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Pregnancy is a phase in which every woman wishes to be in the best of her health, but however, it does come with its share of ups and downs. We all know that our body has a natural defence mechanism to protect itself from viruses and bacteria. To fight... read more 7 tips for pregnant women to take care of their Mental Health Jul 13, 2021 Pregnancy is life-altering, but a wonderful experience for all the mothers-to-be. From conception to childbirth, the journey to motherhood is like a sea of varying emotions that may add up to stress and anxiety. It is natural to feel stressed and anxious than... read more Pregnancy during 2nd wave of Covid-19 May 18, 2021 Getting pregnant is the world’s most beautiful experience. Right?. The care and warmth you get are uncountable. Motherhood is knocking on your door in no time. Your body has given you the best gift of your life. But, many of you are living two phases of life. On one... read more Jul 6, 2020 The welcome which a baby receives as she comes out of the womb and into the world has a lasting and profound impact on her overall health and well-being. The first hour is a crucial hour for the newborn as she is ejected from the comfort cocoon that was the womb... read more Jul 6, 2020 Their appearance is a red flag. Conditions you may never have had before can develop during your pregnancy. It is absolutely vital that these conditions be diagnosed as early as possible, as they could lead to a high-risk pregnancy and seriously affect the birth. They... read more Jul 6, 2020 Travelling during pregnancy is one of the trickiest things to do – We, Indian women, are very superstitious when it comes to travelling during pregnancy and most of us would even stop travelling to keep our babies safe. Healthcare professionals worldwide have always... read more « Older Entries Gestational Diabetes during pregnancy How to prevent infections during pregnancy? How to substitute festive cravings with healthy food options? What our mothers say! The session was excellent. When the team asked me for 5 days of my schedule, I was unsure and thought that why do they need so much information, but when I got my nutrition plan/report, then I realised that it is a detailed one. It was very helpful. Thanks a lot. Together Care Program is very well thought through. You have tried covering every aspect of pregnancy. which will be very helpful to moms. There are many sources of information but curated information at some places not at all sources. this is a very good platform.	2,712
All categories Airport City Attorney Code Enforcement Fire Department Police Department Public Works Recreation & Parks Airport City Attorney Fire Department Police Department Public Works I know where some drug activity or other criminal act is, what do I do to report it anonymously? There is anonymous tip line you can call at 479-967-2221. You can also call our dispatch at 479-968-0911 and state that you would like to remain anonymous. This number is for more immediate response. A person can also email us anonymously letting us know where the activity is. Police Department 1. How do I find out if I have a warrant? Most of our warrant notifications are first sent by mail. If you receive this notification then you need to respond immediately to the paperwork. You can also contact the Police Department between regular business hours at 479-968-3232. Your driver's license is usually suspended upon the issuance of a warrant. 2. How do I go about setting up a neighborhood watch in my area? The Neighborhood Watch program is a great program to help kick start crime prevention in your neighborhood. The first thing you need to do is call 479-968-3232 and ask for LT. Jones. The process usually consists of you getting a group together and having an initial meeting that consists of general information. This is a great program to get started in your area, and it is very easy to implement. 3. Where do I pick up a police report? There are a couple different ways to pick up a police report. A person can always come to the Police Department during regular business hours and pick up a report, for a small nominal fee. The other option is to go visit the police reports website. 4. I got a ticket, now what? There are several different options to take once you receive a ticket. The 1st option is to either pay the ticket online or go to the Russellville Police Department front lobby during normal business hours and pay the ticket using cash, money order, or check with proper ID. The 2nd option is to go to court and discuss with the judge your options with the ticket. The 3rd option is to go to court and plead not guilty and contest the ticket in court. 5. I know where some drug activity or other criminal act is, what do I do to report it anonymously? There is anonymous tip line you can call at 479-967-2221. You can also call our dispatch at 479-968-0911 and state that you would like to remain anonymous. This number is for more immediate response. A person can also email us anonymously letting us know where the activity is. 6. There are speeders that go up and down my road, what do I do about it? You can call 479-968-3232 and ask for the Watch Commander during normal business hours or you can email us. Please note specific times this happens and the exact location. 7. I would like somebody to come speak to a group of us about crime prevention or police work in general. We would love to help you with any of your crime prevention needs please call 479-968-3232 or email us. 8. What do I do if I am contacted by a scammer? If you have a financial loss in the scam you will need to make a report with the police department. Call 479-968-3232 or 911 if it is an emergency.	3,279
In Australia 33% of labours are induced (40.5% of first time mothers). The most common reason for induction is to prevent a ‘prolonged pregnancy’. That’s an awful lot of babies outstaying their welcome and requiring eviction. I am not going to get stuck into the concept of ‘due dates’ or rather ‘guess dates’ here – I discuss estimating birth dates in my book. This post will focus on induction of labour to prevent a ‘prolonged’ pregnancy and the complexities of risk in this situation. A quick word about risk I don’t particularly like the concept of ‘risk’ in birth. There are all kinds of problems associated with providing care based on risk rather than on individual women. However, risk along with ‘due dates’ is here to stay, and women usually want to know about risks. Risk is a very personal concept and different women will consider different risks to be significant to them. Everything we do in life involves risk. So when considering whether to do X or Y there is no ‘risk free’ option. All women can do is choose the option with the risks they are most willing to take. However, in order to make a decision women need adequate information about the risks involved in each option. If a health care provider fails to provide adequate information they could be faced with legal action. Induction for prolonged pregnancy is not right or wrong if the choice is made by a woman who has an understanding of all the options and associated risks. As a midwife I am ‘with woman’ regardless of her choices. It is my job to share information and support decisions – not to judge. What is a prolonged pregnancy? Before we go any further lets get some definitions clear: Term (as in a ‘normal’ and healthy gestation period): is from 37 weeks to 42 weeks. Post-dates: the pregnancy has continued beyond the decided due (guess) date ie. is over 40 weeks. Post-term: the pregnancy has continued beyond term ie. 42+ weeks. The World Health Organization’s definition of a ‘prolonged pregnancy’ is one that has continued beyond 42 weeks ie. is post-term. However, induction is usually offered when a pregnancy becomes post-dates with the aim of preventing it becoming ‘prolonged’. Therefore, very few women experience a prolonged pregnancy – in Australia only 0.6% of pregnancies continue beyond 42 weeks. The idea of a prolonged pregnancy assumes that all women naturally gestate their babies for the same length of time. However, it seems that genetic differences may influence what is a ‘normal’ gestation time for a particular woman. For example, Morken, Melve and Skjaerven (2011) found “a familial factor related to recurrence of prolonged pregnancy across generations and both mother and father seem to contribute.” Therefore, if the women in your family gestate for 42 weeks so might you. The length of gestation may also be influenced by factors such as diet (McAlpine et al. 2016). The initiation of labour is likely caused by the baby who secretes surfactant protein and platelet-activating factor into the amniotic fluid as their lungs mature (Mendelson 2009; Science Daily). This results in an inflammatory response in the mother’s uterus that initiates labour. The risks associated with waiting for spontaneous labour Some people believe that the placenta has a best before date and starts to deteriorate after 40 weeks resulting in reduced nutrition and oxygen for the baby. There is evidence that the structure and biochemistry of the placenta changes as pregnancy develops. Some scientists interpret these changes as the placenta growing and adapting to meet the changing needs of the baby: “There is, in fact, no logical reason for believing that the placenta, which is a fetal organ, should age while the other fetal organs do not…” Others argue that these changes are due to the ageing and deterioration of the placenta. However, tests of placental function show no changes in post-dates pregnancies (Madruzzato et al. 2010). In practice, I have seen signs of placental shut down (ie. calcification) in placentas at 37 weeks and I have seen big juicy healthy placentas at 43 weeks. Sophie Messenger write more about ‘the myth of the ageing placenta’ here. People also have concerns that the baby will grow huge and therefore be difficult to birth. There is evidence that babies continue to grow bigger the longer they gestate, and this contradicts the above theory about the ageing placenta. If the placenta stops functioning, how does the baby continue to grow so well? Big babies are pretty good at finding their way out of their mothers expandable pelvis. The research about complications relating to big babies suggests that it is the interventions carried out when a baby is assumed to be big – rather than the actual size of the baby – that mostly contributes to complications (Sadeh-Mestechkin et al. 2008; Blackwell et al. 2009; Peleg et al. 2015). There is an increased chance that the baby will pass meconium as his/her bowels mature. I have written about this scenario in another post. The general rate of perinatal death (stillbirth + newborn death) increases as pregnancies advance beyond term. The rate remains small but is statistically significant. For example a systematic review and meta-analysis (Muglu et al. 2019) reported that: “The overall gestation-week-specific prospective risk of stillbirth steadily increased with gestational age, from 0.11 per 1,000 pregnancies at 37 weeks to 3.18 per 1,000 at 42 weeks gestation… The risks of newborn death remained constant between 38 and 41 weeks, and only increased beyond 41 weeks” . Post-dates induction of labour reduces the general rate of perinatal death. A Cochrane Review summarises the research examining induction vs waiting: “There were fewer baby deaths when a labour induction policy was implemented after 41 completed weeks or later.” However, it goes on to say: “…such deaths were rare with either policy…the absolute risk is extremely small. Women should be appropriately counselled on both the relative and absolute risks.” Hands up all the women who had a discussion with their care provider about the relative and absolute risks of waiting vs induction… Essentially, according to the available research, if you are induced at 41 weeks your baby is less likely to die during, or soon after birth. However, the chance of your baby dying is small either way – less than 1%… or 30 out of every 10,000 for those waiting vs 3:10,000 for those induced. This research article reports the relative and absolute risk of stillbirth at various gestations with waiting vs induction. The authors state that 1476 women would need to have an induction to prevent 1 stillbirth at 41 weeks gestation. Reviews are only as good as the research they review and there are some concerns about the quality of the available research. The World Health Organization recommends induction after 41 weeks based on the Cochrane Review above but acknowledges the evidence is “low-quality evidence. Weak recommendation”. Another review of the literature in the Journal of Perinatal Medicine (Mandruzzato et al. 2010) concluded: “It is not possible to give a specific gestational age at which an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy should be induced.” One of the main problems with quantitative research is that it rarely answers the question ‘why’, and rather focuses on ‘what’ (happens). For example, congenital abnormalities of the baby and placenta are associated with post-term pregnancy and this may account for the increased risk in some cases, rather than the length of gestation (Mandruzzato et al. 2010). Quantitative research also takes a general perspective rather than addressing the risk for an individual woman in a particular situation. For example, is the prolonged pregnancy as sign of pathology, or does this woman come from a family of women who have a longer gestational timeframe? For a woman who has previously gestated to post-term without complications, there is no increased chance of an adverse outcome (Kortekaas et al. 2015). The risks associated with induction It can be difficult to untangle and isolate the risks involved with induction because usually more than one risk factor is occurring at once (eg. syntocinon, CTG, epidural). In addition, there are differences in outcomes and risks between women who have previously laboured, and women having their first baby. It is important for women to consider their own individual factors and how they alter their individual risk profile. Care providers should also share individualised information when discussing induction options. General risks associated with the induction procedure and medications The induction process is a fairly invasive procedure which usually involves some or all of the following (you can read more about the process of induction here). There are a number of minor side effects associated with these medications/procedures (eg. nausea, discomfort etc.) There are also more significant risks: IV syntocinon / pitocin: Mother – rupture of uterus; post partum haemorrhage; water intoxication leading to convulsions, coma and/or death; reduced breastfeeding rates; increased postpartum depression/anxiety. Baby – hypoxic brain damage; neonatal jaundice; neonatal retinal haemorrhage; death. There is also research suggesting that there may be a link between the use of syntocinon/pitocin for induction and ADHD (Gregory et al. 2013; Kurth & Haussmann 2011). For mothers syntocinon/pitocin is associated with reduced breastfeeding and increased depression and anxiety at 2 months postpartum (Gu et al. 2015). The most extreme of these risks are rare, but fetal distress and c-section are fairly common. The potential effects of uterine hyperstimulation on the baby are well known (Simpson & James 2008)- which is why continuous fetal monitoring is recommended during induction. This may also explain the association between induction and cerebral palsy (Elkamil et al. 2010) Induced contractions are usually more painful than a physiological contractions. Syntocinon (pitocin) produces strong contractions without the gentle build up and endorphin release of natural contractions. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (UK) state that health care professionals should discuss this with women when offering induction “recognising that women are likely to find induced labour more painful than spontaneous labour”. Most research comparing induction with spontaneous labour combines populations of ‘experienced’ labourers with first timers. These studies report conflicting findings. For example, some studies report a lower chance of c-section with induction for this mixed group (Gülmezoglu et al. 2012; Mishanina et al. 2014; Wood et al. 2014). In contrast, more recent studies have found increased rates of c-section with induction (Zhao, Flatley, Kumar 2017; Ekéus & Lindgren 2016). A 2019 review compared the timing of induction for low risk pregnancies – 41 weeks vs 42 weeks (Rydahl, Eriksen & Juhl 2019). The review used stricter inclusion criteria than previous reviews to “enhance the methodological quality and increase the relevance for contemporary maternity care”; and reported that: “Induction at 41+0-6 gestational weeks compared to 42+0-6 gestational weeks was found to be associated with an increased risk of overall cesarean section.” Risks for women who have had a previous labour Women who have laboured before respond more effectively to syntocinon (pitocin) because they have more oxytocin receptors in their uterine muscle. Therefore, this group of women are more likely to experience a successful induction and avoid c-section. They are likely the reason for lower or similar rates of c-section the mixed group research discussed above. However, they are at increased risk of hyperstimulation with prostaglandin medication and/or syntocinon. So doses are usually smaller and very carefully monitored to avoid fetal distress. Women who have given birth vaginally before, are also at increased risk of perineal tearing if they have syntocinon induced contractions. Risks for women having their first labour induced Inducing a first labour requires higher rates of syntocinon, and the length of labour is usually longer. It is not surprising that first time mothers are more than 3 x more likely to opt for an epidural during an induction (Selo-Ojeme et al. 2011); and epidural analgesia increases the chance of ending up with an instrumental birth – ventouse or forceps (Anim-Somuah et al. 2018) The majority of research comparing induction (IOL) with spontaneous (SP) labour in populations of first time labourers report increased c-section rates: AUS: IOL = 26.5% vs SP = 12.5% (Davey & King 2016) Another US study (Ehrenthal et al. 2010) reported that after “adjusting for maternal demographic characteristics, medical risk, and pregnancy complications. The contribution of labor induction to cesarean delivery in this cohort was estimated to be approximately 20%.” This brings up interesting risk comparisons relating to c-section vs the risk of post-dates perinatal death (see above). For example, induction is recommended because there is a less than 0.3% chance of perinatal death in post-dates pregnancies (see above). However, the chance of a significant complication during c-section (eg. hysterectomy) is higher than the chance of perinatal death in a post-dates pregnancy; and after a c-section the chance of stillbirth during a subsequent pregnancy increases to 0.4% – again, a higher rate than a postdates pregnancy. A recent study causing a stir is the ARRIVE RCT trial (US) which reported lower c-section rates in the induction group (18.6% vs 22.2%). This one study is now being used to justify recommending early induction at 39 weeks – primarily because the findings align with cultural norms and preferences (see this post re. implementation of research findings into practice). Whilst I don’t want to give this study unwarranted attention… it keeps popping up in conversations, workshops, and presentations. Like the perineal bundle – it is an unavoidable topic in the birth world. So here goes (briefly)… recommendations based on the trial are problematic in a number of ways. The findings and recommendations have been constructively critiqued by academics, midwives and obstetricians (Dekker 2018; Carmichael & Snowdon 2019; Davis-Tuck et al. 2018; Scialli 2019). In summary, the main points are: Only 27% of eligible women agreed to participate – Findings can only be applied to women who are willing to have a medically managed birth. 94% of the woman were cared for by private obstetricians in US medical settings – Findings cannot be applied to other types of care providers and settings which have much lower rates of c-section and higher rates of spontaneous vaginal birth. Care providers were not blinded – Knowing about the trial my have altered their practice. IOL reduced c-section rates by 4% – This cannot be used to recommend IOL to prevent c-section. Other factors have a much more significant effect on c-section rates eg. continuity of midwifery care; place of birth; intermittent auscultation in labour; etc. The primary outcome measure for this study was perinatal outcome (ie. the baby) – IOL made no difference to the immediate outcomes for the baby, and the study did not address the long-term harm of early birth for the baby (eg. brain development). In relation to the primary outcome measure – perinatal outcomes. Another study (Selo-Ojeme et al 2011) found that outcomes for the baby were worse when a first labour was induced: “babies born to mothers who had an induction were significantly more likely to have an Apgar score of <5 at 5mins and an arterial cord pH of <7.0“. The experience of induction Research into induction tends to focus on physical outcomes rather than women’s emotional/psychological experiences of the process. Choosing induction will totally alter the birth experience and the options open to you. Women need to know that agreeing to induction means agreeing to continuous monitoring and an IV drip, which will limit movement. Induced contractions are usually more painful than natural contractions and the inability to move and/or use warm water (shower or bath) reduces the ability to cope. The result is that an epidural may be needed. An induced birth is not a physiological birth and requires monitoring (vaginal exams) and time frames. Basically you have bought a ticket on the intervention rollercoaster. For many women this is fine and worth the risk, but I encounter too many women who are unprepared for the level of intervention required during an induction. This does not mean you have to hand over control of your decisions or your body; and in my book I include a chapter on creating a birth plan for induction of labour. There have been some studies examining women’s experience of induction. A UK study by Henderson and Redshaw (2013) found that “women who were induced were generally less satisfied with aspects of their care and significantly less likely to have a normal delivery. In the qualitative analysis the main themes that emerged concerned delay, staff short- ages, neglect, pain and anxiety in relation to getting the induction started and once it was underway; and in relation to failed induction, the main themes were plans not being followed, wasted effort and pain, and feeling let down and disappointed.”. A German study (Schwarz et al. 2016) concluded that: “women’s expectations and needs regarding IOL are widely unmet in current clinical practice… and that “there is a need for evidence-based information and decisional support for pregnant women who need to decide how to proceed once term is reached.” A recent systematic review (Coates et al. 2019) of qualitative research into women’s experiences of induction of labour concluded that induction “is a challenging experience for women, which can be understood in terms of the gap between women’s needs and the reality of their experience concerning information and decision-making, support, and environment. “ Alternatives to medical induction Waiting for spontaneous labour Around 90% of women who wait for spontaneous labour will give birth before 42 week, and only 1% will go beyond 43 weeks (Gülmezoglu et al. 2012). Most guidelines recommend additional monitoring of the baby – however no form of monitoring reduces the chance of complications (Gülmezoglu et al. 2012). ‘Natural’ induction? There are a number of ‘alternative’ or ‘natural’ induction methods available (I have a chapter discussing the evidence for various methods in my book). However, trying to get the body/baby to do something it is not ready to do is still an intervention whether it is with medicine, herbs, therapies, techniques… or anything else. Interventions of any kind can have unwanted effects and consequences. Medical inductions take place with close monitoring of mother and baby and access to medical support if a complication arises. Alternative inductions do not have this level of monitoring or back up. However, ‘interventions’ (massage, acupuncture, etc.) that are aimed at relaxing the mother and fostering trust, patience and acceptance may assist the body/baby to initiate labour if the physiological changes have already taken place. A significant minority of babies will not be born by 41 weeks gestation. Whilst the definition of a prolonged pregnancy is 42 weeks+, induction is usually suggested during the 41st week. Women need to be given adequate information about the risks and benefits involved with either waiting or inducing in order to make the choice that is right for them. There is no risk free option. The risk of perinatal death is extremely small for both options. I know women who have lost a baby in the 41st week of pregnancy, and women who have lost a baby as a result of the induction process. For first time mothers the induction process poses particular risks for themselves and their babies. Each individual woman must decide which set of risks she is most willing to take – and be supported in her choice. You can read more about induction in my book Why Induction Matters NHS leaflet: Choices when pregnancy reaches 41 weeks News article: ‘I was pregnant for 10 months’ Reddit View all posts by MidwifeThinking → This entry was posted in baby, birth, intervention and tagged ARM, consent, induction, information giving, intervention, law, negligence, oxytocin, pitocin, risk, syntocinon. Bookmark the permalink. ← Responsibilities in the mother-midwife relationship Pre-labour Rupture of Membranes: impatience and risk → 263 Responses to Post-Dates Induction of Labour: balancing risks September 17, 2010 at 12:58 am I’m really loving your blog. I’m so glad you decided to start one up. The way you present information is awesome and I love how you add in subtle touches of humor. I hope you find immense popularity! midwifethinking says: September 17, 2010 at 2:44 pm Thanks – I’m pleased you like it. Regina says: November 11, 2015 at 2:30 pm Finally I get to read simething I have felt for years. My first child was 15 days over and I was induced it was the worse experience of my life I ended up with a c section after 4 hours of labour. After his birth I went on to have 4 more babies vbacs no tears or drugs all natural labours and delivery as I was determined never to have another c section. After 13 years gap I fell pregnant oops at 39 years old. Since I regustered all I have heard is high risk cause of your age are you sure you dont want a c section we need to monitor you more closely I have reached 41 weeks and now the pressure is on to induce im so fed up of hearing it. It gave me some hope that their are still professionals willing to give woman the chance to give birth in their own time without the extra anxiety and fear mongering Emma says: January 11, 2016 at 10:55 pm This blog is so helpful to me right now. I’m just over 40 and about to have my second child. I’m hoping for a VBAC but the consultant is already talking about induction at 40 weeks due to my age so I’m really trying to wrap my head around induction vs. CS (which I feel they’re keener on) vs. sticking to my guns and going VBAC at term plus however long it takes. I was put on the drip during the birth of my daughter and at no point were any of the risks or implications made clear to me. Re this pregnancy, I hate that they are throwing “statistical risk” numbers at me rather than having any useful info about my personal risk and are unable to offer support that focusses on prevention of possible problems. Regina, I suspect I will be subject to similar pressures, even if I get them to agree to my plans. How did your birth pan out? Regina says: January 13, 2016 at 4:21 am Hi ohh sorry to hear about the pressure you are under. Well I went 14 days over and refused the induction. In the last appoinment with the consultant we agreed a sweep amd she discovered the baby was breach. Again statistics that are not relavent to me exactly were thrown at us and unbelievable pressure to sign for a c section there and then we refused and decided we would like to try naturally other consultants were brought in but we stuck to our guns. I cant lie I was very scared hearing still born and other stuff but we decided breach delivery it is I went into labour naturally that night and after 6 hours delivered a healthy baby girl the next day the consultants were amazed. I had great midwifes a natural drug free breach delivery and went home after a few hours. midwifethinking says: January 13, 2016 at 12:33 pm Sara says: September 17, 2010 at 5:04 am Great post! I was all set to fight with my provider about post-dates induction because I just knew that my daughter would be “late”, but she came right on her due date, much to my surprise. I wish that every pregnant woman would read this blog and really think about what it’s saying; they might have a very different birth experience than the majority of women do today. midwifethinking says: September 17, 2010 at 2:49 pm Thanks. Some may find the information a little confronting but women need to consider the risks of induction before jumping in. I have spent too much time de-briefing women who ended up with the full induction ride but had no idea that it was a possibility. I have heard an obs describe induction as a ‘gentle’ pessary to help you into labour. Kate says: September 17, 2010 at 5:13 am Hi, great blog, I just found you through a post on the UK midwives list. I am a US-based CNM (nurse midwife) and am really curious about the term “post-dates.” I graduated from school about 2.5 years ago and NEVER encountered this term while in school or in any of my written education materials. It is widely used where I practice, however, by both nurses and midwives, and is used exactly how you say: someone past the “due date” but not yet at 42 weeks (though some people seem to use it for 41 weeks or greater). I really don’t like this phrase, I actually thought that it was sort of made-up until I saw it here. I much prefer the WHO definitions–preterm, term, or postterm. (I do use “near term,” mostly in acknowledgment of the potential feeding problems in near term kids). Does anyone know where “post dates” comes from? I feel that it just saddles women with another negative label and am not sure how it is useful. The pregnancy is still term until 42 weeks! (Again leaving aside the problems with dating, a big issue in my current practice where many women present late for care with unsure or unknown LMP dates). midwifethinking says: September 17, 2010 at 2:51 pm I don’t know where ‘due date’ came from. It is a symptom of our need to know and control that which is unknown and uncontrollable. In my own practice I write down EDD according to LMP and scan (if they have one). But I ask the mother to choose a ‘due date’ for documentation purposes whilst pointing out that the only person who really knows is the baby. I also watch the moon because most of the births I attend happen on or near a full moon (I keep stats). November 3, 2013 at 2:41 pm 34 years and more ago there were no calendars in Saudi Arabia the women used to tell me their babies would arrive between 9 full moons and 10 days. midwives are usually busy around the full moon thats a fact Becky says: September 17, 2010 at 12:51 pm So what qualifies as a good reason to induce? midwifethinking says: September 17, 2010 at 2:53 pm That is up to the individual woman once she has the full information regarding the options and risks in her individual situation. For some they want inducation at 38 weeks, others will only agree if their baby is in significant danger ie. severe pre-eclampsia. The ‘good reason’ is up to the woman who is being induced. April 6, 2011 at 4:32 am I love this answer. When I first got interested in birth, I continually encountered this attitude that a woman must do her research and then she would inevitably chose The Right Way – because there was only one. It should be freeing and empowering to every woman that she can do research to chose the right way for herself and her baby, which may be very different from someone else’s right way. I love how you said that no choice is without risk so every woman must decide for herself which risks she wants to take. Such a great point, and surprisingly one that I rarely see in any discussion of birth. Keri says: September 17, 2010 at 12:56 pm Another great post! I have a question for you about calcification. When my daughter was born, on her EDD, I had calcification in(on?) my placenta. Had she waited and arrived at 42 Weeks or later, would that have made for an increased risk for perinatal death? Is it correct to assume that this may not happen this early with my next pregnancy, because every pregnancy, birth, and child is different? midwifethinking says: September 17, 2010 at 2:58 pm Your daughter was born when she needed to be – who knows what would have happened if she waited until 42 weeks… because she didn’t. Every baby is different. My son was born at 40 weeks (41 according to my dates) and his placenta had no calicification. My daughter was born at 38 weeks and had a very calcified placenta and she was scrawny. She knew it was time to vacate and get some breastmilk. Your next baby will be born when he/she needs to be. Trust your body/baby : ) Concerned says: November 15, 2012 at 8:18 pm My bub was delivered by c/s. I had severe GD with polyhydramisis( not sure if this is the correct term, but tons of excess amniotic fluid). U/S showed decreased movement. Once she was born she needed to be in the special care nursery and was on NG feeds. She was not engaged hence the C/S rather than induction. So she didn’t know she needed to be born did she? It’s truly scary to hear you say that bubs know when to be born. Seriously poor advice. midwifethinking says: November 15, 2012 at 9:14 pm This post is about induction for post dates (ie. prophlyactic) not about pathological complications such as yours. For your information I am attending an induction (in a private hospital) of a client next week for GD. And I don’t give advice. I think you are interpreting this post though the lens of your own experience. You had a complication, it was identified and your baby was delivered appropriately. You had not simply gone past a prescribed date. Concerned says: November 16, 2012 at 7:11 am You just said your baby was born at 38 weeks as it knew when she needed to be born. I would have thought a placenta calcified at 38wks would also be classified as a complication. Stop contradicting yourself. midwifethinking says: November 16, 2012 at 7:36 am Calcification of the placenta is fairly common epecially in smokers (which I’m not). It is not a complication just a sign that the placenta is beginning to reduce function as vessels ‘die’. It only becomes a complication if enonogh to compromise placental function severely… Which I have never seen (perhaps because the process initiates labour before this happens?). My daughter was a healthy baby born at home – 6lb 14 but not a lot of fat. If a placenta has reduced blood flow due to calcification it may not cope with an induced labour which makes greater demands on the placenta to provide oxygen. I am not contradicting myself. I realize you had a complicated (and perhaps traumatic) experience and are therefore sensitised re. these issues. You want to hear that I am saying all babies should be born a particular way and that there are no complications or risks in birth. This is not me – this is who you want me to be to fit your agenda. Perhaps find out a little more about my work/philosophy? Concerned says: November 17, 2012 at 12:19 pm No, I am not traumatized. Nor am I wanting to hear “that all babies should be born one way” as you suggest. I just think your belief that babies know when it’s time to be born is poor advice and not evidenced based. September 17, 2010 at 11:06 pm Bloody excellent work Rachel, I am getting heaps out of the clear explanations and explorations of the post topics. I started a job this week as a plain homebirth midwife (no VBACs, no twins, no breeches at term) – just as you described last year. Its a wonderful and complete change. I am already focussing on self-care and preservation, and have witnessed my first birth – at home, in the pool, in the caul. 4.6kg. Delightful. Please keep up the great work. midwifethinking says: September 18, 2010 at 8:20 am Thanks Laura. There is no such thing as a ‘plain’ midwife – and you certainly aren’t! Ha ha. I’m so pleased you are enjoying it. I know that it annoys hospital midwives (and I used to be one) – but you really get to learn about birth by attending homebirths. September 18, 2010 at 7:10 am Last year I was looking at the cdc stats on neonatal deaths. It did in fact show an increase of deaths for those over 42 weeks ,but this is what I found interesting: babies that were born smaller after 42 weeks were more likely to die than those that were born large. What I’m wondering here ,then ,is if iugr is playing a role in both the time the babies are born and the reason for the deaths. It was just a thought I had. Rachel midwifethinking says: September 18, 2010 at 8:24 am Thanks for that info. Very interesting. It would make sense that an IUGR baby has a compromised placental circulation. Also if the baby triggers labour perhaps some congenital abnormalities prevent this normal response = those babies are more likely to go post term? Hmmm. What were the figures for 41 weeks by the way? In the UK we were not ‘allowed’ to induce for post dates until Term + 13 days. It was considered that the risk of induction out-weighed the risk of post dates therefore we had to wait until post-term occurred ie. 42 weeks. September 18, 2010 at 3:16 pm Here’s the site with the data set I was looking at… Here’s just some interesting figures. At the weight of 3000-3499g…at 39 weeks the mortality rate is 1.9 ,at 40 weeks it’s 1.97 ,at 41 weeks it’s 1.91 ,at 42 weeks it’s 2.09(it goes down to 1.79 in the next highest weight group) ,at 43 weeks its 1.99(it again goes down to 1.81 at the next highest weight group) ,at 44 weeks its 1.78. It appears the increase in deaths comes with the higher gestation and lower weights. That’s were the differences are showing up. Of course, this is just me looking at data, not research ,but I would love to see something done on this. I agree with your assessment of what might happen with an iugr baby. Just another interesting thought on our birthing mentalities: as you can see from this data ,bigger babies do better for the most part no matter what gestation ,so why do bigger babies scare the medical community. Also ,the total death rate for 38 weeks is 2.67(where I work, having a woman go into labor at 38 weeks is no big deal). This same death rate is not seen even up to 44 weeks….why is there the saying in the medical community that nothing good happens after 40 weeks, when the death rates are lower than at 38 weeks which seems to be no biggy(sorry just another tangent:)). midwifethinking says: September 18, 2010 at 4:29 pm The other thing to consider is whether some of the smaller babies were a twin? Small babies (true IUGR not just genetically small) are associated with mothers who are less healthy – poor nutrition, smokers etc. so again this could be a confounding variable I did read some years back talk of inducing at 37 weeks to avoid the spike at 38 weeks. I am hoping that stupid idea was buried. It was also to see in the data pregnancies up to 46 weeks!!! Either way the death rate is extremely small in any term group. Sara says: September 22, 2010 at 12:46 am Just seen on a birth discussion board- “I had to have a c-section because I went 42 weeks and didn’t go into labor”. Seriously. argh. her siggy announces that her babe had to be “evicted” at 42 weeks… midwifethinking says: September 22, 2010 at 9:19 am She probably believes that. I have heard of women being told that if they haven’t gone into labour by 42 weeks then their body is unable to labour and they need a c-section. I guess it’s a creative excuse for a c-section… Erin says: September 30, 2010 at 7:23 am Perhaps you could clear something up for me, because I have done a lot of reading about this topic and there is something I am not clear on. If term gestation is 37 to 42 weeks, is everyone talking about 42 completed weeks? Like 42 wks and 6d? Or at the beginning of Week 42? Or is there even a consensus? midwifethinking says: September 30, 2010 at 7:32 am It is unclear but basically term pregnancy lasts up to 42 weeks. Once over 42 weeks and into the 43rd week it is considered ‘post-term’. Not many induction happen at or after 42 weeks. Usually they happen in the 41st week before the pregnancy reaches ‘post-term’. Hope that makes sense. October 1, 2010 at 12:40 am great post! I would like to translate this into spanish… is that alla right to you? thanks! midwifethinking says: October 1, 2010 at 7:12 pm Of course – I would be honoured! October 1, 2010 at 1:55 pm While I am agreement with the idea that postdates pregnancy can be safely managed, and generally try to avoid inductions, I cannot disagree more with the idea that every baby knows when it needs to come. In my opinion, this is nonscientific magical thinking nonsense, and has no place in medical advice. Many babies deliver at completely the wrong time. Some deliver quite premature, and some wait so long to deliver they die before they come. Did they know when to come? Individual anecdotes do not change the statistical knowledge that we have, or justify dangerous practice. The reason postdates is a concern is exactly what you are saying – there is a risk of fetal demise. 1 in 200 is really a pretty high risk, and I’m pretty surprised you would minimize it (though honestly I think your numbers are high, 2/1000 is closer to correct from 42-43 weeks). But still, would you get on a plane that had a 1/200 risk of crashing? Is that actually a risk you are willing to rationally take? Of course you would say no to this, but I suspect you would say yes to the continued pregnancy because you have an innate trust in pregnancy that makes you believe everything is going to be OK. As an obstetrician, I know that everything is not going to be OK if we wait for every baby to deliver. Some babies are going to die avoidably, and that is unacceptable. Randomized trials have shown that routine induction at 41 weeks does not increase our cesarean delivery rate compared with expectant management, hence the typical practice pattern of induction at 41 weeks. Another thing worth adding is that we can likely eliminate post dates fetal death through appropriate antepartum testing. As postdates fetal demise is almost certainly due to uteroplacental insufficiency (old placenta), we have a reasonable expectation that that fetal demise will be preceded by an abnormal fetal heart rate tracing. By employing fetal nonstress testing in women who prefer to await natural labor, we can likely identify those infants at greatest risk and recommend induction. However, if folks choose to await labor post dates without monitoring, they are taking the risk of a rare fetal demise that likely is avoidable. In my opinion, your views of the dangers of induction are clouded by a pre-existing bias against the practice. The risks you list for pitocin are alarmist and completely unrealistic in real practice, as are those for the use of prostaglandins, which have been shown to be safe in induction in scores of studies. I appreciate your blog and your passion, but cannot read your post without posting this information. Your readers deserve to have another view, and perhaps one that is a little more evidence based. midwifethinking says: October 1, 2010 at 7:11 pm I appreciate your comments Nicholas but I think you have made a few assumptions about me. Of course I am aware that allowing nature to unfold can occasionally result in adverse outcomes. This is usually one of the main reasons women hire a midwife. We can identify deviations from the norm; carry resus equipment and oxytocics; have skills to manage emergencies; and have appropriate transfer plans. Modern medicine has saved many women and babies. I attend births expecting the best but prepared for the worst if necessary. But, I guess from experience I really do trust women and babies to get it right most of the time and I encourage women to trust themselves because empowered women birth better. To be fair, when I worked in the hospital setting I had far less trust of women because I witnessed them (although it was us) stuffing it up so regularly. So I do understand the lack of trust many have. As for evidence… I have included links to the ‘gold standard’ Cochrane review and the risks of medications are directly from the manufacturers not made up by me. The dangers of pitocin are often underplayed. I worked with an obs who referred to it as ‘lethal’ in an attempt to get midwives to take the risks seriously and not to be so blasé about asking him to prescribe it. I am sure you are aware that unless we fully disclose the risks of any procedure (regardless of how insignificant we consider them) we are liable for legal action. I am sick of counselling women who tell me ‘no one told me that if I was a induced…’ It is not our (mws and obs) risk to take, or not take as i have clearly stated – it is the woman’s. I have supported women who have chosen induction (and epidural before pitocin), and those who haven’t. All I ask from women is that they are fully informed and take responsibility for their birth choices. My job is not to make their decisions or judge their choices. Some of us might get on a plane that had a 1/200 chance of crashing if we considered that staying in our current location was also dangerous. kanwal says: March 31, 2013 at 1:14 pm Though I don’t have a thorough medical knowledge, however, what I have studied so far in this arena tempt me to agree with you on many accounts November 7, 2013 at 5:42 pm Midwives have been dilivering for centurys and the country’s that have the best birth rate are the one who continue to use and respect midwives your mind set has a direct effect on your health and that has been proven, a laboring women is no different…. Are bodys are made to have baby’s February 14, 2019 at 11:45 pm Thank you Nicholas for this post. I have 4 children, 2 inductions. At the start of my 3rd induction at 39 weeks we discovered my daughter was possibly in distress and delivered via c-section out of an abundance of caution. She had the umbilical cord wrapped around her body and neck and wouldn’t have been able to deliver naturally. If I had waited on her to decide it was time to arrive, she probably wouldn’t be here right now. I have 4 beautiful, healthy children and never suffered from induction. October 2, 2010 at 7:38 am Cochrane is nowhere near a gold standard. Meta analyses, of which Cochrane exclusively consists of, is a useful tool, but it has huge potential for bias in its construction. Many Cochrane analyses are deeply flawed, and often they make no conclusions at all, based on a lack of good data to work from. There is no question that pitocin can be used in a dangerous manner, and in that sense you could consider it a lethal drug. The same could be said for just about any drug, as most drugs are dangerous if given improperly. I agree with you completely that inductions have risks, and should not be undertaken without clear indication. Postdates is a reasonable indication, and in randomized trials doesn’t seem to increase the cesarean rate. That being said, this is randomized obstetrical care, and some midwives have expressed that they believe that they might have a lower cesarean rate had the expectant management group been randomized to midwife attendance in labor. Perhaps. I think OBs and midwives often are working with very different populations of patients. I just came on as attending to a full labor and delivery, 75% of which is patients having inductions around 40 weeks or for questionable conditions like mild hypertension at 37 weeks. I don’t like it either. midwifethinking says: October 2, 2010 at 9:00 am I wrote ‘gold standard’ tongue in cheek. As I said in a previous post – meta analysis is only as good as the research reviewed. Research is usually flawed and always biased. Even the questions asked are biased and influenced by the researcher. Unfortunately, quantitative meta analysis of RCTs are considered to be the best available evidence and practice guidelines are written based on them. I am a qualitative researcher and my bias is wanting to know about women’s experience of birth. I doubt my findings will find their way into practice. Regarding indications for IOL – I actually think ‘woman’s request/choice’ is the only indication whether that is based on medical information eg. Postdates, pre-eclampsia, etc. or nothing at all. Emma Ashworth says: April 9, 2016 at 2:17 am There are many more adverse outcomes to induction than caesarean birth, even before we look at the flaws in the trials which appear to show that induction may not increase the CS rate. Pingback: The curse of meconium stained liquor \| Midwife Thinking's Blog Carly says: October 16, 2010 at 7:59 am LOVE this blog and recommend it to all of my friends as I believe that you give the ‘other’ side of the story, from the side of baby and mother rather that the one-sided view that you seem to get thrust at you from hospitals, in my experience anyway. Anyway, could I just ask a question? I had gestational diabetes with my son in 2008 and the hospital led me to believe that I needed to be induced at 38 weeks and refusing this would basically endanger my child. They told me the placenta would cease to be as effective and there was a strong possibility that my baby would grow too big to deliver naturally if left any longer. This was my first child and I must say I never even thought about questioning their recommendations. I was induced at 38 weeks and after two days and some very painful interventions and whilst strapped up to several IV lines including insulin, antibiotics and an epidural I gave birth to a 7lb 14oz boy. He wouldn’t feed, grunted on each breath and spent the next 2 days in NICU. Looking back I fully realise that he simply was not ready to be born. I am now pregnant again and may again have GD. Do you have any thoughts on whether babies born to mums with GD NEED to be induced at 38 weeks? From the research I have done in the last couple of months the evidence seems very thin and looks as though it may well be the hospitals covering their own back. I would so love to have a natural birth with minimal interventions at a time when my baby is ready but will the GD compromise this dream? Would love to hear your thoughts midwifethinking says: October 16, 2010 at 10:12 am I can’t comment on your individual situation and technically gestational diabetes is outside the scope of midwifery. Babies of gestational diabetics statistically are at more risk of morbidity and mortality. However, not much is know about the particular risks for particular factors ie. between insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent, well controlled, poorly controlled, etc. The individual woman and her situation needs to be considered rather than a blanket policy. The Cochrane review re. elective delivery is inconclusive (http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab001997.html) about the benefits of induction whereas the NICE guideline recommends delivery after 38 weeks: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG63/NICEGuidance/pdf/English. Also check out Michel Odent’s perspective: http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2008/01/michel-odent-on-gd.html. It is about you weighing up the risks of your individual GD + ongoing pregnancy with the risks of induction and early delivery. Only you will know what is right for you and your baby – you don’t ‘NEED’ to be induced. It is one of your options but you choose your birth. Good luck and let me know how it goes. Anne says: March 15, 2013 at 10:39 am May 29, 2014 at 6:32 am question everything and dont b afraid by thinking your silly like me…my first 2 girls no problems.my 3rd a boy was induced due 2 gd they told me he was 2 big ha!ha! at 7/9 that was average.my last another boy they induced me at 38 weeks due to hbp i refused at 1st and they told me there could b complications if i didnt go ahead with it so i did .he definatley was not ready at 17mnts he still has health issues.i still feel like im in a nightmare thinking of the birth.so always question..best of luck jenny says: October 24, 2010 at 9:25 am I am currently 3 weeks and 2 days overdue. I have been offered induction, and refused. This is my 10th baby, my 7th was also 4 weeks overdue, although I did not labour effectively and needed pitocin to regulate contractions. I am checking movement and having CTG tra ces done, but am healthy, have low BP, no swelling e.t.c. I am hoping that labour will happen in the next week, but am a little anxious, as a friend went almost 6 weeks over and then had to be induced. midwifethinking says: October 24, 2010 at 12:30 pm Wow – your friend went 6 weeks! Did the baby appear post-term? Did you have a ‘dating’ ultrasound in your pregnancy? I wonder if this was more common before we were able to ‘diagnose’ pregnancy so early and use u/s to predict due date. I would love to hear how/when this baby arrives. Good luck x November 12, 2010 at 8:33 pm This was a vary informative blog, I enjoyed reading it. I am a young mom of 23 years old and I induce my first two children let my third one come on her own and am planning on letting my fourth do what ever she wants. I wanted to just comment that as a person who had two inducements with pitocin, they weren’t as hard on my body as letting my daughter choose her own time did. My daughters labor went really fast for me ( 4 hours compare to the previous 8 hours) and was really hard it was when I opted for a epidural. all three are healthy weights 8lbs 6 oz, 6lbs 8 oz, and 8lbs 8.2oz. November 28, 2010 at 9:09 pm Great post! Thanks for the update. Women really need this information so they can make an informed choice. Health professionals need this information so that they are able to ensure women have an opportunity to choose in an informed way. Emma Someone says: November 29, 2010 at 8:49 pm I thought that the definition of term was 37 completed weeks of gestation. It almost reads at the moment that it’s during the 37th week. What’s your take on that? midwifethinking says: November 30, 2010 at 9:56 am Term is ‘from 37 weeks to 42 weeks’. Not the 37th week as this would be ‘from 36 weeks’. Having said that most babies in their 37th week ie. 36+4 etc are perfectly fine on the outside. Maybe it is unclear in the post. Janet says: April 6, 2011 at 9:03 am Hi there Both my children were ‘late’. The first at 41 weeks. The second at almost 42 weeks. With my second I had a great midwife who told me that hospital procedure required her to book the induction for 42 weeks, I advised her that I would not attend this appointment but would be happy to continue coming in for regular monitoring (every 2 days at that stage). Luckily he came along at 40+10 so I didn’t have to fight the system. With both pregancies I had a ‘stretch and sweep’ (with my second pregnancy I had THREE!) – how do you feel about those as a method of ‘induction’? midwifethinking says: April 6, 2011 at 1:16 pm Stretch and sweep can help to release prostaglandin and encourage labour to start IF the body is ready to respond. How do I feel about it? If a woman wants me to do it I will, but would want to explore why she wants to encourage her baby/body to do something that will happen anyway if left alone. Maybe there is a reason for the wait that we don’t understand. If we didn’t have due dates and expectations that babies arrive within precise timeframes there wouldn’t be such dramas over ‘late’ babies, nor the need to kick start labour. Doing a stretch and sweep is not my decision or choice – the cervix involved belongs to the woman and the decision is hers. I’m pleased you managed to have your babies within the prescribed time frame and avoid the hassle of ‘post-term’. May 1, 2011 at 8:52 pm hi, i am currently in my 41st week and am trying for an unassisted VBA2C at home. unassisted because the country that i live in does not support VBACs of any sort, and no no doctor, hospital or poly clinic is willing to give me a trial of labor. my question to u is about the risks of going post date. my EDD was april 28th by earliest scan (at 8weeks) and april 14th by LMP (july 7th). if we assume i conceived 2weeks after my LMP, i am in my 41st week now. im hearing that going post date for a VBA2C can be highly dangerous. wat is the truth in that? do u think i should wait more or go ahead and schedule a c-section? midwifethinking says: May 2, 2011 at 10:56 am I don’t give advice only information. You must do what feels right for you. Going postdates is not highly dangerous. It does not increase your chance of uterine rupture. However, according to research being postdates reduces your chance of a vaginal birth – but the reasons are difficult to determine. You are still most likely to give birth vaginally without problems. I am hoping you are already in labour – or have your baby in your arms. It would be great if you could update us with your decisions and outcome. May 2, 2011 at 11:53 am thanx for this… since yesterday afternoon, ive been in pre-labor apparently (or watever term u guys use for it!) .. irregular contractions lasting close to a min, and some bloody mucus a couple of hours back. im in touch with a midwife in the US (u probably know her as she is the one who sent me ur links in the first place) and she is trying her best to monitor me from afar. i also have a doula who is abt an hours car ride away from me, and will come once active labor starts. i am really really hoping to have a vaginal birth this time around. will let u kno the outcome of this trial thanx for responding. i find ur posts highly informative. midwifethinking says: May 2, 2011 at 7:46 pm How exciting! Let us know when your little one is earthside x May 6, 2011 at 9:48 pm i had an unassisted home birth on may 3rd at 6:45am. it was really a very crazy experience! hubby caught our baby girl. alls well and we are both doing fine. midwifethinking says: May 7, 2011 at 7:12 pm You have made may day! Congratulations you amazing birthing mama Welcome earthside baby girl x Tara says: May 2, 2011 at 4:52 pm Thank you for your blog! I happened upon it last week and it is wonderful. I am a doula and childbirth educator, and spent some time as a homebirth midwife’s assistant, so I am nodding in agreement as I read along. I am so happy to see your post about induction and “prolonged” pregnancy and to see birth beyond 42 weeks discussed as simply a variation of normal. It’s a topic I try to cover thoroughly and carefully in my classes because IOL at 41 weeks is definitely the norm around here. I will also admit that it’s my particular soapbox because my own babies came at 41 weeks + 6 days (induced in hospital), 41 weeks + 2 days, and 44 weeks (both homebirths). If you don’t mind, here is a link to a short version of my 44 weeker’s birth story, in case any other mamas need encouragement as they wait for their little one to arrive! midwifethinking says: May 2, 2011 at 7:51 pm Thanks Tara – I’ve added a link to your story in the post. It is important for women to hear/read positive birth stories from other mothers. Erica says: May 12, 2011 at 8:41 am The link to “big babies” by Claire Hall is’nt working for me. Is there any other way for me to get to it? Thanks…btw great post midwifethinking says: May 12, 2011 at 12:03 pm Hi Erica – I just checked and the site is no longer available Thanks for letting me know. I will try and get around to writing a post about ‘big babies’ in the future. May 18, 2011 at 11:05 am I just came across this post and your blog generally and I think your analysis is very sharp and respectful of the complicated issues involved in pregnancy and childbirth. I particularly like the way you discuss risk, since nothing is risk-free and women must make choices based on the risks they are most comfortable taking on. Hope you don’t mind if we link to your blog every now and then. midwifethinking says: May 18, 2011 at 11:15 am May 26, 2011 at 6:16 am We are publishing statistics collated from all the hospitals in Ireland next Monday and I am trying to write a bit on our induction stats. Would you mind if I posted a link to this blog at the end of my piece please? midwifethinking says: May 26, 2011 at 3:33 pm Of course you can July 17, 2011 at 11:53 pm If only I had read more, and perhaps been informed by the medical team on waiting vs induction…. I am still emotionally ruined, nearly 6 years. Fear from the medical team in a hospital who gave me no support or options. They told me what was going to happen, they lied and when I questioned it, I felt like a fool… Emotionally I have not been able to allow myself to get pregnant again. I wish for another child, but my fear is so huge and haven’t been able to shift this….I urge women to read this……If only I knew I could have waited. My waters broke ‘2 weeks early’…..with no natural contractions. I was ‘high risk’……They gave me 1 day to have natural contractions, otherwise I had to be induced. The fear started there, and ended with an ’emergency c-section, epidural pethidine and 52 hours later I had a c’section. I didn’t see my baby for an hour whilst I was stitched up, I was so drugged and out of it. I got golden staff and was in bed for 2 months on anti biotics with a hole and puss oozing from me, my little girl was jaundiced, not to mention the anti biotics in her system.After 2 courses of antibiotics, the wound hadn’t healed.The Doctors then suggested that I should get my cut re-opened and done again… I said no, I cleansed my system, bathed my wound, started on homeopathics and my wound closed over with in 3 days.. I sit here and cry and want so much for my fear of birthing to dissipate. I wish someone had of just told me that I could of waited up to 3/4 days at home and trusted myself as a woman to birth the way I was meant to Birth, in my power!….x Thanks for this site…x Em.x midwifethinking says: July 18, 2011 at 8:52 am Em I am so sorry. What you went through was awful. Please access some help to talk it through – can you talk to a local midwife or doula? hugs July 19, 2011 at 5:53 pm I have, I have 2 very special friends who are midwives……No matter how much talking I do, this feels cellular and instinct has kicked in.. It’s too late now…I have had a healing with a beautiful woman, I have cried in the safety women’s circles with my friends. It still sits imbedded within me…..I never want to feel that invaded or out of my power again.x I am so blessed to have my little girl. x . Grateful for this site and will pass this onto women I know.x Thanks again, great information, with love.x midwifethinking says: July 20, 2011 at 2:38 pm It is so sad that the care you got (or don’t get) during birth has had such a devastating effect. A lesson for all practitioners mel says: June 15, 2012 at 9:56 pm hun i really think you should see a maternity hypnotherapist for emotional release work. it’s great stuff and very safe and healing. it’s something i do when helping traumatised women approach their next labours (i’m a hypnobirthing teaching) and i’ve seen disempowered, frightened women become amazons, and have beautiful easy births. July 18, 2011 at 12:11 am If only I had read more, and perhaps been informed by the medical team on waiting vs induction…. I am still emotionally scarred and it’s nearly been 6 years. My Fear is from the medical team in a hospital who gave me no support or options. They told me what was going to happen, they lied and when I questioned it, I felt like a fool…….They were very neglectful in terms of my well being, emotion, spiritual and physical being…x Emotionally I have not been able to allow myself to get pregnant again. I wish for another child, a sibling for my little girl and perhaps a boy, for my partner. Unfortunately my fear is so huge that I haven’t been able to shift this….I urge women to read this……If only I knew I could have waited. My waters broke ‘2 weeks early’…..with no natural contractions. I was ‘high risk’……The Doctors said If I didn’t start having natural contractions soon, I would have to be induced. When i refused, the Dctor told “not to be silly, do you want your baby to die”. The fear started there, then the Oxytocin started, WOW…..there was no gradual welcoming, it was on and it didn’t stop, no breaks, or time to rest…I had plugs and, a fetal monitor on, a drip..pethadine up to the eye balls,to deal with the oxytocin ( only intensified it)….. I ended up having an ’emergency c-section with an epidural. I didn’t see my baby for an hour whilst I was stitched up, I was so drugged and out of it. I ended up contracting golden staff from hospital, where my c-section wound oozed puss from the hole that wouldn’t close. My little girl was jaundiced, not to mention the anti biotics in her system.After 2 courses of antibiotics, the wound hadn’t healed.The Doctors then suggested that I should get my wound re-opened cleaned out and stitched up again.. I could of punched the Doctor. I said no, so I cleansed my system, bathed my wound, started on homeopathics and my wound closed over with in 3 days.. In the beginning,Imagine when my waters broke if the Doctor had of said ” it’s all fine, go home relax and give us a call and let us know how you are feeling, you are safe and in good hands…You aren’t high risk and your baby isn’t going to die”….perhaps I would have had the pleasure of a gentle slow movement into labor, rather than forced and help in a state of agony, with an outcome only known by Doctors… I sit here and cry and want so much for my fear of birthing to dissipate. I wish someone had of just told me that I could of waited up to 3/4 days at home and trusted myself as a woman to birth the way I was meant to Birth, in my power!….x Thanks for this site…x Em.x July 29, 2011 at 3:14 pm I love that you went into detail on all of this stuff ranging from induction of labor and the how it works to the risks of it. Particularly helpful was the risk of infant death. I had an awful experience with my midwife during my last pregnancy continuously encouraging me to go in for an induction because I was 42 weeks. I had three fetal stress tests taken and had high scores for all of them. I felt physically great, besides wanting to get the baby out. lol The baby was still very active and I felt sure that God wouldn’t allow someone to be pregnant forever. Surely. That was my hope. It was a really scary situation I had my midwife telling me that my baby was in danger and the doctor at the hospital telling me he would die after 42 weeks. In the end, I went with my gut and I also found this study by Gulmezoglu Am and held onto that for dear life. It wasn’t that comforting though since I was under immense pressure from my healthcare providers and everyone that I knew to induce. I successfully went into labor on my own when Peter was ready to be born at 42 1/2 weeks. Thank you so much for making this information available to moms! I wish that more healthcare providers knew it too. December 10, 2011 at 5:56 pm The best time for induction is 41 weeks of gestation. I think the best way of induction is Misoprostol. Here what is required is approach on how to insert to posterior vaginal fornix. Caitlin says: January 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm I am currently 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant with my first child. I am 38 years old. I live in California, just for further info. My baby is healthy and the pregnancy has been fine with zero complications. My OB/GYN started to talk about induction at the 38 week mark. I’m not exactly sure why. At 40 weeks she said to come in for a Non-Stress Test and was really pushing the idea of induction. (In fact she said it is far more likely that I’ll have to be induced than not be induced- her reasoning- I am effacing but not yet dilating) The NST test was this morning. The baby looks great, the heartbeat is strong. The placenta is healthy and working efficiently, the baby is moving and kicking just fine, amniotic fluid check- fine, etc…. So they want to give me another NST next week. Fine. I myself was 2 weeks late back in the 70’s. I’m in no hurry and it seems the baby wants to cook a little longer. I will resist induction as long as I can and am comfortable with. But when she uses phrases like “fetal death” it feels like she’s using guilt to get me to have an induction. Why does she care if I wait longer? This person barely knows me. The whole thing makes me want to hide out at home and deliver my own baby in my bedroom with my doula. (I won’t. Sadly I can’t afford to have a midwife/home birth even though I desperately want to) My baby is healthy! Why is she tormenting me!? This is such a stress-filled way to end what has been a beautiful pregnancy. Thank you for your article. I don’t feel so isolated now. midwifethinking says: January 8, 2012 at 12:18 pm Your obs is a bully and I am sorry that you are not being given evidence based information or being supported by her. I cannot believe that even an obs would suggest a stress test at 40 week… more like a stress inducing test. I really hope you can stay strong and do what feels right of you and your baby. Please let us know what happens. You are the expert on your body and baby – not your obs. March 6, 2012 at 6:12 am Hi, this blog is an amazing find – thank you! I am almost 35 weeks pregnant, and planning a home birth. I have been advised by my midwife that because of my age (42), I “won’t be allowed” to go over 41 + 4 for fear of my baby’s placenta not working properly after this gestation. I have been unable to find any info about this online but was recommended your blog……..I really want to avoid induction unless my baby’s life is at risk. Can you advise at all? midwifethinking says: March 6, 2012 at 4:03 pm I can’t offer advice… only that nothing can be done to you without your consent ie. it is not a case of ‘allowing’ you to do anything. I would be worried about your midwife’s understanding of the physiology of the placenta. You can do whatever you want. Risk is a fact of birth which ever option you choose. You need to decide what type of risk you want to take March 6, 2012 at 6:37 pm Hi again and thanks for replying. I have a good awareness of the risks of induction but it’s the risks involved in not inducing in particular at age 42 that I don’t know and am finding decent info hard to come by. midwifethinking says: March 7, 2012 at 9:08 am Rachel – the risk is an statistically increased chance that your baby will die while waiting for your labour to start or that complications will arise during labour. However, you are not a statistic and it will be difficult to identify your personal risk. Humans are more complex than stats. For example, is the statistical increased risk because of the interventions women who go postdates are subjected too? If I was caring for a woman who went past 42 weeks the kinds of questions we would be working through include ‘why’ has she gone post dates… is this normal for her or is there something else going on (emotional, physical). What has her pregnancy been like. Is she really post dates – how was the due date worked out. Has the baby grown well, is he/she moving well. What does the women feel – what does she know. There is the option of a biophysical profile where they assess placental blood flow and fetal well being – for some women this is reassuring, for others it increases stress and prolongs the pregnancy further. As for your age. This again is totally subjective. An individual 20 year old may be less healthy than an individual 45 year old. You are not a number and to be honest your age should not be an issue in itself. You really need to connect to yourself and your baby and allow your intuition and embodied knowledge to direct your regarding what is right for you. You will never find concrete answers outside yourself Emma says: January 12, 2016 at 7:56 am Thanks for this question and your replies. It’s really helpful for my situation. I hadn’t heard about biophysical profiling, so will definitely make sure I raise that with the consultant at my next appointment. I would much rather be monitored than induced! March 10, 2012 at 11:21 am Reblogged this on Mommy Baby Spot and commented: This is a must-read if you’re considering induction due to your due date having come and gone. She’s also included some really great links for more information. Don’t succumb to the medical pressure to schedule your baby. Trust your body. Thank you midwifethinking for a great article! Pingback: Asynclitism: a well aligned baby or a tilted head? \| Midwife Thinking Janet says: May 29, 2012 at 2:14 am I am currently 38 weeks pregnant, I’ve had 3 children but my 1st was 2 weeks overdue and induced and then ended up delivering by emergency c-section. My two subsequent children were natural births but each time I had my waters broken and not good experiences. As I am now 40 and have had a previous section, (16 years ago), I have been told that I can go over due up to 10 days but need to decide whether I would prefer to be induced at the end of that time if need be or opt for an elected c-section. The reason has been presented as far as I understand mainly on the basis of possible rupture of the uterus due to more intense contractions resulting from induction. Also my age has been raised as cause for caution. I’m now confused and anxious as to what would be best (apart from obviously hoping and praying that I go into labour naturally before a decision needs to be made!). To elect for major surgery and all the possible risks that presents seems crazy, but the thought of risking rupture of the uterus and all the other undesirables that can potentially arise from induction is also really worrying me. Chances are I could quite likely end up with an emergency c-section anyway! Any advice?? midwifethinking says: May 29, 2012 at 9:39 am Hi Janet – I don’t give individual advice. Some issues to consider: If you haven’t already read: http://midwifethinking.com/2010/09/16/induction-of-labour-balancing-risks/; induction will increase your risk of uterine rupture, however the risk is still small and lots of women have inductions with c-section scars… and elective c-section also has risks; you have done and can birth a baby vaginally; age is individual – some 20 year olds are less healthy than some 40 year olds; You can go as far as you like past your ‘guess’ date – no one can do anything to you without your consent. So, you basically have 3 choices: 1. Wait until your body and baby are ready to birth – regardless of what the guess date is. 2. Opt for an induction which involves: http://midwifethinking.com/2011/07/17/induction-a-step-by-step-guide/ All of these options hold risks and very small risks ie. we are talking less than 1%. You need to do what feels right for you. Let me/us know what happens June 2, 2012 at 2:14 am I wish I had found this back when it was posted (funnily enough my daughters EDD). I was induced at 42 weeks for her and it ended in a c-section, which I think was more about the length of time that I had been in labour for than anything else since she wasn’t distressed and they came in to discuss surgery within 30 minutes of my epidural… Now I find I’m fighting an uphill battle to be “allowed” to have a vbac. The hospital are fine with it in principle, but want to place restrictions on me that aren’t exactly conducive to achieving a vbac, and I’m worried the stress of arguing with my healthcare providers is going to up my adrenaline and prevent labour from coming on midwifethinking says: June 2, 2012 at 12:04 pm I hope you can find a way of de-stressing the situation because it is counter-productive. It is such a shame that the hospital creates such unnecessary stress around a simple birth. June 25, 2012 at 5:59 pm Thanks for this article and the birth stories. All three acurrately summarise my current situation of having a ‘post-term’ pregnancy. While I am convinced that my EDD is (and we already know this is only an estimate), pressure began from 39 weeks (according to their calculations) to begin the induction process. Both the baby and I are fine, it seems everytime I come into contact with a medical professional (and now that I have passed their 42 week mark this has become a daily occurrence), there is yet another reason given to me, ‘objectively’ of course, as to why I’m putting my baby and myeyself at risk. For example, last week after being given the all clear from a scan of the placenta, fluids, etc, I was then told the baby was at an oblique lie and that he was ‘too humongous’ to move. He was of course deemed ‘humongous’ based on the estimated fetal weight which clearly states is an estimate, is less accurate after 36, and without taking into account previous scan data (at 34 weeks he measured above average and from both the scan palpatation it is obvious that he is very long). So, I was then told that if I went into labour naturally his shoulder and cord would arrive first and he would asphyxiate. Super. Way to frighten a poor stunned woman who only minutes before was given the all clear. I was then told that I would be kept over the weekend and scheduled for an emergency c-section on Monday AM (clearly it was not urgent enough to ask a consultant to perform this over the weekend). I tried to insist that the baby would move as he is still quite active and had been disturbed by all of the poking and prodding, which was of course ignored. Once in hospital I felt wrongly imprisoned, as I knew nothing was wrong. And sure enough, while being monitored later that evening that I asked for the position of the baby to be checked and he was in the correct position. Once that issue was resolved they began making more of an issue about his weight and shoulder dystocia. I was also told that I wouldn’t go into labour after 42weeks bc I hadn’t and other women June 25, 2012 at 6:19 pm So, as I was saying, I was told women don’t tend to go onto labour after 42 weeks (nevermind the fact that women are generally induced before this point so there is no supporting evidence for this). I wad also then told that they wanted to check for gestational diabetes as this would explain the baby’s size (and warrant the unnecessary c-section now planned for Monday). This suggestion completely threw me! This was being suggested to a woman with none of the associated risk factors, with an extremly healthy diet, had walked, swam as well as practiced yoga 3 times per week up til 40 weeks and has only put on 11kgs. Nevermind, that not a single one of my routine urine tests had showed any positive signs for glucose. Thankfully only after very brief consideration did we decide to refuse the test, to continue with my original plan and to be discharged. They agreed, but this means both the baby and I are subjected to daily monitoring for 30 mins and today I have to see ‘my consultant’ the one who I saw for 3 mins and inaccurately ordered a ceasarian. It is obvious she is very pro-intervention, so I am trying to regain my slightly shattered confidence to go into battle. I can’t emphasise enough how stressful this is and how disempowering it feels to have someone making blanketed decisions about me and my baby without considering our case individually. But, this article has given me back some of my confidence and I am ready to ask for the evidence, to be informed of induction risks and to have my due date re-estimated. So, many, many thank yous for this! June 30, 2012 at 11:48 am I have had 4 babies. back then they didn’t do the scans they do now-Thank God! My first was due on Fri, the doc “rimmed the cervix” on monday and said he would see me in hospital in a couple of days. Jason was born 2 weeks later-healthy and 5 hrs from start to finish. I have no clue about the timing of my next, since there was a possibility I had lost a baby. She was either exactly 4 weeks late or right on time-which would be right on time in any case. My third baby was “due” 18 of Nov. and was born 18 of Dec. My 4th was due 3 wks after the “due” date. All my babies were healthy. I was healthy. I am a birh doula and have witnessed obs tell outright fabrications(lies) to get their clients to do what they want according to their schedules. Growing up I had a great deal of respect for the work and dedication I thought obs represented. It is very hard to mesh what I thought with what I have witnessed. I guess that is what happens when you put any person or profession on a pedastal. This post is a wonderful tool to get women to think and help them to know what questions to ask, and hopefully learn to respect themselves, their babies and their bodies. We were not made less that any other mammal on the planet. Our bodies are more than capable of carrying, delivering, and nurturing our babies. On the occasional time we need help, I thank God that we do have the proffessional people there to help, but we need to recognize that they are only people, with lives of their own. August 12, 2012 at 7:50 am I would love some advice from you regarding my delivery! Your post was very helpful, however, I’m still having a difficult time deciding what I need/should do. My “due date” is tomorrow. I have been at 2 cm dilated for several weeks and I started to thin about 2 weeks ago. I lost my mucus plug almost a month ago. I am considered high risk because I have a thyroid disease. My doctor has been pretty great about meeting my desires and not pushing an early induction. Last week, he suggested that if I had not gone into labor by my next appointment (coming Tuesday) that we would schedule an induction for the following week. He does not want me to carry over 1.5 weeks but he will let me go 13 days. I haven’t argued with him because I don’t know what I feel most comfortable with. Do you have any suggestions? midwifethinking says: August 12, 2012 at 9:03 am I don’t give advice only information – you need to make your own decision about your own body/baby. I have a number of concerns about your comment… Firstly how on earth do you know what your cervix is doing and why? I am hoping that you are not seeing a care provider who is undertaking the outdated and invasive practice of vaginal examinations in pregnancy. This practice is pointless as it does not indicate when you will go into labour and it can result in complications… possibly why you lost your mucous plug in the first place. A woman who has previously had a baby can walk about with her cervix opened for most of her pregnancy. This is normal and nothing to do with labour. “My doctor has been pretty great” – because he has not bullied you into an early induction?? But will schedule an induction if his ‘guess date’ is more than a week wrong (did he discuss the evidence or your thoughts on this?)… “he will let me” NO – this is your body/baby. He does not ‘let you’ do anything. YOU let him do things to you ie. give consent for procedures. He does not need to give consent for you to not have a procedure. The only suggestion I have for you is to take responsibility for your body/baby/choices/birth and do what feels right for you… and that may be an induction. You are the one who has to experience your choice – no one else should make them for you. I am sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh with you. I am just deeply amazed and saddened at how disempowered women are within the maternity system. August 12, 2012 at 10:46 am Not quite the reply I was hoping for, beings this is my first pregnancy and it’s all so new to me. All of the women in my family that I’ve spoken to are pro-induction and pro-epidural, so it’s hard enough just feeling like I’m going against the ‘norm’. I have tried to research as much as possible during this pregnancy and I never read any warnings or had anyone tell me that having my doctor check my cervix would be a bad thing or should be avoided. The way you say it makes me feel as if I’m stupid for allowing this. I was just uninformed, like most women in America. It is hard to find any reliable sources online that are pro-natural births and list warnings of hospital procedures since it’s so common highly promoted. Just recently, 3 of my friends were induced. Each was between 36-38 weeks. When I asked why they chose to be induced, they said it was because their doctor recommended it. They didn’t question it at all. I feel like I’ve done pretty well this far since I made it very clear from day 1 that an induction would be a last resort for me and I will absolutely not have an epidural. I feel a bit deflated after your response. One of my friends that I reach out to more than anyone had a home birth and her midwife performed several vaginal examines and swept her membranes 4 different times (she is even strep b positive). I did see a lot of research where that was not suggested. I, too, am positive for strep b, so I haven’t asked him if it was something to consider. By saying my doctor was been pretty great, I mean that he has listened to my concerns and allowed me to make my own decisions so far. He has not pressured me to feel a certain way or even to schedule a induction. He made the comment that we would go ahead and schedule it so it’s on the books and we could go from there. He, like most doctors, is concerned with letting me go over 42 weeks. Like I mentioned, since I am a high risk patient, he would like me to only go to 41 1/2 weeks, but has said he will “let” me (if I still “look great” – blood pressure, etc) go up to the 25th of this month, which is 13 days past my EDD. He is a doctor for a reason and while I trust my judgement, I also take his opinion into consideration since he is aware of my medical history. Thank you for your response, I guess, but I will seek information from other, more understanding and less harsh resources!! midwifethinking says: August 12, 2012 at 11:14 am I am sorry you have taken my comments as a personal attack. If you note I state that women are disempowered within the maternity system ie. you are not given access to the information and care providers take a paternal approach to their client relationship. You are not stupid. You are searching for the right answer. My point is that you will find external experts who advocate induction and ones who advocate never inducing. I don’t advocate either. I want you to access the information and make your own decision. I have taken lots of time and effort to put the information out there for women to access. It speaks volumes that you have been unable to explore your options and thoughts with your care provider. I am aware that homebirth midwives also do dangerous/pointless practices such as vaginal examinations in pregnancy (and worse). This is why I use the term ‘care provider’ to talk about those who do things to women. You asked me to give you advice. I do not know your medical history – your doctor does and is in a position to discuss with you your options and the risk and benefits of each option specifically related to your individual case. To ask me or anyone outside of this relationship for advice is putting them in a difficult situation. You may be able to find some more understanding and less harsh resources on the internet but I hope you don’t find anyone willing to give you advice about what to do in your situation (for their sake and yours). Again I apologise if you feel that my response is an attack on you. It is not. It is a comment on the state of maternity care and how it works to prevent women from being informed and from taking responsibility for their birth journey. Also be careful about stating you will absolutely not have an epidural. Induction is not a physiological process and many women require an epidural to manage the pain. You have not failed if you choose an induction or an epidural. It is important that you do what is right for you not other people. If you are not too annoyed by my honesty I’d love for you to come back and let us know how your birth went November 14, 2012 at 2:43 pm Wow, do you have the same autonomy of your legal issues wrt your attorney? Do you tell your builder contractor how you want him to construct the framework? Do you have that same autonomy in choosing the chemotherapy for a relative who may have cancer? Sounds like if this woman wanted an epidural and wanted an induction, you would take that autonomy aware from her because you want to impress your ideals upon her. POT meet kettle. midwifethinking says: November 14, 2012 at 2:55 pm Have you actually read the reply and the post and other posts on here? Try: http://midwifethinking.com/2011/04/09/judging-birth/ If a woman wants an epidural and an induction I support her choice… I have cared for many women who chose this option… and elective c-section. It is her birth, not mine – she needs to gather information and make HER choices. I’d like to see where I suggest taking autonomy away. That’s the opposite of what I am suggesting in this thread which is about taking responsibility for ones body/baby/choices rather than expecting others to. From your comments re. autonomy and building/medical treatment/law – you clearly don’t understand the concept of bodily autonomy or law regarding adequate information for consent. September 3, 2012 at 1:17 pm I am a doula in Ottawa, Canada. I really enojoy your blog. Thank you for writing! In your opinion, if an induction was necessary for medical reasons at 37 weeks with the first baby. Because of all the advirse effects on the induction drugs to the baby and because it could 3 times more likely turn into an emergency Cesarean, wouldn’t it be a better choice to have one planned?What are your thoughts on this? midwifethinking says: September 4, 2012 at 6:50 pm Yes – I think that an elective c-section should be offered as a choice in this situation. The mother needs to make the decision as what she feels is the best option for her weighing up the risks and benefits of induction vs c-section. Penny says: September 10, 2012 at 3:14 pm This is exactly what I needed to read at 42 weeks 4 days. Thank you! I am still feeling great, my daughter is doing well. My doctor has been great about following what I want, not that he has a choice, until my last appt (42 week). He still made sure I knew it was my choice to make, but made it very clear that he feels I’m putting my daughter’s life at risk. He even asked what exactly my issue is with induction. I explained that once one intervention is introduced that it often causes a domino effect that I’m not comfortable with. He had me start doing NST and she is passing those without issue. I am thinking of asking for a biophysical profile at my next visit as he has mentioned he isn’t comfortable with me remaining pregnant after that date. He said by then he wants me to make a decision. Obviously he’s trying to pressure me into the induction, but back tracked to make sure I knew he couldn’t make me do anything. Thankfully when he tried to play the ‘dead baby card’, to scare my husband I believe, he underestimated my support system. Thankfully my daughters birth will more than likely be attended by a midwife. Do you have opinion on biophysical profiles? midwifethinking says: September 10, 2012 at 4:10 pm Biophysical profiles when done correctly can provide helpful information ie. if they show that all is well. However, they can promote anxiety and stress for some women which is not helpful. Remember this is your body/baby and therefore your choice. Your doctor is not responsible for your choices – only for the care and information he provides. Maybe he needs reminding of this? Good luck, let us know what happens Penny says: February 23, 2013 at 7:17 pm I went into labor/water broke (the day after I left my comment) on my birthday September 11 at 8 am. I was to 7cm at 10am and my daughter was born at 1:24pm. She was OP and didn’t turn until I was pushing. She weighed 8lbs 11oz 20 inches long. The head nurse that I had met during a NST (very chatty) informed me that it was in my chart that had I made it to my OB appt that day my OB had planned on talking me into an induction. I explained to her that I wouldn’t have consented and she said “Good! Your baby is doing well.”. The hospital I gave birth in was much better than I thought it would be. After my last birth I was fearful of hospital policies vs my birth plan. I had one nurse for the entire time I labored. I was her only patient so she stayed in the room and helped my husband comfort me. Suggested a bath, different positions to try to get my daughter to turn, and held the monitor to me so I could continue to move around. She also was our day postpartum nurse while we were there. My daughter was breastfeeding so well when she was put on my chest that they left us alone to cuddle for two hours. They were all wonderful supporters of breastfeeding. All of the nurses followed my birth/baby plan without complaint. Even my requests for no eye ointment and no bath. After the last hospital I was ready for a fight and was so relieved to not have to. The on call OB was less than pleasant. I had Norovirus and while the nurse explained this the OB looked at me and said “So you took castor oil.”. She was also very angry that I was refusing routine pitocin and made a few rude comments about to the nurses in front of me. She was so rude it was actually funny. The nurses kept looking at me in horror. Even they were shocked. Over all I am very happy with the experience. Thank you for easing my fears. The information you share here is so important. midwifethinking says: February 25, 2013 at 6:07 pm Thank you so much for coming back and sharing your experience. Congratulations! Erin says: September 10, 2012 at 9:21 pm I was induced at 41 weeks (EDD based on dating scan) with my first baby in February year. LNP put me at 40+3 but my cycle had been anywhere between 28-38 days in the year prior to getting pregnant. Due to Wednesday 8th February being lucky in the Chinese culture (I live in Melbourne!) I was unable to be induced at 40+10 as all the induction spots at the hospital had been booked! I had the option of waiting until 40+12 or else 40+7 (which I chose). I liked the fact that you clearly outlined the risks associated with induction however I did not face the issues of confinement and limited movement that you suggested. I was given cervidel at 4pm and attached to a wireless CTG that allowed me to move freely around the birth suite. After 90 minutes of monitoring, in which I had already begun contracting, I was allowed to walk down to the hospital restaurant to get food (provided I was back in 30minutes for more monitoring). At 7.30pm my membranes spontaneously ruptured and active labour really began. The wireless CTG allowed me to assume any position I liked and I spent most of the time walking/squatting/standing etc.I had an IV catheter inserted (incase further intervention may be needed) but was not hooked up to an IV line/bag so this did not limit my movement either. I was determined to move as much as possible during labour to really get the endorphins working. After my membranes ruptured I was able to use the shower for pain relief as desired as well. At 10.50pm an internal examination was done suggesting that i was 5-6cm dilated and fully effaced. At this point i decided i wanted an epidural however i had a very good midwife who convinved me to wait it out a little longer (she knew i wanted to keep as active as possible for as long as possible). At 11.25pm I asked for pethidine however again my midwife convinced me to wait 15 minutes to see how I was going. At 11.30pm I felt the need to push and at 11.45pm my son was born on the 5th February. My obstetrician didn’t make the birth (he assumed after the internal examination I’d be at least a few more hours) and I managed to birth my son without any pain relief at all. I guess I wanted to tell my story as everyone told me beforehand ‘that I didn’t want to be induced’/’that I wanted to avoid being induced at all costs if I could’ etc but for me being induced was no-where near as terrible as everyone made it out to be. I am sure it can be awful (as some of the above stories attest) however if a future pregnancy required me to be induced I would definitely do it again. I am sure some genetics were involved (my mum had me spontaneously and naturally in 6 hours and my younger brother in 3 hours and my grandma had my mum in 5 hours and her younger sister in 2 hours) however I am also thankful for my obstetrician, midwife and hospital for allowing me to support my birth plan despite being induced by being able to move around as much as possible and holding me off from pethidine/epidural while in transition when your mind tells you ‘that I don’t want to do this anymore!’. So while there are many risks involved I definitely think that the mindset you take into induction can help you with your induction experience. midwifethinking says: September 12, 2012 at 9:07 am Thank you for sharing your experience. Induction can be a positive experience. It seems your body was ready to respond and you managed to avoid the artificial oxytocin IV which is often the source of problems during induction. Tina says: September 12, 2012 at 9:11 pm Just wanted to say I’ve had 4 children all were past their EDD, one was 17 days past and I was threatened with and Induction but baby decided it was time, I had no calcification of the placenta only thing that was noticeable was he seemed to shed a layer of skin over the first couple of days otherwise perfectly health and he’s 25 now!!!! Rob M says: November 11, 2012 at 11:55 pm Thank you for your article. We have two daughters: one was induced at 38 weeks while the other arrived of her own accord at 40. The oldest was induced and is now 31 months and the younger is 14 months. we have compared how often both girls get sick and found that the daughter who was induced is more prone to catch colds, viruses etc. This trend tends to repeat within our family between children that have been induced and those that have not. I wish our obstetrician mentioned that there may be potential consequences to our baby’s health later in life. I now appreciate that nature knows what it is doing and we need to listen more to her and where possible we should not try to change the natural process. November 18, 2012 at 4:51 am Did the daughter that was induced receive antibiotics in the hospital, during the labor or afterwards? That could have an effect on the health of the child throughout her life. I also have a friend with 3 children, and the one that was induced (the youngest) has the most allergies of the three and seems to get sick more often. KM says: December 17, 2012 at 11:46 pm As you say, research depends upon who is interpreting it. In regards to the increased LSCS rate in first time mothers who were induced; Was it is the induction process or the pathology behind the cause for induction which led to this increase in caesareans? midwifethinking says: December 18, 2012 at 4:25 pm Yes, it is difficult to make clear cause and effect assertions from quantitative research. Both studies cited in my post attempted to control for co-founding variables. The Selo-Ojeme et al. study only looked at induction for post-term pregnancy. In both studies the researchers concluded that induction of labour independent of other factors increased the risk of c-section for primiparous women. That is their interpretation. The same problems crop up with research into post-term pregnancy which demonstrate increased risks for the baby… they don’t provide the ‘why’ ie. are these babies already at higher risk for reasons other than length of gestation. Anyhow, in terms of induction and c-section the findings fit with ‘common knowledge’. In my years of working in a large regional hospital we would have to inform the anaesthetist and theatre staff when putting a primip on syntocinon… because it was likely we would end up in theatre and need them. Either way, I think this evidence should be shared with women to assist in their decision making re. induction. Ann says: January 19, 2013 at 3:23 pm Thank you for your posts and sharing your knowledge and research! It has been wonderful learning from you! I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into writing about such important issues. midwifethinking says: January 20, 2013 at 9:54 am Thanks January 23, 2013 at 8:41 pm Thanks for your brilliant blogs. As a London based Hypnobirthing teacher and clinical hypnotherapist, I’m frequently having to help women ‘fight off’ unnecessary inductions. It’s so often not an ‘offer’ but pressure and bullying. When questioned on risk, many midwives simply don’t know the facts. I work with many women for the first time during their second pregnancy following a difficult or traumatic first birth. I am often de-traumatising before anything else is possible. I think there is an argument to say that an (unnecessary) induction can cause PTSD. Do you know of any research on this? Thanks again. midwifethinking says: January 25, 2013 at 7:35 am It is great that women are finding healing after traumatic births and that there are practitioners like yourself to support them in this. Wouldn’t it be great if women had empowering first births instead? There is a fair bit of research on interventions and a negative birth experience. In summary – the less control the woman perceived she had over the events, the more likely she is to be traumatised. So it is not the intervention, but the way it is administered that matters. I don’t know anything specific to induction – but if a woman did not feel informed and was pushed into an induction with full information… and then endured the associated interventions and complications she may be traumatised. In contrast, if she chose an medically unnecessary induction and was fully informed of the risk, she may feel empowered that she was in control of the events in her birth. Pingback: Induction of Labour – Balancing the risks \| Ripple Effect Yoga February 14, 2013 at 5:16 am I loved it Kaye Bucknor says: February 17, 2013 at 9:00 pm A very interesting blog. I am one of the women who does not necessarily mind intervention. Whilst I would prefer not to have any kind of assisted delivery (especially a c-section), if its needed then so be it. I had an epidural with my first child and it was the best thing I ever did, I couldn’t move and was on a drip but this did not bother me, In fact I was glad of the chance to rest and sleep. My labour lasted 12 hours (which I believe is the lower end of average for first time mothers) and I had absolutely no problems. I am currently overdue by 2 days with my second child and would and will do it all again. My baby is also in a occiput posterior position and as I have been led to understand that this can lead to a much more painful labour, I request that they have an epidural ready and waiting! I am not ashamed of this, I am no hero and no one will be awarding me any medals for doing it au naturele! I am happy for women who insist on only natural births and yes I do agree this is the optimal way (for most), but for me, I don’t tolerate pain well, and i don’t want to be pregnant past 42 weeks and if that means intervention then so be it! I am no medical professional, and like you said, any medical intervention for anything poses risk, but I would take an educated guess that the progression of medical technology regarding pregnancy labour and birth, since even 50 years ago, results in fewer maternal and perinatal deaths. Whether or not that means intervention and an inability to move, if that’s means that my baby and me will be ok in a situation that otherwise might’ve meant extreme complications or death in a time when these interventions did not exist, I’d take interventions any day of the week. This is just my personal opinion of course, but like was stated, as a woman, MY choice would be for the labour and birth choice that is most comfortable for me. But I respect that women should be informed of the risks of all possibilities of birth, but not made to feel any less of a woman if they choose to have pain releif such as the epi, or feel like a failure if they end up with a c-section. Interesting blog, thank you for sharing a midwifes perspective. Loz says: February 22, 2013 at 10:42 pm Midwife thinking – you are a star. It’s so refreshing to read your information. I’m not going to ask you anything as I have read a similar story to mine in your blog (42 years old and doc wants to induce me) I’m so relieved. I’m fit and healthy, had a fantastic pregnancy so far and the only thing worrying me was induction. Thankfully just for a week, since I’ve found your site I am no longer stressed and will go back to my doc confident about the questions I want to ask. Thank you so much x midwifethinking says: February 23, 2013 at 8:16 am Thank you and enjoy your new baby March 16, 2013 at 5:49 pm Hello! i found your blog through a link on Twitter. This is a well written, informative and empowering post. I do wonder if the photo of caster oil was a good idea though – particularly for those who simply skim read posts, and as a result might think you were advocating the use of caster oil as an ‘alternative to waiting’. I’m so happy to have discovered your blog and will be back to read more April 5, 2013 at 7:31 am Am 40week+3 pregnant and am going to be induced next week thursday ur blog as been so informative. I will keep u post on how my induction goes, but I still pray I go into natural labour before then midwifethinking says: April 5, 2013 at 8:04 pm Hannah says: April 15, 2013 at 6:20 pm Great article thanks! I’d love to hear your comments/experience with women in my situation. I have a ‘double’ uterus, ie. a completely separate second uterus with a second vagina (not really sure of the correct term as it seems there are all different degrees of the same thing). I have no kidney on my left side, and my left vagina is the ‘path less travelled’ so to speak, hence I have no chance of conception in that side. I had been told, and was kind of expecting, trouble actually conceiving, as I can only really conceive when ovulating from the right ovary, I was also 36 when I decided to go off the pill after half of my life on it. Surprisingly I was pregnant within a couple of months. I was treated as high risk in the early months because doc wasn’t sure how well my right uterus would expand, and how much room was there. I ended up having an amazing pregnancy, worked hard to stay super healthy and fit, gained only 3kg as I was overweight to begin with. At 40+3 my bp shot up and doc advised induction. I was scared as everyone I know who was induced ended up having emergency cs. But I trusted my doc as she was super supportive of all of my plans, and was highly recommended by (and complimentary of) my doula. She always said ‘women’s bodies know what to do and baby knows where to go, in an ideal birth I’ll only be there to sign the papers’. This attitude is amazing where I live (I’m an Aussie living in Dubai) as birth here is a purely medical process, must happen in hospital with an obstetrician and is full of interventions, most of which seem to me to be for the benefit of the doctor/hospital schedule. I went into hospital the next day and had 3 inductions over the next 3 days, I begged for a 4th in a last attempt to avoid cs, but I just didn’t dilate at all. I also had my acupuncturist come, my doula was with me doing hypnobirthing techniques, acupressure etc, but despite everything I ended up having a cs. I had the most amazing baby boy who I still think of as my little miracle at 19 months old. After his birth my doc said the left useless uterus was pulling so hard on the right one that my right cervix had dislocated and there was no way it could dilate. So I realise I was never going to have had a vaginal birth that time, which is somewhat reassuring as I don’t need to beat myself up over choices made. But I have heard of women with the same physiological setup birthing vaginally. In your experience, would this likely be an issue second time round? Would this be permanent cervical damage, or can the cervix repair itself and function as nature intended next time? I’d love to try for a vbac if I get pregnant again, but I don’t know if there’s any chance at all. I will be ecstatic just to have another healthy happy baby, however they come into the world! midwifethinking says: April 16, 2013 at 9:09 am I have known women with similar anatomy ie. double uterus have a vaginal birth. As I don’t have your notes, and have not been involved in your care it is difficult for me to comment. However, some questions that jump out = did you have ‘raised bp’ or pre-eclampsia (PE)? Raised bp does not mean you have PE – and blood tests + urine tests are required to make this diagnosis ie. raised bp alone is not an indication for induction. Your cervix is not separate to your uterus, it is just the opening… it is all part of the same structure. The uterus pulls up or ‘absorbs’ the tissue that is called the ‘cervix’ during labour… I am not sure what is meant by dislocate or how that could possibly happen… Even if you have 2 uteri and 2 cervixes, the hormonal changes during physiological labour would soften them and allow stretch… but then again I don’t know the particulars… just thinking out loud. Enjoy your beautiful baby boy and I can’t see any reason for you not to be able to birth a baby out of your vagina in the future. nail fungus says: April 30, 2013 at 8:14 pm Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve truly enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon! alex says: May 4, 2013 at 1:58 am This may help provide some clarity May 16, 2013 at 9:00 pm Great blog! I was just wondering after reading the comments what are the precise stats of having a still birth after going over 42 weeks and refusing an induction. 