i’ve ever had. it was the hope in that moment that we looked at the stars subsequent to that eloquently-prosed, misspelled letter you gave me. one of the most romantic moments of my life. i was so young at heart, and you were not–and that is why we said goodbye. we were friends for years prior to being a we and an us, and i remember our hesitation to make a romance out of such a great thing. you made me feel beautiful and worthy and secure and understood. it took time that you were willing to take. but i often wonder if i would give back everything that you gave me, all of the hopes and expectations for someone similar to you but one who led in Christ and supported my need to be a dreamer. if i would give it all up and reverse it all just to have the friendship back. just because the chemistry is there, should you pursue it? i can count on one hand the number of romantic relationships i’ve had. one of them was a bad idea. one of them was a not-so-serious rebound, two of them changed me for good though they were hard to lose, and one i’m not certain of the effect/outcome yet.
i don’t want fleeting relationships and friendships. i don’t want bitterness and loss. i don’t make friends or start relationships because i need someone. i’m used to being alone. losing my family, cole and wesley through death were hard things to conquer in my soul. losing friends through arguments and “endings” is so tiringly pointless having experienced such close irreversible loss in life. having lost a few significant relationships and friendships both irreversible and not so irreversible, i’ve found solace in discovering that they’re never really lost. the material things like photos and the sweet little words are precious reminders, but as long as i’m alive–“there is no was,” as i have said before.
the people i have carefully chosen to pursue good relationships/friendships with, i will carry them with me throughout my life with confidence. how they treated me in bright times and how they treated me in dark times will affect me as i walk through my life. it’s never over until i’m over. i allowed you into my life and my heart, and pieces of you will stay–it’s inevitable.
broken hopes and reels of memories are impossible to pack into a suitcase and carry around as baggage, so i learned early in friendship to accept and appreciate the impact of people on my life no matter their coming or going. it made it easier to forgive. it makes it easier to love someone now not making an enemy of my past. it makes it easier to appreciate the past relationships of people in my life, because i know even if they try to hide and avoid it–they have ultimately been affected by their past.
the hardest part about all of it is that i hate that your presence is not present. if i thought enough of you to choose you, then your friendship was ultra-valuable. i want it in my life. though my non-linear concept of time is unconventional, i wish others were spontaneous enough to see the value of it. can we not forget the ending and remember what we appreciated about each other? can a friend forgive a friend for an offense and remember why they bonded to begin with? what good comes of the timebetween after clarity and healing? awkwardness and loss? the unnecessary duo that preceeds pride and stubborness in the issues of people ’round the globe.
when i leave the world, i hope everyone i’ve known well enough will well-enough know that i had the humility to right a wrong with them and the honesty to let them know how i truly cared about them. i can’t force anyone to be my friend, but if i think you’re worth it i will at least try to convince you.
today is the greatest
catch a tiger by the toe
relationships. when i was a teenager, i was so eager to collect and devour all sorts of them. people are fascinating. their motives and how they change based on who/what they focus on. their decisions and the justifications that follow. the values under which a person creates the ideas that drive their life. fascinating.
years later, i still believe this of people, but the motives have become disappointingly predictable. i want to meet people who change my mind.
i wish i could meet more surprising people. people who aren’t afraid of intellect. who are honest and who are eager to make the most of time. i need people like that around me. i’ve made plenty of acquaintances this year and years prior who are content with a shallow life wasted blowing wherever the wind takes them.
i met a friend recently through casey. his name is scott, and he embodies the description i gave of people who truly surprise me. sincere, authentic, intellectual and unafraid. i enjoy his presence, but it also makes me sad.
i wish people like scott weren’t such a surprise. i’ve met so few people like that in my world, and when they enter they ignite something in everyone they know. the rest of the world is capable of ignition, but usually all they ignite is frustration for me.
until this year, i thought that everyone was truly surprising introspectively–so i wasted my time digging around in completely shallow people looking for surprises. and in time, that left me feeling more jaded and shallow and sad i spent time searching for some treasure that never existed.
people aren’t all intellectual. or analytical. most people just make choices because they seem right. or exciting. i always assumed all people were like me. not that i think of myself as the ultimate prototype, but i enjoy the way i muse over life and it’s minutes–however daunting it may sound to people who don’t understand me.
and i’ve wasted a lot of time this year on people who don’t understand me. that’s my fault, and it’s a mistake that won’t be revisited.
the older i get, the more ok i am with having several acquaintances and few friends that really know me. those few friends aren’t perfect, but they are worth everything to me and my processes. i don’t know if it’s normal to come to such a conclusion, but today those people who would like to truly know me have to prove themselves in time and value to me. and those people who aren’t willing or capable of proving it, i still enjoy–but i don’t hold stock in like i used to when i was younger.
this idea has gotten me through my frustration with people who don’t think like i do. because ultimately, i equally frustrate these people, because they don’t view the world as i do either. and i’m finally understanding that, however basic it is. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21748 | Remember in school when the math teacher gave you a problem to solve, and how you felt when your answer matched the one in the back of the textbook? Didn’t it feel great knowing you solved the problem correctly?
Validating the answer to grade school math problems carries the same concept as validating analytical methods. When scientists validate an analytical method, they need to show that it correctly measures the metric they’re testing for. To effectively do so, first they need to identify a product with existing results for the test they’re running as a control. Then, once the results from the test come in, they can verify that their results match the known answer, just like in school when you could check if your answer matched the one in the back of the textbook. Continue Reading
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21753 | Rolling back question
(system) #1
My wife is a little worried about the fact that the Twizy rolls back on an incline even though it’s in D - unlike a conventional automatic.
I suggested that she should apply the handbrake, press the accelerator gently so she can feel it trying to move forward and then release the hand brake.
Any thoughts?
(Lightly) #2
My experience is not to use the handbrake at any junction, it can be a faf to get off sometimes, use both feet, ie hold the car on the brake with the left foot and accelerate off with the right.
(osbrook) #3
Exactly. That is what we do. Left foot on brake. I still use the right foot to slow down and if needs be swap feet over on the brake pedal. Handbrake is for anti thrift, to stop fools pushing the car around the car park.:smiley:
I never personally find this to be much of a problem. I find using two feet awkward. I just use my right foot on the brake, and then quickly swap to the throttle to pull away. The Twizy doesn’t have much of a chance to roll backwards.
But then again maybe we don’t have many steep hills daan saaf
(ecofunkytravel) #5
There is, as you know, an electric inter-lock between the foot brake and the ratchet button on the handbrake. On ours, we find that if you put your foot firmly on the brake until you hear the “click” of the interlock, then push in the handbrake ratchet button, you can continue to hold it in and pull on the handbrake while you take your foot off the brake and apply it to the accelerator. As long as you keep the ratchet button pushed, the handbrake will hold the Twizy until the engine can take the weight and you will then be able to push the handbrake lever forward for a conventional hill start. This is actually how normal handbrakes work, the only faff being that the foot-brake switch on the Twizy means you can’t even push in the ratchet button unless and until you have applied your foot firmly to the foot-brake. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21756 | File option not working with guest accounts
The latest news and information on how to apply our PES Universe Option File for PES 2018 on PS4
Post Reply
Mohamed Hamed
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2018 4:29 pm
Sat Aug 04, 2018 4:33 pm
dear support team
i had a problem with option file always, as its working only if play individual
but when i play with my friends we all MUST sign in our accounts to make file working , but if my friends signed in my PS as guest accounts it is not working at all
so is there any option to make it work with guest accounts >>
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global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21781 | Tuesday, 6 October 2015
A Night Moment in Boarding
When the Guitarist started to strum the guitar...
while singers are looking for a song to sing, ....
And can't find the lyrics, they all just started to laugh and ....
laughed especially when they find out that the lyrics of the song they sang is incorrect!!!.
And started all over again :)
Birthday Celebration
Lovely Smile of the Birthday Celebrant :)
Birthday Celebrant!
Happy Pizza!!!
Celebrates Birthday
Fully Bless :)
Make a wish :)
A never ending celebration of happiness!!!
Lovely Smiles :)
Ice Cream Treats...Mustache??? |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21783 | About the Artist
I have been creating sculpture for over 25 years after studying with Peter Abate for 5 years at the De Cordova Museum School. This kind of sculpture is analogous to the mathematical modeling I have been doing at MIT as a professor. Both entail creating insight and structuring new relationships.
This work can be scaled up or down and unique commissions are accepted.
Glen Urban |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21788 | Goldwing Tom dot com
Fuel Filter Fun
Placeholder Picture
Kathy and Richard lived in many different places while Richard was in the military. Of course, that meant their children also moved around a lot.
Richard got stationed in North Carolina the year Tony turned eighteen. He decided to stay here in Washington rather than relocate back east with his family. Kathy and Richard gave him their 1987 Chevy Celebrity to help him with his independence, and he took a job in the family business to earn his own way.
Adjusting to independence is not easy, but Tony was doing quite well with it. He resisted the temptations to modify his thousand dollar car with a top of the line stereo and low profile tires, opting instead to heed my advice to save that money for the inevitable maintenance and repairs his car would need. Neither Tony nor I have the mechanical skills of Richard, who would perform those maintenance needs and repairs in his garage. Even with Kathy knowing this, she asked me to assist Tony whenever possible, and told Tony that he could rely upon me for help and advice.
The Friday before Thanksgiving, probably in 1995, Tony came to me and said his car was running sluggish and seemed to lack power. His friend’s father told him it sounded like the fuel filter needed replacing, and he wanted to know if I agreed with that diagnosis. I told him that not only can a fuel filter cause that, but they are one of those maintenance items that occasionally need replacing.
Then he made a huge mistake.
"I haven’t heard of one before," he said. "Is there anything I need to know about them when I buy one?"
"Of course there is," I told him. "The auto parts store will try to sell you the ones with platinum bearings for about $100. You don’t want that one, and you also don’t want the one with brass bearings. Just make sure you tell the counter person you want either the one with chrome bearings or the stock fuel filter."
I then directed him to take some time from work and go to Lincoln Auto Parts to get the replacement filter.
As soon as he was out the door, I called Lincoln Auto Parts to let them know my nephew was on his way down to get a fuel filter. I told them I would deliver a six pack of beer if they will try to sell him the one with the platinum bearings for about $100 before selling him the stock filter. The guy I spoke with agreed.
I could hardly wait for Tony to return with his story about demanding the less costly filter. Apparently, the guy did not hear the part about eventually selling him the stock fuel filter.
"All they had was the platinum bearing filters there," he told me.
"They didn’t sell you a filter," I asked?
"No," he said. "I will go to Al’s Auto Parts after work, but will you write down what I need to ask them so I don’t forget?"
Well, what kind of uncle would I be if I didn’t write it down for him?
There was no way I could wait until Monday to hear his story, so I checked in with him later that night.
"Uncle Tom, I felt like a fool," he told me. "I was reading it to the parts guy, and everyone who could hear me was laughing at me. He told me he had the stock filter, so I bought it and got out of there."
His friend’s dad helped him install it, and, indeed, it had been the issue. That is not the end of the story, however.
Much of the family gathered at Mom’s house on Thanksgiving. Most of us were in the living room catching up on what we all had been doing since the last time we had gotten together.
Tony offered up the story about how embarrassed he was reading the note I had written at the auto parts store the previous Friday evening, and how everyone who heard him had laughed at him for not knowing off the top of his head these things about fuel filters.
"You haven’t figure it out yet, have you Tony," I asked?
"Figured out what," he queried?
"They weren’t laughing at you for reading what you should have known," I told him. "They were laughing because fuel filters don’t have bearings."
"What?! You mean you tricked me into reading that to them," he asked?
"Actually, I tricked you when I sent you to Lincoln Auto Parts," I explained. "I was only doing what you asked when I wrote it down for you."
He asked, "Why did you pull that on me? Why didn’t you pull it on Jay R.?"
I told him frankly, "Jay R. isn’t dumb enough to fall for that."
Kathy called later that day. By then, he had resolved it to be a good joke, and they laughed when he told her about it.
A few months later, he told me that his engine was making a clicking sound and that his mom had suggested he go to the auto parts store and get a product called Engine Honey. I told him that is one brand of oil treatment, but there are others.
"I am never doing what you two suggest again," he exclaimed, and he drove that 1987 Celebrity with that slight tick for a few more years believing there is no such thing as oil treatment - and certainly not one called Engine Honey!
Some other things I've written about: |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21814 | Integrated Installation of Web API Server
EXALEAD® OnePart users can install and configure the Web API server during installation of the SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional server.
Previously, you had to install the Web API server components separately.
EXALEAD OnePart uses Web APIs to access SOLIDWORKS PDM data. With the integrated installation, you can:
• Install the Web API server
• Configure Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)
• Add and configure vaults
You can install the Web API server on the same computer with other SOLIDWORKS PDM server components or separately on another computer. |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21825 | Hispanic Health
This page has three sections: "Useful Websites," "Hispanic Health Problems, Inter-related Cultural Issues," and "Cosmology, Space, Time." The latter was written for "La Charla" a language-and-culture course designed by Alan Archibald for students of "The Allied Health Professions" at UNC - Chapel Hill.
Useful Websites:
Center for Disease Control --- Bilingual, Spanish/English site
The CDC's Spanish language site is very well designed and offers a tremendous amount of useful information. In addition to being an excellent source of Spanish language medical information, use of the site also facilitates Spanish language learning.
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health --- Bilingual Spanish/English site: http://www.cdc.gov/spanish/niosh/
Cross Cultural Resources (UCSF) - http://medicine.ucsf.edu/resources/guidelines/culture.html
More Cross Cultural Resources (Merced, California) - http://www.gvhc.org/cultural/Resources%20&%20Links.htm
"Tools For Conviviality," Ivan Illich (Illich's most pertinent book is "Medical Nemesis." Lacking an on-line version of that text, I'm including "Tools for Conviviality," Illich's investigation of those characteristics that constitute life-enhancing technologies.)
Spanish Language Medical Sites:
Información médica de NOAHhttp://www.noah-health.org/es/about/index.php
Web de información médicahttp://www.infodoctor.org/rafabravo/
Web de información médicahttp://www.fonendo.com/noticias/18/2001/12/1.shtml
Servicios Internacionales (Sitio Metodista)http://www.methodisthealth.com/cgi-bin/hmdim/home/showIntlHomepage.do?action=SP
MedSpain - Comprehensive Spanish language medical site: http://www.medspain.com
Portal de Salud de Cuba - "FitoMed "(plantas medicinales y más): http://www.sld.cu/fitomed/
Información sobre los medicamentos: http://www.infomedicamento.net/
Latin American Resources:
Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC): http://lanic.utexas.edu/
Great site for Latin American journalism access: Periodista Digital (Vastos recursos periodísticos): http://www.periodistadigital.com/
Online Spanish (and world) Newspapers - http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/
Exploration of Spanish language and latin culture - http://www.unm.edu/~engdept/spanresrc.htm
Terra --- Spanish language search engine: http://www.terra.es/
Hispanic Health Problems
Inter-related Cultural Issues
(The following information describes in schematic form the cross-cultural environment in which English-speaking service providers operate.)
What are the major health issues facing Latina women in the U.S.?
· Health care access. There are more uninsured Latina women than any other race/ethnic group (30%) even though many of them are employed or live with someone who is employed. Only 26% have private health insurance, 27% receive Medicaid coverage, and 7% are covered by Medicare. Difficulties with language, transportation, child care, immigration status, or cultural differences act as further barriers to health care services.
· Diabetes, including gestational diabetes, is two to three times more common in Mexican-American, Cuban American, and Puerto Rican adults than in non-Hispanic whites.
· Obesity is 1.5 times more common in Mexican American women than in the general, female population-reaching 52%.
· HIV/AIDS. The rate of HIV infection is seven times higher in Latina women than in white women, highlighting the need for greater prevention and treatment in this community.
· Prenatal care. Many Latina women do not get timely prenatal care (in the first three months of pregnancy). The rates are 89% (Cuban American), 74% (Puerto Rican), 73% (Central and South American), and 69% (Mexican American). Yet Latina women have infant mortality rates comparable to those of white women (7%) and far lower than those of African American women (17%) and Native American women (13%).
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Hispanic adults in the United States and Puerto Rico are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as non-Hispanic white adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Hispanic individuals in Puerto Rico and the West and Southwest are at greater risk than those in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast, and diabetes is more common in those with less than a high school education than those with higher levels of education.
Overall, about 6% of Hispanics have been diagnosed with diabetes, but "possibly another 6 percent have diabetes but have not been diagnosed," according to the report.
Diabetes incidence increases with age. In the Hispanic population, it occurs in 2.3% of those aged 18 to 44 years, 12% of the 45 to 64 age group, and 21.4% of those aged 65 years and older. Type 2 diabetes mellitus, or "adult-onset" diabetes, increases the risk of blindness, heart attack, and stroke. Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
"There are many things people with diabetes can do to prevent these serious complications and improve their quality of life," said the author of the report, Nilka Rios Burrows, in a statement issued by the CDC. "We must ensure that Hispanics know they are at higher risk for diabetes and how they can manage the disease if they are diagnosed."
The 1999 fiscal budget recently approved by Congress contains provision for $65 million in funds to "combat these disparities; including $5 million for a community-based, culturally relevant diabetes education and prevention program conducted by the CDC," according to a statement issued by the federal agency.
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report January 16, 1999.
Communication between Providers and Clients
Verbal and nonverbal communications from Hispanics usually are characterized by respeto (respect) and communications to Hispanics should also be respectful. There is an element of formality in Hispanic interactions, especially when older persons are involved. Over-familiarity, physical (touch by strangers) or verbal (casual use of first names), is not appreciated early in relationships (de Paula, Lagana, & Gonzalez-Ramirez, 1996). It is uncommon for Hispanics to be aggressive or assertive in health care interactions. Direct eye contact is less among Hispanics that among Anglos. Direct disagreement with a provider uncommon; the usual response to a decision with which the patient or family disagrees is silence and noncompliance. A brusque health care provider may (1) not learn of significant complaints or problems and (2) find the patient unlikely to return. Despite a lack of public complaint, Hispanics tend to have an acute sense of justice and often perceive failures in communication to be due to prejudice.
Communications and the relationship between patient and health care provider are key to providing quality care. Trust and interpersonal comfort is a critical component of the relationship between the person who is ill and the healer. In large part, it is this relational aspect of care that places folk healers in a place of importance among Hispanics living in the U.S. (Zapata & Shippee-Rice, 1999). Note that quality care as seen here is not just correct diagnosis and treatment, but also the way in which the treatment is provided.
The use of interpreters is often necessary, and ideally these should be of the same gender. Family members or friends are sometimes pressed into service as translators, but this may result in problems (personal, sexual, etc.) not brought up. The use of family or friends to interpret also presents difficulty in communicating and assessing the accuracy of vital communications such as medication regimes, side effects the patient must understand, and informed consents. Using children to translate puts the parent and child in a difficult reversed power and authority position, hence using a child to translate for a parent should be a last resort. In general, it is best to have Spanish-speaking staff or volunteers to translate. When there are staff whose primary function is translating, care should be taken that the position does not become an opportunity to wield power or make an additional profit from non-English speaking persons.
Communications about family planning are especially sensitive. Most Hispanics are Catholic, but increasing numbers of Latinas are using contraception without informing their husbands. Depo-provera seems to be the contraceptive of choice.
Implications: It is vital to have Spanish-speaking staff. In most cases it is best to use staff to interpret; and in nearly all cases it is best to avoid using children to interpret. Interactions with patients and families should be formal and concurrently warm, at least early in the relationship. Formality may decrease over time, and warmth increase. Use formal terms of address; a firm, slightly longer handshake than is customary among Anglos; and avoid prolonged eye contact. While written instructions (on medications, treatments, etc.) are important, personal instruction that is directive, active, and visual is most effective. Do not rely on brochures! Close personal space and brief, non-intimate touch makes compliance a personal favor. Emphasize present time orientation with short-term goals. Most patients ask few questions. To assess learning, ask questions; use directive active, visual instructions; self-disclosure is appropriate. Emphasize present time orientation with short-term goals. Family planning discussions should be completely private (Lieberman, Stoller, & Burg, 1997).
Social Relations
Familism, the valuing of family considerations over individual or community needs, is a strong, almost universal value in the Hispanic community (Juarez, Ferrell, & Borneman, 1998; Lieberman et al, 1997). The nuclear family is the most basic and common social unit, but many extended families also present. It is common for several family units to live in close proximity to one another and there is usually a strong reliance on family in day to day functions and crises.
The father or oldest male (direct relative) holds the greatest power in most families and may make health decisions for others in the family. Men are expected to provide for and be in charge of their families. Though increasing numbers of women work outside the home, homemaking is the expected role. At least publicly, women are expected to manifest respect and even submission to their husbands. Privately, some women will hold a greater degree of power. However, in too many marriages, the threat of physical violence is real and under-reported (de Paula et al, 1996). Two specific gender roles should be noted here:
· Machismo or macho is stereotypically viewed as a kind of foolish male pride in which men are depicted almost as buffoons driven to folly by male hormones. To the contrary, machismo is a defined sense of honor that is vital to the Hispanic sense of self, self-esteem, and manhood.
· Women are idealized in some respects and oppressed in others. Family violence is not uncommon. The woman is expected to be the primary force holding the family and home together through work and cultural wisdom, the primary caregiver, and responsible for most parenting. The Virgin of Guadelupe is a powerful symbol (dark-skinned Mother of Christ) and model for Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
Upward mobility, education, and other societal forces are changing the above; yet in isolated communities and among new immigrants, little has changed. Gender roles are important to the sense of culture and al least in public, are likely to be followed. Also see childbirth and related below.
Implications: Many patients seeking medical care will have already sought help from family resources (also see Lay Healers below). Family involvement in health care is common and health care providers are strongly advised to encourage such involvement and to include the family as a resource and focus of care in health planning, whether for individuals or a community. Showing respeto to all adults is important. Health providers should understand and comply with patient and family gender roles.
Health Beliefs and Practices
Physical or mental illness may be attributed to an imbalance between the person and environment. Influences include emotional, spiritual, and social state, as well as physical factors such as humoral imbalance expressed as too much "hot" or "cold" (de Paula et al, 1996; Spector, 1996). It is important to understand that belief in the concept of balance does not in any way obviate a concurrent belief in biomedical theories or practices (Zapata & Shippee-Rice, 1999). Hispanics who follow these beliefs may not express them to health professionals.
"Hot" and "cold" are intrinsic properties of various substances and conditions, and there are sometimes differences of opinion about what is "hot," what is "cold." In general, cold diseases/conditions are characterized by vasoconstriction and low metabolic rate. "Cold" diseases/conditions include menstrual cramps, frio de la matriz, coryza (rhinitis), pneumonia, empacho, and colic. "Hot" diseases/conditions are characterized by vasodilation and high metabolic rate. Pregnancy, hypertension, diabetes, acid indigestion, susto, ojo, and bilis are examples of hot conditions (Neff, 1998).
Folk illnesses are health problems associated with members of a particular group and for which their culture provides etiology, diagnosis, prevention, and regimen of healing; and which also have psychological and/or religious overtones (Neff, 1998). Folk or ethnomedical illnesses or conditions one might encounter in a Hispanic patient (de Paula et al, 1996; Lieberman et al, 1997; Neff, 1998; Spector, 1996) include:
· Antojos are cravings in a pregant woman. Failure to satisfy the cravings may lead to injury to the baby, including genetic defects.
· Barrevillos are obsessions.
· Bilis is thought to be bile flowing into the blood stream after a traumatic event, with the end result of nervousness.
· Caida de la mollera is the presence of a sunken fontanelle in an infant.
· Decaimientos is fatigue and listlessness from a spiritual cause.
· Empacho is intestinal obstruction and is characterized by abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation, anorexia, or gas and bloating. Post-partum women and infants and children are most susceptible.