1 in 200 or 1 in 1000? Also, if you choose expectant management then surely the risk must be very low if you’re being monitored every few days? Thanks! midwifethinking says: May 17, 2013 at 8:57 am Unfortunately you will never get precise stats for individual women ie. your particular pregnancy/baby/situation. Waiting beyond 41 weeks and declining induction = 30 in 10’000 chance of your baby dying. Being monitored (if that involves a full biophysical profile) can provide an indication of how well the baby is at the time of the assessment… and may indicate a decline in the condition of the baby ie. reduced placental flow. But not necessarily. There are no risk free options. You must choose the risk you want to take. LBensonMama says: May 21, 2013 at 3:59 pm Do you have any information regarding twins. Specifically, being “full term” at 38 weeks? Actually I have read some sources that say 37-38 weeks is considered full term by most OBs. I have heard that they develop faster (lung maturity, ability to suckle). How could that be? Why is it twins are born so early compared to singletons? Is it because there is so much intervention prenatally, or is it really a physiological reason? Of course I realize there are many twin mothers who have gone 40 + weeks, but that does not seem to be the norm.. midwifethinking says: May 21, 2013 at 4:22 pm Most women birth earlier with twins. Perhaps because of the size of the uterus = triggers labour (spontaneously). Also probably due to the fact that most women are induced or have a c-section ‘early’ with twins due to policies like your OB has. Therefore, not many women get to 40 weeks or over. June 6, 2013 at 2:11 pm I am 40 weeks plus 11 days..due to the fact with my previous pregnancy, the dr in the hospital scared me into an induction, even though I really didn’t want to. She brought up all these legal issues etc. And then the labour was so intense, I knew that a natural labour wouldn’t have felt like that. So with this pregnancy I actually told them a period date of 2 days later than my actual, as post dates run in my family, and was quite sure this pregnancy will most probably go over as well. And I was worried into getting ”bullied’ into an induction. and sure enough they tried getting me to come in today but thank God the midwife was supportive of my decision and coerced the dr into giving me up till Sunday night. And really I would be 40 weeks and 15 days by then. My last assessment showed that everything was going great. Can you give me any information, tips or advice for my situation… midwifethinking says: June 6, 2013 at 5:35 pm Only to trust yourself to know what is right for you and your baby. Let us know when he/she is here. trish says: July 4, 2013 at 10:33 am at 38weeks i had hbp i was told id need 2 b induced and i refused they wrote it in my chart. they told me it could cause health problems for me and my baby if i didnt go ahead with it,so i did.i will never 4get da pain i cant even sleep at times thinking of it.my 4th baby and i ended up getting an epidural im still upset after it.my little man is now 6 months so cross colic and has a floppy lyarnx.he is still waking every 3 hrs for a bottle im sorry i didnt stick with my own choice but i was afraid.i felt like i had no choice and wasnt given much information.i really think that they just wanted people out of there for xmas?????? midwifethinking says: July 4, 2013 at 5:28 pm I am sorry that you had an induction without consent. You should complain to the hospital. You should have been clear about their recommendations and the risks involved before the induction started. Concerned says: July 4, 2013 at 6:42 pm That’s not “no consent”. Turning up for induction implies consent. I’m very sorry this lady didn’t have the birth she wanted and felt that the induction process/ reasons required were not explained well enough, but it’s certainly not “no consent”. Sometimes birth just doesn’t go to plan, that doesn’t mean it’s the Dr’s/ hospitals fault. midwifethinking says: July 4, 2013 at 6:58 pm Unfortunately you are incorrect – this post explains the law relating to consent and to negligence of information giving: http://midwifethinking.com/2010/09/15/information-giving-and-the-law/ Concerned says: July 4, 2013 at 7:43 pm Thank you for the link, but I am fully aware of informed consent. I have worked in the hospital system for 20yrs and my post grad studies also included studying ethics. Again, I maintain that this lady did give consent, and again I’m sorry that her hypertension meant she couldn’t wait until term to go into natural labour. Do you explain every single risk to your home birth clients eg a baby that becomes distressed with a low fhr will be far more likely to die or suffer brain damage than it would if immediate access to a c/s was available??????? My frustration with your statements comes from my work with parents in the pediatric setting. Unfortunately you seem to foster a fear of medical professionals in hospitals. It is very difficult when faced with a sick baby you are trying to help and parents are opposing interventions etc due to mistrust of hospital staff and information they have read online. Unfortunately this is often to the detriment of the baby/ child. Why, oh why can it not be acknowledged that not everyone can have a natural labour. Things crop in some people that make that an unsafe option. Let’s acknowledge that and say ” that’s ok”. Surely that would prevent some women from feeling so upset and let down when a c/s or induction is required? midwifethinking says: July 4, 2013 at 9:02 pm “Do you explain every single risk to your home birth clients eg a baby that becomes distressed with a low fhr will be far more likely to die or suffer brain damage than it would if immediate access to a c/s was available???????” Yes I do actually. It is vital women are aware of the risks associated with their decisions. “Unfortunately you seem to foster a fear of medical professionals in hospitals.” A significant proportion of my readers and those that I work with as an educator are medical professionals – I worked in hospitals myself for many years. I foster critical thinking, evidence based practice, informed decision making, safe practice and legal/ethical practice. Perhaps if other medical professions don’t they should be feared. “Why, oh why can it not be acknowledged that not everyone can have a natural labour. Things crop in some people that make that an unsafe option. Let’s acknowledge that and say ” that’s ok”. Surely that would prevent some women from feeling so upset and let down when a c/s or induction is required?” I totally agree. I’m assuming you are not entirely familiar with my work otherwise you would know this. I think you are projecting your preconceived ideas onto me. Perhaps take some time to read the interviews with me (which includes my perspective on ‘natural’ birth) – there is a link in ‘about’, or my post ‘judging birth’… or ask me what my thoughts are rather than telling me. My response to the original commenter did not make any judgement about the necessity of her induction, only issues of consent and inadequate information giving… clearly her experience was traumatic which is not OK. trish says: July 5, 2013 at 2:31 am i didnt turn up for induction i was been kept in and felt pressured after i refused induction at first.i just felt afraid after they telling me it could cause problems later on if i didnt go ahead with it.i just wanted 2 b home xmas day with the rest of my kids and feel foolish for not asking what the real risks would be if i didnt go ahead with it.my first 2 kids{girls} were easy enough labours my 3rd a boy of course was induction as i was told he was a huge baby 7/10 but at least that was a day b4 my edd it was hard enough but it was the complications after and then 4 them 2 loose my files?????its just the pain of my 4th and last, no doubt….that really gives me nightmares.i wish i had been brave enough to ask questions. midwifethinking says: July 5, 2013 at 9:11 am Trish – this is not acceptable practice and I am sorry that you had this experience. This is not your fault and it is awful that you feel foolish, or that you should have been ‘brave’ and asked questions. The onus is on the practitioner undertaking the procedure/intervention/treatment to provide adequate information and ensure that they gain consent without coersion. It is worrying that ‘Concerned’ works in a medical setting and thinks that ‘implied consent’ is enough for a medical procedure such as induction. This is one of the problems, many practitioners are unaware of the legal and ethical issues surrounding practice and violate women’s rights without even knowing they do it. Could you write to the hospital involved and highlight your concerns? It might make them review the way they do things in the future. Concerned says: July 12, 2013 at 9:57 pm I’m sorry you had such a hard time. But again I don’t believe this was a case of no consent. Your initial refusal was respected, so why would they suddenly force things upon you? Telling you the risks of not getting bub out is not pressure, it’s giving you the info you need to make an informed decision. Yes, the risks of induction should have also been explained. Again I’m sorry that you didn’t find labour a great experience, and I don’t mean to trivialize your feelings by saying this, but wouldn’t you also be traumatized if your baby had suffered problems due to not being born at that time. Amy says: July 11, 2013 at 11:47 pm Hi there I found you blog as I was trying to find the dangers of being induced 3 weeks early. My sister in in hospital now and has been since Tuesday. The induced her and pumped her with steroids as baby was too small. She started going into early labor but then it stopped so I don’t know why they keep giving her stuff to induce the labor. The have induced her 4 times using different methods and they have stopped the labor twice due to the babies heart rate being too fast. I am in South Africa and my sister is in the UK. I am really worried that they are endangering my sister and her baby. They want to break her water now to speed things up but I am really worried as she stop dilating and only now after they used the drip this time to bring on her labor has she started dilating again and is now just over 3cm’s. She has had a hard pregnancy and this is her 4th child. Please can you tell me if my sister or her baby is in any danger as the Dr’s and nurses are not saying anything other than this is how they do things. midwifethinking says: July 12, 2013 at 10:59 am I really can’t comment on your sister’s case. I would imagine (hope) there is a very good reason for inducing her at 37 weeks i.e. a serious medical condition. The dangers of being induced 3 weeks early are the same as any induction plus addition risks… that the woman is less likely to be ready to labour therefore more difficult to get into labour, and the baby is less resilient to induced contractions therefore more likely to become distressed. Also after birth the baby is more likely to require resus and admission to special care nursery for respiratory problems. I hope you sister is fully informed about what is going on and why they are suggesting induction in her case. agatha says: July 12, 2013 at 5:11 am I was induced with cervidil at 42 weeks with my first. Then my second was also overdue about five day, and I decided to get induced, and my third was right on the forty week dot and I went in for an inducement and I can’t tell you how much I regret it. They all had a hard time nursing, and all of them have a hard time gaining weight….I will forever grieve about it. TanyaS says: July 13, 2013 at 11:04 pm Firstly, thank you for another excellent blog entry. I am a Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator working in Melbourne. One of the materials I pass on to all my clients is your blog on delayed cord clamping which I love! So I have a question: in addition to being “post term”, the other most common reasons I come across all the time for so-called justifiable inductions are oligohydramnios and macrosomia. I’d love to read your thoughts about this. Thanks! midwifethinking says: July 14, 2013 at 11:43 am Thanks Tanya… they could be entire posts in themselves – and might be. Here is a brief response. Firstly estimating oligohyramnios and macrosomia using ultrasound is very inaccurate. Amniotic fluid reduces around term anyway – so it is normal to have less fluid at this point. True oligohyramnios i.e. not just the normal reduction is not good and indicates poor placental function. It is commonly found in small growth restricted babies and usually evident before term – via palpation and in some cases you can see the baby’s limbs via the abdomen. Not good. Macrosomia – you would need to do 3695 inductions in non diabetic women with a baby estimated at 4.5kg to prevent one brachial plexus injury (ie. nerve damage due to shoulder dystocia) – Rouse et al. 1996. Not sure that an induction based on an inaccurate estimation of weight + the lack of evidence supporting induction for large babies would = justifiable. I guess that is up to the woman to decide Tanya says: July 14, 2013 at 9:54 pm Thanks for your reply! And please – I would love if you had time to get around to writing blog posts on these comments some time! Keep up the fantastic work! Laura says: July 25, 2013 at 9:00 am Thank you so much for this information! It amazes me that I can’t get this information from my healthcare provider. I have a feeling I will go past my due date and that I will be pressured into inducing, but I will definitely come prepared with this information! I expect to see “deer-in-the-headlights.” I hope this is a new age of women who take charge and make informed CHOICES about their birthing options! Maria says: July 26, 2013 at 7:35 am Hi Rachel. I too want to thank you for your blog, very informatim and reassuing indeed. I have a question which I am hoping you can answer. I went into labour with my first child naturally. Upon my arrival to the hospital the doctors announced I was not contracting “good enough” and had to be stimulated with syntocin. I’d planned to have my birth as natural and drug-free as possible, needless to say it all went pear shape. I’d been coping with my pains for several hours and thought I was doing fine. After they’d stimulated my contractions, the pains became simply exhausting, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go on like that for long and asked for an epidural. Then all as you describe – prolonged second stage, more synto, more epidural, in the end I was asking for c-section or forceps or anything to get the baby out because I simply had run out of energy. I actually managed to avoid both, miraculously, and my girl was fine, got very good apgars 9 and 10, no concerns. But I was so heavily drugged I can hardly remember them putting her on my stomach or how she looked… which still really saddens me, because well, this is the best part, isn’t it? To sum up, I did not enjoy it, and feel like I failed as a woman, in a way.. Oh well. My question to you is this: should I have insisted on carrying on on my own? It is so hard to argue with medics, especially when you’re in labour. I started feeling contractions on monday morning, at 4am on Tuesday (some 18hours later) I was at the hospital, 3cm dilated. Would you say I could have still had the chance to improve my “performance” naturally or is it the kind of time frame when one should get on with it? I know it is hard to answer such questions, I am merely wondering what was all the hurry about. It was a healthy pregnancy, with no complications… The reason for my asking is that I am 5 months into my second pregnancy and having been down the induction road, I do not want to go there again. I have so far expressed my concerns about the EDD (I belive I will be two weeks late) and the response from my MW was that the guidelines are to induce at 40wk+10. I said “There is absolutely no way I am doing that, you can put in my records now “objects to induction”. For a moment she was speechless, but then said that thechoice was mine. Gosh, I felt like I’d won a little war there More to come! Sorry it was such a long message. Thank you very much for your time, I will continue reading your website with pleasure. Kind regards. Maria midwifethinking says: July 26, 2013 at 11:14 am It sounds like you were having a ‘long’ early labour – which is very normal. It is impossible to say what would have happened if you’d been able to follow your body’s labour pattern. The problems is that in hospital they cannot accommodate women spending many hours on their labour ward – they will either send you home or speed things up. This is one of the many reasons I am a homebirth midwife now. First time mothers require a lot of patience, and when they are in their own home they can rest and await established labour and the midwife can check in (ie. is mother and baby well) and leave them to it… however long it takes. Because you have previously birthed, this time is likely to be quicker ie. a shorter early labour. And I don’t think you failed as a woman. I think the system fails women over and over again. Here are couple of posts you may find helpful. Maria says: July 26, 2013 at 7:33 pm Dear Rachel, thank you very much for your response, I have read the suggested posts and wish I’d read them sooner. Everything you mentioned is exactly how it was with me. I can only say it saddens me to see how artificial the clinical environment seems to be in that regard and how easy it is for the medics to make us, uninformed womenfolk, feel we’re not doing things right, the very things we were designed to do. As for me, I have realised that a hospital birth is not for me and for that reason I am not doing it this time (unless it’s an emergency). I am currently choosing between a home birth and a midwife-led unit. Once again, thank you so much for the work you’re doing, I am growing more confident with every page I read, and believe it will be a totally different experience this time! Kind regards, Maria. midwifethinking says: July 27, 2013 at 12:01 pm Just remember that you are the expert Come back and let us know how your next birth goes. Maria says: July 28, 2013 at 4:32 am Absolutely! I have spoken to my midwife and she seems in favour. The only things she’s concerned about is that last time I had a retained placenta, not sure whether that means it is likely to reoccur or what.. I am just reading your post “An actively managed placental birth..” and trying to enlighten myself in that field a little. Thank You! Pingback: Amniotic Fluid Volume: too much, too little, or who knows? \| MidwifeThinking August 18, 2013 at 5:45 am Very good article! We are linking to this great content on our site. Keep up the great writing. Jessi says: September 21, 2013 at 9:39 am My 6th baby certainly knew it was time to be born and even how fast she came (precipitous birth) played a factor in her overall wellness at birth. I began experiencing contractions that were neither regular or strong around 5pm on her EDD. After experiencing weeks of pre-labour with my first 5 babies, I discounted these contractions as ‘only the beginning’ and continued cooking dinner, feeding the family and getting my other 5 children into bed. By 7pm the contractions were close(between 1 and 5 minutes apart) but still not regular and still comfortable. Being well aware of my history though, of a rapid second stage (after being at 2cm for days or weeks with mild, close contractions I would dilate to 10cm in 1 HUGE contraction and about 5 contractions only 1 minute apart later a baby would be born) I decided that I would take a shower and if things didn’t settle down then I would go to the hospital. Within minutes of entering the shower, that huge contraction came, my membranes ruptured (meconium stained) and I knew baby was about to be born. I called for my husband and told him the baby was about to be born and to call for an ambulance. He grabbed the cordless while I got out of the shower and felt the overwhelming urge to go to my knees during the next contraction. I managed to crawl into the hallway before the next contraction hit me and I managed to breathe through it even though I could feel the head was in the birth canal. I screamed at my husband this baby was coming when I heard him tell the operator that he couldn’t see a head, seconds before a huge pushing contraction expelled my daughter, head, shoulders, body all in one at which point I was grateful for my husband’s quick reflexes as he took the catch of the century. At this point contractions ceased and I managed to get back into a seated position, attach baby to breast and thought about how to clamp the cord. All that was available were some hair ties, my older daughter had left laying around so we tied these around the cord. 10 minutes later the ambo’s arrived, had no injection to give to help me deliver the placenta, so put some cord clamps on and took me to hospital to complete the third stage. Once at hospital, a syntocin drip helped get contractions going again and I was able to deliver the placenta. It was at this point I suddenly realised that there was a lot of interest being paid to my placenta, rather than my tiny, meconium stained baby who was still happily feeding. They quickly asked me if I needed to keep my placenta because they would really like to have it as a teaching tool for med students…..I was a bit confused until they showed me the ultra long umbilical cord that had 2 true knots, one on top of the other and a partially calcified placenta. They told me that many babies with true knots(let alone 2 on top of each other) do not survive gestation let alone delivery as these knots tend to pull tighter with each contraction. Had I have had the long pre-labour of my other babies then there is a fair chance that she would not have survived. These knots also finally answered the question as to why my baby had slowed in growth after 26 weeks, especially compared to my other 5 babies who were all between 9 and 10.5 pounds. Only my private obstetrician seemed concerned at the time about this as my baby was measuring at the 15th percentile. Public medico’s fobbed it off as not being IUGR as she was still at the 15th percentile, regardless of the fact that my 5 previous babies were all at the 90th percentile and above. My baby girl knew she needed out, and just how to do it as an induced labour may have resulted in a stillbirth due to the hyper stimulation of the uterus and prolonged first stage, causing a tightening of the knots and insufficient blood flow to baby. Kate says: September 27, 2013 at 11:28 am Thank you so very much for this blog. I’ve been unable to stop reading the comments and posts which followed. I am 30 y/o and now nearly 42 weeks (in 2 days) and have had no doctor/obstetric consultations so far; first baby. Only the community midwives have seen me and since the pregnancy has been uncomplicated and I’m pretty healthy, I’ve not been urged to go to hospital. I have been told though, that an appointment will be made for me to go to hospital on the day of the 42nd week (Saturday – today is Thursday). I am dreadfully fearful of an induced labour. I think the psychological impact of the impending 42nd week is making me anxious and depressed. I’ve tried to explain this to the midwife and she has looked at me rather sadly and has not given away judgement one way or another, which is probably the right thing to do. I was asked at the last appointment whether I was still ‘wanting to avoid an induction’… I didn’t know where to begin. I wanted to thank you in particular for the way you have handled the, rather emotive criticism if I can put it that way, that you have received from two posters on this thread – Nicholas and ‘Concerned’. My only message to them is this – as a solicitor and someone who considers myself to be a bright, sensible woman, I have never felt so patronised by the medical community as I have since I was pregnant. By this I am referring to exactly the type of sentiment they have both expressed, which minimises my very active part in this impending labour and emphasises in hysterical tones that “not all labours can be ‘natural”. Surely a more accurate way of putting it would be that ‘in all but a minority of cases, labour can be natural’? And surely, women should be encouraged, where possible, to labour naturally, as a basic starting point? Anything else stinks of medical pomposity and a critical lack of cognisance that labour is NOT a medical process, it is a normal and natural process, unless something goes wrong? Nicholas states that it is ‘nonscientific magical thinking nonsense’ to state that the baby knows when it is time to come. And yet, all current research indicates that it is indeed, the baby, that triggers the natural process of labour. Of course, there will be instances where this does not happen due to the baby being unable to instigate it. My problem is with the offensive language which assumes that any woman focussed on a natural birth, who believes in her ability to birth naturally, is a nutter. I’m not a nutter, but I am terrified of being induced in a hospital for a number of reasons. If doctors and obstetricians spent more time speaking to women about their fears and concerns, instead of tutting and shaking their heads at women who question why they are being advised to be induced, fewer women would come away from the experience of induction traumatised. Because of people like them, I fear being in hospital more than ever. Thanks to the majority of balanced views displayed on this thread and of course, the original post, I have more faith than ever in midwives and in myself. midwifethinking says: September 27, 2013 at 5:50 pm Thanks Kate Issues around birth and women’s autonomy are always emotive. I find it helps to understand where people are coming from ie. fear and a lack of ‘alternative’ experiences and lots of experience of complications (most resulting from intervention). I am lucky to have enough experience of ‘post guess date’ births to trust women and their ability to birth. It would be great if you came back and let us know how your birth went Kate says: September 27, 2013 at 10:16 pm Thank you very much for this Rachel, it is a huge source of support to have a forum like this to explain anxieties. Maria says: September 27, 2013 at 8:07 pm Dear Kate, I feel for you. I was augmented with my first baby and it was hell. I am 34 weeks with the second but have a feeling that my edd is way off and I’ll probably go over 41 weeks. I’ve asked my midwife why this whole edd thing is such a big deal for them and she said “Because two overterm mothers (in the area) have lost their babies”. I was like, hmmm, ok what sort of period are we talking about, 6 months, 10 years? Any specific details? She didn’t know, two babies have died, that was it. In other words, something may have happened in the past (it may have been a long time ago), but it was obviously no good for their statistics so they had to introduce strict guidelines and now because of that every woman will have to be induced. Some may find it convincing, I didn’t quite. One thing is for certain though and that is they have to have your consent, they can’t tie you up. If you strongly disagree, they won’t be able to do anything but check regularly that you and the baby are both fine. Good luck with your appointment, hope all goes well! Kate says: September 27, 2013 at 10:17 pm Thank you Maria – I’ll post when I have news! trish o sullivan says: September 29, 2013 at 8:20 am well said “if we were advised as why we were been induced we might come away less traumatised” Concerned says: October 4, 2013 at 10:17 am Hospitals and Doctors practise Evidence Based Care, sometimes referred to as Best Practise. Studies, research etc are analyzed and then policies are developed in accordance with what the research has shown. When you go against what a hospital or Dr is recommending, you are going against current research and practise that has been analyzed by experts with years of training. That’s fine if you choose to do so and accept the risks in doing so. My concern comes when people read opinions etc online and feel that that constitutes “having done their research”. Does online research by someone with no medical or research qualifications out weigh recommendations by those that have and have made recommendations?????? This isn’t a criticism of those that read online, I just think it’s important to acknowledge this when weighing up options etc. midwifethinking says: October 4, 2013 at 10:55 am I have been involved in the development of guidelines and policies for hospitals (as a practitioner and an academic). Recently on the working party for the Queensland Health ‘normal birth’ guidelines. The reality of how guidelines are created is very different from your ideals. Guidelines are influenced by the needs of the institution and cultural norms as much as the available research. One example is the use of partograms… a Cochrane Review concludes that they should not be used for normal labour and yet the partogram is used in most hospitals. I could go on with lists of examples of guidelines contradicting research findings… and attempt to explain why and how they do… but don’t have the time or energy right now. Archie Cochrane (the father of evidence based medicine) awarded the ‘wooden spoon’ to obstetrics as the least evidence-based ‘medical’ speciality in 1979. I don’t think much has changed. I do agree with you that people should not just take opinions as fact… including my opinions. I provide links to research in my posts and encourage people to access the research and evaluate it themselves. Don’t assume that my words, or anyone else’s including a hospital policy or staff member are evidence-based. Concerned says: October 4, 2013 at 11:06 am Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned in my post that my concern was not directed at this blog, but in general. Most people( through no fault of their own) would not have the skills to critically analyze research and studies. Anyway, just thought it was worth noting so others can take it into consideration when looking at options. midwifethinking says: October 4, 2013 at 11:30 am Critical thinking skills are essential and critical thinking needs to be applied to the concepts you believe and those you don’t. Check out all sides of every story. Evaluating research however can be more difficult but there are organisations such as the Cochrane Database that do this for the ‘lay person’ and provide an easy to understand summary and recommendations. For most topics there will be a peer reviewed literature review available in a journal. However everyone is biased and every organisation is biased, and how research is conducted and interpreted in biased. This is why it is important to acknowledge bias and not assume that a doctor, or a policy, or a midwife, etc. is providing the best information or recommendations for ‘you’ as an individual. Women must take responsibility for their own choices. Ultimately they have to live with the outcome of their decisions. Concerned says: October 4, 2013 at 11:43 am That’s where it’s important to have the skills to look for randomized or blinded studies, rather than just “reading a study”. Also when making a decision re birth/ labour do you base that on a health providers experience, or a health providers evidence based practice. Again no right or wrong, but something to be mindful of when making a choice. midwifethinking says: October 4, 2013 at 12:43 pm The origins of ‘evidence-based practice’ are from ‘evidence-based medicine’ which advocated to decide the best treatment for a patient involved combining 1. patient’s wishes 2. practioner’s experience 3. research evidence. And RCTs only answer particular questions and provide very general answers. I wrote an entire chapter on evidence-based practice for my thesis… which didn’t end up in it. Might turn it into a blog post when I get some time People tend to decide first – then find evidence to support their preference anyhow. Humans are complex. Concerned says: October 4, 2013 at 12:54 pm That hasn’t been my experience. I work in the clinical setting and am involved in writing policies. We have to review studies etc when writing them and updating them. Obviously clinical judgement may mean at times you deviate from the policy, but generally I think they promote safe practise for both hospital staff and patients. I haven’t experienced them being “influenced” by Dr’s/ hospitals preferences etc. midwifethinking says: October 11, 2013 at 4:44 pm So your hospital does not use a partogram to assess the progess of labour for ‘low risk’ women? Supports water birth? Keeps the umbilical cord intact during resus? Does not carry out routine clinical assessments at set time frames during normal labour? I’m sure there are lots of midwives who would like to work there! I don’t think this is the norm. Even the Queensland Health state guidelines were heavily influenced by the preferences of those on the working party. I have some great data in my research of midwives altering their practice depending on the preferences of the obstetrician on shift (in a public hospital). Performing unnecessary assessments and interventions to keep them happy. Practice is never objective – it is best to be honest and examine the influences on how we interact with women and their birth experiences. September 30, 2013 at 2:08 pm Greetings ~ Thank you so much for what you do. I admit I have not read all of the comments and your responses so perhaps you have already addressed this question elsewhere. I am curious to learn if there is any research, or if you have any insight into whether or not herbally-induced labor with a midwife due to post term pregnancy can be associated with long labor and failure to progress. I was 42.5 weeks along with my first baby and felt very much pushed into a corner due to other people’s schedules (midwife, visiting parents). I felt very pulled in different directions – on the one hand feeling that I didn’t want to get the midwife in trouble for going any longer, also hoping my parents would get to meet the baby, and on top of that feeling impatient myself to meet my baby. Instinctively though, I did and do feel that letting the labor arrive on its own would have made the most sense. Eventually I caved in and induced with herbs and castor oil. I wasn’t prepared for the horrible diarrhea and burning pain that I experienced from the castor oil, all before even going into labor! I won’t go into all the details of the birth, except to say that part of me wonders whether inducing before the body was ready may have led to less forceful contractions. I realize you can’t comment on my particular birth, but since I did end up getting transferred to the hospital, with another 12 hours of pitocin and epidural before the c-section, I will admit that I feel I let myself get more or less cornered by the needs of others. Also, the predictable segmenting of the birth is a little eerie in retrospect – leaving me with the feeling that the birth ended as it did because my time was up on all fronts: the late term, then the 24 hour threshold of the midwives, then the 12 hour threshold of the obstetrician. All that to just ask how you feel about herbal inductions as they pertain to being “post-term” and how that using castor oil and herbs may or may not get in the way of a more favored outcome if the body is not really ready. I guess I am not convinced that a castor oil induction was as effective or powerful as my body’s natural urge would have been. All hypotheticals, I realize. But we need to recognize that herbal inductions are inductions too. And maybe they have risks as well that aren’t being recognized. midwifethinking says: September 30, 2013 at 4:14 pm Thanks for sharing your experience. I am not aware of any research in this area but anecdotally ‘your’ story is common. An induction is an induction whether it is done with herbs or medicine. If the body is not ready to respond you can end up with irregular contractions that do not open the cervix. That is why I have not provided a ‘how to’ induce ‘naturally’ in the post. Another concern is that at least with a medical induction the baby is monitored to detect distress and further intervention is close by. At home with herbs this is not the case. Having said that… if women are teetering on the edge of labour any type of induction is likely to be successful. October 4, 2013 at 3:53 am Thank you. Given that my cycle was fairly irregular the months prior to conceiving, I can’t say we really know when we conceived and therefore the idea of me being “late” was all just conjecture. Our son’s heartrate was monitored closely by the midwives after herbal induction, but my contractions were never very strong and eventually became more and more spaced apart. Anyhow, i did find a little bit of info indicating that there might be a higher risk of c-section with herbal induction, tho not a very robust study: http://www.instituteofmidwifery.org/MSFinalProj.nsf/a9ee58d7a82396768525684f0056be8d/e28ea481990d98da85257708004c24b6?OpenDocument. Many studies are highlighted here, you have to scroll down to Study#1 in the Literature Review. midwifethinking says: October 4, 2013 at 10:43 am Thanks Rebecca says: October 4, 2013 at 12:38 am Thank you for such an informative blog. I am U.K based, 3rd pregnancy at 41 wks + 1 day and considered overdue. Today I had my last MW appt. where induction was arranged at 42.0wks, after much debate with hospital who wanted me to come in at 41 + 4. Having had first 2 babies at 42 wks (induced and horrifically painful) and second 41 + 6 (just made it naturally before induction due next day), I have been keen to avoid another induction. Although I am still nervous about the risks of induction at 42, rather than 41 wks I feel much more confident after reading your blog. Kind regards Rebecca Kate says: October 4, 2013 at 11:08 pm I’m afraid I had an experience rather similar to Marya above. Health warning: this is a trauma story. I finally went into labour on Friday night of 27th (42.0 date was 28th) with baby born at 8am right on 42 weeks on Saturday morning. I don’t know if it was anxiety related to the impending ‘due date’ but I went in to labour very fast and couldn’t catch my breath properly between the contractions when they started. I also had a bleed after the fourth or fifth contraction. We called the triage, to ask for the midwife to attend (as I was supposed to have a homebirth) but due to the bleed, they told us to make our way to the hospital. When I arrived, the midwives did everything they could to keep me calm, but once I realised that I was going to labour whilst strapped to the fetal heart monitor on a trolley in labour ward, I was despondent. I continued having fast contractions with 3-4 minutes between for the next few hours and eventually accepted morphine after about 5 hours. The baby had somehow slipped into posterior position which was causing my back to ache terribly. I recall crying out that ‘I just wanted to float in water’ but was told that was not possible due to the heart monitor. I was urged to push (I would call it ‘directed pushing’) and managed to do so for another 3 hours until the baby’s heart rate began to fall. The whole team at the hospital demanded that I have a forceps delivery. I stated again and again that I could not consent as I didn’t want the baby to be pulled out using forceps, I didn’t want the spinal injection and I wanted to be able to feel my legs and I wanted to feel the baby. Eventually I was persuaded when one of the doctors said ‘if you don’t have a forceps delivery, your baby will die’. Since then, I have felt terribly guilty about avoiding the forceps and the spinal. I feel as though I put her life at risk unnecessarily. I don’t recall much about the whole thing and I think I was overcome by the pain and the morphine and tiredness. It was a real shame, because I felt as though there was no effort made to try and turn the baby from back-to-back position, which would have made the whole labour easier and quicker. I was essentially forced to give birth from lateral position, which I wanted to avoid. The whole thing was fast and difficult. I’m grateful for my daughter, but wonder what could have been done to make it easier. I think less anxiety near the term date might have helped. Concerned says: October 5, 2013 at 10:21 am I’m sorry you didn’t get the birth you wanted, but I’m glad that your baby is ok. Unfortunately birth doesn’t always pan out how you want it to. I really hope that this is recognized more often, so people aren’t disappointed when things don’t go as planned. I was relieved to hear you consented to forceps delivery. With a low heart rate it sounds like she really needed out. midwifethinking says: October 5, 2013 at 11:30 am I’m sorry your birth was like that. I don’t think it had anything to do with your anxiety. I am guessing that there was some concern about the bleed you had which is why you were ‘offered’ monitoring? Directed pushing is known to result in fetal distress (see my post on pushing and literature review). Your baby did well to cope with 3 hours of this… most get distressed within 30mins. Once a baby is showing signs of stress from directed pushing there are 2 options. Stop pushing and allow baby to recover or ‘deliver’ the baby quickly. In your case it seem the later decision was made. What happened is not your fault it is a reflection of normal hospital management of birth. Thank you for sharing your experience and be gentle on yourself Singhasan Gupta says: November 4, 2013 at 9:07 pm I lost my baby during inducement in 41st week. It’s devastating! midwifethinking says: November 5, 2013 at 8:55 am I am sorry that you lost your beautiful baby. x Pingback: Does ‘informed choice’ really exist in pregnancy? \| MamaCafe February 16, 2014 at 9:59 pm If the baby is the controller of the labour “on switch,” why is there the implication that it is anxious mothers who are responsible for their longer than average pregnancies?? I was induced for the birth of my first child at 41+6 because I had a sudden increase in blood pressure and was diagnosed with preeclampsia. I am currently 41 weeks pregnant and doing my best to calmly wait for baby to be ready. I don’t have any symptoms of preeclampsia. Last time at this stage I had severe edema. I don’t intend to have an induction this time unless I have a genuine medical reason to. I feel as though I’m doing a good job of just being calm and patient, but reading that maternal anxiety is a factor in longer than average pregnancies makes me worry;)….. midwifethinking says: February 17, 2014 at 9:56 am It is thought that the baby and placenta signal to the mother’s that baby is mature and ready to birth. The mother’s body responds – part of that response is release of oxytocin… oxytocin is inhibited by anxiety. However, this will not hold labour off forever… otherwise a lot of babies would not have been born. It is normal to feel some anxiety as birth is imminent (http://midwifethinking.com/2013/03/27/feel-the-fear-and-birth-anyway/). Be OK with feeling a little anxious and find moments to relax – sleeping, massage, spending time with people who make you feel happy. Your baby will come chris says: February 21, 2014 at 11:34 pm Hi, I’m really glad I found this blog, and I’m hoping to get some help to be able to make a more informed decision. I’m 40+2 today, and even though I was initially completely against any form of induction, following an appointment with my midwife I have agreed to a sweep at 41+1. If that doesn’t work I’ll have to see whether I’ll go for a medical induction, and if so when – I’m definitely not going for it before 42 weeks but then I’m not sure how much I should push it. If after 42 weeks you keep getting monitored every other day isn’t that safe enough for the baby? I also have some reasons that make me think that the baby might simply not be ready yet. These are: 1) I was born late myself, after my mum’s labour had been induced, 2) I always had irregular periods, ranging from 28 to 45 days, so the EDD is probably even less accurate than usual, 3) I was a late developer – I had my first period at 17 1/2, maybe this doesn’t mean anything but I’m thinking my body (and maybe the baby) is just slower than the average, and 4) later scans showed different dates, the one from week 25 gave me an EDD of 9 days later than the initial one. Yes later scans are supposedly not as accurate as the first ones, but I’d think it’s something to take into consideration. Having said that, at the 12 week scan the EDD by dates and by scan were the same. Would you say these reasons have any standing? Thanks midwifethinking says: February 25, 2014 at 9:09 am Hi Chris – your reasons do have standing and there is evidence to support 1 and 3. Unfortunately this is your decision and there is no ‘right’ way – only what works best for you. And getting monitored every other day… what is your definition of ‘safe enough’? Safe is such a personal/individual concept. Some women might feel that an elective c-section at 38 week is ‘safe’… others might feel that no pregnancy care and an freebirth is ‘safe’. No one external to you should define what is ‘safe’ for you. Good luck – let us know what happens chris says: February 26, 2014 at 5:00 am Thank you for your reply. I’m being told that after 42 weeks I’d be putting my baby’s life at risk because the placenta starts to degenerate, so by safe enough I mean that I’m not risking my baby’s life. If the placenta does stop working as they suggest, would that happen from one minute to the next? Or would it be a gradual process so that by the next check-up they’d know its condition was declining and have time to act accordingly? And then would baby’s life be at risk straightaway or does it have some kind of reserves to survive for at least a while in case the placenta does stop working? When I asked these things they told me it’s something they don’t know, which is why they strongly advise not to risk it. But from what I understand the reason for the degeneration is calcification, is that right? So I’m assuming it’s something that wouldn’t occur within minutes or hours and they would be able to diagnose a degenerating placenta before it completely stops working? midwifethinking says: February 26, 2014 at 1:23 pm Hi Chris – there is no evidence to support the idea that the placenta ages (see the article linked in my post). This a cultural understanding of how placentas function. Some placentas do deteriorate but this can happen at any time in pregnancy – so being pregnant is putting a baby at risk of this complication. Placental insufficiency is more likely with poor nutrition, substance abuse or pre-eclampsia than it is with being past your prescribed birth date. Even with real placental insufficiency it is usually a gradual process, and an umbilical artery doppler assessment is the most accurate way (scientifically) to assess placental blood flow to baby. If baby is having problems with oxygenation he/she will generally slow their movements to conserve energy. However, unexpected intra-uterine death can also occur at any gestation without any warning… again another risk of pregnancy and not necessarily anything to do with the placenta. The longer you are pregnant the greater this risk… if you drive a car every day for a month you are more likely to crash than if you drive a care every day for only a week – because you have spent longer in the car. There is no risk free option here – that is what the post is about. You need to consider the information and do what is right for you. Hospitals are very policy driven – policies are based on ‘professional (cultural) consensus’ at best… one obstetrician’s ideas at worst. In the post I have tried to lay out all the research and information so that women can gain further information to assist with making their own choices – whether they are in alignment with hospital policy or not. No one can/should tell you what to do. chris says: February 26, 2014 at 4:30 pm Thanks again for the reply, I need to make my mind up now so that at least I can stop thinking and stressing over this. I’ll let you know what happens. chris says: March 11, 2014 at 6:58 pm I gave birth last Sunday, at 41+4 weeks, without having the sweep or the induction, but I did have some amateur reflexology done by my husband and mum which might have helped! It all went well, waters broke at night and 6 hours later our little girl was delivered in the water – all healthy and lovely! We couldn’t be happier, thank you so much for the advice, it really helped me make the right decisions! midwifethinking says: March 12, 2014 at 10:12 am Congratulations Chris! And thanks so much for coming back to give us the news. Enjoy your baby girl Maria says: February 25, 2014 at 9:32 pm Hi Chris. Just a thought. I too often described my body as “slow”, like you I was a late developer and had periods up to 45 days. My due dates varied significantly. I declined induction and my baby came on 41+3 which I thought was still quite normal. The only thing that I had not foreseen was the duration of labour and this is where my body did prove it to be a slow one. Started at home, 48 hours later I was hardly contracting with the baby’s head so low I could touch it, very frustrating. Everybody thought it was a matter of minutes but nothing was happening. Having tried everything my midwife decided it was safer to transfer me to the hospital for “a little sniff of pitocin”. In the end I had my baby in the ambulance. Like I said, just a thought. If your body is slow the way mine is, bear in mind it can also labour slowly. I think I panicked a little and I wish I had not! If somebody had said to me “Relax it’s just your slow body doing it in its own manner” I would have probably had my baby at home, the way I wanted. I would like to hear how it went for you. x chris says: February 26, 2014 at 4:31 pm Maria says: March 11, 2014 at 7:53 pm February 25, 2014 at 8:52 am I just wanted to leave a quick comment on my last babe, who came in her 43rd week. I think it’s really important for women to hear stories of normal “late” pregnancies; My little one came out on Mother’s Day night, weighing a very average 7 lbs 10 oz. She was covered in vernix, and showed no signs whatever of post-maturity. Obviously, 43+ weeks was just the right amount of time for her. February 26, 2014 at 1:59 am P.S….oh, I almost forgot. The placenta! Big, thick, and glorious-looking. Certainly no deterioration going on. When my pregnancy went post-term, I remember reading that French women have 41 week pregnancies on average….so who’s to say what length of pregnancy is “correct”? March 13, 2014 at 9:09 am Thank you for the Wonderful posts, which I regularly use to support my London Hypnobirthing clients. My client this evening is having first baby at 43 and has been offered a home birth or water birth in midwife led unit. However, if she gets to 40 weeks the consultant has said that because of her age it is safer to be induced. blah blah blah – really? I’d like to provide my client with some facts so that she can make her own choice. Any thoughts appreciated. midwifethinking says: March 13, 2014 at 4:32 pm This seems to be a trend at the moment. It is probably related to this research: http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(13)00534-6/abstract Statistically women over 35 are at increased risk of stillbirth post dates… but as you can see the actual risk is still very small. The risk of stillbirth at 40 weeks for a woman over 35 is 10 in 10’000 compared to 6.8 in 10’000 for under 35yrs. At 41wks 15.4 in 10’000 vs 8.5 in 10’000. At 42wks 32.5 in 10’000 vs 28.2 in 10’000. Interesting the rates of infant death are lower for women over 35. The system has little tolerance for any risk. It is up to the mother what she considers to be ‘risky’ for herself. April 23, 2014 at 8:33 am This is a pretty good summary, acknowledging that neither option is entirely risk-free, but I think no survey could be complete without citing the recent review by Mandruzatto ( http://www.pqcnc.org/documents/sivbdoc/sivbeb/16MgmtofposttermpregnancyguidelinesJournalofPerinatalMedicine2010.pdf ) on the subject of post-term. It concludes, I quote: ‘It is not possible to give a specific GA at which an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy should be induced.’ Following that and other research, the risk of waiting in the absence of any pathology is likely even lower than you quote. It is enough to make to me a good case against ordering induction for post-dates alone. midwifethinking says: April 24, 2014 at 4:22 pm Hi Andrew. I have added that review in the blog post – thanks for drawing my attention to it. May 23, 2014 at 11:07 am Thank you for this article. I was informed by my provider that they ‘don’t let women go past 41 weeks and will induce at that point. I went home and told my husband, ‘I’m not inducing at 41 weeks, what are they going to do, drag me to the hospital?’. I have since done a lot of research on this topic and have my mind fixed to do all I can to avoid an induction. I won’t say that I absolutely will not have one, because there are situations and risks which to me are greater than the risk of induction. That said, I am a nurse (not OB) and while doing OB clinicals during nursing school, the most difficult and prolonged labors were the induced ones. At this point in my pregnancy (22 weeks) I have had no complications and feel great. And I am prepared to fight my battle should my little one decide her timer isn’t up when the Dr. Deems it should be. Thank you for giving me a little more empowering amunition! JK says: June 9, 2014 at 1:25 pm An interesting number of points have been raised – I think ultimately it is a case of balancing a calculated risk (however inaccurate or difficult that may be) – against what that risk means to you. I think whichever way it is sliced or diced statistically speaking – a still birth can’t occur if a baby is out of the uterus. Looking at implementations to avoid medically ‘unnecessary’ early term inductions A recent study showed that the counterpart to reducing early inductions was a non significant increase in still births (14 per 10000, down from 10 per 10000). The sample of women in the analysis was about 20,000 – so the numbers look believable. I think that early induction (looking at still birth rate + perinatal mortality associated with induction) still leads to a net decrease in overall baby loss. The more the risks that the mother has – ie obesity, smoking, sga, hypertension, age – the more the benefit vs risk for early induction. However, as an OB/GYN – it is what these risks (and it is exceedingly hard to try and customize a risk to a patient) mean to you which count. – My wife and I was still happy to go T+13 in the first pregnancy (she was an undiagnosied extended breech so emlscs at t+14).; and T+12 in the second pregnancy whilst awaiting spontaneous labour. (obstructed labour, em LSCS for FTP). Granted, she was fit and healthy. One thing to mention – most of the RCT’s looking at IOL for post dates women – excluded women with LSCS (including the Hannah trial – from where the policy of IOL from T+7) came from. It is even harder to advise VBAC candidates with for example risk factors for the benefit/risk of waiting vs IOL. midwifethinking says: June 11, 2014 at 10:54 am I agree JK. Risk is a very complex concept. All we can do as practitioners is provide as much information as we can, both generalised and individualised. Women will attach significance to information that is meaningful to them and make their own decisions… often not the decisions that we would make ourselves. June 18, 2014 at 10:07 am Yes, stillbirth can’t occur if the baby is born, but the baby can still die and there are other ways it might be harmed by being born early or by induction itself that I can’t believe we have fully quantified. If it were the only factor we would deliver all women as early as possible, as early induction (with fetal monitoring) will almost always reduce stillbirths. The latest study I could find, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00404-013-2957-y/fulltext.html , shows the lowest rates yet; in particular the stillbirth rate not increasing until 42 weeks, only mildly at 42-43, and large after 43; but the increase itself may be misleading as those may well involve undiagnosed or ignored risk factors, especially the latter because of German policy that all pregnancies be delivered non-electively before 43 weeks, and the low total number. The argument based on stillbirths is therefore very weak; the difference in the Nature article you cited was not significant as stated there (if each sample were 20,000 we’d be talking about 28 vs. 21 stillbirths, which is well within likely random variation.) It is quite true and should not be disputed that every individual case is different risk factors; but that makes it hard to justify a policy that all women be induced non-electively by a certain date. Letting them believe that they are gravely endangering their baby by not doing so, as many do in fact believe, is only a deceptive scare tactic. It is not true that women avoiding induction are just taking an unnecessary risk as your first paragraph seems to imply. Paula says: June 26, 2014 at 1:07 pm I love your blog!! Thank you for posting objetive and empowering information in such a clear way. I had a c-section because I went past 41 weeks… Now that I have more information than I had back then I realize the c-section was unnecessary and, given that there were no signs that anything was wrong, I shouldn’t have let my ob bully me into a c-section. I’m thinking about a VBAC and wondering what sort of tests should be performed once you go past 41 weeks, If the placenta is not calcified are there any real risks in waiting? midwifethinking says: June 27, 2014 at 10:44 am You could opt for a biophysical profile which assesses a number of factors. The least useful assessment is a standard u/s. To assess placental flow/oxygenation you need to do an umbilical artery doppler assessment. You need to consider the potential stress involved in this testing and the mother’s knowledge of wellbeing (fetal movements, etc.). The risks of waiting or not can be read in the post. There is not a risk free option. Pingback: These hippies are whack. The U.S. is the safest place to have a baby right? WRONG. Pingback: Are due dates really an expiry date? \| Womens Balance Health September 21, 2014 at 11:00 am Interesting read! I was induced 22 days after my ‘due date’, my waters were broken and 7 hours later was put on the synoxytocin drip. My baby was born 6 hours later without complication or too much pain. The main reason I was induced was pressure from consultants that I was putting my baby at risk. After I went 14 days over my due date I visited the hospital for daily monitoring & there were no signs that my baby was in distress. I was reminded each visit that my placenta could stop working at any time, hence the risk. I think the consultants were also quite nervous because they’d not come across anyone who had declined induction after the standard 14 days over due date. Most women, actually, ALL women I have spoken to had no idea there was a choice. A common response was “do they ‘let’ you wait that long”. I had done my research and was all for a natural birth so I knew all the options and risks. Whilst I don’t regret being induced or anything about my labour, I will always wonder when she would have arrived had we not intervened. Interestingly, there were no signs of post maturity in the placenta (it was my 1st question after it was delivered!) I would like to see a more positive side of labour being championed instead of the expectation of horrendous pain and that intervening is the best way forward. Somewhere along the way I think we’ve forgotten just how amazing our bodies really are and if we have the right information, reduce the fear, relax and work with our bodies, giving birth could, & should, be dare I say, an enjoyable experience. I am hoping for a home birth next time round (which I had originally planned for the first!) Sarah says: March 18, 2015 at 6:05 am I thought this was a really well written article. But I would have liked to see some numbers for the adverse consequences of induction similar to how you presented them for post dates (ie a discussion of the relative and absolute risks of induction) . I have to say though, I am a health care provider and I was completely disappointed by the idea of ‘informed consent’ demonstrated at my antenatal appointment yesterday. They really glossed over the risks vs benefits discussion and no discussion of alternatives at all. midwifethinking says: March 18, 2015 at 8:33 am Thanks Sarah – do you mean the list of adverse consequences of the medications? These are as reported by the pharmaceutical companies ie. from notifications from users. Where there is research I have used it and if you click on the links there will be more detailed stats in the journal articles. Unfortunately there have been no large Cochrane (or otherwise) reviews of the adverse effects of induction = no relative and absolute risks available overall… unless I do the review and work out the numbers – which isn’t going to happen as that is certainly not my area of expertise The recent case in the UK may provide practitioners with some food for thought regarding information giving: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h1481. And there is no such thing as ‘informed consent’ – only ‘consent’ and one of the elements of valid consent = adequate information giving. Invalid consent = assault and battery in law. There are a lot of women being assaulted and battered in the maternity system! September 8, 2015 at 11:53 am I most certainly agree with the court’s decision there, though I have some doubt that case really required C-section, given an ideal system. What you are calling ‘valid consent’ is really the same thing as ‘informed consent’; I don’t see an issue with the name, but fully support you on the concept. This is an ideal case supporting my contention that C-section should be given as an alternative option when induction is discussed. That article, which is paywalled anyway, does not mention induction, but the court judgement ( http://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2013_0136_Judgment.pdf ) makes clear it was used (and in a particularly troubling manner) – therefore it plays directly into Sarah’s concern of not having information to give informed consent for induction. She could not give that, not only without knowing risks, but without mentioning the options of scheduled C-section or waiting for natural birth (at least possible as there was no immediate need). The harm here could most definitely have been caused by the induction. I also know of no reliable medical source isolating the adverse effects of induction. Controlled trials are really not definitive because of lack of blinding and the fact that many of the possible effects are very rare. One of the sources I do have – http://www.rima.org/web/medline_pdf/MaternalMorbidityCesareanDelivery.pdf – finds evidence that planned induction may be more dangerous than planned C-section; while not definitive, it at least raises some doubt. October 1, 2019 at 8:51 pm UK hospital episode statistics classify by mode of onset of labour (although a few of those inductions will be because of IUD) hollieava says: June 19, 2015 at 11:31 pm So unbelievably grateful to come across your blog. The way you have written the piece and provided links to references/further research is invaluable. I was due to be induced on Monday (due date was 10th June) however I am convinced my due date is incorrect. Plus the date I gave for my last period was wrong by 5 days – unplanned pregancy meant I was a bit all over place. I am almost completely certain I know the date of conception and this current date of induction would put me at barely 37 weeks. I had such a strong gut feeling that the 22nd was to soon I have cancelled this induction and I am going to speak to a midwife instead. I am low risk, baby has been fine all the way through so an induction just seems crazy. My mother went from 11 Jan – 11 Oct with me and I have feeling my baby is not ready yet. I am so go with the flow most of the time that I had to question this induction. I only have a leaflet and the research I have done since I got date on 15th. I feel like I should trust and listen to my body! I have always been quite good at listening to it! Thanks again midwifethinking says: June 20, 2015 at 3:23 pm I’m pleased you found the information helpful. Yes – trust and listen to your body and baby! Please come back and let us know when/how your baby arrives hollieava says: September 7, 2015 at 8:17 am My baby arrived safely 25th June by C-section… Overall it wasn’t a pleasant experience for me. I refused to be induced on the Monday wanting to give my girl just a little more time. I was told I would need to go into hospital on Tuesday to see a consultant and sign something about risk. On the Tuesday in the early morning I had started to have very minor contractions. I went to the hospital and they monitored my baby, who was completely fine, noting the natural contractions which had increased in pain, although bearable, and came about every 10/15 minutes but also then seemed to disappear. The consultant basically made me feel like baby had to come out asap (due date had been 10th). With what was happening naturally already I reluctantly agreed to be induced (had thing they insert and went home and then the hormone after by drip in hospital). In hindsight I should have waited until the Wednesday to be induced but I felt unsure in my situation and was frightened by the mentioning of stillbirth risk. Even though I am sure she would have been completely fine for one more day. Plus I live 5 minutes away from the hospital. After 36 hours of intense labour I was advised I was still only 2cm dilated and by this point completely exhausted, I broke down and gave into an epidural. This did not work it numbed me from my feet to my knees (which would be great if labour pains felt like getting kicked in the shins!). So c-section had to be done. Very far away from the natural water birth I has envisioned! However we are both fine, she is a very healthy little girl (scored 9/10) and I have recovered well. I am now frightened of having to have a csection again if I do decide to have another. I feel disappointed it happened to way it did but have tried not to dwell as unhealthy. Just grateful we both got through it safe! midwifethinking says: September 7, 2015 at 7:05 pm Thank you for returning and providing an update. It is OK to be feel love and be grateful for your baby and be disappointed about your birth experience. Be gentle with yourself x Nat says: October 9, 2015 at 10:28 pm Your website is the most amazing thing I have read in a very long time! Thank you so much for creating this. I am a mother of three and a labor and delivery nurse in New Mexico, US x 11 years. I have travelled to many hospitals, rural and urban, and have learned so much about the importance of empowering women during the labor process… even in the most disrespectful and terrifying moments.Reading your articles and blogs feels like home. I started working in labor and delivery after having a traumatic first delivery in a university hospital in Switzerland, enema, shave, Pitocin, epidural, forceps, third degree laceration repaired by a student and my baby put in a nursery. Fortunately, I birthed my two following children in warm, soothing water, surrounded by loving practitioners as well as family, and had a totally different experience. This dramatic shift showed me what a difference a caring, respectful environment can make in the life of a family. Just today, I found myself despairing at the amount of inductions we offer to and carry out on women. It seems like anything can be done “in order to protect the mom and baby from harm”. Many women are made to believe that inductions are necessary to be a good parent. When I advocate for the patient ( which is in my job description, in case anyone criticizes me for causing trouble), I am always very saddened by the look of total surprise on women’s faces when I tell them the risks involved with being induced. This two faced game played by many health care providers, claiming to care only for the safety of the patient but making most decisions for convenience and self preservation is almost more than I can handle. Is this really what we went into health care for? No amount of EBP, followed guidelines, increased productivity or “patient satisfaction” can replace an authentic one on one caring and respectful healing interaction. This is where true healing happens. Reading your work, people’s responses, seeing how strong and sharp your arguments are and feeling your passion in helping women ignite their power really inspire me to carry on. Thank you again, sincerely, Nathalie midwifethinking says: October 11, 2015 at 8:24 am Thank you Nat. And thank you for the being there for women. I also came to midwifery through comparing my own birth experiences too – one disempowering, the other empowering. It is very frustrating working in ‘the system’ – I did it for many years. However, you can make a huge different to the individual women you care for. Sometimes just asking a woman what she wants to do is enough to make her realise that this is her birth/body/baby and she should make the decisions. They often don’t even know they have a choice or are ‘allowed’ to decide. All you can do is keep doing your job ie. sharing honest information and reinforcing the woman as the decision maker. You can’t own her decisions – or the out come of her decisions. Women make decisions based on their world view, beliefs and experiences i.e. often from a place of believing that medicine and men are the experts. You can’t change this – it is embedded – but you can make sure she has all the information about her options. You can also push for political, cultural and social change in maternity services – but in most cases you have little power to change anything alone from the inside. Keep up the good work. Knowing that there are care providers out there being ‘with woman’ inspires me November 11, 2015 at 3:24 am Thank you for creating this resource. I read the comments and it seems like there is not data about the risks of induction, although I will look at the links. You mention in your post that the experience of first time mothers vs. women who have already given birth is different. What about the risks for women who have already given birth? I see from your article that the first time mothers will have a highly increased risk of c-section–what about women who have already given birth? To be honest, both of my children’s births were traumatic for me, even though one was natural etc. and one was with the epidural. But I am now 9 days past my due date with my third. It has been a stressful pregnancy–not an unhealthy one, and I am afraid of not inducing because of the risk of stillbirth. I had an early ultrasound and the baby seems to be growing on course with the estimated times, so this is my latest baby, it isn’t an off estimate of the baby’s due date. I feel like if the baby comes out at least there is no risk of stillbirth, but I did want to try to compare the risks of induction vs. waiting and don’t really find any numbers to compare. I think they will induce me in two days. I don’t understand what the risks of induction are. I am not happy with either option–I wish labor would come on its own, but if it doesn’t I feel afraid to wait. I don’t think my birth experience will be positive either way. Induction will probably be worse, but honestly even though I am sure that you are right and obstetrics is not evidence-based etc., part of the problem seems to me that the whole system is so hard to manage. For example at the hospital where I will give birth they do have a birthing pool. I had a midwife when my son was born and requested the pool. She called ahead to the hospital and asked them to fill it. When we arrived no one had turned the water on and by the time it was full I was pushing and the last thing I would have wanted was to try to get into the pool. This time I switched from the midwifery practice because I found that they were not communicating my test results to me and since they are not allowed to give diagnoses by my health care group, no one was looking at tests like ultrasounds for weeks. They would order a follow up, I would have it, and when I came back for my appointment no one would have looked at my follow up. So since only the midwives can supervise the pool labors, I can’t use the pool this time either. midwifethinking says: November 11, 2015 at 1:58 pm Your care providers should be discussing the evidence with you in order to support your decision making. Every woman will have a different perception of risk and of what is important to her… this needs to be explored. I am a little confused about what information you are seeking regarding risks… the blog post includes discussion of and links to the research – including a Cochrane Review (that reviewed all of the research) and comparative stats for induction vs waiting. This evidence is all general to a degree and that is why your care provider should discuss it in relation to your individual circumstances and preferences. Again in general – for women who have previously given birth vaginally there is not an increased risk of c-section. However, the risks of prostin and syntocinon are increased – often care providers will avoid these medications or use them very carefully. You can read the risks of these medications here: http://midwifethinking.com/2011/07/17/induction-a-step-by-step-guide/. The reality is that most women who have previously given birth vaginally respond well to induction – with careful monitoring – and birth without complications. The experience of birth is different ie. it is not physiological, is usually more painful and will involve interventions such as continuous fetal heart rate monitoring, IVs, etc. For some women this is important. For example, it is not appropriate to have a waterbirth if you are being induced – because of the need for continuous fetal monitoring and the risk that if the baby is compromised by the induction process if is best not to be born under water. The important thing to know is that the decision to have an induction is yours. No one can induce you without your consent. You need to make the decision that feels right for you. Your care providers job is to discuss evidence based information with you and help you work through your questions and concerns… then support your decision. December 13, 2015 at 7:12 pm My partner is quite anxious about my decision at 42+1 to delay induction. We went to hospital and had agreed to do induction today but I feel like I need more time and baby will come in the next few days. We had planned homebirth. My check up showed some small calcification of uterus, 1cm of fluid and baby is predicted to be around 6.11 pounds. From that basis consultant wants induction. I’m keen to go for the next few days and see how I feel. I was having cramps yesterday but seems to have stopped this morning. My partner is quite anxious and I’m not as worried. Baby is moving fine and I feel fine. In my mind if everything is OK by check ups and she’s not here by 43 weeks then I’ll do it. Is there anything else I can do? midwifethinking says: December 14, 2015 at 6:02 pm That is all you can do… listen to recommendations and information and make your own decisions based on what you feel is right for you and your baby. Good luck Concerned NewDad says: January 8, 2016 at 5:52 am Really informative and an Eye-opener. I wish I had seen this before. Here in India C-Sec is on the rise for the past few years.(Statistically unconfirmed but heard from friends, relatives or acquatainces). This happens mainly in hospitals as more and more people are opting for hospitals over home. The hospitals do make easy money as the bills are 2-3x that of normal delivery. Moreover many expecting moms of new age opt for a C-Sec to have it quickly without having to go through natural labour pain. My wife(first time mom) has just reached 40weeks. The hospital suggested admission (and probably Induction soon after) asap. The reason given was: 1) Reduced Liquor – 2cm 2) 1 portion out of the 3 from the cord is around baby’s neck. The doctor pointed out that the liquid has reduced sharply. As per her this should be 10cm. How important is the Liquor mentioned here? What can lead to its reduction? What are the risks? How big is the risk? I observed that the readings of this Doppler test were not consistent with earlier USG so much that the EDD moved 3 weeks later. Could it be possible to have wrong decisions made solely based on Doppler readings. I am planning to show the report to 2-3 other hospitals and if required, have the Doppler redone by someone else. Any guidance would be appreciated as I have only 24 hours to take the decision whether to go for induction or wait for the Natural term. As far as possible, we want to have a safe and healthy mom and baby naturally if possible. midwifethinking says: January 8, 2016 at 10:48 am First of all lets get the cord around the neck issue out of the way. A third of babies have the cord around their neck at birth – this is normal and not a complication. See this post for more information: http://midwifethinking.com/2010/07/29/nuchal-cords/ Secondly – the reduced liquor is only a problem if it is caused by a poorly functioning placenta, more info here: http://midwifethinking.com/2013/08/14/amniotic-fluid-volume-too-much-too-little-or-who-knows/ 2cm is still within normal for 40 weeks. It is very sad to see the exportation of the medicated birth an the impact it is having in other countries. I hope your wife is given the support to do what she feels is best for herself and her baby. Good luck – it would be lovely if you could come back and give us an update once your baby arrives Nicci Field says: January 14, 2016 at 9:15 am i am only just 5 years on discovering the risks of induction! sadly! i wish i knew then what i am learning now! i believe both myself and my son are amazingly fortunate to be alive. I was 39 years old, first child, alone and so much went wrong! i had an unexplained bleed at both 14 weeks and 27 weeks and at 40 weeks it happened again a day later they attempted to break my waters, absolutely no discussion about the whole process of induction just the factual explanation of the sweep, they tried 2 times to no avail, the next morning they said “induction” was probably best and that was it! i trusted them, i had a detailed birth plan and had researched so much with the exception of induction, it just never occurred to me! i was put on the drip of oxytocin at 9am, an hour later the contractions started they continued throughout the day and heart rates were monitored, however it all started going wrong early evening when the midwife had gone off shift, the pain became immense, g&a helped along with hypnosis but a couple of hours later everything changed, i was left alone for 4 hours by this stage i was climbing the ceilings literally with the pain! i truly thought i was going to die! eventually a crash team arrived! the doctor was going to do a scan started it up but then stopped! they tried getting me to push as i had gone finally from being 3cm dilated all day to 9cm, there was too much pain and baby’s heart rate was dropping so they decided there was no alternative but to do a c section, however not before attempting birth after the epidural through vaccum cup and forceps. This failed and by this stage my body had almost given up and everything became urgent. I lost 2 litres of blood and the placenta had separated. Early hours of the next morning i was lucky enough to meet my beautiful son. The only thing they would discuss with me surrounding the whole birth was my son was born with the cord around my neck and he was stuck in the birth canal, i felt that they were avoiding me! My after care was appalling, a day after he was born i knew there was something wrong with him, the ward refused to accept that i believed he had Jaundice! hours later the community midwife arrived and got him rushed to neo natal! another lucky miss he had seriously high levels for a week! i kept asking during this week to see the doctor to have an explanation of the birth and what had happened, this never happened. My son had sever colic at 3 months but appears to be a healthy and active 5 year old now! i only stumbled across the whole oxytocin after reading an article recently, i had absolutely no idea! and to this day my body has never felt the same! i was a fit and healthy 39 year old (and i believe it was this that kept me alive!) i was serving in the forces at the time. My body has never been the same since, I am still very active but have never been able to lose the birth weight despite having done baby fit classes and all other things! I always believed i had just experience a horrific birth but now i believe most of what happened could have been avoided had i not been induced and looking back we were the bleed had stopped and we were fine so i am not even sure why they took that decision! I had an operation a year ago to lift my uterus as was badly incontinent! its a comedy of errors! i am considering requesting my records out of interest. midwifethinking says: January 14, 2016 at 9:42 am I am so sorry that you were not informed enough to give consent for all that was done to you and your baby. It might be helpful to get your notes and go through what happened with someone independent to the hospital/staff involved. February 24, 2016 at 3:59 am I was induced for my 3rd child. We induced because I have large babies. With my 2nd went into labor on my own at 41weeks3days he was 9.9lbs and I hemorrhaged, so it was I was in ultrasound to keep track of how big my 3rd was getting at 39 weeks he was 8.11lbs .I was induced at 40weeks1day. The induction was horrible. My son was pushing the back of his head out first..I had to do the hands and knees thing and didn’t work!then my cervix was not opening properly onside was stuck after 12 hours I couldn’t take the pain anymore and recieved epidural. He was born 3 hrs and 8mins latter. The whole experience was bad and I’m thankful to God that we are both here and ok. My husband said when our sons head started coming the doctor grab his head and spun him? My husband said that he feared the doctor had broken his son neck. We are OK but is that a typical thing doctors do? midwifethinking says: February 26, 2016 at 2:03 pm I am sorry that you had such an awful birth experience. It sounds like your baby was in a ‘posterior’ position – http://midwifethinking.com/2010/08/13/in-celebration-of-the-op-baby/ Unfortunately it is common for care providers to pull and man-handle babies as they are being born. They are taught to do this in training despite the lack of evidence supporting the approach… or the experience for the baby: http://midwifethinking.com/2010/08/07/birth-from-the-babys-perspective/ March 2, 2016 at 10:50 am I am pregnant for the first time with twin boys (after 7 IVF tries). I’m currently 27 weeks and everything looks fantastic. They are healthy and so am I. And, they are almost always head down (raring to go, maybe?). I am on lovenox, though, and will end up switching to heparin as the EDD nears. I am 36 years old and in Florida. My OB has told me that he will not allow me to go past 38 weeks. I’m assuming this is because of my age and possible placenta deterioration? But, I’m not sure. I was surprised. I had hoped as long as we were all healthy I could carry on until I could have a natural birth. But, I’m assuming I’ll have to be induced at 38 weeks. I’m anxious about this because I know it increases my risk for a c-section and I want a vaginal birth. Do you have any insight to share on induction of twins? Can it be done with good outcomes? Would you induce at 38 weeks? Or try to wait? I had so wanted a water birth with my favourite midwife, but because of twins, that is no longer an option. At least not here in Florida. I am trying to make the best of what I have to work with, though. midwifethinking says: March 2, 2016 at 12:43 pm I can’t give you recommendations or advice. However, your OB can not make you do anything. There is no such this a ‘allow’ – you are an adult human with legal rights. No one can do anything to your body without your consent. Your OB can recommend or suggest a course of action – but it is not up to him to ‘allow’ you, or ‘let’ you do anything. In making decisions about what you would like to do, you need to consider your individual (twin) situation. Find out why your OB recommends early induction… discuss your wishes for a vaginal birth. Bear in mind that twins do come with additional birth risks and that your OB may be unfamiliar and inexperienced in natural vaginal twin birth (because it is rare due to routine intervention). Ask him what his experience/rates are. Do you have a doula or support person who can help you get the information you need and the support for whatever you choose to do? June 28, 2016 at 4:31 pm Thanks for this article. In our book [proactive support of labor] we too show that there are more C-sections. midwifethinking says: June 29, 2016 at 6:20 pm However, your book also advocates lots of intervention to ensure that a woman’s labour pattern meets prescribed timeframes (that are not evidence based). There is more to physiological birth than a baby arriving out of a vagina. Women are beginning to question these medicalised notions of birth that are not evidence based but culturally based. Do you advocate that care providers give adequate information about these interventions to gain legal consent? https://midwifethinking.com/2010/09/15/information-giving-and-the-law/ https://midwifethinking.com/2011/09/14/the-assessment-of-progress/ https://midwifethinking.com/2015/05/02/vaginal-examinations-a-symptom-of-a-cervix-centric-birth-culture/ June 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm Yes. But it is very difficult. As you know of course. Actually, I am a midwife and I see in practice that the psol timeframe is very interesting for women. I see too many women telling me the first appointment that their mom/sister/friend suffered for hours and that they don’t want that. And since we introduced psol in our practice our homebirth rate increased the first year with almost 15%. That was mainly because of 121 support from diagnosis in labor. But it meant that we stay with women from 1 cm. And when they are 7 then within 2 hours many asked if they could have the baby at home. midwifethinking says: June 29, 2016 at 7:59 pm When you say ‘interesting’ what do you mean? If a woman is told ‘we can ensure your labour is shorter’ I’m sure they are interested. However, they also need to be given information about physiology and that’long’ is not necessarily worse. They also need to understand the risks of the proposed interventions, VEs, ARM, etc. As you note the homebirth rate increased mainly because of 121 support from early labour – why can this only be provided with psol? Seems you are doing lots of VE’s despite no evidence to support this intervention in normal labour. Do you share the cochrane reviews re. VEs and partograms with women so they can make an informed decision about whether they consent to psol? June 29, 2016 at 11:14 pm We do what we can, but in our socially deprived neighborhood and the lack of time we have here in the Netherlands this is something that is very difficult. People here don’t read magazines. don’t have money for prenatal classes etc. They are busy surviving and giving birth is just something rotten that they don’t expect to be positive at all. Quite often we hear: o’ I’ll have an epidural that is easy. I work here now for more than 30 years. I developed the website keepingbirthnormal.com especially for women in my neighborhood. And as for the number of VE’s Women who deliver according to psol have on average less VE’s than the rest of them. 3.7 vs more than 5. And we have lots of women who have only 1 or max 2 VE’s. We don’t do from as a routine, we don’t press for VE’s when some one doesn’t want it. But then again, the women I work with have very little perception. Asked about a birth plan they will say: O, I don’t know. I suppose it hurts like hell. About options like delayed cord clamping and no active management of 3rd stage: o, the dr will know what is best. It is really very challenging. And in that challenge we find psol very useful. midwifethinking says: June 30, 2016 at 8:49 am I understand you have constraints, but I cringe at the idea that women from socially deprived backgrounds and who do not have good information literacy do not deserve the same standard of care as other women. I also worked in a very deprived area of the UK for years – so I do understand the challenges. However, the legal requirements for consent are the same for all women. I would be really interested in your response to this post: https://midwifethinking.com/2016/06/28/responsibilities-in-the-mother-midwife-relationship/ It is such a shame that midwives are not taking this opportunity to help women reframe their birth and body in a positive way. Birth is a rite of passage – yes it is painful but it can be transformative (see my PhD work). This is also an opportunity to reinforce their rights as women… and their responsibilities in terms of making decisions about their body. I understand your motivation re. your website, I just disagree with the underpinning paradigm. And think it is contradictory to tell women that their bodies are capable of birth, then walk about ‘effective contractions’ and imposing patterns of labour that may not match their body’s unique way of birthing. More worrying are statements such as those about ‘corrective interventions’ eg. ARM which do not also present the risks of these interventions or make it clear that they are NOT evidence based. And statements such as ‘the midwife will clamp the cord’… imply that there is not decision to made by the woman about this. I am not sure about the legal and professional requirements in your country but I generally midwives are expected by the ICM to: promote physiology; provide evidence-based care; and ensure that the woman is the primary decision maker. June 28, 2016 at 8:36 pm I’m an antenatal teacher in the UK and your opening sentences resonate so much with exactly what I’ve been saying to clients for years; that everything in life carries risk, there is no “risk free” option and that all we can do as individuals is consider which bunch of risks feel more, or less, acceptable to us. I often hear women telling me, “I had to have x intervention because I didn’t want to take any risks” and inside I’m thinking “but you’ve just had an horrendous birth with epidural, forceps, episiotomy, difficulty breastfeeding, etc, etc….” Antenatally, I send clients information about induction – procedures, NICE guidelines (highlighting the “choice” part, the bit that says they shouldn’t be alienated from their health professionals, the bit that says what extra antenatal care they should receive if they decline the “offer” of induction, etc) and I’ll add a link to this blog now as well. Thank you. September 26, 2016 at 5:30 am I enjoy your posts. I especially like your emphasis on leaving the decisions in the hands of the mother. I had my six sons at home and unassisted. (Partly due to not wanting a midwife telling me what to do.) My bag of waters started leaking with first baby before his due date. So I took castor oil and that worked. I took castor oil again with my second, but that time I kept having to run to the toilet with diarrhea. I normally go past my due date. My 3rd baby was induced with chiropractic(pushing on my feet and ankles). Boy number 4, we used an enema and nipple stimulation(and sex) at 2 weeks past due date. He was 11 lbs. So my last 2 boys I induced closer to their due dates. It would be great if more people knew about the alternatives to medical induction. Thanks for answering so many of my birth questions with your posts. Really good stuff! midwifethinking says: September 26, 2016 at 5:45 pm There are risks with all induction methods. Induction means you are trying to get the body to do something it is not ready to do. For some alternative methods e.g.. castor oil there is research questioning safety. As a registered midwife I don’t advocate any alternative methods of induction… and would be very reluctant to attend a homebirth if I knew it was an induced labour. Of course, I totally support women’s right to induced their labour if they feel it is right for them September 26, 2016 at 6:52 am That link to BellyBelly did not provide ‘alternative’ or ‘natural’ inductions. It had 5 induction methods AROM, sweeping, Pitocin, prostaglandin gel, and a Foley catheter. I’m sure there are more, but it’s a start. There are safer alternatives to medical induction. midwifethinking says: September 26, 2016 at 6:00 pm Nipple stimulation / Sex / orgasm will only work if the body is ready to respond to the release of oxytocin i.e. the cervix is ripe and the oxytocin receptors in the uterus are ready. There is not enough prostaglandin in semen to make a difference re. cervical ripening. Blue cohosh can be dangerous. I’d rather undertake an induction of labour in a setting where it can be monitored well… induction is not physiological – it is an intervention and can result in complications regardless of method. There is no such thing as a ‘natural’ induction – nature is not ready to birth yet, otherwise it would be happening without induction. This article describes a complication associated with blue cohosh: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9544922 (I have also heard of complications from this herb in my circle) August 28, 2018 at 11:54 am Hi Rachel! I was wondering if you can translate the article you referenced for the lay person – https://fn.bmj.com/content/77/3/F171.full – I’m really struggling to follow it and would love to get a good understanding of it. midwifethinking says: August 28, 2018 at 1:52 pm This is what I wrote in my new book to summarise the evidence re. placentas: “There is evidence that the structure and biochemistry of the placenta changes as pregnancy develops. Some scientists interpret these changes as the placenta growing and adapting to meet the changing needs of the baby. Others suggest that these changes are due to aging and deterioration of the placenta. However, tests of placental function show no changes in post-dates pregnancies. In addition, babies continue to grow after 40 weeks, suggesting that they continue to receive adequate nutrients and oxygen. The studies that identify an increased perinatal death rate for post-dates pregnancies do not identify the placenta as a problem. November 19, 2018 at 12:33 am Thanks so much for that. I want to tell the world about my pregnancy but they would laugh. Finally now people come up to me and ask me and rub my stomach to make sure. I don’t see a dr because in the beginning they all thought I was crazy. I feel my baby move and kick all the time. It’s really a blessing because it’s my 1st. Lisa says: September 23, 2018 at 12:07 pm Holy bananas. After a 2 day build up, and contractions at home for 16 hours, my midwives had to transfer me to hospital. They basically forced an epidural on me, despite not wanting it,then they made me take the induction drug, despite me not wanting it. My placenta wouldn’t come out, and I wouldn’t stop bleeding, so after being half stitched up from being cut, I was re-opened to surgically stop my bleeding (to this day I dont know what was actually done). It took 6 weeks to get my son breast feeding, after snipping his tongue first, but I was determined. He had a few minor issues later, including speech problems, which I’ve read may correlate with the use of fetal monitoring and earlier with ultrasounds. I’m so grateful for my only child, but I wonder if my pregnancy was less medicalized if the outcomes would have been better. November 19, 2018 at 12:22 am The risk is the drs playing God. They take your last period and the size of your baby to determine your due dates and that’s not always correct. They say that a woman doesn’t see her cycle when pregnant, that’s not true. They say Creptic pregnancy isn’t real, they are so wrong. Why they won’t admit they are is beyond me. Do you think God would let you get pregnant and don’t know when the due date. He only need the Dr, when there is an emergency. December 2, 2018 at 9:32 pm Hi Rachel, do you know what the evidence is on syntocinon infusion rates? I can see that different hospital use different rates and I’d like to know which rate is using evidenced-based medicine. I can’t seem to find any studies midwifethinking says: December 4, 2018 at 9:09 pm different hospitals have different protocols but generally it is about increasing the rate until there is an established contraction pattern. Usually very high levels require OB review/sign off. I don’t think there is research about rates per se. April 3, 2019 at 11:02 pm Really enjoyed reading this article and it’s links and references. It is well written and easy to understand for women and professionals alike. December 21, 2019 at 1:23 am My placenta stopped working at around 39 weeks, apparently, my baby had stopped growing, I was induced by a drip method, and I gave birth within 18 hours, Being very stressed I asked for an epidural which on hindside was not necessary as my beautiful baby daughter (my second child) was small and birthed quickly. She was very jaundiced not sure if it was the induction drug or the epidural? which was too much for her liver, She was put in an incubator for 3 days, I write to flag up to other Mums to be, be careful with the epidural you may not need it, great blog thank you, Helena Leave a Reply to midwifethinking Cancel reply midwife • author • educator Books Most copyright free diagrams of the umbilical cord are incorrect. They depict the arteries with oxygenated blood and the vein with de-oxygenated blood. So, I had to make my own diagram! 🧐 I'm heading off for my first proper holiday in years. A whole week of no work (or social media) – eek! I'm looking forward to knowing what that feels like.	213,551
When it comes to taking a proactive, preventive approach to health, avoiding the bad is just one half of the equation. The other, of course, is embracing the good – giving your body, mind, and spirit what they need to function optimally. For your body is a... Physical Health, Emotional Health by staff \| Apr 3, 2018 \| Natural Health, Wellness Happiness and health go hand-in-hand. So saith the research. Yet as a new study reminds, the pursuit of happiness can actually make us unhappy. Through a set of four experiments on time and happiness, Canadian researchers found that the harder we try to make ourselves... A Key Component to Healthy Aging & Longevity: Exercise by staff \| Mar 20, 2018 \| Anti-aging It wasn’t so long ago most folks believed that growing old meant slowing down, becoming more sedentary. These days, lots of us are sedentary from childhood onward – even if the demands of life keep us from slowing down as much as we need to. Movement. Rest.... by staff \| Mar 6, 2018 \| Chelation Therapy You often hear people say that vaping is safer than smoking. After all, it’s not tobacco, and we know the damage that tobacco can do. Vaping? Not so much…yet. One thing we do know is that when you inhale from an e-cigarette, you’re taking in a whole lot more than... by staff \| Feb 20, 2018 \| Diet & nutrition, Integrative Medicine Though the news was hardly surprising, the media went to town last week about a new French study linking ultra-processed food with cancer. Specifically, the analysis of data from over 100,000 adults found that a 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods...	1,696
One of the most important part of a home is the bathroom. Homeowners always meticulously plan their bathrooms according to their use, need and want. The bathrooms is the most comfortable place for every home. This is where everything is done: staring from the preparing, fixing yourself, doling up and styling your outfit for the day. Not to mention the most important break of the day, TMI. Feel the most comfortable in your hideaway space by trusting the best and affordable bathroom remodeling Service Company in Oro Valley Arizona. Flush your worries away that your dream bathroom is a flop because we are the company that will make your dreams come true. Our expert team can give you the elegant bathroom you have always dreamed of. We will fix the mistakes of the past of your previous bathroom contractor. Let us help you turn your ideas and visions into a reality. You’ll love our dependable service and beautiful workmanship. 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A lot of the things we have talked about over the last three weeks could be tied back to traditions, the Christmas trees, the wreaths, and the candy canes. But I did feel it could take a topic all on it’s own. Christmas time is the one time of the year that we all tend to look to our traditions. I can remember traditions when I was a girl. Staying up late on Christmas Eve, only to get up so incredibly early on Christmas Day. I can remember times we sat up in the bed, me and all 3 of my sisters and giggled. Well I probably did most of the giggling as I was the youngest. My mom and dad and my 3 older sisters sure were troopers to this Christmas loving girl who wanted to stay up late and get up early tradition for as long as I could. I BELIEVE IN SANTA! I remember, we had an artificial tree that had a bout 999 pieces and parts to it or so it seemed. I can remember putting that thing together and spreading lights across the living room floor to be sure we didn’t have to replace any bulbs before we put them on the tree. I can also remember looking at Christmas lights with the family. We would pile up in our car and drive the neighborhoods and look at all the pretty lights and we would bake cookies every year during the Christmas season. And then after we had stayed up really late and gotten up incredibly early on Christmas Day we would jump in the car to make the 3 hour drive to Arkansas to be with grandparents and cousins. It seems like it was such a magical time for us. Then there were the traditions I wanted to instill in my own children. They included decorating the tree, baking the cookies and driving around looking at the lights. We always tried to incorporate a Church Christmas program that we were either involved in or at least attended. We had to get a Santa picture every year of course and then my children were the ones wanting to stay up late and rise really early and we made the trek to our parents houses at Christmas time. And now my children come to me and I am trying to instill some traditions that hopefully my children and grandchildren will be able to look at fondly over the years. I try to always bake cookies with my grandchildren when they come and we have the lights on our own home that I hope will mean something years from now to my grandchildren just like the plastic Santa that my grandfather tied to their front porch meant to me. I love the Christmas season and the traditions that come along with it. I think that tradition is a very important thing for us to give thought to the reasons we are celebrating and remember. I also think that scripture shows us how traditions are important to God. There were many feasts that came about in scripture that people practiced regularly. In fact… “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.” Luke 2:41-42 We see it here that Jesus’ earthly parents were accustomed to the tradition of traveling to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast every year. God set apart these feasts for them to remember. As we go about our traditions, which are fun and festive, sometimes work and tiring even, let’s not lose sight of our reason for them is to remember. Just like God set apart feasts for the Jewish people to remember the passover. Christmas is a time to set apart and incorporate all the festivities to remember. Remember the baby that was born in the manger that first Christmas morning. Remember why He came. Remember why He lived. Remember why He died, for you and for me. Yes, have your traditions, decorate with red and green or whatever other color you want to. Have Santa, or Papa Noel or whatever you want to call Him bring gifts. Gather with friends and with family, but in all of your traditions, remember the baby. Be sure you slow down just a bit this week and remember. Maybe even walk outside and look up at the stars and remember shepherds in a field who got the most glorious birth announcement of all time. Remember, a young mother who gave birth in a dirty, dark, smelly stable then wrapped her child in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger for Him to sleep. Remember wise men who spent probably months, and maybe years following a star in search of the baby King. Traditions are nice and they are fun, but let’s let them do what they are meant to do. To point us to the important things to remember. Related I am a wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, employee, woman. And I simply need more JESUS in my life! View all posts by Sonia Sticker	4,635
WATERSMEET, Mich. – The chairman of the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has some advice to tribes who are thinking about economic development projects outside the United States. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is, Chairman Jim Williams warned. The Lac Vieux Desert Band (LVD) has filed a lawsuit against Arturo Rojas Cardona and Juan Jose Rojas Cardona and their company, alleging that the brothers have defrauded the tribe of its $6.5 million investment in a casino in Guadeloupe, Mexico. The lawsuit was filed originally in Arizona Superior Court in April 2008, and moved to the U.S. District Court in Arizona in July 2008. The action lists multiple claims, including “breach of contract, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, constructive trust, and piercing the corporate veil against” the brothers and the host of companies in Mexico, the U.S. and Panama that comprise their gaming empire of 16 casinos and sports books in Mexico. “My goal in this litigation is to try to stop this nightmare from happening to other tribes and investors, because I know it has happened to others and it will continue if someone does not try to rein in these guys,” Williams said. “The first advice I’d give another tribe is unless you have full control over the operation on a daily basis and are capable of actually putting the revenue generated from the casino into a bank and taking it, I’d say stay away from it.” The lawsuit says the Rojas brothers solicited investors in the U.S., particularly Indian tribes operating casinos, “because of their reputation for having access to capital and familiarity with the gaming industry.” LVD conducted due diligence, investigating the brothers’ bona fides and the legality of gaming in Mexico and ultimately determined that the solicitation was a credible opportunity. “All we wanted to do was make sure we were in compliance in paying the Mexican taxes and making sure we were in compliance on the American side as well, and that they would comply with giving us documents and other things like getting paid. When our attorneys put the agreement together with the Rojas brothers, whoever thought they would renege on those agreements?” Williams said. According to the lawsuit, the Rojas brothers “induced” LVD to invest $6.5 million to the Guadeloupe Casino by promising a 26 percent equity interest and 26 percent of the casino’s net revenues. The offer was attractive as an economic development project and also because the parties agreed that American law would govern the investment and the state of Arizona would be the forum for disputes. But since the tribe’s transfer of investment funds in 2006, the defendants haven’t paid the tribe its share of the casino profits and have used the tribe’s investment “for their own purposes,” including the purchase of slot machines for other casinos, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit documents a series of agreements between the tribe and the Rojas brothers including a “depository agreement” by which the brothers agreed to deposit on a daily basis 26 percent of the net revenues of the Guadaloupe Casinos or set up a trust fund for these revenues. Williams said that hasn’t happened. But the tribe is able to track the casino’s revenues through daily electronic reports. “It’s ironic that we get reports every day on how the casino is doing and yet we get no money. At this point, with the revenues being generated, they owe us more than $1 million.” He said appeals to Mexican authorities for help have been fruitless. “We talked to a number of government officials in Mexico and we’re not very comfortable with that. It almost seems that they’re bought out somehow. They’re very resistant and not as open-minded as we thought they’d be.” The lawsuit also documents numerous other attempts by the tribe over a year-and-a-half to collect its money, and promises made by the Rojas brothers to pay up that were later broken. “We went through that cat and mouse game with them and finally realized they were stringing us along and that nothing was going to happen, that they weren’t going to comply with our agreement and they weren’t going to pay us, and we needed to go forward and try to get our money back,” Williams said. The lawsuit documents a series of attempts by the tribe to locate the Rojas brothers, whose whereabouts were unknown during much of the time. According to the lawsuit, others were also seeking the brothers. “Defendant Juan (Rojas) Cardonna was known to live in Monterrey, Mexico. However after two shooting incidents, one of which targeted him personally and killed the driver of his vehicle, he is believed to have moved. In one e-mail to the manager of (the LVD holding company), he reported that he left Monterrey after the first shooting to live somewhere else,” the lawsuit says. Neither of the Rojas brothers or their attorney could be reached for comment. Little Fawn Boland, a member of Piro-Manso-Tiwa Tribe and an attorney with the firm Rosette & Associates, said the defendants have filed a motion to dismiss the case and a motion to stay the case, which the tribe has answered. “The court has not ruled on anything since we had a favorable ruling (Nov. 6, 2008) to amend our complaint. Things may have slowed down over the holidays. The court has indicated it might rule on a remand that would bring the case back into state court where it originated,” Boland said. That would be favorable for the tribe, since a jury decision in state court requires only two-thirds, whereas federal court jury decisions must be unanimous, Boland said. Meanwhile, the 540-member tribe is feeling the general economic crunch, which has been exacerbated by the loss of its $6.5 million investment. There is some hope that the Rojas brothers are in the midst of selling their company, Williams said. “Maybe if new ownership comes in we can sit at the table and get our partnership back on track, get paid what we’re owed. But at this point my whole goal is to get our money back and get away from the nightmare.” Scroll to Continue The Wrap: ‘Incredible year’ for Indigenous candidates Many kids are struggling. Is special education the answer? Lagoon dries up as drought grips southern Andes Archived Indian Country Today is a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support Indian Country Today for as little as $10. The Wrap: ‘Incredible year’ for Indigenous candidates By ICT Dec 6, 2022 Outside Many kids are struggling. Is special education the answer? By Associated Press Dec 6, 2022 Lagoon dries up as drought grips southern Andes By The Associated Press Dec 6, 2022 By Jodi Rave Spotted Bear Dec 6, 2022 Newscasts By ICT Dec 6, 2022 Ad campaign targets Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes By Missoulian Dec 6, 2022 Commemoration for the victims of Polytechnique as closing event of the '12 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women' campaign By Press Pool Dec 6, 2022 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 Hawaiians finalize $600 million spending plan recommendations at November 19 convening	7,544
A: We use a patented polymer that bonds directly to the tub. It has the same look and feel of a new tub. Q: How long after completion before we can use the tub? Q: What kind of repairs can you do? A: For bath fixtures, we can fix cracks, rust, scratches, dull spots, chips, pits and discoloration in the refinishing process. Kitchens countertops with knife cuts, scratches, burns and chips will also look like new. A: Yes, they are both describe the act of preparing and refinishing porcelain, tile or laminate fixtures in the bathroom and kitchen. Q: What colors are available? A: Refinishing offers many standard colors with an infinite amount of custom colors available. Q: Will my tub look painted? A: No. It won't have brush marks or drips. The topcoat material is applied with a spray gun that yields a super-smooth, high gloss finish. Q: What if my fixture is damaged? A: No problem. In fact, that's one of the major reasons fixtures are refinished. Part of the process is fixing all types of damage. Contact us and we'll be happy to give you our professional opinion. Q: What bathroom and kitchen surfaces can be refinished? A: Tubs, wall tile, sinks, vanity tops, showers and shower bases, cultured marble, Formica countertops, cast iron porcelain, pressed steel enamel, fiberglass, and acrylic. Q: My tub was refinished by someone else and is peeling. What happened? A: More than likely shortcuts were taken during the preparation process. This results in a weak bond between the topcoat and the previous finish. We meticulously prepare the surface so the bond is super strong resulting in years of use. We don't skip steps and use the best premium materials money can buy. Q: My fiberglass tub/shower has a crack in it. Can it be repaired? A: Absolutely. We have several processes to fix fiberglass fixtures. The preferred method matches the severity of the damage. Call us at 907-240-0380 and we’ll listen to your needs and recommend the most cost effective solution. Q: Can I refinish my tub with a DIY kit from a home improvement store? A: No. DIY kits are limited in strength and durability. They usually fail within a month or two. They typically consist of an epoxy coating that takes up to 5 days to dry and yellows significantly over time. Most kits are rolled or brushed on the fixture, giving an unsightly looking amateur finish. Some kits are sprayed on with an aerosol can, causing uneven coverage, dry spray and drips. The mirror-like finish you really want cannot be achieved without proper training and experience and professional spray equipment. Q: Do you also refinish countertops, tile or sinks? A: Yes, yes and yes! Q: Are there any offensive odors with refinishing? A: Any time you have painting done in your home there will be some lingering paint odors for a few days. We minimize these odors by using a sophisticated exhaust system that vents dust and odor to the outside while we work. Some companies use a box fan. That's simply not enough.	3,064
These action comedies about old people robbing banks and making fools out of themselves while they're at it... they're usually pretty depressing. And so was this one. Though mainly because of the old age theme - not so much because of the foolery. That bit comes in moderate doses. They're definitely old, they definitely have their downs, but in the end... it's handled with style. And they have all the reasons in the world to get that money! Righteous reasons. At the end you wonder if anyone wasn't at least a little suspicious when they all managed to turn their lives around, keep their houses and half their kidneys and even get a dog? Loose end. It's not flawless but... it was a good session of fun and depression both. Well-filmed. Well-planed. Michael Caine, Alan Arkin and Morgan Freeman never disappoint either! Michael is the oldest in the group by a few years, and Morgan Freeman the youngest, though they're all over 80 y/o at this point! It's almost like they get better the older they get. Also: pretty entertaining cameo with Christopher Lloyd! He's actually younger than all the aforementioned three. Age is a funny thing, huh. This movie might have the oldest cast in a old-guys-rob-a-bank movie yet, and they're still all going strong. Forget depressing - that's pretty inspiring. rated 3/5: not bad posted by Cyber on Friday, April 27th, 2018 (9:42 AM) in Movies. Comments Keep track of the discussion via rss? Read about comment etiquette? Or type in something below! This was pretty damn interesting. And yet, nobody's spoken! Be the first! Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Your email is saved only to approve your future comments automatically (assuming you really are a human). ;) It's not visible or shared with anyone. You can read about how we handle your info here.	1,917
Today is the first official day of the kiddos' summer break from school. They seem to be having a good time. Unfortunately, helping out around the house has not been high on their list of priorities. I must get us on a more structured schedule and make it clear what they should be doing and when! As for me, I am having one of those days when nothing goes right. The hot water side of the kitchen facet broke off, the handle part did, and it was running in a steady stream. So, now the water is turned off at the sink until Dan can fix it. My computer is acting up and IE is refusing to open some of my fave blog reads. It took me hours to figure out how to get a video uploaded to YouTube today. Last night I spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to load songs on the Ipod Tristen won at school. I get so frustrated when I can't figure things out and it seems that is all that's happened the past couple of days...me being frustrated. So, I'll take a deep breath, keep pushing forward, and hope tomorrow is better. How is your day going? 2 comments: seems to have been that day all over blog land from what i read dont you hate that go to bed at a decent hour tonight really rest and hope tomorrow is much much better May 21, 2009 at 8:34 PM Kathy said... I hope things are better today. Come by and pick up a couple of awards I have for you! May 22, 2009 at 9:31 AM Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Blog Archive February (2) January (4) February (2) January (4) December (2) May (1) February (1) January (2) December (2) October (1) September (1) January (1) October (1) September (1) August (7) July (6) June (1) May (7) April (10) March (5) February (7) January (31) December (1) November (1) October (2) September (2) May (1) March (3) February (8) January (15) December (3) November (12) October (12) September (4) August (6) July (12) June (6) May (1) April (3) March (11) January (9) December (3) November (19) October (8) September (7) August (1) July (11) June (5) May (5) April (5) March (3) February (1) January (6) December (1) November (1) October (13) September (19) August (18) July (24) June (12) May (25) April (10) March (4) February (17) January (13) December (30) November (49) October (61) September (46) August (58) July (50) June (50) May (44) April (64) March (55) February (28) January (48) December (24) November (19) October (24) September (21) August (26) July (33) June (7) May (23) April (23) March (10) January (2)	2,644
Have you ever loved a pair of shoes so much, you've used a glue stick to try and fix them? Multiple times? That's how I feel about these babies. earrings- flea market, tank top- Old Navy, blazer- F21, skirt- Urban Outfitters, shoes- Vintage I originally purchased them for my "Sophomore Banquet", my sophomore year in high school. And proceeded to win a "Best Shoes" Oscar (old Hollywood theme) for them. I had to put this picture in here. There I am with my Oscar, looking like a baby teenager. Note my best friend Jenae in the background. Since then, these shoes have become the coolest and most fragile pair I own. They are quite literally falling apart. I was pretty embarrassed to even wear these today, but I had to wear them one more time before I threw them out. Farewell, shoes that I love, shoes that have won me awards and jealous glances, you have done well. Also notable is that these pictures are taken on campus, where everyone could see me! I was confident! Does this make me a respectable fashion blogger? Oh my gosh, wait. Didn't I wear like this exact same outfit last week? Uhh, yeah, awkward. At least I'm not pretending at the things I like to wear. Hunter was not very torn up about the shoes. He said "They look like they've served you and several others very well." Today I tried to explain to him why vintage was so cool. Boys! 11 comments Elana said... Aww, this is so sad! There is nothing worse than having a favorite, irreplaceable item fall apart. This happened with my favorite pair of flats once and I don't think I've ever recovered. May these (gorgeous) heels rest in peace! Now, I think you've earned yourself a new pair of shoes to console yourself. September 6, 2012 at 5:12 PM Unknown said... I hear ya, I had a pair of flats that I wore down so much that I slipped and fell in the middle of the street in them! Those I was glad to see go, ha! Your shoes are so cute though, I can definitely see why it is difficult to part with them, plus the memory of that award make them a tough item to part with. I always try to tell myself that for every pair of shoes that sees the end of its wonderful life there is another pair out there waiting to be obsessed over :) Thanks for your gracious comment on my blog! September 6, 2012 at 5:41 PM Miss Doyle said... Fab shoes, fab outfit. Glad you had one last hoorah with the shoes, plus some great photos with which to remember them! September 6, 2012 at 11:36 PM Marie McGrath (The Joy of Fashion) said... I know the feeling! I have several pairs of shoes that I have glued back together several times... hehe. These are particularly gorgeous, what a shame that you have to through them away. Anywhoo, you look very pretty as usual! And congrats for taking pictures on campus where everyone could see you, you are very brave! September 7, 2012 at 9:00 AM Alexa said... awww <3 such a cute post! love the pic of you from sophomore year :) too cute! you look great! love these shoes! they are soo pretty and soo cute. I could see why you would want to keep them forever! you definitely rocked them one last time with this cute outfit! gorgeous pics as always September 7, 2012 at 11:32 PM Priya said... Finally, someone who really understands my pain. Thank you Elana, I took your advice x3! September 9, 2012 at 2:45 PM Priya said... What a great theory Jenny, you are right on! I appreciate your consolations. September 9, 2012 at 2:46 PM Priya said... Thanks Miss Doyle! They don't make Soph banquets like they used to! September 9, 2012 at 2:46 PM Priya said... Ha thank you Marie! Glad I'm not the only one, it's worth it for a few more wears, right?! September 9, 2012 at 2:47 PM Priya said... Thank you Alexa! I can't believe how young I look! Yes, those dear shoes will be missed. September 9, 2012 at 2:47 PM Thanks for noticing me. :) I am so sad for THE shoes. Can we have a funeral for them? We should bury them alongside Herbert the egg. October 8, 2012 at 1:48 PM Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Hi! I'm Priya. & this is my blog. Start here! You'll Really Like These! A Week in My Life 2022 [As a Working Actor in Nashville, TN] / VLOG Tweets by priyatheblog Powered by Blogger. Priya the Blog uses affiliate links, which means I may earn a few cents, if you click in the right place :) any other sponsorships will be noted. Thank you for your support! 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Xiaofan is one of China’s pioneering cartoonists. In the past ten years he has published cartoons and comics in various magazines and books, criticizing the social and political issues in China. He is now a contributing cartoonist for the well-known dissident news media boxun.com. He is also a member of Reporters Without Borders. December 18, 2013 On Friday December 6, the platform femalesuperheroes.nl launched. Female Superheroes tells the inspiring stories of ordinary women. These women become heroes, because they choose to take risks to make life (for themselves and for others) better in the face of oppression. Cartoon Movement and New Statesman comic artist Tom Humberstone supplied all the artwork for the platform, which has a focus on education. In an interactive environment, high school students are encouraged to put themselves in the shoes of these women, and face the same choices these women have faced. Would they make the same choices? We're very proud of this project, because it showcases how comics journalism can be combined with a game-like interface, 360 photography and video to create an immersive experience. One of the stories is available in English, the other two only in Dutch at the moment. Click on the image blow to check out the story of Hawa in Sudan: December 16, 2013 Metamorphosis - RCD (Ben Ali's political party) was dissolved in 2011 after the revolution, but is working on a comeback. Tawfiq Omrane is a cartoonist from Tunisa: 'I started drawing for the press in the early 80s in various Tunisian independent and opposition newspapers: Le Phare, Arraï, Al Wehda, Al Mostaqbel. All these newspapers are gone now! This is not strange because the 80s are the last decade of Bourguiba government and the coup of Ben Ali (1987) which forced the journals of opinion to close. Like many, I changed my job to guide me to the cultural and commercial edition in 2003 by creating my own publishing house (Editions Alfiniq). I returned to cartooning in April 2011 (after the revolution). Since then, my drawings appear regularly in the website of Kalima Radio and weekly newspaper Sawt Echaab, organ of Tunisian Workers' Party. In 2013, I began working with the European website The Dissident and the French monthly newspaper CQFD.' December 12, 2013 In May of this year we reviewed Sketches of Iran, a compilation of cartoons by seven Iranian artists, coupled to columns and commentary by Iranian writers, activists and family of activists in prison or dead. The book was published by The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The Campaign also publishes a weekly cartoon on human rights in Iran and beyond. The cartoons are drawn by Touka Neyestani, a well-known Iranian political cartoonist. The cartoons are excellent, and a lot of are accompanied to explanations of issues specific to Iran, giving insight into ongoing human rights abuses. There are 69 cartoons published to date: in the slideshow below, we have collected some of our favorites. To see all the cartoons, be sure to head over to the website of the Campaign. 'The First Thing to Explode in the Arab Spring was Art' December 9, 2013 Khalid Albaih is Sudanese, but has been living in Qatar since he was 10 year old. His work, that focuses mainly on the Arab World and Sudan has become immensely popular in the last two years. His Facebook page Khartoon! (a play on cartoon and Khartoum, the capital of Sudan) has accumulated close to 60,000 fans, he was featured by the BBC and the New York Times, and had a solo exhibition of his work in London in September of this year. While in Doha, we visited with him to talk about his work and outlook on the region. Your style is quite distinctive, can you tell us something about it? 'Most of my work is online, and a lot of people view it on their phone or tablet, so you want something that's stands out, something very simple. Really clean, not a lot of color. The good thing of working with social media is that you know your fans. My audience is young, about 14 to 30 years old. They involved in pop culture, fashion, and whatever is going on right now. With my work, I try to connect with them, creating something clean and simple, that can be worn on a t-shirt.' Is this style something that evolved over time? 'My background is interior design, and that's probably where my love for simple clean design comes from. I try to blend cartoons and art. My images should be beautiful to look at, even if the person doesn't know what the cartoon is about. This blending also involves doing other things. Right now, I'm not only doing cartoons, but also installations and comics. But it always has a political or social dimension.' You draw a lot about Sudan.Why is this your favorite subject? 'To me, the government in Sudan is ridiculous. I mean, the decisions that they make, they don't seem to even think about it. I think they live 40 years ago. It's sad, really. And for me, that's funny, because the whole world is laughing at them. They're spending millions of dollars on security, spending 70% of the budget on military. That's insane. In the meantime, a large part of the Sudanese people is starving. Why would you spend money on planes and bombs, and not buy bread for your people? So every time I read the news on Sudan, there's so much material for cartoons. ' Do you do any cartoons about Qatar, about politics here? 'Not so much. Part of the reason is that, although I have been living here since I was 10 years old, I am a refugee here. But I am also quite proud of what Qatar has achieved in the last decade. When I was a kid, nobody knew about Qatar, and now, if you mention you live in Qatar, everybody knows it, mostly in a positive way. Al Jazeera is based here, and the Qatar Foundation has worldwide recognition for its activities. I try to keep away from Qatari politics in my work, because I don't want to be viewed as a cartoonist that has to suck up to the government, because I live here. Or, alternatively, that I'm playing against them, because as a cartoonist I have to stand up to their policies.' How do you feel about the negative side of Qatar, the World Cup workers' conditions, the lack of democracy? 'Qatar is a country where everybody is making money and doing well. Qatari citizens have entitlements to the extent that you would not believe (Editor's note: Qatari citizens receive free schooling and healthcare, and higher income and benefits compared to non-Qatari workers). And they love their country, and their government, for it. So their question is: why do we need democracy? Of course, we know the truth; around the edges, horrible stuff is going on. I think a consequence of a welfare state like in Qatar is that, unless something happens to you directly , there is no common ground or need to acknowledge or appreciate the value of human rights or free speech. That said, because of the government investment in education, the younger generation is getting educated. As a result, their mindset is changing, and these values will gain in importance in the future.' How about local Qatari cartoonists, are they doing a good job? 'I think in general Qatari artists are doing well for themselves. I work at the Qatar Museums Authority, and a lot of the exhibitions that we do feature art that challenge the society, that ask a lot of questions. So we have challenging artists in a conservative society, and I think that's important. And this goes for cartoonists too; they're asking questions.' How do you feel about the role of cartoons in the Arab world in general, since the outbreak of the Arab Spring? 'With the outbreak of popular uprisings throughout the Arab world, visual culture, whether it be cartoons, graffiti or other types of art, have definitely gained momentum. Before, everybody was kept in boxes; the Arab Spring unleashed a flood of creativity. The first thing that exploded with the Arab Spring was art. Graffiti artists took to the streets and basically covered up all the the walls; this is how frustrated they were. When we grew up, drawing or writing about politics was a nightmare, not just for you, but for your family, because anything could happen. So we were told to stay away from politics as far as possible. I think, in it's essence, the Arab Spring is the fight for freedom of our generation. When the revolution started, everybody just took to the streets, and artists poured their feelings and frustrations into their art and cartoons. The West was of course looking at the region, and the cartoonists were the stars of the region, of the revolution. The Arab Spring is history in the making, and cartoonists in the region are the chroniclers of that history and of the feelings of the people. It is our time.' For countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, the transition to democracy is proving difficult. Are you optimistic about the future of the region? 'I am. I read somewhere that after the French Revolution it took 70 years for the country to settle down, to become the mother of democracy. When you think about it, the Arab region has suffered repressive regimes for 100 years, longer in some cases. We're not used to freedom, we don't know what freedom is. We never had freedom. If anybody in this region says 'I had freedom', he's lying. So, for us, this is just the start. We're just starting to know what we can and can't do. I think the future is looking positive. I mean, just look at what happened in Egypt: they didn't like the situation, and they changed it. After all these years of oppression, things are not just going to settle down.' So, do you have any idea what the end result will be? 'The problem is that the West is looking at this region and saying 'if they don't do this, then they won't have freedom', basically imposing their own concept of how democracy should work. Looking at what is going on right now, I think this region will come up with something that suits it. Maybe it will not resemble what we think of as democracy now, but the idea of democracy is also evolving. In 70 years, the concept of democracy will be different that it is now. But I am definitely optimistic that we will come up with something, because we broke the wall. And people are dying right now to prevent that wall from being built up again.' December 5, 2013 Francis Odupute is a cartoonist from Nigeria, where he works for the Nigeria Observer. He is also committed to promoting cartoons and comics journalism in Africa, and is teamleader for both the Grafic Reporters Global Media Network and African Press Cartoon Syndication Company, one of the organizers of the Cartoon Africa International Biennial. December 2, 2013 We're very happy to welcome Ricardo Bermúdez from Cuba to Cartoon Movement, to further strenghten the community of Cuban cartoonists in our newsroom. The blog of Cartoon Movement, publishing platform for high quality editorial cartoons and comics journalism from all over the globe.	11,393
The lesser-known Megan Wallace Cunningham is an American art dealer; notable for being the wife of the famous American television personality and comedian named Craig Ferguson. The Scottish-American comedian has racked up several awards following his exceptional comedy prowess. In addition, he is a top-notch television presenter as well as an actor and prolific writer. While Craig Ferguson has been enjoying the glamour of the limelight; little or less is known about his wife Megan. She enjoys keeping a low profile. Despite being married to a well-known personality, Megan hasn’t disclosed much about herself to the media. She came into the limelight following her marriage to Ferguson. Read on, as we take you through her bio, husband, kids, and other interesting facts below. Megan Wallace Cunningham was born in Vermont, United States in 1975. She came from a wealthy American family, her family owns a farm in Vermont. She is of white ethnicity and also holds an American nationality. Megan is a very private person; hence there is no information available for media consumption. A mere look at the amazing lady would tell you that she received a qualitative education. Since she has not shared any information regarding her childhood, her siblings and family; it will be hard to tell if Megan is the only child of her parents or not. As per her career, it is already known that the gorgeous-looking lady is an art dealer and this she has been doing over the years. However, there is no much information regarding her art collection. She came into the limelight following her marriage to Craig Ferguson. The amazing lady has been successful in her career as an art dealer. She has made huge wealth for herself and is currently living a lavish lifestyle. However, her net worth cannot be ascertained at the moment as it is still under review. We hope to update this post when we have verified information regarding her net worth. Meanwhile, her husband’s net worth is currently penned at $30 million, he receives an annual salary of $8.5 million. Does She Have a Boyfriend or Is She Married With Kids? Just like we have earlier stated that Megan Wallace Cunningham is the wife of Craig Ferguson; the duo has been married since 2008. Ferguson is a Scottish-American stand-up comedian, actor, and acclaimed writer; best known for hosting the Celebrity Name Game from 2014 to 2017. Also, he has anchored a lot of other programs including CBS Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Join or Die with Craig Ferguson among others. He was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland; Ferguson later moved to the United States in 1994 and subsequently; became a US Citizen in 2008. Craig began his career a long time ago and has appeared in blockbuster movies such as Vampire Bats, The Big Tease, The Pooh, Kick-Ass, I’ll be There, and Brave, among others. As an author, Ferguson has written several books including Married Lovers, The Sphynx of the Mississippi, and Between the Bridge and the River, just to mention a few. Megan and Craig first met each other in 2005, afterwards, they kicked off their relationship. After two and a half years of a successful relationship, the couple walked down the aisle in 2008. Their wedding was held at Megan’s family farm situated in Chester, Vermont in the United States. Their wedding was attended by a few of their close friends and family members. A few years after their wedding, the perfect couple welcomed their first bundle of joy, a son named Liam Ferguson in 2011. Meanwhile, it was Megan’s first child but apparently not the first for Ferguson who had previously married twice. His first marriage was with Anne Hogarth in 1983 and the pair went their separate ways in 1986. They didn’t have any kids from their marriage. After their divorce, Ferguson married his second wife named Sascha Brown in 1998. The duo welcomed their first child, a son named Milo Hamish Ferguson in 2001. After six years of marriage, their relationship turned sour and the couple went their separate ways in 2004. Moreover, Ferguson has attributed the reason for his failed marriages as relationship issues. His marriage with Megan has been his longest-standing marriage and they have been living happily ever after without any issues. With over 5 years experience, Ikenna has been providing great content on trending celebrities and their lifestyle. When not writing, he enjoys keeping up with the latest social media trends and tech-stuffs.	4,679
Insight is excited to announce this months Grand Rounds Lecture Series. Eventually we hope to be able to host you on site as we have in the past but, for now we will be presenting via Zoom. The presentation for December will be held Thursday December 17th at 8:30am... INSIGHT is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Cameron M. McDougall by admin \| Dec 4, 2020 \| Insight News Insight Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Cameron M. McDougall to our neurosurgery team, where he will serve as a research physician specializing in neurovascular surgery. Dr. McDougall is originally from rural... Upcoming Lecture On November 19th by admin \| Nov 3, 2020 \| Insight News Insight is excited to announce the return of the Grand Rounds lecture series. Eventually we hope to be able to have you on site as we have in the past but, for now we will be presenting via Zoom. The presentation for October will be held Thursday November 19th at... Upcoming Lecture On October 15th by admin \| Oct 5, 2020 \| Insight News Insight is excited to announce the return of the Grand Rounds lecture series. Eventually we hope to be able to have you on site as we have in the past but, for now we will be presenting via Zoom. The presentation for October will be held Thursday October 15th at...	1,320
Looking for an interesting subject for your mid-term paper? Why not honor Irish culture by writing about an Irish author? We are featuring classic and contemporary books from writers who have left an indelible mark on the literary world. These award-winning novelists, poets, playwrights, and screenwriters—all of whom hail from the Emerald Isle—each have their unique storytelling and writing styles. Here are the outstanding writers and their most popular works. Sally Rooney, born 1991 Well known for her bestselling novels, Conversations with Friends and Normal People, Sally Rooney is also a poet and screenwriter. She adapted Normal People for a 12-part television series. The story follows characters Marianne and Connell through their secret high school affair. The three-year saga explores the entrapping conventions of intimacy, gender normative roles, and the individual’s capability to grow over time. Rooney has won awards for her books that focus on young-adult relationships often complicated by romance and friendship. When asked which literary medium she prefers most, the Irish writer said, “As a reader I try to love all the literary forms equally, but I probably read novels most often.” Rooney’s third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, a coming-of-age story about two young lovers, will be published in 2021. Emma Donoghue, born 1969 Emma Donoghue is a prolific Irish-Canadian writer best known for her books on female sexuality and Irish nationality. One of her bestselling novels, The Pull of the Stars, is about three women—a nurse midwife, volunteer, and doctor—in a quarantined maternity ward during the Great Flu pandemic of 1918. Donoghue reveals how gender roles and expectations placed on women in war-ravaged Dublin cause and exacerbate their suffering. Her other bestselling novel, Room, focuses instead on the complex relationship between a mother and her son and their unshakable bond while in captivity. The novel was a finalist for the “Man Booker Prize” and Donoghue wrote the screenplay for the adapted film. The versatile author commented on the challenge of adapting a book to the screen saying that “…the paradox is, in film, that sometimes a line can be most powerful if it’s the only one spoken in a scene.” Her other international bestselling works include The Wonder, Akin, and The Lotterys Plus One. Colm Tóibín, born 1955 Colm Tóibín is an award-winning novelist best known for books focused on his Irish roots. In his novel Brooklyn, the author tells the coming-of-age tale about a young immigrant woman living in the 1950’s, torn between her new life in America and her small, ancestral hometown of Enniscorthy, Ireland. The book was adapted to film and nominated for an Academy Award. Another of Toibin’s books, Nora Webster, takes place in Ireland and tells of a widow struggling to support her four children financially while still reeling from the death of her husband. Toibin’s others include The Master, The Testament of Mary, and House of Names. When asked about his inspiration, he explained that an unexpected idea or image forms into a sentence in his mind that “…moves into rhythm when you least expect it. …In other words, it’s like a melody.” The author is also a playwright, journalist, essayist, poet, and professor. Maeve Binchy, born 1939 Maeve Binchy was an accomplished Irish author of numerous best-selling books. One of her most popular, Circle of Friends, focuses on two close friends, Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, who face many challenges growing up in a small Irish village. The best-selling novel was also adapted to film. Tara Road is another popular read and movie adaptation. The story follows two women—one American and one Irish— who both embark on journeys of self-discovery after swapping houses. When asked how she felt about her books being adapted to screen, Binchy replied, “One little sentence in a film script says and shows it all. And I am literally in awe of the detail they go to in order to get the places looking just right, and the detail accurate.” The author was also an accomplished playwright and columnist and former schoolteacher. Samuel Beckett, born 1906 Samuel Beckett was an Irish novelist, poet, literary translator, playwright, and theater director who wrote tragically absurd dark-comedy in the modernist genre. He studied Italian and French at Trinity College in Dublin and then spent the rest of his adult life in France, where he wrote in French and English. Legendary writer James Joyce worked with and influenced Beckett in his early career. Waiting for Godot is one of Beckett’s most important plays. Coined as “Absurdist Theatre,” its unconventional style with meaningless dialogue disoriented audiences. This new genre had a monumental impact on the theater world for subsequent generations. Beckett’s other most enduring works include: Endgame, Dante and the Lobster, Krapp’s Last Tape, Molloy, Nohow, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. He won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. James Joyce, born 1882 James Joyce is one Ireland’s most beloved writers. The world-renowned author is celebrated for his life’s work every year on Bloomsday, June 16, in Dublin. The Irish novelist, teacher, and poet was an influential force in the modernist avant-garde movement. His most important novel, Ulysses, chronicles the experience of three main characters through the course of one day (June 16, 1904), in Dublin, and is loosely based on Homer’s The Odyssey. His other monumental works include: Dubliners, Finnegans Wake, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. William Butler Yeats, born 1865 William Butler Yeats was a poet and dramatist who helped found the Abbey Theatre. A staunch supporter of Irish independence from England, he often created Irish heroes and heroines in his writings and served as a Senator for the Irish Free State. Yeats’ most important poems include “The Second Coming,” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” and “Leda and the Swan.” Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.	6,123
We always have someone on the line to answer you and plan a quick intervention. Our team is mobile and we have plumbers nearby in Greenfield Park to repair your installations. Plumbing service in Greenfield Park – solving your emergencies quickly! Water damage or other plumbing-related emergencies are highly problematic situations that can have serious and costly consequences if proper intervention is not carried out as soon as possible. We understand the stress and helplessness you can feel in these situations, which is why we are committed to solving your problems as quickly as possible. Whether you have a blocked pipe, a leak or water damage in your home or business, the speed, and quality of our interventions is recognized in the territory of Greenfield Park and its surroundings. Our experts are available day and night and will be on-site quickly! Let's work together to address your water damage emergency What to do if you have an urgent plumbing problem in Greenfield Park? Cut off any water supply that could worsen the damage Cut off the electricity nearby Make sure that the problem related to water cannot cause an issue related to electricity Do not try to solve the problem yourself. Our professionals are certified and have the experience to carry out this work. Someone unqualified could worsen the situation and increase costs by causing damage to your equipment or even electrical short circuits. We will get you out of this nightmare in no time! I need an emergency plumber How is our emergency plumber intervention carried out? “First Aid” for your emergency plumbing We protect the environment and prevent the problem from causing further damage Intervention for additional works If the problem is not fully resolved by our emergency response and requires more work, we will elaborate a plan together to find the best solution. We will evaluate the work to be done and elaborate a quote so that you can approve the work to be performed and the costs related to it Super reliable and efficient company. Very good quality-price service and punctual team. Thank you Peter for your emergency plumbing service, you saved Christmas! Fast and efficient service, perfect for emergencies and very professional. Thank you very much, I enjoyed my experience. I recommend this service.	2,398
salutandi \| Elderly people need about 7-9 hours but do not sleep as deeply and may awaken at night or wake early, so naps like kids need allow them to accumulate the total of 7-9 hours of sleep. Order Its impossible to underestimate the importance of a smoke-free life for your health -- as well as for the sake of those around you. Start slowly and progress gradually to avoid injury or excessive soreness or fatigue. March 15 Regular exercise can prevent and reverse age-related decreases in muscle mass and strength, improve balance, flexibility, and endurance, and decrease the risk of falls in the elderly. Plan to spend some time talking with other people about different subjects. Try to make some leisure time to do some things that interest you every week hobby, sport. Plan to spend some time talking with other people about different subjects. Stop smoking tobacco; start to stop today it takes about 15 years of nonsmoking behavior to achieve a normal risk level for heart disease for those that smoke. Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. It also further increases the risk of bladder cancer in subjects occupationally exposed to certain organic chemicals found in the textile, leather, rubber, dye, paint, and other organic chemical industries, and further increases the risk of lung cancer among subjects exposed to asbestos. Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. March 14 Tobacco use causes atherosclerotic arterial disease hardening and narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and lack of blood flow to the lower extremities. Healthy living to most people means both physical and mental health are in balance or functioning well together in a person. Research has shown that a lack of sleep can put our hunger hormones out of balance -- and possibly trigger overeating. Sports for children may provide excellent opportunities for exercise, but care must be taken not to overdo certain exercises for example, throwing too many pitches in baseball may harm a joint like the elbow or shoulder. Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. Tobacco use causes atherosclerotic arterial disease hardening and narrowing of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and lack of blood flow to the lower extremities. April 07 Do your best to look at life as if the glass is half full. Tobacco use causes cancers of the lung, mouth, lip, tongue, esophagus, kidney, and bladder. Research has shown that a lack of sleep can put our hunger hormones out of balance -- and possibly trigger overeating. For example, infants may require feeding every 4 hours until they gradually age and begin to take in more solid foods. It also further increases the risk of bladder cancer in subjects occupationally exposed to certain organic chemicals found in the textile, leather, rubber, dye, paint, and other organic chemical industries, and further increases the risk of lung cancer among subjects exposed to asbestos. Children need exercise; play outside of the home is a good beginning. Eat three healthy meals a day breakfast, lunch, and dinner; it is important to remember that dinner does not have to be the largest meal. It also further increases the risk of heart attacks among subjects with elevated cholesterol, uncontrolled hypertension, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. Sports for children may provide excellent opportunities for exercise, but care must be taken not to overdo certain exercises for example, throwing too many pitches in baseball may harm a joint like the elbow or shoulder. Almost any type of exercise resistance, water aerobics, walking, swimming, weights, yoga, and many others is helpful for everybody. parents thoroughly consequently Whenever you walk, think tall and tight to get the most out of the movement. Braulio VonRueden, September 04 Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. Jordane Greenholt Sr., June 21 Stop smoking tobacco; start to stop today it takes about 15 years of nonsmoking behavior to achieve a normal risk level for heart disease for those that smoke. Mr. Alvah Ebert DVM, May 09 nutrition to eventually Learn ways to say no when something occurs that you do not want to do or be involved with. Seek help and advice early if you feel depressed, have suicidal thoughts, or consider harming yourself or others. For example, infants may require feeding every 4 hours until they gradually age and begin to take in more solid foods. No matter how you get it, physical activity can help defuse stress, burn calories, and boost self-esteem. Avoid rewarding children with sugary snacks; such a pattern may become a lifelong habit for people. Plan to spend some time talking with other people about different subjects. It also further increases the risk of bladder cancer in subjects occupationally exposed to certain organic chemicals found in the textile, leather, rubber, dye, paint, and other organic chemical industries, and further increases the risk of lung cancer among subjects exposed to asbestos. Well-rested people not only cope better with stress, but may also have better control of their appetites. It also further increases the risk of bladder cancer in subjects occupationally exposed to certain organic chemicals found in the textile, leather, rubber, dye, paint, and other organic chemical industries, and further increases the risk of lung cancer among subjects exposed to asbestos. Protein lasts a long time in your belly; combine it with high-fiber foods and youll feel full on fewer calories. Regular exercise can help increase self-esteem and self-confidence, decrease stress and anxiety, enhance mood, and improve general mental health. Smokers, I hope you are working diligently to kick your habit. That’s 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1. In men, 90% of lung cancer deaths are attributable to smoking; 80% in women. Plan to spend some time talking with other people about different subjects. Children need exercise; play outside of the home is a good beginning. Generally, one drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol. Regular exercise can help increase self-esteem and self-confidence, decrease stress and anxiety, enhance mood, and improve general mental health. Avoid sodas and sugar-enhanced drinks because of the excessive calories in the sodas and sugar drinks; diet drinks may not be a good choice as they make some people hungrier and increase food consumption. Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Elderly people need about 7-9 hours but do not sleep as deeply and may awaken at night or wake early, so naps like kids need allow them to accumulate the total of 7-9 hours of sleep. Your list of healthy lifestyle behaviors may be different from mine. Sports for children may provide excellent opportunities for exercise, but care must be taken not to overdo certain exercises for example, throwing too many pitches in baseball may harm a joint like the elbow or shoulder. Avoid sodas and sugar-enhanced drinks because of the excessive calories in the sodas and sugar drinks; diet drinks may not be a good choice as they make some people hungrier and increase food consumption. Brush and floss daily to keep your teeth and gums healthy and free of disease. Smokers, I hope you are working diligently to kick your habit. Youll look 5 pounds lighter if you stand tall and tighten your abdominal muscles. If a person is angry or depressed, eating will not solve these situations and may make the underlying problems worse. Stop smoking tobacco; start to stop today it takes about 15 years of nonsmoking behavior to achieve a normal risk level for heart disease for those that smoke. The CDC, in 2011, estimated that 90% of deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease COPD were due to smoking. Control portion sizes; eat the smallest portion that can satisfy hunger and then stop eating. Regular fitness can help chronic arthritis sufferers improve their capacity to perform daily activities such as driving, climbing stairs, and opening jars. Cooking foods above 165 F destroys most harmful bacteria and other pathogens; if you choose to eat uncooked foods like fruits or vegetables, they should be thoroughly washed with running treated safe to drink tap water right before eating. Have a network of friends; those with strong social support systems lead healthier lives. The bulk of food consumption should consist of healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk products. Tobacco use causes or contributes to a large number of cancers in the U. Secondhand smoke sometimes referred to as passive smoking can also cause lung cancer. For example, infants may require feeding every 4 hours until they gradually age and begin to take in more solid foods. These are critical areas for older folks especially, and both men and women can benefit. Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Meditate, pray, or otherwise find solace for at least 10-20 minutes each day. Learn ways to say no when something occurs that you do not want to do or be involved with. Even frail, elderly individuals 70-90 years of age can improve their strength and balance with exercise. Regular fitness can help chronic arthritis sufferers improve their capacity to perform daily activities such as driving, climbing stairs, and opening jars. If you are one of the lucky ones who never became addicted to nicotine, pat yourself on the back. However, as most parents know, kids, teenagers, and young adults often snack between meals. Avoid rewarding children with sugary snacks; such a pattern may become a lifelong habit for people. Exertion during strenuous exercise may make a person tired and sore, but if pain occurs, stop the exercise until the pain source is discovered; the person may need to seek medical help and advice about continuation of such exercise. Youll look 5 pounds lighter if you stand tall and tighten your abdominal muscles. Brush and floss daily to keep your teeth and gums healthy and free of disease. The most important thing to remember is that you can make a difference in your health and well-being. Tobacco use causes cancers of the lung, mouth, lip, tongue, esophagus, kidney, and bladder. Smokers, I hope you are working diligently to kick your habit. Tobacco use causes cancers of the lung, mouth, lip, tongue, esophagus, kidney, and bladder. Secondhand smoke can cause middle-ear infections otitis media, coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, and pneumonia in babies, and aggravate asthma in children. Try to make some leisure time to do some things that interest you every week hobby, sport.Tobacco use causes or contributes to a large number of cancers in the U. This nutrient is an essential part of your eating plan, and can make up anywhere from 10%-35% of your total calories. Avoid sodas and sugar-enhanced drinks because of the excessive calories in the sodas and sugar drinks; diet drinks may not be a good choice as they make some people hungrier and increase food consumption. Healthy diet, which was calculated and rated based on the reported intake of healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, healthy fats, and omega-3 fatty acids, and unhealthy foods like red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fat, and sodium. Elderly people need about 7-9 hours but do not sleep as deeply and may awaken at night or wake early, so naps like kids need allow them to accumulate the total of 7-9 hours of sleep. Youll look 5 pounds lighter if you stand tall and tighten your abdominal muscles. You must believe in yourself, have good support systems, and think positively I think I can, I think I can… to succeed. Take a walk and reflect on what you see and hear at least several times per week. Avoid heavy meals in the summer months, especially during hot days. Smokers, I hope you are working diligently to kick your habit. Eventually they develop into the more normal pattern of eating three times per day as young kids. Plan to spend some time talking with other people about different subjects. Unhealthy living may manifest itself in obesity, weakness, lack of endurance, and overall poor health that may foster disease development. Get enough sleep daily; the CDC recommends the following by age group naps inclusive; 12-18 hours from birth to 2 months, 14-15 hours from 3-11 months of age, 12-18 hours for 1-3 years of age, 11-13 hours for 3-5 years of age, 10-11 hours for 5-10 years of age, 8. Moderate alcohol intake, which was measured as between 5 and 15 grams per day for women, and 5 to 30 grams per day for men. Consequently, some of the tips will include suggestions for emotional and mental healthy living. Secondhand smoke sometimes referred to as passive smoking can also cause lung cancer. Its impossible to underestimate the importance of a smoke-free life for your health -- as well as for the sake of those around you. Even frail, elderly individuals 70-90 years of age can improve their strength and balance with exercise. Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Avoid heavy meals in the summer months, especially during hot days. It keeps you grounded, and helps you cope with situations that would otherwise make you crazy. The CDC, in 2011, estimated that 90% of deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease COPD were due to smoking. These are critical areas for older folks especially, and both men and women can benefit. Eat three healthy meals a day breakfast, lunch, and dinner; it is important to remember that dinner does not have to be the largest meal. That’s 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1. It keeps you grounded, and helps you cope with situations that would otherwise make you crazy. Avoid eating a large meal before sleeping to decrease gastroesophageal reflux and weight gain. Secondhand smoke can cause middle-ear infections otitis media, coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, and pneumonia in babies, and aggravate asthma in children. Get a pedometer and let it motivate you to walk, walk, walk. In men, 90% of lung cancer deaths are attributable to smoking; 80% in women. Order Form Order Now Address Cartwright and Sons, Inc. Take a walk and reflect on what you see and hear at least several times per week. It also further increases the risk of heart attacks among subjects with elevated cholesterol, uncontrolled hypertension, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. If a person is angry or depressed, eating will not solve these situations and may make the underlying problems worse. Cooking foods above 165 F destroys most harmful bacteria and other pathogens; if you choose to eat uncooked foods like fruits or vegetables, they should be thoroughly washed with running treated safe to drink tap water right before eating.	15,808
During its two decades of entertaining bluegrass audiences in the Mid-Atlantic region, Stoney Creek Bluegrass Band has been praised as "mainstream bluegrass at its best" by Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, and named "West Virginia's classic bluegrass band" by Around the Panhandle magazine. "We try to put on a show that will entertain any music fan, even if they don’t consider themselves a bluegrass fan," says vocalist Libby Files. "Our music ranges from hard driving traditional bluegrass to bluegrass gospel and some slower dance numbers." Files also describes the music as "down-home." "It reminds you of the kind of atmosphere you were around as a kid. It's farmland stuff people can relate to. Just good, old down-to-earth music." The title track to the band's latest album, "A Miner's Life," was released as a single in 2020 and spent five weeks at No. 1 nationally on the Roots Music Report Top 50 Bluegrass Song Chart. "A Miner's Life" spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Bluegrass Jamboree's Top 15 Chart, and was featured on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Inside Appalachia program. Originally recorded by Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen, Stoney Creek's recording of "A Miner's Life" was among the top played songs for 2020 on numerous bluegrass radio stations. "This song, the composition, the recording is pure genius," according to bluegrass enthusiast Ed Henry. In 2021, the band released the album A Miner's Life. The album's second single, "I Wish I Had a Lifeline," spent five weeks No. 1 on the Roots Music Report. Stoney Creek's recording of "There is a Time" reached No. 1 in June 2022, shortly before the band's debut at Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana. "There is a Time" has been No. 1 for a total of 17 weeks. The success of the single and music video received praise from the Dillards (who wrote the song and performed it as the Darlings on "The Andy Griffith Show"). posted by the Dillards (Oct. 10, 2022) Since 2020, Stoney Creek Bluegrass Band has partnered with Southern States Cooperative to promote stores located near the band's concert appearances. In Sept. 2018, Stoney Creek partnered with the Boot for an exclusive premiere of the "Fast Train" music video. The Boot, one of the top country music sites, praised the video's "stunning sights" and said the band is "known for fusing bluegrass traditionalism with gospel sensibilities." The band has seen radio airplay with original songs including "Come Stay Awhile," "Never Tell Me," "The Traveling Song," "Thirty Years" and "Fast Train." The band's music videos have gained a following on social media, due in part to their reflection of the traditional bluegrass sound and rural lifestyle. "Fast Train" spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Roots Music Report. "Thirty Years" spent five weeks at No. 1 on the same chart. Al Shusterman, host of Bluegrass Backroads on KUBU FM, noted the band's "great traditional songs, fine vocals and superb musicianship." Katy Orr-Dove, general manager of Orr's Farm Market and Live Bluegrass Weekends, said Stoney Creek "brings a signature sound to bluegrass favorites." Stoney Creek Bluegrass Band features Libby Files on vocals and bass, Brett Smeltzer on mandolin and vocals, Kenton "Red" Catlett on guitar and vocals, and Troy Stangle on banjo, resonator guitar and vocals. Stoney Creek was founded by bassist and vocalist Libby Files. "Libby is among the rising number of female vocalists who are making a big impact on bluegrass music," said Frank Jurney, founder of Virginia's Berryville Bluegrass Series. Brett Smeltzer spent several years touring and recording with on of Maryland's premiere bluegrass acts, Jack Sanbower and the No Leeway Band. Brett is also a radio broadcaster, serving as host of "Bluegrass Retrospect" on the Bluegrass Jamboree on Friday evenings. Brett has endorsed Davis Mandolins and MBC Custom Straps. Kenton "Red" Catlett's songwriting, vocal and guitar skills have propelled his original songs, including "Fast Train" and "Thirty Years," to the top spots on bluegrass radio charts. Catlett performed and recorded with Libby's sister, the late Deanna Stottlemyer, arranging many of the songs that would later appear Stoney Creek's Memories & Tears (a tribute to Deanna released in 2016). Troy Stangle has played banjo and resonator guitar with All4Hym, a bluegrass gospel act on the Rural Rhythm Christian label. Troy also played and recorded in Nickel Misery, with "A Miner's Life" songwriter Bill Dailey. PDF \| JPG \| PNG \| Stoney Creek Bluegrass Band typically provides sound system and sound engineer. Stage plot is for events where venue is providing sound system.	4,905
The mountainous country of Costa Rica is better known for its wealth of hummingbirds, highland endemics shared with Panama, and rainforest species rather than shorebirds but waders certainly do find their way to this double-coasted land. In fact, Costa Rica has a very healthy list of plovers and sandpipers, many of which can be seen at the shorebird hotspot known as Chomes. This mosaic of shrimp ponds on the Gulf of Nicoya is one of Costa Rica’s best known sites for waders and has turned up a bunch of rarities over the years. If it were scrutinized as often as national parks and reserves in the United States, Britain, and elsewhere, I bet it would produce more vagrant shorebirds than we are aware of and maybe even a new bird or two for the country. Although some birders make it to Chomes, given that visits are far and few between and the tendency for shorebirds to leave a site almost as soon as they arrive, I can’t help but wonder about the birds that hang out in those hot shrimp ponds when no one is there to identify them. It would be a fantastic place to put up a few web cams, hides for bird photography, or train and pay locals to survey the birds. Until then, we will just have to encourage birders to visit the site as much as possible during fall migration. Regarding surveys, it would be even better to perhaps kayak or sail around other parts of the Gulf of Nicoya to survey the many inaccessible sites with shorebird habitat. If you are boatless, though, Chomes can be visited and it usually produces results. Patchy dry forest on the way in can be good for a bunch of expected species and on Saturday, we found such niceties as Plain-breasted Ground-Dove (just one), Streak-backed Oriole, Orange-fronted Parakeets, and Crested Bobwhite perched on a post. We also had large numbers of Northern Rough-winged Swallows, a single female Purple Martin, Ferruginous Pygmy-owls, and rice fields that could hide a rail or two. Since this area has also turned up sweet species like Crane Hawk, Double-striped Thick-Knee, and even Aplomado Falcon, it’s worth it to keep your eyes and ears open on the drive in! Rice field on the drive in. I bet there could be Spotted Rails in that human-made wetland. It had a “Traill’s Flycatcher” that turned into a Willow with a “whit” call. The shrimp ponds are on private land but so far, the people at the locked gate have been happy to open it for birders. There is also another road that leads to the beach and shrimp ponds but might not be so easy to find. Your best bet is asking locals for directions. Since water levels are regularly changed in the shrimp ponds, you may need to search a bit for the best shorebird habitat and will need a moderately high clearance vehicle to do so. This past Saturday, we were let in straight away and were psyched to connect with shorebird success at the first pond. Roseate Spoonbills and White Ibis brightened up the place with their lovely looks. Short-billed Dowitchers and Western Sandpipers were probing the muddy margins like mad as Least Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers ran around drier parts of the pool. Greater Yellowlegs were around but Lessers were absent. Black-necked Stilts are one of the more common waders in Costa Rica. After thoroughly looking over the birds in that first pool, we ventured further in to the complex to check a pool that held tons of birds the previous year. High water kept it pretty much bereft of birds but we still managed to whistle in a Northern Scrub Flycatcher in the short mangroves. These short-billed guys are very much anti-pygmy-owl. We proceeded in towards the beach and hit the shorebird mother lode in the last of the ponds. As Least, Royal, and Gull-billed Terns floated overhead, we scoped through hundreds of Short-billed Dowitchers, Western Sandpipers, Willets, Whimbrels, and Black-bellied, Semipalmated and Wilson’s Plovers. We also found two Sanderling and a bunch of Ruddy Turnstones but nothing more in terms of wader diversity. Noting that the next pond over appeared to have some birds, we walked along the berm and set up our scopes behind an abandoned shack. This pond had even more birds including Black Skimmers, one Common Tern, a single Sandwich Tern, at least 120 Marbled Godwits, a bunch of distant Greater Yellowlegs. There could certainly have been other bird species present because even though I scoped through them several times, most were sleeping and thus difficult to identify, not all of the birds were visible, and a bunch were too distant to effectively scrutinize. There were a bunch of Wilson’s Plovers. The view from the shack. Shorebirds in action. Marbled Godwit and Willets. It’s one of those spots I wish I could check every day but since it’s a two and a half hour drive from my house, I usually get there just once a year. At least that annual visit is a birdy one! Post author By admin Post date August 22, 2012 Trip reports from other birders and birding tours are a fantastic resource for planning a trip. Read enough detailed trip reports and you can pretty much plan your own tour. Most people will still be better off by hiring a guide and/or an experienced ground agent but trip reports can at least give you a heads up on what’s in store when your plane touches down in Costa Rica. One of the sites that makes a frequent appearance on tour reports is the “mysterious Guacimo Road”. Used as a quick, accessible spot for dry forest species near Carara, it’s gets the mysterious label because it’s exact location is nevertheless omitted from most reports. Something that adds confusion to the mix is the occurrence of several “Guacimos” and “Guacimas” in Costa Rica. It’s the name of a tree, a racetrack, small towns on both slopes, and who knows what else. For birders visiting the country, though, there is but one Guacimo and I am going to clearly reveal once and for all where this birding site is located. The Guacimo Road is a road that leaves the San Jose-Caldera highway between Orotina and Caldera. To get there by vehicle from San Jose, follow the highway towards Caldera and once you pass the exit for Orotina, watch for an exit that says, “Ceibo Guacimo”. Take that exit and go to the left or south (even though it looks like a one way bridge), cross the bridge over the highway and start looking for dry forest species on the famed Guacimo Road. If coming from Caldera, take that same exit and go right (south). Susan Blank and I recently birded this road on our way to Bajamar to look for shorebirds and had a grand old time watching a a bunch of dry forest species. Doves were all over the place, including several Plain-breasted Ground-Doves. We could hear this uncommon species vocalizing along most of the road along with dozens of Common Ground-Doves, and a few Ruddy Ground-Doves. Distant male Plain-breasted Ground-Dove. The pale gray head of the male is apparent even at a distance. Blue Grosbeaks were seen at just about every stop we made, we heard a couple of Crested Bobwhites that refused to show themselves, saw several Blue-black Grassquits, and Gray-crowned Yellowthroats, and got all three dry forest parrots and parakeets. Orange-fronted were the most common, Yellow-naped the least common with just 4 birds encountered. We also saw such dry forest classics as Black-headed Trogon, Turquoise-browed Motmot, White-throated Magpie-Jay, Olive Sparrow, Scrub Euphonia, and lots of Stripe-headed Sparrows. Here is what it sounded like that morning on the Guacimo Road A young male Blue Grosbeak molting into adult plumage. In a riparian zone filled with birdy vine tangles, Banded Wrens sang while Streaked Flycatchers caught cicadas. Little Tinamous called from the thick undergrowth, Barred Antshrikes revealed themselves, and we watched both Tropical and White-lored Gnatcatchers do their hyperactive thing. Eventually, the road led past interesting scrubby mangroves where a couple dozen White Ibis were nesting. Past that point, the condition of the road became much worse before meeting up with the main road heading to Bajamar. We handled the sketchy part alright with four-wheel drive but I would never attempt it with a two-wheel drive, low-clearance vehicle. On a positive note, that part of the road gave us nice looks at a beautiful Lesser Ground-Cuckoo perched in some grass. Over in Bajamar, we checked the rocky promontary for seabirds and waders and met with success in the form of five Surfbirds! I was hoping to add that pigeon-like shorebird to my Costa Rican list at that site because the wave-washed rocks seem perfect for it. We also saw some beautiful turnstones but dipped on tattlers. Out on the ocean, despite trying to make distant Black Terns into Brown Noddies and Bridled Terns, all of the candidates ended up hailing from North American marshes. I did pick up a Brown Booby though along with the idea of sea watching from that same spot during stormy weather. Record shot of one of the five Surfbirds we saw. Over on the beach, a couple of Sanderlings foraged with Whimbrel, Willet, Black-bellied Plover, Collared Plover, and Wilson’s Plover. Those birds gave us hope that the lagoons at the end of the road would be filled with waders of all sorts. However, when we got there, they held nothing more than a single, teetering Spotted Sandpiper. We wondered if high waves had filled the lagoons with water and erased the mud flats that usually attract a healthy supply of terns and waders. Whatever the reason, we opted for driving over to the other side of the Tarcoles River mouth to see if we could get closer to the birds that adorned a sand bar. After a round-about thirty minute drive, we reached Playa Azul and got close enough to the sand bar to see that nearly every bird was a Brown Pelican. There were a few Royal Terns too but waders were limited to a few Semipalmated Sandpipers, Willet, Whimbrel, Wilson’s Plovers, and Collared Plovers foraging at the waters edge. It was a good mix of birds overall but oh how I need to head out to Chomes for a bigger dose of shorebirds. To sum things up, I think you can expect fair dry forest birding on the Guacimo Road but four-wheel drive is needed for the most part. It’s a good dry forest fix if you are staying near Carara but there is better dry forest birding at several sites in Guanacaste. The First Birding and Nature Festival in Costa Rica Takes Place in 2 Weeks Post author By admin Post date August 16, 2012 No Comments on The First Birding and Nature Festival in Costa Rica Takes Place in 2 Weeks From August 31st to September 2nd, the first Costa Rican Birding and Nature Festival will be held at the Las Brisas Reserve in the Caribbean foothills of Volcan Turrialba. Organized by two twenty-something birders and one photographer with a passion for conservation, the festival aims to celebrate Costa Rican biodiversity with guided walks that focus on birds and herpetofauna of the area (one of the best on the country), a few talks given by local experts, and the annual fall, Ceruleam Warbler census. What? Cerulean Warbler census? Yes, and two of the festival organizers (Juan Diego Vargas and Ernesto Carman) have been gathering data about Cerulean Warblers for a few years now as part of the Costa Rican Cerulean Warbler Project. They started up that project after realizing that they were seeing Ceruleans pass through the country in fair numbers. What habitats do the birds use? When do they migrate through Costa Rica? What can be done to protect them? They hope to answer these and other questions with data gathered by birders who happen to spot them during migration. It appears that a number of Ceruleans migrate through Costa Rica on their way to the Colombian Andes. In fact, there might be a few flying through the night skies as I write this post. The window for their migration appears to be a brief one and the festival is meant to coincide with its peak. Although they aren’t as common as other migrants in Costa Rica (no surprise given the small size of their population), birders have a very good chance of seeing Cerulean Warblers in the country if they bird the Caribbean foothills during late August and early September. I have seen them on more than one occasion in foothill rainforest at this time of the year and several have also been seen at the Las Brisas Reserve during the same time frame. The proceeds from the Festival de Aves and Naturaleza Costa Rica go to the Cerulean Warbler Project (more properly known as Cerulean Warbler Conservation-CR) and it’s bound to be a wonderful time. I sure hope I can check out the festival, at least for a day. Since the festival is in Spanish, there was also talk about hosting an English version the following week but unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time to organize it for this year. Next year is another story though! Regarding the site for the festival, Las Brisas is a private reserve in the Caribbean foothills near Siquirres and Turrialba. Although I haven’t been there, Juan Diego tells me that he has seen some of the biggest mixed flocks he has ever experienced in Costa Rica at this site and canopy views on the trail system make many of the tanagers, flycatchers, woodcreepers, woodpeckers, and other rainforest species easy to see. I hope my schedule allows me to experience the festival! Even if you can’t make it to this year’s festival, it’s still worth it to check out the incredible photo gallery at the festival website. Post author By admin Post date August 8, 2012 I have kept a list of birds ever since I started watching them. I recall putting little check marks next to each species in one of the small bird books that my father bought for me while I had pneumonia at the age of eight. Thanks Dad, yes, it did make me feel better. I can’t remember what it was called or who published it but it covered birds from coast to coast and was one of those booklets that focused on common species. I put checks next to birds like Song Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, and Red-winged Blackbird and yearned to see the exotic Magnolia Warbler, the amazing Indigo Bunting, and the unattainable Black-chinned Hummingbird. The hummingbird had a purple throat that looked like a smudge of Welch’s grape jelly. It took me more than a decade to be in range of that amethyst highlighted sprite but I eventually saw it in a residential neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona. I didn’t keep any year, state, or county lists at that time. My sole list was a life list and adding to it was a quest of utmost importance. It continues to be a pursuit of pinnacle importance but has been tempered by family responsibilities and so I now do a year and country list. I also keep a yard list where most of the birds are flyovers. Because the dimensions of my “yard” are stretched by sound waves, interesting species like Wilson’s Snipe, Upland Sandpiper, and Gray-cheeked Thrush have made it onto the list. Just last month, I added a ridiculous Red-fronted Parrotlet that perched on a nearby telephone wire and have also had Striped Owl. I’m not sure where the Ringed Kingfisher is coming from but one flies by now and then to some hidden waterway. Last year, I reached my goal of 600 species for the year. That total is once again in reach and I should hit it as long as I catch a fair portion of fall migration. Six hundred in a year in Costa Rica offers a bit of a challenge but is actually quite attainable if you can go birding once a week in a strategic set of locales. It’s not that tough of a number to get because the country list at the moment stands right at 900 (maybe even 901) and should still increase by the occurrence and subsequent finding of vagrants from both the north and the south. I’m sure that some other birders who spend much more time in the field in various parts of the country surpass 700 on a regular basis. Now that would be tough but is still possible if you bird pretty much all the time, do at least one pelagic, chase rarities, and listen for migrants at both times of the year. I think 800 would be very tough to do in a year but who knows, Costa Rica is such a small place that if one had enough time and resources to do a crazy Big Year in the same format as the guys from the movie of the same name, it could probably be accomplished. Ok, so back to my more humble, easy-going annual birding stats. Here at the start of August, my total stands at a respectable 568, the latest addition being a Ruddy Quail-Dove from Carara National Park. I also picked up Pearl Kite for the year in the form of a bird that was perched on a wire right next to the crocodile bridge. Oh, how nice it would be if it were there all the time! Pearl Kites are like falconets or neotropical shrikes. Some other auspicious identifications include: Several uncommon wintering duck species that I was very pleased to get at the start of the year. All parrots except for Brown-throated Parakeet. Mangrove Hummingbird– Happy to see a male on a recent Mangrove Birding Boat Tour. This species can be a tough one to find. If you put in the effort, you can see them at several sites but might have to work for it. One of the quetzals on Poas this year. One of the motmots was this lifer Keel-billed. Gray-headed Leaftosser at Las Heliconias- most reliable in the Monteverde area but I don’t get up there much. Yellow-bellied and Yellow-crowned Tyrannulets– kind of tough and local in Costa Rica so it was good to get them. Rough-legged Tyrannulet and Ochraceous Pewee– these two have the distinction of being birds I have heard but have never seen. I had the rough-legged one just the other day near Cinchona, still couldn’t see it! Willow Flycatcher- oh, they pass through here in numbers but this one was nice enough to vocalize and change from a non-countable “Traill’s” to a definite “Willow”. Lovely Cotinga– A male seen near Cinchona is probably my bird of the year. This is a rare one in the country and very infrequently seen. I personally suspect that it should be considered endangered for Costa Rica but for some reason, it doesn’t make it onto the eBird alert for the country while something like an out of season Yellow Warbler or much more frequent Surfbird will. Chestnut-sided Warbler– NOT! Just seeing if you were paying attention… Silvery-throated Jay– A pair of this uncommon species on the Providencia Road was much appreciated. Cerulean Warbler– These so excellent of warblers are regular during migration. Should be some coming through in a couple of weeks. Nicaraguan Seed-Finch– One during the Big Day is my only massively pink-billed finch so far this year. Peg-billed Finch– Tough to find away from a bamboo seeding event. This was a banner year for them on Poas. Slaty Finch– Much more rare than the peg-billed and possibly even more tied to bamboo seeding events. I made sure to get lots of looks and recordings of these junco-like birds because it might be years before I see them again. His exhalted Senor slaty-ness. So, those are the highlights so far and since I’m missing plenty of expected species, it will be interesting to see how many I end up with come the end of December. If I can get out once a week and hit a few migration hotspots, I might even hit 630 species.	20,450
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Assuming you're a PC gamer or a content maker who lives and breathes by the speed of your graphics-sped-up software. So, we all know your video card is the motor that powers what you can do-or how vigorously you can gloat. The guide that we have created will assist you with figuring out the best video-card choices for your desktop PC. What you want to be aware of while upgrading a system, and how to assess whether a specific card is a decent purchase. However, we'll address a few upcoming patterns influencing which card you pick. Customer video cards range from under $100 to more than $1,499. So, it's not an odd thing to sometimes overpay or under-buy. However, we hope that this article prevents you from doing this. Now let's think! Most importantly, what does a graphics card do? Furthermore, do you truly require one? On the off chance, you have your heart set on a prebuilt desktop PC, obviously, except for a gaming-focused machine. PC producers will de-underscore the graphics card for advancing CPU, RAM, or capacity choices. At times, it is for a great reason; a cheaper PC might not have a graphics card. They so depended instead on the graphics-sped-up silicon incorporated into its CPU (an "integrated graphics processor," typically called an "IGP"). Furthermore, drawing the desktop and disentangling and encoding video content in projects and games. The two organizations: AMD and Nvidia, typically develop these chips. These processors are called "GPUs" for "graphics handling units," a term that is additionally applied, confusingly, to the graphics card itself. (Nothing about graphics cards, ahem! GPUs are straightforward!) The two organizations stir up what is known as "reference designs" for their video cards, a normalized rendition of a card worked around a given GPU. Now and again, these reference-design cards are sold straight by Nvidia (or AMD on rare occasions). Graphics Cards and the Needs of Discrete GPU We referenced integrated graphics (IGPs) above. IGPs - Designed for addressing the necessities of most broad clients today, with three broad exemptions. These people who work with CAD software or in video and photograph altering will, in any case, benefit extraordinarily from a discrete GPU. Some of their critical applications can transcode video starting with one configuration then onto the next or perform. Furthermore, other specific activities utilize assets from the GPU rather than those of the CPU. Whether this is quicker will rely upon the application you referred to, which explicit GPU and CPU you own, and different elements. Efficiency Minded Users with Multiple Displays. Individuals who need countless showcases can likewise profit from a discrete GPU. Desktop operating systems can simultaneously drive displays associated with the IGP and discrete GPUs. If you've needed five or six presentations attached to a solitary system, you can consolidate an IGP and a discrete GPU to arrive. You don't require a top-of-the-line graphics card to do that. So, all you want is a card that upholds the display specs, goals, screen points of interaction, and the number of panels you want. On the off chance that you're showing three internet browsers across three display panels, a GeForce RTX 3080 card, say, will not give any more significant advantage than a GeForce GTX 1660 with similar upheld yields. Gamers. Also, there's the gaming market, to whom the GPU is ostensibly the central part. RAM and CPU decisions both matters. However, assuming you need to pick between a top-end system around 2018 with a 2022 GPU. Or even a top-end system today is still utilizing the best quality GPU you could purchase in 2018. Graphics cards fall into two classes: purchaser cards implied for gaming and light happy creation work. Furthermore, devoted cards are implied for professional workstations and designed for logical registering, estimations, and AI work. This guide, and surveys, will zero in on the previous. However, we'll address workstation cards somewhat later. The key sub-brands you want to be aware of across these two fields are Nvidia's GeForce and AMD's Radeon RX (on the shopper side). Nvidia keeps on ruling the top of the two business sectors. AMD's buyer cards, in the meantime, include the Radeon RX and (presently, for the most part, gone) Radeon RX Vega families. However, before we dive into the singular lines exhaustively, we frame a couple of vital contemplations. You ought to make for any video-card buy. Graphics Card Target Resolution and Monitor Tech Resolution - Best described as the horizontal- by-vertical pixel count at which your video card will drive your screen. There is an immense bearing on which card to purchase and the amount you want to spend. Assuming you are a PC gamer A significant piece of what you'll need to consider is the resolution. So, which video card is the most appropriate for gaming? These days, low-end cards will show regular high-resolution projects like 3,840 by 2,160 pixels (a.k.a., 4K). However, for demanding PC games, those cards won't have the ability to drive smooth casing rates at high resolutions like those. In games, the video card computes positions, math, and lighting and delivers the onscreen picture progressively. The higher the in-game detail level and screen goal you're running, the more graphics-card muscle is required. The three most normal resolutions at which the present gamers play is 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), 1440p (2,560 by 1,440 pixels), and 2160p or 4K (3,840 by 2,160 pixels).	5,750
Shares of Trillion Energy International Inc. traded 14% higher to a new 52-week high after the company reported it has increased the price it receives for natural gas by 47% to US$31/Mcf. Vancouver oil and gas producer Trillion Energy International Inc. (TCF:CSE; TRLEF:OTCQB; Z62:FSE), which is focused on ramping up production of proven yet non-produced gas reserves at the South Akcakoca Sub-Basin (SASB) offshore gas field in Turkey, today announced "it recently received a price increase for the sale of natural gas from its SASB gas field to US$30.68/Mcf (thousand cubic feet) effective September 1, 2022." The firm indicated that 100% of the production from SASB is sold within the confines of Turkey, which is aiding the country in meeting its energy needs during a time of critical shortages. The company noted that the higher prices it receives for natural gas will greatly enhance the economics and feasibility of its upcoming drill program. The firm mentioned that natural gas prices in the region have risen steadily in 2022 and have more than tripled since last year. Trillion Energy explained that this is quite evident as, over the course of just one month, the new price levels of US$30.68/Mcf, which went into effect on September 1, 2022, are 47% above the $20.83/Mcf August 2022 market prices. The company noted that the new rates represent a 350% increase from natural gas prices in 2021, which averaged US$8.84/Mcf. The company advised that the ascending prices are due mostly to supply shortages resulting from the shutdown of the Nord Stream pipeline, a nuclear power shutdown in Germany, and the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe. The firm indicated that 100% of the production from SASB is sold within the confines of Turkey, which is aiding the country in meeting its energy needs during a time of critical shortages. Trillion Energy International's CEO Arthur Halleran remarked, "We believe the recent price increases will significantly enhance the economic performance of our seven well-drilling programs set to commence next week at the SASB gas field. With seven wells producing, we will supply the region with much-needed natural gas in a time of acute shortages and high prices." Trillion Energy is an international oil and gas company based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, that owns multiple producing assets across Turkey and Bulgaria. The company's efforts are now primarily focused on ramping up production of natural gas at proven sites to capitalize on the current energy shortage in Europe. The firm has a 49% ownership interest in the South Akcakoca Sub-Basin (SASB) shallow water natural gas field in Turkey, which is one of the Black Sea's first and largest commercial natural gas development projects. In addition, the company owns a 19.6% interest in the Cendere oil field, also located in Turkey, apart from three wells in which it holds a 9.8% interest. Trillion has also secured licenses to develop a prospective unconventional natural gas property in northeast Bulgaria known as the Vranino 1-11 block. The firm owns a 100% interest in Vranino 1-11, a coalbed methane (CBM) play, which according to the company's website, encompasses 98,205 acres. Trillion Energy began the day with a market cap of around US$122.56 million with approximately 371.4 million shares outstanding. TRLEF shares opened 3% higher today at US$0.34 (+US$0.01, +3.03%) over yesterday's US$0.33 closing price and reached a new 52-week high price this morning of US$0.3939. The stock has traded today between US$33.41 and US$0.3939 per share and closed for trading today at US$0.3776 (+US$0.0476, +14.42%). Want to be the first to know about interesting Oil & Gas - Exploration & Production investment ideas? Sign up to receive the FREE Streetwise Reports' newsletter. Subscribe 1) Stephen Hytha wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. He or members of his household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. He or members of his household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. 2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. 3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports. 5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Trillion Energy International Inc., a company mentioned in this article. Peru's Largest Oil Producer Posts Record Net Income in Q2 PetroTal Corp. shares traded 11% higher after the company reported Q2/22 financial results highlighting seven consecutive quarters of production growth and reaffirmed its FY/22 guidance for average production of 15,000 bbl/d. read more > Shares of Touchstone Exploration Inc. traded 16% higher after the company reported it received environmental approval for construction of a two hundred million cubic feet multi-well surface production facility in Trinidad. read more > Infrastructure Co. Creates Field of Dreams for Energy Producers Energy services and specialty equipment rental supplier Enterprise Group Inc. reported earnings for Q2/22, which included a 64% YoY increase in revenue along with substantial growth in gross margins and adjusted EBITDA. The company is now heading into the busy peak winter drilling season with a new arsenal of natural gas fueled generators that enable oil and gas drillers and natural resource firms to greatly reduce on-site CO2 emissions, meet and exceed mandated ESG requirements, and in the process, save thousands of dollars per day by eliminating the need for diesel-powered generators. read more > W&T Offshore Inc.'s shares traded 17% higher after the oil and gas producer reported Q2/22 financial results featuring a 106% YoY increase in revenue. The company noted it has been successful in increasing its proven reserves, reducing net debt levels, and is continuing to focus on generating free cash flow for shareholders. read more > Tenaz Energy Corp. reported it was unsuccessful in obtaining the number of votes needed from SDX Energy Plc.'s shareholders to acquire the company. The firm continues to search for other oil and gas assets to acquire in North Africa and the Middle East that are congruent with its high free cash flow generation strategy. Research Capital Corp. advised in a research note that it is maintaining its Speculative Buy rating and CA$5.00 Target Price on the company.	8,538
Set in a gorgeous location where the desert harmoniously meets the sea, Regency Sealine Camp is a perfect oasis to experience modern luxury in a traditional Arabian setting. Nestled just an hour away from the city of Doha, the camp offers a wide range of activities including dune bashing with 4x4 vehicles, quad biking and beach buggy across the terrain, desert paragliding, air safari and scintillating experience of camel riding through the desert and skillful display of falcon show. Taking due care of your comfort, our traditional Arabian lounge serves as the focal point of our camp where guests can immerse themselves and savour the finest delicacies under the stars. From the richness of classic cuisines to the succulent dishes offered on site, we hand-pick it all to enhance your desert camp experience at our refined oasis. Relish the 5-Star Luxury in a Offering the world-class standards of comfort in the middle of the desert, we, at Regency Sealine Camp, take you through an experience of a lifetime. Our dedicated staff is present on site to assist you during your stay. As your convenience is our utmost priority, all tents, rooms and suites are fully air-conditioned and are equipped with top-of-the-line services - room service and an en-suite bathroom with full shower accessories and amenities such as bathrobes, slippers and toiletries. Stay connected with our free internet access and high-tech TV with number of national and international channels, all you may need for a luxury stay amidst the desert and sea. Savour delicious mouth-watering dishes with our hand-picked menu. From the best of fresh juices and Italian delicacies to refreshing mocktails, and more, there are ample offerings to help you cool yourself off with an escape to a haven of comfort and luxury at Regency Sealine Camp. Regency Sealine Camp is the ultimate serene location to find an escape, whether it be for leisure or business. Our camp is designed to accommodate all types of groups and is a dream venue for every occasion and event. From private family gatherings to large scale private events, this one-of-a-kind location, with an amazing multi-purpose venue can cater and offer it all. With our full event management services, guests can get the most exclusive and unforgettable experience. With the scintillating backdrop of the desert and sea, turn any ordinary party, company retreat, family affair, weekend trip or gathering into an extraordinary adventure. No matter the occasion, our expert staff is prepared and dedicated to ensuring that guests leave with cherished lifelong memories. Keeping Up with the Standards of In line with Qatar National Vision 2030 and government initiatives to ensure the coastline remains preserved and intact, Regency Sealine Camp is minimizing its own impact on the ecological systems. We take advantage at every opportunity to operate the camp with practices in line with ecotourism. From using candle lights and recycling to minimally invasive tent constructive techniques, our staff plays a pivotal role in maintaining the natural environment. The Camp is committed to supporting sustainable tourism. By conserving the flora and wildlife, the Regency Sealine Camp is preserving Qatar's coastline and ensuring the standards of Qatar National Vision 2030 are met.	3,392
Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy both autographed this vintage color 8×10 photo showing them posing before a game. The photo is 8×10 in size and signed in blue sharpie. The signatures are bright and bold. JSA has authenticated the autographs and affixed their sticker to the photo. It also comes with the matching COA. $175.00 1 in stock 1 in stock Add to cart Give us your name and e-mail address. We will contact you when new items are added and will give you 10% off your first order	492
COVID-19 has forced substantial shifts in how dentists, and many professionals, work every day. Over the past year, dentists have had a chance to learn lessons from COVID-19, reexamine the way they practice and determine if those habits still make sense in the face of a threat like COVID-19. In “Viral pandemics and oral health: Lessons learned from HIV to SARS-CoV-2” in the journal of Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, Dr. Lauren Patton reflects on the teachings of the past year. She writes, “Not since the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic began have we had a transformative experience in dentistry that has made us deeply reexamine our practices and come to terms with a new reality of how dentists care for their patients’ health.” Dr. Patton lists nine lessons she learned from the pandemic, which can be loosely grouped into three categories — how dentists practice, what the field of dentistry knows (and doesn’t know) and how the health profession, as a whole, can better prepare for the next infectious disease. The way dentists practice changed quickly as COVID-19 began to spread in the United States. Elective dental care was curtailed for several months. When dentists were allowed to resume all dental care again, enhanced infection control in dental offices was required to minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread. All dental staff began wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), toys and magazines were removed from the waiting room, patients were required to wear masks and even dental drills were studied to find ways to reduce aerosolized saliva production during procedures. The added stress of working in healthcare during the pandemic also shed light on the risk of staff burnout and the importance of prioritizing mental health. The fallout of COVID-19 and research into SARS-CoV-2 began concurrently, forcing healthcare professionals to come to terms with what they did and did not know about the virus. While COVID-19 is still not fully understood, research has come a long way since January 2020. Findings on symptomatic and asymptomatic spread, improving patient outcomes through therapeutics and the disease’s involvement of the head and neck have all impacted public policy and medical response to the virus. Dr. Patton also emphasized the importance of using these lessons to prepare for the future. She noted the race to create a vaccine, which was done with record-breaking speed. Additionally, salivary diagnostics emerged as an important testing option for COVID-19. Since Dr. Patton’s article, more research was published on the importance of the mouth as a site for SARS-CoV-2. These rapid scientific developments to test for and treat the virus were largely responsible for the United States’ ability to quickly slow the spread of COVID-19 in the spring of 2021. In the event of future epidemics or pandemics, it will be crucial to have systems in place that allow for similar rapid development of treatments. The response to COVID-19 showed that working together yields the best results. Coordinating such collaboration requires a person or group to take the lead. Organizations like the American Dental Association (ADA) and the New York State Dental Association (NYSDA) were pivotal in providing important national and regional updates and recommendations. Both organizations continually provided tips to dentists — from how to pause practice to how to stay safe and protect patients and staff when offices reopened. The groups’ work demonstrated that it is just as important to plan for the recovery from a crisis as it is to plan for the crisis itself. This sort of national coordination is powerful and shows the potential of such organization, especially on a global level. As Dr. Patton writes, “We now need better mobilization of scientific collaboration globally and continued support of federal and international agencies to sustain our work in prevention and treatment for COVID-19 to prepare us for future outbreaks and sustain our global population. This is a global health crisis, and it requires a global response.” For more dental news, follow MLMIC Dental on Twitter and LinkedIn. Visit our blog to read articles about dental professional liability, risk management, starting a career as a dentist and more. Related Posts: May 3, 2021 A recent study published in the Journal of Dental Research marks the first COVID-19 testing survey of asymptomatic patients in a dental setting. The paper showed the potential for dental offices to be viable and powerful locations for public health surveillance. The authors of the study identified dental offices as a good location for research for several reasons. Changes to Drills can Reduce the Spread of COVID-19 in Dental Practices Dentists can further reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 in their practices by adjusting one tool: dental drills. A recent study found that changing how dentists use drills can limit the spread of aerosol particles in a room — hugely significant in the age of coronavirus.	5,199
We’ve all heard of the exla stock. It’s something I’ve heard of often because it’s such a buzzword in the marketing world. It is a type of stock that is sold as a premium product that comes with certain warranties and services. You are not purchasing an exla product, however, you are purchasing a product that provides a certain service. The exla stock is a type of product we buy when we need it, and the service we buy on the exla stock is something we use to improve our own lives. So you are not purchasing a product that comes with a warranty, you are purchasing a product that provides a certain service. The exla stock is a unique blend of many different products, all of which provides a certain service. Our exla stock is one of the most important products we use to improve our lives. We buy the same exact product for our own lives, and it comes with a certain service. We use it to improve our lives and it comes with a certain warranty. Our warranty is that it is designed to be the best, most powerful, and easiest way to increase your earnings. The term exla stock is used a lot in the marketing of our products. And, like most things in the real world, it has roots in a real life event. A few years back, a man named Alexander “Exla” Novetsky was the CEO of a corporation called “Dynamite”. The company manufactured explosive devices, and so it was in a big way that Novetsky got involved. Exla stock was a derivative of the ex parte stock, that was the practice in England of giving a company the right to sell its stock to another company and have them buy the stock back at a higher price. The idea was that you could control the stock price by buying it back at a higher price. Exla stock got so popular that the firm was sold to a private equity firm. And because the private equity firm owned shares in the company, their employees were also able to buy their own ex parte stock. Since Novetsky was the CEO, his ex-stock was worth even more. This is a pretty neat idea. When a company buys stock from another company, the stock can be worth more than those bought from the original company. So if you buy a new stock, you can buy it back at a higher price. If you buy a stock owned by the other company, you can buy it back at a lower price. But you may want to be careful if that is a company you’re trying to buy the stock from. You can’t buy stock from the company yourself. It is, in fact, legal to buy and sell stocks, but there are some rules that you need to follow. One is that you can only buy and sell stock from the company itself, so if you buy the stock from the company itself, that means you can only sell it to someone outside of that company. This is fine, but it can be confusing to have to check the company’s website to get a better idea of the stock’s value. One of the companies that is selling your stock is EXLA.com. The company itself is based in Mexico, but they have an office in the states. I cant verify this because I dont know where they operate, but if they are legit, then EXLA is probably legit too. They have a huge presence in the stock market and some of the stocks that they are selling are actually quite expensive. I know what you are thinking, “Well, you’re going to get a better price, but now it has to be all over the place.” But you won’t get the best price because EXLA is a company that relies on selling shares in stocks when the stock is at a low price. This is why the company is selling your stock, and why the company is asking you to sell your stock. Previous Post Next Post Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. us bank salt lake city service king near me No Time? No Money? No Problem! How You Can Get how old do you have to buy a car With a Zero-Dollar Budget	4,040