· Mal de Ojo is the "Evil Eye" may affect infants or women. It is caused by a person with a strong eye (especially green or blue) looking with admiration or jealousy at another person. Mal de Ojo is avoided by touching an infant when admiring or complimenting it.
· Nerviosimo is "sickness of the nerves" and is common and may be treated spiritually and/or medicinally.
· Pasmo is paralysis or paresis of extremities or face and is treated with massage.
· Susto is fright resulting in "soul loss." Susto may be acute or chronic and includes a variety of vague complaints. Women are are affected more than men.
"Cold" conditions are treated with "hot" medications and "hot" with "cold" medications, thus bringing the individual back into balance. Problems that are primarily spiritual in nature are treated with prayer and ritual. However, few Hispanics who use folk means of treating illness are troubled by simultaneously using cosmopolitan treatments such as antibiotics, antihypertensives, and so on.
A common hierarchy of seeking relief from lay healers begins with home remedies or seeking assistance from relatives or neighbors (especially female). A common home remedy is a tea made from various herbs, spices, or fruits; and prepared in a specific and prescribed manner (Zapata & Shippee-Rice, 1999). If the home remedy or consultation with a senora/abuela does not bring relief, and depending on the problem, help may be sought from a yerbero (herbalist), sobador (massage therapist), or partera (midwife who may also treat young children). In most cases, it is only after these are not helpful that help is sought from a cuarandero total (lay healer who intervenes in multiple dimensions, e.g., physical and spiritual) (Neff, 1998). Cuaranderos are not used or are not reported as used as much in the U.S. as in countries of origin (Neff, 1998; Zapata & Shippee-Rice, 1999). Cuarandero use may be diminished because of increased access to care or the more cosmopolitan nature of those living in the U.S.; or under-reported because of fear of misunderstanding or prosecution (of the cuarandero).
At any point in this process, help may also be sought from cosmopolitan sources such as a clinic or physician. A naturalist doctor or doctor naturalista may also be utilized. The doctor naturalista prescribes "natural" remedies, but does not usually provide the spiritual component of care the patient would expect from a cuarandero.
Note also that medications, including prescription, are shared within social networks. There are instances in which a sick person may simultaneously be using prayer, folk and/or herbal medicine, prescription medications obtained from a friend, and prescription medications prescribed by a nurse practitioner or physician. Regardless of the source of care, the patient (and family) are likely to include faith in God as a vital component of understanding of the problem and the cure (Zapata & Shippee-Rice, 1999).
In the excellent article, Folk Medicine in Hispanics in the Southwestern United States, Neff (1998) presents the below information:
Folk Remedies Everyone Should Know (+ indicates yes, with + being least and +++ being most; - indicates no, with - being least and - - - most, i.e., - - - in the safety column indicates the treatment is dangerous)
Spanish Name English Name Uses Efficacy Safety
Ajo Garlic Hypertension, antibiotic, cough syrup,tripaida + + + +
Azarcón/Greta Lead/mercury oxides Empacho, teething - - - - -
Damiana Damiana Aphrodisiac, frio en la matriz, chickenpox 0 +
Estafiate Wormwood Worms, colic, diarrhea, cramps, bilis, empacho + purgative - -
Eucalipto Eucalyptus (Vicks VapoRub) Coryza, asthma, bronchitis, tuberculosis + respiratory ?? Gobernadora Chaparral -- Arthritis (poultice); tea for cancer, venereal disease, tuberculosis, cramps, pasmo, analgesic
+ as a poultice 0 as a tea Gordolobo Mullein Cough suppressant, asthma, coryza, tuberculosis + + + + (if right species)
Manzanilla Chamomile Nausea, flatus, colic, anxiety; eyewash + + + + (if no allergy)
Orégano Oregano Coryza, expectorant, menstrual difficulties, worms ? + +
Pasionara Passion Flower Anxiety, hypertension + + + sedative + + (if right species)
Rodigiosa Bricklebush Adult onset diabetes, gallbladder disease ? ? ? ? ? ?
Ruda Rue Antispasmodic, abortifacient, empacho, insect repellent ? ?
Saliva Sage Prevent hair loss, coryza, diabetes + - - (chronic use)
Tilia Linden Flowers Sedative, hypertension, diaphoretic + sedative - - (chronic use)
Tronadora Trumpet Flowers Adult onset diabetes, gastric symptoms, chickenpox ? ? ? ? ? ?
Yerba buena Peppermint Dyspepsia, flatus, colic, susto + + + +
Zábila Aloe Vera External - cuts, burnsInternal - purgative, immune stimulant External + + + Internal + Safety: External + + Internal - - -
Zapote blanco Sapodilla Insomnia, hypertension, malaria ? ? ? ? ? ?
Diet: The diet of Hispanics in the U. S. is variable, but certain traditional Mexican foods are common. These include rice and beans, usually prepared with lard. In many homes, tortillas are eaten at most meals, and these too usually include lard as an ingredient. Although some references (e.g., de Paula et al, p. 208) report that Mexican-Americans consume "traditionally, fresh natural ingredients," our observation in inner-city barrios in Texas is occasional fresh foods are consumed, but processed foods are more common.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing: As noted earlier, increasing numbers of Latinas are practicing family planning. Pregnancy is viewed as natural, and despite a tendency to seek prenatal care late in pregnancy or in some cases, not seeking care until delivery, birth outcome statistics for this population are good (de Paula et al, 1996). The extended family and community exert a strong influence on health practices related to pregnancy and childbirth. Women who work outside the home usually continue to do so only if absolutely necessary. When going to clinic for prenatal care it is relatively common for women to be accompanied by their husbands; and more common for them to be accompanied by a sister, mother, or other female relative. Female relatives tend to play a significantly supportive role throughout pregnancy and into the post natal period or la cuarentena.
Some Latinas moan during delivery and there is no effort to be silent. Breastfeeding is more common among new immigrants, but our observation is that breastfeeding is increasingly popular among those who have lived in the U.S. for extended periods of time or second or third generation Latinas.
Child-rearing is primarily the woman's responsibility in most families. Both female and male children are encouraged to be stoic from an early age. (There is little crying or fear shown in immunization clinics in Hispanic communities.) Paradoxically, many Hispanic homes are warm and protective toward the children. Familism is a thread throughout Hispanic life, including in child-rearing. Older children often have significant responsibility for younger siblings or relatives, and from all outward appearances, do not find this burdensome. Among Hispanics, children seem generally to be enjoyed and even treasured across generations.
Dying and Death Practices: The family (except for pregnant women) is often significantly involved in caring for a family member who is dying. Women tend to do most of the actual care, while men seem to stay in another room or outside but still, are always there. In addition, many parishes have an active auxiliary, and members may be involved in caring for the person who is dying or supporting the family in the care. Autopsies and organ donations are usually resisted, especially by Catholics, but also by others. Public expression of grief is expected under some circumstances, especially among women (de Paula et al, 1996), but stoicism is also valued.
Disease prevention and health promotion: Traditionally, neither prevention nor promotion are valued; and this contributes to higher prevalence of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as waiting to seek care until illness has progressed (Neff, 1998). However, in recent years there seems to be increasing acceptance of these concepts. For example, it is increasingly common for new immigrants or visitors from Mexico to come to a community clinic reporting diagnosis and treatment for these disorders in Mexico. Still, the presence of chronic illness and risk factors such as obesity coupled with the overarching problem of difficulty accessing services, result in preventable morbidity and mortality (DHHS, 1998; Neff, 1998).
Implications: Some Hispanics have unique traditional health beliefs and practices and these are practiced to varying degrees. Having an understanding of these is helpful in assessing and understanding Hispanic patients and communities. Some traditional practices are helpful and some are harmful. Many persons who follow these practices are reluctant to share their beliefs with nurses or physicians, hence building trust and resisting judgment is essential to practice in these communities. Disease prevention (and detection) and health promotion need to encouraged and promoted in Hispanic communities. Assessment of health beliefs and practices is facilitated by use of a brief tool such as that developed by Tripp-Reimer, Brink, & Saunders (1984):
Brief Assessment of Patient/Family Perceptions of Health Problems
· What do you think caused your problem?
· Do you have an explanation for why it started when it did?
· What does your sickness do to you; how does it work?
· How severe is your sickness? How long do you expect it to last?
· What problems has your sickness caused you?
· What do you fear about your sickness?
· What kind of treatment do you think you should receive?
· What are the most important results you hope to receive from this treatment?
Immigrant communities may be at risk for the following problems, some of which are not yet documented.
· Malaria
Cysticercosis (masquerades as migtraine. Can be istinguished by brain scan or observing pressure on retina.)
· Intestinal parasites (helminthic, amebiasis, giardiasis)
· Hepatitis B
· Low immunization rate (risk for measles, mumps, rubella, diptheria, pertussis, tetanus)
· Chagas disease (trypanosomiasis) May present with cardiomegaly.
· Filariasis, leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, cysticercosis (which easily masquerades as intractable migraine headache), schistosomiasis, echinococcosis
· Typhoid fever
· STDs, including HIV
· Dengue
Recommended Laboratory and Other Tests for Immigrants from Latin America
· Nutritional assessment
· PPD (Note that having had a BCG vaccination [1] may confound the Mantoux/PPD by causing variable results and [2] does not contraindicate PPD as is sometimes thought [Uphold & Graham, 1998].)
· hematocrit
Latin American Rural Practices
Curanderismo is a folk system used in Latin America and among many Hispanic-Americans in the United States. Hispanic-American refers to Americans of Spanish or Spanish-American descent; in the United States most trace their roots to Mexico (63 percent), Puerto Rico (12 percent), and Cuba, but increasing numbers of immigrants are arriving from Central America (Wright, 1990). The population of Hispanics is rapidly growing in the United States, and today about 25 million people call themselves Hispanic. More than half of this population lives in Texas and California: large populations are also in North Caroina, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York.
Curanderismo typically includes two distinct components, a humoral model for classifying activity, food, drugs, and illness; and a series of folk illnesses such as "evil eye," "fright," "blockage," and "fallen fontanelle." Curanderismo as described herein is most characteristic of Mexican-Americans, especially those who are little assimilated; variants on the humoral component typify most of Latin America, while the folk diseases and the treatment modalities reflect national background. Thus the Cuban-American folk system is not curanderismo, but santeria, and it is African influenced.
Although no formal effectiveness studies seem to have been done on this system, its wide popularity and the research suggesting the relevance of the folk diagnoses for biomedical practice indicate the need for further demographic and effectiveness studies.
In the humoral component of curanderismo things could be classified as having qualitative (not literal) characteristics of hot or cold, dry or moist. (Harwood, 1971; Messer, 1981; Weller, 1983). According to this theory, good health is maintained by maintaining a balance of hot and cold. Thus, a good meal will contain both hot and cold foods, and a person with a hot disease must be given cold remedies and vice versa. Again, a person who is exposed to cold when excessively hot may "take cold" and become ill.
While this model is simple in theory, how people perceive in practice the hotness or coldness of substances varies greatly by region. Thus, while most can be expected to classify chili peppers as "hot" and milk as "cold," the classification of pork or penicillin is not so predictable.
The second component, the folk illnesses, is actively in use in much of Mexico and among less educated Hispanic U.S. citizens (Rubel, 1960, 1964; Rubel et al., 1984; Young, 1981). Trotter (1985) did more than 2,000 clinic interviews in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico and found that 32 percent to 96 percent of Mexican-American households (more frequent in the less Americanized communities) treated members for Hispanic folk illnesses. Baer and colleagues found similarly high use patterns among Mexican migrant workers in Florida and Mexico (Baer and Penzell, 1993; Baer and Bustillo, 1993).
Four important Mexican-American folk illnesses are mal de ojo, susto, empacho, and caida de mollera.
Mal de ojo, or evil eye, is a worldwide disease concept in which a person can make another sick by looking at him or her. The one who gets sick, typically an infant, is usually "weak." The one who causes the illness is usually thought not to do it on purpose--the person just has the misfortune to have a "piercing" glance. Typical symptoms of mal de ojo include fussiness, refusal to eat, and refusal to sleep. Infants are protected from evil eye with amulets or by having their faces covered in the presence of strangers. Treatment is primarily symbolic.