Some time back I posted Dick Callum – Pioneer Mountain Biker? which referenced a passage in Pigeon Post about Dick’s wild ride downhill on a ‘dromedary’—alternatively “a girl’s bike two sizes too big for him”. That was in 2014, before recent developments in off-road riding, especially the advent of the gravel bike. For the uninitiated, a gravel bike may superficially resemble a road bike but with space for fatter tyres and with adjustments to the setup to make it more forgiving on rougher trails. (For more see this link by my friend and colleague Chiz Dakin, or just Google ‘what is a gravel bike?’). My partner and I acquired gravel bikes a few years ago and have had enormous fun exploring trails in the Lakes and elsewhere with them. They obviously aren’t as capable on really steep or rough trails as a genuine mountain bike (but I’d take my gravel bike over the average ‘supermarket special’ any day). Where they really shine is when you need use tarmac to link sections of trail, where a gravel bike really skims along compared to an MTB. With years of mountain biking as well as riding various trails on cyclo-cross bikes and more recently gravel bikes, I felt I had something to contribute when I was approached by Out There Guides, an imprint of Northern Eye Books, who were branching out beyond their very successful walking books into cycling. After discussion with publisher Carl Rogers and series editor Tom Hutton, we decided to focus on what we later called “the often-overlooked gap between easy forest roads and hardcore mountain biking.” While a modern gravel bike is ideal for these rides, they would also be possible on a range of other bikes. As I say in the book, “Any kind of mountain bike (MTB) will serve you well, though full-suspension bikes especially are heavier than gravel bikes. A good quality hybrid bike is also a possibility, but you might want to try it on one of the easier rides first.” I could also have mentioned cyclo-cross bikes and good solid old-school touring bikes, but space was tight. Obviously there was a lot of exploring and route-checking to be done, but I already had a pretty good idea of where most of the rides were likely to be, and most of them were in or close to Ransome country. This isn’t bias on my part; geology and history have combined to create a richer network of trails in this southern quadrant of the National Park than elsewhere. Most obviously, there’s a ride from Coniston around the Tilberthwaite area. With its extensive and fascinating old quarries, it’s rich in the atmosphere of Pigeon Post—but did Ransome have any of these trails specifically in mind when he wrote “the dromedary was jolting (Dick) almost to pieces as it slipped and jumped and jibbed and skidded and bucked over the loose stones in the old path down the wood”? Maybe, maybe not. I never felt like I was being ‘jolted almost to pieces’ on any of these trails, and I don’t think that’s all down to the superiority of modern bikes. Another ride with a connection to AR’s life, though not obviously to the landscape of the books, takes you around the Cartmel valley. At one point it passes very close to Wall Nook, where AR stayed as a young man and from where he sometimes set out on epic walks to Coniston (and back) to call on the Collingwood family. However the real highlight of this ride is the trail along the flanks of Hampsfell before the end. The trail along the flanks of Hampsfell Deep in the heart of Ransome country, there’s also a ride along the west shore of Windermere and back via Hawkshead. In a much quieter corner a few miles to the west and south is the ride from Blawith over Subberthwaite Common. At one point this ride isn’t terribly far from Lowick Hall, where AR and Evgenia lived for a while, so he may have known the lanes, though by this stage in his life I’m sure he wouldn’t have been taking a dromedary over the tracks. There are steep climbs here, but on tarmac, while the off-road stuff is all pretty amenable, and takes you past some fascinating archaeological sites, both prehistoric and mediaeval. A fabulous trail on Subberthwaite Common I’d also like to mention the first volume in the ‘Great Bike Rides’ series, which has been out for some months already. This is ‘Family Cycle Rides in the Lake District’ by Alf Alderson, and does pretty much what it says on the tin. There’s partial overlap with a few of my rides but nothing to worry about. I had some editorial input into this one and provided quite a number of photos. Either (or both!) of these books offer plenty of inspiration to explore the lake country by bike. It really is one of the best ways to see the district, and I don’t think Arthur Ransome would have had any quarrel with that. There was recently a good deal of indignation on Facebook’s The Arthur Ransome Group about a Guardian online essay by Julia Eccleshare under the title Best sisters in children’s books. After quite an outcry, the offending passage has been removed and I’m told a revised version may be inserted – though it’s been a few weeks now and there’s no sign of it. What was the fuss all about? Two sentences. After referencing books in which girls play a leadership role, Eccleshare wrote that this is: …in contrast to Arthur Ransome’s four-child Blackett family in the Swallows and Amazons stories or CS Lewis’s Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In both of these, written when tradition dictated that boys led and girls followed, it is the boy who is the oldest and therefore the leader with the girls playing important but distinctly submissive roles. Cue jaws on floors from Ransome afficionados everywhere. Leaving C S Lewis aside (I’m no great fan, and anyway this is a Ransome blog), there are multiple errors here in relation to Ransome: 1: The Blacketts (Amazons) were two girls. Maybe she’s mixing them up with the Walkers. But… 2: The Walkers (Swallows) are a family of five, not four, children. This is a more forgivable error, as the youngest, Bridget, has a very minor role in Swallows and Amazons (when she is just two) and Swallowdale and is absent altogether in Winter Holiday and Pigeon Post. It’s only in Secret Water that she really becomes an active protagonist. 3: “the boy … is … the leader with the girls playing … distinctly submissive roles”. This, of course, is a whopper. No-one who has actually read all the way through Swallows and Amazons, let alone the rest of the books, could write this. It’s simply inconceivable to cast Nancy Blackett’s role as a submissive one. She is, consistently, a leader, not a follower. This much is indisputable (at least if you’ve actually read the books). However, I’d go further. I’d argue that it’s also a mistake – or, at best, a very superficial reading – to brand the other young female characters in Ransome’s books as ‘submissive’. All of them are – at the very least – more complex than that. We should of course remember that Ransome wrote the books between 1929 (Swallows and Amazons was published in 1930) and 1947. Just for context, 1929 was also the year in which women first voted in a General Election on equal terms with men. It was regularly and disparagingly called the ‘flapper election’. The idea of females in leadership roles was widely viewed as daring and often ludicrous. In this context, it seems to me that Ransome does something noteworthy and forward-looking in creating female characters who are as strong and independent as they undoubtedly are. And it’s not just Nancy. It’s also worth noting that in Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale, the main cast consists of two boys and four girls. Winter Holiday introduces two additional characters, Dick and Dorothea Callum. There’s a whole array of other young protagonists in the two novels set on the Norfolk Broads, Coot Club and The Big Six, as well as in Secret Water, although I’d argue that most of them are of secondary importance to the series as a whole. The major female characters are all in place by the time we reach Winter Holiday. And there’s no real question which of them we should consider first. ‘I am Nancy Blackett, master and part owner of the Amazon, the terror of the seas. This is Peggy Blackett, mate and part owner of the same.’ This is how Nancy introduces herself – and her sister – to the Swallows. Even before this – though details only become clear later – Nancy and Peggy have played a prank with a firework on the cabin roof of the houseboat belonging to their uncle (later dubbed Captain Flint) and then challenged the Swallows by unfurling a pirate flag. These are not the actions of a shrinking violet. And at the time, according to Ransome’s own notes, she is 12. Nancy appears in four more of Ransome’s novels apart from the five ‘lake country’ titles, but these will serve as primary exemplars. As time goes on, she regularly takes charge. In Swallowdale, her style (and Peggy’s) is cramped during the visit of their domineering Great-Aunt, but she still manages to set the agenda much of the time – even sending a message by bow and arrow almost under the Great-Aunt’s nose. In the next of the ‘lake country’ books, Winter Holiday, she is again sidelined much of the time; this time it’s because of mumps. Quarantine regulations mean none of the children can return to school and this gives time for the lake to freeze and the story to develop – and Nancy continues to call the shots, even from her sickbed, through coded messages. At the end, though still not quite fully recovered, she sets out in search of the missing D’s – on ice-skates, quite alone, as a snowy night draws in. By this point she’s 13 or just turned 14. Again, in Pigeon Post, Nancy sets the agenda – the story this time revolves around prospecting for gold (though, in the end, they find something else) – and drives the action forward, not only acting as the principal leader among the children but pushing against restrictions emanating from the adult world. In the last of the ‘lake country’ books, The Picts and the Martyrs, she is again sidelined to a degree by the unexpected and highly unwelcome arrival of the dreaded Great-Aunt. In any case, this story revolves mainly around Dick and Dorothea. Still, Nancy plays a decisive role, determining that Dick and Dot must hide away as ‘Picts’ while she and Peggy do their utmost as ‘Martyrs’ to keep the Great-Aunt happy. Still only 15, she also proves very effective in enlisting (browbeating) other adults into keeping the secret and even aiding the Picts. There’s a kind of paradox about Nancy’s place in Ransome’s books. On the one hand, it’s often said that she was his favourite character, and she is certainly the only one for whom he named one of his own boats. On the other, the story is hardly ever told from her point of view. Across the whole series, the most important point of view characters are Titty and Dorothea, whose inner worlds are therefore laid open to us. Unlike them, we hardly ever see inside Nancy’s head. It only really happens when the plot requires her to act alone – for example, in Winter Holiday, when she sets out on her own for the North Pole. It’s intriguing to speculate why this might be so, but maybe that’s for another time. Nancy is often cited as one of the most famous fictional tomboys. The term perhaps seems a little dated nowadays, but may be in need of revival. However, unlike the prototype tomboy character, Jo March in Little Women, we never hear Nancy complain, ‘I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy.’ Similarly, another famous tomboy – George in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books – seems to want to be a boy, answering to George rather than Georgina and appearing delighted when mistaken for a boy. There’s none of this with Nancy. She doesn’t so much transgress gender expectations as transcend them. And maybe this is why it’s so shocking when – to placate the dreaded Great-Aunt – she does conform to the norms of her time. When they see her and Peggy in ‘flounced frocks,’ even the somewhat more conventional Swallows consider it ‘a dreadful sight.’ At these times we might indeed say that Nancy is playing a submissive role – but it’s abundantly clear that she does so with great reluctance and very much against her nature, and mainly to protect her mother. At first reading the opposite of Nancy, Susan is second-oldest of the Walker children and Mate of the Swallow. Susan (often along with Peggy) is the one who principally organises stores, manages campsites and does most of the cooking. She is probably the most conventional of all the main child characters. And yet, to dismiss her as a submissive or domesticated character is too glib and superficial. For a start, the domestic role adopted by Susan and Peggy is explicitly linked to their position as Mate in their respective crews (John regularly addresses his sister as ‘Mister Mate’). It is clear, to be sure, that she is comfortable with this role, but she is also quite capable of taking the helm of Swallow or pulling on an oar. And I think there’s more to her than dutiful homebody. She is also the practical and pragmatic member of the crew. “I put all my trust in you, Susan,” said Mrs Blackett. “And you too, John,” she added. John grinned. It was kind of her to say it, but he knew she didn’t mean it. On questions of milk and drinking-water and getting able-seamen to be on time, Susan was the one the natives trusted. (From Pigeon Post.) The focus on practical issues makes Susan – often an underrated or overlooked character – a vital element in the stories, balancing Nancy’s wildness and Titty’s imagination. It’s hard to overstate the importance of this: what makes Ransome’s stories special is the interplay of imagination and reality. Susan, more than any other character, grounds the stories in solid reality. Unlike Nancy or Susan, Titty is one of the main ‘point of view’ characters in almost every book in which she appears. Although Roger gets the opening chapters in Swallows and Amazons, from then on the point of view is mostly shared between John and Titty. The same is largely true in Swallowdale. She is less prominent in Winter Holiday, which shifts focus onto the new characters, Dick and Dot (‘the D’s’), but she returns to centre-stage for some crucial passages in Pigeon Post. Titty is a sensitive child with a very active imagination and a strong romantic streak – in the true sense of the word. This quality brings colour and excitement to many passages of the books. Titty, more than any of the others – in fact, more than any but a handful of characters in literature – vividly embodies the capacity of the child to inhabit real and imaginary worlds at the same time. As one of the younger members of the cast, she has fewer chances to play a leadership role, but when they arise she doesn’t shy away. In Swallows and Amazons, she’s left alone on the island during the ‘war’ with the Amazons and when they in turn make a nocturnal raid, she slips past them, captures their boat, paddles it out onto the lake and drops anchor, thereby capturing the prize and winning the war. It’s worth noting that she is nine at the time. (And that her mother visits the island, finds Titty alone and, after asking a few questions, rows off and leaves her!) She’s often put in charge of Roger, who’s a couple of years younger. In Swallowdale the two of them trek back to the valley across the moors while the older ones sail down the lake. They get lost in mist and Roger twists his ankle, and Titty has to decide what to do. In Pigeon Post she has to master her own fears after an experiment with dowsing, and later takes charge after Roger and the D’s venture into an old mine working, which then collapses behind them – although here she’s very much helped by Dick’s rational mind. After Nancy, Titty may well have been Ransome’s favourite and she is a favourite of many readers too. While she’s certainly not in the buccaneering mould like Nancy, she is a genuinely original, complex and endearing character. She may be gentle and fanciful, but she is also, especially in the first four lake country books, very much a child with a mind of her own. Dorothea, or Dot, is also one of the most important point of view characters. She, too, is highly imaginative but, while Titty often seems to inhabit stories, Dorothea consciously makes them up – and writes them down. Ransome has a good deal of fun with her somewhat florid prose style – very much in the vein of some well-known writers of the early 20th century, but in marked contrast to the very direct, unadorned style which Ransome himself developed. For the most part, Dot is a follower rather than a leader, spending much of her time in Winter Holiday wanting to be useful but struggling to find an active role. However, as a kind of proxy narrator, she helps to open up the characters of all the others. Of all Ransome’s creations she is the most empathic, the one who tries to see things from others’ point of view. Here she’s reflecting on the difference between stories and real life: If only it had been a story, things would have been simpler. In a story, villains were villains and the heroes and heroines had nothing to worry about except coming out on top in the end. In a story black was black and white was white and blacks and whites stuck to their own colours. In real life things were much more muddled. (From The Picts and the Martyrs.) Again, in Pigeon Post, she is primarily an observer – albeit a perceptive and sympathetic one – not a leader. The Picts and the Martyrs is almost entirely told from her point of view, with only brief episodes from Dick’s and Nancy’s, and her insight and ability to see things from others’ perspective makes her, at times, seem more mature than the (two years older) Nancy. However, her role in the story is largely domestic. When she and Dick are bundled off to live by themselves in a hut in the woods, it seems to be tacitly and unquestioningly assumed that she will take charge of housekeeping and cooking, while Dick takes command when they sail their new boat, Scarab. Domestic, yes, but submissive? Perhaps, but who – apart from the Great-Aunt – does not at least occasionally submit to the will of Nancy Blackett? However, we see another side of Dot in the two Norfolk Broads books, and especially in The Big Six. This is, in essence, a detective story – and it is Dorothea who largely orchestrates the investigation, even if her strategy is almost entirely based on stories she has read. One might argue that, if there is a genuinely ‘submissive’ character in the stories, it’s not Susan but Peggy. However, she’s subordinate not to a male leader but to her own older sister, and with a sister like Nancy it would be well-nigh impossible not to be overshadowed. It’s precisely for this reason that Peggy seems to me the hardest of the eight key characters in the ‘lake country’ books to pin down. Still, when she gets a chance to lead she’s quite capable of taking it. This is most apparent in Winter Holiday, when Nancy is sidelined by mumps, and Peggy becomes effectively a joint leader with John, though he is both a boy and a bit older. Of course, you can argue that she is acting as Nancy’s proxy, but there is certainly no sense that command of the seven left ‘in the field’ falls automatically to John. Indeed, there are several references to the ‘three leaders’, i.e. including Susan as well. Peggy was doing her best. She knew what had been in Nancy’s mind when she had first planned the expedition to the Pole. None of the others had been born on the shores of the lake and now, with Nancy ill, Peggy was trying to fill her place. (From Winter Holiday.) Minor female characters It may seem dismissive to tag these as ‘minor characters’, but in the context of the series as a whole they are of much less importance than those we’ve already discussed. Port and Starboard. The Farland twins (aka Nell and Bess) only appear in Coot Club. They have a lively enough role in that book, sailing and having other adventures of their own, but don’t appear again; in The Big Six they’ve been despatched overseas. I suspect this is because Ransome found, as many readers do, that it was hard to tell the two apart. Daisy. Daisy appears only in Secret Water. She’s another feisty child in the Nancy mould, seemingly dominating her (apparently older) brothers. The problem is, in what we see of her, she seems altogether too much like a slightly watered-down imitation of Nancy herself. Missee Lee. Not a child character, of course, but worth a mention, not least as she gives her name to one of the books. The book itself is usually read as a fantasy or metafiction, a story invented by the children, but Missee Lee is still a vivid and highly original character: a female pirate who dominates male rivals mainly by force of character, yet yearns for classical studies at Cambridge. In discussing whether Ransome’s books are sexist or not, we must again remember that they were written between 1929 and 1947 – and they are all, as far as we can tell, set in the early 1930’s. This was not a world of equal opportunities. The Second World War, for all its horrors, did create many new opportunities for women and it’s possible to imagine some of the characters – all of whom would have been young adults by 1939 – grasping these with both hands. But then it’s possible to imagine many futures for the Blackett, Walker and Callum children. Very little is said about what any of the girls are likely to do when they grow up. John, and possibly Roger, seem destined to follow their father into the Navy. Apart from this, little is said about the expectations of any of them. They live, quite naturally for children, largely in the present. At the end of a lake country summer, they look ahead to next year, not to the misty prospects of adulthood. And this seems fine to me. Ransome doesn’t close doors for them or limit what their futures might be. In this month’s Lakeland Walker magazine (Jan/Feb 2015) there’s a fine piece by Ronald Turnbull on looking for Swallowdale. He starts by looking on Blawith Fells and concludes that Swallowdale isn’t there. If you’ve read Exploring Arthur Ransome’s Lake District you’ll know that I agree. This sets us both in opposition to Roger Wardale, one of the leading Ransome researchers, who thinks the original is Long Scars, on the edge of Blawith Fells nearest to Coniston Water. I’ve also explored the whole question further in a previous post: see Mile upon Mile of green and purple moorland. Ice in Tarn Beck For the second day of his explorations Ronald turns his attention to the Tilberthwaite fells, commenting that, “Some members of the Arthur Ransome Society believe that Swallowdale is to be found at the top of Tilberthwaite Gill.” This may be so, although most people associate these fells much more with High Topps in Pigeon Post. This isn’t proof of anything, of course: Ransome played around with the geography to the nth degree and could easily have used the same area as source for more than one of the fictional locations. There is certainly a nice little old mine-level near the top of the steep part of Tilberthwaite Gill which is a pretty good match for Peter Duck’s cave in Swallowdale. However, the area around is pretty wide and open. My feeling is that if Swallowdale ‘exists’ at all, it has to be somewhere much closer to Ransome’s childhood holiday haunts around Nibthwaite at the other end of Coniston Water. Tilberthwaite probably isn’t within a small boy’s roaming range, but Blawith Fells are. However, even closer to Nibthwaite we have the expanse of Bethecar Moor, which I discussed in Mile upon Mile of green and purple moorland. More recently I took a look at another aspect of this area, again following a hint from Ronald Turnbull (in email correspondence this time) that Tarn Beck (Selside Beck lower down) looked promising. There’s a permitted path up through the woods from a car-park about 1.4km north of Nibthwaite (the first fully off-road parking if you’re heading north). Of course the Roger-and-Titty way to do it would be to follow the beck straight up but this would involve climbing over several walls, which isn’t on, so I stuck with the track. (It’s easier too!). Emerging from the woods the path joins the well-worn track that runs down from High and Low Parkamoor to Nibthwaite – popular with mountain bikers but badly damaged in a couple of places by 4x4s. The beck lies beside the track for a short way. When they diverged I followed the beck. It crossed a couple of other paths but it looks like few people have ever gone up alongside it, though faint paths could have been hidden by the snow. The beck itself has many of the same qualities of the one Titty and Roger followed, with some nice little cascades, and it does deliver you onto the top of the moor, but there’s no compact little secret valley, just a wide hollow between Arnsbarrow Hill and Top o’Selside. What it does do is lead on nicely to Arnsbarrow Tarn. This has hints of Trout Tarn about it, but most people agree that Trout Tarn is based on Beacon Tarn, on the Blawith Fells. In fact both are a bit too easy to get to: Trout Tarn is supposed to be ‘nearly a mile beyond Swallowdale’. Neither Beacon nor Arnsbarrow are more than a mile, as the crow flies, from the shores of the lake If I’d hoped to ‘solve’ the ‘mystery’ of Swallowdale, this outing got me no nearer. But was it a wasted day? Hardly. There was plenty to see and photograph along the way, and no day which tops out at Top o’Selside can be called wasted, let alone one with sunshine and snow. We’re properly into Winter Holiday season now. Of all Ransome’s books it’s the one in which the theme of exploration is strongest. It pays clear homage to true stories of exploration, but it’s striking that there is no mention of two men who would have been household names when Ransome was writing, Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, or of the great Norwegian Roald Amundsen. I know where she means,’ said Peggy. ‘It’s the country on the fells above the tarn. It’s as wild as wild.’ Winter Holiday was published in 1933, and set in the early weeks of 1932. Amundsen and his Norwegian companions reached the South Pole a little over two decades before, in December 1911. Scott’s party, of course, reached the Pole just a few weeks later, and perished on the return trip; it’s a well-known story which has entered British folklore. Shackleton’s story is not quite so widely known today. He had led a previous attempt on the Pole and turned back. In 1914 he returned, aiming to cross the Antarctic via the South Pole, but the ship Endurance was crushed by the ice. Shackleton led a desperate retreat to Elephant Island and then with five crew members set out on an extraordinary voyage in a small boat, crossing 1300km of the Southern Ocean to South Georgia. This is often considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, small-boat voyage in history. Three of the six, including Shackleton, then crossed the fierce mountains of South Georgia to a whaling station to secure rescue for their companions. Every single one of Shackleton’s crew survived. Amundsen, meanwhile, is often, and with ample justification, called the greatest polar explorer ever. That he and his party were the first to the South Pole is well-known. He had already become the first to navigate the fabled Northwest Passage, and in 1926 reached the North Pole by airship during a crossing from Spitzbergen to Alaska. As previous claims by both Cook (1908) and Peary (1909) to have reached the Pole were disputed, this may well be one of the first genuine visits. There is no doubt that Ransome would have known all about Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, but he mentions none of them in Winter Holiday. For him the inspiration is the other great Norwegian explorer of the times, Fridtjof Nansen. Statue of Nansen below the Fram There may be several reasons why Ransome made Nansen the model rather than any of the others. I think one is that Ransome often draws on influences from his own childhood. Look at the dates. Ransome was born in 1884. Nansen’s first great journey was a crossing of Greenland in 1888, a pioneering venture in every sense, taking the use of skis to a new level, developing other equipment such as lightweight sledges, and displaying a new willingness to learn from the indigenous people of the Arctic (in fact two of his companions on this journey were Sami). Nansen’s book The First Crossing of Greenland was published in 1890. He then began planning for an attempt on the North Pole. From observation of polar currents he envisaged that a ship could be frozen in the ice and carried close to the Pole by the drift. That ship became the Fram, specially constructed and said to be the strongest wooden ship ever built. The expedition departed in 1893 and after almost a year had passed 81 degrees North. Realising that it would take many years to reach the Pole this way, if it was possible at all, Nansen then set out on skis with one companion, Hjalmar Johansen, towing sledges, to make a dash for the Pole over the ice. This was ultimately unsuccessful, although they did set a record northing of 86d 14m, and was followed by a desperate retreat – it was over a year before they encountered another human being. The book Farthest North was published in 1897. The Fram now resides permanently in a museum in Oslo Both books are on the bookshelf in Captain Flint’s houseboat and we can be sure that they were on Ransome’s own shelves too. He almost certainly read them when he was young – he would have been 13 when Farthest North was published – and they made a deep impression on him. In fact, he later described Nansen as ‘a hero since my childhood’. All this, of course, predates the exploits of Shackleton, Scott or Amundsen. It’s therefore completely logical for someone of Ransome’s generation to focus on Nansen rather than the following generation. It would perhaps be less logical for the Swallows, Amazons and D’s – none, probably, born before 1918 – to think only of Nansen. But they are Captain Flint’s books and Flint is in many ways a surrogate for Ransome himself. On a simpler reading, using Nansen as the model is logical because the story centres on a sledge journey to the ‘North Pole’, and because Captain Flint’s houseboat can play the part of the Fram. On board the Fram In fact, there is a more personal connection between Ransome and Nansen, as the two men met on more than one occasion. These meetings occurred in 1921, when Ransome was living in Rīga in Latvia. By this time, Nansen had turned his back on exploration and was deeply engaged in humanitarian work, concerned with the repatriation of prisoners of war and then with wider refugee issues, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. It is worth mentioning that Nansen was also a notable scientist, conducting pioneering work on the nervous systems of marine invertebrates which attracted international attention. His first forays into diplomatic activity came during the first years of the 20th century as Norway moved to full independence from Sweden. Nansen opposed the most belligerent of the nationalists and was instrumental in inviting a Danish prince to assume the throne of Norway. (And as the new Queen was British by birth, this helped to cement strong links between Noway and the UK). Even this only scratches the surface of Nansen’s life and it was with good reason that Ransome called him ‘the most civilised person of his generation’. It’s interesting to picture the two of them, both tall and walrus-moustached, deep in discussion by the shores of the Baltic. It’s no wonder that little more than ten years later Ransome was keen to honour Nansen in one of his novels – and the exploits detailed in The First Crossing of Greenland and Farthest North inform almost every aspect of the efforts of the Swallows, Amazons and D’s in Winter Holiday. On the deck of the Fram January 13, 2015 January 13, 2015 Leave a comment Arthur RansomeConistonCumbriaDiscoverLake DistrictLakelandPeel Islandsecret harbourSwallows and AmazonsWild Cat Island First steps on Peel Island One of the key locations in Swallows and Amazons is the secret harbour on Wild Cat Island. It’s also one of the relatively few cases where the real-world original is easily and unambiguously identifiable; it’s on Peel Island in Coniston Water. Peel Island from the shore at High Peel Near. I wrote in Exploring Arthur Ransome’sLake District that: ‘To see the harbour properly you need to approach from the water. For many fans of the books, this is the most thrilling moment in their explorations of Ransome country.’ However, despite many years (decades, if I’m honest) of exploring the southern Lakes, this particular thrill was one I hadn’t experienced until I was already working on the book. I suppose it’s interesting, if not surprising, that my early and enduring love for Swallows and Amazons and the rest of Ransome’s lake country novels never turned me into a sailor. Opportunities didn’t exactly fall into my lap but I could have tried harder… however, up until 2007, my only experiences on the actual waters of Windermere and Coniston had been on commercial services – the Coniston launch and the Gondola, Windermere Lake Cruises and the ferry. You can see pretty much all of both lakes that way, but you don’t get to set foot on any of the islands. And I knew that I couldn’t do an honest job on the book without at least setting foot on Peel Island. Time was running out and I hadn’t located a friendly seafarer with a dinghy. But I did have some friends who owned sea kayaks. So there we were one bracing day at the end of January 2007, unloading kayaks from the roof of Jonathan Westaway’s car in the car-park just north of Brown Howe on the west shore of Coniston. (Brown Howe itself was used as Beckfoot in the 1974 film). There was a brisk breeze and the waters of the lake were distinctly choppy. For some odd reason no-one else seemed to be out on the lake… From there to the harbour on Peel was only about a kilometre. Not far to paddle, but I’m no expert. And as soon as we moved out of the shelter of the trees, it became clear that the wind was stronger than we’d realised, and also almost exactly side-on – on the beam, I guess the proper sailors would say. Sea-kayaks are long, but quite narrow. In spite of this they are allegedly stable. But put me in one and the combination is rather less stable. We were just about opposite Low Peel Near when the inevitable happened and I capsized. My first thought was to be extremely glad that I’d got my camera in a waterproof case (I’d actually imagined beforehand that I might take a few shots from the water). My second thought was … well, not exactly ‘shiver my timbers’, but all the letters of what I did think are in there and in the right order. Surprisingly, I actually remembered being taught to roll when I was in the Scouts, a very long time ago. I say I remembered it, but I couldn’t put it into practise, so it was time for Plan B: exit the boat. I did at least stay calm and executed this manoeuvre in an orderly manner, and with a good deal of help from my expert adviser I was fairly soon back in the boat. Of course I was now wet through. Paddling did help to warm me up a bit and we got to the harbour without further ado, but I must admit my thoughts as we slid onto the little beach were not so much about what a great thrill it was finally to be there and more along the lines of, “better not hang around too long.” Still, we were there and we needed to explore and get a few photos. Kayaks in the secret harbour The harbour itself is exactly right, even if narrower than it appears in Ransome’s drawing in Chapter 4 of Swallows and Amazons. The rest of the island, however, was more of a surprise and not particularly like I’d imagined it. It’s smaller than it should be, for a start; once you imagine a few tents somewhere in the middle there isn’t a lot of space for all the other things that happen there. As the photo below shows, there’s a ridge of rock along each side of the island with a low, fairly open space in the middle; there are a few scattered trees but very little undergrowth. Of course the vegetation may have been significantly different when Ransome was writing Swallows and Amazons 75 years ago, or when he first visited the island either as a boy or as a very young man, certainly more than a century back. There certainly isn’t the nice little sheltered bay with a shingle beach that became the ‘landing place’ (as distinct from the harbour) – check the map at the front of Swallows and Amazons. Apparently when they made the film of S&A in 1974 the crew created a landing place of sorts by dumping a load of shingle – this is related in Sophie Neville’s The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons. It must have been at the northern end of the east side of the island, where the rock wall peters out, not in the middle as shown in the book. Even with this artificial aid, the landing place in the film is much smaller than the one suggested in the book. Of course it’s no secret that Wild Cat Island as a whole is one of Ransome’s composite creations. It’s generally recognised that the other main model is Blake Holme in Windermere. However, Blake Holme is even smaller (in length if not in area) than Peel Island, and is also extremely close to the shore – where there is now a busy caravan site. On Peel, that chilly January day, we soon found our way to the northern end of the island. There’s no lighthouse tree, but it does provide a good lookout up the length of Coniston Water. It was also very open to the north-west wind and in my wet clothes I really felt it. Timbers properly shivering, it was time to go. Fortunately the return trip went smoothly and I was soon changing into dry clothes in the toilet block at the car park. After loading up the kayaks onto the car we set off in search of Americanos and bacon butties. Kayaks ready to leave the secret harbour Many thanks to Jonathan Westaway for pilot/navigator/rescue services and to Julia for lending me her kayak. December 17, 2014 December 17, 2014 1 Comment Arthur RansomeCumbriaDarienDiscoverExploreFriar's CragKeswickLake DistrictSwallows and Amazons Upon a peak in Darien I’ve already looked at the way key locations from Exploring Arthur Ransome’s Lake District are distributed; almost all of them are in the core area around Coniston Water and Windermere. This raises big question marks over the outliers. Some of them are fairly easily disposed of (see near the end of The ‘Real’ Ransome Country). Two locations which deserve a bit more attention are Miterdale – which I’ll come back to – and Derwent Water, specifically Friar’s Crag. Friar’s Crag (a slightly dodgy scan from an old slide) Friar’s Crag is often cited as the model for the Peak of Darien, which appears in the very early pages of Swallows and Amazons. From here the Swallows gaze out down the lake and see the island for the first time. It gets its name from a sonnet by Keats, of which the final four lines are quoted at the head of Chapter 1. (Read the full poem, On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer, here). The lines refer to the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortez (or Cortés), and imply that he and his men were the first Europeans to see the eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean. (Darien is a region, still wild and sparsely inhabited, on the borders of Panama and Colombia). This is almost certainly wrong; Cortez may never have seen the Pacific at all, and the true credit for this ‘discovery’ goes to the expedition led by Vasco Núñez de Balboa. It’s quite possible that Keats simply made a mistake. But the point of the lines is that Columbus and many navigators who followed were looking for a short route to India and the ‘Indies’, which we now know lie to the west of the Pacific. It took some time for Europeans to realise that there were in fact two great oceans, not one, to the west, separated by the Americas. Keats’s poem hints at a first dawning realisation of this (‘a wild surmise’) – its magnitude underlined by the two lines preceding the ones which Ransome quotes: “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies “When a new planet swims into his ken” Clearly the Swallows, or at least one of them (Titty ‘had heard the sonnet read aloud at school’), knew the poem and linked its sense of vast prospects opening up with the view down the lake to the island. The ‘Peak of Darien’ in the story is one of the promontories enclosing the bay below Holly Howe (the ‘southern and higher’ one). It’s largely covered in ‘pinewoods’ but at the end is ‘a small open space of bare rock and heather’ from where it drops, ‘like a cliff, into the lake’. None of this is very remarkable, and there are many promontories on Coniston and Windermere which more or less fit the bill. Why, then, is it often stated that the model for Darien is Friar’s Crag? One reason – and quite a convincing one, on the face of it – is that Ransome actually sent a postcard of Friar’s Crag to the artist, Clifford Webb, who illustrated early editions of the book. I think, however, that this overlooks the fact that Friar’s Crag is one of the best-known landmarks in the Lakes and postcards were easily available. In later editions of Swallows and Amazons, Webb’s illustrations were replaced with Ransome’s own, and the frontispiece, titled ‘Dispatches’, shows his own interpretation of Darien. The foreground may look superficially like Friar’s Crag, but not convincingly. The point of Friar’s Crag is actually quite low and certainly doesn’t drop ‘like a cliff’. The second reason for the association between Friar’s Crag and Darien is that it was used as such in the 1974 film of Swallows and Amazons. Sophie Neville, who played Titty in the film, records in her ebook, The Secrets of Filming Swallows and Amazons, that Ransome’s widow Evgenia told the film’s producer, Richard Pilbrow, that the original of Darien is on Windermere, near Waterhead. This would certainly fit with the fact that, at the time he was writing the book, Ransome and Evgenia were living at Low Ludderburn and sailing regularly on Windermere, and probably points to Gale Naze Crag. However, Pilbrow chose to use Friar’s Crag instead. One reason for this may well have been that it would be much easier to access with a film crew than most of the alternatives. Visit today and you’ll find a wide, easy track leading almost all the way to the point of the crag. In any case, the most important thing about the Peak of Darien is not the detail of the promontory itself but the view it provides. In fact, the view from Friar’s Crag is used for just this purpose in the film, and it provides quite a thrilling moment, with a nice music sting, redolent of ‘wild surmise’. But it’s all wrong. The view in Ransome’s ‘Dispatches’ drawing looks nothing like the view from Friar’s Crag, and there’s also a very clear statement in that first chapter that ‘the island lay about a mile away towards the lower, southern end of the lake’. Windermere and Coniston Water both have lower hills towards their southern ends. Derwent Water doesn’t. In fact it doesn’t really have a low end at all; the River Derwent escapes through a low gap to the northwest, not Bassenthwaite Lake, but views straight down the lake are dominated by the bulk of Skiddaw, one of the Lake District’s major peaks. Skiddaw dominates the view down Derwent Water The celebrated view from Friar’s Crag is in the other direction, to the head of the lake, taking in the craggy ‘Jaws’ of Borrowdale and beyond them the fells rising towards the high core around Scafell Pike (although the Pike itself is barely visible). The other problem with Friar’s Crag today is that it’s an immensely popular spot and you’ll be lucky, unless you go very early in the morning, to have it to yourself. It’s worth visiting, of course –and if you’re in Keswick it couldn’t be easier – but it isn’t the Peak of Darien. ‘Towards the lower, southern end of the lake’. This is Coniston Water December 7, 2014 December 7, 2014 1 Comment Arthur RansomeCumbriaDiscoverExploreLake DistrictLakelandmaps Having looked at the extent of the ‘lake country’ in Ransome’s books, I thought it would be interesting to compare it with the real world, i.e. the places we can actually visit on foot, on bike, by train, boat or car, rather than in our imagination. The first map covers the full extent of the Lake District National Park. The background map is OS 1:250,000, under the OS OpenData Licence. All additions are © Jon Sparks. Don’t worry too much about the detail yet; just notice how nearly all the purple blobs and dots are concentrated into a fairly small area of the southern Lake District. We’ll deal with the odd outliers later. Now let’s look more closely at the core area. A little explanation: the purple dots are places mentioned in Exploring Arthur Ransome’s Lake District. Diffuse blobs are areas, such as Morecambe Bay or Claife Heights, rather than ‘point’ locations. Purple lines are walks in the book and black ones are railways mentioned. What I hope stands out here is that there is rather a large ‘void’ in the middle of the map. Neither Hawkshead (a very popular tourist village) nor Esthwaite Water get a mention. Ransome must have known them, and I’m sure he fished on Esthwaite, but nothing that I’m aware of ties them to any location in the stories. Actually we could take out even more of the locations that I’ve marked in the middle. Rusland Heights, beside the southern end of Windermere, is only marked because I put in a bonus walk there, not because of any specific tie to the stories but for its atmosphere. The same could be said of Claife Heights, further up the west side of Windermere. Take these out and the picture becomes even clearer: What I hope is really obvious is how most of the locations around Windermere are on the shoreline or in the lake itself (bays, islands, etc). There are some of these in/around Coniston too, but there’s a much wider spread of locations on land around the lake, ranging up to the tops of the Coniston Fells. Part of the key to this lies in the few red dots. The two slightly larger ones are Low Ludderburn, east of Windermere, and The Heald, part-way up Coniston Water. Ransome lived at Low Ludderburn from 1925–35. This period saw the writing of Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Winter Holiday, and the start of Pigeon Post. The Heald was home from 1941–1945 and The Picts and the Martyrs was published in 1943. The smaller red dots are Nibthwaite, at the foot of Coniston, and Lanehead, near the head of the lake. Nibthwaite was the base for many idyllic holidays in Ransome’s boyhood and Lanehead, home of the Collingwoods, was central to many visits as a young man. For more on the background see Chapter 7 of Exploring Arthur Ransome’s Lake District. Let’s just return quickly to those outliers that I mentioned. U is Ulverston – only mentioned because Arthur’s family would change trains here on the way to those holidays at Nibthwaite. C is Cartmel, where Ransome stayed as a young man, and at least once walked up to Lanehead and back. A is Arnside, beside the Kent Estuary, which opens into Morecambe Bay. At least one of Ransome’s own boats, Coch-y-Bonddhu (the model for the D’s Scarab) was built here. M is Miterdale, touted by some as the original for Swallowdale, though I don’t buy this at all (see Exploring Arthur Ransome’s Lake District, Chapter 3). B is Burnmoor Tarn, just above. F is Fairfield. The Fairfield Horseshoe is surely the original for the ‘ring of great hills around the head of the lake’. Ransome mentions this, with slight variations, several times. W is Derwent Water and D is Friar’s Crag. Friar’s Crag has been suggested as the model for the Peak of Darien, where Swallows and Amazons opens, and both lake and crag were used for some scenes in the 1974 film. However, I’m pretty sceptical about their real significance and I’ll return to this before long. ‘A ring of great hills around the head of the lake’: the Fairfield Horseshoe from a boat on Windermere. December 4, 2014 December 17, 2014 Leave a comment Arthur RansomeCumbriaDiscoverExploreLake DistrictLakelandmaps How big is Ransome Country? Part 2 NB: As the maps are, of course, copyright, I can’t reproduce any of them here and can only hope that readers have their own copies of the books to refer to. Looking closely at maps of the ‘lake country’ in Ransome’s books throws up some interesting observations. In terms of published maps, there are four main sources: Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Winter Holiday, and The Picts and the Martyrs. The maps in Pigeon Post cover a much smaller area – the valley of the Amazon and High Topps. A note on the map in Winter Holiday, attributed to Capt. Nancy Blackett, warns that, ‘Future explorers must not rely on this map in calculating distances.’ In fact, like most of the others, it doesn’t entirely look like a ‘proper’ map at all. The question of what constitutes a proper map is a huge one, and though fascinating I can’t go into it here in any depth. However, what is obvious from even a glance at the Winter Holiday map is that, while most of it looks like an overhead or plan view, the area at the top – including ‘Mountains’ and ‘High Greenland’ – looks more like a perspective drawing. We can say the same of most of the others. The lake is always drawn more or less as an aerial view, even if the lighthouse tree on Wild Cat island tends to appear in profile. However, in the Swallowdale map, Kanchenjunga is seen as if from below. In Spurrier’s map for Swallows and Amazons, almost everything bar the lake itself appears as if we are looking from some high point away in the west. Only the map in The Picts and the Martyrs looks as if it’s all drawn from an overhead view – and even here, a few features, mostly houses, are shown in elevation, not in plan. There’s nothing intrinsically ‘wrong’ with this mixing of plan and elevation views and something similar can be seen in many classic maps, especially ones which predate the Ordnance Survey. They also invite comparison with another, more recent, Lakeland icon – the Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells of Alfred Wainwright (published between 1955 and 1966). In this, while each chapter (one per fell) includes a plan-view map, the illustration for each individual route is a hybrid map/elevation drawing. This malleable perspective has been widely emulated since. As Wainwright’s guides show, this kind of perspective drawing can be extremely useful, and the Ransome maps also demonstrate that it can be both charming and evocative. However, as Nancy says, it makes the maps rather unreliable in ‘calculating distances’. However, if we are going to make the effort, then the map in The Picts and the Martyrs would appear to be the most reliable. It also comes from the last of the completed ‘lake country’ books, which may suggest that the landscape it portrays is the most – for want of a better word – mature. On the other hand, it is incomplete. The country east of the lake, including High Greenland, is almost entirely missing, and so is the summit of Kanchenjunga – although by cross-referencing to the map in Pigeon Post we can get a sense that this isn’t far outside the confines of this map. There’s another problem too. I’ve said that the one element which appears to be drawn in plan in all these maps is the lake. However, it changes shape. Clearly Ransome didn’t do what he had his explorers do in Secret Water, and make tracings of a base map to which detail could then be added over time. The closest agreement in terms of the shape and proportions of the lake is between the maps in Swallows and Amazons (even though this is Spurrier, not Ransome) and Winter Holiday. In Swallowdale the lake is considerably broader in proportion to its length. The Picts and the Martyrs map makes it equally wide around Rio Bay but the difference is less marked elsewhere. The Beckfoot promontory also shifts position quite markedly; in Swallowdale it’s much farther north. Varying outlines of the lake from the four sources referred to. These variations, along with others already noted in Part 1, mean that even deriving the length of the lake, let alone extrapolating from this to other features, is full of pitfalls. But we took the plunge in Part 1 and concluded that it is about as long as Windermere, i.e. approx. 10 miles/16km. Based on this, is there anything we can say about the scale of other features? Well, there is some other firm data, not about lengths but about heights. The map in Pigeon Post gives the height of Kanchenjunga as 2600 feet. This agrees very well with the height of Coniston Old Man, today given as 803m: 2634ft in old money. Of course there’s more to be said about whether the Old Man is the sole model and there’s quite a bit about that in my book, but that doesn’t really concern us here. Apart from this and a few other heights on the Pigeon Post map, Ransome is generally very careful not to specify measurements exactly. (It’s different in the East Anglian books, but then they use the real landscape, not an imaginary one). For example, as noted in Part 1, Wild Cat Island is ‘about a mile’ from Darien. Even before this, very early in Swallows and Amazons, he mentions looking out ‘…over mile upon mile of water’. This stretch of moorland appears in the maps in both Swallowdale and The Picts and the Martyrs. In both, it appears about the same length in relation to the lake: from Swallowdale to the descent into the Amazon valley is about 60% of the lake’s length, which would make this about 6 miles/10km. And of course the moors don’t end immediately south of Swallowdale so their overall length is even greater. This immediately casts doubt on the claims that some people have made that the Swallowdale moors are based on the Blawith Fells, west of Coniston Water. These aren’t much more than 5km or 3 miles long. The scale of the maps fits much better with the upland east of Coniston Water; from Brock Barrow, just above Nibthwaite, to the road at High Cross, a trek of at least 8km/5 miles is certainly possible. Today, much of this land is enveloped in conifers as part of Grizedale Forest, but far more of it was open moor when Ransome came here as a boy and as a young man. For more about this, see Mile upon Mile of green and purple moorland. Even so, 8km is not 10km. But maybe this is the place to remind ourselves that the ‘lake country’ exists in the imagination, and that not only are Ransome’s main protagonists children, many of his formative experiences, especially on land, took place when he was a child too. (Sailing, for the most part, came a little later). There is a difference in the way that children perceive the scale of the world, especially when it serves as a seedbed for the imagination. We should also remember that the Swallows and Amazons are almost entirely reliant on small sailing vessels or their own feet to get around. Bicycles figure in Pigeon Post and cars and buses crop up occasionally, while trains are how they get to and from the lake country. Ransome, as child and young man, was in the same position. It would take well under an hour to get from, say, Nibthwaite to Ambleside by car. On foot, it would be at least a half-day’s walk even for an adult. And really this is the key to answering our question: How big is Ransome Country? It’s the sort of area that a group of children can get around under their own steam. And we should remember that at the start of Swallows and Amazons, Roger is just seven. In Swallowdale, he is eight. This makes the trek across the moors take on a slightly different magnitude, not to mention the return trip by Roger and Titty alone – and she is no more than ten. We can say, baldly, that the lake is about 10 miles long. We can infer that the country on either side spreads rather less than ten miles from Kanchenjunga to High Greenland. But the mere mention of Kanchenjunga and High Greenland takes us to a different dimension. The lake is ‘as big as a small sea’ (Swallows and Amazons, Chapter 1) – or a very large one, since it also has Arctic and Antarctic regions, and in Winter Holiday there’s a North Pole to be found. On the maps, the lake country is small enough. In the imagination it’s far, far bigger. December 4, 2014 December 17, 2014 Leave a comment Arthur RansomeDiscoverLake DistrictLakelandNorman Hadleypoem Naming It I’m delighted to welcome a guest contributor to this blog. Norman Hadley is a man of many parts – among other things he’s a mountain biker and one of the main men behind pedalnorth. And he is another lover of Arthur Ransome’s work. And he just happens to be a near neighbour of mine. What are the odds of two mountain biking Ransomephiles living within a few dozen pedal-strokes of each other in a small Lancashire town? He’s also a very fine poet. Here’s an example, reproduced by very kind permission. Naming It A man called Ransome showed me how it’s not enough to teeter out to the furthest rock in the rush of river, that you had to name it, had to own it, and the river splashed your sandals you would, making sure that noone else could hear you, whisper, November 26, 2014 December 17, 2014 Leave a comment Arthur RansomeCumbriaDiscoverdromedaryLake Districtmountain bikePigeon PostSwallows and Amazons ‘Meanwhile the dromedary was jolting him almost to pieces as it slipped and jumped and jibbed and skidded and bucked over the loose stones in the old path down the wood. You never would have thought it was possible to get so hot going down hill.’ Dick’s trail might have looked a bit like this (and that’s High Topps, or Yewdale Fells, in the background) It’s fair to say that bikes don’t have a major role in the Swallows and Amazons stories, but they do play their part – as ‘dromedaries’ in Pigeon Post. They’re also, incidentally, quite significant in the East Anglian-set The Big Six. Still, Ransome’s description of Dick’s progress down the track suggests he (Ransome) had some experience of riding over rough terrain, long before the term ‘mountain biking’ was invented (see below) and even before the birth of the Rough-Stuff Fellowship. Of course, when he was a young man, many roads were unsealed and more like what we would call rough tracks nowadays. And people certainly took their bikes over hill tracks and even mountain passes. Some may remember an episode of Nicholas Crane’s BBC2 series Map Man based on the Bartholomew’s Cycling Map of England and Wales (1896-1903), in which he took a period steed over a couple of Lakeland passes – Black Sail and Scarth Gap, I believe. These are in the western fells, well away from Ransome Country. It’s certainly possible that Ransome, born in 1884, and a map-lover from an early age, would have been familiar with and perhaps used those Bart’s cycling maps. He might also have come across the writings of Walter MacGregor Robinson, better known as ‘Wayfarer’. One of Robinson’s best-known exploits was a crossing of the bare and lonely Berwyn Mountains in north-east Wales in March 1919. Wayfarer and his companions crossed in deep snow, pushing their heavy fixed-gear bikes far more than they could ride and taking four hours to cover ten miles. On a modern mountain bike, and without the snow, it’s possible in an hour or so: I know, because I’ve done it. The pass itself is now known, and not solely by cyclists, as ‘The Wayfarer’ and there’s a memorial to him at the top. I think, however, it’s fair to say that ‘Wayfarer’s prose style seems far more dated than Ransome’s. The author starting the descent from the Wayfarer monument The suggestion that Ransome knew of these exploits is conjecture, of course, but we do know that he did cycle, sometimes over long distances, as a young man, and the distinction between ‘road’ and ‘off-road’ was rather more blurred in those days. Certainly there were really no such things as specialised bikes for different types of terrain – unlike today, when even mountain bikes have many sub-categories, like ‘cross-country’, ‘trail’, ‘enduro’, ‘all-mountain’ and ‘downhill’. And what this ultimately suggests to me is that bikes are an entirely appropriate as well as a versatile and enjoyable way of exploring Ransome’s lake country. Despite the growth of car traffic there are still some delightfully quiet lanes and there are also easy tracks, especially around Grizedale Forest. With a bit of effort, some of these lead out to some great views – the forest does, after all, lie between Coniston and Windermere, bang in the middle of Ransome Country. If you’re up to some rougher going, like Dick, then try a ride over Claife Heights. Claife has never, as far as I know, been nominated as the model for any of Ransome’s locations (it’s more Beatrix Potter country), but it’s oozing with the right atmosphere and the tracks are great fun. Most people will tackle them on a mountain bike but if you want to get closer to the Dick Callum experience you might try crossing Claife, as I have, on a cyclo-cross bike. Of course only you can decide what your fitness and skills are up to… Beyond that, there are many full-on mountain bike routes in the area, from the famed (or infamous) Walna Scar Road to the purpose built North Face Trail at Grizedale. Some of the bridleways in and around Grizedale, and elsewhere, are steep, rocky and decidedly (in modern parlance) gnarly. Even on a modern full-suspension bike, and with considerable experience, I treat them with respect. If Dick got down something like this on a 1930’s steel ‘girl’s bike two sizes too big for him’ – and with a pigeon basket strapped to the handlebars as well – I take my hat off to him. A bit more gnarly (but not very): one of the descents off Claife Heights. There are easier routes – and harder ones too. Watch these pages for some specific suggestions of (not too gnarly) dromedary trails. The Rough-Stuff Fellowship and the birth of mountain biking Pigeon Post is set in 1932. The Rough-Stuff Fellowship was founded in 1955, but the term had been around for decades. As tarmac – the ‘smooth stuff’ – spread, the contrast between it and the unsealed tracks became more significant. (As the RSF’s own website says, ‘…in the very early days of cycling everything was rough stuff’.) The rapid growth in motor traffic in the 1950s was a major factor in encouraging more and more cyclists to seek out quiet byways and bridleways. Clearly, then, off-road biking is nothing new. However, the line of descent leading to the modern mountain bike really begins in California in the 1970s. Here a group of riders began staging informal – but definitely competitive – events, speeding down mountain fire–roads and other trails on whatever bikes seemed most suitable. A key location was 784m (2571ft) Mt Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, close to San Francisco in Northern California. Road bikes were lethal on the loose, high-speed descents; the bikes that seemed to work best were old fat–tyred ‘cruiser’ machines, affectionately referred to as ‘Klunkerz’. The first purpose–built ‘mountain’ bikes were custom–built by Joe Breeze in 1978. By 1982, mountain bikes that we would just about recognise today, like the original Specialized Stumpjumper, were appearing. Previous Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.	65,015
Sweaters and a coat are necessary no matter what time of year you arrive. Although the Russian government has been using International Labor Organization (an arm of the United Nations) statistical methods to determine unemployment, officially reported unemployment levels in Russia, as with other official statistics, have often been lower than figures determined by the international community. The social life among the small American community is casual and personally arranged. That agreement and a letter of guarantee to pay for the cellular service must be sent to Glavgossvyaznadzor along with a request for permission to import the telephone. Based on these documents, a certificate is issued , source: http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/the-boy-and-the-tree-poems. Connected with this decentralization was Khrushchev's decision in 1962 to reorganize party organizations along economic, rather than administrative, lines. The resulting bifurcation of the party apparatus into industrial and agricultural sectors at the oblast level and below contributed to the disarray and alienated many party officials at all levels , source: http://vnatalie.com/library/narrative-poems-by-alexander-pushkin-mikhail-lermontov. Here you can enjoy the bright blue waters, white-sand beaches, and beautiful coral reefs, which make it an excellent area for swimming and snorkeling. Brazil is a great place to begin your adventure, especially since it has the longest stretch of coastline in South America. This regions encompasses many different types of landscapes, including rainforests, mountains, lakes, and grasslands http://www.jasonchanphoto.com/ebooks/rilkes-russia-a-cultural-encounter-studies-in-russian-literature-and-theory. Please, mind that there are 3 international airports in Moscow: Sheremetyevo (SVO) in the northwest, Domodedovo (DME) in the south and Vnukovo (VKO) in the southwest. Getting between these airports is quite challenging, because there are no means of rapid transfer between them, so if you are planning a transfer trip, mind airports for all your flights. Usual taxi fee for a trip between any of airports is about 1500 rubles, which is expensive unless you travel with others , source: http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/written-with-the-bayonet-soviet-russian-poetry-of-world-war-two. Tours also include demonstrations on mask making, skin sewing, fur parkas and games ref.: http://vnatalie.com/library/russian-poetry-for-children. The first formal Christian religious mission to Alaska came in 1794. Archpriest loasaf brought 10 monks from the Valaam monastery in northeastern Russia to Kodiak. The monks immediately began to do missionary work/not always with good results. One, who worked among the Tainana of Cook Inlet in 1796, insisted that the Natives abandon some of their customs and forced some to marry in the Orthodox Church http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/lions-are-not-elephants. If a whale was harvested, the captain and crew that first struck it received choice cuts. Everyone in the village helped divide and share the huge mammal, whose blubber was prized. The ancestors of the Yup'ik people likely arrived in the third or final migration from Asia about 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age , source: http://mymalico.com/books/collected-works-of-velimir-khlebnikov-volume-iii-selected-poems. The greatest among them was Dygyn, who in the early seventeenth century conquered numerous other clans to form a chiefdom. Dygyn was known for his power and military spirit http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/the-ballads-of-kukutis-arc-classics. Many contended that the bureaucracies responsible for its promotion--the Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education, etc.--are highly resistant to much-needed reform. Russia's schools have deteriorated significantly, and many lack teachers in basic subject areas, especially in the poorer regions. Russia's science and technology base--greatly shrunken from the oversized Soviet complex but not disproportionate to Russia's present size--is inadequately funded and not attracting sufficient new talent http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/joseph-brodsky-a-personal-memoir. Its territory is huge—far larger than the continental United States—but its population is less than 300,000, most of whom live in Canada. If you understand the United States as a patchwork of separate nations, each with its own origins and prevailing values, you would hardly expect attitudes toward violence to be uniformly distributed http://vnatalie.com/library/modern-russian-poetry-an-anthology. This book, compiled by Emmons, presents a series of essays that can present to the reader a general idea of the atmosphere of the time when serfdom was abolished in Russia. Emancipation of the Russian Serfs provides the historical background for the period leading to emancipation, the economic background of the different objectives attempted to be achieved by the different social classes in play, the motives for reform, and the final results that came with that reform , cited: http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/poems-in-prose. As a result of increased Sami activism, the controversial Finnmark Act of 2005 gave Sami and the population in Finnmark rights to the land and water in Finnmark when about 95% (about 46,000 km2) of the area in the Finnmark county was transferred to the inhabitants of the county http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/the-gypsies-other-narrative-poems. The word "uncultured" is used by grandmothers and older people as a reprimand for behavior on the part of their charges or total strangers that are considered uncouth or inappropriate http://sas-usa.com/lib/3-poems-osip-mandelstam-vo-pnvaap-edition-library-of-russian-soviet-music. Thus, a second key indicator for the potential success of urban upgrading will be central government willingness to undertake necessary fiscal reforms and allow local authorities to provide conditions of service necessary to attract and retain competent managers. Slum upgrading contributes most effectively to urban productivity when real, marketable wealth is created. Another key lesson learned in the upgrading projects of 20 years ago was that poverty alleviation was most effective in projects that delivered secure, marketable instruments of tenure to slum residents http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/collected-poems-in-english. Different cultures may divide up the spectrum in different ways. This can be seen in the comparison of some English language colors with their counterparts in the Tiv language of Nigeria: value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color http://thespiralbooks.com/ebooks/brodsky-translating-brodsky-poetry-in-self-translation. The revolutionary state was not directly ruled by the officials in titular control of the government, which was established in the name of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The government in the commonly understood sense was largely irrelevant both in fact and in Communist theory throughout the years of Communist control http://mymalico.com/books/distant-pleasures-alexander-pushkin-and-the-writing-of-exile. Not only did people who read "ripped the costume" blame Justin Timberlake more, they also levied a whopping 53% more in fines. Beyond space, time and causality, patterns in language have been shown to shape many other domains of thought http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/apollo-in-the-grass-selected-poems. The measure is normalized to range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the frontier. The distance to frontier score shows how far on average an economy is at a point in time from the best performance achieved by any economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005 or the third year in which data for the indicator were collected , e.g. http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/crossroad-of-arts-crossroad-of-cultures-ecphrasis-in-russian-and-french-poetry. Ukrainian names of regions and cities became official. 1992: Status of Crimea oblast changed to autonomous republic. During the Soviet era, the Russian names were considered standard. Both languages are written in the Cyrillic alphabet, but they use certain individual letters that are different. Their transliterations into the Roman alphabet are also different. To compound the confusion, in Ukrainian or Russian, the name is usually given in adjective form, followed by the generic (usually Oblast') http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/poems-in-prose. The mythology area is divided in 6 geographical regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Selecting one continent will display the mythologies in that particular area. The entire African continent (including countries such as Egypt, Lybia, Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Kenya, Morocco, Niger, South Africa, and many others). The area contains North America (including Native America, Inuit), Mesoamerica (Maya, Aztec), South America (Inca), and the West Indies/Carribean (Voodoo) http://beautyandabeat.net/freebooks/an-outline-of-russian-literature. In 1874 compulsory military service was extended in the Russian Empire to include the Germans. Only the Mennonites, who held fast to the principle of non-violence, after long negotiations were entitled to a kind of substitute duty, (forestry duty). Their men of military age engaged in caring for forests, tree nurseries, and model fruit orchards. During World War I the Mennonites were also conscripted into the medical service http://artformo.pl/library/eyesight-of-wasps. Petersburg to Moscow” (Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву, 1790) Title page from the first edition, 1790 http://mymalico.com/books/the-development-of-russian-verse-meter-and-its-meanings-cambridge-studies-in-russian-literature. It was named Kolmakovskiy in honor of Fedor Kolmakov. Larger than the two earlier posts, the post included a blockhouse, store, warehouse, separate barracks for Creoles and Eskimos, a kashim, and a bathhouse http://collegeplanningofamerica.org/library/chekhov-three-stories-russian-texts. ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;} if(pageid == 'audit') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+'/_layouts/Reporting.aspx? Category=Auditing&backtype=item&ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;} if(pageid == 'config') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+'/_layouts/expirationconfig.aspx http://tes-usa.com/?lib/boris-godunov-russian-edition-annotated--? Rated 5.0/5 based on 2364 customer reviews Posted in Russian Previous Post: A Book of Russian Verse This is an example widget to show how the secondary sidebar looks by default. You can add custom widgets from the widgets screen in the admin.	10,902
Booth By Mail is the first mail order photo booth rental available nationwide and 24/7. We save you hundreds by empowering you to set up and run your photo booth without an attendant. No tools or experience needed...it's quick, easy, and fun! The rental process is simple: the booth arrives 2 days before your event date. Remove the items, set up in 5 minutes, and have fun! Your guests will enjoy prints to take home, and you get digital access to all the photos! After the event, simply apply the pre-paid UPS return shipping label and send it back! Free shipping! Free prints! Free props! Share your thoughts with other couples Write a Review Reviewed On 8/22/2019 by Gail S Came 2 days early. Was easy to set up. People had fun with it. Hardest part was putting it back into the case to send back, but overall I’d highly recommend it. Reviewed On 7/09/2019 by Samantha S Long story short, we were sent a broken printer. My brother set the booth up for us and was on the phone with support for over 30 mins and still wasn't able to get anything accomplished. The booth worked for about half of our wedding, we paid... for extra toner and photo paper and didn't even get through the amount that comes standard. Then when we tried to contact the company, we had to play phone tag with the manager for over a week for her to only offer us a refund of the extra toner and paper. Very frustrating, would never recommend! Reviewed On 7/02/2019 by Barbara R If I could leave less stars- I would. I contacted this company and ordered a photo booth on June 19th. They stated they could absolutely have everything to me- I would just have to pay to rush the delivery. So, I paid the extra delivery fees fo... r a rush order. I paid for all items, paid an additional fee for extra photo paper to accommodate the number of guests I was expecting and the rush delivery. I received a receipt via email and thought all was good. Until..... June 26th- I contacted the company to see when the item would be arriving. My party was on Saturday June 29th. I was expecting 100+ guests and they were well aware. They told me it would be arriving the next day June 27th. This was 2 days prior to my party- that is rush? Ok- so, Thursday came and went. I went to bed- as I left for work on Friday June 28th, the container was on my front stoop. So the item must've been delivered some time on Thursday night. Friday after work I opened the container. I checked the contents as they tell you to.. I was missing 100 of the photo papers. I have over 100 guests coming to this event. Inside the container there is a packing slip with what is in the container. The extra 100 photos I paid for was not on the packing slip. Immediately, I contacted the company. I spoke with Jasmin- she proceeded to tell me that is what I ordered. I said no it is not- I have my order in my email and I verified before I called! Also she told me to count my packs of paper. I did- there were 6 packs. She told me each pack had 36 papers in them. I said no they do not. I counted while I was on the phone- there were 18 in each pack. She then called me back after contacting her manager and apologized. I of course stated- the apology is not acceptable especially when I have so many guests coming and this is not enough paper to cover my guests. She apologized and said she understands- ummm that does not make up for what I paid for and the fact that I have items missing! After back and forth, they were going to ship me paper overnight. I expressed that paper will not be here in time for my guests. I want a full refund. They went ahead and shipped paper. It did not arrive in time. I had to hire another company to come with a photo booth. So after all of this, I contacted the company and was told I would not be getting a full refund! How the h$%^ am I not entitled to a full refund when I did not have what I paid for and also btw... had to hire another company! I will dispute this with my bank! I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY TO ANYONE!!!! NOT AFTER THEY DID NOT FULFILL THEIR ORDER AND TRY TO KEEP MY MONEY! I RETURNED ALL ITEMS AND THE PAPER THEY SHIPPED LATE TO ME! HOW DARE YOU NOT RETURN FUNDS! I will make sure to use social media as well to let others know, if they mess your order up- they will try to keep your money. Instead of making the situation better for the customer. I did not half pay for items! You took the money directly from my account! How dare you steal money like this and not do the honorable thing! TERRIBLE BUSINESS! I will file with the business bureau as well. Reviewed On 6/10/2019 by Sarah H Booth by mail absolutely nailed it when it comes to providing amazing customer service and delivering a product that provided an awesome fun time and was easy to set up!! I had a problem creating a logo for my photo strips, I emailed them on a ... SUNDAY and I received an amazingly fast reply, not just with a resolution, but with a custom made logo which turned out awesome! I highly recommend using them for all your photo booth needs, you can’t beat the price for the amount of memories and fun your guests will have! P.S. always buy more props, while this does come with some, you can always use more! Reviewed On 5/14/2019 by Nicole D This was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding! From my initial request, to questions over shipping or logo design sizes, they were amazing! Not only did I receive quick responses, but the set up and take down was truly a 5 - 10 min... ute process and the photos were such high quality! Everyone loved the photos, props, and the backdrop matched everything perfect! I would highly recommend Booth by Mail! Reviewed On 5/13/2019 by Jeri B BUY YOUR OWN PROPS! That said, Booth By Mail is SO worth the money! Our guests had a blast taking pictures and leaving notes for us! I got the photo download link 4 days after dropping it back off at UPS. It was easy to set up and easy to use -... though the paper and ink needs to be changed often so you should put someone in charge of that. It also does a full ten second countdown before every photo which is just overkill. Still so much fun and totally worth it! Reviewed On 3/13/2019 by Pam B We rented Booth By Mail for my daughter's wedding 3 months ago. The 2 best things about it are that you can have it set up for the entire reception (or even before), and are not limited to just a few hours as with most photo booths. Also, th... e quality of the printed photos are top notch. The ones with my daughter and best friend are truly as good as professional photos. It was a big hit. Many of our guests had fun using it. My husband and son set it up. The only down side is that I don't know if I could have set it up as quickly as they did. I would definitely rent it again if I had an occasion, and I 100% recommend it!!! The employees were helpful when I had questions about ordering it and how to send it back. We are thrilled to hear that you had a great experience! Our customer support team takes pride in their service, so thanks for the kind words! Reviewed On 2/03/2019 by Lehar K We enjoyed the concept of Booth By Mail as we created our own custom wall for it and our guests had a great time taking photos during the wedding. Additionally, the photos were available to download immediately from the tablet (which we didn't... do, oops) which means no waiting! However, as others have mentioned, the ink/paper ran out or the printer jammed so many of the photos didn't print while the guests were waiting. Response from the Vendor on 02/18/2019 I'm sorry your experience wasn't as seamless as we strive to make it. At the time of your event (July 2018), we invited customers to download their own photos after the event, and included instructions on how to do it. (Since that time, we ha... ve upgraded our service, and create an album link after each photo booth rental.) Fortunately we were able to recover your photos (more than 6 months after the event!), so hopefully you have received the link and are enjoying digital copies of the photos. Please call our office if you haven't! Reviewed On 12/19/2018 by Jenni G Booth by Mail was the perfect touch for our wedding and at an affordable price! It’s easy to set up and tear down! My guests loved their photo booth picture souvenirs! Reviewed On 12/02/2018 by Amber B Having a photo booth at our wedding was so much fun! After looking at several options, we decided to go with Booth By Mail, and I'm so happy we did. We weren't bound by any time constraints like a set number of hours and the price, seriously, c... annot be beat. It was super easy to setup and the shipping back was a smooth process for us. All around, highly recommend having Booth By Mail as your photo booth option! It was a hot spot for guests all night! The only thing I would recommend is maybe bringing your own photo booth props, the ones on hand were a little flimsy/worn. Probably wouldn't have shown in the photos, just a thought though if you want to have more options - like photo booth props specific to weddings. Thank you Booth By Mail for everything! Reviewed On 12/02/2018 by Samantha N If I could rate 0 stars I would. HIGHLY disappointed. The booth never arrived for our wedding. I was terribly upset that a huge component of our wedding was missing. Our photo booth strips were going to be our wedding favor as I purchased expen... sive magnetic sleeves to hold them for our guests to take home. They blamed UPS delivery service and took over two weeks to MAIL a CHECK. So disappointed and will warn everyone to go with a normal photo booth rental. Just not worth the risk. Response from the Vendor on 12/17/2018 I am so sorry this happened. This was one of several photo booths that happened to be on a UPS transport in October that had a major accident. We plan every delivery to arrive at least 2 days prior to each event, which ensures on-time arriva... l 99+% of the time. This happened to be a very unfortunate and unpredictable incident. I know that excuse is no consolation to you, but I hope you do understand that our team takes it personally on these rare occasions when a customer is let-down. Reviewed On 11/17/2018 by Mallorie C Arrived a few days before the wedding so we could become familiar with it and was an absolutely hit!! Easy to set up and use. And the background was beautiful (we had gold). Great quality photos. Loved it. Recommend Reviewed On 11/16/2018 by Kristine K SO happy we got Booth By Mail! I REALLY wanted a photo booth at our wedding, but we were starting to reach our max in our budget and just couldn't afford the $700-$1000 quotes we were getting from local vendors. Got online to find a way to m... ake my own photo booth and found Booth By Mail! Our wedding was Saturday and the booth arrived in a sturdy black case on Wednesday before the wedding. The set up was easy enough for our groomsmen to set up the morning of and came with everything we needed. We had 65 guest and still had a lot of left over film that we didn't use from the free 100 prints. Everything was easy to use for my guests and we didn't have any issues. Best of all we got digital copies of all the pictures taken after the wedding was over! Return was easy! It already had the return shipment label in the box and the zip-ties to close the box back up before mailing. I returned it Monday and everything was smooth sailing. I HIGHLY recommend Booth By Mail for your wedding. We are so happy you enjoyed your photo booth! Our goal is to make every event more memorable, and our team takes pride in delivering great experiences. Thanks for the feedback! Reviewed On 11/12/2018 by Stephanie F The booth was everything we wanted! Our family and friends enjoyed it and it didn't break the bank. Easy to set up and send off. If your looking for an affordable booth, book with Booth By Mail. Only thing that would have made it better was t... o add more props. Booth by mail sends paper props but I would go to the store and add more. Reviewed On 11/11/2018 by Belen C This seemed promising and affordable. The booth never arrived, the company blamed ups. The biggest issue with this has been their refund process. Most business take about 3 business days to refund you for a service you did not receive. They... say their policy is 10-14 business days. I was told I would be refunded to my card within that time frame but still haven't. I contacted them, and they later sent me an e-mail notifying my that they issued a check, and mailed it to me. The check still hasn't arrived. I would recommend using a regular Photo Booth company and to NOT take your chances with this awful company. You don't want an essential part of your wedding to be missing that day. AVOID booth by mail. We were tremendously disappointed in this situation as well. The delivery delay was the result of a road accident of a UPS truck which happened to be carrying several of our photo booths, causing this 5-day ground delivery to take 10 days to r... each its destination. We did provide a full refund along with a personal note of apology from one of the owners of the company, but we understand and share your disappointment. Please know that it is our policy to schedule delivery for customer receipt at least 2 days prior to their event. This provides protection against the risk of potential delivery issues, and our dependability is extremely high across hundreds of rentals per month. The UPS manifest detailed an “emergency situation” in this case which caused a hold on delivery and a 6-day gap in transit from one UPS hub to another. Even with this delay, the booth nearly made it in time. Refunding by paper check compounded your frustration in this case, and we have changed our process to speed the refund in the unlikely event that another situation such as this should occur in the future. Reviewed On 11/08/2018 by Briana B Booth By Mail is an excellent way to go for a photo booth that won't break the bank! They were very helpful throughout the process, answering my questions and even helping me change my address when I found out that I could deliver to my venue. ... Set-up was easy and our guests had a great time using the photo booth. I would definitely recommend that you have a friend or family member responsible for helping with paper and ink changes but otherwise guests were able to use it with ease. I forgot to grab the photos off of the device and they also helped me recover my photos! I will definitely use them again in the future for other events if I need a photo booth! Reviewed On 10/31/2018 by Kristen R This experience was AWESOME! It was easy to set up and the pictures were so cute! This was a great value and a huge hit at the party Reviewed On 10/28/2018 by Brigitte R This company was amazing and helpful and helped make our wedding special. Their booth was delivered on time with easy instructions for setup and tear down. I forgot to download the digital copies of our pictures and they went out of their way t... o locate my specific booth I used and sent me a link to all our pictures over a month after our wedding. I'd highly recommend this vendor to any and all! Reviewed On 10/28/2018 by Sam S The booking process was fast and easy I got the confirmation email 2 days before my wedding day saying it shipped. When it didn’t arrive I called and they said it didn’t actually ship out and it wouldn’t arrive for my wedding day. When I asked ... if they could overnight it ( still had 24hrs until my wedding ) they said it wasn’t possible. I’m beyond disappointed as we were looking forward to having it. Now I have no booth. Would obviously never book again. BEWARE Reviewed On 10/27/2018 by Gabrielle C Love booth by mail! Was super easy to set up and customize. The props the sent were a little blah and the day of the event you start receiving at least 4 emails a day until you return it. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a photo... booth for a wedding or event and will probably be using them again! Reviewed On 10/22/2018 by Elizabeth I Booth by mail was so convenient and affordable! My husband and I both really wanted a photo booth, but they are often so expensive! The set up was as easy as advertised, and the pictures all turned out great! Our guests loved this feature! ... Totally recommend! Reviewed On 8/28/2018 by Sara B Booth by Mail was AMAZING. Worth every penny. Not only was it a hit at our wedding reception, but customer service graciously helped me recover the digital photos after I returned the booth without downloading them. They helped me save so many ... Reviewed On 8/17/2018 by Diana G We love Booth By Mail! It was so easy. We ordered months before our wedding and Booth By Mail made sure we had it for our Destination wedding in Vegas. Our guests loved it and it was such a great bargain! We definitely would recommend Booth By... Mail to our friends and family. Reviewed On 6/26/2018 by Shelby H Our booth almost did not make it in time and wouldn’t have if i didn’t know someone who worked with ups. They failed to notify me that they couldn’t deliver to the address i had. ( i still am unsure why). Definitely not on booth by mail complet... ely, however we also had issues printing the photos after taking them. All around a headache. Reviewed On 6/03/2018 by Andrea H Booth by Mail was a HIT at our party!! The ordering process was simple and the kit included a big variety of fabulous props. I love that you receive a link with all of the images taken so you can save to phone or print. I highly recommend!! Reviewed On 5/16/2018 by Jasmine M Price was great! Only thing is the pictures on the app that Booth by Mail had weren’t to good. The lighting wasn’t great & we kept having to move the photo booth around to get decent lighting. Reviewed On 5/09/2018 by Jenny B This was honestly the easiest and most cost effective way to have a Photo Booth at our wedding. We didn't have to worry about paying someone to man a booth table for four hours, it was relatively easy to set up (there could be more clear instru... ctions on how to load paper into the printer), and everyone instinctively knew how to use it. The only downside is people not knowing how to refill the paper when the printer ran out, but other than that, the pictures were clear, printed well, and everything was pretty great! I would definitely recommend this to a bride on a budget! Reviewed On 4/02/2018 by Ashley M Booth By Mail was such a great option to have, both from a cost standpoint and from a simplistic alternative standpoint. The ordering process was a breeze, the booth kit showed up when and as promised, and the kit was easy to put together and t... o work and the photo quality was great. I would (and will) use Booth By Mail for all of my future photo booth-requiring events! Reviewed On 3/25/2018 by Kimberly S Seriously the best bang for your buck! Ordered booth by mail for my wedding and I am so glad I did! My guests had a blast, some have already booked one for their upcoming event! And looking at the photos after the wedding was over just brought... back all the fun memories from my special day! Thank you! Reviewed On 3/04/2018 by Elizabeth G If you’re tossing around the idea of getting a photo booth and whether it’s worth the money, hire Booth By Mail! Everyone at our wedding had a blast at the photo booth and we have some fun pictures of our guests. We weren’t sure if many people ... would visit the photo booth, but it was busy the entire night! One of our wedding favors was a photo booth picture frame too which everyone loved because they got to take one copy home and leave the other copy for us in our guest book. Booth By Mail was amazing because an attendant hosted the photo booth most of the wedding so there was someone there helping guests as they took pictures and signed our guest book. The price is very reasonable too. Also, City Lights Photo Booths who recently changed their name to Booth By Mail gave us a link to all of the pictures taken at the wedding. It was by far one of the best decisions we made, as we got so many complements. Plus, the props and costumes that are included by the company make for some pretty awesome memories. I would highly recommend using City Lights Photo Booths/Booth by Mail for your wedding or any party! Reviewed On 1/24/2018 by Paul W We used Booth By Mail for a fundraiser and it went off without a hitch! The set up was easy. Pricing is super affordable (especially for what you get) and I will be using this product again for future events/gatherings. Highly recommend! Reviewed On 11/30/2017 by Lindsay R I cannot say enough great things about this company and the photo booth they brought to my wedding! I used the photos from the photo booth and had my guest put them in a book for my guest book and it was the best decision! The attendant was so ... interactive and was always there to help! My guest loved the photo booth and all of the props that came with it! They could not get away and I love that! Thank you so much for everything you offered and providing wonderful customer support. I will be recommending your company to anyone I know that is getting married! Continue the great work!! Email Address My wedding date is flexible Number of Guests Introduce yourself and share your wedding vision By clicking 'Request Quote', you agree that your information will be shared with the vendor and used to create an account on TheKnot.com. Please see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for details.	22,254
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we all get to exercise our OCD tendencies and come up with bookish lists. If you’d like to play along, check out this post. There are over 300,000 new books published in the United States each year. I read somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 books per year (and no, my Goodreads stats won’t back that up – I’m choosy about what I claim on the internet). This means I am missing… so many books. And I will never catch up! Even if we narrow it down to fantasy novels, there are still too many for any one human being to read. So. How do I ever choose? I take suggestions, I store bits of conversations in my brain, and I bide my time. This week’s list is about series I know I want to start (and for some of them, I've known this for years) – books that have stellar recommendations from readers whose taste I trust. I can’t wait to dive in! 1. Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce – Take away my YA fantasy fan card, I've never read ANY Tamora Pierce. I know. I know. I plan to fix that soon (probably when I find the entire series at a used book sale). 2. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor – I've had internet and IRL (in real life) friends telling me to pick up this series for a while now. I even have all of the books. Just need to dive in! 3. Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier – Angie of Angieville is a huge fan of this series, and she's never steered me wrong before. Plus, the cover artwork is gorgeous. I show a consistent weakness for pretty things... (but especially books!) 4. Temeraire by Naomi Novik – Dragons + Napoleonic Wars. It's the kind of crack-y concept that I would have devoured back in the day when series were just an excuse to spend more time buried in books (these days there's a bit more of a time crunch). This series would make a good holiday gift for my youngest brother - and of course it's only polite to read the books along with him so we can discuss! 5. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson – I've read one Sanderson book, The Rithmatist, and that was enough to convince me that I need to check out his other worlds. This series also came with a very high recommendation from a real life friend. So there's that. 6. Cecelia and Kate by Patricia C. Wrede – Well, you'd think I'd have picked this book up on the series title alone, since one of the characters and I share the same name and all. But. I've been holding off, Not sure exactly why, except that I always love Wrede's books, and maybe I'm hoarding for a later (bad) day. 7. The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin – Here's what I know about these books: they're complex, epic, political fantasies with well-developed worlds, written by an author of color, and very well received by fans of fantasy. Also, the first one is on my shelf. 8. The Queen’s Thief by Megan Whalen Turner – When I moved home to Seattle in 2009 after leaving grad school (I abandoned a PhD program), I did a bunch of odd, part-time jobs until I made the move to DC and found full-time work. One of those occasional things was to drive a family friend's teenage son to tutoring. He had a well-loved copy of The Thief in his backpack, and he was so in love with the book (and eager to tell me all about it) that I promised to eventually give it a try. I now have a copy on my Kindle app, and given the amount of love I see everywhere for this series, I know I need to read it. Soon. 9. The Books of Raksura by Martha Wells – I can't remember who recommended this series so strongly to me... but I remember thinking, "Oh, those sound like my sort of books." I promptly purchased the first one, and it has been waiting on my e-shelf ever since. It's kind of my M.O. at this point. 10. The Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox – Emma (Miss Print) convinced me to move these books up my TBR (to be read) list, and I broke down and bought myself copies a month or so ago. I just need to move from owning to reading. Which shouldn't be hard, because I adored Mortal Fire, the only other Knox book I've read. What is one series you’re excited to start reading? 8 comments: My Thoughts.... Literally! said... I need to read a lot of these as well. I will say however, MISTBORN IS EVERYTHING! I marathoned it last month and I seriously loved it, definitely a new favorite fantasy series! Great list! Cassi @ My Thoughts Literally October 21, 2014 at 10:24 AM Anonymous said... I didn't think I wanted to start any new series books but several of these are on my list. And really, you must read The Thief and Sorcery & Cecelia I am 99% sure you will love both. October 21, 2014 at 11:23 AM I need to read Daughter's of Smoke and Bone, too! I've seen nothing but positive reviews for it! Happy reading! October 21, 2014 at 3:08 PM There are so many good series to read, I could read nothing but. Nice list this week. Have a good week! kelley—the road goes ever ever on October 21, 2014 at 6:20 PM I loved The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I really need to read on! Great list! October 21, 2014 at 9:38 PM I need to read most of these myself. Especially the Raksura books. October 22, 2014 at 11:33 AM Jenny @ Reading the End said... Oh, oh, the wonderful Queen's Thief books! You should read those ones first! I love them so painfully much! It's still very strange to me that the "Cecelia and Kate" books are plural. I grew up with Sorcery and Cecelia being a standalone, and as the second and third books aren't nearly as good, I've mostly carried on pretending it is a standalone. :p A very very good one! October 22, 2014 at 3:56 PM I accidentally bought the second book in The Queen's Thief series a year or two ago and still haven't gotten around to buying the first one. If I ever do, though, I guess I'll be set! I'm just about to start The Young Elites by Marie Lu, and I'm hoping it'll be a series I absolutely adore.	6,017
Did you realize that your heat pump can lose efficiency over time? While unescapable wear and tear during the years will impact your heat pump’s efficiency, the most popular culprit when it comes to heat pumps losing efficiency is lack of maintenance. Ensuring you have regular heat pump maintenance performed is the best way you can keep your heat pump working as it should and potentially save some money on your energy bills. At Ambient Air, we suggest biannual heat pump maintenance. Each time, we will inspect your heat pump for any possible problems and recommend repairs if they’re needed. We’ll also confirm your heat pump is clean and make any necessary adjustments. A critical part of a clean heat pump is a clean air filter. Even though we will change your air filter during heat pump maintenance, you can help keep your heat pump efficient by seeing if your air filter needs to be replaced throughout the year. ENERGY STAR® recommends changing your air filter on a monthly basis. You might need to change it more or less frequently, depending on your filter type, your system and the environment in your home. As an example, if you have pets, you may need to change your air filter more frequently than someone who doesn’t. By checking your filter every month, you will start to get a feel for how often you should change it. Air will flow more freely throughout your home when you have a clean filter. You’ll experience improved air quality in addition to a positive increase in heat pump efficiency. You could also lengthen the life expectancy of your heat pump by keeping its filter clean. That’s because your heat pump has to work so much harder when you have a dirty air filter and that puts unnecessary wear and tear on its components. Another factor that could reduce your heat pump’s efficiency is leaking ductwork. If your ducts have any leaks, holes or poor connections, your system needs to work harder to efficiently deliver air throughout your home. And even though your heat pump will be working overtime, you could still have issues staying comfortable. If you are curious how well-sealed your ducts are, ask our professionals at Ambient Air. Your heating and cooling system is responsible for roughly half your home’s energy usage, so having an efficient furnace is key. At Ambient Air, we can help make sure your heat pump is working at peak efficiency. Call us today to schedule your annual heat pump maintenance at 520-357-4912. Serving Tucson and These Areas At Ambient Air, making your home comfortable is our biggest priority. That’s why we provide reliable HVAC systems and quality work in Tucson. Our specialists are knowledgeable in a complete variety of services, so you can feel confident in your results. They’ll give the assistance you are looking for, whether it’s putting in a new HVAC system or servicing and inspecting your present equipment. We’re ready to provide support for all of your needs, so get in touch with us at 520-357-4912 or contact us online to schedule an appointment now.	3,129
Achieving gender equality – and monitoring its progress – will require a significant improvement in the availability of data disaggregated by sex, age, and other important attributes. Currently, 23 percent of the 232 indicators across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), or 53 indicators in total, have a gender component to them. Access to high-quality gender data are critical to a country’s ability to compile each of the indicators needed to monitor and implement the SDGs; but how many of these indicators are available today? The Ready to Measure (R2M) study, published in September 2015 and reproduced in March 2016, demonstrated that, while many of the proposed gender-related indicators are challenging to collect or not yet available in most countries, there are 20 indicators (16 identical to or closely related to SDG indicators and four additional, complementary indicators) that are “ready to measure.” The 20 R2M indicators provide valuable information on the economic status and social welfare of women. They measure outcomes for women and girls (rather than processes) and were selected based on their internationally agreed definitions; availability from established databases or data collection instruments; wide coverage; and absence of built-in gender biases. While other SDG indicators are under development, these 20 indicators can help kick-start the measurement of a gender baseline for the SDGs. The first phase of this project provided us with a general sense of what data are available and identified the principal instruments used to collect them. Sixteen of the indicators are currently available directly from international databases, although country coverage varies. The remaining four require additional compilation from individual household surveys. In the current phase, we have consolidated the available data for the 16 indicators from open data sources and demonstrated the tabulations for the remaining four. The available R2M indicators along with other related indicators can be viewed and downloaded from the online R2M database. The purpose of the R2M database is not to supplant other collections of gender indicators, but to provide readily accessible documentation of the R2M project and to highlight gender data gaps. In this phase, we provide access to the available R2M indicators and their metadata. We will continue to work to expand the database, filling existing gaps and incorporating additional indicators as they become available. While the 20 R2M indicators are the most robust indicators available to track and measure gender equality, they are not perfect. The process of assembling the R2M data has spotlighted issues such as data coverage and quality, interoperability, openness, and country capacity. As standards and definitions for the SDG indicators – particularly those listed as Tier III – become formalized, the importance of the gender dimension should not be forgotten. It is notable that many gender indicators lack direct observations in the last five years. Some gaps may be filled using statistical models. Many of the international databases lack observations from high-income countries, although data are presumably available for many of them. And while the surveys needed to compile many of the missing indicators exist, access to them is often restricted. As countries draw up detailed national plans for the SDGs, the issues of data availability and openness need to be highlighted. The following section, Data Insights, demonstrates what we can learn from the data about the status of women and girls as well as what we know about the sources, coverage, and openness of the data. We have selected 11 indicators to illustrate these insights. In the third section, we look at the remaining gaps in gender data for the SDGs and ask what more needs to be done to fill those gaps. Ratio of women to men living in poverty Are women more likely than men to live in poverty? Household surveys do not measure the consumption or income levels of men and women separately and do not take account of intra-household transfers, but we can still ask whether more women or more men live in poor households. There are many reasons to think that women are more likely to live in poverty. Women’s wages are often less than men’s for the same work, and women are more likely to take on informal, low-productivity, low-wage or unpaid work, such as childcare, eldercare, or farm labor. Women are more likely than men to be the sole parent of households with dependent children, and because women typically live longer than men, households are more likely to include widows and older, dependent women. Although a worldwide database is not yet available, evidence of these effects can be found in data compiled for the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC). Results for the most recent years available from nationally representative surveys in 14 countries show, in every case, the percentage of women living in poor households as a proportion of women in the population exceeded that of men, and in six countries by more than 1 percentage point. In Mexico in 2012, the difference of 1.3 percentage points meant that there were almost 1 million more women than men living in poverty. However, the numbers of men and women living in poverty are determined in part by the underlying sex ratio of the population, which may be altered by sex selection at birth or neglect of girls in the early years of life. Poverty rates of women exceed men in Latin American countries Although household income and expenditure surveys can be used to calculate the proportion of men and women living below the poverty line, other evidence indicates that household resources are not necessarily distributed equally among household members (and that girls and women often lose out in this distribution). Therefore, the sex-disaggregated ratios of women and men living in poor households calculated from household surveys may not fully reflect the poverty status of women and should not be interpreted as reflecting an individual poverty measure. The SEDLAC dataset includes calculations based on poverty lines of USD 2.50 and 4.00 measured at purchasing power parity. Although these lines are higher than the current international poverty line of USD 1.90, they are more typical of living standards in Latin America and the Caribbean. Source: Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEDLAS and The World Bank). Updated April 2017. Data downloaded on 21 June 2017 from SEDLAC, Statistics by Gender. Prevalence of stunting in children under five years of age Childhood stunting affects approximately 162 million children under the age of five worldwide. Stunting is a consequence of malnutrition, first of the mother and then of the child. The consequences of stunting – diminished cognitive and physical development, reduced future earnings, and increased risk of nutrition-related diseases – affect boys and girls. Rates of stunting for both sexes are higher, on average, in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Within countries, disaggregation by wealth quintiles shows a similar pattern. Stunting is evidence of malnutrition in many countries Children who are more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Child Growth Standards of height for age are considered to be stunted. This indicator is included in SDG 2. Data on stunting are collected through surveys, principally UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and USAID’s Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Although standards of care for children should include regular measurements of height and weight, these data are not systematically compiled or reported in international databases. As a result, few recent observations are available for countries not covered by MICS or DHS programs. Source: WHO database on Child Growth and Malnutrition. Data downloaded on 21 June 2017 from World Bank DataBank, World Development Indicators. Prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age, pregnant and non-pregnant While the risk of anemia is of concern to all women – particularly those in low-income countries – anemia is more prevalent among pregnant women. Anemia puts not only the woman at risk but also her child. Infants born to mothers with anemia are at greater risk of low birth weight, premature birth, or impaired cognitive development. In 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, anemia affected 40.4 percent of pregnant women and 35.8 percent of women of reproductive age in low-income countries. In high-income countries, the corresponding rates were 21.8 and 17.6 percent. Among pregnant women living in Southern Asia or Western Africa, the prevalence of anemia stood at over 50 percent. High anemia rates in pregnant women present a risk for mothers and children The prevalence of anemia is not included in the SDGs, but it is an important indicator of women’s health and nutrition. The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced estimates of anemia in children and women of reproductive age. WHO estimates are based on statistical models using 232 nationally representative surveys that included measurements of hemoglobin levels over the period 1995-2011. WHO estimates have not been updated since 2011, but national surveys may have more recent data. Source: World Health Organization, 2015, The Global Prevalence of Anaemia in 2011, Geneva. Data downloaded on 19 June 2017 from World Bank DataBank, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics. Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age in developing countries. Decreasing maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015 was the target of goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While maternal mortality ratios have fallen since 2000, most countries are still short of the MDG target, and large disparities persist. The average risk to mothers of death from childbirth is 50 times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries. Even within income groups there exist large differences in outcomes. Among low-income countries, mortality ratios range from 82 to 1360 per 100,000 live births, with half the observations falling between 356 and 700. To make further progress, all women need access to reproductive healthcare, and better data monitoring systems are needed to gather evidence for effective interventions. Poverty and lack of reproductive healthcare increase the risk of death in childbirth The maternal mortality ratio is included in goal 3 of the SDGs. The data shown here are modeled estimates prepared by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG). Maternal deaths should be reported through vital statistics systems, but even in high-income countries with reliable vital registration systems, misclassification of cause of death can lead to serious underestimation. For countries without complete registration data but with other types of data and for countries with no data, maternal mortality is estimated with a regression model using available national maternal mortality data and socioeconomic information. Source: World Health Organization et. al., Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2015, 2015. Data downloaded on 21 June 2017 from World Bank DataBank, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics. Mortality rates for different age groups are important indicators of health status. Because data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Since 2000, under-five mortality rates have decreased by nearly half. While this is a huge improvement, mortality rates remain very high in 83 low- and lower-middle-income countries. Rates of under-five mortality are typically higher for boys than for girls (because of biological differences between the sexes) in countries where there is no significant discrimination against girls. In high-income countries, the ratio of female to male under-five mortality rates falls between 0.79 and 0.88. In 2015 there were 25 countries with ratios higher than this range, suggesting that girls there may have unequal access to nutrition and healthcare. Notably, mortality rates of boys and girls are almost equal in Southern Asia, indicating excess mortality among girls. Higher child mortality for girls can be linked to socio-cultural barriers, such as dowry, that make young girls a greater economic burden than boys. Further disaggregation of mortality rates by ethnic group and geography would reveal significant disparities in most countries. Mortality rates are generally higher for boys than girls (due to nature rather than nurture) The main sources of mortality data are civil registration systems and direct or indirect estimates based on sample surveys or censuses. The estimates used here are produced by the United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) using all available data. Annual estimates of combined male and female mortality rates are available for most countries. Separate estimates of male and female rates are available every five years, the latest being 2015. The under-five mortality rate is included in the SDGs as indicator 3.2.1. Source: UN IGME, Levels & Trends in Child Mortality: 2015 Report. Data downloaded on 18 June 2017 from World Bank DataBank, World Development Indicators. Poorly timed or inadequately spaced births increase the risks of complications during pregnancy for mothers and infants. Although easy and inexpensive methods of preventing unwanted pregnancies are available, 12 percent of women worldwide who are married or in union have an unmet need for contraceptive services. The use of modern contraceptive methods is especially low in Sub-Saharan Africa: in some countries, less than 10 percent of women report using modern contraception and as many as 34 percent more would like some method of birth control. Low rates of family planning reflect not only a lack of contraceptive services, but also a lack of education and opportunities for young women. Education and gender equality are a form of social contraception, empowering women to decide how many children they want and when. Many women remain without access to modern contraceptive methods SDG indicator 3.7.1 specifies the proportion of women of reproductive age who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods. Data on the use of contraception and the unmet need for contraceptive services come from household surveys such as MICS and DHS. Although there is a relatively long historical record of data on contraceptive prevalence, determining unmet need is more difficult, requiring a more extensive set of survey questions and trust on the part of the subject. Therefore, data on unmet need are available only in recent years and mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries where surveys have been sponsored by international agencies. The data shown here are for 85 countries that have at least one measurement on each indicator between 2011 and 2015. Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Trends in Contraceptive Use Worldwide 2015. Data downloaded on 23 June 2017 from World Bank DataBank, World Development Indicators. R2M Indicators 7 and 11: Early marriage and adolescent birth rates Adolescent (age 15-19) birth rates vary by region but are strongly correlated with early marriage (women who were married or in a union before age 18). Although rates of non-marital childbearing have increased, most adolescent births occur within marriages. Young mothers face greater health risks for themselves and for their children. Early marriage also cuts short their opportunities for education and full participation in the labor market. The highest rates of early marriage and adolescent births are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, where eight countries have adolescent marriage rates higher than 50 percent in the most recent year, and 20 had adolescent fertility rates exceeding 100 births per 1,000 women. The region with the lowest rate of early marriage, Eastern Asia, is also the region with the lowest adolescent birth rate. Adolescent birth rates rise with the rate of early marriage Adolescent birth rates are estimated from civil registration data or, in the absence of complete civil registration, from censuses and surveys using demographic models. Annual estimates are available for most countries. The adolescent birth rate is included in the SDGs as indicator 3.7.2. The SDGs further specify birth rates among 10-14-year-olds, but data for the younger age group are not available. Source: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects. Data downloaded on 14 June 2017 from the World Bank Data Bank, Population, Health, and Nutrition database. Rates of early marriage are measured as the proportion of women aged 20-24 who were married or in union before age 18. Data are derived from national censuses and household surveys. One or more observations are available for 92 mostly low- and middle-income countries between 2011 and 2015. The SDGs, which include this indicator under goal 5, also specify rates of marriage before age 15, but these data are not available. Data on early marriage are shown for the most recent year available. Source: UNICEF global databases, 2016. Data downloaded on 14 June 2017 from World Bank DataBank Gender Statistics database. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments In almost every country in the world, women are underrepresented in national legislatures. The exceptions are Rwanda (61%) and Bolivia (53%), with Cuba (49%) and Iceland (48%) as close runners-up. The gap between men and women has been closing: worldwide, women held only 13 percent of the seats in their national legislatures in 1990 and now hold 23 percent. It is notable that high-income countries do not perform better than developing countries on this indicator. Women’s rights and wellbeing have been subject to intense political debate. Women’s representation at the national level is important, both politically and symbolically, but women’s participation at all levels of decision making is crucial for more effective governance and for empowering women and advancing gender equality in the social and economic domains. Women remain a minority in most national legislatures Data on the number and proportion of seats held by women in national legislatures are reported annually by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Data are for the lower house or for unicameral legislatures. Some countries maintain quotas, requiring a certain proportion of the seats go to women. The IPU also reports data on the number of seats held by women in upper houses and the number of women holding leadership positions within legislatures. While data on women ministers and parliamentarians are readily available at the national levels, there is growing interest in measuring and understanding women’s participation and leadership at the subnational levels. Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Women in Parliament in 2016: The year in review. Data downloaded on 24 June 2017 from the World Bank DataBank, World Development Indicators database. Females employed as a ratio of the working-age female population (15 to 59) Increased participation of women in the workforce can be a powerful driver of economic growth, increasing GDP and reducing family poverty. But in most countries, a smaller proportion of women than men are employed. Women’s employment rates are lowest in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, where traditional roles and cultural norms keep many women out of the workforce. Further disaggregation by age shows that women who are younger may be at higher risk of being unemployed. Overall, in both developing and industrial economies, females record higher youth unemployment rates than males. In both Northern Africa and the Arab States female youth unemployment is about double the rate of young men. Women are less likely than men to be employed in the workforce Data on characteristics of the labor force come from labor force surveys, other population surveys, and administrative records. This indicator is not included in the SDGs, but is included here because it is a basic indicator of the participation of women in the labor force and their ability to “achieve full and productive employment” as promised by SDG target 8.5. The data shown are ILO estimates, harmonized to ensure comparability across countries and over time by accounting for differences in data source, scope of coverage, methodology, and other country-specific factors.. Source: International Labour Organization, Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM). Data downloaded on 19 June 2017 from the ILOSTAT, KILM Database. Share of adult women with a formal financial account Having a formal bank account is a starting point for inclusion in the financial system and the modern economy. For women, access to a bank account is empowering, giving them greater control over their own and their families’ resources. Globally, women are less likely than men to have access to a bank account or to use a mobile money service to make payments. In 2011, 47 percent of women had an account and 54 percent of men did. By 2014 when 57 percent of women and 64 percent of men had an account at a financial institution, the gender gap had not narrowed. Differences between women and men are small in high-income countries, where more than 90 percent of people have an account. Women in poorer countries are less likely than men to have a bank account Data on access to a formal bank account were collected by survey as part of the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion (Findex) database. The indicator measures the percentage of respondents who report having an account (by themselves or together with someone else) at a bank or another type of financial institution. The full R2M indicator includes accounts accessed through a mobile device, which is of increasing importance. A similar indicator in included as SDG 8.10.2 but without specifying sex disaggregation. Data are available for 2014 and 2011. Source: FINDEX database and World Development Indicators. Data downloaded on 18 June 2017 from the World Bank DataBank, World Development Indicators database. The resolution adopting the Sustainable Development Goals specified that the indicators used to monitor the 17 goals and 169 targets “… should be disaggregated, where relevant, by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, or other characteristics, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.” Of the 232 indicators proposed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the SDGs (IAEG-SDG), 53 refer explicitly to women or girls or specify disaggregation by sex (Table 1). Our review of the indicator list shows that at least 34 more indicators could and should be disaggregated by sex. These include 15 additional health indicators for Goal 3 and 8 additional indicators for Goal 16. In most cases, if the underlying data are available, the reporting of sex-disaggregated values should entail little additional effort. But many of the SDG indicators still lack established standards and definitions, and others are available in only a few countries or at infrequent intervals. The IAEG-SDG has classified 82 of the 232 indicators as Tier I, well-defined and currently available; but 61 are classified as Tier II, well-defined but not generally available; and 84 as Tier III, lacking agreed definitions and methodologies. Five indicators are classified in multiple tiers. Among the 53 gender-related indicators, 15 are classified as Tier I and three more as a mix of Tier I and lower tiers; all the rest are in Tiers II and III. The Ready to Measure project had its origins in the recognition that it will take time to build capacity and put in place the programs to produce the indicators needed to monitor the SDGs gender-related targets. In the meanwhile, we can move ahead with the 2030 Agenda if we make use of the data already available from international datasets and survey programs. The 20 Ready to Measure indicators form the kernel of an expanding effort to measure the gender dimension of sustainable development. Sex-disaggregation in the 232 SDG indicators What can be measured now? Sixteen of the 20 Ready to Measure indicators are reported in databases maintained by international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the International Labour Organization. But the presence of an indicator in a database does not guarantee that useful data exist for every country or for every year. Table 2 summarizes the availability of data for each of the 16 indicators over the period 2011-2015. Several lessons emerge. Indicators with high coverage rates are usually the product of statistical models using direct observations, indirect observations (from recall or sisterhood methods), or covariates to extend or interpolate from survey data. The only exception is indicator 12, the proportion of seats in parliaments held by women, which is based on administrative statistics reported annually to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Data collected through surveys sponsored by bilateral and multilateral agencies in developing countries, such as MICS, DHS, and LSMS, are more likely to be included in international databases. For example, coverage rates for data on anemia, HIV, and contraceptive prevalence are higher for low- and lower-middle-income countries than for upper-middle and high-income countries. Indicators on the use of new technologies have only recently appeared in public databases. For example, since 2014 a single observation on use of the Internet by women is available for 83 countries. Data collection and publication schedules for most indicators are not known and their future continuity is uncertain. Four of the Ready to Measure indicators are not regularly reported in national or international databases, although the data needed to calculate the indicators are often collected through the same instruments used to construct other better-known indicators. Although R2M indicator 1 is not widely available, the feasibility of calculating it has been demonstrated by the data compiled in the SEDLAC database on women living below the poverty line in Latin American countries. The four indicators and their most important data collections instruments are shown in Table 3. As part of the Ready to Measure project, algorithms for calculating the four indicators from available surveys have been tested. The existence of many of these surveys is documented in the IHSN Gender Navigator. Because access to many surveys is restricted, these indicators can only be calculated with the cooperation of the data owners. Countries that control the required data sets should work with their development partners and other stakeholders to extract the full value of the data they possess. Good quality data puts the right information in the hands of those who make policies and those who monitor policies to improve the lives of women and girls. The R2M indicators demonstrate that for many countries the data already exist. But gaps remain, even for widely cited indicators. Statistical models can fill some of these gaps and, in some cases, improve the quality of the data. But models are only as good as the underlying data. To achieve the ambitious goals of the SDGs, regular data collection and production of statistics according to international standards is required. National statistical offices should take the lead. In the middle of a data revolution, they can draw on an expanding data ecosystem to realize their own goals, embodied in SDG target 17.18: “…to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts.” The critical elements necessary for strengthening statistical capacity and mainstreaming of gender statistics within statistical systems are: a sustainable funding mechanism, both internationally and domestically resourced; strong skill development to take advantage of innovative sources and methods; partnerships and alliances inside and outside the national statistical office; political support and commitment within country governments to support gender statistics as a core component of smart, gender-informed policy-making; and an organizational strategy for incorporating a gender statistics ethos into the statistical system. To accelerate the implementation of gender equality within the SDGs, a comprehensive approach to improving the data as well as the statistical systems is necessary. Achieving gender equality is not sector-specific. Just as women participate in all human activities, gender data are needed from all sectors, from the environment to employment and from agriculture to finance. To achieve gender equality in the workplace, gender data on salaries or unpaid labor must be available. To achieve equal access to financial services, gender data on financial accounts and intra-household poverty must be available. And to achieve equal educational opportunity for boys and girls, gender data on child marriage and school enrollment must also be available. R2M offers a starting point but there is much work to be done to ensure gender data are improved and used to create a positive impact on the lives of girls and women around the world. The Ready to Measure: Phase 2 project was conducted by a team from Open Data Watch. The team included Deirdre Appel, Shaida Badiee, Elettra Baldi, Chandrika Kaul, Amelia Pittman and Eric Swanson. The Data2X team provided valuable comments and substantive review, including Alba Bautista, Mayra Buvinic, Emily Courey Pryor, Rebecca Furst-Nichols, Gayatri Koolwal, and Nina Rabinovitch Blecker. DATA2X is a collaborative technical and advocacy platform dedicated to improving the quality, availability, and use of gender data to make a practical difference in the lives of women and girls worldwide. Data2X works with United Nations agencies, governments, civil society, academics, and the private sector to close gender data gaps, promote expanded and unbiased gender data collection, and use gender data to improve policies, strategies, and decision-making in support of gender equality. Learn more about Data2X at www.data2x.org OPEN DATA WATCH is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that monitors progress and provides information and assistance to guide implementation of open data systems around the world, with emphasis on improving statistical systems to support the Sustainable Development Goals. An area of special focus is sex-disaggregated data and supporting the Data2X team. Open Data Watch has unparalleled experience in development data management and statistical capacity building in developing countries and is committed to making open data a reality in all countries and development agencies. Learn more about Open Data Watch at www.opendatawatch.com Author: Ready to Measure: Phase II Produced by Data2X and Open Data Watch, July 2017. Related posts 7 March 2019 Open Data Watch is a non-profit organization working at the intersection of open data and official statistics to promote data openness and completeness.	32,847
Sleeping pads are those essential items, the importance of which cannot be overlooked on any backpacking trip. They provide a comfortable surface to sleep on. With changing times, and new technology sleeping pads have been made a lot more comfortable than they were before. Sleeping pads only provide effective cushioning, but they also protect you from pointy rocks, branches, etc. It is not possible to take your bed along, while you are camping. Sleeping pads are a substitute to that comfortable bedding you enjoy at your home. With changing demands, sleeping pads have evolved themselves and market today, is flooded with varieties to suit different requirements. Before we move ahead, let’s understand a few basics the evolve around these sleeping pads: Types of sleeping pads– There are basically three basic types of pads – air, self-inflating, and closed-cell foam. Let’s understand them in detail: A) Air Pads– Air pads are incredibly comfortable and lightweight. They have no foam in them, thus they need to be inflated, most probably with one’s breath. However, a lot of models feature a built-in hand pump too. Puncture of ripping off is a common phenomenon with these pads as they are made of thin materials, but field repairs are not difficult. usually, a repair kit is included with the pad. The best part about these pads is that firmness of the mattress can be customised by releasing some air from the valve, which makes it equally comfortable for side- sleepers too. B) Self-inflating Pads– These were invented by Therm-a-Rest and completely changed the sleeping pad industry. They’re made with stronger fabrics than many air pads but are not as compact as air pads. It uses a combination of air and opens cell foam to provide a stable surface for a comfortable sleep. They inflate quickly (in just 10-12 breaths) and you can adjust their firmness by adding or releasing air. They are durable and provides excellent insulation. They are designed both for backpacking and car camping. C) Closed-Cell Foam Pads– These lightweight pads are made of dense foam with small pockets of air in the cells of the foam. The air filled in tiny closed cells gives this pad excellent insulative properties that keep the user warm at night. They are extremely durable and are way cheaper than any other type of pad. Compared to air and self-inflating pads, these closed-cell foam pads are not comfortable to sleep on. However, with this pad, there is no risk of punctures or leaks. R-values– A sleeping pad’s R-value is basically its measure to determine the product’s insulative properties.The numbers range from 1 to 10- the higher the number the more warmth the pad provides. Any pads that have an R-Value of 5 or above will be warm enough for winter use. Pads with R-value of 1-1.5 R are only good for summer nights. Not all manufacturers have R Values on their pads. Some even use generic temperatures to indicate the insulation of the pad. Dimensions– It basically includes a sleeping pad length, width, and thickness. Most sleeping bags feature a standard length of 72 inches. All regular pads are 20 inches wide, which is enough space to sleep comfortably. Thickness is how above you are lying on the ground. Mats with adequate thickness are extremely comfortable and provide protection from any rock or harsh object on the ground. The general rule is: thicker pads are warmer than thin ones. Sleeping Pad Valves– Valves are how you inflate and deflate a pad. The original and most commonly used was twist and pull valve. These days a lot of other valves have made their way: flat valves, Therm-a-Rest SpeedValve. Exterior Material– The exterior of the pad is made up of polyester or nylon. Nylon is softer than polyester but is thinner and less durable. A thicker material is used on the bottom of sleeping pads to protect the pad from ripping. Considering the weight, nylon is much lighter than polyester, thus is widely used. Insulation Types– Looking for insulation in a pad is extremely important, because a lot of body heat is lost to the ground. Foam, baffles or heat reflective materials? Foam is great but it adds on to the weight. Baffle construction is extremely popular as it controls air flow inside the pad, keeping warm air close to you during winters. Heat reflective materials reflect heat back into your body. Apart from type, there are multiple factors that influence the amount of insulation a sleeping pad provides; your clothing, thickness of the pad, it’s interior and outer material. To ease it out for you, we have listed 7 Best Backpacking Sleeping Pads of 2022. Take a look: As a premier sleeping bag company, Klymit offers products for the ultimate outdoor sleep experience. Klymit Static V is an addition to Klymit’s Static line of sleeping pads. Its super lightweight design weighs only 18 .7ounces and packs up small. It features a rectangular design that gives you more room to spread out. This is an AirPad, i.e. your breath inflates this pad. It can be inflated with just 10 – 15 breaths. The twist-pull valves allow for quick and easy deflation. It is made of abrasion-resistant 75-denier polyester and has a layer of Klymalite synthetic insulation. Polyester adds durability to this pad. It also has an anti-microbial laminate inside the chambers which prevents the growth of fungus and bacteria. The Klymit sleeping pad has an R-value of 1.3, making it suitable only for summer-use. It comes in standard length of 72 inches and is 23 inches wide, i.e. it provides ample space to change positions during the night to provide comfortable sleep. All of Klymit products features body-mapping technology to provide maximum comfort. The body-mapping technology puts pressure in key places to provide comfortable sleep. This sleeping pad features a v-chamber design that limits air movement and heat loss, retaining your body heat inside and keeping you warm on cold nights. The side rails ensure that you stay in the center of the pad during sleep. A patch kit is included for emergency repairs. Klymit’s sleeping pads are warrantied for life against manufacturing defects and workmanship issues. This pad comes at an incredible price and is sure to impress with the amazing features that make it ideal for every adventure. Therm-a-Rest is an American outdoor product company specializing in camping mattresses, sleeping bags, camp chairs, hammocks, cots, and pillows. They are known for their innovation and quality products. The Z-Lite is one of Therm-a- Rest’s lightest camping mattresses. It is made of dual-density closed-cell foam that will not absorb moisture. Closed-cell foam is incredibly durable and can handle years of abuse, thereby providing many years of worry-free performance. Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol mattress uses an accordion-style design that lies flat instantly without curling at the ends and folds up into a small package quickly and easily. The molded egg carton pattern increases softness and traps warmth when sleeping. This pad uses an aluminized surface that has a silver reflective coating, which captures your body heat and increases overall warmth from previous model by nearly 20. Instead of baffles, this pad features dimples to help trap warmth. With weight of 14.4 oz, this is almost as light as it gets for a full-sized pad. The closed-cell foam is denser at the bottom and softer on the top. The denser bottom provides additional durability against rocks or debris while the softer top ensures comfort. Suitable for three season use, it comes with R-value of 2.6. There is no valve, thus no inflation is necessary. The main problem with closed-cell foam pads is thickness. They are not very thick and therefore don’t provide much cushioning from the ground. Z-lite is no different. With 72 inches in length, it is only 0.75 inches thick. Thus, this is a very thin pad. With dimensions of 20 x 5 x 5.5 in, Z-lite doesn’t pack down. It folds into itself to become a long brick of a pad. So, you have to lash this pad onto the outside of your pack. Overall, Therm-a-Rest Z-lite pad is a versatile lightweight pad. Given the price and features, this inexpensive pad is warm and durable enough to provide a comfortable sleep on backpacking trips Thermarest is an American outdoor product company that has been crafting camping and backpacking mattresses, sleeping bags, cots, chairs, pillows, and tents ever since 1971. NeoAir XLite is a result of several years of testing and research from Therm-a-Rest. With the weight of 12 ounces, this is one of the most ultralight mats available. This inflatable sleeping pad packs up small and flat. It features a standard 72’ length for regular-sized sleeping pads and is 2.5 inches thick. It comes in a tapered mummy shape design so it is wide on the shoulders and narrows on the top. With an R-value of 3.2, it is a perfect mat for 3 season backpacking that will keep you warm on cozy nights. This mat features advanced fabrics that are softer and bring better next-to-skin comfort. These 2.5 inch thick soft-touch fabrics adds to the durability. Another notable point is that these soft fabrics are less noisy compared to the previous versions of this model, yet may seem loud to some. These premium materials are made in the USA. It features a Triangular Core Matrix construction which uses a reflective material to minimise any convective heat loss with double air pockets. The horizontal baffle type construction provides a stable surface to sleep. The ThermaCapture™ layers prevent radiant heat to leave the pad. The material comprises of 30D rip HT nylon, which is quite durable. This is an uninsulated sleeping mat. As this is an AirPad you need to inflate it via the mouth. It takes approximately 18-20 full breaths to get the pad fully inflated. This product comes with a lifetime limited warranty which covers defects in materials and workmanship. The repair kit is included for fixing punctures in the field. It also includes a stuff sack. The only issue with this pad is that it is a little narrow for side sleepers. Available in small, regular and large size this mat is comfortable to lay on and is one of the most popular pads in the ultralight backpacking community. Australia-based Sea to Summit is best known for their quality products. This company strives to provide the ultimate solutions for outdoor enthusiasts looking for innovative, durable, lightweight and compact gear. This insulated pad is super lightweight and weighs only 15.5 ounces. It packs down small enough for you to easily carry in around. With 72 inches in length, this mat is only 2 inches thick causing a bit of problem to the side sleeper. The inner material comprises of independent air sprung cells made of Exkin Platinum fabric and Thermolite insulation; the combination of these two retains the heat inside keeping you warm and comfortable on cool nights. Then, it is coated with Liquid TPU lamination in lieu of eliminating delamination issues. Antimicrobial treatment is added to the TPU to prevent mold issues caused by warm, moist air trapped inside the mat. This mat features 181 Air Sprung Cells that almost look like the coils on top of a mattress. Air Sprung Cells differ from the traditional baffle construction of other air mats. These cells are extremely comfortable as they support your weight with dozens of tiny flexing points unlike a few large chambers, to keep you intact on the mat. Even if you roll on your side, it won’t bottom you out. It is constructed from a 40-denier ripstop nylon fabric that adds to the durability. The pad comes with a dual valve plug that has two options, a deflate and inflate plug. With 3.3 R-value, it is warm enough for you to survive cold nights. This rating also means that this insulated mat is suitable for 3-season use. It features a multifunction valve that allows for easy inflation and instant deflation. An airstream pump is integrated into the base of the stuff sack for easy inflation. It comes with a repair kit that includes 6 self-adhesive patches for fixing punctures in the field, plus a spare silicone one-way valve insert. Overall, this extremely comfortable mat is packed with some amazing features to your backpacking or kayaking experience into a memorable one. This versatile mat is bound to impress you. Therm-A-Rest is known for the quality products they produce. With NeoAir they have risen a level above. They have combined decades of their experience with the advanced, patent-pending technology and material to bring out the best in the market. NeoAir XTherm is incredibly lightweight and a compact sleeping pad. XTherm features a “Triangular Core Matrix” technology that restricts airflow and encourages heat retention, keeping the pad extremely warm in winters. The ThermaCapture reflective barriers reduce radiative heat loss by reflecting that heat back to you. It features a horizontal baffle construction that is extremely comfortable as it provides a more stable sleep surface but the edges are prone to collapsing. Baffling also creates an internal truss system that reduces the movement of air. At just 15 ounces, this is the lightest insulated pad on the market. It is a classic air pad and it takes 25-30 full breaths for full inflation. It includes a ‘pump’ stuff sack thus this pad is easy to inflate. XTherm has a rectangular shape and not a tapered one like many mummy style pads. It is an insulated inflatable sleeping pad.The XTherm has 30D rip HT nylon top and features a 70 Denier Nylon on the bottom, that adds to the durability. Advanced fabrics and coatings are one of the main reasons behind its lightweight. It comes with a standard length of 72 inches and a regular width of 20 inches. It is wide enough to work for most and is extremely comfortable for side sleepers too. With the thickness of about 2.5 inches, this pad gives enough cushion to keep you off the ground. With an R-Value of 5.7, it is a perfect four season sleeping mat. The R-value of this mat is amazing and is able to trap in warmth like no other. Usually, pads with R-values as high as the XTherm are very bulky when packed regardless of construction type. But X-therm is different. It packs down really small and doesn’t feel bulky at all. This pad comes at a hefty price, but given the features and quality, this is completely worth it. If you’re planning to get into winter camping or backpacking, then this will be the best pads you’ll ever come across. Big Agnes, the name is enough, They are known to make some of the best sleeping bags in the market. With Big Agnes Q-Core Slx they have introduced a new level of comfort. Weighing just 16 ounces in the regular length, the SLX is lightweight and packs down easily. With dimensions of 20″ x 72″, this mat packs down quite small. With 4.25 inches of thickness, this pad is comfortable for side-sleepers too. It features a quilt-like baffle system. SLX utilizes welded I-Beams to create a lofty, quilted sleep surface that aims to provide more cushion for a comfortable sleep. The quilted pattern creates an excellent cushion feel that makes this mattress extremely comfortable. One of the main reasons behind its lightweight is the minimalist I-Beam construction that reduces weight and provides stability. The durable WRM high-loft synthetic insulation provides exceptional warmth without adding much weight. The outer chambers are large enough to keep you in the middle of the pad so that you don’t roll out. The pad is constructed from new double rip-stop nylon and aviation grade TPU lamination technology. TPU is shorthand for thermoplastic polyurethane that provides extra durability to the material. The new and improved double rip-stop nylon improves tear strength and durability of this mat by 25. The pad is treated with an antimicrobial treatment that prevents microorganism growth. There are two separate valves for inflation and deflation. The inflation valve is a one-way valve which means you can easily inflate while taking breaks in between.All you have to do is open the valve and blow in. It also has a red micro air pressure button that lets you maintain the air levels in the pad by letting small amounts of air out of the inflation valve. Perfect for 3-season use this sleeping pad is rated for temperatures down to 15°F (-9°C). Big Agnes doesn’t rate the warmth of their sleeping pads with an R-value but instead gives a minimum temperature. If you are looking out for that one pad that will fulfill all your requirements without breaking your bank, then this one is exactly what you need. This mat is far too comfortable and is worth the try. REI Co-op Flash Insulated REI is an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation that sells sporting goods, camping gear, travel equipment, and clothing. With their recent products, REI has upped its game and brought a lot of budget-friendly quality products to the market. The Flash employs a relatively new baffle design, wherein there are multiple inflatable pockets rather than horizontal or vertical baffling. The great part about this pad is that REI includes an insulating layer inside the baffles and they have added a reflective mylar layer to help reflect your body heat back to you. The pad comes with 124 dimples that provide an even sleeping surface as it minimises the movement of air within the pad when you roll over. Plus the dimples speed up the process of inflation. As far as inflation and deflation are concerned, it features advanced inflation technology, i.e. there are 2 flat valves: 1 for inflation and 1 for deflation. As it is an air pad it requires just 10-12 breaths to inflate and deflation takes just a few seconds through a separate deflation valve. However, it also includes a stuff-sack style pump to fill the pad. The exterior fabric is comprised of a lightweight 30-denier ripstop polyester i.e. a perfect combination of low weight and durability. The fabric is non-slippery and is a bit quieter than various other competitive models. With the weight of just 15 ounces, this pad is lighter and even. This bag is in a tapered mummy shape that reduces overall weight and packed size. As it is an air-filled sleeping pad, it packs up smaller. With R-value of 3.7, it is perfect for 3 season- use. The Regular is 20” wide by 72”long. At only 2 inches thick, the Flash isn’t quite cushioned enough for side sleepers, but for back and stomach sleepers it is extremely comfortable. One of the main reasons behind its popularity is a price to performance ratio. It ranges somewhere between $100-120, that is quite reasonable given its functionality. It is perfect for those who want to travel light on a budget. Weight There are many types of sleeping pads: self-inflating, manual inflating and solid camping. They all have different weights due to their material composition, size and the contents they contain. However, people who backpack with their sleeping bags are still concerned about weight. The weight of your sleeping pad is not an issue if you plan to transport it in a car or an RV. There are many thickness options for pads, ranging from a slim 1.5 cm to a luxurious 11cm. While thicker pads provide more comfort and cushiness and are bulkier, they also tend to be heavier and bulkier. Comfort-seekers and side sleepers should select a pad at least 4cm thick. Comfort is key to a good sleeping pad. There are two types of sleeping pad: closed-cell foam pads that are more practical and thin, and inflatable pads that are thicker and raise you off the ground. Inflatable sleeping pads are more comfortable than closed-cell foam pads and have a higher R value. However, inflatables can be used during the day as a sit pad and they are significantly cheaper and last longer than inflatables. Although no sleeping pad is as comfortable as a mattress, it is worth considering how close you would like to have a bed-like experience. The R-value of a pad is the insulation between the user’s body and the ground. Insulation stops your body heat from getting into the ground below. If you don’t have an insulation pad, it is possible to sleep on the ground, even though the temperature is relatively warm. A sleeping pad with a R-value less than 3 is sufficient for warm summer conditions. If you intend to backpack in cooler shoulder seasons, however, a sleeping pad with an R-value of less than 3 is sufficient. An R-value of 5 or more is recommended for winter camping. Based on the dimensions of your pad and your own, you need to know how much space you will have to fit on it. If you are tall, ensure that your entire body fits on the pad. A smaller sleeping pad will be more suitable for you if you are petite or short. This will allow you to save weight. A portable sleeping pad with minimal dimensions is the best. Here is where sleeping pads have made significant improvements. These sleeping pads are now smaller than Nalgene bottles, so they take up less space in your bag. You’ll need something that can be folded down to approximately 4-5.5 inches by 8-11 ins for backpacking. Inflation and deflation Foam pads don’t require inflating to be used, but all other types of pads have an integrated air valve. The weakest point of sleeping pads has been their valves, which can be hard to replace. Now, high-quality backpacking pads have reliable valves that allow for quick inflation and deflation. Flat valves are common in air pads. These include an inner flap to prevent air from escaping between inflation breaths. These valves are durable and simple. Most pads with flat valves can only be inflated with between 10-25 breaths. The self-inflating pads can be filled up by themselves once the valve has been opened, but they will need to be inflated regularly to become firm. Use it quickly A good sleeping mat should be simple to use. A closed-cell foam mattress mat is easy to roll or unfold and then hit the hay. They will take up space and won’t fit into a standard daypack. The process is a bit different for self-inflating mats or air mats. It all depends on the valve design. A double valve is now available to help you quickly inflate and expel air. A good sleeping pad can cost anywhere from $50 to $200. Foam pads are typically the most affordable, while lightweight air pads tend to be the most expensive. When determining your budget for a sleeping pad, keep in mind that it is an important piece to your comfort and quality of sleep after a hard day on the trail. Frequently Asked Questions What is R-Value? It measures the warmth of a sleeping pad. When shopping for a mattress, there is one important thing to remember: R-Value. This is the measure of how well the pad protects you from the cold ground. The pad’s insulation value will increase the more you pay. An R-Value of 1 to 2 is sufficient for those who only camp in the summer. An R-Value of at least 3 or 4 is recommended for anyone who plans to camp through spring and autumn. For winter camping, you should aim for an R-Value of at least 3. As the R-Value goes up, sleeping pads become heavier and more costly. Stacking pads can increase your R-value. An R3 pad placed on top of an existing R1 pad will give you the equivalent R4 pad. However, carrying both an R1 pad and an R3 pad can be more cumbersome than carrying an R4 pad. For most people, it is worth buying a pad with an R1 and an R3 value. This will allow them to sleep in colder nights. What is the best R-value for a sleeping pad? The R-value you need for a given trip will determine the ideal R-value. A sleeping pad with an R-value below 3 is suitable for summer. An R-value between 3 and 4 is good for three-season use. A rating of 4.5 or higher makes it suitable for winter camping. How warm do they need it to be? Warmth is measured as the R-value of a sleeping pad. This means that you should only wear as much warmth as you really need. An extra jacket can save you money on buying a new sleeping pad in colder seasons. To make pads warmer, many are filled with synthetic insulation or foam. The newer models include a thin metallic reflector which bounces heat back up towards you. This keeps you warmer without adding weight. Isn’t a regular sleeping bag as comfortable as a pad? No. A sleeping pad is designed to keep you warm while you sleep on the ground. After you return from camping, clean your sleeping pad using a damp cloth and mild soap. It should dry completely before you put it away. Which type of camping sleeping pad is best? The size and weight of your sleeping pad is irrelevant when you drive to your campsite. Comfort over convenience is the best option. Because they are easy to inflate and offer plenty of insulation and cushioning, self-inflating camping sleeping bags are a great option. Although they are more difficult to inflate, air pads can be quite comfortable for car camping. If you are looking for the best backpacking sleeping pads, we have compiled a list of our top five picks. We evaluated each pad across six different categories to provide you with an in-depth analysis and comparison so that you can easily find what is right for your needs and budget. To make it easier on yourself, we even include some pros and cons by category as well as links to where these products can be purchased online or at various retailers near you! Choose wisely! Which one of these backpacking sleep pads do you think would work best? Related Posts [TOP 6] Best Lightweight Sleeping Bag Reviews About The Author Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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Last week the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s office released the autopsy report on the death of twenty-year old Baylee Ybarra Gatlin, who died over Memorial Day weekend while attending Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) in Bradley, California. It was the first fatality ever in the 13-year history of the music and art festival, which is known in the harm reduction community as a leader in implementing harm reduction and medical services. DanceSafe was at the event this year, providing free condoms, ear plugs, and educational literature on drug use as well other health and safety issues. As Executive Director, I helped oversee a group of nearly a dozen volunteers and participated in meetings with security staff, medical personnel, and harm reduction volunteers. How and why Baylee died has been a question on the minds of the community at large, and everyone who works within the medical and harm reduction teams that provide services at music events. This is one of the reasons I was so surprised when the coroner’s report came back with the improbable assessment that Baylee died of an LSD overdose (i.e., “acute LSD toxicity”). Could this really be the case? It behooves us to look at the issue of LSD toxicity in detail. How toxic is LSD, really? There are two main types of ‘toxicity’. Acute toxicity involves harm from a single short-term exposure, and chronic toxicity is the ability of a substance to cause harm from repeated exposure over an extended period. At recreational doses, LSD exhibits neither of these types of toxicity. Even at doses much, much higher than most users will ever consume, the evidence for LSD toxicity ranges from ‘slim’ to ‘none’. However, there are now dozens of different drugs that fit on blotter, many of which have caused dozens of deaths over the last several years, specifically 25I-NBOMe. Since the first intentional ingestion in 1943, tens of millions of users in the United States have tried LSD. The total number of global users is unknown, but is certainly at least hundreds of millions. One of the clearest pieces of evidence of the lack of acute toxicity for LSD comes from the long and well documented history of people both intentionally and unintentionally consuming massive doses without adverse medical incidents or death. In 1974, four women and four men snorted what they believed to be cocaine, but was actually powdered LSD. Despite accidentally consuming thousands of doses all at once, all eight of these individuals lived (although they did suffer relatively severe medical complications). In terms of intentional consumption of high doses, there is a long history in some sub-cultures of “thumbprinting,” where an individual dips their thumb into pure LSD powder and licks it clean. Although it’s difficult to estimate the number of users who have done this or the dose they may have consumed, it is a common enough behavior that it has it’s own name (and there are dozens of trip-reports on Erowid). Since the discovery of its psychoactive effects in 1943, there have been a grand total of four documented cases of supposed ‘LSD toxicity’. Two are poorly documented. One was likely due to police abuse, not LSD. And the other is the recent tragedy at Lightning in a Bottle. The first claimed case was from 1977. In this case, the time from death until the discovery of the body was over a month, making a clear understanding of the situation difficult. Regardless, in this case blood serum levels indicated that the individual had injected 320 mg (or 3,200 100ug doses), likely under the impression that the powder he had acquired was another drug entirely. The second case involved a 25 year-old male admitted to the hospital who passed away 16 hours later. Although he tested positive for high doses of LSD, the exact mechanism of action leading to his death is not documented, and in this case the evidence for the actual cause of death is so poor it may as well be called anecdotal. A third case occurred in 2015, when Troy Goode was arrested leaving a Widespread Panic concert. In this case, he was hog-tied by police face down, attacked by a police dog, tasered, and then taken via ambulance on a 41 minute drive while still hogtied. After he passed away, ‘LSD toxicity’ was used to explain his death. A lawsuit filed by the family is set to begin in October, where the lack of LSD toxicity will take center stage. The fourth and final documented claim of LSD toxicity occurred just this week, when the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office released Baylee Ybarra Gatlin’s autopsy report. “The manner of death is listed as accidental. The cause of death is listed as Acute Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) Toxicity,” says the report. No blood concentration of LSD was given, nor details about other drugs the Medical Examiner may or may not have tested for. We have filed a public records request to obtain the Medical Examiner’s report. Could it have been 25i-NBOMe instead? Since 2010, there have been dozens of deaths linked to 25I-NBOMe and related NBOMe and NBOH drugs. Additionally, new molecules are being invented by overseas labs all the time in an attempt to circumvent existing drug laws. Many of these substances are often misrepresented as LSD. Unless specifically looked for, these substances are extremely difficult to detect in the blood of a decedent, and with 25I-NBOMe in particular adverse medical incidents often progress at an incredible speed, with individuals presenting no medical signs at all until they rapidly decompensate. At virtually every event in the United States where we do onsite testing, NBOMe related substances are found being sold as ‘acid’, and we did have reports of patrons testing their acid at LIB only to find out that it was actually an NBOMe substance. Whenever you hear claims of ‘LSD toxicity’ keep these undeniable facts in mind: prohibition driven misrepresentation kills people all the time, but it’s not at all clear if ‘LSD toxicity’ ever has. Did Baylee actually die from 25I-NBOMe? Did the medical examiner in her case even test for it? We know from our work investigating MDMA-related fatalities that there are no standards across the country for forensic toxicology screenings. It is up to each individual medical examiner to decide which drugs to test for. We also know that adding more toxicology panels can get expensive, but in today’s world, with so many misrepresented “research chemicals” flooding the market, it is important that they are done. We will just have to wait and see. Everyone at DanceSafe sends their deepest condolences to Baylee’s friends and family. Share this post Drug Cards Health and Safety Educational Posters Are you a retail or online store, hospital, pharmacy or public health agency? If so, register here for discount pricing.	7,008
August 26, 2020 By Cosette Bolanos Comments are Off Ambetter, health insurance, Health insurance coverage, hialeah, insurance, medicare, miami, miami beach, obamacare Ambetter Health Insurance in Miami, Florida Every year on November 1 the enrollment period for health insurance opens in Miami, Florida through the Insurance Marketplace known as Obamacare. Our Univista Insurance agency specializing in health insurance in Miami, Hialeah and the rest of the State of Florida has many years of experience in enrollment in both Obamacare and private insurance. We have worked with most of the companies that offer health insurance in Miami and Florida in general. Ambetter from Sunshine Health is one of the companies that has been present in the Miami Health Insurance market since the beginning. These are its characteristics. Based in Sunrise (Broward), Florida, Sunshine Health is among the largest health care plans in Florida. Offers coordinated care and a support network for more than 1 million members. Sunshine Health is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a diversified multinational healthcare company that focuses on the underinsured and uninsured. Sunshine Health offers government-sponsored managed care through Medicaid, Long Term Care, Ambetter (Obamacare), and Allwell (Medicare). Ambetter offers the most popular plans on the market in Miami for their low prices, low deductibles, affordable maximum out-of-pocket payments, and low copays for medical services. They offer multiple plans of different levels of metals in Broce, Silver and Gold. In many cases with dental and vision coverage options. These are the coverage of essential health services: Emergency care Preventive and wellness care Maternity and newborn care Mental health and substance abuse care Laboratory services Therapy services It also offers free telehealth services to all Ambetter members. In this way, the Ambetter network of providers in Miami can be contacted from the home, office or other place that the client is. Attention can be sought in case of illnesses such as: Colds, flu and fever, Skin rash, skin conditions, Sinus problems, Allergies, Ear infections, Upper respiratory infections, Bronchitis, Conjunctivitis, etc. It has a rewards program for completing certain healthy activities. You can receive monetary benefits just by participating! Ambetter’s medical insurance in Miami is a very good option due to the health coverage they provide and the low costs of services. If you’d like a quote with Ambetter, give us a call today at UniVista Insurance Hialeah or UniVista Insurance Cutler Bay and an agent from our Univista Insurance office will help you right away. Contact our Florida team today to get started!	2,827
Group Study Rooms are available for students who wish to work together in a collaborative environment. These rooms are available at Scott, SMIL, Steacie, Bronfman and Frost libraries. Most rooms can be booked online at any time. The Law Library hosts its own booking system. You must be a current York undergraduate or graduate student with a passport york account to book rooms in the Scott , Peter F. Bronfman Business Library, Steacie Science & Engineering Library or Leslie Frost libraries. A student may book a room for one time slot per day. The duration of a time slot is in half-hour increments to a maximum of 3 hours. Bookings cannot be made more than 14 days in advance. A minimum of 2 people is necessary in order to book a room. Only the person who created a reservation may delete it. An entry must be made in the NAME field to identify the booking. It is not necessary that this be your actual name. In addition, the following apply in the Sound and Moving Image Library (SMIL). A minimum of four(4) people is necessary in order to book a room. Rooms that are not booked or not occupied within the first 10 minutes of a booking will be made available for others to use. Most rooms will accommodate up to 6 or 8 people, however some can only accommodate 3 or 4. The room capacity is indicated in parentheses beside the room name on the booking calendar.	1,379
The beaches of Mykonos are perhaps the most famous beaches in Greece. Beaches for all tastes, cosmopolitan and family ones, nudist and gay beaches, remote and secluded, all with golden sand, umbrellas, sunbeds, water sports, bars and restaurants. Mykonos is famous for its beaches. Its crystal clear icy waters on hot summer days are ideal for any visitor who wants to swim in the endless blue. Many who are looking for peace and relaxation do not choose the Cycladic island with its cosmopolitan atmosphere for their holidays. And that’s because they have to pay a lot for a sunbed! And in fact, if someone goes in the months of July and August, it will be difficult to find. While in Mykonos you will pass by the most famous beaches of the island, where celebrities from all over the world enjoy the crystal clear waters of the Aegean and the hot Greek sun. But if you want to discover the other side of the island, and get lost in the beauty of the most secluded shores go for the less known beaches On the deserted beaches of Mykonos, where the only sound is the splash of the waves and the song of the seagull, you do not pay for a sunbed. Only stones, sand, pebbles, blue sea and a few Cycladic houses on the hillside. The body rests on the warm sand and you find shade under rocks, in the few tamarisks or under your own umbrella. Swimming in the endless blue, among the cluster of sun rays that dive and disappear at the bottom. The beach of Psarou Beaches at the North coast Secluded beaches of Mykonos Megali Ammos is so near to Mykonos Town it is often referred to as the town beach. The sands are a 10 minute walk south, on the Ornos road, and large crowds are guaranteed most times of the day. It is a pleasant spot with a narrow strip of sand and shallow water. There are large flat rocks at one end and a sea wall at the other. Small hotels and apartments line overlook the beach, and tavernas charge hefty prices. This is not a place for those on a budget, although where is on this island? A triple row of sunbeds cover most of the beach and there are the usual watersports and facilities with views across to Agios Ioannis and fine sunsets. The beach of Psarou This upmarket beach is popular amongst Greeks. It is a pretty sheltered sandy cove with walk boards, umbrellas and extremely comfortable upholstered sun beds, complete with beach towels, provided by the two restaurants which have a prime location on the seashore. Around the bay there are small-scale hotels and apartments all with fabulous views to the crystalline blue water. The atmosphere of the beach and the restaurants is cool/chic and, particularly charming, are the few traditional fishing boats – looking strangely out of place in all this chic sophistication – defiantly moored alongside state of the art yachts and speedboats as if to say ‘we were here first’ The beach is reached by a small lane and has no access for cars or bikes. These must be left at the top of the lane at a small car park where the fee is whatever you feel is appropriate! Psarou is a more select version of its popular neighbour at Platys Yialos. A 150 metre strip of white sand is backed by a line of tavernas and the occasional tamarisk tree. It would make a pretty and intimate spot were it not overlooked by the stepped terraces of tavernas and hotels. Alive with jet skiers and jet setters, Psarou lies at the head of a long gulf that offers good protection for the yachts and boats which regularly litter Psarou Bay. During the high season the beach can be packed, with holidaymakers especially on days when there are strong winds because the beach, like the bay, is particularly well sheltered. The beach is of good fine sand and the water reasonably shallow, so it’s good for families with children. This is a popular family beach with a wide sandy beach, straw umbrellas, sun beds, diving platform and large inflatable platform provided for amusement of youngsters. Here you will find almost everything a family may need for their stay. The hotels and apartments for rent all have balconies overlooking the sea and are located on the first floors above the restaurants, bars, shops, mini markets and small supermarket which line the seashore. Here too you can take a boat trip to other beaches on Mykonos or, if you wish to be an independent sailor, you can rent a boat to make your own day trips. Platys Yialos used to be a swamp but is now a major holiday centre monopolised by back-to-back hotels lining a long sandy beach. The biggest and longest established resort on Mykonos, Platis Yialos is now more cosmopolitan than Greek with it’s sights firmly set on the international holiday market. A long crescent of sand is backed by low hills and terraced tavernas line a beach which heaves with bodies in the high season. Frequent buses from Mykonos add large numbers of day trippers. There is a large watersports centre in front of the Mykonos Palace hotel offering all types of fun. The beach also has a large number of hotels, tavernas and beach bars, a mini-market and shops. Platis Yialos is also the main starting point for small taxi boats taking visitors to other south coast beaches such as Psarou and Paranga as well to the surrounding islands, Delos in particular. South of Platis Yialos is the small, picturesque south-facing beach of Paraga, or Paranga, good enough to attract both locals and tourists. The beach was known in the 70s as a ‘hippy’ enclave but the changes have been well rung and large hotel complexes now dominate the headland. Nevertheless, Paranga seems to have hung onto the laid back party atmosphere. Paraga consists of two sandy strips split by a headland. Both beaches are long and flat with rocks offshore in the shallow sea. A deep horseshoe bay makes the resort well sheltered and away from northerly winds and a line of tamarisk trees provides natural shade, although most visitors use the rows of sunbeds that sweep around the bay. The northern beach is more commercialised with music bars ramping up the volume, while the southern sands are calmer and quieter. Hill paths behind Paraga beach lead to the quiet, sandy beach of Agia Anna, only a few minutes away on foot, a delightful sandy beach with plenty of old established tamarisk trees providing natural shade from the summer sun. Forty years ago the facilities on this beach were just a simple refreshment hut run by an old hippie of the 1960s. Today, the beach still maintains a laidback hippie atmosphere and the hut has expanded into a substantial taverna and bar with palm umbrellas and sun beds on the beach. It has to be said, this beach is only paradise if you are under 30 (or less) and love loud music. The beach is wide and is fine gravel rather than sand. At the back of the beach there are bars, clubs, DJ platforms and dance floors. Sun beds and umbrellas provide shade and recovery from the heavy club style music. This is the beach for clubbers, it is loud and crowded and not for anyone over 30! Paradise is also the island’s premier party beach where tavernas and music bars pump out party music ad nauseam and visitors are never far from a burger. Once a favourite of the 70s’ hippy generation, Paradise is better known these days for its big outdoor discos, international DJs and special events such as full moon beach parties. Paradise beach parties usually start around 5pm and last well into the night, while the closing beach party in early September is now an island institution. The noted Cavo Paradiso Disco club is found to the south along the headland. A large campsite nearby and diving school add to the delights but it’s mostly drinking, dancing and partying on the sands or joining the queue for the unisex toilets. East of Paradise beach but with no direct easy route is the crassly called Super Paradise instead of its proper Greek name of Plyndiri. Once exclusively gay, Super Paradise lost much of its louche reputation as a cruising beach after the textiles moved back in force. A magnificent strip with crystal clear blue water, Super Paradise is not ideal for families as the water runs deep and nudity is still common at the rocky end of the beach. This is also a big party beach, one of the most visited on Mykonos, and with loud music belting out from the beach bars day and night. Super Paradise beach parties liven up at 10pm and last until the early hours. Hillside clubs and bars help provide for those who prefer to party indoors. Caiques arrive daily from Platis Yialos to swell the numbers. There are no buses to Super Paradise so it’s a car, taxi or boat. Overland arrivals face a very steep drop down the hillside. One end of the beach caters for nude bathing and has an elegant restaurant bar on the steps leading to the sand, whilst the other end has sun beds, umbrellas, a cafe/bar, self-service restaurant, beach boutique and ATM cash point. Getting to Super Paradise Beach is an interesting drive through the country roads of Mykonos with its rocky, boulder-strewn landscape. From the main road there are two roads leading down to the beach by car. On reaching the junction, a left turn leads to the end of the beach with the refreshment facilities whereas a right turn leads down to the nudist area. Both roads have good, free parking areas with steps down to the beach. Alternatively, there are boat trips from Platis Gialos to Super Paradise Beach. A beautiful and less developed beach from the other beaches on this south-eastern coast of Myonos. A deep bay with golden sand and backed by well established tamarisk trees. Peaceful and away from the fashionable crowds it is the perfect spot for windsurfing. There are also facilities for beach volleyball and it is well served by hotels and restaurants. Car parks are located on both ends of the beach. Immediately next to Kalafatis are the beaches of Draoumia and Tafarnis. Both sandy with tamarisk trees and also undeveloped. and hence less busy than the more popular beaches. In the area of Kalafatis you will find a more traditional Greece with farms and fishing hamlets. North of Agia Anna is the long beach known as Kalafatis. about 12 kilometres from Mykonos Town and just three kilometres from Ano Mera. The large sandy beach is free of loungers except for the northern end where there is a large holiday complex. There is a beach restaurant, bar and hotels. Nearby, on the main road, is a mini market, a large taverna and a pizza restaurant. Kalafatis is well known for its watersports such as windsurfing and parasailing as well as a diving school. Boats leave here for Dragonisi, an islet off the east coast that has many caves some of which are populated by the rare and protected Mediterranean Monk Seal, although visitors are highly unlikely to glimpse any of the shy creatures. Kalafatis beach is about two kilometres long and 70 metres deep with a line of trees behind for natural shade. Hotels offer tables for visitors and there is a water skiing and surfing as well as bicycle and motorbike rental. Local hotel owners, sensitive to growing environmental concerns, run local clean-up campaigns and the result is a very clean beach. There are buses to Ano Mera and to Mykonos Town The tiny fishing port at Ornos was one of the first on Mykonos to enjoy major development as a tourist resort and it has been pretty much overwhelmed by it. It sits on the southern side of a narrow neck of land where colonies of expensive hotels cram behind the long, flat beach, itself crammed with pricey sunbeds. The Ornos sands are ideal for families though, with a gently sloping beach and lots of watersports. Tavernas and cafes run the length of the beach and there are even more to be found inland. Boat trips to other beaches are also plentiful and many visitors use Ornos as a base for exploring the rest of the island. But the ranks of hotels and apartments make for an atmosphere of little charm and some may find Ornos a characterless place to spend a whole Greek island holiday. The advantage of Ornos is the proximity to Mykonos Town and several other fine beaches both west and south. This charming seaside resort has a lot in common with Platis Gialos. Like most of the beaches in Mykonos it is very wide and sandy and offers plenty of holiday accommodation, supermarkets and tourist shops which fringe the seashore. It has scuba diving and snorkelling schools and is easily reached by bus from Hora. For those arriving by car there are plenty of parking areas at the seafront and just outside the town itself. Well known for many location shots during the shooting of the 1989 feature film Shirley Valentine, Agios Ioannis is thought by many to be one of the most picturesque places on Mykonos. It’s located about five kilometres west of Mykonos Town on an ‘ear-shaped’ headland, a little isolated from other Mykonos beaches. The small west-facing beach is set in the captivating bay with views across to the island of Delos. A small white chapel on the headland adds a picture postcard flourish. The pebble and sand beach is well protected and there are sunbeds and watersports as well as tavernas and cafes. The beach is split in two by a large, rocky area. To the north is the harbour, a beach, large car park and bus stop. To the south is the main beach, with limited parking. The water here is shallow and nearby coves add interest, with a tiny beach at Kapari for those who prefer more solitude, although it has no shade and no facilities. Just two kilometres north of the island capital of Mykonos Town is the popular family beach of Agios Stefanos which takes most of the overspill from its better known neighbour. This is very much a family resort with good sand and plenty of tavernas and cafes both on the beach and also inland. The resort is just around the headland from the new marina at Tourlos. There are plenty of sunbeds and lots of organised beach sports such as volleyball. Watersports include windsurfing and water skiing. Mykonos Town can be seen to the south and on the horizon is the islet of Delos. Agios Stefanos also has good sunset views from the west-facing shoreline tavernas. Such a popular family beach, so near to Mykonos Town and on a good regular bus route, will get very crowded in the summer. Korfos is just to the north of the more popular Ornos beach and has been the target for considerable tourist development, although it is hard to understand why. There is a beach at Korfos, but it is a scruffy affair of dirty sand and stone next to a busy little port and with the island rubbish dump nearby. As if that were not enough there is the constant whine of factory noise to add to the delights. It’s north-facing too, so it tends to get buffeted by winds and waves to the delight of windsurfers but less so for sunbathers and swimmers. Agrari beach is in a hidden cove west of Super Paradise and to the east of Elia beach that has somehow managed to avoid the massive exploitation of its neighbours. Those looking to escape the Mykonos crowds may find Agrari beach just the ticket as it rarely gets crowded. There are no noisy beach bars belting out disco music (yet), just a single beach cantina and one restaurant. Small and rather exposed, Agrari has a small stream running across it. Access is by car or by boat from Platys Yialos and, while the lack of crowds and noise adds appeal, its busier neighbour at Elia is just a short clifftop walk over the headland and has a bus service. Elia beach was ‘discovered’ in the mid 90s and building work hasn’t stopped since, with most of the cement poured into the nearby ‘Watermania’ water park. Regarded by some as the best beach on Mykonos, Elia is a long, broad swathe of coarse sand backed by a steep circle of hills and split by a rocky headland. The sand quickly turns to sharp pebbles under the sea. A cosmopolitan beach with sunbeds, showers and plenty of watersports, Elia as has scuba diving and deep sea fishing. It has some very attractive tavernas and is often the last port of call for water taxis that frequent the southern shore. The eastern end of Elia is dominated by a large hotel but there is still plenty of room for everyone. The water is shallow and the beach clean and well kept. Elia is another favourite of gays and there is nude sunbathing at one end of the beach. Access is from the pleasant inland village of Ano Mera, just two kilometres km away or it’s a 45-minute boat trip from Platys Yialos. Further east from Elia and at the end of a wide valley is the long sandy beach at Kalo Livadi, the last port of call for some taxi boats that serve the south coast beaches. A rustic setting on the road out of Ano Mera adds to the charm of a pleasant beach with loungers, watersports, restaurants and bars. The valley behind is particularly scenic and scattered with farmhouses. The two kilometre stretch of sharp sand is good for those who prefer to avoid big crowds and, although not exactly quiet, Kalo Livadi is very much a family beach. Yachts are usually anchored out in Kalo Livadi bay. There is a daily bus but it’s a 10-minute walk to the beach from the bus stop on the main road above. Agia Anna is a quiet shingle beach that lies south of Platys Yialos just across the headland from Paraga beach. Confusingly, it bears the same name as a stretch of sand found much further east near the beach of Kalafatis. This Agia Anna is a small, west-facing beach of sharp sand dominated by a large hotel complex. A long sea wall provides a backdrop to a narrow stretch of sand with shallow seas. Surrounding stretches of the coastline here are very scenic and were used for lots of location filming on the Shirley Valentine movie. Although less popular than its neighbours, the resort at Agia Anna can attract plenty of visitors. There are a couple of good tavernas, with parking, and a footpath that leads over the headland west to Platis Yialos with fine offshore views. Lia beach marks the end of the main south coast tourist beaches and this is the last to be reached by road and is about 14km from Mykonos Town. Once a hideaway beach for Greek celebrities, Lia has become much more popular recently and ranks of sunbeds now line the shore and a taverna behind serves good food. The bare hillside and lack of buildings in the area can make Lia Ammoudia beach feel very isolated but bamboo windbreaks provide shelter and there are some excellent fish tavernas here. There are several beaches and coves beyond Lia but they are remote and will only appeal to the more intrepid holidaymaker. They are popular however with boat parties who often use them for beach barbecue trips and cruises. The most notable are Tsangari and Frangia. All of them are dominated by the island peak of Profitis Illias which, majestic though it is, has been sadly marred by ugly military masts and conspicuous radar domes. Beaches at the North coast Far wilder than the soft south, the northern coastline is for those who prefer a little wild adventure on their holidays. Large beaches are few, are exposed to the northerly winds, are more difficult to get to and have fewer facilities. But visitors can enjoy wild windswept scenery and there are numerous small coves and tiny bays for those with their own transport. Winds also attract the more serious surfers. Fokos is a superb sandy north-facing beach, newly discovered by tourists but still far enough away to remain peaceful. The beach is large and deep with dramatic rock formations on the headland. Fokos is surrounded by wild and beautiful scenery and has a small summer taverna to serve the growing numbers that venture away from the usual tourist haunts to delight in the deep sands of the bay. The northerly winds can get very strong and the waves choppy. As a result Fokos is more popular with surfers than sunbathers. The huge Panormos Bay in north-east Mykonos has three main beaches. The first, at the southern end of the bay and nearest the capital, is the increasingly popular beach of Ftelia North-facing and exposed to the strong winds that whip around the bay, this beach another big favourite with surfers. Sunbathers may find it too exposed but is a fine sandy beach for those who prefer a more rugged environment. Roads have improved recently and it is now easy to reach. A beach cantina opens in the summer and lays out some few sunbeds, but there are no buses so transport is needed to get there. The main Panormos Bay beach is called Panormos and lies just north of Ftelia on the west side of the bay. Facing east, it enjoys a little more shelter from the winds although waters can get choppy when the wind does get up. Panormos has a fine long stretch of white sand that has become increasingly popular in recent years. A couple of tavernas at the northern end open in the summer to provide the basics where the bamboo and tamarisks offer some shade. There is little natural shade and the sands do bank quite sharply into the sea. Naturists favour the southern end of the beach where the low dunes offer more privacy. Good walks can be found in the surrounding countryside although, with no trees it can feel a little exposed up there. There is no bus service to this part of Mykonos so visitors need their own transport. Agios Sostis is a small, wild and windswept beach at the northern mouth of Panormos Bay and another big favourite with surfers. Rollers crash in on a sand beach in July and August when the meltemi winds are at their strongest. In such an exposed spot the long beach can pick up litter. That said, the beach is an excellent one – a long swathe of golden sand, shallow water along the shoreline and with scrub and low dunes behind and small outcrops of rock at one end. There is no public transport and parking is limited so many park on the hill above and walk down along a rough track. A couple of good beach tavernas open in the summer season and there are several rooms to rent in the area. In the beach you will find just a few people and you will enjoy its clear blue waters without being disturbed by the loud music from a beach bar. It is located on the north side of the island, and its waters have a deep blue color. It is about 7.5 kilometers from the country, about 15 minutes. It depends on the traffic, the month and the time! There is no public transport for this particular beach Secluded beaches of Mykonos The beach of Ano and Kato Tigani located away from the overwhelming crowds that swim in the most famous and toursty Mykonos beaches Tigani beach located just 5 km from Ano Mera, on the east side of the island. There are no houses, only the natural beach and the caves. From the most “wild” and lonely beaches of Mykonos, it is often chosen for parties with boats, barbecues, etc. From the dirt road that starts from Ano Mera you move east towards Pano and Kato Tigani. Two houses all in all, rocks and caves, a view of Tragonisi and swimming in peace. Myrsini beach located next to Fokos beach, summing up one another. Untouched, peaceful beach with shallow green waters and coarse sand. The beach is separated by a small section of rocks that reach the sea, into two smaller beaches. For umbrellas and sunbeds, no reason, you must bring mats. Myrsini is also very friendly to nudists. Stock up on water, snacks and anything you deem necessary. The beach of Myrsini located 12 kilometers north of Chora. The road is in good condition paved with cement and after the Fokos dam it becomes a dirt road with comfortable traffic on both sides of the road. At the top of the beach there is a small parking area that serves beach visitors. About 15 kilometers away from the cosmopolitan Mykonos you will find the beach Vathia Lagada. It is considered one of the most difficult to access Greek beaches. The beach is quite small as it is about 12 meters wide and 30 meters long and therefore not quite worth the hussel of going there. It is a natural sandy beach at the northeastern tip of the island. From its name that means “deep creek” you understand that it is relatively inaccessible, suitable for adventure lovers. One of the most secluded beaches of Mykonos, accessible only with SUV’s. One of the few pebble beaches on the island, it is ideal for private dives, just 4 km north of Chora. It is divided into two sides, with the left consisting of a small creek with sections of sand and the right having only large pebbles. Even if you do not want to swim (the beach is considered a natural monument), visit it to enjoy the sunset on one of the most unique secluded beaches of Mykonos . Houlakia is one of the few beaches that have large, colorful pebbles instead of sand. They are the only ones in Mykonos, and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The protected area also has a sign, which states that the removal of stones from the beach is strictly prohibited. It is located on the north-eastern side of Mykonos, just 4 kilometers away from the country. There are no beach bars, so it is the right place for a quiet and enjoyable day, away from the -crowded- famous beaches of the island. Kapari is a small beach, with quite difficult access, a difficult road and a difficult path that leads to the clear blue, crystal clear waters with fine sand and smooth flat rocks that are worth the effort for every visitor. The beach located 6 km from Mykonos town, unorganized beach, without umbrellas, sunbeds and beach-bars. Where all you will hear is the sound of the wave and the wind. Even if you visit it in the late afternoon, you will be compensated with the view as you will see the most beautiful sunset. On your horizon is the holy island of Delos. A few meters from Agios Ioannis there is this small cove with a view of Delos and ideal sunset! It is definitely on the most beautiful secluded beaches of Mykonos, with fine sand and clear blue waters. Nudists are welcome here too. The beach of Loulos is ideal for diving and a sparkling beach with pebbles and wonderful turquoise waters. Loulos is a secluded beach as it does not attract many people and is only 1 km from the busy Kalo Livadi, so you can go on foot. Loulos is a beach that not many people know about it and is worth a visit is Loulos. It is probably the least known of the beaches of the island . White pebbles, calm waters, blue-green color. It’s near Kalo Livadi, so stop by there first for snacks and refreshments.	27,117
When I first began photography, the thought of posing always made me nervous. To this day I still get stuck in my head and overwhelmed. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been shooting and totally blanked at what to say to pose your couple— happens to the best of us! With that being said, it’s still important to set yourself up for success and be prepared—for your own sanity and for your clients. Here are a few of my tips · First, create an environment that allows your couples to feel comfortable with you and the camera your about to shove in their face. Try to complete this process well before the shoot. Get to know your clients, ask them questions and understand their personalities so you can create genuine moments with them. · Demonstrate how to do poses yourself. How can you expect them to run around and act all goofy or cuddle up close if you aren’t willing to be vulnerable too!? · Show them that you will go above and beyond. If you go 90 they will go 10 (just like in the movie Hitch). · Encourage your couples to follow prompts however they choose—this means allowing them to be natural. Don’t force poses that don’t align with their personalities. This way the images reflect them in a way that is unique and authentic. · TALK to your couples—encourage them and give them tips and direction so they always feel supported and not completely awkward or waiting for your approval. Now with all that, here are four simple prompts to try during your next shoot. Simple, easy and we all do it daily. For this photo, I had Kate lead Todd and walk while holding hands from behind. I told Kate to keep walking and looking back at Todd and for Todd to just smile and think of how lucky he is to see this beautiful face every day (or maybe to think of eating his favourite desert). 2. Bear Hug the sht outta her Using the action from above (as their hands are already together) I told Todd to wrap her up in a big bear hug and I told Kate to squeeze herself into him. As they embraced I told them to gently sway and love up on one another. I loved this photo so much that I gave them two different versions. One farther out and one cropped in really close. #twoforone Another simple walking pose—but this time hip to hip. I told them to hold hands and I asked Kate to squish into him (mostly for warmth because BERTA). I asked Todd to put his other hand in his pocket and for them to walk towards me but not to break eye contact with one another while doing so. This prompt was super easy and it’s awesome because each couple brings a different look to the pose. I told them to put their foreheads together and close their eyes. Simply syncing up their breath together. I asked Todd to use his thumb to rub Kates cheek and just be together, calm and quiet. And there you have it! Pose away! When I first began photography, the thought of posing always made me nervous. To this day I still get stuck in my head and overwhelmed. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been shooting and totally blanked at what to say to pose your couple— happens to the best of us! With that being said, it’s still important to set yourself up for success and be prepared—for your own sanity and for your clients. Here are a few of my tips · First, create an environment that allows your couples to feel comfortable with you and the camera your about to shove in their face. Try to complete this process well before the shoot. Get to know your clients, ask them questions and understand their personalities so you can create genuine moments with them. · Demonstrate how to do poses yourself. How can you expect them to run around and act all goofy or cuddle up close if you aren’t willing to be vulnerable too!? · Show them that you will go above and beyond. If you go 90 they will go 10 (just like in the movie Hitch). · Encourage your couples to follow prompts however they choose—this means allowing them to be natural. Don’t force poses that don’t align with their personalities. This way the images reflect them in a way that is unique and authentic. · TALK to your couples—encourage them and give them tips and direction so they always feel supported and not completely awkward or waiting for your approval. Now with all that, here are four simple prompts to try during your next shoot. Simple, easy and we all do it daily. For this photo, I had Kate lead Todd and walk while holding hands from behind. I told Kate to keep walking and looking back at Todd and for Todd to just smile and think of how lucky he is to see this beautiful face every day (or maybe to think of eating his favourite desert). 2. Bear Hug the sht outta her Using the action from above (as their hands are already together) I told Todd to wrap her up in a big bear hug and I told Kate to squeeze herself into him. As they embraced I told them to gently sway and love up on one another. I loved this photo so much that I gave them two different versions. One farther out and one cropped in really close. #twoforone Another simple walking pose—but this time hip to hip. I told them to hold hands and I asked Kate to squish into him (mostly for warmth because BERTA). I asked Todd to put his other hand in his pocket and for them to walk towards me but not to break eye contact with one another while doing so. This prompt was super easy and it’s awesome because each couple brings a different look to the pose. I told them to put their foreheads together and close their eyes. Simply syncing up their breath together. I asked Todd to use his thumb to rub Kates cheek and just be together, calm and quiet. And there you have it! Pose away! How to stay productive and positive with your business during social distancing » Comments February 7, 2020 at 5:02 am This was the BEST read I’ve laid eyes on in a while! Thank you for this, so refreshing! February 7, 2020 at 5:01 pm Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Carissa Marie Photography is an inclusive to all, Edmonton based wedding, elopement and birth photographer. Based in Alberta Canada and available for travel throughout Canmore, Banff, Jasper, Vancouver Island BC and beyond.	6,525
Buy yourself a couple of books. Proceeds go towards buying myself a new computer so I can continue this story. This entry was posted on August 7, 2015, in Promotion, Writing. and tagged coupon, romance, Sale, Smashwords. 2 Comments For those of you paying attention (and looking for a voice over job, perhaps), I have some deal for you. First off, it’s official. “At Last” is available across all e-reader platforms. To celebrate this milestone, I’m offering 50% off on both books through Smashwords: and if you are inclined to leave review in your wake (Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords, Barnes &Noble…), please do so. In the words of Vice President Joe Biden, “this is a big fucking deal.” (He really said that to the President when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law. The one the Republicans have voted 52 times to repeal. And are suing the President because he he’s not enforcing some provisions of it).its moving me closer to the tipping point where I may bump into someone one the street with one of my books. With the advent of the e-reader, I’m not likely to see a paperback clutched under the arm, but maybe I’ll be recognized. THAT’S rock star status. The other “thing” is that the same advances in technology that have gotten me to publish also allow the possibility of converting “These Foolish Things” and “At Last” into audiobooks. I just need vocal talent. And maybe a producer. If you are interested/curious, follow the link. When this happens, I think I will pass out in a coma of joy. So, to recap: half off at Smashwords and YOUR chance to become the next Morgan Freeman. This entry was posted on July 31, 2014, in Promotion, Work, Writing. and tagged Audiobooks, coupon, Smashwords. Leave a comment Semi big news today. For starters, “At Last” has been accepted in the Smashwords premium catalog which means that the e-book is not only available through the Smashwords site, but will also be available for purchase through the Barnes & Noble website, Kobo, Page Foundry… This is cool. This is really cool. Secondly, I just finished uploading samples from both “These Foolish Things” and “At Last” to ACX to POSSIBLY (not a done deal by a long shot) be turned into… AUDIOBOOKS. All my actress friends looking for voice work? Find a producer and audition. I’m serious. Link to audition for “These Foolish Things” Link to audition for “At Last” I am not a religious person (spiritual, yes, with Protestant – not fundamentalist, Protestant – leanings), but I try to be careful with pride. It is one of the seven deadly sins (along with gluttony, of which I have been accused. By a manipulative control freak who realized I had rejected her influence. That’s a different book). I am happy for my friends and their accomplishments rather than proud of them; to me (and only to me) pride is appropriate when you had a hand in their success, like teaching a kid to ride a bike and the kid goes on to win the Tour de France (without later being stripped of the title for doping). Me being proud, though, can be a highway to arrogance. And arrogance gets me in trouble. So, I am happy and relieved that I have gotten “At Last” to a point where it can be more widely accessed. And given the nonsense I went through to get the samples of the books loaded into ACX (Really. Actress friends: go audition. Be a producer), happy and relieved to have that important first step behind me. All in all, a good day. This entry was posted on July 29, 2014, in Promotion, Work, Writing. and tagged At Last, Audiobooks, Smashwords. Leave a comment “What’s that?” you ask. “Some kind of a secret code? Is treasure involved?” You type that there code in here: Smashwords. See where it says “Coupon Code?” Between now and February 4, if you plug in that code in the title line, you can buy this book for 50% off the list price of $5.99. $3.00 for a book that is getting reviews like: “I really really loved this book and the characters. There were so many emotions I went through while reading Liz and Ty’s story happiness, amusement, love, hate, pain, and sadness. “ “I love a good love story…and this one didn’t disappoint. This romance novel was also full of wit and humor, between the two protagonists, Elizabeth Gardner and Tyrone Hadley…a real battle between the sexes.” “These Foolish Things is a quick but wonderful read about a man and a woman who find in each other the piece that makes each of them whole. Great story that appeals to the almost-dead romantic in me :)” Seriously. A coupon good for 50% off a well-reviewed e-book. This entry was posted on January 13, 2014, in Promotion, Writing. and tagged coupon, discount, Smashwords, These Foolish Things. Leave a comment	4,932
This image is available in several sizes: 205x205 pixels, 500x375 pixels, 1024x768 pixels, 1920x1440 pixels, or 2000x1500 pixels. Upload Date and Time Uploaded by Comments About this photo This photo was taken by Picasa on 2012:03:14 08:25:13. The image has been post-processed using Ver.2.2 , so it's possible that the shapes and/or colors have been modified, although these changes are usually minor and meant to improve the quality of the photo. The camera used by the author of this photo was DMC-LX3 by Panasonic, with a shutter speed of 10/5000, a focal distance of 51/10 and an IOS of 80. Image quaility A shutter speed of 10/5000 means the sensor was exposed for 0.002 seconds. This is a low enough value to guaranty that the image is probably sharp, even if captured without a tripod or if it has moving objects in it. An ISO of 80 means the lightning conditions this photo was taken under were probably quite good, most likely in the outdoors during the day or with the help of a tripod. A low ISO like this usually translates into a good image quality, without "noise" or other kind distortions.	1,162
We’re down to one game for the college football national championship as Alabama meets LSU tonight in the BCS National Championship Game (8:30 PM ET, ESPN). Another year will take its place in college football history, not just who wins the national championship, but entire package of major bowl games that serves as the centerpiece of the sport. As part of the Notebook’s BCS Finale Day, historical articles with college football themes are being featured throughout. In this article I want to take a brief look back on two seasons that have particular relevance tonight. Start reading today. Those seasons are 1978 and 2003. The most obvious relevance they have is that Alabama and LSU won the respective championships in those years. But if we look at all the major bowls, there are some similar themes. There were controversial rematches in both years. There was fervent dispute about the value of a conference championship and of head-to-head play. And on a geographic note, both titles were won in New Orleans. Here’s how college football’s biggest games in those years shook out… 1978: Alabama came into the Sugar Bowl ranked #2 and set to get a crack at top-ranked Penn State. This was seen as the game that would settle the national title once and for all, but USC had a case to make. The Trojans were playing fifth-ranked Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and USC had beaten Alabama head-to-head back in September and closed the regular season with a flurry of quality wins over Washington, UCLA and Notre Dame. The Irish were playing Houston in the Cotton Bowl in what would be the final college game for Joe Montana. And the Orange Bowl was a game with a unique twist. Nebraska had upset Oklahoma in November 17-14, when the Sooners fumbled the ball away seven times. The game knocked OU from the #2 spot and opened the door for Alabama. One week later Nebraska was stunned by Missouri and created a co-championship in the old Big Eight. Because the had beaten OU head-to-head, the Huskers still had the conference’s automatic spot in the Orange Bowl, but the selection committee decided to create a rematch—much to the fury of Nebraska. It wouldn’t impact the national title, but it would settle a lot of bragging rights in flyover country. The events of New Year’s Day 1978 were among the best in the 18-year high point of January 1 football, chronicled in my book The Last New Year’s. Montana led Notre Dame back from a 34-12 deficit and won the game on a last-play touchdown pass to Kris Haines, but not before the quarterback had to go to the locker room and wolf down chicken soup to deal with the flu on a bitterly cold day in Dallas. On the other end of the day’s schedule, Oklahoma took care of the ball and beat Nebraska 31-24, a game the Cornhuskers only made close with a couple late touchdowns. In between there was a lot of drama on the goal line. Alabama prevailed in a defensive battle when they stopped Penn State three straight times from the 1-yard line and preserved a 14-7 win. USC beat Michigan 17-10, but the game was marked by a controversial touchdown when Trojan running back Charles White went up and over the pile close to the goal line, clearly fumbled before he broke the plane and had it recovered by Michigan. The play was ruled a touchdown in a call that would have had no chance of standing up in an instant replay era. How did voters settle the national title? They split it. The writer rewarded Alabama for beating the #1 team and not needing officiating controversy. USC got its due from the coaches, thanks to the head-to-head win. I’d have voted for USC in a heartbeat. If beating a team on the field—their own field in Birmingham, 24-14 in this case—doesn’t settle it, what does? 2003: USC was at the center of the storm again this year and a debate was raging about whether a team should have to win its conference championship. Oklahoma had been #1 all year and was nothing short of dominating, with quarterback Jason White on his way to the Heisman Trophy. Then the Sooners were stunned by Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game—and not stunned by a little bit, but in a 35-7 beatdown as bad as the score makes it sound. Yet their computer rating was so strong that they still went to the championship game anyway. LSU was #2, having just routed Arkansas and then beaten Georgia to win the SEC title (sound familiar?). But USC was ranked #1 in both polls, but lacked the computer mojo to get a ticket to the Sugar Bowl, where the title would be settled (from 1998-2006 there was no separate “BCS National Championship Game”, the top two teams met in a pre-designated bowl game). USC being sent to the Rose Bowl to play #4 Michigan was just one of the gripes fans had in that year. Miami, in its final year as a member of the Big East was paired up with Florida State in the Orange Bowl, a game that was not only a rematch from the regular season, but a prelude to their opening game the following year. With Ohio State available as an at-large team, fans had expected to get a Miami-Ohio State rematch of the national championship game the prior year. Instead an unsatisfying rematch, along with a dry Kansas State-Ohio State game in the Fiesta Bowl was the result. Ohio State rolled over K-State, while Miami won a good Orange Bowl game over Florida State 16-14. USC made its case to the AP voters with a 28-14 win over Michigan, where Matt Leinhart threw three touchdown passes, built up a 21-0 lead for the Trojans and Michigan never got within two touchdowns thereafter. And for fans without a vested rooting interest in the game, the Sugar Bowl was anti-climactic. LSU loosened up a 7-7 tie with a touchdown in the second quarter and then saw defensive end Marcus Spears, now of the Dallas Cowboys, intercept White and take it twenty yards to the house. The game ended 21-14 and it never felt like OU was going to make a move. The LSU defense sacked White seven times, intercepted him twice and sent him to Heisman obscurity. As they had in 1978, voters split the national championship. I’d have preferred USC to get into the championship game over Oklahoma, because I believe that if you don’t win a conference crown you shouldn’t play for the national crown. But I also think that some of the defense of the Trojans was misguided. The critique of the system focused on how we could possibly let a team that finished first in both human polls end up third overall? But isn’t that an indictment of the people doing the voting? If the computers were rating USC’s schedule as that bad, shouldn’t that get more weight than human voting? And if we were that satisfied with the job voters were doing, what was the point of this whole process in the first place? I’d have still picked USC to be the opponent for LSU, but because they were the best conference champion available, not because the opinions of writers and coaches who can’t possibly see every team play should matter that much. Here we are in 2011. Back in New Orleans, another rematch at hand, more debate about whether a conference championship should be a prerequisite. I think it’s safe to say there won’t be a split title—Oklahoma State needed to blow out Stanford for that to happen, and while I consider that an unreasonable requirement, it’s a political reality. LSU or Alabama will be the undisputed champion. Another chapter of college football history finishes tonight in the Bayou. THE ERA: 1978-88 IN MLB, CFB & NFL Go deep into the heart of the 1978-88 era in baseball, college football and the NFL. TheSportsNotebook has individual articles on the most consequential teams from that time period, from their key players to their season-defining moments. Click the images below to be taken into the library and back to another era. Baseball College Football NFL From 1980s sports, to the Lou Holtz era at Notre Dame, to the historic 1978 baseball season, TheSportsNotebook.com has three books available in both print and electronic format at Amazon. Click the images to learn more and order.	8,284
NEW DELHI, INDIA - Media OutReach - 6 May 2022 - India's small businesses are the most innovative in the Asia-Pacific region, for the second consecutive year, according to a survey by one of the world's largest professional accounting bodies, CPA Australia. Combined with a very strong domestic economy, this is expected to make Indian small businesses one of the Asia-Pacific's top performers in 2022. CPA Australia's annual APAC Small Business Survey collected views from 4,252 small business owners or senior managers across 11 Asia-Pacific markets, including 525 from India. Conducted from November to December 2021, the survey is designed to understand local business conditions, challenges and confidence. Sixty-two per cent of Indian small businesses reported growing last year, with 46 per cent experiencing very strong growth – the highest result of the markets surveyed. As a result of this, 77 per cent of respondents said that they had hired more employees, outperforming all other markets. India's small businesses are likely to be strong creators of new jobs this year, with 83 per cent expecting to increase employee numbers, ranking first among all markets. Sixty-eight per cent of respondent forecast their small business will grow this year. Mr Leslie Leow, General Manager – Emerging Markets, CPA Australia said, "The survey results confirm that Indian small businesses are very ambitious. Despite the pandemic, most undertook actions such as making substantial changes to the product or service and made investments associated with high growth businesses. "India's small businesses take the crown as the most innovative in the region. Ninety-four per cent told us they will or may introduce a new product, process or service this year, surpassing all other markets surveyed for the second year in a row. A strong and competitive local economy, growing access to skilled workers and government policies such as the recently signed India-UK Global Innovation Partnership is anticipated to trigger a golden era of innovation for the sector." Reflecting their strong innovative culture, Indian small businesses are investing in technology with a very high success rate. Of local businesses that invested in technology last year, 80 per cent reported that such investment had already improved their profitability, well above the survey average of 54 per cent. To support their innovations, India's small businesses were the most likely to access external finance for business growth last year, and are the second most likely to expect accessing finance for growth this year. Financing this growth shouldn't be difficult with 69 per cent expecting "easy" or "very easy" access external finance this year, the highest result of the markets surveyed. India's small businesses are also one of the leaders in selling online, with 83 per cent generating more than 10 per cent of their revenue through that channel. Related to that, they are also one of the leaders in receiving payment through new payment technologies such as PayTM and PhonePe. "Of course, the unfortunate companion to this strong digital focus is increased cybersecurity risks. India's small businesses are not blind to this, with 78 per cent expecting to be cyberattacked this year. However, this is not necessarily transferring through to action, with only 51 per cent reviewing their cybersecurity protections in the past six months." Indian small businesses were the most likely to have sought advice from IT consultants (49 per cent), business/management consultants (40 per cent) and accountants (35 per cent). Seeking external advice is a characteristic of high-growth businesses as professional advisers can guide small businesses through challenges and help them take advantage of opportunities. Leow said, "Policy measures such as the Special Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme are likely to accelerate technology adoption and meet strong demand for external finance. Indian small businesses should make full use of these government initiatives to expand and innovate, however, some may wish to consider whether they are striking the right balance between short-term growth and sustainable development." CPA Australia recommends that Indian small businesses consider the following actions: Leverage government initiatives to invest in technologies and to keep innovating Seek professional advice to adapt your business strategy to a high growth tempo Focus on cybersecurity Only take on debt where calculations show the expected return on investment exceeds the cost of new loans. CPA Australia is one of the largest professional accounting bodies in the world, with more than 170,000 members in over 100 countries and regions, including more than 2,000 members in South Asia. Our core services include education, training, technical support and advocacy. CPA Australia provides thought leadership on local, national and international issues affecting the accounting profession and public interest. We engage with governments, regulators and industries to advocate policies that stimulate sustainable economic growth and have positive business and public outcomes. Find out more at 06 May 2022 22 September 2022 CPA Australia: Two-thirds of accounting and finance professionals expect Greater Bay Area investment to surge	5,445
Please fill in the email address associated with your account below and an email will be sent to you from members@ottawa.citynews.ca containing a link to reset your password. If you have issues resetting your password or signing in to your account, please read our FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions Q. I have forgotten my password and submitted my email address but have not received an email. A. If not in your Inbox, please look for an email from CityNews Ottawa (members@ottawa.citynews.ca) in your junk/ spam folder. If the email, is in your junk/ spam folders, you can prevent this from happening again by adding members@ottawa.citynews.ca to your spam filter's whitelist and requesting a password reset again. Q. I no longer have access to the email address I first used when I registered with CityNews Ottawa. A. You must create a new account with your current email address. Q. I have created a new account, but I still have credits with my old account. A. If you had prior credits on your account, please email your old and new account names to members@ottawa.citynews.ca and we will move your credits within 24 hours. Q. I have entered my information and still can't access my account. A. Confirm that you are entering your email address and not your "nickname" in the first entry box. If you still can't log in, email members@ottawa.citynews.ca and explain the situation. Q. I would like to place a listing or respond to a listing, but I don't have an account. A. In order to place or respond to a listing, you must create an account. When you have completed filling out the form, make sure you select the "Register" button at the bottom of the page. You will receive an email from CityNews Ottawa (members@ottawa.citynews.ca) that confirms your registration. You must click the activation link contained in your email. Your account will be reviewed and activated within 24 hours and you will be able to post or respond to a listing. Q. I would like to place a paid business listing on CityNews Ottawa. How can I pay for the listing? A. In the main listings page, select the Post a listing tab. After you have completed the form, please select one of the paid options. Once you select the option you would like, fill out the required credit card information. When complete, hit the "Post Listing" button.	2,325
Bitcoin briefly surpasses $17,000 to its highest level since mid-November Bitcoin briefly surpassed $17,000 in the morning Asian session for the first time since mid-November. bitcoin It increased by 2.2% over the previous 24 hours, according to currency metrics It was last traded at $16,863.07 per coin. ether It also rose, up 4.74% in the […] November 30, 2022 China’s security apparatus swings into action to stifle Covid protests CNN – China Extensive security services quickly moved to choke Mass protests that swept the country, with police patrolling the streets, checking cellphones and even calling some protesters to warn them not to repeat it. In major cities on Monday and Tuesday, police flooded the sites of protests that took place over the weekend, when […] November 30, 2022 China likely won’t make sudden changes to its Covid policy: National University of Singapore National University of Singapore Professor Wang Junguo said on CNBC that the Chinese government is unlikely to make sudden changes to its policy on the non-spread of the coronavirus, because that would create chaos. “Squawk Box Asia”. “If you suddenly change […] November 29, 2022 Bill Ackman says the Hong Kong dollar peg will break Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman Sustainability questioned Hong Kong dollarHe pegged his currency to the dollar, adding that his company Pershing Square He has a large short position on the currency. “We have a short-term hypothetical position against the HKD through ownership of put […] November 24, 2022 Asia Pacific markets were mixed as investors weigh the risks Malaysian GPS Kingmaker Party will support Perikatan Nasional, not Pakatan Harapan One of the kingmakers in the Malaysian election, Gabungan Party Sarawak, a national political coalition based in Sarawak in eastern Malaysia, said it supports the Perikatan National Coalition to form a government and will not work with Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan. Malaysia’s king has […] November 22, 2022 Hong Kong movers: Stocks reopen and tech stocks drop as China reports Covid-related deaths Japanese trading houses rise as Berkshire Hathaway is reported to boost its stake Shares of some Japanese trading companies rose early in the Asian session, despite the decline in the region’s markets, after billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway boosted his stake […] November 21, 2022 Meituan, Tencent, APEC leaders meet, Japanese trade, unemployment in Australia NetEase backtracked after Blizzard announced it was suspending its Chinese game services Hong Kong shares listed netease decreased by 13% after Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzardhe said Suspension of gaming services in Chinaciting expired licensing agreements with NetEase. “We are incredibly grateful for the passion our Chinese community has shown over the nearly […] November 17, 2022 Asia Pacific markets mostly fell as the second day of the G20 started Biden says it is “unlikely” that the missile that killed two people in Poland was launched from Russia US President Joe Biden said that An “unlikely” missile, which killed two people in Poland, was fired from RussiaCiting the trajectory of the missile. Asked by a reporter if the missile was launched from Russia, Biden said: […] November 16, 2022 Hong Kong shares rose 3% as technology stocks advanced; Chinese activity data disappointing Primavera Capital says there is huge value in some Chinese tech stocks Fred Ho, founder and chairman of Primavera Capital, said stocks of large Chinese tech companies are “too low” and “cheap.” Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Tech is down more than 30% since the start of the year, although the index has rebounded in recent […] November 15, 2022 Hong Kong shares gained more than 5% as Asian markets rise after US inflation report Earnings preview: SoftBank posts net profit after seeing previous losses SoftBank is expected to post a net profit in the next quarterly earnings. The median forecast expects the Japanese giant to report an annual net profit of 2.769 trillion yen ($19.5 billion) for the second quarter ended September 30, according to a survey by Refinitiv. […]	4,314
During the sale period, the deadline for sending the order may be extended, if you need the order strictly by a certain date, please indicate this in the comments to your order. Standard international shipping - $20, takes an average of 15-30 working days from the date of shipment, depending on your country. DHL shipping - $35, average delivery time is 4-6 working days, depending on your country. Delivery times also depend on the work of customs services. Payment We accept payment via Paypal. Exchange and refund You can exchange or return your order in whole or in part by sending it back within 7 days of receipt. We do not refund the shipping cost of the order and the return shipping cost. The exception to return is kid's toys. But please contact us if you have any problems with the order.	800
"It’s super cheesy but my favourite part about Drama Society is definitely the people. I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of really great people during my time with the Drama Society and I’m hoping to continue the trend this year. I’m beyond excited to head our amazing team this year!" I'm looking most forward to... "I’m looking forward to getting to know new people — not just incoming first years, but even students outside of theatre! We’ve got a great community of theatre creatives at UTSC and I’m happy to see it grow." What do you enjoy outside of school, clubs, and work? "Bold of you to assume I have time outside of school, clubs, and work." Can you give some advice to students looking to get involved? "Join a club! I know — sounds super biased since you’re reading this on a club page but seriously. I met my closest friends in university through my extracurriculars. It’s all about finding people who share your passions!"	942
Here is an invitation from the Visit Eastbourne team, and with the restrictions on foreign travel, why not enjoy what we have locally? :- “We can’t wait to welcome back our wonderful visitors when restrictions allow! Did you know? You can plan your next break in Eastbourne with confidence using our COVID-Ready Quality Scheme! Developed to ensure […] Harry and Meghan defend decision to make Netflix series 9th December 2022 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have defended their decision to make a six-part Netflix series looking at their private lives. Three fishermen still missing off Jersey coast as search called off 9th December 2022 The search for three fishermen who went missing when their fishing boat sank off the Jersey coast has been called off. Mourners left 'gasping and screaming' by man grabbing flag from Queen's coffin 9th December 2022 Mourners were left "gasping and screaming" as they watched a man step from the queue of people waiting to pay their respects to the Queen and grab the flag draped over her coffin, a court has heard. COVID infections in England rise for second week as postal strikes may impact estimates 9th December 2022 COVID infections in England have risen for a second week in a row and the latest estimates in the UK have likely been affected by postal strikes, experts said. Kwarteng admits he and Truss 'blew it' and got 'carried away' with economic reforms 9th December 2022 Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted he and Liz Truss "blew it" and got "carried away" with bringing in sweeping economic reforms. Man denies murdering 87-year-old mobility scooter rider 9th December 2022 A man has denied murdering an 87-year-old grandfather who was fatally stabbed while riding his mobility scooter. Snow and ice warnings issued by Met Office across UK as temperatures could drop to -15C 9th December 2022 Snow could hit parts of southern England within days, with forecasters warning the Arctic blast will continue into next week and may see temperatures plummet as low as -15C. Reward offered in search for missing rugby player Levi Davis 9th December 2022 A £10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the discovery of missing rugby player and Celebrity X Factor star Levi Davis, who was last seen in Spain. Met Police officer charged with two counts of rape 9th December 2022 A Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with two counts of rape. Troops training at Heathrow and Gatwick airports ahead of Border Force strikes 9th December 2022 Troops have been training at Heathrow and Gatwick airports for passport checking roles ahead of Border Force staff going on strike over Christmas.	2,730