Caida de mollera, or fallen fontanelle, is an illness of infants before the anterior fontanelle (crown of the head) closes. Common symptoms include diarrhea, excessive crying, fever, loss of appetite, and irritability. Usual folk treatments focus on raising the fontanelle by, for example, pushing up on the palate.
Empacho is thought to be caused by something getting stuck in the intestines, causing blockage. Common symptoms are diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, vomiting, and bloating. The commonest treatment is massage along with herbal teas; the former is for dislodging the blockage, and the latter is for washing it out.
Susto, or fright (sometimes called magical fright), develops when a person has had a sudden shock--a mother may develop fright if she sees her child nearly drown, or someone may experience fright after participating in an unusually intense argument. The sick person experiences such symptoms as daytime sleepiness combined with nighttime insomnia, irritability and easy startling, palpitations, inability to stop thinking about the shocking event, anxiety that it will be repeated, and sometimes a sense of loss or a sadness that will not leave. The mild form is treated with herb tea; more severe cases are treated with ritual cleansings (barridas) to restore the harmony of body and soul.
When mild, these folk illnesses are commonly treated at home, but if they persist, the help of specialists--curanderos (men) or curanderas (women)--is sought. The training of curanderos and curanderas varies widely. Most practice a combination of shamanic healing and herbal or practical first aid healing. Most are also astute at manipulating symbols and "reading" the prevailing psychological and social indicators. Some curanderas specialize in midwifery and infant care. In some areas, becoming a healer is a matter of inheritance; the skills are passed from mother to daughter or perhaps aunt to niece. In some areas it is a matter of being called. Typically, curanderos and curanderas spend several years in apprenticeship; their subsequent reputation depends on the number of their patients and how successful their patients judge them.
Treatment techniques, usually a combination of the shamanic and the naturalistic, vary widely; interested readers should consult specialist texts. An issue of concern is that some curanderismo treatments, particularly for empacho, involve feeding lead-or mercury-based remedies. Investigators' efforts to test whether the amounts ingested were causing medical complications were inconclusive. Although curanderas were found to be largely aware of the danger of the remedies and used them sparingly, intervention programs to limit use of these remedies were begun (Baer et al., 1989; Trotter, 1985).
Trotter (1985) collected symptomatology lists from more than 2,000 interviews and submitted symptom clusters to medical doctors for "blind" diagnoses. He found, for example, that caida de mollera appears to be symptomatic of serious dehydration secondary to gastroenteritis or respiratory infection. Trotter also found that people who are sicker than average are more likely to be diagnosed with susto. Baer and Penzell (1993) similarly report that migrant workers most affected in a pesticide poisoning incident were also those most likely to report suffering from susto. Susto fits the pattern of "soul loss" (Ingerman, 1991), a shamanically recognized disorder known worldwide that resembles several serious psychotherapeutically recognized conditions, including depression and posttraumatic stress syndrome. Therefore, people being treated for folk diseases could be considered to have conventional illnesses that are being treated outside the conventional biomedical health care system.
Folk medicine is still popular among large groups of Mexican-Americans in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, California, and especially in West Texas. Their healing system, based on pre-Columbian indigenous lore,reflects a degree of isolation and unwillingness to assimilate Anglo-Saxon culture. Moreover, the inability of scientific medicine to offer relief for various categories of folk illness further enhances the usefulness of these practices. Five types of folk illness are most prominent:mal de ojo (evil eye), empacho (gastro-intestinal blockage due to excessive food intake), susto (magically induced fright), caida de la mollera (fallen fontanel, or opening in or between bones), and mal puesto (sorcery). Prominent among Mexican-American folk healers is the curandero, a type of shaman who uses white magic and herbs to effect cures. In the cosmic struggle between good and evil, the curandero, using God-given powers, wards against harmful spells and hexes. As in other folk systems, faith in the curandero's abilities is the essence of the healer's continued success.
Hot-Cold Theory
The hot-cold theory of disease ranks among the most popular systems of contemporary folk medicine in the United States. In health, the human body displays a balanced blending of hot and cold qualities. Sickness will ensue if an excess of hot or cold foodstuffs is ingested. The basic scheme was introduced into Latin America by the Spanish during the 16th century. Reinforced by native cultural values, it became firmly embedded in popular Latin healing traditions. The hot-cold scheme is applied to foods, diseases, and remedies. The terms hot and cold do not necessarily refer to the temperature of foods or remedies. Qualities are assigned on the basis of origin, color, nutritional value, physiological effects of the food or remedy, as well as therapeutical action. Among New York Puerto Ricans, for example, bananas, coconuts, and sugar cane are considered cold, whereas chocolate, garlic,alcoholic beverages, and corn meal are hot. Cold-classified illnesses such are arthritis, colds, and gastric complaints must be treated with hot foods and remedies. Their hot counterparts --constipation, diarrhea, and intestinal cramps--require treatment with cold substances.
Concept of Disease
Intrinsic to an understanding of why people choose folk medicine is an understanding of how the ordinary person defines disease. The term "disease" generally signifies any organic illness. All cultures have systems for classifying diseases on the basis of etiology, signs/symptoms and treatments. Many cultures-modern and ancient, have felt that when one's system is out of balance, one will become ill. Physicians have often seen patients who, when they feel well, believe they are well, leading to a denial of or delay in diagnosis and treatment of early stages of diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and tuberculosis. The concept of disease prevention is completely alien in this belief context.
Origins of Hispanic Folk Medicine
People tend to look for reasons why they become ill. From the ancient Greeks came the concept that disease occurs when there is an imbalance of the four humors, or, what has survived into Hispanic folk medicine today, that disease is caused by an imbalance between hot and cold principles. For health maintenance, avoidance of exposure to extreme temperatures is important. Vasoconstriction and a low metabolic rate signify one has a "cold" disease while "hot" conditions are characterized by vasodilation and a high metabolic rate. Examples of "hot" diseases or states are pregnancy, hypertension, diabetes, acid indigestion, susto, ojo and bìlis. Some "cold" disease examples are menstrual cramps, frio de la matriz, coryza, pneumonia, empacho, and colic. Most people do not think about hot and cold principles unless they have been stressed by illness or are in another vulnerable state. The goal of treatment is to restore harmony and balance. Thus, "hot" diseases are treated with "cold" remedies, and "cold" diseases are treated with "hot" remedies.
The Meso-American Indians had a very sophisticated system of health, disease, and treatment. They established the first medical schools in Mexico fifty years before Jamestown was settled, and used a pharmacopeia of over 5,000 well studied and efficacious Indian herbal medications that have been categorized in the Badiano Codix (1552). In that native system of medicine, a strong connection between religion and health existed.
Utilization of Lay Healers Among Hispanics
Studies have shown that 90% of folk medicine adherents do not use the services of a curandero, or lay healer, but obtain their remedies from a hierarchy of lay healers.
Hierarchy of Lay Healers in the Barrio
Senora/Abuela (Matron/Grandmother)
Yerbero (herbalist) Sobador ("massage therapist") Partera (midwife)
Curandero/a (Traditional healer of shamanic type)
Neighbors and relatives are valuable sources of information. Those whose conditions cannot be treated by a senora/abuela are usually referred to a yerbero (herbalist), sobador (massage therapist), or partera (mid-wife, who also treats problems with young children). If these (specialists) cannot handle the problem then the patient is referred to a curandero total (the lay healer who may use multiple modalities). These people are highly respected in the local community and they may come from either a family with a tradition of curanderisimo or receive the gift of healing (el dón) later in life. Two of the most highly revered lay healers in South Texas and Mexico, Niño Fidencio and Don Pedro Jaramillo, lived in the late 1800's and early 1900's; they both have active followers who venerate them at shrines today. There is no direct remuneration for services rendered by the curanderos, but most of them do accept gifts. While the curandero has clear expertise in folk illnesses, 80% of the folk remedies are for medical problems. Most curanderos know what they cannot handle and will refer severe health problems to the medical profession, including their own.
Hypertension is defined as a hot illness. In 60% of the cases the etiology is thought to be due to corajes (anger) or susto (fear); the remaining 40% are felt to be due to "thick blood". Cool remedies such as bananas and lemon juice are popular as well as teas of passion flowers (pasionara), linden (tilia), or zapote blanco.
Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is also a hot illness. While the curanderos will no doubt encourage consultation with a physician, various remedies may also be used. Nopal (or cactus), aloe vera juice, or bitter gourd can be taken. In some areas in Texas and Mexico treatment is started with maturique root infusion for approximately one week if the person is extremely hyperglycemic. Subsequently for maintenance therapy, trumpet flower-herb or root infusion (tronadora), brickle bush (prodigiosa) tea, or sage tea (salvia) are used. The proven safety and efficacy of maturique, trumpet flower, or bricklebush preparations are not known. Aloe vera juice is reasonably safe but aloe vera latex is a powerful purgative. Sage tea taken chronically can lower the seizure threshold and has been reported to cause mental and physical deterioration because it contains thujones and tannins.
Working in a context of prevalent folk belief.
Since folk beliefs are wide-spread to varying degrees, the effective health care provider would do well to heed the following recommendations:
· Understand (and be sensitive) to the role folk medicine may play in patients one encounters;
· Practice delivering messages of tolerance and respect - "the art of medicine";
· During the interview, ask "What do you think caused your illness?", and "We all have favorite remedies that we use when we are sick. What have you done to treat this condition?"
· When appropriate, and not contraindicated, incorporate some benign folk medicine remedies into one's advice to the patient to improve the compliance and trust;
· As an example, when encouraging liquid intake for colds and flu, considering suggesting te de manzanilla (chamomile tea) with other electrolyte replacement as part of the therapeutic regimen.
Family Structures
· Familismo. Hispanics/Latinos tend to view the family as a primary source of support. Families are broadly defined, close knit, and emotionally and financially supportive. Family often includes non-blood-related persons, including compadrazgos (when a couple baptizes the child of another). Some non-Hispanics interpret these family characteristics negatively as over-involvement or dependence.
· The eldest male is typically the authority figure, and gender roles are traditional.
· Important decisions are made by the whole family, not the individual.
· Elders often provide childcare so that children and spouses can work.
· In traditional Colombian families, children are highly protected and very dependent on their parents. They are expected to live with their parents until they marry. Punishment is often emphasized over positive rewards. Children are taught to avoid confrontations with their parents and older persons, and to be obedient, respectful, and shy.
Communication and Social Interaction
· Personalismo - This refers to the tendency of Hispanics to place utmost value on individuals as opposed to institutions. They tend to trust and cooperate with individuals they know personally, and many dislike impersonal and formal structures. Hispanic customers may identify a health worker by name rather than by job title or institution. In a professional situation, many expect formality in address (Mrs. X), but also personalismo (how are your kids doing in school?). The quality of a social interaction is often seen as more important than length.
· Respeto - The special consideration and respect that should be shown to elders and authority figures within the community. When speaking Spanish, elders should be addressed as usted, not tu.
· Simpatía - This describes many Hispanics' preference for smooth social relations based on politeness and respect, as well as avoidance of confrontation and criticism. Overt disagreement is not considered appropriate behavior. Some expect offers of gifts or food to follow a pattern of offer, refusal, insistence, and final acceptance, so receivers do not appear greedy or givers insincere.
· Many Hispanics are characterized by warm, friendly, and affectionate relationships. Personal space is close and frequently shared with family members or close friends.
· Some Hispanics may get agitated or emotional when nervous or frightened. They may communicate intense emotion and appear quite animated in conversations a behavior that is sometimes misperceived by non-Hispanics as being "out of control". Latinos' voice pitch and inflections are sometimes misinterpreted as confrontational. Many are very loud and outspoken in expressing pain.
· Many Hispanics, particularly if they were not raised in the US, may avoid direct eye contact with authority figures or in awkward situations.
· Many will nod affirmatively but not necessarily mean agreement. Silence may mean failure to understand and embarrassment about asking or disagreeing.
· Many may understand English better than they can speak it, especially under stress.