I’ve been following the #ERLC2014 hashtag on Twitter, which links me to updates on the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s 2014 conference on the theme of homosexuality. Many of the folks tweeting have been voicing frustration, anger, and hurt over what’s being said at the conference. I haven’t been watching any of the livestream, but I imagine some of the frustration is warranted. But, then again, I also imagine much of the hostility to the conference has to do with dismay that the SBC still holds the view of marriage that I do—which is that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman and any sexual activity outside of that context is prohibited for Christians. In other words, I imagine many people’s frustration boils down to (a) incredulity that the SBC still holds this view and (b) fervent desire that it would change. What I was asking myself today, though, was—once again—why the “traditional view of marriage” provokes so much anger in our culture. I can certainly imagine some legitimate reasons for it to do so, since the people expressing that view have often been hypocritical, upholding “traditional marriage” while also getting divorced at roughly the same rates as more “liberal” folk and behaving with shocking insensitivity toward LGBT people. (The latter is something I know from personal experience, having grown up in the SBC trying to keep my own same-sex desire secret.) But, even granting that, why is it that so many people in our culture, even friends of mine who might otherwise be very sympathetic with much of what the ERLC stands for, are so up in arms about Christianity’s traditional stance on gay sex? The question is even more puzzling when you recognize that Christianity has a ton of other very difficult teachings that don’t provoke nearly the amount of outrage and skepticism right now that its teachings on gay sex do. For instance, think about what Christianity says to straight single people: “If you never find an appropriate marriage partner, you are expected to go your whole lifetime without sex.” That is, by any measure, a pretty hard teaching! Or consider what Christianity says to people who get divorced for reasons having simply to do with incompatibility: “Don’t get remarried” (see Mark 10:2-12; Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-12; Luke 16:18; 1 Corinthians 7:10-16). (I have two friends who are recently divorced on what they and I perceive to be biblical grounds [see Matthew 19:9], and yet these friends are both wrestling [in conversation with their bishop, I might add] with whether they are really permitted, on biblical grounds, to remarry. They are seriously contemplating whether God wants them to remain unmarried for the rest of their lives, which is, as I know from my own life’s questions and decisions, a remarkably hard thing to be grappling with.) Why aren’t these kinds of moral commands and decisions treated with the same level of dismay that Christianity’s judgment about gay sex is? Here’s the key, I think: It’s because gay and lesbian people perceive Christianity as not just asking for a certain modification or a certain disciplining of their behavior but rather for a suppression or erasure of their identities. In modern Western cultures, being gay or lesbian—or bi, trans, queer, or some other parallel or related identity—is perceived as just that: an identity. It is not only a matter of performing or not performing some genital behavior; it’s rather that the behavior that Christians want to prohibit is seen as inextricably bound up with their personhood. And so, unlike Thomas Aquinas who treated homosexuality as just one particular permutation in the broader category of lust (Summa Theologiae IIa IIae Q.154, arts. 11-12), most of us in the West today think of homosexuality as a category of persons, rather than a category of actions. As Steve Holmes has commented (in a forthcoming collection of essays in honor of Stanley Grenz), “For the churches of the West, whatever formal stance they take concerning the ethics of human sexuality, there is (generally) an awareness, often acute, of the cruelty of imposing ethical norms that conflict with personal identities.” And this, in turn, explains the huge investment conservative movements like the ERLC have in getting Christians like me to stop calling ourselves “gay.” The reason that’s important is that if my identity isn’t gay—if, on the contrary, I’m just another human person just like my straight neighbors—then it becomes easier to see why and how Christianity’s traditional prohibition of same-sex sexual behavior isn’t an intolerably cruel diminishment of my personhood. If I’m just a Christian—if there’s no basic identity difference between me and my “straight” Christian friends—then the same ethical norm (don’t have sex with people of the same sex) can apply to both of us equally without unfairly infringing on the basic identity of one, but not the other, of us. It would take another post (like Eve Tushnet’s post here, for instance) to explain why I go on using the word “gay” for myself, despite all the complications I’ve just described. But for now, I just wanted to try to articulate—once again!—why we all find this so hard to talk about, and why it’s so easy for conservatives and progressives to misunderstand each other. Related Posted in identity, labels Joe October 28, 2014 at 6:01 pm On the panel talk today there was a wide range of views expressed about the rights and wrongs of claiming a gay identity. Jackie Hill-Perry strongly opposed using the term gay Christian and Christopher Yuan defended it (when understood correctly). It’s been an interesting conference so far. I get the impression that the SBC leadership team have been paying close attention to the type of debates you have here at SF. They really want to get the language right – without confusing/alienating their core audience. October 28, 2014 at 7:21 pm I agree. Whatever the term one uses to describe themself, one’s actions be can be separated logically from one’s core identity. So that, if one says they are heterosexual, that no more means that they are on the prowl for every other heterosexual in sight, as if one who says they are gay (or same-sex attracted, etc.) that they will jump the bones of any other gay person nearby. For me, I use the term “gay” and then make sure the person I am in dialogue with clearly understands that I am meaning that my core sexual identity is gay, yet my sexual lifestyle is one of celibacy in that regard as I fulfill my vows to God and my spouse in our mixed-orientation marriage. And, yes, it is very complicated. And those complications bring pain as one attempts to engage in healthy community with other people of faith. October 28, 2014 at 8:04 pm I agree with you wholy. I just have one comment: if you are married you are not celibate, you are living chastity in accordance with your state of life which is married and this means your sex life is ordered towards your life. Celibate is the opposite of married. You practice chastity in your life by being faithful to your wife. God bless you I pray with all my heart. October 28, 2014 at 8:08 pm I meant to say that your sex life is ordered towards your wife (not life). October 28, 2014 at 9:32 pm Thanks! That didn’t come out of my fingers like I was thinking it. I was meaning to say what you said. November 17, 2014 at 1:11 pm I’m a little confused and I hope I am not being too personal here (of course you don’t have to answer). I assume that you are married to a woman and by ‘mixed orientation’ you mean that your wife is ‘straight’? I also assume that you are both chaste in this marriage? November 21, 2014 at 3:57 pm You are correct in both assumptions. October 28, 2014 at 9:15 pm You hit the nail on the head in your third paragraph. My initial thought was, “why on earth did they choose to structure an entire conference on one topic as controversial”? (Not to mention sparsely written about outside of maybe five specific verses and/or under the umbrella of all sexual immorality) I think I’ll write a strongly worded letter suggesting they leave the LGBT community alone for a quick minute and focus on 1 Corinthians 14:34 for next year, wink, wink:) Your stance is wonderful…encouraging and loving, yet rooted in the Word. Keep it up!! Pingback: » A Meager Two Cents on ERLC2014 (becoming) remedied October 28, 2014 at 11:48 pm I’m thankful for this comment, but I must take issue with one thing. Orthodox Christianity understands that Christ becomes the identity of each confessing individual. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” It is not a matter of SUPPRESSING our particular identities (e.g. sexuality, race, gender, class, level-of-wealth); it’s a matter of SACRIFICING our chosen identities to Christ Himself. I’m straight, or should I say that my sexual attractions are towards the opposite sex (in my case, women), but I don’t build my identity on sexuality. Personally, I struggle with other idols, such as financial security and intellectual dominance. I struggle is in refusing to build my identity on these false idols that I find myself worshipping. It’s what our Lord has asked of me to do, and in return, we are promised Him, or, should I say, everything. October 29, 2014 at 7:44 am I don’t understand how you arrive at a sexual identity being a false idol. I’m not convinced it is…or that it at least ALWAYS is. October 29, 2014 at 5:31 pm By placing our sexuality as the central, defining feature of who each of us are, we are worshipping an idol. See Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller. For clarity, I’m not accusing homosexuals as being the only group that idolizes their sexuality. See the hook-up culture for example, which places sexual encounter as the most meaningful thing for all, whether gay or straight. Nor am I suggesting that the idol of sexuality is somehow worse than say the idol of personal peace and affluence. The worshipping of an idol, no matter which, leads to our destruction. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21 October 29, 2014 at 5:34 pm Adopting “gay” as a label does not an idol make, even in Tim Keller’s book, which I loved. October 29, 2014 at 5:43 pm Jokingly we could refer to it as a “War on Adjectives”. October 29, 2014 at 9:34 am I’m with Dave, in that I don’t agree that sexuality is necessarily an idol (the term “false idol” seems like an awkward amalgamation of “idol” and “false god”). With that said, I may be losing the ability to get truly indignant about this stuff any more, which is arguably a good thing. It makes me smile, chuckle lightly to myself, and shake my head at the silly catch-22 in which I’m caught by straight people like the thought leaders in the SBC. For a specific example, if someone asks me why I have not fixed my “sinful” (well, at least according to Al Mohler) celibate, unmarried state at the ripe old age of the upper 20’s, I can either lie and say it’s because I’m too focused on volunteer church ministry and career, in which case they’d say I’m sinning by being selfish (or at least Mohler and friends would). If, on the other hand, I were to tell the truth and so much as hint at the fact that I’m gay – or same-sex attracted, to placate the language police – they’d tell me that I’m adopting an ungodly identity. I simply can’t win. In other words, if you’re not holy and righteous enough to pray away the gay, you’re mandated to say away the gay to keep in the good graces of people whom I’m caring less and less about pleasing every day. October 29, 2014 at 10:59 am So the evangelical church doesn’t think celibacy is a valid path? October 29, 2014 at 11:10 am I wouldn’t generalize quite that far. While the most vocal leaders in the SBC (Al Mohler is sometimes jokingly referred to as that denomination’s “pope”) have said that “delaying marriage is selfish” (as I recall the verbiage going), I don’t think that represents a universal opinion in evangelicalism. October 29, 2014 at 1:04 pm Thanks for the answer LJ. I guess there is no universal answer from evangelicals precisely because they don’t have a Pope! October 29, 2014 at 11:06 pm Great point. I faced much the same catch-22 in the PCA (the closest Presbyterian equivalent of the SBC and the church home of Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin). I finally just walked away in frustration and now attend an EPC church…that gasp* has women serving in leadership roles. After being criticized by my pastor as selfish for being single and 40, I came out of the closet as a celibate gay Christian. The pastors on my presbytery at least acknowledged that reparative therapy was bunk, but they kept demanding that I repent of my sexual orientation. As I explored the issue further, I came to realize that these guys had so idolized the 1950s view of marriage and manhood, that any failure to conform outwardly to that ideal was viewed as implicitly sinful. Now that I’ve left the PCA, I can’t help but look back on my 15 years in that denomination as anything but spiritual abuse. Groups like the SBC and the PCA are merely Canaanite fertility cults passing themselves off as Christian churches. October 31, 2014 at 10:36 am @Bobby – Those are strong words. It does sound like you faced an abusive environment in the PCA. I do think the PCA also often falls into the common conservative Protestant idolization of marriage over celibacy. However, I don’t think you can extend your experience to the whole PCA. I’ve attended two different PCA churches recently, and my experience has been positive. In fact, the pastors have looked to me as a resource for learning more about LGBT issues. They certainly haven’t kicked me out for acknowledging my orientation or pressured me into needing to change it. I think things are improving, although I’m sure not all churches are the same. October 31, 2014 at 7:02 pm I realize that the PCA can be better in certain locales, such as NYC. But in my neck of the woods, the suburban churches are pretty typically evangelical, and the urban churches are heavily influenced by the Acts 29 movement. Neither crowd has much interest in discussing gender-related issues in a nuanced way. Also, I noticed that you’re a Tarheel as well. I got my JD from UNC a few years back. I went to a PC(USA) church in Durham during those years. November 1, 2014 at 12:23 am @Bobby–I am absolutely with Jeremy on this issue with the PCA. With your words you did the same thing for which we often slam the church. We who deal with SSA (or whatever term you want to give it personally) often feel unfairly lumped together as a group of sex-crazed pedophiles-in-waiting. And that’s because there have been others who have shared our attractions and have acted on them in ungodly ways. Your slamming the PCA as a whole because of your personal experience in certain congregations is unfair to others. Others, such as my pastor who, when I shared with him, sat with me and wept and repented on behalf of the church as a whole for the wounds that I have suffered, and who reaffirmed to me that he and his wife regard me as one of their very own, right alongside their biological children. Others, such as the pastor I sat with this week who really wants to love folks who deal with these attractions and who, at one point in the conversation, said, “I believe it’s possible to experience same-sex desires and live a pure life.” You just lumped those two men, who are loving God and learning more how to love others, under the heading of a Canaanite fertility cult. You should be ashamed of yourself. November 1, 2014 at 5:58 pm @Dave Would you mind pointing me to a written work (article, book chapter, blog post, etc.) by a TE in the PCA that offers an opinion along the lines of what Wes has expressed here? Two pastors on my presbytery offered such views to me, but would do so only verbally and in private. Neither was even willing to discuss these issues by email. I think there are a substantial number of pastors in the PCA who are willing to speak against the denomination’s approach to these issues behind closed doors and out of the hearing of other pastors. But they are unwilling to put those opinions into writing. I’m not looking for someone to weep with me. Nor am I looking for someone to chat with me over beers. No. I’m looking for someone to think through the issues, reduce those thoughts in writing to a coherent position, and to defend that position publicly. That’s how we arrive at truth. When a client hires me as a lawyer, she’s not looking for me to cry with her. She isn’t looking for me to empathize with her over beers. Rather, she wants me to go into court and demonstrate that the truth vindicates her. That’s what I want from my pastor. November 2, 2014 at 12:15 am @Bobby – I know your request was not directed to me, and I don’t have an example of something in writing off the top of my head. However, Covenant Theological Seminary, which is the PCA’s seminary, hosted a conference a week ago on homosexuality. The primary speakers were in fact Wesley Hill and Mark Yarhouse, and Kyle Keating and Julie Rodgers were also included among others. I think this is a pretty strong indication that there is significant acceptance of what we’re doing at Spiritual Friendship within the denomination. This doesn’t mean that everyone is on board, but I think this is a positive step that is certainly not negligible. I also attended this conference myself and was quite pleased to see it happen. Oh, and there’s also the sermon one of my pastors gave, which was pretty on board with a lot of what we’re saying at SF and which quoted several of the contributors. I was actually included as well. http://cccpca.org/resources/sermons-archive/sermon/how-should-i-think-biblically-about-same-sex-attraction This stuff isn’t technically in writing, but I think it’s pretty substantial evidence that the current state of affairs in the PCA is not what you think it is. I think this is a sign of positive change. November 4, 2014 at 2:43 am Thanks for the links. Again, I’m not suggesting that there aren’t some pastors in the PCA who are interested in doing a better job of ministering to gay Christians. There are. But these guys are a minority. I don’t expect there to be major change at the GA level, especially as more and more of the bigger-tent churches leave the PCA for the EPC. October 29, 2014 at 12:54 pm It’s not uncommon for those in the majority to not “build” their identity on that majority characteristic. I bet if you asked many Caucasians how they “identify” the majority would not list “white”, at least not very high up the list. But if you asked that same question of African Americans, many would include “black” at or near the top. So I think it may be hard for you to relate. November 3, 2014 at 7:09 pm Many White Americans are startled by the idea that they might have “an accent”– something only foreigners are referred to as having. That’s why many heterosexuals insist that they “don’t flaunt” their sexuality “like some gays”. “Why do they have to shove it down our throats!” they opine–while casually referring to their own traditional family (and thus their sexuality). October 29, 2014 at 2:52 pm You claim you struggle with these false idols in your life yet you have sacrificed yourself and given yourself over to Christ, correct? So if you still struggle with these things despite the intercession of Christ it must be your admission then that you believe sin to be more powerful than Christ. Is that accurate? October 29, 2014 at 3:12 pm God doesn’t work like a magic wand. You establish a relationship with Him knowing and trusting that He will win every part of you over towards Him. It is not about saying “Christ I give myself to you” once as if those words were to magically change everything immediately. It is about a process, about cultivating a relationship that requires the explicit and implicit statement of “God I turn myself to you” many times. And you will see change, transformation. Of this I am witness. November 1, 2014 at 6:47 pm If I sacrifice my homosexuality to Christ and it doesn’t go away, it is His fault. The only other logical explanations if you are right is that Christ is either powerless to sin or capricious and choosing not to help us (also, breaking His promise to us, so you can add liar to the last one). Either God is incompetent, God is cruel, or you and BV are wrong. I suspect it more likely you two are wrong and that these sinful states are just part of our lessons in this life. Or maybe we don’t fully get it yet. November 1, 2014 at 6:55 pm You want a magic wand… I hope you can find it and they maybe share. November 1, 2014 at 6:56 pm I meant to say maybe once you’ve found your magic wand you can share November 3, 2014 at 3:29 pm There is no magic wand. That was the point. My orientation may have it’s share of downsides but it is ultimately a blessing to be cherished like my artistic ability or writing talent. It is not a curse to be rid of. The problem with expecting Christ to transform or heal you when you pray is it sets up a losing proposition for God. If God heals or transforms you then why doesn’t He heal the kids dying of Leukemia in hospice? It is a belief that creates animosity towards God. An unsteady foundation where belief is predicated on chance (and it is just chance as the age of miracles is long since past – God’s overt power is gone from this world). November 3, 2014 at 6:33 pm Of course there is no magic wand (I’m glad we can finally agree on something) but you are missing my point. I don’t advocate to “pray the gay away”. I advocate submitting the gay to God and let him wield you. You, on the other hand, seem to want to wield God. November 3, 2014 at 6:54 pm In other words when I say that God transforms us I don’t mean He will take away all our illnesses or problems or gayness. What I mean is that he will use these towards His plan for a higher good for us and for all. But we must submit to Him not only our problems but our blessings. We must submit our lifes. November 3, 2014 at 7:15 pm Rosa, these answers you are giving are ultimately empty because they’re not very practical. How so you expect to win over gays and lesbians with such theoretical talk? It’s literally a battle between: Offer 1: “You’re damaged. Come for healing that’s not really healing–but still it’s healing.” Offer 2: “You’re worth just as much as everyone else. Nothing is wrong with you.” Who do you think will win? November 3, 2014 at 7:33 pm Andy, I don’t intend to win at all. To me the options are: 1) To submit to God letting him wield you 2) To not submit to God. There is a problem with human beings and it is that our sorrows, pains and struggles seem to be the greatest of all. This is true of everyone. But what do we know of the struggles of others? I cannot speak of the challenges of being gay but I’m certain that there is a way of submitting these to God. I speak from my own experience in relation to my own struggles and challenges. So in summary, I don’t intend to win and the option is between submitting to God or not. There is always a way. November 5, 2014 at 7:49 pm Wow. I can’t help but view your comment as harsh. Since when do people, ever escape from struggle? The fact that the original poster admitted to struggling with false idols, simply means he is human and in need if God’s continued and abundant grace. Do you seriously mean to indicate that a sanctified believer no longer struggles? The admission of struggle does not concede the power of sin is more powerful than Christ. It is simply an honest recognition of our fallen state and our need for God’s available rescue. Do you honestly never struggle with sin of any kind? You are woefully deceived if you claim you don’t. November 5, 2014 at 9:02 pm I know we all and forever need God. I never said otherwise. You are misreading me. We need Him when we are sad but we also need Him when we are happy (sometimes even more so). We need Him when we sin and when we are holy. We need Him when we struggle and when we surrender. We certainly need Him always. And we do well always and everywhere to give Him thanks. It is our duty and our salvation to do so. But I’m not deceived, not at all. I’m not deceived, but I believe our Lord and I have experience His word when He says: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Saying otherwise would be a lie. However, even so I still say, just like Paul: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” November 11, 2014 at 3:31 pm I fully agree on the magic wand business. My original response was somewhat sarcastic and harsh in tone because the idea that one can submit their gayness to God and God will transform them is a dangerous and commonly pushed bit of snake oil. It is a view that kills. As such it is a view that, even if offered in ignorant good will, demands that a corrosive light be cast upon it to show the sand of its foundation lest it lead people astray. [I advocate submitting the gay to God and let him wield you.] I strive to do that very thing, actually. The assertion that Christ or God can heal people of anything is a dangerous false idol that gets innocent people killed. The OP may or may not have meant he believed one could be cured of being gay but the reality is that praying away the gay works about as well as praying away a knife wound to your aorta. Because lives are literally at stake, I think it is always important when anyone makes a statement that could be construed in such a way as to substantiate magical healing from God that such statements needs to be torn asunder and laid bare to show the impotence of the speakers claims. There are too many innocent gay people or parents of gay kids who are hurting, find blogs like this one, and see such assertions like the OPs as a ticket out of their situation. October 29, 2014 at 5:34 pm Do you refuse to identify yourself as “white”? Or “American”? Or “male”? (Or whatever other descriptor might apply–veteran, cancer survivor etc )? Does our identity in Christ cancel those out? Or does it only eliminate “gay”? This argument only ever seems to come up with respect to sexuality and only seems to apply to non heterosexual people. The word gay is as legitimate descriptor as any. Joe October 29, 2014 at 5:40 am “What I was asking myself today, though, was—once again—why the “traditional view of marriage” provokes so much anger in our culture.” Part of the answer is that support for gay marriage/rights is currently trending as a form of cheap virtue. It doesn’t cost people much to cut and paste their support for the gays across social media sites. Gay people won’t ask people who post supportive tweets to give them money or make any other material adjustments to their life. October 29, 2014 at 8:34 am October 29, 2014 at 2:56 pm The Social Justice Warrior types who support these things for a sense of cheap justice and virtue are there, but I think it has more to do with gays on both sides (A and B) being open and out there much more these days. October 29, 2014 at 5:38 pm Another part of the answer is that opposition to gay marriage has been likened to opposition to racial equality. It doesn’t help that the opposers are sometimes one and the same. I mean what credibility can Southern Baptists claim in Civil Rights matters? November 4, 2014 at 2:39 pm Exactly. It’s a cultural pose for some people. In some circles you get major cred for harshly denouncing the “bigots” who don’t support gay marriage. Most of the people who do so only started doing so once gay marriage started to gain in popularity, but there’s no sell-by date to this stuff. I can switch to the pro-gay marriage side tomorrow and get all sorts of pats on the back for my new-found wisdom and start denouncing others who haven’t changed their minds. October 29, 2014 at 1:04 pm “If I’m just a Christian—if there’s no basic identity difference between me and my “straight” Christian friends—then the same ethical norm (don’t have sex with people of the same sex) can apply to both of us equally without unfairly infringing on the basic identity of one, but not the other, of us.” That requires some serious mental gymnastics, I would think. Fortunately I’ve never felt the need to try. October 29, 2014 at 2:48 pm [What I was asking myself today, though, was—once again—why the “traditional view of marriage” provokes so much anger in our culture.] Because it is talked about as if it has stood since the beginning of time when the modern nuclear family as we see in shows like “Leave it to Beaver” is actually a modern permutation in it’s own right. The “traditional marriage” as it is bandied about today is little more than a propaganda tool and anyone with access to an internet connection can spend an afternoon reading the history of marriage and see the truth of the matter. Those who speak of it are uninterested in actual traditional marriage where women had mates chosen for them by their fathers on the basis of what pairing would prove most lucrative for the father through dowry. The anger comes from the duplicitous nature of the argument, not the concept of a monogamous marriage in and of itself. Joe October 29, 2014 at 3:46 pm Although the modern nuclear family permutation isn’t actually sinful in the way that a same-sex permutation would be. October 29, 2014 at 10:48 pm I think it’s fairer to say that the practice of the nuclear family isn’t sinful in the same way that the practice of same-sex marriage is sinful. It is indeed sinful. November 1, 2014 at 6:25 pm Is it? That remains to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. That said, the sin aspect is irrelevant here because the question is why do people these days balk at the phrase “traditional marriage”. One side maybe gay but the other has been caught in a lie. It is hard to claim that your fig tree is more sturdy than hours when rotten fruit hangs upon it’s branches. October 29, 2014 at 3:36 pm I believe “gay” to be a political term and not an identity. If you can control the dictionary you can control the argument. A baby in the womb is now called a fetus, the latin word meaning, offspring. It is a baby, much easier to kill when society uses the word, fetus. See this article on the word, homosexuality. As a Christian, I am not a heterosexual son of the Father, I am his son, I am in the beloved. That is my true home, and not what I feel. Why do people identify with what Christ crucified. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 I have just come across this blog and find the articles, stimulating, encouraging and challenging. Bless you. November 3, 2014 at 3:34 pm Gay is a natural evolution in terminology coinsiding with an increased understanding of what homosexuality is. The word “homosexuality” is insufficient because it hails from an age where the orientation was broken down into mere actions cleaved free of love or the like. It is still used by the enemies of LGBT people to boil us down to our sexual drives. Language evolves to reflect the observable, measurable truth (not to be confused with the philosophical “Truth” which is debatable). Our side has that truth on our side and so the language changes to reflect the reality of the situation. November 3, 2014 at 4:26 pm To the point that you make that we have truth on our side, I beg well not really beg, but Jesus said that He is the Truth. I trust Jesus with the truth more than you or I. God does not judge anyone’s orientation, He judges what we do, whether that is with the body or the mind. So I try to be consistent in differentiating bewtween what some one does and how they feel. LGBT people are not my enemy. But to allow them to communicate unchallenged that what they feel as reality, would be collusion on my part to acknowledging a higher value to disordered feelings instead of our good Fathers original design before sin came into the world. November 8, 2014 at 6:17 pm You are confusing “Truth” with truth. The sky is blue. My hair is brown. Iron is a ferrous metal. I am romantically and sexually attracted to other men. These are truths as I defined them. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and His words are best conveyed by the King James Bible. Catholicism is the one true faith. There is no god but Allah and Muhammad was his Prophet. Homosexuality is a disorder. These are “Truth” as I defined them. Nothing Jesus said has anything to do with my orientation or society calling me gay in order to account for increased understanding of what I am. November 9, 2014 at 3:29 am I would refer to your comments as accuarte, but not truth in any sense of the word. Jesus is truth or Truth and Allah is not god in any kingdom, not even hell. We could do this for quite a while, lets just say I agree to disagree. You are totally free to hold onto any perception you have about yourself, but there is a God designed order for His creation. He created us as male and female and whether we “feel” it or not, we are His and the normative design for male and female is to procreate and subject creation His creation through our actions for His glory. November 11, 2014 at 2:55 pm [I would refer to your comments as accuarte, but not truth in any sense of the word. Jesus is truth or Truth and Allah is not god in any kingdom, not even hell. We could do this for quite a while, lets just say I agree to disagree.] I don’t disagree with you. Since I have done a poor job in explaining myself, let me respond with an example of what I mean to hopefully remove the misunderstanding: The view of real love is something to strive for as opposed to lust or infatuation is something most people agree with. Most people still strive to find “the one” and there is that deeply felt drive to unite with another to create a whole and such is as much as said by Scripture (man breaks away from mother and father and cleaves to wife, etc) – science actually shows married people live longer, contribute more to society, are happier, and more. So, as you can see, this is substantiated by both spiritual truth as well as scientific/observable truth. The problem is when your spiritual truth is opposed by the observable truth. In these instances, people are more likely to default to scientific/observable truth. [You are totally free to hold onto any perception you have about yourself, but there is a God designed order for His creation. He created us as male and female and whether we “feel” it or not, we are His and the normative design for male and female is to procreate and subject creation His creation through our actions for His glory.] He created us male and female but what constitutes male and female? Is it genitals? Is the shape of the mud more important in determining what we are than the breathe of God within? Answer the two following points and you will go a long way in rebutting the culture, evangelizing Catholicism, and convincing me I am wrong: If a man is born blind, is his soul deformed? Considering the Church has saints that suffered from congenital conditions and Christ Himself rebuked the view by actions like healing the blind man, this is untenable. As such, flesh is a faulty barometer for measuring the truth of the soul. Yet how can it be so faulty one way (e.g. blind man doesn’t mean blind spirit) but not another whose only difference is the focus (e.g. born with penis means you are male, regardless of MRI scans or one’s deeply held feelings)? Does the body reflect the truth of the soul or not? If the soul and body are inexorably linked as Theology of the Body and Aristotle would claim then the Saints are dead and their souls stay trapped with their bodies. If one can pray for the intercession of saints whose bodies currently reside on earth in the ground, display cases in Italy, and so on, how can they possibly petition a God on our behalf whose presence they cannot possibly be standing in as per the limitations set upon this view of the body/soul relationship by the aforementioned theological view? The last one is especially damning for me as I have been helped by Novena to Saint Therese, the Little Flower, and am much more willing to trust her intercession (e.g. my observable truth that she does interceded for me) than the Church. If you have a good answer to these two points that doesn’t rely on rationalization and exception by circumstance then you should write a book because you will be the first Catholic theologian to answer them in history. October 29, 2014 at 10:41 pm A couple of thoughts… I’m a firm believer in the merits of covenantal marriage. Even so, I object to those who pay lip-service to covenantal marriage, while freely tolerating a wide range of departures from it within the context of opposite-sex relationships. Evangelicals have largely acquiesced to the culture’s redefining of marriage as a contractual institution centered around the legitimate satisfaction of one’s sexual lust. We freely marry young couples who are marrying for no other reason than to ease the guilt of premarital sex. We pay little attention when couples at church “fall out of love,” get divorced, and remarry a few years later. And we spend immense efforts propping up the inwardly focused “nuclear family,” even though it bears few resemblances to the outward-focused community-serving view of marriage we see in Scripture. What we often see practiced in evangelical circles today is a far cry from covenantal marriage; rather, it’s something closer to Gary Becker’s pragmatic view of marriage with an undercurrent of Freudian sexual theory. So, unless the SBC is ready to start undoing 50 years of acquiescence to the culture’s shift away from covenantal marriage, then it’s rather outrageous to criticize same-sex marriage because of its departure from covenantal marriage. I’m also a firm believer in the unimportance of sexual orientation to one’s social identity. Even so, I object to those who uphold rigid views of “biblical masculinity” that valorize heterosexual lust, glorify chauvinism, and shame men who fail to conform to some John Wayne ideal. Evangelicals, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, routinely treat sexual orientation as important to one’s social identity, as long as that orientation is heterosexual. After all, it was social conservatives in the late 1800s who invented the term “heterosexual” to describe what they viewed as the ideal social expression of masculinity. This practice implicitly creates a class of outcasts or rejects, who are defined as such based on their sexual orientation. So, it comes off as a bit disingenuous when the defenders of heterosexism criticize the outcasts for seeking to establish a queer identity, a gay identity, etc. After all, the outcasts wouldn’t feel this urge but for having been cast aside to make way for the “real men.” So, yes, I’m all for getting rid of orientation essentialism and the concomitant focus on sexualized social identities. But that can’t happen without a systematic dismantling of the structural heterosexism that pervades our culture, and which is often unwittingly reinforced by evangelicals (as a knee-jerk reaction to feminism). So, unless folks in the SBC are ready to part with heterosexual privilege, I have little patience for those who whine about queer identities, gay identities, etc. For the record, I have severe misgivings regarding Christian same-sex marriages. But when I look at the disingenuous and self-serving way in which evangelicals have addressed these issues, I have deep empathy for the struggles that many sexual outcasts face within the evangelical subculture. And, in a sense, I have trouble seeing same-sex marriage as any worse than what we have already freely tolerated and, oftentimes, blessed. After all, the arguments in favor of same-sex marriage are largely consistent with the modernist reconstruction of marriage, family, and sex that we accepted very long ago. October 30, 2014 at 5:15 am I agree with you. I go further in thinking that “gay” is an ontological reality and is therefore just as legitimate–and neutral–an adjective as “White”, “white”, “Peruvian”, “male” or “marine”. It reminds me of the common example that many White Americans are shocked at the idea that they might speak with an accent. When you are the definition of normal only foreigners have accents. October 30, 2014 at 5:33 am Does anyone in this group, think that one word has the ability to actually carry the weight of our glory. I think the words we use to describe ourselves reflect how we see ourselves only in a partial sense. I can’t imagine meeting someone defining themselves, saying hi, i,m left handed. And as the conversation went on their entire reference about themselves would revolve around their left handed identity. Their left handedness is continually reinforced everywhere they go. But that is an aspect of who they are. At the same time, I don’t want to ignore or gloss over the reality of someone having SSA. I do think that so much of this is an expression of the “I” culture that we live in compared to the “we” culture that the Trinity lives within and we would benefit from embracing. October 30, 2014 at 8:29 am @Tim It’s probably a lot more likely that someone would identify as left-handed if he or she were forced to live in a world that treated left-handedness as a stigma and reconstructed a whole host of social institutions to make it harder for left-handed people to be able to engage with that institution. This is exactly what happened with sexual orientation. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, social conservatives collaborated with conservative Freudian theorists to argue for the importance of sexual orientation to one’s social identity for the purpose of privileging certain models of masculinity at the expense of others. This reconstruction of marriage, family, and sex is referred to as familialism. It was largely propagated by the emerging medical profession during the early 1900s. In many ways, we have become so familiar with it in the US that we’re not even aware of it. Socially acceptable expressions of masculinity are far narrower today in the US than they were 100 years ago. And they’re far narrower today in the US than in Catholic countries in Europe, where familialism never gained a foothold (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, etc.). So, yes, I long for the day when we gay people can stop having to say that we’re gay. But I’m going to keep identifying as gay until we as a society repudiate the systematic heterosexism that has been a sad part of our heritage. Further, the American evangelical church needs to repent deeply for its sinful complicity in promoting the godless doctrine of familialism. But if you accept the promotion of familialism while simultaneously telling me that I shouldn’t identify as gay, it sounds to me like you’re trying to trying to legitimize the system that privileges certain social expressions of masculinity at the expense of others (and unjustly confers benefits on those more capable or more willing to express themselves in “truly masculine” ways). And that’s the problem I have with the SBC. The SBC wants to maintain its prohibition against same-sex marriage, but wants to do so without parting with the heterosexism implicit in the familialist conception of marriage, family, and sex. My aim is to demonstrate that that’s an inherently unstable (and unbiblical) position because the creation of a gay out-class is implicit in the familialist logic. If you want to keep familialism (and its implicit privileging of heterosexist expressions of masculinity), then you have to be willing to accept the notion that members of the out-class will marry each other. If you don’t want cultural acceptance of same-sex marriage, then you have to be willing to dismantle familialism and the systematic privileging of certain expressions of masculinity. The SBC appears to be trying to have its cake and eat it too. I long for the day when we can turn back the clock on familialism. As a more effeminate guy, I love visiting France, Spain, and Italy. I work for a European company, and actually do get to travel there quite frequently. But I can’t even begin to express how normal and how “masculine” I feel in places like Barcelona, Paris, Lyon, Geneva, and Milan. I don’t feel gay at all. But as soon as my plane lands at O’Hare, I feel like I walk back into a world that views me as a man-fail. And evangelicals have done a lot to prop up and legitimize the culture that makes me feel that way. If Calvin’s Geneva can reject familialism, then there’s hope for Chicago. October 30, 2014 at 9:30 am Very articulate response. Lots for me to think about. I agree with you in many insights. I am an American living in England for over 20 years and I wholeheartedly agree with your insights on the topic of masculinity. I am not aware of the history of familialism. I do think especially in the way society is evolving with more people marrying later and many people not marrying, we certainly need as Christians to promote and nurture a new way in sharing the fullness of life together while not being prescriptive. I think it is the Bible that legitimizes specific social expressions in relationships. I think every church culture has their own take on masculinity. I do think we need to teach what is true biblical masculinity is, and it is not mannerisms or attributes, but our actions, our attitudes, our character. I am sure I could learn from other men about growing in my masculinity, regardless of their orientation. Thanks for your comments and helping me grow in my insights. October 30, 2014 at 8:08 pm @Tim Sure. I’m not suggesting that Scripture provides no boundaries for acceptable social expressions of masculinity. Rather, I’m suggesting that those boundaries create a rather broad space in which males can be men and in which females can be women. The problem lies in our societal efforts to impose far narrower boundaries than what Scripture commends. When we do that, we end up wrongly castigating certain classes of people as gender-role rejects. The church should have stood up for the weak against the strong, and worked to discredit the effort to impose restrictive gender roles. Instead, the evangelical church largely led the charge in the effort to draw the boundaries narrower and to castigate more and more people as gender-role rejects. The church has to repent of this. October 31, 2014 at 4:22 am I agree that there is a wide latitude of masculine expression, but that latitude is usually more easily embraced in a person than a concept. A local body of believers can love and embrace a person, more than a concept of varieties of masculine expression. As I have been thinking about this more and more I have come to understand this entire dialogue of “gay Christian” through the lens of identification. I am amazed how many men will say after their local football wins, “we won”. They are identifying with their local team. I believe that any true Christian who has a personal revelation that they have truly been raised with Christ, will identify that their old self is dead to sin. This I would believe is sexual orientation, they identify with Christ. Not a heterosexual male Christ, but the Divine Christ. Our new identity is hidden in Christ. We should not embrace what was crucified with Christ as an identity. This is necromancy, interacting with the dead. My old self died with Christ. October 31, 2014 at 7:35 pm @Tim My main goal is to fight against the heterosexism (i.e., the privileging of certain idealized expressions of masculinity and femininity) that’s an all-too-common feature of the evangelical subculture and of our culture in general. There’s nothing particularly biblical about the John Wayne model of masculinity. But we seem to act like there is. October 30, 2014 at 9:30 am “Here’s the key, I think: It’s because gay and lesbian people perceive Christianity as not just asking for a certain modification or a certain disciplining of their behavior but rather for a suppression or erasure of their identities.” This is partially accurate. But it is more accurate to state that it is not enough that Christians be allowed to adhere to the tenets of their own faith, it is that many Christians want to forcibly impose their faith on others through sword and law. October 30, 2014 at 12:52 pm Wesley, thanks for the post. Part of this may just be that the Church’s reaction to the growing prevalence of homosexuality is often intrusive in a way that Christian teachings on chastity, divorce, and remarriage, however strict, are generally not. My impression is that the latter standards are viewed by both Christians and nonbelievers alike as a matter of either private personal conviction or individual church discipline. Whereas when it comes to the highly politicized issue of homosexuality, Christian conservatives have a reputation–however unfairly extrapolated from unrepresentative samples–for being outspoken, whether in the form of protests (Westboro Baptist), proselytizing (Uganda’s evangelical-influenced anti-gay bill), or pulpit politics (the recent case of Houston’s sermon subpoena). Unlike with other politicized issues related to sexual mores, like abortion, there are no obvious Millian grounds for things like publicly condemning homosexual practice, criminalizing homosexual behavior, or legalizing same-sex marriage (setting aside worries about any potential harm to children of gay parents–the empirical evidence, suggested for instance by a study published a couple years ago by sociologist Mark Regnerus, is highly controversial). The fact is, many people simply do not view their gay neighbor as a threat. Jay-Z’s 2012 CNN interview statement sums it up: “What people do in their own homes is their business.” I think this explains the growing pro-gay and anti-homophobic sentiments many younger people adopt in churches today, whether gay or straight. Hurt feelings from a wounded sense of identity might explain a gay Christian’s dismay toward the persistence of conservative movements like the ERLC. It’s harder to see though how this would explain the–rarer but growing, and equally justified–dismay of straight Christians (or whom the LGBT community would call “allies”). October 30, 2014 at 5:16 pm Here ís an excellent post by Matt Moore about identity. October 30, 2014 at 9:54 pm I could say that Moore’s post is excellent insofar as it represents a clear summary of the “don’t say gay” perspective. However, I find that perspective to be flawed, and have views more in line with those expressed by Dr. Hill in his article here. Two other responses to Moore’s post that explain more eloquently than I could why I am not going to stop referring to myself in certain relevant contexts as a gay Christian are these: November 1, 2014 at 12:16 pm I agree. But it’s important to see the underlying evil in Moore’s tack. In seeking to take away the term “gay” from celibate gay Christians, Moore is trying to erase the victims of the church’s heterosexism and its absurdly hyper-aggressive policing of gender roles. Miroslav Volf addresses this point eloquently in his book “Exclusion and Embrace”. Moore is a smart guy, and is smart enough to know what he is doing. In trying to twist the meaning of the term “gay” to exclude those whom the church has systematically victimized, Moore is trying to cover over the guilt of heterosexists without calling them to repentance. When I last checked, that wasn’t exactly what Christian pastors are called to do. But, then again, he represents a denomination that, until the last few decades, constructed elaborate theological defenses of the South’s culture of racial segregation. I’m not saying that being a member of a racial out-class is the same as being part of a gender out-class. The latter often have the option of pretending to be part of the in-class, if they so desire. That is, after all, what reparative therapy entailed: It taught members of the gender out-class how to pass themselves off as members of the in-class. Someone recently asked me why I came out of the closet if I were just going to remain celibate. In one sense, I probably came out because I was tired of living a lie just to please other people. But more broadly than that, I came out because I believed that our refusal to call out and work against heterosexism compromises the Gospel. And that’s exactly why Moore and Mohler want us celibate gay Christians to go away: We challenge the chauvinistic patriarchalism with which these men have become all too comfortable, and reveal it for the sin that it is. November 3, 2014 at 7:23 pm Bobby you make complete sense, but the majority of Christians will never be in any frame of mind to understand what you’re saying or to appreciate it. Privilege is a terrible thing. This fight over the word “gay” is an attempt at erasure–plain and simple. It’s another way of saying “Go away!” (Ever so often people try the same thing with race. They say things like: “Why say African-American? Just say “American”!” For obvious reasons it’s never really successful.) November 5, 2014 at 12:08 am Yeah, denying the existence of the privilege is one way of maintaining it. November 3, 2014 at 3:48 pm So do the celibate gay Christians. And non-celibate ones for that matter. I like how the automatic assumption is that anyone not on his side must hate God/Jesus. [2) I don’t believe calling myself a Gay Christian would help in my endeavor to communicate a gospel that transforms identity.] Evidence indicates that transformation of identity is impossible. Thus, Moore is bearing false witness. A Disciple of Paul who follows the false apostle’s example of winning converts through guile – the Pharisee would be proud. More like he loves his cheap grace too much. This is point number 1, rehashed. How tiresome. Ad Hominem, Obfuscation, and Ad Hominem; the wide and easy path of “apostle” Paul strikes again. Maybe you guys should give up on guile and try truth for a change. October 30, 2014 at 5:58 pm Thanks for posting this. I have a hard time engaging on this particular topic because of the amount of cross-talk and feedback that seems to go on. For whatever reason, this is a hugely emotional discussion for both sides, and I find there isn’t a lot of listening going on. I think that’s been evident in both the recent Catholic Synod and the SBC’s discussion. There have been a lot of great thoughts mentioned previously, and I agree with a great deal of them. I have good reasons to approve of the use of the term “gay” and I have many concerns with it. I’ll only add this one point: You asked why our world gets so upset about the Christian position on homosexuality but not on other issues (in particular divorce and extramarital/premarital sex). The answer is fairly obvious to me: they don’t care about the Christian teaching on those points because WE don’t care about the Christian teaching on those points. Oh sure, conservatives will say you oughtn’t get divorced/remarried or that straight people shouldn’t have sex before marriage (or look at pornography), but when it actually happens, there’s a gentle rap on the knuckles, a wink and a nod, and we all know no one really cares because “well, he’s only human” – completely eradicated from modern Christianity is any idea that someone might actually truly have become abhorrent to God precisely because of his heterosexual-ness. We don’t think there’s a real heart-issue of sin in those areas (they are sinful actions but say nothing about the nature of the person), so we don’t think that a person has to change; they only have to stop doing a certain thing (or at least act sorry when they’re caught). The Fall, for a straight person is primarily about what we do rather than what we ARE. On the issue of homosexuality/being gay, there is a profound double standard: The conservative world teaches that heterosexuals should stop doing sin (“having premarital sex” – and this only half-heartedly) while they teach that homosexuals should stop being sinful (“being gay” – even if you aren’t having sex!). Of course I think the world reacts so vehemently because this issue is exactly where Christians have the closest potential to actually recover a real Scripturally-based anthropology. Tell a straight couple to stop having extramarital sex, and you’ve only told them to stop doing something (which they can do in their own effort). Tell a gay man to not have gay sex, and you’ve essentially told him to begin denying who he really is. That, at any rate, is what the GLBTQI community interprets what we’re saying as. But isn’t that the whole point of the Gospel – to deny ourselves (who we are at the core of our existence) for the sake of Christ? The REASON why the world gets so uncomfortable with the Christian perspective on homosexuality is perhaps precisely because it’s the only area in which conservatives are still semi-preaching the actual real Gospel. It’s bizarre, then, that conservatives seem so anxious to insist that we aren’t, in fact, preaching THAT Gospel (the one which requires us to see the mess we really ARE rather than just MAKE and which demands that we deny the core of who we are) by insisting that no one should identify as “being gay”. The argument centers around the idea of “identifying too much with our sin/brokenness” – but in demanding that we not identify with our sin, they are unwittingly undoing the very need for Christ at all. In essence, we’ve bought the lie that the Gospel of denial, the Cost of Discipleship, should be thrown away: We want to believe that there’s nothing essentially wrong with ANYONE, and that all Christ asks us to do is DO (or NOT do) something. When confronted with a group of people (“celibate gay Christians”) who insist that they are inherently something which is incompatible with doing enough (even repenting!) to please God, conservatives immediately get defensive and start insisting that this isn’t what they mean. But it’s exactly what we SHOULD mean, which is why it’s so appalling to me to see the SBC and the Bishops dig their heels in on this point. Why are they so determined to teach heresy? I honestly can’t tell if this is because we conservative Christians are all just Pelagians or because we’ve truly decided that marketing the Gospel and making it palatable is the most important thing – above even being honest about what it actually is. In the end, I actually see a lot of similarities between both the liberal mantra that homosexuality can be blessed by God and the conservative mantra that we mustn’t identify too closely with our sin. I just don’t see how either fits with Christianity. Pingback: Cultural Incredulity and SSM - Notes from Mere O November 6, 2014 at 1:48 am I have just read this excellent article by David Kyle Foster on what change looks like for the homosexual. Enjoy. November 6, 2014 at 8:13 am So, if you don’t experience a change in desire, you didn’t try hard enough? Evidently the vast majority of people who go through ex-gay programs weren’t able to try hard enough to get God to take notice and reduce or eliminate their same-sex attraction. Needless to say, I did not enjoy that article, as it’s hard to enjoy something that’s filled with sugar-coated untruths and passive aggressive condemnation. November 6, 2014 at 8:50 am Thanks for your response. I believe this scripture to be accurate and filled with hope. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3 I do not think that the article references “trying hard”. It is about the slow and painful process of living “through” Christ as in 1 John 4:9. Every Christians identity is in Christ, not what you do or what you feel. As Paul says, we see no man in the flesh, but accoring to who they are in Christ. The last thing I would want to convey in any way to you is that you need to try harder or others need to try harder. I don’t see passive agressive or condemnation in this article but David Kyle Foster’s personal experience and representative of the circles that he moves in. I work with men who have come out of SSA and many of them are on a journey toward greater freedom over their SSA. The foundational reality for freedom for any believer is a passionate, all consuming desire to walk in greater intimacy and live our life in the Trinity. November 6, 2014 at 10:15 am David Kyle Foster seemed to present his experience as within reach for anyone who [my paraphrase] wanted it bad enough and/or tried hard enough. This implicitly condemns anyone who hasn’t been able to achieve orientation change (as I pointed out in the study to which I hyperlinked, this is most same-sex attracted people who engage in sexual orientation change efforts), as well as anyone who doesn’t believe that it’s worthwhile to attempt to engage in such efforts. November 6, 2014 at 1:42 pm I think 2 Peter 1:3 is true. I don’t think the “problem” is on God’s side. Let me ask you this, are you saying that God can’t change your sexual orientation, or doesn’t want to help you in this area, is his grace & power inadequate. I think any effort we put into greater intimacy and living in an areness of his presence is worth every once of effort. I think the Chritian life does take effort, a key distinction is between earning and effort. We can not earn the grace and mercy of God but without our own effort we will not walk in any degree of santicficatio, be it gluttony, gossip, or sexual orientation. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is not a solo act. For years I prayed to god to give me a greater hunger and desire to be more l.ike Christ, because I had no desire, I had to really want this. I am not saying that it is all our effort. I am in the charismatic end of the body of Christ and the only ministry that has shifetd my self hatred and pain has been two types of ministry, Theophostic Prayer and SOZO. My daughter is adopted, she was abandoned by her family only a day old. Talk about a deep wound and a deep lie that I am unlovely, unloveable, unworthy. She from a very early age over a period of 7 years, has had both of the above ministries and she is a different person all together. Is she totally free of every lie in her life, no but she is in a positive trajectory with a loving family and church. LJ I wish you well, I wish you peace, I wish you rest in Him. November 7, 2014 at 12:59 am I too felt that the piece was a bit irresponsible. Moreover, he seems to be misusing the term “homosexual.” He is using it to refer to conduct rather than to orientation. I suspect that a lot of those who experienced success in reparative therapy are like me, asexuals who have an aesthetic and/or romantic attraction to members of the opposite sex. I’m an asexual who generally has an aesthetic attraction to men and a romantic attraction to women. From an early age, I knew that I was not heterosexual. Therefore, I assumed that I must be homosexual. That is, until I came out of the closet and began dialoguing with real homosexual people, and realized that I lacked the sexual desires that they possess (just as I lacked the sexual desires that heterosexual people possess). It was at that point, that I realized that I had mistaken my aesthetic preferences for sexual desires. I’d guess that some number of the ex-gay success stories are people like me: Asexuals who have an aesthetic attraction to the same sex but who otherwise lack any sexual attraction to either sex. In many cases, I still socially identify as “gay” because our heterosexist culture victimizes and casts aside both asexuals and homosexuals. Therefore, we share a common social history of having faced exclusion from the societal mainstream by the heterosexual in-class. I also want to make sure that heterosexists don’t use my “success” story to further stigmatize homosexuals. My story proves nothing except that we often overlook asexuality and mistakenly misdiagnose it as homosexuality. It says nothing about the prospects of curing a true homosexual of his or her orientation. November 7, 2014 at 1:18 am I would add that the view of sanctification set forth by Foster is largely inconsistent with the Pauline corpus. Sanctification, like justification, is effected in us out of God’s unconditional grace. It’s something we ask God to work in us, not something we work in ourselves. November 11, 2014 at 5:14 am What is theophostic prayer? Thanks November 9, 2014 at 3:36 am I think there needs to be a clear distinction between earning and effort. We do not earn God’s grace but with out effort on our part, we will not walk in the freedom that Christ died for. I think Colossians 1:29 is helpful here: That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me. NLT But without a doubt, it is because of His grace and mercy, that any of my efforts would contribute to being conformed to the image of his Son. November 10, 2014 at 11:37 am “most of us in the West think of homosexuality as a category of persons, rather than a category of actions”. The great sadness of this kind of formulation comes from an inability to understand, as St John Paul II addressed repeatedly, the unity in the acting person and how consciousness is more than merely cognitional. All of our actions reflect our personhood. These in turn can be parsed by way of their alignment with natural law and our willingness to cooperate with that order. The disparity of acting on same-sex attraction or even a heterosexual attraction in a genitally expressive way outside of a spousal relationship is disordered acting that has its effect in reordering the person. In Catholic anthropology, the acting person is meant to express the unity of being. November 11, 2014 at 5:20 am Hi father, Can you please explain this a bit more? Sometimes we act against our instincts and desires… In think that’s what the article is referring too. Thanks Rev. Edward Moran November 11, 2014 at 6:11 am It’s difficult to know how to answer your question since you did not elaborate. Yes, we have ‘instincts and desires’. In addition, we also have thinking, will, and conscience. All are tied together in a body/soul unity that is always effected through our actions. When we seek the good and distinguish it as a good for our life, we have to judge it in relation to other goods that compete. Hence the need to rightly order our lives in the kind of self-mastery that allows us to honor our commitments and live responsibly. Sexual self-mastery is the hardest I think because because of the strength of our desires and feelings for another. Together, they can overcome our best and most honorable intentions. Impulse is seizing a good we recognize for ourselves personally often without much regard for the constellation of other goods which surround wanting to seize a particular good. Consequences teach us, oftentimes unfortunately, that the good we wanted, even felt we deserved, comes with other goods we had not expected, wanted or were even prepared for. Hence, the need always for deliberation, counsel and prayer whenever we want to exercise our desires. We are more than our actions but we reveal who we are by how we act around others. The person I was responding to in the blog was separating person from action. I was trying to argue for a deeper unity instead of such dichotomous thinking. So much evil can be rationalized when one thinks that way. Hope this helps. The comment came at an auspicious time since I’m writing a paper for a class on St.John Paul II’s understanding of the ethical unity in the acting person. November 11, 2014 at 3:09 pm Rev. Moran, I am not sure the line you quoted is saying anything that disagrees with the point you are making. The world sees homosexuals/gays as being romantically and sexually attracted to people of the same biological sex. Homosexuality isn’t just a category of actions any more than heterosexuality is. People are dirven to find someone special and bind to them in love long before sex ever comes into the picture (ideally). Homosexuality and gay are not terms for describing a straight guy who has sex with people of the same biological sex. That is how it was once treated (it was actually considered a mental disorder, officially, though a lack of diagnostic evidence to substantiate it’s placement as a disease in psychological terms got it stricken from the DSM). The new evidence means that people see it as what it is; the sexual part springs from the internal motivation and brain architecture so we now define homosexuals as a group of people with this peculiar emotional and mental trait rather than as an action unattached to anything more than a whim. November 11, 2014 at 4:03 pm My original attempt was to try and address the dichotomous thinking the writer seemed to making in distinguishing the person from action. This caught my attention since I happen to be working on an ethics paper that challenges that kind of reductivism which is fairly prevalent in today’s mindset. It actually helped me make a great point in the paper to bring all of the philosophical and psychological parsing down to a practical example. Your argument seems fairly reductive also. Are you sure that’s all it is (i.e. “the sexual part springs from the internal motivation and brain architecture..)? I would invite you to take a deeper look and could recommend some good books on social bio-anthropologies. I know clinicians who deal with sexual impulse issues quite a bit in their work as well as some of the most current thinking and research that has taken the studies way past your formulations and help us to see so much more in the human person…especially regarding sexuality. Regarding the reference to the DSM, it would behoove you to study some history. The kind of activism that was prevalent in 1972-73 forced the APA Board to stand down on calling same-sex orientation a disorder. The efforts to remove the disorder from the DSM conjures forth the following image in my mind: 1970 Democratic Convention in Chicago; Chavez supporters out in the streets of Caracas confronting opponents.. You get the picture. You can go and watch some of the videos of the take-over on YouTube. A lot of fairly mild-mannered psychologists really go rattled. Let’s just say that it was not on clinical trial, or double-blind experimentation or all the other methods we use to measure and assess psychological disorder. It was coercion plain and simple. There are often real psychological attachment issues in same-sex attraction and the clinical evidence will show this despite people not wanting to talk about it. Look at the intolerance now on the other ‘shoe’ when trying to discuss this topic calmly with good sources and references despite the new orientation laws, political suppression and social engineering notwithstanding all in the current culture that has ‘sealed the deal’. From my faith perspective, we are all broken vessels needing God’s love and healing. Before you criticize me with perhaps ‘painting with too broad a brush’ my work with same-sex patients reminds me of this truth all the time. Today we have so much sexual dimorphism that range from the more prevalent and widespread addictions to pornography to the more severe sexual reassignment surgery issues. These and other strange kinds of sexual acting out have also failed to make the DSM even though the clinical evidence is overwhelming. It makes me think that that some of our helping organizations like the APA have become a little political?? Arguments that go contrary to the prevailing practices of sexual disorders that manifest poor personality management are shut out, shouted down or generally ignored as anachronistic thinking from some past age. Yet, the folks still come to the clinic seeking help for acting on more than just “a whim”. Hope this helps. From the clinic and pastoral counselling perspectives, I see so much and wish to keep a peaceful spirit that will help people find Christ, regain self-mastery and carry their crosses as we all are called to do. Love and truth must always go together. Thanks for your interest and prayers.. November 12, 2014 at 8:43 am It would behoove you to study some history as well. Yes, there was activism, but it was backed up by the science that you incorrectly claim was lacking. There are LGBT people with mental illnesses, but not all LGBT people are mentally disordered only by virtue of being LGBT. November 12, 2014 at 10:00 am Hi LJ Thanks for joining the discussion. We can all learn from one another which is what makes a blog so challenging and broadening. Thanks for the article which I parsed with some fellow clinicians. Three things that stand out to me that cause a degree of doubt about the statistical significance of the study are (a) the population of 30. That’s right on the edge of generating statistically significant numbers. (b) choosing subjects from the Mattachine Society hints strongly at what we call ‘selectivity bias’. (c) Hooker’s own life biases hint at some very strong progressive outlooks. At this point, think of some of those scientists who are strongly involved in climate change analysis and how that bias might effect their interpretation of data. Granted that trying to do a study like this in the 50’s was as close to ‘heroic’ as I can think given the social contexts and stereotyping that passed for ‘science’. The editorial slant of the APA writer is also pretty evident. I would have liked to have known more about the study and can find it here at our library and will get back to you after I digest its findings, Again, these are only initial responses since i thought your comment and interest in the topic deserved a prompt response. The logic statement you end with, like a Venn diagram is perfectly correct. There are some same-sex attracted folks out there who are truly excellent human beings. I feel blessed to be able to call some of them very close friends. But many same-sex attracted have serious attachment issues that need help in understanding and correcting. Clinical diagnoses don’t work along the distinction of ‘being crazy’vs ‘not being crazy’. We all have our issues. The question is usually how much these ‘issues’ impede our daily lives. I’ll spare you the stories of the clinic from which I draw many of my inferences. Like the ’emergency room, the outlook on humanity can become rather skewed if those are the only people you meet on a daily bases. At my rather decrepit age, it’s mostly about experiences in counselling, knowing a large swath of people and meeting some of the best and worst of them that I draw my conclusions. I am very optimistic about the human species ever since the Resurrection. Thanks for the input and forwarding the article. I always like to learn. November 12, 2014 at 2:34 pm I will go with Father instead of Reverend, since Reverend seems more Protestant in nature. I didn’t realize you were a priest the last time so that is my bad. [Reductivism, What is Gay, and People vs Actions] The original point I was making was not that I support cleaving a person from their actions but simply that actions spring from the person and their mental/emotional/spiritual state. What can be construed as homosexual in nature varies, considerably, so we play by the rules of the general public. Gay is about a mindset. I have never had sex with another man, yet I am gay because when I dream of meeting someone special and spending my life with them I dream of finding a another man. Would you call this gay or am I straight because of my actions not showing that I am gay? When I first read your response, you seemed to be arguing the latter. Apologies if I misunderstood. [DSM and the Activist Conspiracy] When the DSM first changed, it was indeed activism and the Stonewall tsunami that helped make the change but if we critically look at homosexuality it doesn’t meet the prerequisites for being classified as a disease by any objective standard that exists. I do keep up with the research on both sides but there are two big hurdles that those who want Homosexuality in the DSM will have to leap: 1) Depression, dementia, philias, phobias, anxiety disorders, and the rest can present differently but there are always a series of unifying negative features associated with them (signs and symptoms of the illness). As of yet, there are no peer reviewed studies that have proven such a series of traits exist among homosexuals as a universal group. 2) While great efforts have been taken to link HIV, Hepatitis, drug abuse, and other diseases to Homosexuality these correlated issues suffer under their lack of causality. Put simply, there are no inherent physical problems or health risks associated with Homosexuality, in and of itself. Studies and statistics that link homosexual males to HIV in order to claim it as a “gay disease” for example could just as easily be used to prove it is a “black disease”. Without causality, correlations are not evidence. Homosexuals are too varied a group to be clinically diagnosable. And, oftentimes, I find such attempts to diagnose the group or attribute features of other illnesses to homosexuality to be a dangerous drive. For example, I am monogamous and gay. Thirty three and never had sex. A close friend of mine who is twenty five is also gay. He has wrecked every relationship he has ever had with everyone by introducing sex into it. He has no concept of boundaries and the only reason I am still his friend is because I never take advantage of him and refuse his advances. If I had to wager a guess, I would say he is a sex addict – that is, his drive towards sex is manic, he uses it to deal with fear of closeness and anxiety about life, and it has had consequences in his life. Had he been born a woman who acted out like this, he would be more properly diagnosed and treated. He is resistant to treatment because he has rationalized his behavior and acting out as part of being gay. He buys into that rhetoric that says being gay means having loads of risky sex. I don’t believe you mean harm but I would urge you to consider the implications of treating homosexuality as a disease in and of itself. While it might make the theology easier to swallow, the unforeseen consequences for people like my friend could be dire. November 13, 2014 at 6:31 pm I had an opportunity to have a couple of the clinicians who do quite a bit of testing look at the article you sent. The results came back as I expected. Here’s the comment of one: “I had a chance to take a closer look at the article you sent today. Like a lot of the “me-search” in psychology, the agenda bias is strong. There is a certain and sure outcome this proponent of ‘knowing what love is when she sees it.’ So, she is taking her sample from this Mattachine Society and her control group is coming from a diverse population? from working-class folk? From random test subjects that would lend some objectivity to the study? We don’t imagine that perhaps the members of this Society might be functioning higher given their social support network not to mention what it says about someone who has enough energy, wherewithal, and leisure to focus on a specific cause like joining such a society?? The tests that were administered were exclusively projectives. Projectives by their very design illicit the input and subjective analysis of the administrator. Who was?… Dr. ‘I know love when I see it’. Further, I don’t see any indication that the hypothesis and intended purpose of the study were hidden from the participants in any way. So, these participants, as evidenced by their society membership, are loud, proud and…..interested in being as objective as possible when presenting themselves in testing?? No motivation to do a little impression management?? Yeah. Matched pair analysis is a fairly strong methodology because you can control for multiple possible confounding variables as she mentions — age, education, IQ. So, that part checks out, but as you mentioned the test population of n=30 is not sufficient to title the research ‘groundbreaking’ Likewise, I agree with all other points of your analysis of the article. Namely… Her early life betokens a strong progressive ideology (e.g. the early trip to Russia). The fact that participants were selected by the Mattachine Society hints strongly at selectivity bias. The award came in 1992 almost 20 years after the ‘overthrow’ when PC was really starting to reign.” Hope this helps. Other clinicians I farmed this out to may report back on this but I expect pretty much the same analysis. It’s a deeply flawed projective study. So there you have it. Critical thinking of material one reads is always the best way to approach such ‘studies’. It helps to have looked at lots of them (which I do not profess to have done since my focus is directed elsewhere). Thanks for your interest. Blessings Fr Ed November 14, 2014 at 2:23 pm Perhaps you can share a study that is acceptable to you that proves that homosexuality is a mental illness? Because right now, I’m basing my opinion of what you’ve claimed previously (not your particular response to that study) based on the assumption that you’re talking about LGBT people you’ve seen in a clinic, which is, I shouldn’t have to remind you, just as biased of a sample as a selection from the Mattachine society. November 15, 2014 at 10:44 pm With all due respect, that linked article is describing the study i question because it was the initial study that began to cast doubt on the long-held Freudian notion that homosexuality was a form of mental illness. That study was carried out over 60 years ago, and spawned numerous more rigorous studies. In any field, one’s initial study is often a more limited, informal study, which is conducted for the purpose of determining whether a more systematic study is warranted. Homosexuality was not removed from the DSM based on the results of the single study conducted by Hooker in the mid-1950s. If the clinician to whom you sent the article is APA certified, I think he or she ought to know that. Rev. Edward Moran November 16, 2014 at 4:50 am Of couse the clinicians I consulted knew it. Blog threads aleays need context to understand where the argument goes. LJ thew the link up as proof of some historical clinical legacy reference point which we quickly debunked by looking at the interior workings of that 60 year old study. Yes there are other studies out there which are much more current. The intent was to show LJ that it was not a good study to use to advance his argument. That’s all. Rev. Edward Moran November 16, 2014 at 4:58 am A research study (especially done so long ago) is different than seeing clients who wish help. I could share with you how researchers find their populations for their studies. But that it’s not what’s at issue here. It’s your firm of argumentation.To equate the people I see with doing a scientific study is an ‘Apple’s to oranges’ means of seeing the point. Hope you can review your comments and see that. Hope too you are doing well and enjoying this blog process of sharing ideas.. 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CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) Clemson defensive backs Malcolm Greene and Fred Davis II are being sued by a U.S. postal worker whose car Davis collided with last year. The suit was filed Wednesday in Pickens County Common Pleas Court, a form of civil court. The suit alleges that Greene and Davis were racing their cars and driving recklessly when Davis' vehicle hit a mail delivery truck driven by Karen Alvarez in July 2021. Davis was arrested by the Clemson Police Department and charged with reckless driving after the accident. That charge is a misdemeanor in South Carolina, punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail, a fine of $200 and six points against your driver's license. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said at the time that Davis' punishment from the team would be handled internally. Swinney, speaking after practice Wednesday, said he was aware the civil suit was coming and it did not change the status on the team for Davis or Greene. Both were punished for their actions by the team, but there are consequences for their actions and they'll have to continue dealing with what they did going forward. "It's a very sad situation. Somebody almost lost their life," Swinney said of the accident. "They're really fortunate (Alvarez) survived. She's got a lot of challenges. Again, I don't think anybody's surprised that now will play out on the civil side." Alvarez said in the complaint that information from Davis' airbag control module showed he was traveling 115 mph in a 55 mph zone when he first hit the breaks 2.8 seconds before hitting the mail truck. Alvarez's vehicle turned on its right side, slid over the median and across the northbound lanes of the roadway, according to the suit. The suit says both Greene and Davis were seen on the road in close proximity with each other, moving at high rate of speed and switching lanes as if they were racing each other. Alvarez's suit alleges she sustained injuries including fractures of her "skull, spine, pelvis, rib and clavicle, from which she continues to suffer, and upon information and belief, will continue to suffer in the future." The suit asks for an unspecified amount for damages. Davis and Greene have 30 days to respond to the complaint. Davis has started three of five games this season, with 10 tackles and two pass breakups. Greene has started one of his three games this season with seven tackles. He's been out the past two weeks with an undisclosed injury. The fifth-ranked Tigers (5-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) play at Boston College (2-3, 1-2) on Saturday night. --- More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap-top25. Sign up for the AP's college football newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhe6f2 Updated October 5, 2022 © 2022 by STATS PERFORM. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS PERFORM is strictly prohibited.	2,890
I am an Iranian perosn who has been using Delta.Chat during internet blackouts, to have rather secure communication with friends and family. I used Mailu.io to self-host an email server in Iranian VPS and then my users were able to communicate easily using Delta chat, however, I faced a few problems. First, messages took a while (like half a second or more) to be sent and received. It was slow and not convenient for everyday use. Second, Mailu has an anti-spam feature that I don’t need since my users just communicated with each other, this anti-spam feature (rspamd) also took a log of who has sent who messages. I couldn’t disable this feature. What is, in your opinion, the fastest way to self-host delta chat, I don’t care about any other feature except that it is fast, secure (no logs) and reliable. Thanks. adbenitez November 23, 2022, 12:22am #2 hi, maybe try mail-in-a-box, I am not sure about logs, but it is simple/fast and if any logs are recorded sure they can be disabled 3 Likes hpk November 23, 2022, 11:30pm #3 Why or in which situation is one second a problem for transmitting a message? hossein November 24, 2022, 10:41am #4 The problem with mail-in-a-box is that it’s heavily dependent on an OS that I don’t use. @hpk It’s called instant messaging for a reason. Part of my contacts/users are people who if the time they have to wait for every message to be sent passes a certain threshold, would rather switch to insecure apps made by the Iranian government. And I don’t want that to happen. hpk November 24, 2022, 11:30am #5 How precisely did you measure the speed? Which iranian messenger are you using that is faster? How fast is eg signal when it works? hossein November 24, 2022, 12:26pm #6 I can’t measure the speed precisely but it’s about half a second at its best. Sometimes it was so bad that a screenshot of my messages on delta.chat, was received by my friend on Telegram (using a VPN), sooner than the messages themselves. Unfortunately the latency is so high (like I said half a second or more) that each and every messenger is faster. I am hoping this latency is due to my server-side implementation, If you think that half a second is normal and other people are experiencing the same kind of delay on other mail server software, then maybe I should look for solutions other than delta.chat On my other VPS I ran a Matrix server and it doesn’t have the same kind of latency, but for many reasons I prefer delta.chat and would rather use it. adbenitez December 2, 2022, 8:20am #7 do you realize that if it takes to arrive half-a-second that is “super fast” right? how could someone complain “oh no! I waited half a second for your message!” hossein: that each and every messenger is faster. it is email, it is hard to try to get it working as fast as other IM platforms because it is not intended to be IM, but the time usually is fast enough, from 1-5 seconds is good enough and fast actually, in the email federation usually could take longer to be delivered, but since it is users talking in the same server with small amount of users, it could be fast, you sure can make tweaks like disabling server-side virus and spam scanning etc. but if the speed is already around 1 second I wouldn’t mind investing too much time in further optimizations side note: for me Telegram works slower than Delta Chat, it is fast once it is connected, but it takes a lot of time to connect, and if you have an unstable connectivity, then it will lost connection and need to reconnect often so messages usually take a lot of seconds to send, and incoming images take a lot to be downloaded and usually fail to download in the middle of the process, it is a real painful situation and Delta Chat works so much better and faster for me	3,784
VeggieConnection.com is a Not-for-Profit Dating Site that can help Vegetarians acquire Friendships & passionate Relationships – OTM Início Serviços Solicitar Orçamento VeggieConnection.com is a Not-for-Profit Dating Site that can help Vegetarians acquire Friendships & passionate Relationships Novembro 4, 2022 Novembro 6, 2022 VeggieConnection.com is a Not-for-Profit Dating Site that can help Vegetarians acquire Friendships & passionate Relationships The Quick Version: Some market internet dating sites focus on shallow qualities like hair shade or top, while some decide to stress individual qualities that hit some closer to house. VeggieConnection.com is actually a dating website that caters to individuals with similar dietary habits, ethical criteria, and lifestyles. This site unites non-meat eaters, vegans, fruitarians, and raw-foodists in an international circle that’s currently over 50,000 members powerful. It is free to get in on the program, research day prospects, and deliver pre-written greetings and reactions to any individual you like. The dating site encourages visitors to develop strong associations, such as passionate relationships and relationships, by efficiently getting rid of barriers like distance and value. VeggieConnection’s inexpensive membership ideas, user-friendly search resources, alongside distinctive characteristics enable users locate compatible folks and practice conversations that lead to fruitful relationships. A Silicon Valley business person has actually set his places on the internet dating globe and demonstrated a worldwide system for vegans and non-meat eaters of every age group. Ken has been a vegetarian for 38 years, thus he knows the vegetarian area as well as its unique perspective on online dating. As he ended up being unmarried, the guy usually discovered themselves much more keen on women who happened to be additionally veggie. Not merely since they appreciated for eating the exact same ingredients, but since they contributed similar prices, which made their unique talks run quicker and naturally. He was in a connection with a vegetarian woman (that is now their partner) as he made a decision to build resources to help other vegetarian and vegan singles mingle with one another on the web. Ken had decades of expertise as a web designer under their belt, and then he believed the online world could deliver veggie enthusiasts together and promote durable securities. In 2003, Ken established VeggieConnection.com as a not-for-profit dating site aimed toward vegetarian and vegan daters. Throughout the years, Ken hasn’t ever used an income. The guy along with his spouse pour the earnings through the website back in your website. Ken told all of us their main goal is enable individual vegetarians to expand their unique social networks and boost their love lives. “I would like to show my appreciation to VeggieConnection.com, which assisted myself get a hold of my mate.” â A VeggieConnection.com user Registering to VeggieConnection is a comparatively fast process. Just feedback the email, login name, password, and area. Then you’ll fill out a standard profile that features the gender, what you are pursuing (relationships and/or online dating), your diet, birthday, look, commitment standing, job, ethnicity, language, also details. You can easily invest only a small amount or as much time as you would like filling in unrestricted areas entitled My personal eating plan, more and more myself, and I’m wanting. These sections will likely be passed by Ken prior to going go on the website. After that you can decide to go into search conditions for the ideal partner or buddy with regards to sex, diet, age, height, physique, ethnicity, training, union standing, religion, and various other way of life aspects. The site supplies two columns, one for pals and additional for passionate partners, to slim your pursuit according to what sort of union you’re interested in. “I made the decision to create a site not only for internet dating however for relationship, too,” Ken mentioned, “because it is common for individuals inside the vegetarian area getting separated geographically.” You could add pictures, clips & recommendations towards Gallery Once you are a member, you can add around 52 photos to your profile and edit it until every term is correct. Subscribed members will add around six movies their users, and they movies only be seen by other subscribed users. Subscribed people may also let folks understand they can be legitimate by publishing files (such as for example diplomas, army IDs, or motorist’s permits) with their credentials gallery, which might just be observed by members you give a Credentials Pass to. You can easily conduct a simple research compatible people on the website, blocking the serp’s by distance, age, height, diet plan, religion, and various other critical indicators. You can specify if you’re looking for a relationship or friends and increase your research to feature different countries if distance is not crucial that you you. There is actually an alternative during the profile to mark “Willing to move” as this dating site motivates intercontinental contacts. Its totally free to see the site and look at pages for as long as you desire. You can even send pre-written greetings as an icebreaker. But, if you would like have a discussion on VeggieConnection.com, you will need to improve to a membership program enduring one month, 3 months, or 12 months. VeggieConnection offers two tiers of account: gold and silver. Sterling silver account allows members to transmit communications to gold and silver customers merely, while Gold Membership enables members to send messages to everyone throughout the dating internet site, such as free of charge, Silver, and Gold customers. Complimentary people may study and respond to communications sent from Gold customers. Both account plans cap the amount of emails users can deliver per day at 50. Signing up for a registration bundle isn’t the only method to deliver emails on VeggieConnection, nonetheless. The dating website even offers a token system and this can be familiar with deliver T-mails. Each contact will cost you 50 tokens. People can find your mistress from 100 for $10 to 1,200 tokens for $72. Ken stated he makes a place keeping their membership plans and token system reasonably priced so nothing appears between his customers and a worthwhile hookup. “used to do this as a labor of love,” the guy mentioned. “revenue is certainly not a motivation in my situation.” VeggieConnection.com has a lot of free of charge perks for singles getting really love and relationship. You don’t have pay anything to produce a profile, publish photos, seek out dates, view pages, favorite profiles, create lists, to check out that is viewed you. Those features tend to be complimentary to allow brand-new people get an understanding your program and the community. Another beneficial (and free) element is the pre-written greetings, which permit on the web daters to send completely an examination message and view exactly how situations go. Cost-free members can answer-back with some scripted responses. If you notice somebody you would like, you can make use of the pre-written greetings to learn in the event that experience is actually shared. That way, it’s not necessary to sign up on religion. You are able to confirm that you have practical time leads on VeggieConnection before upgrading to a paid program. The platform’s scripted reactions will also be ideal for breaking the ice in general â because not everybody knows things to say after “Hi” within their initial communications. People are able to use an express-interest greeting like “You’ve capture my attention” or “worry to have a chat?” or they’re able to deliver a scripted obtain the person to incorporate photographs, recommendations, or upgrade the profile. The pre-written greetings have positive responses like “i’ve updated my personal profile!” and “might hear from myself with a proper mail the moment I’m able to upgrade.” The dating internet site is served by a number of sorry-I’m-not-interested communications. VeggieConnection feels a lot more like a social media than a dating website. This has a discussion forum, polls, and blog posts to convince site-wide talks. The detailed users emphasize a person’s lifestyle, area, and interests, and that means you obtain a good experience for just who the person is actually. As a reminder, it is possible to keep yourself a private note regarding individual in the bottom regarding the profile â its called the Diary â so you’ll bear in mind later if you’ve spoken prior to and exacltly what the feeling of the individual was. From the scripted emails to the map-based searches, VeggieConnection has a lot of special contacts that produce the web online dating knowledge easier and a lot more user-friendly. “i am a professional in your mind, therefore I’m constantly concentrating on something,” Ken mentioned. His present task has been to really make the dating site 100percent cellular friendly, indicating members may use it from any smart phone without concern. Since the founding in 2003, VeggieConnection.com provides amassed a superb following more than 50,000 people. It became naturally as singles signed up with this site and told their friends and household members regarding it. Now, individuals from all around the globe come together on the dating site to create powerful personal and intimate connections. Ken said a lot of people are from the united states, the UK, and Australia, with his site helps make location nearly a non-factor when considering constructing securities with other people. He’s seen Americans find love offshore and Australians happen to be satisfy buddies far away, and therefore worldwide nature is actually inspiring to him. The guy mentioned he is lost count for the number of connections, marriages, and babies that have sprung resulting from the dating internet site. One few said they existed over 3,200 miles apart, but that didn’t stop them from slipping per other over the course of 6 months. “regardless of the length, we now have satisfied four times,” the couple mentioned in a testimonial, “consequently they are about to end up being together once and for all in the future.” “its remarkable. This mayn’t have taken place 2 decades in the past,” Ken said. “society’s obtained smaller, and people with similar passions are becoming together throughout globally.” “I wish to reveal my personal appreciation to VeggieConnection.com, which assisted me find my personal spouse,” mentioned one unknown user. “we have been hitched 36 months now, and just have a 1-year-old boy who’s constantly making us happy.” The most difficult part of online dating is finding somebody who offers exactly the same prices and lifestyle you do. Specific niche internet dating sites, like VeggieConnection.com, make it a lot easier for people to focus on the ideal characteristics they can be trying to find in a possible partner. VeggieConnection.com isn’t only a dating solution, however, it’s a social instrument that may strengthen the social networks of vegetarians, vegans, and natural foodists throughout the world. Thousands of people have accompanied VeggieConnection and discovered an energetic neighborhood where it’s easy to start a discussion, make friends, and perhaps actually realize that special someone. You’ll subscribe to liberated to find out if this worldwide network is for you. “we found some body on this web site about per week after updating my personal profile, therefore we have now been indivisible since that time,” a VeggieConnection.com user stated in a thank-you note to Ken. “This was just possible due to the focus of your own website bringing like-minded people collectively.”	12,292
Throughout the 2020 NFL season, we will compile a consensus NFL Power Rankings that averages the rankings of all 32 NFL teams. Here is where the Arizona Cardinals rank in terms of average, best and worst: Average ranking: 11.8 (12th) Best ranking: 8th (Multiple) Worst ranking: 15th (ESPN) Below you will find a Week 2 roundup for the Cardinals in our consensus 2020 NFL Power Rankings. What we learned: Kyler Murray can gash really good defenses with his scrambling. There are the raw numbers. Murray ran 13 times for 91 yards in the Cardinals win over the 49ers. And then there are the advanced stats. No quarterback in the last five years has produced a higher single-game EPA on scrambles than Murray did Sunday, according to TruMedia. Murray had a 25-yard scramble on a 3rd-and-17 and a 22-yard touchdown run. When the offense wasnt operating smoothly, he put the team on his back. In his second season, Murray is on the short list of most fun players to watch. Winning at San Francisco to open the season is a message to the rest of the division. Kyler Murray is going to be in the MVP mix. Yes, QB Kyler Murray could be on track for big sophomore year. But Arizona's defense deserves ample credit for knocking off Niners. None of the Cardinals' rookies had an impressive showing in Week 1, but Simmons, who played in just 18 snaps, showed glimpses of what he could be despite looking a lot like a rookie who didn't get preseason work. He had a horse-collar penalty on the game's first play while defending tight end George Kittle, then running back Raheem Mostert crossed up Simmons en route to a 76-yard touchdown. It'll take time for Simmons to figure out the NFL game while getting used to being on the field playing at NFL speed. -- Josh Weinfuss So much for Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins not getting enough reps this summer. The league's hottest new QB/WR combo hooked up an absurd 14 times for 151 yards on 16 targets in a huge season-opening win against the defending conference champion 49ers. Hopkins didn't reach the end zone, but his 33-yard catch-and-run got Arizona to the one-foot line and set up the go-ahead score with five minutes to play. In other words, Hopkins delivered exactly the kind of game-changing performance the Cardinals were expecting when they traded for the superstar wide receiver in March. It's great to see a plan come together.	2,516
For many adults, reading and writing come so naturally that they seem almost effortless. However, reading and writing are actually complicated skills that take significant effort to learn. For example, reading involves recognizing letters, associating letter combinations with their corresponding sounds, blending sounds together, identifying words, and connecting words to their meanings. Vision problems can interfere with several portions of this process, resulting in significant reading or writing deficits that may be diagnosed as learning disabilities. Symptoms of Reading and Writing Difficulty There are many reasons that kids might experience difficulty with reading or writing, but it is important to rule out vision impairment. Common symptoms of vision-related reading and writing problems include: Reporting that words appear blurry or shimmer on the page Words “swimming” or switching locations Low attention span for reading and writing tasks Behavioral outbursts when asked to read or write Eye strain Headaches after short periods of reading or writing Poor grades in reading and English classes Common Vision Problems Affecting Reading and Writing Several vision disorders can negatively impact reading and writing, including the following: Refractive disorders. Farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism lead to poor visual acuity. This may make it difficult to clearly see written words. Convergence insufficiency. Convergence insufficiency is a function vision problem in which the two eyes do not stay aligned, particularly when doing close work. Eye movement disorders. Effective reading and writing require smooth, synchronized eye movements. Problems with the eye muscles or execution of these eye movements may significantly impair reading and writing abilities. Accommodative dysfunction. If the eyes do not focus accurately, words may appear blurred or may seem to move on the page. While children may be able to focus well when concentrating hard, this often leads to eye strain. Vision Therapy for Reading and Writing Problems Vision therapy offers an opportunity to teach the eyes to work more typically. Performed in an eye doctor’s office, vision therapy involves performing special tasks to correct vision disorders. This might include corrective lenses, prism lenses, computer tasks, focusing exercises, or eye movement tasks. Over time, completing vision therapy exercises retrains the eyes and brain to work together more effectively. Vision therapy can correct many of the problems that lead to reading and writing difficulty, resulting in improved academic performance and better visual attention.	2,721
class=”article_teaser__2t5do”>The visitors have been in superb form and, having won the most recent clash against Reinaldo Reyna's men, Goal is backing another win for La Canarinha Brazil aim to continue their relentless march towards qualifying for next year’s World Cup when they visit Colombia on Sunday evening. Tite’s side have won all nine of their matches in CONMEBOL’s qualifying tournament to sit eight points clear at the top of the table and another win against Los Cafeteros would all but secure their spot at Qatar 2022. These sides met in the group stage of the Copa America this summer with Brazil scoring two late goals to come from behind and record a 2-1 win. Colombia are unbeaten in 90 minutes in the seven games they have contested since that defeat and bet365 price them at 3/1 (4.00). An away victory for Brazil can be backed at evens (2.00) with the draw at 21/10 (3.10). Colombia vs Brazil team news Reinaldo Reyna could make changes to the Colombian forward line with Duvan Zapata a possibility to replace either Radamel Falcao or Rafael Santos Borre who both started in the goalless draw with Uruguay. Click Here: shopskm The hosts have no major players missing though for the visit of the continent’s most in-form side. Brazil for their part are without Casemiro who pulled out of the squad with a tooth problem, although Neymar should return having missed the win in Venezuela through suspension. La Canarinha’s 3-1 win in Caracas on Thursday saw them concede only their third goal in nine qualifying matches. Indeed, Brazil have kept seven clean sheets in the tournament so far, in stark contrast to Colombia who have managed just three shut-outs in 10 matches. The visitors should be fancied to record another win given their form and quality, yet it should be a tight encounter in the humidity of the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, where Colombia generally tend to compete well against the continent’s most powerful footballing nations. Brazil’s last visit ended in a 1-1 draw and backing another low-scoring game should appeal. Brazil to win and under 3.5 goals in the game is offered at 6/4 (2.50) and looks like an appealing option, one which has paid out in six of the Brazilians’ last seven World Cup qualifiers.	2,346
Log in Non-Negotiable Rules People Enforce In Their Households house rules tattoo artists People Break Down Which Historical Figures Are Completely Overrated Sir, This is a Wendy's My Mom is a Karen I Had Sex with my Best Friend Yes. Those are my condoms! August 20 \| 2019 So flying can be a handful and a half. We can't travel with anything but our knickers anymore, well that is what it feels like. Sometimes we forget what we've packed, especially if we've packed in a hurry. It feels like the simplest of necessities is now a HUGE no-no. So once and awhile we're flagged with a thing or two that could raise a few eyebrows. (For no good reason!) On Quora some people wanted to discuss this by asking.... What's the most embarrassing thing you've experienced while going through airport security? Giphy I was a 14 year old girl on a trip to New York City with our school band. The trip was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted and stressed beyond belief at the end of it (not to mention on my period, which screwed everything up emotionally). It doesn't help that I'm terrified of planes. So when TSA stopped me to check my shoes, I was a little too distracted to remember to empty my water bottle. They dumped it out and had me go though security again. This time, it was a can of Pringles in my sweatshirt pocket. They had me open my bag and take EVERYTHING out (despite no detectors going off), meaning I was showing all my packed underclothes and period supplies to strangers and classmates behind me in line. That was bad enough until they apparently decided it was a good idea for me to go into the full blown machine that checks for EVERYTHING. I was super stressed at this point (exhaustion and an anxiety disorder really does a doozy), and just started sobbing in front of everyone, which, as a freshman girl in high school, is absolutely horrible. I was so upset with myself for crying that I started crying harder and one of the THREE TSA agents who were watching me suspiciously just kind of realized my plight and was trying to be more sympathetic, which I certainly appreciated, but not enough to stop crying. She's just trying to remain calm and gentle and reassure me that it's just a precaution and everything will be fine. So I walk into the machine (I'm a freshman on a band trip, what did they expect to find), and, as per expected, they find nothing. I have to refold and repack everything, sobbing the whole while, while being watched by all of the classmates who were behind me as well as a bunch of strangers. So yeah, that'd probably be my most embarrassing TSA story. Isabella M Rubbed. Well this just happened to me on June 1. I am about 5′ 10″, broad-shouldered, long brown hair, and olive complexion. I am about 230 lbs with a small beer belly. I look like a out of shape line backer. This is important to the story. So I am flying from Charlotte to Boston. I also get stopped by the TSA. Either going or coming. I was not stopped at Boston so I was going to be stopped at Charlotte. Well I am at the check point. My shoes and belt are in the conveyor. I am at the big spinning scanning device. I step in put my hands up. The machine whirls, I then am told to step out. I am at that spot where we put your feet down in the painted areas. Just in case you cannot figure this out. The TSA man says to me hold on for a second. He then says I need to see what is under there. He is pointing at my midriff. I say to him "So you want me to drop my pants? Could you at least buy me dinner first?" I was trying to be funny. He did not get the joke. He states "No, under your shirt." My stomach - I lift my shirt to show him my hairy belly lol. He still looks at me. He then pokes it and rubs it to make sure it was real. So I was a little annoyed as this lovely lady was looking at me. So when I am nervous I tend to use humor. So when this large man is rubbing my stomach to see if it is real I start to purr like a cat. He turned red and the lovely lady started laughing. George S It wasn't security and it wasn't embarrassing but definitely annoying. I was traveling to Corpus Christi to inspect a ship. With me was the new master of the ship. I had a regular US B1/B2 visa and my companion had a C1/D seaman's visa. We landed at Houston and were waiting in the immigration queue when I saw a sign saying seamen. I told the master you stand in that line. He ducked out of the line and headed for the seamen's queue when a TSA woman yelled at him. "YOU. GET BACK IN THAT LINE." He tried explaining that he was a Seaman but she continued yelling. "I DON'T CARE. DO WHAT I TELL YOU." So he returned. When in due course we reached the head of the line, I went to one desk and he to another. The immigration officer looked at his passport and told him to go to the seamen's line. Net result was that it took another 30 minutes for him to clear immigration. All thanks to an officious know nothing jobsworth. On the same trip when we were passing through immigration at Heathrow (required because our connecting flight to Houston was from Gatwick) he was asked why he didn't have a UK visa. I explained to the immigration officer that any seaman holding a Seaman's Book in transit or entering to join a ship did not need a visa. "Is that so?" "Yes." "Ok. Please wait. I'll check with my supervisor." He was back in five minutes. "Sorry for making you wait and thanks. I learnt something new today." I was in a very abusive relationship for 5 years. I was always covered in bruises, hiding myself, and just so insecure. There was a spell of bad depression I had after being beaten down for so long. I stayed in bed for 8 months straight. Didn't shower much at all and on top of that I had dreadlocks underneath my regular hair. Because of my lack of hygiene and refusal to leave the bed, the entire back of my hair formed into one matted rats nest clump. I mean it HURT. Bad. I didn't care at the time because I never left home. There were tons of white fuzzy's in my hair from the blankets that I couldn't brush out- it was horrible. One day my fiancé's father passed away on Thanksgiving morning. We immediately had to fly to Connecticut from Atlanta. As I realize what's happening my anxiety set in. I looked at myself in the mirror and started crying. I was terrified to go outside. Obviously I was dragged out. During the security check at the airport a TSA agent pulled me aside. They proceeded to "randomly search" me which was fine, but then the male agent touched the back of my hair. "Holy crap" he said. "Hey, insert female agents name here come take a look at this." He pulled out a tongue depressor and some gloves and proceeded to dig through my hair because he was convinced I was hiding something in there. He muttered under his breath "how does this happen…" This drew so much attention to me that I started crying hysterically asking them to please stop. They did and but never apologized. The next morning I shaved my head completely. Now my hair is very long, happy and healthy & so am I. Jay R Giphy I was traveling with my 15 year old daughter and she had an 8" long knife in her backpack. She didn't know she had it. Nor did I. But the security guard at the scanning machine quickly knew. Here's how it went down. The security person kept on looking at the image and examining the backpack. She finally demanded we tell her where the knife was hidden. I quickly explained to her that there wasn't any knife. I asked my daughter and she also confirmed no knife existed. Finally, the security person showed me the image. Sure as shit there was an 8" long knife. I turned to my daughter just as she was finally remembering. She had brought bagels and cream cheese to her class earlier that day. The knife was a regular kitchen table knife she had brought to school to spread the cream cheese. She had tossed the knife into her backpack and completely forgotten about it. Somehow the knife had worked it's way into the seam of the backpack and could only be seen with the imaging. We told the security woman our story. She looked at us sternly. She finally was able to dig out the knife and let us go on. Needless to say I was rather embarrassed. My daughter was just mortified at how lame brained she had been. Thank god I hadn't tried to bust the security guard's chops for having made such a ridiculous accusation that we had a knife. Hill R When leaving Halifax. I was leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia after a three-day business trip. I was with a colleague so we arrived at the airport with plenty of time. I stopped at one of the gift shops and bought a bag of salt water taffy for my daughter. I stuffed it the top of my brand new, work-issued laptop bag. When I went through security, the officer took a long time to scan my laptop bag. He moved the belt back and forth, back and forth before calling over a colleague. The pair of them watched the screen, back and forth at least five times. Finally I asked if there was a problem. The officer asked me what was in the bag. As I said, I had just received my new work-issued laptop before leaving on this trip so I tried to remember ever thing in the bag — laptop (of course), power supply, mouse, maybe some pens and a notebook. And then I remember! "Salt water taffy!", I yell thinking this is what is causing the hold up. And, being a natural born smart ass, I told the two officers if they wanted some, all they had to do was ask. Ha ha. Except I was wrong. They weren't worried about the taffy. Now they've called over the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police for you non-Canucks) and there are at least 8 officials looking at the screen — back and forth, back and forth. By now I'm sure my flight has left. It's at least 10 minutes past departure time. I'd long ago flagged my colleague onward so she's on the plane. And that's how I later find out that she saw them pulling my luggage off the plane, while delaying the flight. They finally all agreed that I wasn't up to anything nefarious and told me that my laptop bag and I could board. I didn't understand what concerned them so much until month later. Laptops were fairly new at the time so not many people had seen the cable used to lock them and I'm sure the numbers on the lock had them scratching their heads. Of course it was the one thing I forgot to tell them was in the bag! Good times. My colleague teased me about it every time we travelled after that! Susan C I have never returned to Bolivia. Back in the 80's, I was flying out of the La Paz airport in Bolivia. Now, La Paz is very close to the Peruvian border and is (was?) a known point for smuggling. This was back in the 80's and the Bolivian police were all on edge. That day I had come down with a low grade fever and my buddy took me to a pharmacia (corner drug store) and asked for some Tylenol or something for my fever and headache. The pharmacist actually sold me the pills individually, folded into a small glassine envelope. You can probably see where this is heading… So my buddy and I are in the airport waiting for our flight. I am sweating and glassy-eyed with the fever but I notice the security guys watching me. Just before our flight is called, my buddy heads off to make a quick pit stop. That's when the policia come over and take me into custody. We head to the Back Room. I have no idea what they want and at the time I spoke virtually no Spanish. They start searching my bag, taking everything out, and they find the glassine envelope, still with a bit of powdery residue from the pills. Uh-oh. As they became agitated, I immediately understood the situation - they thought I was high and was smuggling dope. Not speaking the language, I had visions of being dragged off to a dank South American prison. In desperation, I grabbed the hand of the nearest guard and pressed it to my fevered forehead as the word "Enfermo!" (sick) somehow emerged from the recesses of memory of my middle school Spanish class. Meanwhile, my buddy had finished his business and was wildly searching for me as the loudspeaker announced final boarding for our flight. He burst into the Back Room and explained in rapid fire Spanish why I was glassy eyed and why I had the glassine envelope. He was convincing enough that they released me (even though we both very much did fit the stereotypical image of druggy American hippies). I grabbed up all my stuff and somehow managed to get it all stuffed into my bag as we sprinted across the tarmac to the plane. I have never returned to Bolivia. Nick T Not so much embarrassing but funny My friend Holly and I went to Sanibel Island last weekend for a short getaway. We went to a small grocery to get snacks and some bagels for breakfast. The day we left we were sorting out the leftovers for our carry ons and she took the bagels and a jar of peanut butter that we had bought for the bagels. I don't think we opened it, I didn't use any. We get to the airport to go home and her bag is pulled aside. They swab her hands and we stand there while the TSA agent reaches in and pulls out our jar of Jif. I didn't even know it was not allowed, but the funny part is when she asked us, "If you would like, you may step out of security to eat this, then re-enter when you are ready." EAT a whole jar of peanut butter? Even with two of us, how in the world? Imagine how you'd feel after shotgunning half a jar of peanut butter, green around the gills, that's how. We declined, but I thought it would be a funny sight to see two forty something women scooping peanut butter out of a jar with their bare hands and eating it just to keep it from being tossed. Melissa O Giphy I was returning home from my vacation in Florida after Christmas. Everything was going fine until will got to the security checkout and I was stopped by the TSA officers. I had no clue what was happening. I was terrified and my brother who was waiting for me on the other side was utterly confused. My brother and I asked what was happening, and we were told that I was getting a pat down. My brother asked why, but they did not respond and they told him to wait. They said that they found a suspicious item near my private parts. For the record, it was a pad. On the screen where your body was scanned, it was the obvious shape of a pad. Even one of the officers asked me if it was! I was so embarrassed. I was holding up the whole line and a male TSA officer proceeded to try to do a pat down on my private parts. I immediately said "No!" and I requested that a female officer do it because I did not want a male to be touching my privates. The man scoffed and called over the female officer to pat me down. First, she rubbed my upper thighs and then rubbed in between my legs. This was absolutely humiliating and one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. It only gets worse though. She proceeded to stick her whole hand in my underwear on both sides. She then literally grabbed my butt. I told her to please stop as that was very uncomfortable, but she said it was "just protocol." I was then tested for bomb residue and was begrudgingly released. They said "Oh, I guess it was just a pad. You're free to go." I was crying the whole flight after that, and it still haunts me to this day. It was absolutely embarrassing and quite frankly disgusting! Kylie Marie E I personally have never felt embarrassed going through airport security. I have, however, seen TSA agents checking my bags become embarrassed when I went through airport security. I was coming home from a get-together of the extended poly family. I had a sound in my toiletries bag. It showed up on the X-ray, of course, and caused the X-ray tech to pull my bag for hand screening. So the poor TSA guy opens my bag, takes out the sound, and starts waving it in the air saying "What is this? Is it a weapon?" I tell him, no, it's not a weapon, it's a sex toy. "A sex toy?" He says. "What kind of sex toy?" So I explain it to him. Poor guy was mortified. He looked like he wanted the earth to swallow him up. I always thought TSA agents were basically impossible to embarrass. Apparently, a sound is a bridge too far.	16,953
‘Dump your e-waste with us, save the environment’ Improper disposal of electronics can be hazardous, as they often contain chemicals such as lead, mercury and arsenic December 11, 2018 BELAIT – Due to the lack of facilities for proper disposal of electronic waste, two local recycling companies have joined hands to create… No Plastic Bag Weekend now applies to select Ramadhan markets Bring a bag from home or buy one from the market to carry your favourite Ramadhan stall purchases May 14, 2018 Visitors to Ramadhan food stalls will need to bring their own reusable bags as the government’s plastic bag-free directive will soon be imposed…	669
The UK’s Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox says that the Government of Britain is ready for direct investments in Sri Lanka, while increasing the investments in the country. He further said that the necessary process in this regard will be implemented in the near future. » Read more President meets Sri Lankan community in London April 18, 2018 News, Uncategorized President Maithripala Sirisena addressing the Sri Lankan community living in London said that the attempts made by some to hide the truth and promote the falsehood are a hindrance to the forward march of the Motherland. » Read more President took part Oil Anointing Ceremony in London April 16, 2018 News, Uncategorized President Maithripala Sirisena who is in London to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2018 took part in the Oil Anointing Ceremony held at the London Buddhist Vihara, today (16). » Read more President arrives in London to participate in CHOGM April 16, 2018 News, Uncategorized President Maithripala Sirisena reached London this morning (April 16) to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2018. He was received by the Commonwealth officials and Sri Lanka High Commission staff. A Sri Lakan child offered beetle leaves to receive the President in accordance with the traditional custom. A girl offered a boquet to Madam Jayanthi Sirisena. » Read more President Maithripala Sirisena to participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the United Kingdom from 16-20 April 2018 April 13, 2018 News, Uncategorized President Maithripala Sirisena will join the Heads of Government of the 53-member Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that is to convene in London from 16-20 April 2018. The President will be joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tilak Marapana. Visit of UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Sri Lanka (APPG – SL) February 15, 2018 News A Five Member delegation of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Sri Lanka (APPG – SL) headed by its Chairman Hon Ranil Jayawrdena visited Sri Lanka from 02 – 08 January 2018. H.E. the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka facilitated this visit. High Commission of Sri Lanka in London commemorates 70th Independence Day February 12, 2018 News High Commission of Sri Lanka in London commemorates 70th Independence Day The High Commission of Sri Lanka in London commemorated the 70th Anniversary of Independence with the participation of more than 250 Sri Lankans representing all communities of Sri Lanka on 04 February 2018 at the High Commission premises. The event commenced with the hoisting of the National Flag by Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner H.E. Amari Wijewandene, and the playing of the National Anthem in Sinhala followed by two minutes’ silence in remembrance of all those who sacrificed their lives for the nation. » Read more	2,904
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Hi there! Welcome to the blog, a journal featuring portraits, our lives, travels, heart matters, and more. Stay a while and say hello! Why I pulled my kid from public school June 20, 2019 I just un-enrolled my son from Public School. He just completed 5th grade. This decision did not come easily, and it’s been a subject that Steve and I have been wresting with for about a year. But to be perfectly honest, it’s been on the horizon for several years and I only recently realized that God had been planting little seeds along the way. That doesn’t make it any easier. I wasn’t the stay at home mom who planned to homeschool her children from birth. Looking forward to lesson plans and pouring through curriculum ideas. I have no reference or local example of what the daily life of a homeschool family looks like. I never wanted to be a teacher and I don’t really enjoy doing homework with my children. Especially math. I work full time, self-employed, which means that my productivity equals my paycheck. Most of the time, I enjoy, but being responsible for generating your own paycheck has it’s own pressures. I love my kids dearly, and I loved our time apart when they are in school and I am… not. “I could never homeschool my kids.” <— me, on repeat for years. However, I have come to realize, (and I’m sure I’ll get a lot of criticism for declaring this): Education is not THE most important thing in life. Therefore, it should not be the CENTER of our life. And our family’s life. And I don’t mean schedules and hours in the day – although that is a huge factor and so is my own schedule and career. I mean that our entire family’s lives are on constant standby to meet the increasing social and emotional needs of our child who “endured” public school and all of it’s increasing challenges for the sake of getting an education. My daughter goes to a “private”/public (re: FREE) specialized Performing Arts High School that she had to audition for, take a test to get into, and was finally 1 of 20 students in her specialty to be accepted into her Freshman year. Think FAME for all you old timers, or “High School Musical” as she likes to call it. Think of every FUN high school movie you can, and all the times you thought “wow, I wish that was MY high school or even a REAL high school” – well turns out there is a real one, and that is hers. I didn’t even know such an amazing school existed until recently and she’s blessed beyond measure to be a student there. We often joke that her school “is the worst” because calling it like it is doesn’t seem real. She’s just completed her first full year, after going through our township middle school the past 3 years. As a 6th grader, I watched my well organized, confident, excited, Type A child – be practically swallowed up whole over the first 2 years. By eight grade, she finally found her stride, when she wasn’t drowning in projects, homework and typical social pressures from peers who want to be anywhere BUT school. Her personality type helped her to push through and protect herself and she was determined to not allow the environment she was in to completely change her. Although, even the best people, who work the absolute hardest, will partially be a byproduct of their full time environment. My son is the opposite. He’s more mad scientist than organized and his self confidence is still wrapped up in how others treat him. He’s the over-excited, extremely social introvert who struggles with sensory regulation. Put him in a gym with 100 students, a loud cafeteria or with students who often hurt’s others feelings by just “being kids” and it takes it’s toll on him. Compound that with changing classes and teachers, managing the work load through a filter of 8 different teacher’s expectations and different guidelines, no downtime or quiet time to recharge, and very little time to nurture and give extra attention to the talents and subjects he excels in. Over the long term, significant damage is done to social, emotional and mental health. The increasing pressures of testing, projects, homework, and Code Blue Drills (don’t even get me started), is slowly squashing my son’s personality to fit into a mold that his just doesn’t, at least not naturally. Persevere, right? Overcome it, right? Work through it, right? And so we did. Over the past year especially, I’ve worked very closely with his teachers and his school and they have done everything they can to foster an environment for Academic success. Academic success, with a side of emotional and mental health when possible. While balancing politically correctness, separation of church and state, racial equality and fairness in all things – policies – as not to offend anyone, ever, of course. My son’s spiritual growth was completely paused (silenced) during his most alert hours in the day. He was curious if others knew about his Christian faith, but he knew he was not allowed to discuss the subject with his peers or teachers. He said “hallelujah” in response to something totally unrelated and his teacher quickly reminded him “you can’t say that here”. We have an amazing church and he has lots of support at home to help him grow; but he had become increasingly frustrated that his two worlds were totally separated and he couldn’t understand why. We considered Christian schools. We thought maybe being surrounded by a group of adults who share our core values and could speak to our children freely about their beliefs would be beneficial. Even praying with them when needed. We explored many. Before we could calculate costs or evaluate options, Steve and I both felt like it was a clear “no”, and that this was not the path we were meant to be on. For no particular reason, it was just a “no”, so onward we persevered. I want to be absolutely clear on one thing: I do believe my son’s public school is wonderful and has done everything in their power to help him succeed in every way they are able. Going above and well beyond other elementary schools in their care and support with the best PTA on the planet. I can’t even imagine being a teacher or administrator today. The expectations are crushing. The schedule is ever increasing, while the PAY, is decreasing. My son is one of many children in the classroom that need a little extra redirection and accommodations. And they are expected to know exactly how and to implement them all, 100% of the time. All the while, teaching to standards that increase each year so that the funds (while decreasing) will be secured for next year’s paycheck. I know they did their jobs. And I truly believe it was to the best of their ability. I’ve been asked if I believe our “system” is failing our children and the truth is I just don’t know. I do believe that the “system” is comprised of the smartest people in their field doing the best they can with the resources they have. But I’m not even sure the smartest people in the system can keep up with the staggering social and emotional challenges students are facing at an alarming, exponentially increasing rate caused by a thousand different reasons. It’s a spreading wildfire and there aren’t enough firemen in the world to solve this problem in enough time to help my kid. The people in the “system” are working tirelessly for reform to stop the bleeding because they know there is an issue. The culture has changed. The priorities have changed. I pray that we can make dramatic improvements for the next generation and I’m happy to pull up my sleeves and contribute to that cause, and I do, in several different roles. But in the meantime…. Every day my son came home from school his spark was dimmer and dimmer. Not because of any one thing. He had friends. He did well on his assignments. It was just taking everything he had in him to get through the day. He would come home a different person – a shell of the child that I sent off in the morning. Some introverted time allowed him to recharge and some family time helped reset him by bedtime. Happy and smiling, he usually went to bed, and by morning I’d send him off again to repeat this same process. My son is an honors student. There are many positive things about school he really enjoys and contributes to shaping his life. He’s smart as a whip, tests well, and knows way more than I do already. His brain is a sponge and he enjoys learning used to enjoy learning. But somewhere along the line, we were all taught that academic learning trumped everything, and “school is the most important thing“. Because of this, it felt totally natural that we kept sending our son back into an environment that was crushing his spirit, on the daily. We certainly could continue this path of “perseverance”. There are many lessons to be learned there. We could send him into middle school into an environment that will be 100x more difficult for him than the one he’s in now. We can continue to stick this square peg in that round hole and “make it work”. In all likelihood, he’ll survive. He’ll adapt and he will make it work. He will “get through it” just fine. But when did we allow ourselves to life a life of just “getting through it”? My deepest fear is that we DO make it work. And the result is a different child on the other side of middle school. One that he is not meant to be. That we might lose the best parts of him and all of the positive attributes of his personality will be gone for the sake of “academics” simply because he’s just surviving. Education is not THE most important thing in life. Therefore, it should not be the CENTER of our life. You know what is the center of our lives? Jesus. Family. Ministry. An academic education is important. VERY important. But it still falls below all of those things in our household that are more important. We have other options now for getting an education and putting it in it’s proper place in the “Priority Pyramid”. If you were to ask me 10 years ago I would not have even considered Homeschooling. The very idea still overwhelms me. Not the work ahead, but the idea of being responsible for my –smart as a whip– son’s education because I’m worried I won’t be able to challenge him and push him to the best of his abilities because I am under-qualified and under-equipped. Thankfully there are online academies now. Virtual teachers. Co-ops, support groups…. so many things. For the last year I’ve been sponging up all of the information that I can to confirm we’re making the right decision. Reading every book I can and talking to as many homeschool Mamas I can find. If you are a full-time working homeschool Mama, please contact me, because YOU are hard to find! Bonus points if you are self-employed! lol And if there is one thing I have learned in this life, is that God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. So thankfully, my qualifications don’t even matter at all. No matter the cause, it’s not the “systems” job to ensure the social and emotional health of our children. It’s ours – the parents. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is calling us to change this path for my son’s well being, and that public school is not longer the place he’s meant to spend his days. Maybe not forever, but until I know otherwise. I trust that the Lord knows what is best for my kids, even if that means scared-mommy-is-now-teacher. It’s fine. We’ll be fine. We’re all fine. I have no idea how we’re going to do this, but I know why we’re going to do this and that means we’re right where we should be. Trusting God means that you move forward anyway, even if it feels like you are behind the wheel with a blindfold on, on a bridge, at night, alone. lol We kindof a plan: For this year, we’re going to try a combination of all the things. We’re signed up for one online class at Liberty Online University Academy, because MATH, (and I don’t mean, accounting, taxes, and mortgages kind of MATH – I love those – I mean, algebra, trig, and calculus kind of MATH)… I just ain’t doin’ it and you can’t make me! He’ll have a teacher. She/he can be the mean one. I’ll get to be the supportive Mom. Win. For the rest we’ll do a combination of online resources, books, projects, trips, documentaries and “unschooling”. Mostly Unschooling, which Greyson and I are extremely excited about. We need to deprogram ourselves from trying to duplicate “school at home” and find a rhythm that works for both of us. Speaking of: “How does Greyson feel about this?”, is usually the question I’ve been asked when I’ve talked to friends and family. He’s thrilled. The moment I brought this idea to him months ago he sighed a big exhale and said “Thank GOD.” Not because he won’t be in school, but because the second I brought up the subject with him, he said he felt a huge weight lifted off him. I offered to let him start before the end of the year, but he declined – he said he wanted to “finish well”. I guess we’re learning perseverance after all. It’s also with his permission and blessing that I’m sharing all of this because we both feel like there are others out there like us who feel the same and maybe this will help just one person. He’s been making a list of all the things he’d like to learn. It’s HUGE. Pray for us, me, pretty please. He’s looking forward to marrying all his worlds together to live the life that God designed for him. While Harmony is slightly tempted to join us on the homeschool train, for now she’s decided to stay at her “awful” school until God tells her otherwise. Since there’s no time like to present to teach technology skills and since I have no plans to turn this into a Mommy Homeschool blog, if you’d like to follow Greyson’s homeschool adventures, you can do so here: www.greysonsgrotto.com. After he learns some wordpress skills, he’ll be journaling his way through homeschool to serve as double duty for his tech skills and eventual record keeping of what he’s been learning. Apparently New Jersey requires zero testing, annual transcripts, or report cards… AMEN, so… he’ll be blogging to track his progress. I’m looking forward to this next season. I’m grateful that God has changed my heart completely. That it’s possible that something I had zero desire for, now truly excites me. Something I was completely intimidated about, now seems quite possible. To any Mama out there reading this thinking, “I could never homeschool my kids”… I will just repeat what my wise friend Angela said to me several years ago …. “Yes, you can.” Angelsea Urban is an entrepreneur and portrait photographer helping families to nourish their homes and cultivate their businesses through meaningful portrait photography and business management consulting for entrepreneurs. She serves in several ministries both locally and nationally, and in pro bono work for many non-profit organizations. As a consultant, Angelsea has elevated the careers of restaurateurs, photographers, writers, musicians and general small business owners by planting firm foundations and building clear action plans for long-term success. Her unique photography work focuses on Redefining the Family Portrait Experience® by creating a space to strengthen family bonds. She has photographed for celebrities, Bravo TV, NFL Films, and local families and has been published in magazine print and multiple blogs for her work in photography and in strategic business management practices. Angelsea also teaches both subjects in various conferences and workshops across the country and resides with her husband of 21 years, their two children, and barely 3 pound Yorkie near Long Beach Island, New Jersey.  Her passions include Jesus, traveling, creating art of any kind, writing, nachos, essential oil everything, and spending time with her cramazing family. For education and consulting inquiries, please visit www.urbanrg.com Ellen says: June 22, 2019 at 12:44 am Kudos Angie and Greyson! Not 100% on board with with everything but definitely on much. Especially about education not being the most important thing and not trying to fit a round peg in a square hole (think David!). David struggled so terribly at Greyson’s age for a lot of reasons, some different from Grey’s but some very similar, but I would have never had the courage to do what you’re doing. Best of luck and much love	16,836
This was a trip organized by Michael Reichmann as a workshop on a boat traveling on the Amazon River. We photographed a great deal from the boat and often went out in smaller crafts to explore areas where the large boat could not navigate. The river was fascinating to all but particularly for me. I had never been in this kind of environment in my life and was overwhelmed by the exotic wilderness of the vegetation. We were specifically told to buy a “condom” to protect the camera from the rain. We all dutifully bought one. Unfortunately they were useless because the wind always resulted in horizontally driven rain, which meant the lens surface were under water…oh well. Of course it was still the people who fascinated me–uninhibited, pleasant, curious, and friendly. Obviously photographers had not come too often. Add to Cart Pay by credit card, check, or over the phone (This intro is from Amazon I) This was a trip organized by Michael Reichmann as a workshop on a boat traveling on the Amazon River. We photographed a great deal from the boat and often went out in smaller crafts to explore areas where the large boat could not navigate. The river was fascinating to all but particularly for me. I had never been in this kind of environment in my life and was overwhelmed by the exotic wilderness of the vegetation. We were specifically told to buy a “condom” to protect the camera from the rain. We all dutifully bought one. Unfortunately they were useless because the wind always resulted in horizontally driven rain, which meant the lens surface were under water…oh well. Of course it was still the people who fascinated me–uninhibited, pleasant, curious, and friendly. Obviously photographers had not come too often.	1,883
Chimp Investor is ranked #3 of 90 by Blog Overview and #10 of 100 by FeedSpot in their relevant categories. If you enjoy reading this blog, please post a review on WealthTender. Will tighter monetary policy in the US induce a gentle easing in labour market pressures or something unpleasant? The FT's Unhedged newsletter last week set out clearly the arguments with respect to the soft versus hard landing debate in the US and, by implication, other advanced economies. Key protagonists on the soft landing side of the debate include Fed governor Christopher Waller and Fed chairman Jerome Powell, while on the hard side are the likes of former IMF chief economist Oliver Blanchard, and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers. The FT's chief economics commentator Martin Wolf also sides with the hard guys. (To be clear, the difference between a hard and soft landing is whether in a recession there is a meaningful rise in unemployment.) The reason this is so important for investors is that the hardness/softness of the landing will determine how risky assets perform over the next year or so. It is of course important for workers too - unemployment can be a traumatic experience. What is fascinating is that both sides in the debate use the same mathematical construct known as the Beveridge Curve to prove their case. They cannot both be right so one of them must have used a sleight of hand - an assumption that does not stand up to scrutiny or a factual error. This post tries to identify the culprit. (BTW, the Beveridge Curve plots vacancy rates against unemployment rates and can be derived both theoretically and empirically. The vacancy rate is calculated by dividing the number of jobs being advertised by labour demand, the latter being filled plus vacant positions. In other words, it represents the percentage of labour demand that is unsatisfied. Thus, the higher the vacancy rate, the tighter the labour market. Currently, the labour market in the US - and indeed in other key economies - is currently very tight. Not only is the unemployment rate at a very low 3.5pct (July) but the vacancy rate is also very high at around 7pct.) The case for a soft landing was set out in a speech on 30 May this year by member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Christopher Waller. The argument has received support from other Fed members, including chairman Jerome Powell. Waller's paper was rebutted in July by Oliver Blanchard, Lawrence Summers, and Alex Domash. Two further rebuttals, one from each side, followed. I shall henceforth call these four papers, S1, H1, S2, and H2. Chart 1 below is from S1 and is of actual unemployment and vacancy rates from December 2000 to December 2019 - blue dots. The regular line of black dots is the "fitted relationship between the log of vacancies and the log of unemployment over this period" and represents the empirically derived Beveridge Curve. However, Waller calls this line "predicted" not "fitted" - in a later slide he uses the same black line and calls it "fitted". It is not clear why he uses different terminology in the two slides but in my opinion describing the line as predicted implies that it is a theoretical construct which it isn't. Chart 1 (from S1): Actual unemployment and vacancy rates from December 2000 to December 2019 Chart 2 below depicts four theoretical "steady state" curves - coloured - and the empirically derived Beveridge Curve - black - from Chart 1 - note in the legend the use of the term "fitted" rather than "predicted". The curves, whether the theoretical steady state curves or the empirically derived curve, are convex. This intuitively makes sense: when the labour market is tight, rises in vacancies generate fewer and fewer hires, resulting in smaller reductions in unemployment. This issue of convexity is important later so bear it in mind. A steady state curve represents the relationship between unemployment and vacancy rates assuming that unemployment is not changing i.e. it is steady. Each of the four coloured curves represents a different separations rate, the separations rate being a measure of the rate at which people are losing or leaving their jobs i.e. becoming unemployed. So, for a separations rate of 1.5pct - green line - unemployment would be steady if unemployment/vacancy rates were 6pct/4pct, or 10pct/1pct, the former representing a stronger growth environment, the latter a weaker one. Now, steady states do not exist in the real world since separations and thus unemployment rates are always rising or falling. In other words, as economies expand and contract, unemployment/vacancy rate pairs jump from one coloured curve to another. Hence, the need to look at the empirically derived Beveridge Curve which indeed dissects the four coloured theoretical curves. For example, moving from where the black line crosses the blue line to where it crosses the orange line represents a rise in the separations rate from 1pct to 1.5pct. This rise in separations then causes the unemployment rate to rise and the vacancy rate to fall. Finally, there is one other parameter that determines the relationship between unemployment and vacancy rates: matching efficiency. This is a measure of the extent to which those looking for jobs are suited to the jobs being advertised. The curves in Chart 2 assume that matching efficiency is fixed. However, in the real world, matching efficiency rises and falls over the cycle, and causes the curves to shift down and left - better matching efficiency - or up and right - worse. Chart 2 (from S1): Beveridge Curves and Recoveries Chart 3 is the same as Chart 1 except the post-covid recovery is included and the empirically derived Beveridge Curve is omitted. If the empirically derived Beveridge Curve was included it would not come close to the Mar 2022 data point. Again, keep this in mind for later. Chart 3 (from S1): Vacancies and unemployment The three different groupings of blue dots - curves - represent distinct periods. Not only do they represent distinct periods, but they also contain a direction of travel, a chronology within the groupings. Thus, in Chart 4 I have annotated Chart 3 with arrows. Arrow 1 depicts the eight years leading up to the 2008 crisis during which unemployment gradually rose, then shot up during the crisis itself. Arrow 2 represents the recovery period that followed the 2008 crisis, up to just prior to the pandemic outbreak. Arrow 3 relates to the very rapid jump in unemployment from 4.4pct to 14.7pct in April 2020 - the dots are monthly readings, so this one-month jump does not show up in Charts 3 or 4 as a series of dots. Arrow 4 is the post-covid period of recovery since April 2020. Chart 4: Four curves representing four distinct periods Waller's argument is that the vacancy rate - labour market pressure - can fall, thus easing inflation pressure, without causing joblessness to rise, a soft landing. His argument is presented visually in Chart 5 as the red arrow. (Forget for the time being the suggestion that when the vacancy rate falls to where it was prior to the pandemic and the unemployment rises slightly to around 4pct, there will be no wage/inflation pressure. A challenge to this assumption is for another blog post.) Chart 5: What the soft landers expect (red arrow) Waller then supports his argument for the Arrow 5 scenario by overlaying the top left part of Chart 4, specifically the points representing Jan 2019 and March 2022, with a curve that assumes a fixed separations rate - see Chart 6 below. In order for the curve to pass through the Mar 2022 point, a separations rate of 1.23pct is required, which Waller notes is "a little above current levels". In other words, it reflects reality. The final part of Waller's argument is that to get back to the vacancy rate of 4.5pct that prevailed in Jan 2020 prior to the pandemic, we can travel down the curve to point B (Chart 6), which would imply a gentle rise in the unemployment rate to around 4.2-4.3pct, not significantly different to the unemployment rate of 4.0pct in Jan 2020. The convexity of the curves is key to Waller's argument. Convexity means that curves become steeper as the labour market tightens i.e. in the top left. Moreover, Waller uses a curve with a fixed separations rate of 1.23pct which is much steeper in the top left than the empirically derived curve, allowing him to argue that a decline in the vacancy rate will not be accompanied by a meaningful increase in unemployment. Chart 6 (from S1): Beveridge Curve and future unemployment I believe Waller has used a sleight of hand in relation to the separations rate. First, he has used a curve that assumes the separations rate is fixed - at 1.23pct - arguing that this - rather than a real world, empirically derived curve that sees separations rates changing over the course of the business cycle - should be used when vacancy rates are high as they are now. Second, I cannot find support for his note that the separations rate of 1.23pct that he uses to produce his curve is "a little above current levels". In his paper he rightly points out that separations from employment include layoffs and quits, but then he says that, "Separations consist largely of layoffs". This is blatantly false! In June, total separations numbered 5.931 million, of which layoffs were just 1.327 million. Quits on the other hand totalled 4.237 million. In other words, separations consist largely of quits not layoffs! It is possible that he said that separations consist largely of layoffs so that to calculate a separations rate he could use layoffs only - 1.327 million layoffs divided by total number of jobs of 152.536 million is 0.9pct which would justify the "a little above current levels" remark. Using total separations gives a separations rate of 3.9pct. The curve based on this rate would pass nowhere near the Mar 2022 point in Chart 6, thus nullifying Waller's argument. In his closing remarks, Waller says, "I’m not arguing that the unemployment rate will end up exactly as the Beveridge curve I’ve drawn [Chart 6] suggests. But I do think it quite plausible that the unemployment rate will end up in the vicinity of what the Beveridge curve currently predicts." Again, if the curve that he has drawn is wrong, whether because separations are not fixed, or because the separation rate is in fact far higher than his 1.23pct, his argument crumbles. Now, onto H1, the first rebuttal, which makes two points: The shift in the curve from pre-covid Arrows 1/2 to post-covid Arrow 4 (Chart 5 above) represents a deterioration in matching efficiency and/or higher reallocation and thus an increase in the natural rate of unemployment. In other words, the labour market is much tighter than may be suggested by the current unemployment rate. Intuitively, it makes sense that covid induced a deterioration in matching efficiency. For example, companies keen to make supply lines more secure by repatriating manufacturing may have found that there were insufficient workers willing to fill such jobs. Lockdowns and quarantine would also have disrupted matching. Arrow 5 (Chart 5) is not in fact a move down a very steep curve (Chart 6) as Waller suggests, but, according to the authors of H1, a jump from one curve to another. Such a jump would necessarily require a strong improvement in matching efficiency which, according to the authors of H1, has never happened before. The H1 line of reasoning is visualised in Chart 7 below. The authors point out that moving from B to A (depicted in Charts 5 and 6) as Waller and other Fed officials would like would, requires an improvement in matching - improved matching efficiency/lower reallocation - that has simply never happened before, nor is supported by theory. Chart 7 (from H1): Stronger activity, lower matching efficiency, and higher reallocation H1 states: Going back to figure 3 [my Chart 7], a decrease in the equilibrium from B to A—which is what some Fed officials would like to achieve—would require a large downward shift of the matching relation. This could happen if either matching efficiency increased or reallocation decreased sufficiently. Figures 4b and 4c show that this is not happening so far, and there is little reason to expect it to happen: It is clear that the COVID-19 crisis will have substantial reallocation implications, especially as the implications of telework become more apparent. And it is not surprising that higher reallocation, with workers moving across sectors and across space, may lead to a sustained decline in matching efficiency. Tighter monetary policy, which will rotate the aggregate activity relation to the right, is unlikely to shift the matching relation at all. Thus, one must expect movements along the matching relation, with the decrease in vacancies associated with an increase in unemployment. Turning to the empirical evidence, looking at the historical relation between job vacancies and unemployment going back to the 1950s and analyzing the trajectory of unemployment after vacancies come down from a peak, there has never been a historical example where the job vacancy rate came down in a substantial way without a significant increase in unemployment. To look at the evidence over a long time period, one can extend the JOLTS vacancy series back to the 1950s using data constructed by Regis Barnichon (2010), who makes use of the Help-Wanted Index published by the Conference Board to create a vacancy rate series from 1951 to 2000. This is done in figure 5 [my Chart 8 below]. Figure 5 [my Chart 8] plots separately each vacancy rate peak plus and minus eight quarters to visualize the movement in the unemployment rate after each vacancy peak between 1951 and 2019. The eight quarters before a peak are shown in blue and the eight quarters after a peak are shown in orange (this is related to Diamond and Şahin (2015), who instead look at movements in unemployment and vacancies after each business cycle trough). The figure shows that in every historical example, the unemployment rate rose substantially in the eight quarters after the vacancy rate reached its maximum. Chart 8 (from H1): After vacancies reached a peak, the unemployment rate always rose as the vacancy rate fell Note: Vacancy rate peaks were determined using the quarter when vacancies reached a local maximum and were nonincreasing for two consecutive quarters. Quarterly data are calculated using the average monthly vacancy and unemployment rate within each quarter. The vacancy rate is defined as the total number of nonfarm job openings divided by the size of the labor force. Vacancy data from 2001 onwards use estimates from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, while vacancy data before 2001 use vacancy estimates constructed from Barnichon (2010) using the Help-Wanted Index published by the Conference Board. All values are seasonally adjusted. Figure is adapted from Diamond and Şahin (2015). Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS, Barnichon (2010); authors’ calculations. Sure enough, the Beveridge Curve has never moved vertically downwards as Waller suggests it can. As the authors of H1 state in relation to past recessions, "There was no free lunch, and there is no reason to expect one today." Interestingly, H1 does not pick up on Waller's sleight of hand in relation to incorrectly stating that "Separations consist largely of layoffs". I don't know whether I have got something wrong, whether they did not spot this, or whether they felt that mentioning it would unnecessarily complicate their argument which was not so much about where the curve was but whether one could travel vertically down it - no meaningful increase in unemployment. In relation to the first possibility, it is a statement of fact that separations do not consist largely of layoffs, so if I have got something wrong it is in relation to something else. Onto the second rebuttal, S2, written by Andrew Figura, Associate Director Program Direction Section Research and Statistics at the Fed, and Christopher Waller, published on 29 July. Cutting straight to the chase, S2 states that the difference between its and H1's framework is that H1's does not take account of separations while its does. Moreover, it states that, "Separations increase importantly in business cycle downturns, and most research attributes to separations a key role in driving cyclical movements in unemployment. As a result, a model that excludes separations will have a hard time explaining movements in unemployment." This statement appears to include a blatant error, namely that if S2 states that "Separations increase importantly", why does S1 use a curve based on a fixed separations rate of 1.23pct in Chart 6? Also, to repeat, the actual separations rate, based on June data, is 3.9pct, the curve for which goes nowhere the March 2020 data point, thus not supporting Waller's argument. Finally, onto the third rebuttal, H2, written by Blanchard, Domash, and Summers, and published last Monday, 1 August. The authors write, "We looked at their note [S2] with interest, in the hope of being educated on a more optimistic view of the American economy’s soft landing prospect. Unfortunately, our judgment is that it contains misleading conclusions, errors, and factual mistakes." Strong stuff. H2 points out, as I have above, that S1 and S2 used a theoretical curve that is very steep in the top left to argue their case, rather than one of the many empirically derived curves for various post war recessions, or an average thereof, which are all much flatter. H2 also notes that the historical case that most closely resembles today was prior to the 1969/70 recession, the slope for which was quite flat. The authors do note that, "Given that the current vacancy rate is outside of historical experience, anything is obviously possible. But based on the evidence, we see no reason to change our conclusions." H2 also rebuts S2's claim that it did not take account of separations in its framework. H2's point is that in steady state, separations are equal to hirings, and therefore that they can be used interchangeably - H2 uses hirings rather than separations. Where there is a difference, according to H2, is in relation to the definition of the hiring rate, what S1 calls the job finding rate. H1 calculates the hiring rate by dividing hires by the labour force - number of employed plus number of unemployed. S1 calculates it by dividing hires by number of employed only. Since the unemployment rate is low, this difference is immaterial. Finally, H2 notes that S1/S2 argue that, during the global financial crisis, from 2007 to 2009, separations increased by 50 percent; it is easy to check that, in fact, separations decreased during that period by 22 percent. (This may seem surprising, given the large decrease in employment. It reflects the fact that quits decreased more than layoffs increased during that period.) H2's conclusion states that, We understand the desire of senior officials to hold out the soft landing prospect of a return to target inflation without spiking unemployment. Yet this desire cannot justify flawed analysis or incorrect criticism of serious work on the issue. Ouch. I have not seen a further rebuttal from the soft landers but if one is published it will have to address the hard landers' very serious accusations. The hard landers argue that for labour market and inflation pressures to ease, unemployment must rise sharply. The soft landers such as Fed chairman Jerome Powell and other senior Fed members, argue that there is a path to a soft landing i.e. that inflation pressures can be eased without a significant rise in unemployment. I could not see any factual errors made by the hard landers in their two papers, and they certainly appeared able to bat away easily all accusations thrown at them by the other side. However, the hards appear to have found factual errors in the softs' two papers, ones that have not been rebutted. Furthermore, it appears that I picked up on a factual error made by the softs that the hards did not spot, namely the one about separations consisting largely of layoffs. They don't! I conclude that a) it is likely that unemployment will rise sharply as the vacancy rate falls - a hard landing and, b) Fed officials are using dodgy economics. Hard landings are bad, but when the most important economists at the most important central bank in the most important economy in the world start using dodgy and factually incorrect arguments, we should all be concerned. The views expressed in this communication are those of Peter Elston at the time of writing and are subject to change without notice. They do not constitute investment advice and whilst all reasonable efforts have been used to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this communication, the reliability, completeness or accuracy of the content cannot be guaranteed. This communication provides information for professional use only and should not be relied upon by retail investors as the sole basis for investment. © Chimp Investor Ltd monetary policy 48 views0 comments Post not marked as liked Related Posts Post not marked as liked Post not marked as liked Post not marked as liked Receive posts direct from The Chimp by email Note: subscription to emails is not the same as membership of the site. In addition to emails, membership allows the posting of comments etc. The membership area is here. Email Address Thanks for subscribing! ABOUT I am based in London. I will see any comments you append to posts, be thankful for them, and may very well respond to them, but if you’d like to contact me directly click here.	22,096
For many of us, before we became parents, or as we began our parental journeys, we were warned about the “Terrible Twos” - that age when... 6 comments 1 like. Post not marked as liked1 Pensacola is a beautiful city along the Florida Panhandle, and it was here that I was so honored to have been invited to give the Sunday...	350
Lauren Hough, author of "Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing," on growing up in a cult, engaging in Twitter fights, and why we should hate people and move on Photo by arash payam Apr 13, 2021 Lauren Hough grew up in The Family, an international doomsday cult that preached free sex as a means to bring you closer to God and corporeal punishment for difficult children—of which Hough was one. Often desperately poor, her parents dragged her from Chile to Argentina to Germany to Japan to Texas. After joining the Air Force, she was court-martialed for setting her own car on fire—and acquitted, as it wasn’t true. Shortly thereafter she was kicked out for being gay. After that, she found gigs as a bouncer in a gay club, a bartender, a barista, and a cable guy (she notably worked on the cable of Dick Cheney, to whom she made a quip about waterboarding). She’s lived out of her car, gotten into a few fistfights, spent time in jail, done a lot of drugs, and experienced her fair share of tumultuous romance. She’s also loved the hell out of her dog, Teddy, packing up her home in Texas and moving to Cape Cod because it was a better climate for his failing health. In other words, Hough has been around the block. And has stared down misogyny, homophobia, and classism. Lucky for us, she’s here to tell about it. Her collection of essays Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing is by turns vulnerable, outraged, riotously funny, heart-crushing, and hopeful. These bare-chested journeys into Hough’s life provide glimpses into worlds some will be familiar with, others not. Regardless, the emotional gut-punch will knock the wind out of you. But the sheer beauty of her unstinting tenderness for the world, despite the outrage, provides a new kind of solace. Jane Ratcliffe: You write “sometimes what looks like depression is your brain slowing down enough to think” and “maybe depression’s the natural reaction to a world full of cruelty and pain.” We do seem to exhaust ourselves trying to be happy in this unstable world as if it’s our perceptions that are wrong, and not what’s actually happening. Lauren Hough: You usually develop coping mechanisms with depression, and one is learning that your brain is lying to you; that things aren’t really that dark; and if you hold on, things will get better. But this year? It seems absurd to not be a little depressed about the world at large right now. And I think everybody’s experiencing the reality that is depression. We’re all in it. So weirdly I’ve been less depressed this year. I’ve talked to other people who have been battling depression for longer periods of time. Same. I think the coping mechanisms that you develop for depression have been useful, but at the same time… I’m not being very articulate here. Why wouldn’t you be depressed right now? It seems absurd to not be a little depressed about the world at large right now. And I think everybody’s experiencing the reality that is depression. We’re all in it. JR: Are you saying it’s almost a relief not to have to engage the coping mechanisms? LH: Usually the societal demand is that no matter how depressed you are, you pretend to be all right. You pretend to be happy. And you get through your day. And that’s supposed to somehow help you. But, yeah, now there’s no pressure, you can just be depressed. It’s fine. You can not answer emails for a few days. Everyone gets it. We’re all starting emails with “I hope this email finds you… I just hope it finds you.” JR: That’s how I start mine! You’re so good at articulating your despair and horror and fury and disappointment and it’s all so bang on. But all through the book I found myself wondering what gives Lauren hope. And does it counter any of the trauma you’ve lived through? LH: It absolutely does. You really have two choices: you can have hope or you can have despair. With despair you can’t get out of bed, you can’t function, so you have to have hope. Where you find it? Hope is something I think you practice having. You work on it. It’s a physical effort sometimes to keep it. I think if you exercise it, if you fill your life when you can with the beauty that is in this world, then when you need it you hope it’ll be there JR: You have this persona, in a certain way, of being such a hard ass. In fact, when I asked one of my friends if she had any questions for you she said, “No, she scares me.” Yet you strike me as so tender. I think you hold both. What you just said was tender and thoughtful. But then on Twitter, you are kind of this champion: you defend a lot of marginalized people, you speak truth to power, you take on a lot of bullies. And in return, you get a lot of abuse. I was surprised when I was reading your book to discover that you had spent so much of your life keeping yourself small and trying to dodge conflict. What changed? And are you really handling all the abuse that comes your way as well as you seem to be? LH: It shocks me when people tell me I’m intimidating. But sure, we’re all a little braver online. That’s why people feel free to hurl weird abuse at me because I’m not standing in front of them. I know this is a ridiculous thing to say for someone who wrote a memoir, but I am a very private person. I am extremely sensitive. And, yeah, there have been days when the Twitter abuse made me cry and I had to shut off. But you learn to only look at it if you’re capable of laughing it off. If I’m feeling a little more touchy, I will not look at my mentions. You can pick a fight on Twitter, or one will come at you. And there’s sort of a demand that you stand there and take all of the abuse. If you go private, people think they won. But if they were standing on your lawn screaming at you, and you shut your door, that wouldn’t be a victory. That’s all it is, that sometimes you just have to shut the door and let them scream themselves out. They get bored and move on eventually. Societal demand is that no matter how depressed you are, you pretend to be alright. You pretend to be happy. And that’s supposed to somehow help you. At some point, I figured out there’s no point to having 60,000 followers if I wasn’t using that to try to help someone else. But I’m learning I need to start building a couple walls there and maybe not share everything because there’s a parasocial relationship that happens where people believe that they know you and they own you. They get very angry if you don’t match the expectation that they’ve built up you. They’ll see me make fun of a bully on Twitter and throw all manner of abuse at me and be shocked that it affects me. That I block them or lock the door. I don’t really understand the reaction I get from people entirely. I’m just being me. But just like you write a book and put it out in the world and have no idea how people are going to take it, what people are going to do with it. Once you let it loose, it becomes theirs. JR: You swear a lot in your writing. What is it you love about that form of language? LH: There are so many restrictions, especially on women’s speech. You’re told from the time you’re little to be more ladylike and speak softer. A lot of it developed in rebellion to that. I wasn’t going to speak more softly or edit the words that came out of my mouth. They’re useful words. I am absolutely sure I’m going to get Goodreads reviews that are solely about my profanity. I am really excited for them. JR: You write: “One thing I learned late in life is there are people who are shocked when bad things happen to them. More than that. They expect good things to happen. There are others who tell you to think positive thoughts and focus on something pretty and the universe will hand it to you…I’m not one of those people…I’ve learned, if not to expect the worst, to not be surprised by the worst.” Positive thinking can seem woo-woo. But thinking negatively can be draining. JR: You have this unique lens through which to view Trump and QAnon. Could you talk about that? LH: I don’t think we have the word for what’s happening. There was only so much of a reach for a cult before this. Unless you go back to Germany, but they weren’t sharing things on Facebook. There weren’t a thousand ways to get into it and a thousand recruiting methods. Yes, it’s cult-like. Yes, they get the same things that you get from a cult; they get the camaraderie and the brotherhood and feeling like they’re part of something and have a purpose. And the big-ticket item, thinking you have the secret to life. The ritual of watching (and quoting) my favorite comedy culture But they don’t have to do anything for it. All they have to do is hit share on Facebook. They’ve done their part. You don’t have to go join a commune and you don’t have to give up everything you own. You don’t have to give your money to anybody even. Although I’m sure there are people who will take it. I don’t know that we have the vocabulary for this yet. It’s interesting, and terrifying. I know it’s providing the same high, but I don’t know where it ends. I don’t know what happens without Trump. Generally, when a cult leader dies off, it either becomes a religion or it disbands. I guess we’re about to find out. JR: Do you feel like you’re reliving what you’ve already lived through? LH: Yeah, every day. It is absolutely bizarre. I’m very proud that all we were in was a dumb little cult. And not storming a Capitol. It has been surreal to watch. How reasonably intelligent people buy into whatever the fuck this is. The recipe was there. It always has been in America. The desperation. Our lives revolve around work, and there’s no way to get ahead. And when someone offers you a golden ticket, it’s really easy to buy into that. We don’t have the sense of community we should. People just kind of live in the suburbs on their own. So someone comes and offers them a purpose and unconditional love and someone to blame for all their problems. It’s really easy to buy in. I’m stumped as anyone else. JR: You write about the shame you experienced growing up, living out of your car, later getting kicked out of the military for being gay, and having to do whatever you needed to do to survive. You trained yourself to hide your emotions and smile and carry on. Firstly, you can articulate what you were ashamed of? Because, while it’s understandable, you weren’t actually causing anyone any harm in any of those situations. And secondly, can you speak to how shame can be used against people? Or possibly be beneficial? There’s no way to get ahead. So someone comes and offers purpose and unconditional love and someone to blame for all their problems. It’s really easy to buy in. LH: The great thing about shame as a motivator is it doesn’t really have to have a source. You can just install it by telling someone they’re supposed to be ashamed. You hear that enough and you start feeling it, internalize it. It’s the classic motivator of the abuser to perpetuate what they want to do. If you can get someone too ashamed to talk about it, they won’t talk about it, and you have control. Every religion that I know of uses shame as a control mechanism. And shame has a place in society. We get into a whole lot of discussions about cancel culture, depending on who you are and how you want to word it. We used to just say, “that person’s an asshole. And they’re irrelevant.” They weren’t canceled; we’d all just agree they’re an asshole. So, yes, shame has its purpose in society. But anything that you use to control people can have bad side. Shame definitely has one. JR: Do you still carry a lot of that shame that built up over the years? LH: I don’t know when I lost that. I hang onto a little bit of it. I think writing about it helps. I liken it in the book to coming out of the closet and it’s pretty accurate. Once you come out it’s an almost instant release of that shame. It doesn’t survive the daylight. JR: I love hearing that. Linked with that, I wondered what your thoughts were on forgiveness. If you feel like it’s necessary to heal or get to a better place in your life. I’m hating like twelve people right now. It requires no energy whatsoever. I just hate them and move on with my day. LH: It depends on if you want to keep someone in your life or not. If you want to have relationships with people, yes, you have to forgive because we all hurt each other, intentionally or not, constantly. We have a way of demanding forgiveness from people who have no reason to give it to us. I’m not a huge fan of it as a concept. I think if you love someone and you want to keep them in your life, you forgive them. And if you don’t, there’s no need to; you can just not deal with that person. And that’s fine, too. JR: Do you feel like by not forgiving, it eats away at you in any way? LH: Yeah, go on Instagram and there are hundreds of quotes about how hatred will eat your soul alive. But, I mean, I’m hating like twelve people right now. It requires no energy whatsoever. I just hate them and move on with my day. If you ask me about them it’s “yeah, I hate that fucker.” I think maybe it’s healthy for those of us who were taught you have to forgive everybody to learn to hold a little bit hatred in your heart because it keeps you from getting hurt again by that person. Like every other goddamn thing, there’s balance. And this is why we’re in therapy. JR: Your essays are often laugh-out-loud funny yet you’re writing about such painful stuff. You write that this is a direct result of growing up in constant fear. What’s the connection between humor and fear? LH: Humans are great that way. You can go through the saddest moment of your life and be laughing about it. The hardest I’ve probably laughed in the past year is when I was burying my dog. My nephew and I were discussing how to get the body out of the trunk in the back of my car. You know, is that the head and is that the feet and he might have pooped. He was wrapped in a blanket. We thought the person standing behind us was my niece. It was the pizza guy. Who took off. And that’s when we realized that we had just given a pizza guy a story about the time he showed up at a house and people were moving a body into a wheelbarrow. It’s still funny to me. It’s still funny that you can dig a grave in your backyard and your neighbor will come out and look and go right back inside. We’re all just trying to hold it together. I think humor is the way we learn to deal with things. I don’t know how you come out of that without a sense of humor and have any semblance of sanity or any hope whatsoever. You have to think it’s funny. And a lot of it is objectively funny. It’s a skill you develop. A defense mechanism, absolutely. It can get really grating if you’re trying to have an emotional moment with me and I’m cracking jokes. But it has its use. It releases tension. It gives you something to do with the pain until you figure out how to how to get rid of it. JR: As you were writing about growing up in a cult and being kicked out the military and all these experiences, did you develop more tenderness for yourself? LH: I think I developed more tenderness for other people. I was angrier when I started that book than when I finished it. There’s some argument I was having with a girlfriend at some point and in writing this scene—and it’s been a good 20 years where I’d been really damn sure who the asshole was in that situation—and it turns out it was me. I was completely fucking wrong. I hope she doesn’t read the book! I have more compassion for everyone involved, myself included. You know that morning where your aunts are like, “go play outside.” At some point you realize they were hungover as shit. That is a lot of noise that children make. You thought your parents were supposed to have answers; why the fuck would they, they were 20. We’re all just trying to hold it together. I think it takes a little bit of age to realize that your parents weren’t any different. Most of the people in your life weren’t any different. If someone is convinced they have all the answers, that’s not the first person you want to hang out with. Take a break from the news We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven't read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Personalize your subscription preferences here. About the Author Jane Ratcliffe is a novelist and journalist. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Believer, The Sun Magazine, Guernica, and Longreads, amongst others. 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This website requires javascript to properly function. Consider activating javascript to get access to all site functionality. by jefftk37 min read6th Apr 201234 comments Immigration as an Anti-Poverty Program Changing Institutions: Greater Tax Break for True Charity Chinese Reforms Military Intervention Aid without stable government Genetically modifying ourselves to be more moral What charities does Peter Singer give to? Improving the world through commerce What makes Peter Singer happy? 34 comments In March 2009, Tyler Cowen (blog) interviewed Peter Singer about morality, giving, and how we can most improve the world. They are both thinkers I respect a lot, and I was excited to read their debate. Unfortunately the interview was available only as a video. I wanted a transcript, so I made one: Cowen: This is Tyler Cowen of George Mason University. I'm doing a BloggingHeads with Peter Singer, the world-famous philosopher from Princeton. This is a forum on Peter's latest book, which he'll start off by telling you a bit about. Singer: Hi. The book's called "The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty". It begins with an argument that I've used many times in articles about a child drowning in a pond, and suggests that if you saw a child drowning in a pond that you would jump in and save that child, and you think that is what you ought to do, even if it meant that you ruined an expensive pair of shoes that you were wearing. From there I pull back to saying "what does this mean about the problem of world poverty, given that there are, according to Unicef, ten million children dying of avoidable poverty-related causes every year?" We could save some of them, and probably it wouldn't cost us much more than the cost of an expensive pair of shoes if we find an effective aid agency that is doing something to combat the causes of world poverty, or perhaps to combat the deaths of children from simple conditions like diarrhea or measles, conditions that are not that hard to prevent or to cure. We could probably save a life for the cost of a pair of shoes. So why don't we? What's the problem here? Why do we think it's ok to live a comfortable, even luxurious, life while children are dying? In the book I explore various objections to that view, I don't find any of them really convincing. I look at some of the psychological barriers to giving, and I acknowledge that they are problems. And I consider also some of the objections to aid and questions raised by economists as to whether aid really works. In the end I come to a proposal by which I want to change the culture of giving. The aim of the book in a sense is to get us to internalize the view that not to do anything for those living in poverty, when we are living in luxury and abundance, is ethically wrong, that it's not just not a nice thing to do but that a part of living an ethically decent life is at least to do something significant for the poor. The book ends with a chapter in which I propose a realistic standard, which I think most people in the affluent world could meet without great hardship. It involves giving 1% of your income if you're in the bottom 90% of US taxpayers, scaling up through 5% and 10% and even more as you get into the top 10%, the top 5%, the top 1% of US taxpayers. But at no point is the scale I'm proposing what I believe is an excessively burdensome one. I've set up a website, thelifeyoucansave.com that people can go to in order to publicly pledge that they will meet this scale, because I think if people will do it publicly, that in itself will encourage other people to do it and, hopefully, the idea will spread. Cowen: Thank you, Peter. Let me first stress: I agree with most of what's in your book; I think we all could give more and should give more. It would be good for other people and it would be good for ourselves. But let me start off the dialogue by mentioning a few points where I don't completely agree with you. One thing that struck me about the book was some of the omissions. Immigration as an Anti-Poverty Program Cowen: For instance, in my view, what is by far the best anti-poverty program, the only one that's really been shown to work, and that's what's called "immigration". I don't even see the word "immigration" in your book's index. So why don't we spend a lot more resources allowing immigration, supporting immigration, lobbying for immigration? This raises people's incomes very dramatically, it's sustainable, for the most part it's also good for us. Why not make that the centerpiece of an anti-poverty platform? Singer: That's an interesting point, Tyler. I suppose, one question I'd like to ask is: is it sustainable? Isn't it the case that if we take, as immigrants, the people who are the most enterprising, perhaps, of the poor countries that we're still going to leave those countries in poverty, and their populations may continue to rise, and eventually, even if we keep taking immigrants, we will reach a capacity where we're starting to strain our own country? Cowen: There's two separate issues: one is "brain drain" from the third world. I think here's a lot of research by [Michael Clemens], showing that it's not a problem, that third world countries that have even somewhat functional institutions tend to benefit by sending people to other countries. India's a good example: a lot of Indians return to India and start businesses, or they send money back home. Mexico is another example. Maybe North Korea is somewhat different, but for the most part immigration seems to benefit both countries. I don't think we could have open borders; I don't think we could have unlimited immigration, but we're both sitting here in the United States and it hardly seems to me that we're at the breaking point. Immigrants would benefit much more: their wages would rise by a factor of twenty or more, and there would be perhaps some costs to us, but in a cost-benefit sense it seems far, far more effective than sending them money. Do you agree? Singer: I must admit that I haven't thought a lot about immigration as a way of dealing with world poverty. Obviously, from what you're saying, I should be thinking more about it, but I can't really say whether I agree until I have thought more about it. Changing Institutions: Greater Tax Break for True Charity Cowen: Let me try another question along related lines. I think one general way in which I think about your book differently than you do, is that you think more about giving. I'm a big advocate of giving, I've written a whole book myself on philanthropy, but I think somewhat more in terms of changing institutions. So another thing we might consider doing, along the lines of what you advocate, is to increase the tax benefits of giving. Right now, if you're itemizing deductions and you give $1, you deduct $1 from your taxes. But it wouldn't be very difficult to make it the case that for certain kinds of giving you could deduct $1.10 from your taxes or $1.20. Would you favor this kind of reform? Singer: I might favor that, if giving were defined more narrowly than we do, in the US anyway, because I know I can deduct $1 from my taxes whether I give to Oxfam America, which I think is an effective organization fighting world poverty, or if I give to the Met so they can buy yet another painting to add to the already super-abundant collection of paintings they have. I don't see why the taxpayer should subsidize me if I decide I want to give to the Met but sure, if I'm giving to Oxfam I think that would be good. Cowen: So, in other words, you favor a kind of tax cut as a way to help the world's poor. That, in this country, if targeted properly, tax policy, in essence cutting the taxes of rich people, is one of the very best ways to help the world's poor. Would you sign on to that? Singer: I'm not quite sure why it is ... you seem to have leapt a little from what I was saying and I haven't followed the leap as to why cutting taxes for the rich would be one of the most effective ways of helping the poor. Can you explain that a little more? Cowen: If we give a greater tax break to charitable donations, and here I mean only true charity, not say a fancy art museum, disproportionately this will benefit wealthy people. Wealthy people have a lot of money. In essence you're cutting their taxes. They're giving more, they may not have a higher level of consumption, but would you be willing to raise your hand and say "I, Peter Singer, think that cutting taxes on the US wealthy is in fact one of the very best things we could do for the world's poor, if we do it the right way"? Yes or no? Singer: Yes, if the tax break only goes to those of the wealthy who are giving to organizations that are effectively helping the poor, I'll raise my hand to that. Cowen: OK; I'm glad to hear that. Cowen: Let me focus on another point of difference between us in the book. I think when it comes to the effectiveness of aid, I'm not a total skeptic on the effectiveness of aid but I think I'm more skeptical than you are. In a number of places you site the work of Jeffrey Sachs. Now my view of Sachs is that his projects are actually doing individual human beings a lot of good but the return on investment I don't think is that high. I think he's improving the health of a lot of people but I don't think he's going to raise any villages, much less countries or continents, out of poverty. Given that my view is that the rate of return on this investment is much lower, and I think that the economics profession as a whole agrees with me, not with Sachs, this to me suggests that to really make a dent in world poverty we would have to give much more than 5% of our incomes, even more than 10%, that we're simply at a point where we can do some good, but that to abolish poverty we would have to engage in a very dramatic redistribution. What's your view on this? Singer: Firstly, I think, as for whether Sachs is really going to succeed in raising villages out of poverty, I think the data isn't in yet. The Millennium Villages project which he's working on has only been going a few years, I think we need to give it maybe another five years to see whether it's working. That's more or less what he's said. He hopes that the aid will be short term, that the villages will become self-sustaining, the improvements will last, they'll be out of the poverty trap. If that hasn't happened at the end of another five years I'm going to agree with you that we're going to need more, but I think it's really too early to call the result on that one. Cowen: Take the overall opinion of economists, which is again that Sachs's projects can do good, people in those villages might be better off, but if you're in the middle of, say, a totally corrupt African country which is not democratic, which maybe has been fighting wars, which has an absolutely horrible infrastructure, which has a bureaucracy, a kleptocracy, massive problems, lack of literacy, that maybe you could eliminate infectious diseases or malaria within that village. People will be better off, it's worth doing, but at the end of the day is there really any reason to think, given the last 300 years of thinking and writing on development and economic history that this will at all cure poverty? Doesn't it just mean you'll have poor people without malaria, which is better than poor people with malaria, but they're still essentially poor people? Singer: If the governments and the situation is as bad as you describe, you're probably right, but of course not all countries ... you describe pretty much a worst case scenario. I think there are a lot of countries where there are poor people which do not have governments which are as bad as you painted. I think in those countries we can hope that people actually will lift themselves out of poverty and I think that's what we need to try to do. Now, you may be right that that's still going to leave poor people in countries that are as bad as you describe, and there is a real question then as to how much we can do to help them, whether giving more will really be enough to help them or because of those governments in those situations there's really nothing much we can do. That will be the dilemma. But I don't think we've got to that point yet because we've not really worked out what we can do for people in the countries where the governments aren't so bad. Chinese Reforms Cowen: I think you and I are both looking for what are the most highly leveraged ways we can reduce poverty in this world. Cowen: If I ask myself, historically, what has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the last century, I look at Communist China, and I would say that the reforms, starting in the late 1970s, have taken at least 300M-400M people, and probably more, and taken them from extreme poverty, perhaps starvation, to a situation where a lot of them live quite well or at least have some kind of tolerable lower middle class existence. I think that property rights and institutional reforms are they key to fighting poverty. China during that period, the aid it received didn't matter much. It doesn't mean we shouldn't give aid, I'm all for aid, but isn't the big leveraged investment here changing and improving institutions and not giving money? Singer: I do that that's a really important thing when we can do it. The question is, can we do it? Obviously the Chinese reforms that you refer to really were internally driven, I don't think they were a result of things the West did, unless you talk about the entire global economic system, which China clearly wanted to participate in. So the question is how can we be effective in producing those sorts of changes? In some countries we can come in and help, say countries recovering from civil war, and give some help in establishing good institutions, but I'm not sure what ideas you have about what's a good way to bring about that kind of reform in these countries that will lead everywhere to the sorts of benefits that you refer to in China. Cowen: In countries like China in a way it's internally driven. It's not that anyone successfully pressured them, but in another way I think it's highly externally driven, that the Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans, other countries followed the example of Japan They saw that Japan worked. They saw that an Asian country could rise to moderate wealth or even riches and at some point they decided to copy this in their own way. If we look at Japan, Japan copied the west, so maybe one of the very best most important things we can do is just ourselves be a beacon of progress: be humane, be tolerant, respect others, be wealthy and just show that it's possible. We shouldn't think of that as a substitute for aid, but maybe that's actually our number one priority. Does that make sense to you? Singer: That makes sense. I don't know that we have to strive to be more wealthy than we are--well, maybe just right at this moment we need to strive to get back to being as wealthy as we were a year ago perhaps. But I think we are setting that example, undoubtedly. We are showing countries what can be done with reasonably good government, open economies, and I do hope that other countries will follow that. But maybe not all countries can do it. I think that Paul Collier argues in his book that it's going to be difficult for some African countries to get into this game now. There are reasons why it's going to be hard for them to compete with countries that have established positions, have developed markets, have low labor costs. It's not clear to me that this is going to be a path that every poor country can follow. Military Intervention Cowen: You mentioned Paul Collier. I found his book very interesting. One argument he makes--I would say I'm not, myself, convinced but I'm curious to hear what you think--is that we could do the world a great deal of good by selective military interventions. So take the case of Darfur. A large number of people are suffering, dying. Collier says, or implies, or at least opens the possibility, that we, the United States, the UN, whoever, should just move in and in military terms do something about this. It is again a topic that is not prominent in your book, but it seems that if it can work it's highly leveraged, more leveraged than giving away money. I'm curious as to your views on that. Singer: I did discuss humanitarian intervention in my earlier book One World and I do support it under the right circumstances. I think, though, we do have to be pretty clear about defining it properly and trying to get support for it. Maybe it would work in Darfur. I think Darfur is quite a large area, relatively thinly populated, and it might take a lot of resources to really protect the people in Darfur. There are underlying issues, too, perhaps about climate change, even, that are causing scarcity in Darfur. But isn't possible, I mean I think that Zimbabwe would be another possibility, though maybe just now with changes in the political system you wouldn't want to do it just now, you'd want to see how that played out for a while. But certainly a year ago you might well have thought that if the South Africans could be persuaded to move in and remove Mugabe that would be a good thing to do. That would have been better, I think, than having a white former colonial power come in, that obviously would have evoked a lot of echos of returning to a past that Zimbabweans don't want. But I'm not, in principle opposed to military intervention, I just think we have to be very very careful about the circumstances in which we do it, because obviously it can trigger a lot of violence and bloodshed and produce results that are the opposite of what you and I would both want. Cowen: Do you think the end of colonialism was a good thing or a bad thing for Africa? Singer: That's a really difficult question. I think, clearly, there were lots of bad things about colonialism, but you would have to say that some countries were definitely better administered and that some people's lives, although they may have had some sort of humiliation, perhaps through not being independent, being ruled by people of a different race, in some ways they were better. It's hard, really, to draw that balance sheet. Independence has certainly not been the unmitigated blessing that people thought it would be at the time. Cowen: Let's say we have the premise, that with colonialism there would not have been wars between African nations. It's not the case that a British ruled colony would have attacked a French colony, for instance. It's highly unlikely. So given just that millions have perished from wars alone, wouldn't the Utilitarian view, if you're going to take one, suggest that colonialism was essentially a good idea for Africa, it was a shame that we got rid of it, and that the continent would have been better off under foreign rule, European foreign rule. Singer: I don't think we can be so sure that it would have continued to be peaceful. After all we did have militant resistance movements, we had the Mau Mau in Kenya, for example. We had other militant resistance movements. It may simply have been that the fact of white rule would have provoked not one colony going to war against another but civil war within some of those countries. If what you're asking is would colonialism, had it been accepted by the people there, without military conflict, would that have been better than some of the consequences we've had in some of these countries, you would have to say undoubtedly yes. But we can't go back and wind back the clock and say "how would it have been if" because we don't really know whether that relative stability and peace would have lasted. Cowen: If we compare the Mau Mau, say, to the wars in Kenya and Rwanda, it seems unlikely that rebellions against colonial governments would have reached that scope, especially if England, France, other countries, would have been willing to spend more money to create some tolerable form of order. My guess is you would have had a fair number of rebellions but it's highly highly unlikely it would compare to the kind of virtual holocausts we've had in Africa as it stands. Aid without stable government Singer: I certainly agree that if you look at what's been happening in the Congo, just as one example, or countries like Sierra Leone or Liberia, yes, you could certainly think that it might have been better for those countries. Cowen: Would you say that Zimbabwe is one example of a country where just giving it money through aid is unlikely to work? Singer: At present, unless the government changes quite dramatically. Again, as you were saying before, there might be specific things we can do: we may be able to help particular people who have disease or are hungry, but I agree, in the present conditions it's unlikely to lift people out of poverty on any kind of large scale. Cowen: Let's take a country like Madagascar, which as recently as two or three years ago was touted by the Bush administration, and I don't just mean Republicans, it was touted by many people, as being a kind of model for Africa. Here's a country were we could give a lot of aid, the aid would go to some good purpose, we're making progress, and now Madagascar seems to be in the midst of a civil war and the polity is collapsing, the economy is doing very poorly. How many countries in Africa do you think are there where aid works? Where do you draw the line? What in your opinion is the marginal country that is hopeless? Singer: Look, I haven't got a list of African countries like that, I must admit. I think there are some countries where things seem to work, and that's not to say I could name a country and say, well, Mozambique, that aid programs have made a positive difference, or Sierra Leone. Maybe in a month there'll be a coup and you'll be able to tell me that I was wrong. I can't see the future. But there are countries where I think aid has worked, ones where it hasn't worked. I haven't got a rank ordering and I don't have a cutoff line where that is, I'm sorry I'm just not sufficiently expert on African politics and conditions to do that. Genetically modifying ourselves to be more moral Cowen: Let's try some philosophical questions. You're a philosopher, and I've been very influenced by your writings on personal obligation. Apart from the practical issue that we can give some money and have it do good, there's a deeper philosophical question of how far those obligations extend, to give money to other people. Is it a nice thing we could do, or are we actually morally required to do so? What I see in your book is a tendency to say something like "people, whether we like it or not, will be more committed to their own life projects than to giving money to others and we need to work within that constraint". I think we would both agree with that, but when we get to the deeper human nature, or do you feel it represents a human imperfection? If we could somehow question of "do we in fact like that fact?", is that a fact you're comfortable with about human nature? If we could imagine an alternative world, where people were, say, only 30% as committed to their personal projects as are the people we know, say the world is more like, in some ways, an ant colony, people are committed to the greater good of the species. Would that be a positive change in human nature or a negative change? Singer: Of course, if you have the image of an ant colony everyone's going to say "that's horrible, that's negative", but I think that's a pejorative image for what you're really asking ... Cowen: No, no, I don't mean a colony in a negative sense. People would cooperate more, ants aren't very bright, we would do an ant colony much better than the ants do. ... Singer: But we'd also be thinking differently, right? What people don't like about ant colonies is ants don't think for themselves. What I would like is a society in which people thought for themselves and voluntarily decided that one of the most satisfying and fulfilling things they could do would be to put more of their effort and more of their energy into helping people elsewhere in need. If that's the question you're asking, then yes, I think it would be a better world if people were readier to make those concerns their own projects. Cowen: Let's say genetic engineering is possible, which is now not so far off on the major scale, and your daughter were having a daughter, and she asked you "daddy, should I program my daughter so that she's willing to sell her baby and take the money and send it to Haitians to save ten babies in Haiti". Would you recommend to her "yes, you should program the genes of your baby so she's that way"? Singer: So she's going to sell her baby? What's going to happen to the baby? Cowen: She's going to sell it to some wealth white couple that's infertile, they live in the Pacific Northwest, they'll take fine care of it, she'll receive $1M and save, say, 30 lives in Haiti. You've recommended that your granddaughter be programmed to act this way. Would you recommend that? Singer: And so she's going to be happy with that? She's not going to suffer as current people would the pangs of separation from their daughter or the agonies of not knowing what's happened to my daughter? She's going to feel perfectly comfortable with that, and she's going to feel good about the fact that she's helped 30 babies in Haiti to have a decent life? Is that the assumption? Cowen: We can do it that way, but keep in mind that even if she's unhappy that's outweighed by the 30 Haitian lives which are saved. Either way you want. Singer: Right, but you're asking me and I'm like normal human beings, I haven't been reprogrammed, so I care about my daughter or my granddaughter, or whoever this is. Cowen: Ok, she'll be happy. Singer: Ok, good. Then I think I'm on board with your program. Cowen: So you would want people to be much more cooperative in this way, if we could manage it in some way that won't wreck their psyches. Singer: That's right. Cowen: Do you think people would have a moral obligation to genetically reprogram themselves, or it would just be a nice thing they could do if they felt so inclined? Singer: I think if we really had a system that was as good as you're saying, would lead to as good consequences, and would leave people happy, that's something they ought to do. Because that would really be a way of making a huge difference to the world. They would be wrong not to take advantage of this, given the benefits it involves and the absence, it seems, as described, of any major drawbacks. Cowen: What do you think is the biggest problem area in Utilitarian moral theory? Singer: The biggest problem area? One problem people are talking about that's relevant to what I'm talking about is that Utilitarian moral theory leads to highly demanding consequences that people reject. So that's one problem. The second problem, of course, is that it requires very complex calculations because we don't have a set of simple moral rules that say "don't do this, do that". We have to work out what the consequences of our actions are. As in this area we're talking about, what kind of aid is effective, what will overcome world poverty, it's very difficult to work out what the consequences are, and it's sometimes very difficult to know what's the right thing to do. Cowen: But you think we nevertheless should do what we think is best, no matter how imperfect that guess may be? Singer: Yeah, I don't really see what else we're supposed to do. It would seem to me to be wrong to say "because I can't calculate the consequences I'm just going to follow this simple set of rules". Because I can't calculate the consequences. But why follow this simple set of rules? Where do they come from? I don't believe that we have any god-given rules. I don't think that our moral intuitions are a good source of rules, because that's the product of our evolutionary history, which may not be appropriate for the moment that we're in. So, despite the difficulty, I don't really see what the alternative is, to trying our best to figure out what the expected utility is. Cowen: Let me toss up a classic criticism of Utilitarianism. I'm curious to see what you say. The criticism is this, that neither pain nor pleasure is a homogeneous thing. There are many different kinds of pains and pleasures and they're not strictly commensurable in terms of any natural unit. So when we're comparing pain and pleasure that's a fine thing to do, but in fact we're calling upon other values. So Utilitarianism is in this sense parasitic upon some deeper sense of philosophic pluralism, and we're not pure utilitarians at all. But that being the case, why don't we sometimes just allow an intuitive sense of right or wrong to override what would otherwise be the Utilitarian conclusion, since Utilitarianism itself cannot avoid value judgments? Singer: I think the form of Utilitarianism that you're describing is Hedonistic Utilitarianism because you were talking about pleasure and pain and you were suggesting that pleasure is a whole range of different things. The form that I hold is Preference Utilitarianism which looks at people's preferences and tries to asses the importance of the preference for them. Now this is still not an easy thing to know, in fact in some ways you might say it's harder than getting measures of pleasure and pain, but I think it already embraces the pluralism that you're talking about in terms of people's preferences, people's understanding of what it is they're choosing and why. And so I don't think it's up to us to go back and try to pull in other kinds of values that we intuitively hold over the top of people's preferences. We can do it for ourselves, each of us can say "what are my preferences", "I value this", "I value the autonomous life over the happy life, and so that's what I'm going to choose". Of course, when I weigh out your preferences I should say "well here we give weight for the preference for an autonomous life and here we give weight to the preference for the pleasant life" but in making the final judgment, in which we take everyone's preferences into account, it would be wrong for us to just pull out some intuitive values and somehow give them weight in the overall calculation because then we're giving more weight to our preferences than we're giving to those of others. Cowen: But doesn't preference utilitarianism itself require some means of aggregation? The means we use for weighing different clashing preferences, can require some kind of value judgments above and beyond Utilitarianism? Singer: I don't quite see why that should be so. While acknowledging the practical differences of actually weighing up and calculating all the preferences, I fail to see why it involves other values apart from the preferences themselves. Cowen: Let me try giving you my reading of Peter Singer, which is highly speculative, and I'm not even saying it's true, it's just what I think when I read you, especially the later Peter Singer, and I'm just curious to hear your reaction to it. My reading is this: that Peter Singer stands in a long and great tradition of what I would call "Jewish moralists" who draw upon Jewish moral teachings in somehow asking for or demanding a better world. Someone who stands in the Jewish moralist tradition can nonetheless be quite a secular thinker, but your later works tend more and more to me to reflect this initial upbringing. You're a kind of secular Talmudic scholar of Utilitarianism, trying to do Mishna on the classic notion of human well being and bring to the world this kind of idea that we all have obligations to do things that make other people better off, that you're very much out of the classic European, Austrian, Viennese, ultimately Biblical tradition about our obligations to the world. What do you say? Singer: I'm amused, I have to say. I think it's interesting. You're right that I come from a Jewish family. It was a pretty secular Jewish family, so I never got as a child, actually, a lot of Jewish teaching, never went to Jewish Sunday school, I never learned Hebrew, I never had a Bar Mitzvah, I never read the Torah. So if I had got some of that it must have come kind of at a distance through, sort of, osmosis, as you say this vaguely Jewish Viennese culture that certainly was part of my family background but was very much secularized. The interesting thing to speculate is whether I'm doing something that, say, someone out of the British Utilitarian tradition, the tradition of Bentham and Mill and Sidgwick could not have done. What are the distinctive features of my version of Utilitarianism that they would have rejected? And if there is something, it probably is attributable to that background you mention. But I'd be interested in your answer, what do you think that there is in my view that Bentham or Mill or Sidgwick could not have whole-heartedly endorsed? Cowen: I'm not sure if there's anything, but I think the mere fact that it is you who is doing it nonetheless reflects something about this. I think of you as one of the worlds greatest theologians, in a way, having this understanding of the quality of mercy, which is put into a secular framework, but what the intuitions really consist of, I think none of us really ever know where our moral intuitions come from. Singer: Ok. Well, look. It's a possible view, as I think you said introducing it, you don't know whether it's true but it's an interesting view of me and where I come from. You've put it out there. I find it hard to look internally, so I'll leave it to others to judge which of the elements of my background they see having formed me most strongly. What charities does Peter Singer give to? Cowen: Let me try a personal question but feel free to pass on this one. Let's say someone has read your book and they say "I'm on board, Peter, please tell me what charities you give to." You mentioned Oxfam, but would you have anything specific you'd like to say? And why? Singer: I do support Oxfam substantially, I've got a long relationship with, different Oxfams. They're actually autonomous national groups that work together, so when I first became interested in this issue as a graduate student, way back in Oxford in the '70s, I was living in Oxford and that's the headquarters of the original Oxfam, Oxfam UK, so I got in touch with them and remain connected with their office. Then I went to Australia and was involved with Oxfam Australia, now I'm involved with Oxfam America. I like what they do good grassroots work, I've seen some of that, helping the most underprivileged people, plus they're not afraid to be a real advocate for the poor, to tackle big mining companies that are pushing the poor off their land, tackle the US government and its agricultural subsidies. That's one reason that I like them. But there are many good organizations around. I've recently started supporting GiveWell, you can find them on givewell.net, because they're doing something that I'm sure you would support: they're trying to get aid organizations to demonstrate their efficacy, to be more transparent about why they support some projects rather than others, and to show how much it costs for them to achieve their goals, whether those goals are saving lives or lifting people out of poverty. And so it's kind of at a meta level, saying I want to improve aid by helping organizations that are trying to do that. I think that's a really highly leveraged way of making an impact on what's going to happen in aid over the next couple of decades. Cowen: I'm a big fan of what I call zero overhead giving, that is I send monetary transfers to poor people, maybe I've met them on my travels, by Western Union. I don't follow up, I don't monitor, there's no tax deduction, there's no overhead, it's just money from me to them. What do you think of that as a way of giving? Singer: Interesting. I suppose I would like to have some followup. I would worry that I was getting conned. Now, you may have a good sense of who's genuine and who's not, but we all know there's con artists working here in New York city, in other cities in America, who could tell you wonderful stories about how they just need the bus fare home and then they'll be fine, and you give them the bus fare home, and you believe them and then next month they come up to you in the same spot and tell you the same story. So I would like some kind of auditing, but let me just say for people who do want to give direct I think not with zero overhead but I think with 10% overhead, if you go to Kiva, kiva.org, you can give a microloan to someone who is online, tells you what they want. You'll eventually, mostly, get your money back and you can lend it to someone else. I think that's quite an effective way of helping people too. Cowen: How do you know a good charity when you see one? Is low overhead really a good measure? Those numbers are very easily manipulated. Singer: I agree. No, "low overhead" is not the right measure. Firstly, as you say, the numbers are manipulated. Second, look, you could cut your overhead by cutting your evaluation, exactly what we were talking about. You could say "look, I'm not going to do any followup or evaluation I'm just going to hand out, basically what you said. I'm going to hand out money to poor people." That way you can get your overhead down, but are you actually doing the most good? I think you don't know that until you do have some people in the field who are in touch with what's been happening and do follow up. So I'm looking for the kind of demonstrated effectiveness that you can find in the reports from GiveWell at givewell.net rather than just checking how much of it goes to overheads and administration and how much of it doesn't. Cowen: Keep in mind, Utilitarian calculations are very difficult, as we discussed a few minutes ago, but you don't have to listen to con stories from con men. Just fly to an Indian village, ask for people's names, get the village phone number, pick names of people who appear to be poor, they're not expecting you to show up, and send them some money. It seems to me if there's anything were you would think the chance of this doing good is really quite high it would be just sending money, and even well run charities have pretty high overhead, and you can give the money directly. Western Union has a bit of overhead, but it's relatively low. Why not have this method replace a lot of charitable giving? Because we know there's massive poverty, we know there's people who need to eat, and if someone needs to eat and you give them money, they're going to spend it on food, no? Singer: But you can't say there's no overhead if you, say, fly to an Indian village. There's a lot of overhead, unless you're a very wealthy person. The cost of your trip, not to mention your time, is a very substantial overhead on the amount that you're giving. Cowen: But say you're traveling anyway. You take trips, as it is, right? You go to poor countries, for other reasons. You could do a side trip to a poorer part of an urban city, in Calcutta, it would take you an hour, maybe, it wouldn't take much time. I would think at the margin there's a way for it to be quite cheap. Singer: It may be, and the other thing you have to consider is whether putting money directly in the hands of people, say, is better than bringing in a drill to provide water for an entire village where presently they have to walk two hours to carry water from a river and that water's polluted. Maybe some sort of structural changes like that are going to help them more than just putting money in the hands of individuals. Cowen: Keep in mind, you're a Preference Utilitarian. That doesn't mean public goods can't be more valuable, but the tendency of a Preference Utilitiarian should be to just give people resources and let them do what they want, no? Singer: I think that's an empirical question. As you say it will depend whether they will actually satisfy their preferences more by individual action or whether there's a kind of cooperative dilemma situation here, that actually they could achieve more good by cooperating, but maybe their culture is such that they don't cooperate