· Modesty and privacy are important. Stigmatized health issues should be discussed through an interpreter and not family members. When a family member is used as interpreter, if the issue is personal, try to use a family member of the same gender. Sexuality issues are hard to discuss. Often the word for sex (sexo) is not even used - tener relaciones (to have relations) is used instead.
Time Orientation -"Tiempo latino"
· Time and punctuality may be flexible. Social gatherings are often expected to start later than the announced time.
· Many Hispanics are averse to a hurried pace, especially given the expectation of personalismo.
Concepts of Health
· Health is generally viewed as: being and looking clean; being able to rest and sleep well; feeling good and happy; having the ability to perform in one's expected role as mother/father, worker, etc. In Puerto Rico, the phrase llenitos y limpios (clean and not too thin) is used.
· A person's sense of bienestar (well-being) is thought to depend upon a balance in emotional, physical, and social arenas. Imbalance may produce disease or illness. Some attribute physical illness to "los nervios", believing illness results from having experienced a strong emotional state. Thus, they try to prevent illness by avoiding intense rage, sadness, and other emotions. Depression is not talked about openly; a person may say, "I am sad" (triste).
· Eating well and drinking fruit juices are common health promotion practices. Exercise is often not perceived as a health promotion practice and is discouraged during illness. As with other issues, this will vary by educational level.
· Individuals may not seek help until they are very sick.
· Hispanic cultures view illnesses, treatments, and foods as having "hot" or "cold" properties, although how these are ascribed may vary by country. Some consider health as the product of balance among four body humors (blood and yellow bile are "hot", phlegm and black bile are "cold"). One would balance a hot illness with cold medications and foods, etc. This might result in not following a doctor's advice to drink lots of fluids for a common cold, if one believes such drinks add more coldness to body. Instead, hot liquids (teas, soups, broth) could be recommended. Colombians often use meat broth instead of chicken soup when sick; also drink agua de panela (unprocessed sugar and water) for respiratory/flu symptoms.
· Prevention strategies could build on this concern for balance e.g., adopt a balanced diet to prevent diabetes and other diseases associated with overweight.
Some common illnesses and their accepted causes:
Ataque - severe expression of shock, anxiety, sadness
Bilis - vomiting , diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, migraine, nightmares, loss of appetite, inability to urinate, brought on by livid rage and revenge fantasies. Believed to stem from bile pouring into bloodstream in response to strong emotion.
Empacho - lack of appetite, stomachache, diarrhea, vomiting, caused by poorly digested or uncooked food. Treated by massaging the stomach and drinking purgative tea, or by azarcon or greta, medicine that has been implicated in some cases of lead poisoning.
Mal de ojo (evil eye) - Vomiting, fever, crying, restlessness, brought on by an admiring or covetous look from a person with an evil eye. Children susceptible. Preventable by wearing particular jewelry.
Pasmo - tonic spasm of voluntary muscle; chronic cough or stomach pain; arrest of child's growth and development, all brought by exposure to cold air when body is overheated.
Susto (fright) - anorexia, insomnia, hallucinations, weakness, painful sensations, brought on by traumatic experiences. Treatment may include a barrida (spiritualistic cleansing by sweeping body with eggs, lemons, bay leaves), herb tea, prayer.
Asthma may be called fatiga by Puerto Ricans.
Health promotion, prevention, and treatment
· Preventative medicine is not a norm for most Hispanics. This behavior may be related to the Hispanic "here and now" orientation, as opposed to a future-planning orientation.
· Some commonly known Hispanic sayings suggest that events in one's life result from luck, fate, or other powers beyond an individual's control.
Que será, será (What will be will be);
Que sea lo que Dios quiera (It's in God's hands);
Esta enfermedad es una prueba de Dios (This illness is a test of God);
De algo se tiene que morir uno (You have to die of something).
· Persons with acute or chronic illness may regard themselves as innocent victims of malevolent forces. Severe illness may be attributed to God's design or bad behavior or punishment. Genetic defects in child may be attributed to parents' actions.
· Family and friends may indulge patients, allowing them to be passive a stance that may conflict with the view that active participation is required to prevent or heal much disease.
· Other Hispanic sayings support health promotion, and illustrate the considerable status given to health and prevention:
La salud es todo o casi todo (Health is everything, or almost everything);
Es mejor prevenir que curar (An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure);
Ayúdate que Dios te ayudará (Help yourself and God will help you).
· "Helping yourself" may lead to placing responsibility for cure with the entire family. The challenge for health professionals is to assess the amount of control patients believe they have over their health and to design interventions that build on traditional support systems.
· Vaccination is very important and adhered to for children.
· Western medicine is expected and preferred in case of severe illness, but some Hispanics may also use native healers. Curanderos utilize prayers, massage, and herbs to treat physical, spiritual, and emotional ailments. Espiritistas are believed to have spiritual or psychic powers to cure illness by communicating with dead souls.
· A "botanica" is a resource store for herbs and other traditional remedies. Some Hispanics may go there before going to a physician or clinic. In many Latin American countries, pharmacists prescribe medications, and a wider range of medications is available over the counter. People may share medicines, or write home for relatives to send them medications. Individuals may discontinue medication if doesn't immediately alleviate symptoms, or after their symptoms abate. Many believe taking too much medicine is harmful.
· Due to history, some Hispanics may distrust the health system (many Puerto Rican women experienced involuntary sterilization, or were adversely affected by birth control pill trials), or view it as an extension of a repressive government (Central Americans), or fear it as a point of contact with immigration authorities. Some may confuse public health programs with welfare and avoid them due to stigma.
Health Status - Causes of Death
· The five leading causes of death for Hispanics in Rhode Island are: cancer, heart disease, homicide, AIDS, and unintentional injuries. For the general population they are: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lung diseases, pneumonia and influenza.
· Nationally, Hispanics are about twice as likely to have non-insulin dependent diabetes than are non-Hispanic whites, and are more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes.
· Hispanic men are more likely to have undiagnosed, untreated, or uncontrolled hypertension than the national average.
· Incidence of AIDS among Hispanics was 4 times more likely in RI than among the general population. Cases of gonorrhea were 2 times more prevalent.
· The incidence of tuberculosis for Hispanics in RI was 5 times greater than for the general population (17.5% vs. 3.5). Some patients may mistake the tuberculin test for a vaccine, and not realize the importance of medical follow-up. Some authorities recommend arranging for the reading of results of the test at work or school, for the client's convenience. Also, the use of the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine in many Latin American countries may complicate the clinical detection of tuberculosis infection among Hispanics.
Behavioral Health Risk Factors
· Hispanics are less likely than the general RI population to smoke (20.3% vs. 22.4%). Some authorities attribute this to the low incidence of smoking among Hispanic women. One researcher states that Hispanics are more likely to smoke in social settings rather than in response to "need" or nicotine addiction.
· Hispanic Rhode Islanders are less likely than the general population to be overweight, but more likely to be obese.
· Hispanic Rhode Islanders are a third less likely than all Rhode Islanders to exercise regularly (30.4% vs. 45%), and engage in less leisure-time physical activity. One researcher notes that a high percentage of Hispanics work in manual labor that does not contribute to aerobic fitness.
· Hispanics were more likely than other Rhode Islanders to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (29% vs. 24%). This is not true nationally.
· Hispanic Rhode Islanders are nearly 50% less likely to drink alcohol than the general population.
· Hispanic Rhode Islanders are more likely than the general population to use safety belts or child safety restraint (81% vs. 76%). I have no national statistics concering seat belt use. In Latin American countries, seat belts are routinely "cut out" of cars and very few people use them. Here in the United States, where many Hispanics are undocumented, seat belts are frequently worn in order to deprive police of the "probable cause" needed to stop and search a vehicle
Relatively few Hispanics know how to swim, making drowning a widespread risk.
Health Screening
Women participate in more screening activities than men. Women's breast and pelvic cancer screening procedures may be seen as intrusive and embarrassing, thus may be delayed or not done. In Rhode Island, the percentage of women ages 40 and over screened for breast cancer and the percentage of women screened for cervical cancer is higher in the Hispanic population than in the general state population.
· Many Hispanic men are resistant to the concept of health screening. Wives may be very influential in men's screening decisions. Elderly might be influenced by children. Health screening recommendations for children are generally followed.
Maternal and Child Health
· The birth rate of Hispanics in RI is about twice as high as for the general population (116.4 vs. 57.5 per 1000 women ages 15-44).
· A greater percentage of Hispanic mothers than all mothers in RI delivered babies without prenatal care in the first trimester. (14.8% vs. 10.3%). Yet the rate of low birth weight babies was only slightly higher in the Hispanic population in RI (6.8% vs. 6.3%)
· Hispanic teenagers ages 14-18 were over 3 times as likely to give birth than all teenagers in the state.
· Hispanic babies are over 3 times as likely to be born into poverty (78.1% vs. 25.5% for general population).
· Breast feeding is less common among Hispanic women than among non-Hispanic whites. Many Latin American women believe colostrum is harmful for babies. In Colombia, breast feeding is expected in low to middle socioeconomic groups.
Diet and Food Practices
· The typical diet is high in fiber, relying heavily on beans and grains (rice) rather than on meats for protein.
· Leafy green vegetables not a usual part of the diet.
· Relatively little intake of dairy products. Milk is consumed in coffee.
· Generally eat a lot of tropical fruits, fruit juices, and starchy root vegetables (e.g., potatoes, cassava, plaintains). Sofrito (blend of spices) is used to season stews.
· Puerto Ricans do not typically eat tortillas. More than 100 varieties of herbal teas are used to treat illness and promote health. For colds, flu and viruses, many use a mixture of honey, lemon and rum as an expectorant and antitussive. Egg yolk, sugar, and milk, malta, or fruit juices may be used as nutritional support for illness.
(I'm listing the following passage on Evil Eye as a postscript because -- although the topic is significant worldwide and elicits a high degree of academic interest -- it is not as important as the voluminous literature seems to suggest.)
The following collection of evil eye stories was made by Soledad Perez among "the Mexican people of Austin, Texas" in the fall and spring of 1948 and 1949. The commentary is hers as well. This material appears in "The Healer of Los Olamas and Other Mexican Lore."
The evil eye is an ailment common among small children. It is believed that it is caused by excessive affection. If a woman or a man sees a child with physical attributes which he admires, he must touch the child and invoke God's protection so that the baby will not suffer from the evil eye.
Children seem to be most susceptible to this ailment, although adults may suffer from it occasionally. Babies suffer the direst consequences. They have a very high fever, a lack of appetite and sleep, and usually a swelling on some part of the body. So if a woman casts an evil eye on a child's hand, it will be swollen and red.
In most instances, the cure for evil eye is simple. It consists in passing an unbroken egg over the face and body of the victim, sweeping him, or transferring three mouthfuls of water from the mouth of the person casting the evil eye to the mouth of the victim.
After the cure, precautions must be taken in the disposal of the egg or eggs used. They must be thrown out in a shady place or buried. If the sunÕs rays strike them, the evil eye will attack the victim anew. (For evil eye cf. D2071 and D2064.4 in Thompson's Motif-lndex.)
When a person suffers from the evil eye, he says, "I was given the eye." To cure this an unbroken egg is passed over his face. Afterwards, the egg is broken in a saucer, and it is placed under the bed.
Another remedy is to find the person who cast the evil eye and force this person to give the victim three mouthfuls of water.
In order to decide whether a person is suffering from the evil eye, the egg placed under the bed must be examined after the cure has been administered. If a white membraneous film appears over the egg, it means that the person who gave the evil eye is a man. If only an eye appears on the egg, it means that the person who cast the evil eye is a woman."
(Informant 3.)
When Chita was small, I took her down town on one occasion. She was a pretty little girl, and people admired her. While I was standing at the counter of one of the de- partment stores, a little Mexican woman approached me and wanted to touch Chita. She said, "What a pretty baby! Won't you let me touch her hair and eyes?"
The next day Chita became ill. She had a very high fever and was flushed and uneasy. I called the doctor. He came and looked at her. Two or three days went by, and Chita didn't improve. She just seemed to get worse. We went from one doctor to another, but it didnÕt do any good.
Finally one day my comadre Mrs. Ramos came over, and she looked at Chita and said, "This child is suffering from the evil eye. I can cure her if you will let me try."
I told her to go ahead; and she did. She asked for two eggs and a cup. One of the eggs she passed over Chita's whole face. Then she took the egg, broke it, put it in a cup stirred it, and made a cross with some of it on Chita's fore- head. While doing this she pronounced several prayers. The other egg she placed on the mantelpiece in the living room and asked that no one touch it.
The next day Mrs. Ramos came back. Chita's fever was gone, and you could tell that she was better. Mrs. Ramos then took the egg from the mantelpiece and broke it. If I hadn't been there, I wouldn't believe it, but my husband and I both saw it. The egg looked as if it were hard-boiled. Mrs. Ramos said, "Chita will get well now. The evil eye has gone into the egg; that's why it looks like this."
Chita got well.
(Informant l.)
In my home, whenever anyone became ill my aunt was called.
On one occasion it was believed that my little brother had the evil eye. My aunt came and passed an unbroken egg over my little brotherÕs face. Then she broke the egg, and taking some of it, she made a cross on his forehead. After that she said several prayers and swept my brother from head to foot. She took another egg, broke it, put it in a saucer, and left it under the bed. Later, when my aunt took the egg out from under the bed, she said that she could tell my brother had been suffering from the evil eye because an eye had formed in the egg.
(Informant 17.)
Both Perez's introduction and the second collected story accord with the notion that *touching* the child dispels the eye or prevents it from being cast. In story #2, the mother all but admits that it was her mistake in not letting the admiring woman *touch* her daughter that led to the child coming down with the evil eye.
Envious people
Those who praise children
Those who suffer from covetousness
Those with blue eyes (xenophobia among brown-eyed racial groups)
Childless women
People born with the unfortunate propensity to inadvertently project the eye
"Overlooking" (old British term; means gazing too long upon coveted item or child)
Praising without touching or spitting to void the damage
Projection from eye (Sicilian term for one who gives mal occhio is jettatura, from the same root-word as ejaculation and projection)
Nursing infants (they sicken and cry; their mother's milk may dry up)
Young children (they sicken and cry; they may vomit or become listless)
Milk cows and milk goats (they dry up)
Fruit trees (they wither and die or they do not bear fruit)
Adult men (they become impotent)
(Note: as Prof. Dundes points out, all of these symptoms involve the loss of FLUIDS.)
Refusal to accept praise on behalf of child
spitting on child
Spot of soot or dirt on child so child will not look pretty
Protective hand gestures
Eye amulets (e.g. wadjet eyes, blue-eye charms, ojo de venado)
Eye-in-hand amulets
Hand of Power and Powerful Hand images
Hamsa hands or hands of Fatima
Eye-agate amulets or jewelry
Cat's-eye shells
Blue beads
Cord Charms that decay and release a blue bead
Amulets that replicate protective hand-gestures
Red coral horns and twigs
Buckle of Isis amulets
Crescent-shaped objects
(Note: Some of these involve reflective imagery, others are protective.)
Olive oil dripped into water with prayer
Wax dripped into water with prayer
Coals or match heads dropped into water with prayer
Passing a whole raw egg over the face, then breaking it.
Breaking an egg in a dark, shadowed place, unseen
Breaking an egg and drawing a cross on the victim's forehead
Throwing an egg into the bushes or against a tree (if tree is victim)
Placing a broken egg in dish beneath victim's bed
Piercing a lemon with iron nails
Victim drinks three sips of holy water
Victim is bathed in holy water
Victim spits at giver of evil eye three times
Water or spittle from inadvertent perpetrator is passed to mouth of victim
Collection of spittle from group (anonymous donation); victim drinks spittle in holy water
(Note: As Dundes points out, these involve use of fluids and/or eye-shaped objects (egg, lemon) which contain fluid within them)
Health Risks of Hispanics in Colorado, the largest minority, 13% of the population.
· Among Hispanics respondents, 28% reported no health care coverage compared to 16% of the statewide survey.
· Only 20% of Hispanics reported being in excellent general health compared to 28% of the statewide respondents.
· Hispanic respondents reported an overall prevalence of diabetes of 7% compared to the statewide sample at 3%.
· Among Hispanic respondents, 29% reported being overweight (according to Body Mass Index) compared to 21% statewide.
· There were no significant differences between Hispanic and statewide estimates of current smokers or chronic drinkers.
· On the Hispanic survey, 53% responded that they did not always wear a seat belt when riding in a car, compared to 37% of the statewide survey.
· Diabetes is about twice as common among Hispanics as among Anglos. (Some estimates contend that the incidence of diabetes among Hispanics -- if accurately measured -- could approach 4 times the Anglo rate.)
· Obesity is more common among Hispanics (especially women) than in the general population.
· Latinas with breast cancer tend to have larger tumors and/or (more?) metastatic disease than do Anglo women.
· Causes of death nationally among Hispanics are (in decreasing order) heart disease, cancer, injuries, stroke, homicide, liver disease, pneumonia/influenza, diabetes, HIV infection, and perinatal conditions (Spector, 1996).
· Difficulty in accessing and utilizing the healthcare system may be viewed as both a singular health problem and a highly significant etiology in or contributor to other health problems. Factors contributing to difficulty accessing services include language barriers, low rate of medical insurance coverage, low incomes, and limited knowledge of health services (Chavez, Hubbell, & Mishra, 1999).
Three final notes:
For Hispanics, "illusion" is a positive trait. The world is full of irremediable harshness. In consequence, Hispanics "pad" this harshness with illusion. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novella, "El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba," the colonel's long-suffering wife asks how he can continue to believe -- week after week, year after year -- that the mail boat will finally start delivering his pension check. The colonel answers, "Illusion may not nourish, but it can be eaten."
Unlike gringos, Hispanics are fully aware that "the death rate is one per person." Ironically, we gringos use mortality statistics somewhat "magically," tending to assume we always belong to the percentage of the population that is not affected by the disease in question.
The liver is transcendenatlly important in the latino view of health. If only to capitalize on the power of faith to heal, it will not hurt -- and may well help -- to say that any medicinal intervention "es bueno para el hígado."
Cosmology, Space, Time
"What is sickness in one culture might be chromosomal abnormality, crime, holiness, or sin in another. For the same symptom of compulsive stealing one might be executed, tortured to death, exiled, hospitalized, or given alms or tax money." Medical Nemesis, Ivan Illich
"Mexicans are different from you and me. Any attempt to deal with them as if they were the same would be shortsighted, maybe even disastrous. If Americans are going to deal with Mexicans we must deal with them on the basis of who they are... Mexicans place more emphasis on magic than on logic. They have more regard for fantasy than the truth. They laugh at death and sometimes show little respect for human life. They are resilient beyond explanation. Their humor is blacker than most. Mexicans can be exasperatingly fatalistic and uninterested in making their lot better. They drive visiting do-good reformers wild. They can be inspiringly heroic." This passage is from the last page of Patrick Osler's "The Mexicans." (Harper and Row, 1989)
Most summaries of ethnic traits inspire debate. Osler's view of Mexicans is no exception.
"More emphasis on magic than logic..."
In an age of progress and logical positivism, can anyone expect to "get ahead" by believing in magic?
While Americans continue to build "rational" constructs, there is growing concern over the proliferation of social, personal and
ecological "box canyons" --- apparent "dead ends" created by the relentless logic of our "systems." We sometimes wonder if
"the logic of progress" is compatible with a viable biosphere.
Interestingly, the Latin American authors who are most popular in the United States belong to a literary school called "magical
realism." Perhaps a sizeable dose of "magic" is tonic, antidotal, or even salvific.
"More regard for fantasy than truth..."
Many will argue that "regarding fantasy more highly than truth" indicates a refusal to confront reality, a negation of reality "as it
is." Curiously, this inclination to indulge fantasy reveals kinship with Einstein's belief that "imagination is more important than
"They laugh at death and sometimes show little respect for human life."
It is difficult to defend callousness in Mexico, just as it is difficult to defend 23,000 annual handgun murders and routine schoolyard slaughter in the United States. However, behind-and-beyond 'the lack of respect for human life,' is a familiarity with
death that enables Mexicans to confront death squarely. In "The Labyrinth of Solitude," Octavio Paz says that "death in the
United States is accidental; in Mexico, death is incidental." Familiarity with death is, perhaps, healthier than being so afraid of
"the inevitable" that we must approach death with fear and denial. Jessica Mitford's "The American Way of Death" portrays the
ghoulishness of the American funeral business. Alternatively, "el día de los muertos" inspires Mexicans to picnic on the graves of their ancestors, to exhume - and lovingly clean - the bones of their departed loved ones, inviting departed souls to join a communion so democratic that it includes "the living and the dead."
It is true that Mexican "humor is blacker than most." However, many observers also note that Mexicans laugh more --- and more heartily --- than we self-conscious (and often self-obsessed) gringos.
Admittedly, there is an "exasperating fatalism" about many Mexicans. Yet, this fatalism induces a kind of contemplative calm
and peaceful acceptance inaccessible to gringos hurtling ever faster toward the receding horizon of Progress. We nortenos are a people obsessed with willfulness and control. In turn, these obsessions provoke needless anxiety.... anxiety that pre-empts the joy of contemplation and the fruitfulness of creative inactivity.
The following story, while legendary, illustrates several core values.
An American businessman was at the pier of a Mexican fishing village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.
The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."
"But what then, senor?"
"Millions, senor? Then what?"
How should we interpret the "busy-ness" of do-good reformers like the Harvard MBA supplying an up-to-date business plan to a remote Mexican fisherman? Despite "the good" intended by cross-cultural reformers, there is a level on which efforts to "develop and modernize" oblige "underdeveloped peoples" to abandon tranquil receptivity in favor of the "progressive" clamor for "MORE!"
As a result of accelerated consumption, the planet is literally heating up while the toxic by-products of hyper-productivity find their way into the soil, air and water.
Cross-cultural understanding is never easy, especially for North Americans whose belief in progress and modernization is
tantamount to religious conviction, a conviction we propagate with missionary zeal. Despite the lip service paid to
multiculturalism, do we, at bottom, believe that the cultural characteristics outlined by Patrick Oster at the beginning of this
essay are as honorable as our own? To what extent has Progress become a prideful effort to re-make the world in our own image?
Nearly a hundred years ago, G. K. Chesterton offered this counsel: "To be merely modern is to confine oneself to an ultimate
If we wish to understand Latinos -- which is to say, if we wish "to stand under" and look up at the honorability of their culture -- it is necessary to examine the underpinnings of culture itself.
Inevitably, these underpinnings are rooted in Creation Stories.
Take, for example, the scientific cosmology on which our own view of Progress depends. Most educated Americans assume
that "The Big Bang" started it all. We harbor a bedrock belief that "true scientific insight" obliges rational beings to accept the
centrality of The Big Bang and the random interplay of a few elemental forces.
Interestingly, one of the fellows who shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics now believes that there was no basketball-size
lump of hyper-condensed matter which suddenly "banged" existence into being.
Instead, he concludes that the Big Bang occurred "out of nothing."
A retired Yale physicist sees no inconsistency with the belief that an intelligent being outside "our universe" created "reality." He even suggests that our universe is "the hardware" on which a superior intelligence is testing the "beta version" of a "program." Perhaps the program has been designed to determine whether love and freedom are stronger than self-interest, indifference and hatred. He even posits that those unusual events which impress some observers as "divine intervention" are episodes in which "the outside intelligence" tweaks the program to make necessary modification.
It is not my purpose to endorse either of these cosmological views, but to indicate how little we know -- how little we can know -- at the root level of things.
As a British astronomer put it: "Not only is the universe stranger than we suspect: it's stranger than we can suspect."
The entire superstructure of culture springs from this root level.
We are living in a time/space continuum, and each of us -- each of our cultures -- makes its own peace with these remarkably fluid - and inexplicably mysterious - parameters. (Given our scientific view, it is not surprising that atomic clocks measure the passage of time differently at the top - and bottom - of skyscrapers.)
Typically, Hispanics are as blasé about the passage of time as gringos are intent on micro-measuring its passage. As a result, Latinos are notoriously lax about punctuality. It's almost as if Latinos don't believe in the reality of time: they certainly do not believe in its primacy.
Instead, Hispanics place primary faith in living people, people with whom relationship can be established only in "the now. And "the now" -- being "a point in time" -- is dimensionless. Lacking dimension, time cannot be measured. Although Hispanic
disregard for time's apparent mandates seems reckless to us, Latinos are completely at home with Einstein's view that "time is an illusion.... albeit a persistent one."
The great Spanish poet José Ramón Jimenez cut to the quick when he noted that "more time is not more eternity."
Pursuing lines laid by Jimenez and Einstein, Octavio Paz observed: "Unquestionably the conception of time as a fixed present and as a pure actuality is more ancient than that of chronometric time, which is not an immediate apprehension of the flow of
reality, but is instead a rationalization of its passing." ("The Labyrinth of Solitude," Grove Press, 1961)
By "ignoring" time --- by making time secondary to "the eternal now," by recognizing that time is a rationalization that has no
life outside "the eternal now" --- Latins live lives of great immediacy.
What is, is.
"Live it, or, live with it."
On the other hand, the clock, that inevitable interloper in gringo relationships -- whether we are relating to people or things -- has little hold on the mind and imagination of Hispanics. "Freed" of the clock, Latinos -- in a literal sense -- are "outside time."
My efforts to "level the (cross-cultural) playing field," may undervalue the fact that every culture displays traits that are
simultaneously advantageous and disadvantageous.
One of the advantages of strict adherence to clock-time, for example, is that human activity -- particularly group activity -- can be scheduled. By way of timely coordination, humankind's corporate and collective activities have been given a tremendous
Nevertheless, as Carl Jung pointed out, all personal and collective manifestations tend to go "too far." Once critical thresholds are crossed, cultural manifestations -- that were originally beneficial -- tend to transmute into their opposite. In describing this
paradoxical process, Jung notes that "the shift of one thing into its opposite" usually occurs suddenly, and often when least
Too much of anything, like too much medicine, tends toward self-destruction. Rapidly consolidating transnational corporations -- like the huge "collectives" of communist socialism -- bring about the conditions of their own senescence.
Nevertheless, the attractiveness of these hyper-active "corporate organisms" is irresistible.
Like moths to flame, migrant workers flood the United States. However, migrants also report that living in the United States is like living in a "jaula dorada" (a "gilded cage"). Migrants perceive little substantive freedom in the U.S. while acknowledging the
immense material advantages bestowed by the nation's industrial engine.
When Hispanics talk of freedom, their concerns are personal, interpersonal and transpersonal. For Hispanics, freedom does not derive primarily from material advantage, although adequate health care, decent housing and ample food are deemed
The relentless accumulation of "things" means little to Hispanics, unless they were born to the middle or upper class where North American values are normalized. Revealingly, "los de abajo" ("those at the bottom") regard the gringo urge to store "stuff" in air-conditioned rental sheds as bizarre and incomprehensible.
For Hispanics, "things" that are not primary. Persons and Families are.
The primacy of the Person has an interesting symbolic counterpart in religious iconography. Although it is no longer as
commonplace as it was forty years ago, Latinos still tend to place crucifixes in locations where Americans would place clocks.
Independent of any specific theological content, the displacement of the crucifix by the clock represents the usurpation of
"Personhood" by "The Machine." Notably, this displacement imbues The Machine with a power over peoples' lives considerably more dictatorial than the ethical suasion embodied in The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
Given the centrality of the human Person (and, by extension, the human Family), we find that decisions made by Latinos tend to be driven by the requirements of interpersonal relationship. In other words, Hispanics typically ask how a given behavior will
influence others. More specifically, how will one's actions impact upon the extended family?
The central importance of "others" -- particularly other members of one's family -- is revealed by the fact that Mexican culture is motivated by "shame" more than it is by "guilt."
Anthropologists recognize a fundamental distinction between "shame and guilt cultures." They note that wherever family -- and
extended family -- are primary, shame and honor are far more important motivators than an interiorized sense of personal guilt.
On the other hand, in cultures like our own -- where the extended family has been atomized, and the nuclear family eroded by divorce, and where unprecedented numbers of adults live in single-person households -- there is little reason to protect "family
honor" from the incursions of shame since the family has become a transient shell for individuals whose concerns increasingly
center on personal advantage. (The ongoing erosion of "the common good" as a social and political category reveals a significant "downside" to the individualization that characterizes "guilt culture.")
Japanese society, on the other hand, is a classic illustration of "shame culture." In Japan, it has long been necessary for certain family member to commit suicide if shame is brought on the family. Furthermore, Japanese culture urges this ritual suicide on individuals who may have no role in the provocation of shame.
Wherever "shame and honor" are deployed as fundamental poles of cultural value, people frequently die by suicide or murder.
Whether death results from ritual disembowelment (as in Japan), or from the murderous rage arising from insults slung at one's mother, shame cultures are powder-kegs of interpersonal violence. (Notably, U.S. gang violence is also motivated by codes of "honor." These codes are enacted to protect the "respectability" of the gang, a sort of surrogate family which also functions as an extended family. When gang honor is sullied, the expiation of shame is most readily achieved by blood sacrifice.)
As bleak as these scenarios seem, they are, at least, "personal" scenarios. Killing a particular person whose behavior is
offensive is qualitatively different from the random slaughter motivated by modern political ideologies. In the 20th century, we
have witnessed the rapid ascendancy of indiscriminate ideological murder. Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler immediately come to mind.
Typically, ideological murder is perpetrated by capitalist states, communist states or surrogate "client states." People are killed according to their presumed ideological affiliation, even when this affiliation is a merely accidental association. In modern,
state-sponsored slaughter, people are no longer "particular individuals" but interchangeable ciphers who -- more often than not --
simply get in the way of uncontainable ideological eruptions. (The American Revolutionary War sanctioned a prototypal version
of modern political violence, by declaring it unnecessary for combatants to distinguish themselves from non-combatants.
American history dismisses British soldiers as fools for wearing "red-coats" rather than having "enough common sense" to
camouflage themselves --- to make themselves fit in with the local environment, both physical and social. Two hundred years
later, American soldiers slaughtered 500 women and children at May Lai, Viet Nam, in part because the boundary between
combatants and civilians had disappeared.)
In a perverse way, murder provoked by shame pays inverted homage to Martin Luther King Jr's dictum that "if a man has not
Strict codes of honor enable Mexicans -- especially "los de abajo" ("those below") -- to decide what they will die for (and, as a
shadow phenomenon, what they will kill for.)
On the other hand, as corporate culture transforms us all into atomized "consumer units" divorced from any committed sense of interpersonal, familial or group responsibility, death becomes a sort of freakish bogeyman --- a meaningless "accident" to be
avoided at any cost, even the cost of sacrificing one's honor.
In examining the underpinnings of American and Mexican culture, I have perhaps overstated the case. However, the cultural
trajectories of societies bent on self-interest may eventually embody even greater decadence than I envision.
In 1961, Octavio Paz concluded "The Labyrinth of Solitude" -- his landmark study of Mexican history and character -- by saying: "Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason. When we emerge, perhaps we will
will begin to dream once more with our eyes closed."
Alongside Paz's criticism of "the modern mentality," Frederick Franck's provides this analysis of our specifically scientific
outlook: "The consciousness of the scientist, in his mechanized universe, logically reaches the point where --- if he practices his
science existentially and not merely intellectually -- the meaning of his own existence becomes an absurdity and he stands on the rim of the abyss of nihil face to face with his own nothingness. People are not aware of this dilemma. That it does not
cause great concern is in itself a symptom of the sub-marine earthquake of which our most desperate world-problems are
merely symptomatic... It is becoming ever clearer that the terrors of war, hunger and despoliation are neither economic, nor
technological problems for which there are economic or technological solutions. They are primarily spiritual problems..."
("Fingers Pointing at the Sacred")
I willl close with a two stories, and a recommendation.
First, an amusing story that circulated Latin America in late 1998. It was forwarded to me by a Honduran friend who heard it from a Nicaraguan couple.
"Ovejas y Algo Más" ("Sheep and Something More")
Un pastor cuidaba sus ovejas en un rincón de los Andes cuando de pronto, ve en el horizonte un Toyota Tercel verde, que se
aproxima. Al llegar al lado del pastor, el Toyota se detiene. Desciende un hombre que, sin presentarse, pregunta al pastor "si le digo cuántas ovejas tiene Ud. aquí, me daría una?" (A shepherd was taking care of his sheep in a remote corner of the Andes
when suddenly, in the distance, he spots a green Toyota Tercel drawing near. When the car finally catches up with the shepherd, it stops. A man get out, and, without introducing himself, he says to the shepherd: "If I can tell you how many sheep
you have here, will you give me one?"
El pastor, humildemente, dice que sí. (Meekly, the shepherd answers "Yes.")
Rápidamente el hombre saca su notebook de ultimísima generación, con sistema de conexión satelital, se conecta inmediatamente, activa el GPS y el servicio de Yahoo de fotos satelitales, un contador de pixels y al instante responde: 335
ovejas! (Quickly, the man takes out his up-to-the-minute portable computer, establishes a satellite uplink, activates his Global
Positioning System and Yahoo's satellite photo service complete with pixel counter, and immediately says: "335 sheep.")
El pastor, sin decir nada, le da un oveja y luego le dice: "si yo le adivino su profesión y lugar de trabajo, me devolvería mi oveja?" (The shepherd, without saying anything, hands the fellow a sheep. He then says: "If I guess your profession and where you work, will you return my sheep?")
"Claro que sí", responde el hombre del Toyota. ("Of course," says the Toyota driver.)
"Usted, señor, es un consultor de una organización internacional", afirma contundentemente el pastor. (Without dropping a beat, the shepherd declares, "You, sir, are a consultant employed by an international organization.")
Estupefacto, el hombre devuelve la oveja al pastor, no sin antes preguntarle cómo lo había adivinado. (Stupefied, the Toyota
driver returns the sheep to the peasant, but not before asking how he'd guessed.)
"Muy fácil - responde el pastor - Ud. llegó aquí sin ser llamado, se mete en mi negocio sin pedir permiso, me dice algo que ya yo sabía y, encima de que tiene muchísima más plata que yo, pretende que yo le pague por eso". ("It was very easy," answers the shepherd. "You arrive here without being called, you stick your nose in my business without asking permission, you tell me something I already know, and, then -- on top of the fact that you have a lot more money than I do -- you think I should pay you for your 'service.'")
Aymará Women
Aymará Indian women from Peruvian highland villages near Juli gather once a week to talk and work. They have formed an
artisans' association that enables them to increase their earnings by directly marketing their own products. Two women sit side by side embroidering a large wall hanging. Others spin thread and work on smaller projects. The same cooperative spirit that
fills the air as they work prevails at lunch. Each woman takes out a cloth filled with something she brought for the noon meal
and places her contribution on a large colorful cloth known as an aguayo. Then the women seat themselves on the ground in a
circle around the cloth and share the food: chunno (freeze dried potatoes), puffed corn, and patties made from quinoa, a
high-protein grain. The women discuss events in their villages as they eat. Not long ago a food aid program offering milk
powder, flour, and oil began in their region. Some women have stopped coming to the cooperative gatherings so they can attend
the day-long meetings that are required to receive the food aid. The women gathered around the aguayo spread with traditional
foods lament the absence of these women and quickly agree they do not want these new foods. "We're happy with the food we
and our ancestors have always eaten," comments one. "We do not want aid," concludes another. "All we want are markets in
which to sell our embroidery so we can keep growing our own food." Linda Shelly, La Esperanza, Honduras. Excerpted from:
"Extending the Table... A World Community Cookbook" by Joetta Handrich Schlabach.
(Students are encouraged to read "Ladakh: The Razing of a Village," a case study in globalization. This account provides
keen insight into the unintended consequences of "development" work with traditional peoples. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
NOTE: Hispanic Health employs the word "gringo" to refer to citizens of the United States since "American" refers to any citizen of the western hemisphere, while "North American" lumps Mexicans and "gringos" together. In Spanish, the adjective/noun "estadounidense" refers specifically to citizens of the United States. No English word except "gringo" eliminates ambiguity.
á é í ó ú ñ |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21826 | It is potentially a very dangerous thing to state that God has "predestined" any sentient being to think or do anything.
[ NOTE: All quotations are from the Revised Standard Version, which might or might not be accurate in entirety ]
Acts 4:24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said: "Sovereign Lord, who did make the heaven and the Earth and the sea and everything in them,
25 who by the mouth of our father David, your servant, did say by the Holy Spirit: "Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed" --
Romans 8:29 Those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the first-born among many brothers.
Romans 8:30 And those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified.
The word: "predestined" is properly understood in the sense of pre-planned but NOT involuntarily forced.
"Destiny" (mentioned by father-under-the-"dark"-influence-of-the-Chancellor-gone-bad Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movie), is mentioned in various places within Holy Writ:
4 even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless to Him.
5 He destined us in love to be His progeny through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will,
12 we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory.
First Thessalonians 5:9 God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...
First Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappado'cia, Asia, and Bithyn'ia,
1:2 chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
1:20 [Christ Jesus] was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.
The beings "predestined" are, of course, not lower lifeforms (be they apes and other mammals such as dogs and cats, birds, reptiles, insects, etc.) which [NOT "who"] operate merely on an obviously-completely-predictable-to-Ultimate-Intelligence mind-boggling variety of combinations of NON-morality, NON-moral-emotion, and myriad instinctual and generally-survival-oriented responses to a plethora of changing environmental stimuli.
What (or better yet: who) instead are referred to are morality-perceptive beings such as angels and demons and humans.
Jeremiah 1:4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying:
That does NOT mean that God forced Jeremiah (who the Lord pre-consecreated and appointed) to choose to fulfill his mission as the Lord's prophet. Jeremiah could have chosen to say "No!" but instead (for whatever cause) Jeremiah instead said: "Yes!" to complete God's intentions for (and not against) him.
Note the voluntary assent (instead of voluntary dissent) in the following two Bible passages:
Genesis 24:57 They said: "We will call the maiden, and ask her."
Genesis 24:58 And they called Rebekah, and said to her: "Will you go with this man?" She said; "I will go."
Also note the voluntary refusal in the following passages:
Genesis 42:22 And Reuben answered them: "Did I not tell you not to sin against the lad? But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood."
Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his [own] heart, and would not listen to them; as the LORD had said.
Numbers 21:23 But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his men together, and went out against Israel to the wilderness, and came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
Numbers 24:13 "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be [willing] to go beyond the word of the LORD, to do either good or bad of my own will; what the LORD speaks, that will I speak."
First Samuel 2:25 If a person sins against a person, God will mediate for them; but if a person sins against the LORD, who can intercede for them?" But they would not listen to the voice of their father, because it was the will of the LORD to slay them.
[ Incidentally, when the Text states that "God" hardened their heart, keep in mind that they themselves hardened their own heart first, and therefore they (not the Lord) are to blame and at fault ].
To continue:
Esther 3:1 After these things King Ahasu-e'rus promoted Haman the Ag'agite, the son of Hammeda'tha, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
2 And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and did obeisance to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mor'decai did not bow down or do obeisance.
3 Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mor'decai: "Why do you transgress the king's command?"
4 And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mor'decai's words would avail, because he had told them that he was a Jew.
Luke 4:41 And demons also came out of many, shouting: "You are the Son of God!" But He rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ.
The reason that the phrase "predestined" is dicey is that [Divine] force is implied with and frequently (but wrongly) ingrained into that word.
But it must be clearly understand and accepted that the LORD -- whatever the capacity and means the Creator has and uses to predict (or prophesy about) the future choices and and thus future of free-willed beings as to His Divine foreknowledge -- has indicted in Scripture that He will not (not that He cannot) FORCE any being with moral choice to do or not do NOT what He would like or wants them to do...but instead what they themselves choose to do.
Job 34:33 Will [God] then make requital to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know.
Don't get me wrong. Free-willed sentient beings (be they angelic or demonic, or human) can (not "will") think and do only what their Creator has given them the environmental potential and ability and opportunities to think and do. Such creatures cannot think nor do anything beyond those God-given resources which He has innately and initially endowed them with.
Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
Isaiah 44:7 Who is like Me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be."
Such Sovereign-Creator-operated "playing field" prevents any free-willed creature from boasting about his or her presumed capacity to "do something God never expected me to do." But exactly how the Creator can and does exercise impeccable foreknowledge about their thoughts and actions is a mystery, and largely beyond the realm of any free-willed created being to infallibly predict and decide how any other free-willed being is assuredly and with absolute certainty going to decide about whatever.
Logically, if a person sees a tree, he or she rather predictably will go around it instead of deliberately running into it. If they have diarrhea, they rather predictably head for a restroom with a toilet inside. If they see a campfire, they rather predictably will not roast their hand therein. So their actions are largely predictable.
But humans (in fortunate contrast to the always-reliable Creator) frequently do not do what is logically predictable nor benevolent, or at least in their nor anyone else's best interests:
Romans 11:32 God has consigned all humans to disobedience, that He may have mercy upon all.
Matthew 5:45 so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, because He makes His Sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the injust.
First Timothy 4:10 To this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all persons, especially of those who believe.
Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
First Peter 2:7 To you therefore who believe, He is precious, but for those who do not believe: "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,"
First Peter 2:8 and: "A stone that will make humans stumble, a rock that will make them fall"; they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Being that God (i.e. the Creator) has established immutable phenomena and forces of nature within which His free-willed sentient creatures think and act, He provides the potential or path for each and every one of those free-willed beings to do what each of those beings decide or choose to do, and in that way He predestines them to do whatever they themselves can, might, and do choose to think and do.
45:6 that all may know, from the rising of the Sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
45:9 Woe to him who strives with his Maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it: "What are you making"? or "Your work has no handles"?
45:10 Woe to him who says to a father: "What are you begetting?" or to a woman: "With what are you in travail?"
45:11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Will you question me about my children, or command me regarding the work of my hands?
45:12 I made the earth, and created mankind upon it; it was my hands which stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
9:12 she was told: "The elder will serve the younger."
9:13 As it is written: "[God-fearing] Jacob I loved, but [faithless and irreligious] Esau I hated."
9:19 You will say to me then: "Why does he still find fault, because who can resist His will?"
9:20 But who are you, a human, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder: "Why have you made me thus?"
Even though only God the Creator Himself knows what a person will ultimately decide about Him -- whether that being will be for or instead against Him (and thus end up either in Heaven or instead in Hell) -- that does not mean that God's chosen saints are themselves completely unaware or ignorant of the current for-or-against status of not merely themselves but other beings:
John 6:64 ...Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.
John 13:11 He knew who was to betray him; that was why He said: "You are not all clean."
And although...
First Corinthians 4:5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart...
...we genuine Christians can presently discern who is on God's side contrasted with who is on Satan's side, including ourselves:
First Corinthians 2:16 "Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Hebrews 2:11 He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin (or: "are all of One"). That is why He is not ashamed to call them brethren...
First John 2:3 And by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
2:5 but whoever keeps His word, in them truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in Him:
2:6 they who say that they reside in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.
2:20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know everything.
First John 3:19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts to Him...
First John 3:24 All who keep His commandments stays in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that he resides in us, by the Spirit who He has given us.
First John 4:6 We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
First John 4:13 By this we know that we reside in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His own Spirit.
The two-fold test of words and actions determines who is on the broad and easy road to destruction compared to who is on the difficult and narrow path to life:
Matthew 12:37 your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me: 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?
First Corinthians 4:20 The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.
Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
And our reaction to those opposed to the truth of the Law and Gospel is swift, non-relenting, and non-compromising:
Proverbs 20:19 not associate with one who speaks foolishly.
First Corinthians 16:22 If any one has no love for the Lord, let them be accursed...
Titus 3:10 As for a person who is factious, after admonishing them once or twice, have nothing more to do with them,
Titus 3:11 knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; they are self-condemned.
Second John 1:9 Any one who goes ahead and does not stay in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; they who stay in the doctrine have both the Father and the Son.
1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive them into the house or give them any greeting;
1:11 because whoever who greets them shares their wicked work.
It is comforting to realize that even Satan cannot (whether pre-planned or opportunistically and circumstantially) choose to think nor do what is outside the boundaries of what God the Creator allows:
Job 1:12 And the LORD said to Satan: "Hey, all that [Job] has is in your power; only upon himself do not put out your hand." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said to Satan: "Hey, [Job] is in your power; only spare his life."
Again, how the Lord conveys to His spokesmen what the future will definitively be, is not known (although that does not mean that such prediction either sometimes or often or always fails):
Genesis 6:12 And God saw the Earth, and hey, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the Earth.
6:13 And God said to Noah: "I have determined to make an end of all flesh because the Earth is filled with violence through them; hey, I will destroy them with the Earth.
6:14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
6:17 because, hey, I will bring a flood of waters upon the Earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the Earth shall die.
Genesis 20:6 Then God said to [Abimelech] in the dream; "Yes, I know that you have [taken in Sarah to be your wife] in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me; therefore I did not let you touch [Sarah].
Exodus 9:18 Hey, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to fall, such as never has been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
First Kings 17:1 Now Eli'jah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab: "As the LORD the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."
James 5:17 Eli'jah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the Earth.
James 5:18 Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the Earth brought forth its fruit.
Jeremiah 28:15 And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hanani'ah: "Listen, Hanani'ah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.
28:16 Therefore thus says the LORD: Hey, I will remove you from the face of the Earth. This very year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.'"
28:17 In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hanani'ah died.
Acts 5:9 But Peter said to her: "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Listen up! the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." |
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21851 | Independent CountryWrote For Luck - Barn Owl Mix
Alternative CountryHyperLink
song created
Monday, November 09, 2015 2:16:26 AM
song updated
Monday, November 09, 2015 2:19:14 AM
stations playing this song
they got the stuff
Cover of Happy Mondays' 'Wrote For Luck', taken from the sessions for our debut LP, due in 2016, which will feature 10 country versions of classic British Indie hits from artists such as The Stone Roses, Oasis, Teenage Fanclub, Blur and others.
Song Comments
they got the stuff
this is a cover song but this guy sings it like a king. If it doesn't make ya move your shoulders you're a freakin' zombie.
|
global_05_local_6_shard_00002272_processed.jsonl/21876 | Dear Diving Readers,
Let’s dive in.
I walked my dog the other night. It was a quiet, lovely evening. The dark night flickered with a starry sky. The wind rushed against my face. I heard the crushing waves. Then something caught my eye in the distance. It was a white light coming from the ocean. It was a magical dance of white sparkling light. And I wondered, what could that be? Then, I saw a diver come up. He made contact with another diver. They would both disappear in the ocean. One would drift further from the other. But the white light always drew them back. Hmm, how interesting?
Now, I couldn’t visually make out the waves. I only attuned to their sounds. And I attuned my senses to the white light. It was the light that caught my eye. It was the light that drew me. It was the light that connected the scuba divers.
As I observed their exchange, I pondered.
What faith they have going into a dark ocean at ten o’clock at night.
What trust they have in the ocean.
What trust they have in each other.
What trust they have in their equipment.
What trust they have in their abilities.
What trust they have in the universe.
I stood in awe. And I wondered…
Do we have faith going into the darkness?
Do we trust the rhythm of life, no different than rhythm of the waves in the ocean?
Do we trust others or have we been too wounded to allow another in?
Do we trust our equipment… our breath and connection to God?
Do we trust our gifts and abilities?
Do we trust the universe to meet our every need?
There will be times that we need to take a leap of faith and dive into the ocean.
It involves a willingness, an openness, and yes, some uncertainty. But you won’t drift for too long. There is a life jacket. It’s the white light. The white light is your safety net… your lighthouse that will draw things out of you for your heart’s expansion and your soul’s evolution. And all that is left is a pure heart, an awakened soul, a bright light.
Will you take the leap of faith and dive into the ocean with me? |
Subsets and Splits