unless there's some outside stimulus to get them to do so. Cowen: Here's a philosophical question again: do you trust your own moral intuitions? Singer: No, not really. Over along time period, I guess, I've thought about them and reflected on them, and I've dropped some or they've faded so maybe now I'm somewhat more comfortable with them, but no, I couldn't really say that I trust them as a whole. Cowen: What's the moral intuition that you have which you trust least? Singer: That's a good question. I suppose, the intuitions that you have are that you ... I have intuitions about equality and fairness that make me want to go for more egalitarian solutions and, yet, I'm not sure whether they are really the right thing to do, so I'm somewhat critical of them but I'm still drawn by them to some extent. Obviously things about equality can have Utilitarian benefits if we accept laws of diminishing marginal utility and so on, and I would like to say that's the only sense in which I support equality, but I'm not sure that my intuitions are not actually more egalitarian than I should be as a utilitarian. Improving the world through commerce Cowen: Let's say I'm an 18 year old and I'm in college, and I've read your book and I'm more or less convinced by it, and I say to you "well what I've decided to do is I'm going to have a career in the cell phone industry because I see that cell phones are revolutionizing Africa and making many people much better off. I'm not going to give a dime to poverty but I'm going to work my hardest to become a millionaire by making cheaper and better cell phones." What do you say to me? Singer: Well, making cheaper and better cell phones may be great for Africa, and while you're building up your business, of course, you want to reinvest your capital and make the business bigger, but are you going to get to a point, at some stage in your life, where you'll have a lot of money, where you've done your work of providing the cheap cell phones, what are you going to do with that money? I think that's still, for a Utilitarian, a relevant question. It's the kind of question that Warren Buffet asked himself. He accumulated a lot of money and said "look, I can make this money earn money faster than anyone else, so I'm going to wait until I'm old before giving it away." And that was a good thing, I guess, although now we might wish he'd given it away last year rather than this year. Cowen: That's right, but let's say I never give a dime, I've accumulated a fortune of $200M, I've done a lot for the cell phone industry. Am I a better person than someone who's earned $40K/year and every year given 15% of it away to the poor in India? Singer: Well I'm not sure that you're a ... "better person" asks for a judgment about the character of the agent. I think it's quite possible you've done more good for the world, and you should be congratulated on the good that you've done for the world. We do tend to judge people by their intentions, and your intentions are a little suspect because, although you've done a lot of good for the cellphone industry and maybe for Africans you've still got this $200M. Would you really be a lot happier with $200M than with $100M, $10M say. And if not, then why not, in addition to the benefits you've conferred on people also use that $190M for something that will help people? Cowen: If you're a Utilitarian, isn't it a little irrational to judge people by their intentions? You're retreating to this "we". "We" judge people by their intentions. You're not willing to say "I do" because that would make you inconsistent. Why not just say "Utility is what matters, I'm a Utilitarian, this person did more for the poor, this person is a better person than the one who gave a lot to charity". It's not my personal view, I'm less of a strict Utilitarian, but why not indeed embrace that conclusion rather than distance yourself from it? Singer: Because, as a Utilitarian, praise and blame have a function, to encourage people to do good and not to do things that are bad--- Cowen: --This isn't social, this is your true view, all things considered, it's not what you say publicly to incentivise people. It's the "what you really think" question. Like, all the viewers need to turn off their BloggingHeads TV, and then you can tell me what you really think and then turn it back on again. Singer: --but we are on BloggingHeads TV, they haven't turned it off-- Cowen: --what would you say? Singer: Look, if I'm talking to the 18 year old, and the 18 year old is saying "look, I have these two career options. One is I do this, I confer all these benefits by developing cell phones but the end I end up pretty with my $200M and I don't give it away, and the other is I earn the $40K/year and give away whatever the percentage was", and we assume, as you said, the benefits are much less. So I'm going to tell the 18 year old to do the thing that will produce the greatest benefits. That's true. Even when he gets to 60 and he has the $200M I'm still going to think, privately, that I gave him the right advice, that was the right thing to do, I'm glad he did it. So if that's what you're asking me, that will be my judgment, and in that sense he's a better person than he would have been if he had just earned the $40K and given a lot of it away. Cowen: You think a Utilitarian has to be a kind of Straussian and embrace certain kinds of public lies to incentivise people? Singer: I think that's a really interesting issue. Yeah, I would say he has to be a Sidgwickian. I prefer being a Sidgwickian to a Straussian, just because Straussians have a rather bad flavor to it after they were used in the Bush administration. You could say that the Iraq War conspiracy was kind of Straussian. But, of course, Henry Sidgwick talked about that, he said that for a Utilitarian it is sometimes going to be the case that you should do good, but you need to do it secretly because if you talk publicly about what you're doing this would set an example that would be misleading to others and would lead to bad consequences. I think that's true, and I think for a Utilitarian it's inevitable that there will sometimes be circumstances in which that's the case. What makes Peter Singer happy? Cowen: Let me try another personal question, again feel free to pass. If you just ask yourself, "what are the things in life that just make me, Peter Singer, happy", what would you say they are? What's your own self account of what makes you happy? Singer: It's mixed. For example, I've been touring, talking about this book. I think the book has the potential to do good in the world. I'm happy when I see that people are responding to the book. Somebody told me last night at a dinner that they'd read the book and they'd told an aid organization that they support to find a village where they could support the drilling of a well to provide water and they were going to give whatever it took to drill that well. That makes me happy, that I had this impact. Obviously I've had an impact on people changing their diet too, I have people coming up to me all the time saying "I read Animal Liberation and I became a vegetarian or a vegan and I've been working for animal groups". That makes me happy too, that my work has had that effect, which I think it a beneficial effect. But I don't want to pretend to you or to the BloggingHeads viewers that I'm a saint. I can be happy when I'm on vacation, I can be hiking in the mountains. I love mountain scenery, I had a vacation in Glacier National Park a year or so ago, which was gorgeous. That sort of thing makes me happy, and I admit that it's probably not doing as much good for the world as I could have done if instead of spending the money on that vacation I had given it to Oxfam. Cowen: I sometimes ask myself, I struggle with this question, I ask "are my own deepest pleasures actually quite primeval ones", basically food, sleep, and sex. In your own writings you've emphasized, correctly, the ties between human beings and non-human animals, and it seems that for other animals these are almost always, maybe always the deepest pleasures. So I tend to think that for human beings, including ourselves, they're the deepest pleasures as well, and the higher pleasures are worth something, but actually they're somewhat of an epiphenomenon and what makes us happy are similar to what make non-humans happy. Do you have a view on this? Singer: I'm not sure I think that the things you mention ... food and sex are obviously important, actually sleep doesn't make me particularly happy. It's something I need to do or I feel bad, but It doesn't make me happy. But yeah, food and sex are important pleasures in life. Are they more important in my life than the things that I do in work? I wouldn't really say that. I think that food and sex are the kind of desires that get satisfied: I eat a good meal, I enjoy it but I don't want to eat again for a few hours, and even sex has its limits in how much you can do at any particular time and still want more of it. Whereas the kind of things we're talking about, you can call them "higher pleasures" or "more purposive, fulfillment sort of activities" you can just go on and find that it's better and better. So I think there's a difference in that. Cowen: So what makes you happy is pretty different from what makes a non-human animal happy, you would say? Singer: Yes, that's true, I think higher cognitive capacities to make a difference there. Cowen: Let me ask you a question about animal welfare. I have been very influenced by a lot of what you've written, but I'm also not a pure vegetarian by any means, and when it comes to morality, for instance, my view is that it's perfectly fine to eat fish. There may be practical reasons, like depleting the oceans, that are an issue, but the mere act of killing and eating a fish I don't find anything wrong with. Do you have a view on this? Singer: There's certainly, as you say, the environmental aspect, which is getting pretty serious with a lot of fish stocks, but the other thing is there's no humane killing of fish, right? If we buy commercially killed fish they have died pretty horrible deaths. They've suffocated in nets or on the decks of ships, or if they're deep sea fish pulled up by nets they've died of decompression, basically their internal organs exploding as they're pulled up. I would really ... I don't need to eat fish that badly that I need to do that to fish. If I was hungry and nothing else to eat I would, perhaps, do it but not given the choices I have. Cowen: But now you're being much more the Jewish Moralist and less the Utilitarian. Because the Utilitarian would look at the marginal impact and say "most fish die horrible deaths anyway, of malnutrition or they're eaten or something else terrible happens to them". The marginal impact of us killing them to me seems to be basically zero. I'm not even sure a fish's life is happy, and why not just say "it's fine to eat fish"? Should it matter that we make them suffer? It's a very non-Utilitarian way of thinking about it, a very moralizing approach. Singer: You would need to convince me that in fact they're going to die just as horrible deaths in nature, and I'm not sure that that's true. Probably many of them would get gobbled up by some other fish, and that's probably a lot quicker than what we are doing to them. Cowen: You have some good arguments against Malthusianism for human beings in your book. My tendency is to think that fish are ruled by a Malthusian model, and being eaten by another fish has to be painful. Maybe it's over quickly, but having your organs burst as you're pulled up out of the water is probably also pretty quick. I would again think that in marginal terms it doesn't matter, but I'm more struck by the fact that it's not your first instinct to view the question in marginal terms. You view us as active agents and ask "are we behaving in some manner which is moral, and you're imposing a non-Utilitarian theory on our behavior. Is that something you're willing to embrace, or something that was just a mistake? Singer: Look, I think economists tend to think more in terms of marginal impact than I do and you may be right that is something I may need to think about more. Look, Tyler, I have to finish unfortunately, I've got another interview I've got to go to, so it's been great talking to you, but I think we're going to have to leave it at that point. Cowen: Ok, thank you very much. Singer: Thanks a lot. Cowen: I've enjoyed it a great deal. Bye! (I also posted this on my blog.) 34 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 5:05 PM Classic Tyler, trying to point out to people that the logical conclusions of their beliefs may include ideas that are associated with their ideological enemies. The first half of this diavlog is basically very incisive and interesting Singer-baiting. I don't see anything wrong that debating style in itself; it can be informative to interview someone by highlighting possible ideological blind spots. However, Cowen pressing Singer on tax cuts for charitable donations did make me roll my eyes. Singer acknowledged a specific point about encouraging donations with a targeted tax cut, and Cowen reshaped Singer's acknowledgement into a sound bite easily misinterpretable as Singer taking a position in the broader, mainstream political argument about cutting taxes on the rich. Then Cowen nudged Singer into approving that rephrasing! If I were Singer I'd have been less polite and explicitly ADBOCed. What brilliant operationalizations Cowen offers with the baby example and the 18 year old example. I also love the way Cowen doesn't 'let it go': when discussing whether colonialism might have been better off for Africa, Singer offers that the problem is complex because there might have been militants uprisings even under colonial rule. But Cowen doesn't let it go and forces Singer to consider the fact that most probably the scale of uprisings and damage done due to that would not have compared to the damage being done in current civil wars. Singer is also very quick to update and move on when he realizes the truth of something. Awesome rationality skills from both sides. Thank you for doing the transcript. In re making people more cooperative: If people in general were more cooperative, I doubt things would be so bad in Haiti. What happens when a significant proportion of people are more cooperative, and a significant proportion aren't? http://lesswrong.com/lw/7e1/rationality_quotes_september_2011/4r01 Note one of the papers is by Cowen, it's good reading. The main text is fixed now but the title still says "Peter Singer and Tyler Cowan transcript". Another editorial nitpick: near the end you have a link to Wikipedia's entry on Malthusianism; the link's correct but it's labelled "Mathusianism". Cowan: But doesn't preference utilitarianism itself require some means of aggregation? The means we use for weighing different clashing preferences, can require some kind of value judgments above and beyond Utilitarianism? Singer: I don't quite see why that should be so. While acknowledging the practical differences of actually weighing up and calculating all the preferences, I fail to see why it involves other values apart from the preferences themselves. This is very similar to a question I asked in response to this article by Julia Galef. You can find my comment here as well as several (unsuccessful, IMO) attempts to answer it. This worries me somewhat, because many Less Wrongers affirm utilitarianism without even so much as addressing a huge gaping whole at the very core of its logic. It seems to me that utilitarianism hasn't been paying rent for quite some time, but there are no signs that it is about to be evicted. You're saying that Utilitarianism is fatally flawed because there's no "method (or even a good reason to believe there is such a method) for interpersonal utility comparison", right? Utilitarians try to maximize some quantity across all people, generally either the sum or average of either happiness or satisfied preferences. These can't be directly measured, so we estimate them as well as we can. For example, to figure out how unhappy having back pain is making someone, you could ask them what probability of success an operation that would cure their back pain (or kill them if it failed) would need to have before they would take it. Questions like this tell us that nearly everyone has the same basic preferences or enjoys the same basic things: really strong preferences for or happiness from getting minimal food, shelter, medical care, etc. Unless we have some reason to believe otherwise we should just add these up across people equally, assuming that having way too little food is as bad for me as it is for you. Utilitarianism is a value system. It doesn't pay rent in the same way beliefs do, in anticipated experiences. Instead it pays rent in telling us what to do. This is a much weaker standard, but Utilitarianism clearly meets it. We can't "just add these [preferences] up across people equally" because utility functions are only defined up to an affine transformation. You might be able to "just add up" pleasure, on the other hand, though you are then vulnerable to utility monsters, etc. For a Total Utilitarian it's not a problem to be missing a zero point (unless you're talking about adding/removing people). For an Average Utilitarian, or a Total Utilitarian considering birth or death, you try to identify the point at which a life is not worth living. You estimate as well as you can. Multiplication by a constant is an affine transformation. This clearly is a very big problem. But all we want is an ordering of choices, and affine transformations (with a positive multiplicative constant) are order preserving. Doesn't "multiplication by a constant" mean births and deaths? Which puts you in my second paragraph: you try to figure out at what point it would be better to never have lived at all. The point at which a life is a net negative is not very clear, and many Utilitarians disagree on where it is. I agree that this is a "big problem", though I think I would prefer the phrasing "open question". Asking people to trade off various goods against risk of death allows you to elicit a utility function with a zero point, where death has zero utility. But such a utility function is only determined up to multiplication by a positive constant. With just this information, we can't even decide how to distribute goods among a population consisting of two people. Depending on how we scale their utility functions, one of them could be a utility monster. If you choose two calibration points for utility functions (say, death and some other outcome O), then you can make interpersonal comparisons of utility — although this comes at the cost of deciding a priori that one person's death is as good as another's, and one person's outcome O is as good as another's, ceteris paribus, independently of their preferences. Yes, thank you for taking the time to explain. Utilitarianism is a value system. It doesn't pay rent in the same way beliefs do, in anticipated experiences. Instead it pays rent in telling us what to do. This is a much weaker standard, but Utilitarianism clearly meets it. I will grant this assumption for the sake of argument. Utilitarianism doesn't have a truth-value or it does have a truth-value, but is only true for those people who prefer it. Why should I prefer utilitarianism? It seems to have several properties that make it look not very appealing compared to other ethical theories (or "value systems"). For example, utilitarianism requires knowing lots of social science and being able to perform very computationally expensive calculations. Alternatively, the Decalogue only requires that you memorise a small list of rules and have the ability to judge when a violation of the rules has occurred (and our minds are already much better optimised for this kind of judgement relative to utility calculations because of our evolutionary history). Also, from my perspective, the Decalogue is preferable for the reason that it is much easier to meet its standard (it actually isn't that hard not to murder people or steal from them and take a break once a week) which is much more psychologically appealing then beating yourself up for going to see a movie instead of donating your kidney to a starving child in Africa. So, why should I adopt utilitarianism rather than God's Commandments, egoism, the Categorical Imperative, or any other ethical theory that I happen to fancy? Wait, are you really claiming we should choose a moral system based on simplicity alone? And that a system of judging how to treat other people that "requires knowing lots of social science" is too complicated? I'd distrust any way of judging how to treat people that didn't require social science. As for calculations, I agree that we don't have very good ways to quantify other people's happiness and suffering (or even our own), but our best guess is better than throwing all the data out and going with arbitrary rules like commandments. The categorical imperative is nice if you get to make the rules for everyone, but none of us do. Utilitarianism appeals to me because I believe I have worth and other people have worth, and I should do things that take that into account. Wait, are you really claiming we should choose a moral system based on simplicity alone? Jayson's point is that a moral system so complicated that you can't figure out whether a given action is moral isn't very useful. Nutrition is also impossible to perfectly understand, but I take my best guess and know not to eat rocks. Choosing arbitrary rules is not a good alternative to doing your best at rules you don't fully understand. Nutrition is also impossible to perfectly understand, but I take my best guess and know not to eat rocks. Choosing arbitrary rules is not a good alternative to doing your best at rules you don't fully understand. How would you know whether utilitarianism is telling you to do the right thing or not? What experiment would you run? On Less Wrong these are supposed to be basic questions you may ask of any belief. Why is it okay to place utilitarianism in a non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA), but not, say, religion? I am simply pointing out that utilitarianism doesn't meet Less Wrong's epistemic standards and that if utilitarianism is mere personal preference your arguments are no more persuasive to me than a chocolate-eater's would be to a vanilla-eater (except, in this case, chocolate (utilitarianism) is more expensive than vanilla (10 Commandments)). Also, the Decalogue is not an arbitrary set of rules. We have quite good evidence that it is adaptive in many different environments. Sorry, I was going in the wrong direction. You're right that utilitarianism isn't a tool, but a descriptor of what I value. I care about both my wellbeing and my husband's wellbeing. No moral system spells out how to balance these things - the Decalogue merely forbids killing him or cheating on him, but doesn't address whether it's permissible to turn on the light while he's trying to sleep or if I should dress in the dark instead. Should I say, "balancing multiple people's needs is too computationally costly" and give up on the whole project? When a computation gets too maddening, maybe so. Said husband (jkaufman) and I value our own wellbeing, and we also value the lives of strangers. We give some of our money to buy mosquito nets for strangers, but we don't have a perfect way to calculate how much, and at points it has been maddening to choose. So we pick an amount, somewhat arbitrarily, and go with it. Picking a simpler system might minimize thought required on my part, but it wouldn't maximize what I want to maximize. Sorry, I was going in the wrong direction. You're right that utilitarianism isn't a tool, but a descriptor of what I value. So, utilitarianism isn't true, it is a matter of taste (preferences, values, etc...)? I'm fine with that. The problem I see here is this: I, nor anyone I have ever met, actually has preferences that are isomorphic to utilitarianism (I am not including you, because I do not believe you when you say that utilitarianism describes your value system; I will explain why below). I care about both my wellbeing and my husband's wellbeing. No moral system spells out how to balance these things - the Decalogue merely forbids killing him or cheating on him, but doesn't address whether it's permissible to turn on the light while he's trying to sleep or if I should dress in the dark instead. Should I say, "balancing multiple people's needs is too computationally costly" and give up on the whole project? This is not a reason to adopt utilitarianism relative to alternative moral theories. Why? Because utilitarianism is not required in order to balance some people's interest against others'. Altruism does not require weighing everyone in your preference function equally, but utilitarianism does. Even egoists (typically) have friends that they care about. The motto of utilitarianism is "the greatest good for the greatest number", not "the greatest good for me and the people I care most about". If you have ever purchased a birthday present for, say, your husband instead of feeding the hungry (who would have gotten more utility from those particular resources), then to that extent your values are not utilitarian (as demonstrated by WARP). When a computation gets too maddening, maybe so. Said husband (jkaufman) and I value our own wellbeing, and we also value the lives of strangers. We give some of our money to buy mosquito nets for strangers, but we don't have a perfect way to calculate how much, and at points it has been maddening to choose. So we pick an amount, somewhat arbitrarily, and go with it. Even if you could measure utility perfectly and perform rock-solid interpersonal utility calculations, I suspect that you would still not weigh your own well-being (nor your husband, friends, etc...) equally with that of random strangers. If I am right about this, then your defence of utilitarianism as your own personal system of value fails on the ground that it is a false claim about a particular person's preferences (namely, you). In summary, I find utilitarianism as proposition and utilitarianism as value system very unpersuasive. As for the former, I have requested of sophisticated and knowledgeable utilitarians that they tell me what experiences I should anticipate in the world if utilitarianism is true (and that I should not anticipate if other, contradictory, moral theories were true) and, so far, they have been unable to do so. Propositions of this kind (meaningless or metaphysical propositions) don't ordinarily warrant wasting much time thinking about them. As for the latter, according to my revealed preferences, utilitarianism does not describe my preferences at all accurately, so is not much use for determining how to act. Simply, it is not, in fact, my value system. So, utilitarianism isn't true, it is a matter of taste I don't understand how "true" applies to a matter of taste any more than a taste for chocolate is "truer" than any other. utilitarianism is not required in order to balance some people's interest against others'. There are others, but this is the one that seems best to me. If you have ever purchased a birthday present for, say, your husband instead of feeding the hungry This is the type of decision we found maddening, which is why we currently have firm charity and non-charity budgets. Before that system I did spend money on non-necessities, and I felt terrible about it. So you're correct that I have other preferences besides utilitarianism. I don't think it's fair or accurate to say "If you ever spent any resources on anything other than what you say you prefer, it's not really your preference." I believe people can prefer multiple things at once. I value the greatest good for the greatest number, and if I could redesign myself as a perfect person, I would always act on that preference. But as a mammal, yes, I also have a drive to care for me and mine more than strangers. When I've tried to supress that entirely, I was very unhappy. I think a pragmatic utilitarian takes into account the fact that we are mammals, and that at some point we'll probably break down if we don't satisfy our other preferences a little. I try to balance it at a point where I can sustain what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I came late to this whole philosophy thing, so it took me a while to find out "utilitarianism" is what people called what I was trying to do. The name isn't really important to me, so it may be that I've been using it wrong or we have different definitions of what counts as real utilitarianism. Saying utilitarianism isn't true because some people aren't automatically motivated to follow it is like saying that grass isn't green because some people wish it was purple. If you don't want to follow utilitarian ethics that doesn't mean they aren't true. It just means that you're not nearly as good a person as someone who does. If you genuinely want to be a bad person then nothing can change your mind, but most human beings place at least some value on morality. You're confusing moral truth with motivational internalism. Motivational internalism states that moral knowledge is intrinsically motivating, simply knowing something is good and right motivates a rational entity to do it. That's obviously false. Its opposite is motivational externalism, which states that we are motivated to act morally by our moral emotions (i. e. sympathy, compassion) and willpower. Motivational externalism seems obviously correct to me. That in turn indicates that people will often act immorally if their willpower, compassion, and other moral emotions are depleted, even if they know intellectually that their behavior is less moral than it could be. If you have ever purchased a birthday present for, say, your husband instead of feeding the hungry (who would have gotten more utility from those particular resources), then to that extent your values are not utilitarian (as demonstrated by WARP). There is a vast, vast amount of writing at Less Wrong on the fact that people's behavior and their values often fail to coincide. Have you never read anything on the topic of "akrasia?" Revealed preference is moderately informative in regards to people's values, but it is nowhere near 100% reliable. If someone talks about how utilitarianism is correct, but often fails to act in utilitarian ways, it is highly likely they are suffering from akrasia and lack the willpower to act on their values. Even if you could measure utility perfectly and perform rock-solid interpersonal utility calculations, I suspect that you would still not weigh your own well-being (nor your husband, friends, etc...) equally with that of random strangers. If I am right about this, then your defence of utilitarianism as your own personal system of value fails on the ground that it is a false claim about a particular person's preferences (namely, you). You don't seem to understand the difference between categorical and incremental preferences. If juliawise spends 50% of her time doing selfish stuff and 50% of her time doing utilitarian stuff that doesn't mean she has no preference for utilitarianism. That would be like saying that I don't have a preference for pizza because I sometimes eat pizza and sometimes eat tacos. Furthermore, I expect that if juliawise was given a magic drug that completely removed her akrasia she would behave in a much more utilitarian fashion. As for the former, I have requested of sophisticated and knowledgeable utilitarians that they tell me what experiences I should anticipate in the world if utilitarianism is true (and that I should not anticipate if other, contradictory, moral theories were true) and, so far, they have been unable to do so. If utilitarianism was true we could expect to see a correlation between willpower and morally positive behavior. This appears to be true, in fact such behaviors are lumped together into the trait "conscientiousness" because they are correlated. If utilitarianism was true then deontological rule systems would be vulnerable to dutch-booking, while utilitarianism would not be. This appears to be true. If utilitarianism was true then it would be unfair to for multiple people to have different utility levels, all else being equal. This is practically tautological. If utilitarianism was true then goodness would consist primarily of doing things that benefit yourself and others. Again, this is practically tautological. Now, these pieces of evidence don't necessarily point to utilitarianism, other types of consequentialist theories might also explain them. But they are informative. As for the latter, according to my revealed preferences, utilitarianism does not describe my preferences at all accurately, so is not much use for determining how to act. Simply, it is not, in fact, my value system. Again, ethical systems are not intrinsically motivating. If you don't want to follow utilitarianism then that doesn't mean it's not true, it just means that you're a person who sometimes treats other people unfairly and badly. Again, if that doesn't bother you then there are no universally compelling arguments. But if you're a reasonably normal human it might bother you a little and make you want to find a consistent system to guide you in your attempts to behave better. Like utilitarianism. What alternative to utilitarianism are you proposing? Avoiding taking into account multiple people's welfare? Even a perfect egoist still needs to weigh the welfare of different possible future selves. If you zoom in enough, arbitrariness is everywhere, but "arbitrariness is everywhere, arbitrariness, arbitrariness!" is not a policy. To the extent that our "true" preferences about how to compare welfare have structure, we can try to capture that structure in principles; to the extent that they don't have structure, picking arbitrary principles isn't worse than picking arbitrary actions. Your preferences tell you how to aggregate the preferences of everyone else. Edit: This post was downvoted to -1 when I came to it, so I thought I'd clarify. It's since been voted back up to 0, but I just finished writing the clarification, so... Your preferences are all that you care about (by definition). So you only care about the preferences of others to the extent that their preferences are a component of your own preferences. Now if you claim preference utilitarianism is true, you could be making one of two distinct claims: "My preferences state that I should maximize the, suitably aggregated, preferences of all people/relevant agents," or "The preferences of each human state that they should maximize the, suitably aggregated, preference of all people/relevant agents." In both cases, some "suitable aggregation" has to be chosen and which agents are relevant has to be chosen. The latter is actually a sub-problem of the former: set weights of zero for non-relevant agents in the aggregation. So how does the utilitarian aggregate? Well, that depends on what the utilitarian cares about, quite literally. What does the utilitarian's preferences say? Maximize average utility? Total utility? Ultimately what the utilitarian should be maximizing comes back to her own preferences (or the collective preferences of humanity if the utilitarian is making the claim that our preferences are all the same). Going back to the utilitarian's own utility function also (potentially) deals with things like utility monsters, how to deal with the preferences of the dead and the potentially-alive and so forth. If my preferences are such that only what happens to me matters, I don't think you can call me a "preference Utilitarian". Right, your preferences tell you whether you're a utilitarian or not in the first place. I've recently started supporting GiveWell, you can find them on givewell.net, because they're doing something that I'm sure you would support: they're trying to get aid organizations to demonstrate their efficacy, to be more transparent about why they support some projects rather than others, and to show how much it costs for them to achieve their goals, whether those goals are saving lives or lifting people out of poverty. And so it's kind of at a meta level, saying I want to improve aid by helping organizations that are trying to do that. I think that's a really highly leveraged way of making an impact on what's going to happen in aid over the next couple of decades. This made me wonder if he knows about existential risks. This page (2007) does suggest that he is aware of existential risks: I would also include the issue of what Nick Bostrom calls ”existential risks” – how should we act in regard to risks, even very small ones, to the future existence of the entire human species? Arguably, all other issues pale into insignificance when we consider the risk of extinction of our species,	79,251
Jorge Sierra is a motivational speaker and self-change advocate taking his audience by storm with his transparent and inspiring story of triumph and perseverance. AUDIENCES: Middle & High School, At-Risk Youth, Trade Schools FEE RANGE: $5k-$10k Jorge Sierra is a motivational speaker and self-change advocate taking his audience by storm with his transparent and inspiring story of triumph and perseverance. Due to his former affiliation with gangs, Jorge was gunned down leaving him paraplegic at the age of 17. Over the next 23 years, Jorge dedicated himself to changing his mindset and environment. He threw himself into his craft, becoming a Licensed Master Barber and Class I Cosmetologist. He is also an Instructor and Evaluator in multiple states. As a member of the ETA Certified Speakers program, Jorge studies under the tutelage of World Renowned Motivational Speaker and Author, Dr. Eric Thomas, whom he credits for changing his life. The series of changes he made allowed him to no longer be confined to his mental wheelchair as well as his physical wheelchair. Jorge now uses his life experience to motivate and guides individuals to destroy their own mental wheelchairs. He helping them see past their physical and mental challenges so they can walk in their purpose. Jorge shares his message with schools, barbershops and sons and has even spoken to the NFL's Carolina Panthers.	1,496
Male of Fleischmanns glass frog, though stamp-sized, do vigorously guard the natals. The transparent colour makes it hard to see through! Photo: Aaron Goddard Who walked on land as the first among all animal? Did they care for their offspring? Starting with the first question, the answers is not the king of the jungle or any species of bird; not even us! It was those slime-coated frogs, toads and their cousins. They are the pioneers in bending all the known laws of evolution. They envisaged the land invasion from water, exemplifying tenacity when it came to child care. In short, they have showcased to the world the art of adaptation. In science, we call them amphibians. And, amphibians rank higher among the most kind-hearted and attentive parents in nature. You do not need to have a vast knowledge of science to know of a frog's residence. Decomposing leaf-litter, forest undergrowth, tiny puddles, bottom of a swamp and so on. No picture will give a standard norm that you may call home-sweet-home. Wet, damp, full of microbes, and predators lurking around – all of the above make an amphibian's lair. Yet, they are successful in raising babies. From background matching to directly carry on back-frogs know to care their babies. Photo: Rick Ranger/Alex Hyde/ Dante Fenolio This phenomenon naturally oozes enigma to scientists. After studying for years with patience, parental care among amphibians is decoded to be on a satisfactory level. Caring Parents of rainforests Caring frog parents are mostly found in area buzzing with life. Moist, broadleaf, rainforests of the tropics are crammed with diverse species. Thus, amphibian parents have to be extra-tending and vigorous. Therefore, amphibian reproductive expressions have resorted to extensive modifications. Six primary modes Biologists have grouped parental behaviour of the amphibians. From the laying of eggs to the transformation of larvae (yes, tadpole, it is!), one may see six main strategies. These primary types are, in turn, categorised under three broad perspectives: egg caring, tadpole caring and feeding of tadpoles. These functioning can be expressed in a myriad of ways, generally species-specific. Frogs guard their eggs, carry them on back, glue them to the body, transport them through water and what not! Mending a safe home Building nest is not a post-modern act. It has been in practice since the bygone era; not uncommon among the amphibians either. They are known to build and modify dedicated places for raising their offspring. It can be mud nest or a puddle thawed with mud or underground litter. The extreme definition of parental care is likely the vigorous protection of the eggs and young tadpoles. Several frogs including the infamous poison dart frogs and large salamanders defend the clutch from any potential threat. Frogs are generally small and quite torpid. They are not armed to teeth and claw. So, how do they defend when encountering a larger predator? They have some tricks up their sleeves: distracting the predator, irritating, leading to a false nest and last but not the least, it can offer itself to the predator so that the eggs can safely hatch. After mating, fertilized eggs can be glued to the back or encased in chambers inside the skin pouch. The Suinam toad, in some sense, can give you trypophobia. The skin of the male become cleft as he carries the eggs on back. The egg sinks in separate rooms, poking a tiny portion out - which all together mimic a section of bee hive! There is no free-living tadpole stage in certain cases, for example, the horned marsupial frog. Tadpole transforms within fully closed chambers. When maturation is done, tiny froglets make just their way out! After reading all the strategies, you are now pondering – why do they do this? The care of the parents always come from a single intention – survival of the newborn, and thus, existence of the species. It is the main pros of the parental care, as investigated in various studies. This is why the primitive amphibians seem so intelligent in baby-sitting. However, enhanced parental care often cost reduced life span of the parent owing to less feeding, exposure to predator, and the bulk energy spent in child care. But, by then, the upper hand is ensured. That is, a successful progeny is left behind! Comments While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.	4,642
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Here are a few recommendations that can assist you search for the most beneficial insurance plan strategy for your personal requirements. I hope that these guidelines make the method easier and help save you income. Car Insurance Companies Liability coverage Liability coverage for car insurance policy is needed to safeguard on your own along with your house from promises of injuries (or home) destruction. This coverage can provide The prices of defense or settlement should you be uncovered to generally be for the fault of a mishap. You will discover many kinds of insurance plan, and It really is important to be aware of the distinction between them so that you can remain clear of pricey surprises. Condition Farm provides common fees for various protection ranges. You may come across it much more beneficial to settle on a Center coverage stage. In several states, you are essential carry legal responsibility coverage in your coverage policy. This covers harm to home owned by Other individuals and accidents to Other individuals. The coverage will even protect you in case you lead to a mishap with other motorists. This can be the standard plan inside a majority of states, and is extremely recommended for motorists in a number of nations around the world. But it is vital to understand that the boundaries for legal responsibility coverage differ in just about every condition. Your liability Restrict will make a decision the quantity You will need to create payments to go over the cost of damages. Home coverage In practically just about every condition in the vast majority of states, It can be illegal to push devoid of legal responsibility insurance policy which includes assets hurt liability. For those who bring about injury to another’s residence, legal responsibility coverage will be able to pay for repairs. Even so, your car insurance policy policy would not cover the damages brought on by your vehicle. There may be unique states with distinct small needs for liability coverage It can be vital to check your coverage right before you buy it. Home insurance policies is crucial to make sure your economical protection. It allows you to avoid currently being left with massive insurance coverage rates if you cause an accident. The insurance policy policy you may have should include things like almost any property hurt protection that may compensate you in the case of collision. This insurance plan addresses destruction you bring about to other cars and trucks, and repairs. What’s more, it addresses the elimination of particles which includes occurred pursuing a collision. The house coverage is often made up of 3 numbers, which include bodily damage safety per accident, and residence damage protection for each accident. Better restrictions present greater defense. Take some time to review your policy and question your insurance coverage agent if you will find any exclusions or limitations. While you are in New York, you’ll be able to be suitable for uninsured motorist safety if another driver does not have sufficient insurance coverage to address The prices within your collision. The protection is valid if the opposite driver can not be identified in the slightest degree, plus the collision is a collision which is strike-and-run. The Insurance Law SS5217 states that the uninsured motorist coverage is needed from the celebration of the Actual physical collision, but the courts have interpreted this law to be only applicable in a very physical collision. Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverage are available in specific states even so in other states, you would like them both. Obtaining both equally coverages will give you additional coverage in the event that It’s important to pay for healthcare bills or other costs. If the driving force that is uninsured leaves your car or truck broken and you are not insured, the coverage for uninsured motorists will pay for repairs. Though this coverage just isn’t mandatory, it might be a sensible plan to carry from the least quantity possible of coverage. When you’ve not thought of the likelihood, bargains on car insurance coverage are a fantastic option to lessen your prices and keep on being inexperienced. Nearly all of new vehicles function protection functions , such as airbags or anti-lock brakes, which will lessen the expense of your coverage. Additionally, you will get reductions If you have security attributes inside your car or truck, including managing lights with the working day or anti-theft alarms. Having to pay your premium in full every year will remove any anxieties about payments for the next 12 months. In point of fact, all around 50 percent of insurers offer bargains for this sort of payment. You could potentially also qualify for special discounts should you’ve experienced your plan for many years. These discounts vary based on the period of time you have owned your plan, but many businesses give savings in exchange for loyalty for their shoppers. You may be eligible for bargains as high up to 15% when order your insurance policy plan at the least seven times previous to the renewal date. Along with these savings, certain firms will even give special discounts to individuals in precise job categories. For example, lecturers can get 10percent off of their insurance coverage rates from Liberty Mutual. Military personnel are presented a fifteen discount from Geico. Have you been a brand new driver seeking low cost automobile insurance policy prices? Below are a few solutions that you can implement to scale back the price of your car insurance coverage: Boosting your deductibles, acquiring a no claims discount, and acquiring a policy by way of a regional insurer. These guidelines could help save you hundreds of pounds every year on your vehicle insurance plan coverage. In addition they allow you to get the bottom rate feasible. Read on to find extra. You’ll be grateful you did! Finding cheap automobile insurance policy if you are an unexperienced driver Young drivers can spend less on car insurance policies by being a lot more careful while decreasing the number miles they travel, and allowing the insurance provider notice their driving patterns. You can also lessen your premiums by searching around for auto insurance plan. Several insurance policies businesses have a better top quality for drivers beneath the age of 25, so it is important to compare premiums. It can be great to learn there are no cost on-line estimate equipment that make this simple. Furthermore, you may get a reduce charge after you very own numerous cars and therefore are insured While using the similar insurance company. When hunting for an insurance plan prepare, be certain that you Assess quite a few rates and decide on the best value and the highest quality. Also, it is possible to try to find an insurance company that may adapt to your requirements, allowing the opportunity of earning improvements as your driving record variations. Compare policies that supply the same sort of coverage, since the deductible and Restrict may make a an unlimited big difference. Should you be a youthful driver, ensure that you have plenty of insurance policy to circumvent money decline. A no-claims price reduction on auto coverage is an incredible method to reduce your insurance policies premiums. It could be worth inquiring your insurance company how one can apply it. Based on the coverage in the insurance provider, the price reduction can vary from 30% following a yr to approximately 65% for 5 consecutive many years. When you are involved with the regrettable party of a mishap forfeit two many years of no claim bonus. Moreover that multiple statements will wholly wipe out your no promises bonus. It is crucial to inform your insurance provider promptly of any incidents you have in the event that you fail to notify your insurance provider could signify that any future promises will be rejected. Lots of insurance companies present no-promises discount defense which has a cost of all-around PS25. It lets you make a particular amount of statements within a 12 months without having stressing regarding your fees raising. There may be the choice to include it to the new policy just in case you Have a very no statements reward. Additionally, you can easily transfer your no-claims price reduction to another insurance company If you’d like. To keep up your no-claims price reduction, you must look at switching your insurance provider each year or each individual two. During the search for an affordable auto insurance plan quote, rising your deductibles is a wonderful method of getting lower premiums. According to some estimates, you could help save in between 15 and 30 % off the cost of insurance policy by growing your deductibles. These financial savings may well vary with regard on your background of driving and the kind of automobile you personal, and in addition your condition’s restrictions. Boosting your deductibles could also lessen your once-a-year top quality by approximately forty percent. Though escalating your deductible may not be the correct option to Everybody, This may permit you to help save Many dollars eventually. Although the amount you select to enhance your deductible is contingent upon your financial predicament, gurus propose conserving a minimum of two months’ well worth for living bills. Also, it reduces your insurance policies charges on a monthly basis. You can also conserve quite possibly the most volume in case you at any time need to make an insurance policy assert. Insuring a plan using an insurer that is regional Acquiring a coverage by using a regional insurance company can benefit drivers by using a very poor credit rating historical past. This will let you save pounds every month to your month-to-month insurance coverage Invoice You may also get savings and outstanding customer support. The option of an insurance company that is certainly regional is obtainable throughout the 50 states and you can also Look at fees for each state to ascertain quite possibly the most cost-effective price ranges. Having said that, it is crucial to remember that it would acquire a handful of months to enhance your credit history rating and many people with poor credit score record may have to pay for more than $400 a yr. Erie Insurance policy is another regional insurance company that offers economical car insurance plan. It truly is situated in Pennsylvania, and is in small business considering that 1925. Erie supplies automobile insurance coverage, lifetime, as well as house insurance coverage. Even though Erie is simply able to offer coverage in selected states, it has much more than thirteen,000 impartial insurance policy brokers all over all of the United States. It is possible to select an agent or maybe a regional insurance provider in accordance with your requirements. On the other hand, it is extremely encouraged to read through every one of the fine print prior to making a alternative. 5 points to consider when Evaluating Motor vehicle Insurance coverage Offers When you are thought of as a superior-risk driver, you must examine vehicle coverage offers to determine essentially the most cost-effective coverage that fulfills your demands. It’s also wise to check out the coverage offered as part of your area so that you can decide In case the decreased fee is achievable. It may be cheaper to acquire more insurance policies when you’re at lower risk or if you agree for an increased deductible. It is dependent upon Whatever you involve. There are numerous options from which to choose. Lowest priced automobile coverage for top-possibility motorists For anyone who is looking for the lowest insurance policies level for cars and trucks for motorists who’re large possibility, you’ve got arrive at the ideal spot. You can certainly uncover one particular with a several clicks over the internet. The world wide web can present you with many insurance rates at simply a fraction of the cost of traditional automobile coverage. Not simply that, Furthermore, it makes making use of for coverage a whole lot less complicated. All you require choose is usually to fill in an on-line sort and spend your top quality, and you’re finished! Insurance organizations will then print you a card to show evidence of coverage protection. Then you’ll have an insurance plan plan within the party of an accident. If you have a foul credit score background, that you are viewed as a superior-possibility motorist by a variety of insurance corporations. This is because of The point that you are more likely to have an insurance plan assert than someone who has excellent credit. Your credit history score is actually a component in how insurance policies companies judge you. Also, a former DUI/DWI could raise your rate by around sixty five%. This quantities to an extra $477 on a six-month policy. A different issue that insurers look at is your driving heritage. Driving under the influence can enhance your high quality by nearly $174. A dashing ticket can cost you 45 percent.. When you’ve got a DUI in your driving file, choose the cheapest vehicle insurance company. Providers like State Farm, American Household and Progressive present a variety of choices that provide reduced fees for top-hazard drivers. Additionally they look at your score on credit score when generating your amount. Coverage companies acquire these elements into consideration when choosing the amount you’ll pay for the policy. A poor credit score rating may result in insurance costs soaring Which explains why It truly is very important to concentrate on your credit score score before making a choice. Vehicle insurance that may be The most cost effective for motorists There are a selection of components being regarded When picking The most cost effective auto insurance policy for drivers who’re youthful. Your marital status and age affect the price of your insurance policy. The sort of motor vehicle you drive may also influence the price of your insurance coverage. For instance, performance automobiles are usually costlier be insured than considerably less-performance designs. 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This option boosts rates by about $1,461 a year, but is typically cheaper than buying a new plan. Moreover, if you are a youthful driver, make sure to look for reductions or other ways to save cash. Least expensive automobile insurance policy for low-danger drivers The price of vehicle coverage differs greatly based on your risk profile. This tends to imply you will have to try to find essentially the most very affordable insurance plan for reduced-threat drivers. Insurers look at quite a few variables when selecting to get an coverage plan, which includes your driving history, demographics together with your Over-all threat level. The subsequent tend to be the 5 most crucial factors to think about when looking at insurance plan prices. Remember that decrease insurance prices don’t mean you should sacrifice high quality. To begin with, consider your zip code. These in significant-criminal offense regions are very likely to pay larger rates. On top of that, insurance policy firms will bear in mind the amount of site visitors. Make certain that you do not have any accidents or statements on your own credit history report which could boost your insurance policies premiums. Also, do not forget that you should compare rates just about every six months to make sure that you don’t pay more than you should. You should also look at having a discount on many policies if been capable of get multiple coverage with a selected insurer. Even though credit score scores can’t be legally used by insurers in some states, they’re nevertheless important aspects to think about when evaluating insurance coverage premiums. In Hawaii, drivers with lousy credit rating can pay nearly 168% bigger fees than clear drivers. In Massachusetts, large-threat motorists pay out thirty per cent greater than thoroughly clean drivers. For motorists who’re new, a DUI speeding ticket and lousy credit score will impact charges over Other individuals. It is important to receive some rates before you make a call. Automobile Insurance In close proximity to Me – Things which Effect the cost of Automobile Insurance plan The zip code that you just reside in plays a big role in the price of insurance policy. Should you reside in the region with the highest criminal offense price and mishaps it is achievable to spend a lot more on coverage offers. Additionally, elements like targeted visitors volume and incident heritage can have an impact on the expense of insurance policy. The vast majority of insurance coverage providers look into a driver’s historical past to find out what fee they’re going to demand for their policy. Many enough time, motorists with poor driving history are charged a lot more than These that has a thoroughly clean driving heritage. The price of insurance for cars The cost of motor vehicle insurance coverage has improved from $fifty to $a hundred in the final five years, because of wellbeing prices which are soaring. Moreover, motorists must have uninsured and PIP insurance. These insurances are in extra of condition demands. Some states only require liability insurance policy, but Big apple necessitates motorists to carry the two. These coverages are optional and increase costs for insurance policy, and frequently boost the full quality. Finally, the motive force ought to look into the bounds of their protection, given that specified procedures present the least protection than Many others. In keeping with New York, the common man or woman pays 2.eight percent of money for motor vehicle insurance policies. That is a little in excess of the countrywide typical that is two.40 percent. People of their 30s, 40s, and 50s Have got a reduce Price tag than the typical. The age group 70+ pays more for insurance policy for drivers with much less encounter. People who are married could be billed somewhat far more, but still reduce than those who are one. In addition to a reduced Price Drivers could also choose to get defensive driving programs. These classes are 320 minutes in lengthand comprise dialogue of the driver’s attitude in addition to website traffic restrictions. They educate defensive driving capabilities that dramatically reduce expenditures for insurance plan. They can also guide to improve their driving report using a driving training course will help decrease the cost of a car or truck insurance policies estimate. Nevertheless, when you are Doubtful about the precise coverage that you choose to require, it is possible to Call insurance coverage information and facts institute. Insurance plan Information and facts Institute. Cost of vehicle insurance plan in other states As gasoline rates can differ from condition to condition, the price of an insurance plan estimate in other states can be kind of than yours. Various things is usually The rationale for this, For illustration, The proportion of drivers not insured, the state-distinct insurance coverage rules, as well as the degree of theft. Also, the frequency of severe temperature can affect the price of insurance plan in several states. The next table lists price of insurance plan for cars throughout distinct states. These estimates are according to a comparison of your insurance policy specifications for every point out. Missouri is The most affordable condition to insure your car thoroughly, costing just $944 a lot less than Louisiana. In addition, the point out has among the cheapest prices per capita and is also put fifth from the rankings of the expense of living. Then again, Texas motorists have the highest Charge in vehicle insurance, paying out up to 33 p.c in their annual earnings in all. The rationale for this disparity might be result of the fact Texas is home to a significant amount of drivers who are not insured and lots of lawsuits. The typical nationwide Price for vehicle insurance with comprehensive protection is $one,771 each year. The condition Along with the costliest insurance coverage premium is Louisiana, by using a top quality of $two,839- a 19% enhance more than 2020. In distinction, Maine’s common high quality is simply $858. This is because states with no fault have greater insurance plan fees. The expense of a car or truck insurance coverage in other states can vary appreciably. There are plenty of elements to think about, including the condition’s regulations on insurance policy. Cost of insurance policy on cars for prime-risk drivers In case you are looking for significant-threat driver motor vehicle insurance policies close to me, you could be trying to get a minimal-Expense policy. Substantial-possibility drivers shell out additional insurance policies fees than standard motorists. The main reason for this is that they’re very likely to be extra more likely to have a lot more accidents or violations on their own document. Based on the point out, the deadline can be given that three years or 5 years. In certain cases you’ll find discounts by using a driver safety course. While the nationwide averages of large-risk driver automobile insurance policy close to me are fairly homogeneous, you may uncover that costs change extensively from state to point out. Some insurance coverage corporations alter their fees for various states and, if you reside in a specific state, you may perhaps discover that a person insurance service provider presents one of the most coverage at a value that may be reasonably priced. The most affordable high-risk driver automobile insurance I can discover is Point out Farm, that has an extended-standing name for offering outstanding assistance. The most efficient way to locate a superior-possibility driver insurance coverage near to me can be to enter your zip code, and afterwards search for prices. The price for high-possibility car or truck insurance policies in my location can vary throughout states, on the other hand most massive insurers give this kind of protection. Selected of these Have got a specialization in superior-possibility coverage For example, Nationwide Common. You could even be able to find a cheaper coverage For those who have excellent grades and a car or truck that is certainly small hazard. What are the main advantages of Comparing Car Insurance policy Firms There are actually numerous Gains to the whole process of comparing insurance plan companies for cars and trucks. In this article, We’re going to critique several of the essential attributes, like rankings, discounts, and customer care. The best insurance policies coverage you can obtain is important on your stability and protection, so make an effort to research unique procedures from diverse organizations. At the end of reading through this informative article, you’ll need a clear Idea of which 1 presents the best coverage at the bottom Value. Here are some ways to select the most suitable just one in your case: Comparison of car insurance plan providers To obtain the finest fee, it is best to Evaluate car coverage estimates supplied by diverse firms. Insurers use a lot of variables to work out the expense of insurance coverage. You must identify your individual wants and Look at charges from quite a few providers. For instance, sporting activities cars are costlier to insure than conventional autos. Furthermore, your place and driving background may also impact the rates are presented. Whenever you use a comparison Device to uncover the lowest value on identical protection which has the exact deductibles. Insurance premiums may vary noticeably and it’s therefore essential to know the way each coverage operates. A few of the variables that impact premiums are driving heritage, age, and the credit rating. It is usually probable to check the perks that each corporation delivers, such as assist with accidents or roadside help. Even though this will look like a daunting career, it may help to check quotations from a variety of providers and choose by far the most ideal just one. Here are several ideas to assist you to get going. In the situation of constructing comparisons concerning coverage organizations for auto you could possibly begin with the J.D. Ability score for automobile insurance policy firms. These are definitely dependant on purchaser gratification surveys that poll many hundreds of auto insurance coverage customers nationwide. These results are blended into numerical scores which stand for the typical firm’s rating on buyer pleasure. These rankings are published on a yearly basis, and the most beneficial vehicle coverage corporations in Each individual category obtain gold medals. But how Are you aware whether or not the insurance coverage providers you are thinking about are very good? There are numerous techniques to gauge the money toughness of vehicle insurance policy businesses. Step one will be to can Check out about the AM Very best insurance provider rating which gives economical balance scores for car or truck insurance policy companies. It doesn’t matter if the company has an A or B, C, or F, it is important to ascertain how protected it is actually prior to selecting a plan. That is A necessary aspect of customer care, so you should definitely read through the testimonials and examine the great print before you make a choice. Discount rates Vehicle insurance businesses provide a assortment of special discounts. Specified reductions will not be made available to Every person So It is crucial to visit the web site of the organization to you should definitely qualify for the bargains available to you. Some firms provide a number of special discounts, and You might also inquire along with your insurance policies agent in case you qualify for a selected price reduction. But, the method is fairly very simple and often necessitates a lot less than one particular hour. Under are a few examples of possible auto insurance coverage special discounts. Legacy Reductions A vehicle insurance policies supplier might provide a reduction to new motorists who buy the policy by means of their parents’ insurance provider. The normal lower price is 10 per cent. That is a great way to demonstrate your mom and dad appreciation for your personal support throughout the decades, and it could help you save funds on your car insurance policy. Numerous businesses present discount rates on legacy insurance plan to motorists underneath the age of 25, and It can be worthy of examining to examine Should the insurance provider you are with has one particular offered. You could also look into the procedures which can be provided by American Loved ones, Farmers, or USAA. Customer support On the globe of insurance policy usually there are some businesses which have persistently been able to deliver great customer service. Esurance is 1 case in point. Esurance scored 4 out of 5 based on the J.D. Ability rankings for buyer care this is a wonderful score for a company that features a dad or mum enterprise has no. The company scored higher than its rivals in all other spots, such as policy offerings and prices, as in the standard of companies supplied by its phone Reps and its Web-site. (individualized service) The key facet in automobile insurance policy For almost all shoppers is their coverage, but it’s the customer care that is A very powerful. Folks want to talk to their insurers and obtain prompt, professional company. This means that they need to be able to reply to their messages and mobile phone calls inside a short time, and want to talk to somebody who will pay attention to their desires and offer remedies. Though all auto insurance vendors can present Remarkable client service, some excel more than Other people. (rideshare insurance policies)(only a few clicks)(coverage alternatives) Several things influence the cost of auto insurance coverage businesses. Driving record and age are two significant things. Another person with a lousy driving background or maybe a weak credit score score will deal with increased costs. Moreover, the cost of living in your town influences the worth. On this regard, It truly is very important to compare the costs of various insurance policy businesses to pick the just one that can in shape your finances as well as your driving conduct. There are a selection of tips on how to reduce your rates, such as chopping protection or enrolling in a very defensive driving course. Additionally it is feasible to pay for the entire calendar year of insurance coverage upfront. (Monthly bill on the net)(employee discount rates)(at blame accident)(covered accident) Together with the pointed out areas, a range of other elements can increase your costs. In the situation of just lately built a claim or committed a visitors infringement Your insurance provider will revise your premiums. Also, for those who enroll in a safe driver course or have completed a safe driving program, it’s possible you’ll qualify to obtain a discount. Insurance policies businesses are frequently tweaking their strategies to compute rates, and you could potentially come across a big difference in the cost of your insurance policies, Even though you’ve hardly ever adjusted how you travel. (utilization base coverage)(rental automobiles)(car repairs)(Risk-free driver price reduction) Tips on how to Car Insurance plan Compare Could help you save cash A car or truck insurance coverage Evaluate is an efficient solution to avoid unreliable insurance corporations. As an example, low-Value rates from an insurance company could be misleading once the quotation excludes particular coverage or can make inaccurate statements regarding your automobile profile. By exploring the insurance policies providers’ rankings together with rankings plus the A.M. Very best ranking, you will be able to uncover the lowest priced insurance policy vendors inside your region. Browse this short article to discover how motor vehicle insurance coverage compares can help you save funds. Following that, Assess quotations with the top companies and choose which a person is the greatest in your case. (accident absolutely free) Fees are dependant on credit history-centered coverage rating The rating you receive from your insurance company dependant on your credit history history can offer a beneficial indicator of the danger you are more than likely to generally be, but you mustn’t permit it to dictate your fees. The federal federal government will not let insurers to make use of your credit score heritage as the only real cause of an increase in your amount. Nonetheless, states for instance California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont have laws that hinder insurers from applying credit rating record to determine fees for insurance. (could preserve)(new motor vehicle)(auto assert) However, this sort of insurance isn’t really accessible to each individual point out, and individuals don’t have any way to see if a company utilizes your credit rating score to make your mind up just how much to cost them. Some states, like California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Michigan prohibit credit-based mostly insurance plan. A variety of other states even have limitations regarding the use of insurance policy scores dependant on credit score. It is actually your choice to make your mind up on your own regardless of whether your insurance coverage score depending on credit is good for you. (motorbike insurance)(roadside guidance coverage)(bundling car)(get insurance policies for your vehicle) insurance policy)(pet insurance coverage)(actual price of income price)(outstanding promises assistance)(yacht insurance policies) Age has an effect on fees Many variables impact the price of reductions on motor vehicle insurance, including the age of the driving force. Age is an element that affects charges by more than 30 %, and in a few states, a younger driver will pay just about 4 situations the price of an older driver of thirty many years. Practical experience is likewise A serious issue since youthful drivers usually tend to result in incidents. Any time you recognize the variables that impact your premiums, you can get lessen selling prices yourself. Below are a few in the methods the age within your vehicle can have an affect on the coverage. Generally the more mature you are definitely the decreased your charges are going to be. Having said that, if your male, your age will impact the cost of motor vehicle insurance coverage. Although youthful male drivers spend less than more mature drivers but rates for drivers that are more mature than 60 and 70 go up. Statistically, males are about two much more than a quarter as prone to getting in the middle of a accident than Ladies, therefore the gap among genders narrows as we age. (protection choices)(homeowners insurance plan) The truth that men pays a greater value for coverage on vehicles than Women of all ages is not shocking. Men make plenty of problems when driving, which results in a lot more incidents and promises. But, There are many causes that trigger men to be dearer to address. Under are some of The key factors. Learn more details on probably the most perfectly-acknowledged things that impact vehicle coverage fees by gender. And if you’re still baffled consider these ideas for lowering your insurance coverage premiums. (auto coverage insurance policies)(auto insurance plan quotation)(automobile insurance policy rate) The Oregon Division of monetary Regulation has directed vehicle insurance policy firms to permit clients to define their gender. Discrimination against those people who are not gender precise can be the basis for unfair discrimination prices and insurers are necessary to file fees for this kind of drivers setting up in January 2019. These prices might be better compared to the premiums for male and woman drivers. As long as they’re not much too higher, ladies are able to save money. Do not be concerned with regards to”non-binary” costs “non-binary” selling price for youthful motorists. (automobile coverage insurance coverage claim)(hole insurance coverage)(vehicle law enforcement)	41,430
It’s flu season. The signs have begun appearing everywhere, "Flu season is here. Hand sanitizer: two for the price of one." Don’t count on alcohol hand sanitizers to ward off the flu. For years we’ve been encouraged to locate these products around the house, stash them in knapsacks, purses, and glove compartments. At supermarkets, there are alcohol-wipe dispensers to combat germs on shopping-cart handles, etc. But new research reveals that the sanitizers and alcohol wipes aren’t effective for quickly inactivating* flu viruses. It turns out that the freshly expelled virus particles are surrounded by a coating of protective mucus that prevents the alcohol from deactivating the virus unless the alcohol stays in contact with the virus for at least four minutes. Apparently, earlier studies had simulated using alcohol sanitizers on samples with dried mucus. When used as directed, public health experts say the 60% (or higher) alcohol sanitizers are good at killing bacteria that cause disease. But public health experts say the new research on viruses will change the way we all sanitize our hands, including medical and dental clinicians as they move between patients. Fortunately, there’s a low-cost, highly effective alternative to alcohol-based sanitizers that will kill most bacteria and inactivate flu viruses: plain soap and water. In fact, researchers say you don’t even need the soap to inactivate flu viruses. They found that 30 seconds of rubbing one’s hands in plain running water will do the trick. But adding soap to a handwashing regimen will offer further protection by killing more pathogenic bacteria (e.g., e. coli, listeria, salmonella, campylobacter) along with the flu virus. Scrub for as long as it takes to sing the alphabet song, around hands and wrists and between fingers. Use a nail brush to scrub beneath fingernails. So, wash your hands often and encourage family members to wash before preparing food, while taking care of sick people, after petting companion or farm animals, changing cat litter, using the toilet, and using common office or gym equipment. Here’s a cool hand-washing poster to post as a reminder, especially if you have children in the house. *Because viruses aren’t considered independent organisms—they hijack the genetic machinery of their host cells to replicate themselves—scientists refer to “inactivating” or “disabling,” rather than “killing” them. Bacteria are single-celled organisms that can be killed by antibiotics and many disinfectants. See how to wash your hands properly. Flu vaccine selections may be an ominous sign for this winter Choice of which strains to include now seen as "not optimal."	2,723
The Guardian on Monday made public a CIA document allowing the agency’s director to “approve, modify, or disapprove all proposals pertaining to human subject research.” Human what? At Guantanamo, the CIA gave huge doses of the terror-inducing drug mefloquine to prisoners without their consent, as well as the supposed truth serum scopolamine. Former Guantanamo guard Joseph Hickman has documented the CIA’s torturing people, sometimes to death, and can find no explanation other than research: “[Why] were men of little or no value kept under these conditions, and even repeatedly interrogated, months or years after they’d been taken into custody? Even if they’d had any intelligence when they came in, what relevance would it have years later? . . . One answer seemed to lie in the description that Major Generals [Michael] Dunlavey and [Geoffrey] Miller both applied to Gitmo. They called it ‘America’s battle lab.'” Non-consensual experimentation on institutionalized children and adults was common in the United States before, during, and even more so after the U.S. and its allies prosecuted Nazis for the practice in 1947, sentencing many to prison and seven to be hanged. The tribunal created the Nuremberg Code, standards for medical practice that were immediately ignored back home. Some American doctors considered it “a good code for barbarians.” The code begins: “Required is the voluntary, well-informed, understanding consent of the human subject in a full legal capacity.” A similar requirement is included in the CIA’s rules, but has not been followed, even as doctors have assisted with such torture techniques as waterboarding. Thus far, the United States has never really accepted the Nuremberg Code. While the code was being created, the U.S. was giving people syphilis in Guatemala. It did the same at Tuskegee. Also during the Nuremberg trial, children at the Pennhurst school in southeastern Pennsylvania were given hepatitis-laced feces to eat. Other sites of experimentation scandals have included the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in Brooklyn, the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island, and Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. And, of course, the CIA’s Project MKUltra (1953-1973) was a smorgasbord of human experimentation. Forced sterilizations of women in California prisons have not ended. Torture by Chicago police has for the first time just resulted in compensation for victims. If we are, at long last, to put such contemptible behavior behind us, it will require breaking some bad habits. Congress has busily re-banned torture a number of times in recent years. Now it must drop that charade and instead demand that the Attorney General enforce the anti-torture statute, which made torture a felony before George W. Bush ever became president. It’s good of John Oliver to denounce torture. And he’s right to go after the lies told about torture in popular entertainment. But he’s also spreading the false idea that it’s legal. “We checked,” he says, reporting that his crack team of investigators discovered that the only ban on torture is found in an executive order written by President Obama. This is dangerous nonsense. The U.S. was a party to the Anti-Torture Convention and had made torture a felony under the anti-torture statute and the war-crimes statute before George W. Bush ever became president. Since then, Congress has repeatedly “banned” torture. But, just as the U.N. Charter’s ban on war actually legalized certain wars, purporting to replace the total ban in the Kellogg-Briand Pact with a partial ban, these Congressional efforts (such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006) have actually legalized certain cases of torture, replacing (at least in everyone’s mind) the total ban already existing in the U.S. Code and in a treaty to which the U.S. is party. The latest “ban” proposal from Senator McCain and friends, would create exceptions in the form of those in the Army Field Manual, and advocates maintain that step number two would be to reform that manual. But if you skip both steps and acknowledge the existence of the anti-torture statute in the U.S. Code, you’re done. The proper task is to press for its enforcement. Oliver’s mistake, like virtually everyone else’s, is based on two myths. One, torture began with Bush. Two, torture ended with Bush. On the contrary, torture has been around in the United States and elsewhere for a very long time. So has the practice of banning it. Torture is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In fact, under international law, torture can never be legalized and is always banned. Myth number two is also wrong. Torture has not ended and won’t as long as it’s not punished. An attorney general can be questioned and threatened with impeachment until our laws are enforced. A new website created Monday let’s you email Congress to demand that it do just that. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) Related ← Previous Post Next Post → Related Posts Leave a Comment / May 21, 2005 May 21, 2005 Beauty and Community in Italy Leave a Comment / May 21, 2005 May 21, 2005 Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * five × = 25 Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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Join us at Fish Creek – Canada’s largest urban provincial park – where your family or group can enjoy a wide variety of interactive, guided and self-directed activities based around the theme of Plants & Pollinators. Here are some examples of the kinds of activities that will be on offer this month: listen to a story by the campfire (weather dependent) enjoy a short, guided historical walking tour birding and other outdoor activities learn about pollinators – birds, bees and other insects find out why native plants are so important to the ecosystem develop your plant identification skills take in a guided sensory experience try your hand at nature sketching and colouring for all ages meet Wildsmart Ambassadors to learn how to coexist with wildlife discover how you can protect the park when you visit and much more! Events are monthly, from February to November, 2022. Dates, times and locations vary throughout the year. *NOTE: Event details are subject to change due to weather, facility access or other unforeseen circumstances, so please check this website to confirm event location and time before attending. Drop-ins welcome, registration not required, but helpful for planning. Register to Attend A big thank you to long-time Friends of Fish Creek supporters, the Harry & Martha Cohen Foundation, for funding our 2022 Get to Know Nature events so these experiences can be offered at no charge to the public! Thank you to all who supported our efforts to facilitate family nature experiences on GivingTuesday! Together we raised over $2,800 to support Get to Know Nature events – All Welcome! Show your support for connecting children and families with nature by donating online or by visiting the Friends of Fish Creek office in the Bow Valley Ranch. Proceeds support the purchase of equipment and resources to be used at these events and also covers staff time to coordinate volunteers and partners to bring these events to life. With your support, we can remove barriers so more families can get connected outdoors!	2,061
Here's a sneak preview of all the hard work that's been going on these past few weeks. We were so blessed to have our family and friends come the weekend we moved in and work! I've been planning to show you guys before and afters as the rooms finish. That will probably take awhile, but we'll work with it. I'm pretty burnt out on painting already and we're painting every room in this house!!! oh man... The first room we hit was Ryan's office so that he could feel settled. We are almost done with it. It just needs a new light fixture, hang up artwork and maybe new window treatments. Emily's boyfriend, Sean, was a huge help. It was so sweet of him to want to pitch in. I like him. ;) (At a certain somebody's request, I switched the "painting photo" with a more appropriate depiction of Sean. WHERE'S THE GUN SHOW?!) That first weekend we ended up painting three bedrooms and the guest bathroom!! You will crack up when you see the before pics. The Ebright men just don't know how to not be working. Even while the movers were moving us in they were outside raking!! My mom worked so hard that she ended up having back pain for a week! This is her getting a much needed message from our friend Elise. She is such a sweetheart! Much more to come. As we speak our driveway is getting redone. So excited! Pretty much the story of my life right now is work, unpack and paint, repeat. Posted by Lindsey at 5:21 PM 5 comments: Stephanie November 18, 2010 at 7:33 PM You have an awesome family! I'm so glad you guys are making the house your home. ReplyDelete Replies Anonymous November 18, 2010 at 11:15 PM Ha, do I know how you feel! You are awesome to take pics as you go! I just wanted it done. If my Mom hadn't snapped some photos we would have been up the creek! ReplyDelete Replies Jules November 19, 2010 at 9:28 AM Oh my goodness.... this is bringing back so many memories of last summer. We painted every room in our house ( and the ceilings). At the time I was wishing we had just hired someone, but now I feel so proud when I tell people WE painted :) I can't wait to get to tour your house :) By the way, I love the new look of your blog! Have a great weekend and don't work too hard! ReplyDelete Replies sgraves24 November 19, 2010 at 5:43 PM I was glad to help. You guys have an amazing house. That pic of me is not flattering. Please change. ReplyDelete Replies Kelley November 23, 2010 at 9:22 AM Can't wait to see all the photos!! I'm hoping next time we are in KC we can swing by and see you and have you meet LB! This past weekend we came in very briefly and he screamed through every visit. We stopped by to see John and it lasted about 10 minutes with ear piercing screams. Darn teething. So excited for you guys to be back in KC! I am slightly jealous too I miss that place being home.	2,830
The North American Association of Sales Engineers (NAASE), is the brainchild of a long-time sales engineer and industry consultant/writer, Ken Lambert. Previously, there was no professional trade association that both connects and certifies Sales Engineers in various sectors. With roughly 67,000 sales engineers (plus roughly 130,000 technical sales reps) throughout the United States, and many more in Canada and Mexico, NAASE was formed to fill that gap for those already in their roles as well as those just entering the field. The organization provides industry-specific member networking through forums, webinars, and blogs. Additionally, through membership, a certification designating a Sales Engineer (SE) as an experienced professional, life-long learner with a passion for client success . “Diversity. Equity & Equality. Inclusion. They’re more than just words. They’re the key principles guiding how we build our teams, cultivate leaders and create an Association that’s the right fit for every person who chooses to join or volunteer. We have a global, multicultural following—we want to reflect that in our outgoing vision.” (As an outward manifestation of our DEI Statement, NAASE is a proud Member of the East Africa Chamber of Commerce.) NAASE is based out of New Hampshire (USA), and has a current Certificate of Good Standing from the State of NH – Certificate # 0005362453. We look forward to getting to know you! Damian Hanna – President of NAASE Damian Hanna is currently serving as the president of the North American Association of Sale Engineers. Prior to this, he served on the NAASE advisory board for a year. His expertise, industry connections, and passion for sales engineering will guide NAASE as we continue to grow and advance our goals. Damian is based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with over 23 years of technical software sales experience. His focus over the past 12 years has been in a leadership capacity, running large PreSales Engineering organizations across the US East Coast. Prior to this, he has held roles ranging from Integration consultant to Sales Engineer, at both the integrator and vendor levels respectively. Damian has been fortunate enough throughout his career, to gain experience across all vertical industries. Ken Lambert, Vice President Matthew Mahoney, Vice President We aim to foster a base of Certified Sales Engineers across North America, enable them to connect with one another, and actively promote the profession while serving organizations through reducing the uncertainty of new hires. To keep up with industry trends and ensure we are on the right track, we have created the NAASE Advisory Board comprised of various experts across the different industries we represent in North America. NAASE would like to thank our various corporate sponsors and partners who are helping NAASE and the greater technical sales community. Ken Lambert, Founder/ Vice President Ken has been a building materials sales engineer for many years, having worked in many parts of the country. He has been an expert consultant at times for “Maven”, and for the “Gerson Lehrman Group”, and has been a regular contributing writer for several publications/sites- including SMPS (Society for Marketing Professional Services). Uplift your career as a Sales Engineer with The North American Association of Sales Engineers (NAASE)	3,525
Managed to hang a little washing out before I went to work this morning. Walked to work listening to an audio book. Delivery day again just a small delivery, but with the backlog of last weeks salads, (if you remember, we’ve had issues with grills and fryers breaking, so the restaurant has had a few 1/2 days) we had no room for it!!! But with double prep done, I made a dent in the walk-in fridge, and hopefully it busy over the next few days. Day off tomorrow, will spend it catch up with a special friend How was your Tuesday? Posted byjab1969 09/07/2019 09/07/2019 Posted inDay of the week Published by jab1969 Hi I’m an avid reader. I also write reviews for the books I read. Come in and say hi. You can find me on GoodReads, Bookbub, and NetGalley ‍ I also review on an awesome site The Reading Cafe (run by Barb and Sandy) So ........ More about me 🤨 I’m almost 50 🤫 I’ve been married (for 27 years) I have a 30 year old son. I had a daughter, I lost her a week before her 21st birthday and it’s been 5 years since she’s been gone (and not a day goes by that I don’t miss her) I work as a salad 🥗 chef ‍ in a restaurant, haven’t been there long (before that I worked in Tesco) a large supermarket in the UK. I also like to make craft items (and if your really lucky) and I’ll try to post my efforts on here My daughter loved butterflies (so part of my blog name is dedicated to her) I’ve taken on her love of butterflies (I have several tattoos) so I’m probably going to throw quiet a few butterflies on here I LOVE PENGUINS so I’m also going to be putting a few on here (my library holds a few) <img src="https://d1vbo0kv48thhl.cloudfront.net/images/featured_book_reviewer_big.png" View more posts	1,787
When I first moved from my home city of Kobe to Osaka two years ago, the first thing I remember thinking was just how much is going on here all of the time, even when the sun begins to go down! There are many, many things to do in Osaka at night, so whatever your tastes might be there is sure to be something for you to enjoy in this exciting city. Personally, I’m not much of a bar person, but that’s ok because there’s so many other ways to enjoy the Osaka nightlife that are just as fun, you just have to have a bit of an open mind, which will definitely take you a long way in this city. Some of my favourite Osaka night activities involve spending my money in the enormous shopping malls, seeing my friends at one of the tea houses and of course eat lots and lots and lots of food! Ah yes, food, I couldn’t mention Osaka without talking about all of the incredible and delicious meals that you can find here, especially the street food that I think is the best in Japan - Osaka is known as the ‘nation’s kitchen’ after all! So here it goes, this is my locals guide that’s going to tell you exactly what to do in Osaka at night so that you can experience this crazy place exactly how it’s supposed to be. So, this is not so much a hidden gem but it’s still one of the Osaka night attractions that you shouldn’t miss. Even if you have just one night in Osaka then you have to make some time for Dōtombori, but you’ll also heard it called Dōtonbori. It’s the place that everyone recognises, you know that famous Osaka night market with beautiful neon lights that shine down onto the canal, surrounded by more restaurants that you can count, yes, it’s that one! It’s got an incredible selection of food here, my favourite place is called Kushikatsu Daruma and it’s where you’ll find the best chicken skewers, honestly, these things are just delicious! It’s a small counter right in the heart of Dōtombori and it’s mostly always going to have a long line, so if it’s too busy my advice is to try anywhere, honestly, you won’t get bad food here. Dōtombori is the heart of Osaka nightlife, it sums up the city like nowhere else in Osaka. So, you know how I was saying that Dōtombori is sometimes just a little bit too busy? Well Nakazakichō is my answer to that, it has just as much character if not more than Dōtombori but not so many tourists know about it, so you’ll be seeing one of the most authentic things to do in Osaka and you won’t even have to battle to get served. This is the best nightlife in Osaka I think, it’s a perfect mixture of tranquil cafes where I can chill out of an evening, with some traditional Japanese drinking spots thrown in there too! This is Osaka’s coolest neighbourhood for sure, you really could spend all night going from café to café. I really think that exploring all of the tiny streets with no plan is the best way to do Nakazakichō - find your own path. Book a private experience in Osaka Get the best city views at the Cosmo Tower Is it just me who thinks that viewpoints look better at night? Well, that’s definitely the case for the Cosmo Tower, you can see the whole city underneath you and it’s absolutely incredible. The tower is big, I mean really big, the third tallest tower in Japan kind of big, so you can imagine the views that it gives across the neon streets; I don’t think there’s a better viewpoint in the city. There’s also a small bar at the top where you can enjoy your views with a drink, at fifty-five stories high it has to be one of the highest in the whole country. It’s open all the way until 10pm so you have plenty of time to take it all in, and it’s also super for catching the sunset if you can time it right. Yes, it’s certainly a real highlight of the Osaka night attractions but if you’re scared of heights, maybe not so much. Go for Japanese Tea I think the best things to do in Osaka at night are the ones that make you feel like you couldn’t be anywhere else other than Japan, so there’s nothing better than going for some Japanese tea. I know this isn’t specifically one of the Osaka night activities, but I just love tea so much that I’m including it anyway, and Osaka is birthplace of the tea ceremony after all. This used to be a very private Japanese tradition, but many tour companies now run English speaking ceremonies which don’t have the same strict rules as the Japanese ones, but they still give you a really good taste of what they’re like. You will have to wear a Kimono and have your hair styled in the traditional way before sipping on some of the best tea you will ever have. There are many tour companies that offer these online, so look around to find the one that’s right for you. Go shopping in Shinsaibashi-Suji Shinsaibashi-Suji is the most famous place for shopping in the whole of Osaka that’s one of my all-time favourite Osaka night attractions. A huge illuminated shopping mall with loads of shops and arcades it’s the best place to spend a couple of hours one evening searching for quirky souvenirs. Sure, you could go during the day, but like lots of places in Japan it looks so much better when the lights are on. The arcade is six hundred meters long, which is pretty crazy, but not as crazy as the fact that shopping in this part of town dates back almost four-hundred years. Inside you will find a huge mixture of shops, everything from a huge Disney store all the way to smaller, independent retailers can be found here, you’ll probably need a couple of visits so take it all in because there’s a lot going on. So here we are, one of the absolute hidden gems of the Osaka nightlife; Torame Yococho. This is a treasure trove of great food, somewhere I’d really recommend if you want to get a good feel for the delicious Osaka food scene because everything, and I mean everything, is served here. There are nine separate stalls that sell all kinds of Japanese favourites, mostly focusing of dishes that have some kind of connection with Osaka itself like the amazing grilled yakitori skewers. Not only is this one of the best things to do in Osaka if you want an introduction to our culture, it’s also such a good place to come to meet new people because everyone sits next to each other in a very communal space. This is hidden at the back of the Namba district, which in itself is an absolute must of the Osaka nightlife. If you thought it wasn’t possible for somewhere to feature more neon that Dotombori then you’d be wrong, yes, Shinsekai manages to do just that. I love Osaka nightlife for its craziness, and this is as crazy as it gets, it’s a real must see district that could only exist in Japan! Apparently, it was based on Paris and New York when it was designed nearly one hundred years ago, you only need to look at the similarities between Tsutenkaku Tower and the Eiffel Tower to find this is probably true. I think it’s the fact that it looks as though this place hasn’t changed since it was first built that makes this one of the most unusual things to in Osaka at night, it’s kind of like stepping into a time machine, it’s all very nostalgic. It’s another place with a huge amount of good food, so be prepared to eat. A lot. Again. Do you notice a theme in Osaka? tailored to you by our handpicked local insiders tailored to you by our handpicked Top private experiences in Osaka Family day in Osaka with a local Top private experiences in Osaka make sure to try See all experiences in Osaka make sure to try We’ll pair you with the perfect host There is no better way to see a city than with a friend who lives there. This is why we carefully match guests with their perfect host based on interested, personality and type of experience so they can discover a city beyond the tourist trail. 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People watch as coverage of an ICBM missile test is displayed on a screen in a public square in Pyongyang on July 29, 2017. Early Friday morning on the Korean peninsula, North Korea launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile inside of a month. Nuclear experts say the latest test improved on than the last one, with a range that could reach most of the continental United States. "This launch demonstrates our surprise attack capability," North Korean state media quoted leader Kim Jong Un as saying. "It also proves that the mainland U.S. is within our shooting range." North Korea says the missile was another Hwasong-14, the same type tested on July 4. That launch was the first to reach a distance that the American military considered an intercontinental ballistic missile. In response, South Korea's Defense Minister appeared before cameras with a terse statement: "We will start discussions with U.S. Forces in Korea to temporarily place THAAD launchers and form a system of response to North Korea," Defense Minister Song Young-mu said. THAAD is the U.S. missile defense system that has begun getting deployed in South Korea. "The stronger they get, the harder it becomes for us to convince [North Korea] that this is not the road they want to go down," says Jenny Town, the assistant director of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies. She says with each improvement, the U.S. and its allies lose leverage with the North. "Anytime the U.S. goes on a campaign that's really driven by pressure and isolation and this idea of sanctions not only against North Korea but against China ... is really misconstrued," Town says. She says a policy of increasing pressure is having the opposite of the intended effect, since she says it plays into North Korea's hands. Domestically, Pyongyang uses all the sanctions slapped on it as evidence to show the U.S. is quote "hostile." This, Town argues, justifies its need for nuclear weapons. "So they're going to continue down the path of developing their nuclear deterrent and WMD capabilities in order to ensure that their regime survives," says Town. The U.S. has responded initially with a show of force with South Korea, firing precision missiles along South Korea's East Coast, into the sea. But as for a long term solution — the Trump administration has yet to make any headway in breaking the cycle of provocations seen for years. It continues calling for denuclearization, despite North Korea moving in the opposite direction. Town argues the right perspective is key to policy. "They really have to understand who North Korea is today, in order to build an effective policy moving forward," Town says. Jihye Lee contributed to this post. Corrected: July 28, 2017 at 11:00 PM CDT A previous version of this digital story noted the launch of North Korea's missile was on Saturday morning. It was on Friday morning. Elise Hu is a host-at-large based at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Previously, she explored the future with her video series, Future You with Elise Hu, and served as the founding bureau chief and International Correspondent for NPR's Seoul office. She was based in Seoul for nearly four years, responsible for the network's coverage of both Koreas and Japan, and filed from a dozen countries across Asia.	3,431
We bring extensive experience and history to the table in each project we undertake. As an advocate for our homeowners, we assist in making the best choices for both their estates and their bottom lines. It’s what we’ve specialized in for more than 35 years. quick links Gallery of Homes In the News twitter facebook ABOUT ABOUT US Never miss an update. Receive periodic emails from us, and cancel at any time. Long before he joined Harwick Homes, Craig was on the ice crew at Hertz Arena before entering FGCU and earning a bachelor’s in business management. As an assistant superintendent, Craig helps the superintendents in every possible way—from picking up supplies to scheduling subcontractors and supervising job sites. He spends his free time working out and playing golf, ice hockey and lacrosse. With seven years of home building industry experience, Nick was attracted to Harwick by our reputation, extraordinary projects and exceptional clientele. As a project manager, he oversees projects from start to finish, with planning, contract execution, budget monitoring and client/designer communications as his primary responsibilities. Nick also holds a certificate of specialization in construction management from Columbia University. Before getting into homebuilding, cabinetry and remodeling, he worked in the IT industry. Nick spends his free time relaxing with family and friends as well as traveling and exploring new places. As controller for the Harwick Homes team, Lourdes oversees all financial information for the company. She recently relocated from Miami and brings with her over 27 years of industry experience. She not only maintains the financial records, but is also on-hand to answer any questions clients may have regarding the billings of their projects. Whether a client is interested in day-to-day billings or periodic reports, Lourdes will work with them to ensure they understand where they are and where they are going on a project. Her previous work experience has been in construction accounting. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a CPA license. In her free time, Lourdes enjoys playing tennis, reading books, painting and writing poetry. When it comes to details, it’s quite possible no one makes a bigger difference than Donna. With over 37 years of administrative experience, including 19 years in the homebuilding industry, she helps lay the foundation upon which every Harwick Homes project and relationship is built. Donna’s role includes almost too much to list. She oversees all administrative duties, including keeping the office in order, assisting with accounting tasks, supporting project managers and superintendents, scheduling meetings, arranging vendor presentations, ordering supplies and making sure office equipment is properly maintained. She even makes our special gift baskets once projects are completed. In short, Donna helps Harwick Homes run smoothly and efficiently, with a smile. A former military wife, Donna returned to Naples from Germany where she served as an operations secretary. Then, after working as a director of medical records for an assisted living facility, she explored real estate and entered the building world. Before joining Harwick Homes in 2018, she worked for another builder as a sales administrator. On top of all that, she even has a real estate license. Outside of work, Donna is just as busy. An avid music and classic car lover, she attends many concerts and car shows. She also has quite the collection of vintage records, guitars and pretty much anything to do with old cars. Donna is an animal lover and participates in many rescue groups. She has an adult son who teaches English in Taiwan, and a loving roommate who also happens to be her mom. Board Member – Board of Directors Mark brings a dynamic combination of skills to Harwick Homes, all of which have been honed by more than two decades in the industry. With a strong eye for perfection and an understanding of clients’ highly individual lifestyles, he works to provide the best possible experience at all times. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Mark attended the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Moving to in Naples in 1988, he worked for several years as a framing contractor before joining the Harwick team in 1993 as a Superintendent. There, he quickly worked his way up the ladder into management. Our immediate past president, Mark now supports Harwick as a member of its board of directors, a role that allows him to spend more time with his wife and two daughters as well as contribute his expertise as a Certified Building Contractor. He maintains his attention to detail and helps to make each client’s specific vision a reality. In his spare time, he enjoys nature and can often be found fishing or sailing. President As President, Shane focuses on new business and project development with a hands-on approach. He meets personally with his clients to ensure Harwick standards are always upheld. His business acumen took the remodeling department from a small division to the number 44 position among the top 550 remodelers in the country. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Shane brings a great deal of organizational experience and high ethical standards. He’s an active member of the Collier Building Industry Association (CBIA). Shane not only served on its Board of Directors, but also was voted CBIA Builder of the Year. For many years, Shane was active in Remodelers Advantage, a national organization comprised of the top remodelers from across the U.S. and Canada, Shane attended their Summit annually, as well as their yearly Roundtables™. He and other top international remodelers congregated with leading industry consultants to sharpen their skills. He is an active participant in a National Association of Builders (NAHB) 20 Club of which Harwick Homes has been a member of for many years. The 20 Clubs are comprised of builders and remodelers from non-competing markets who meet several times a year to share their business expertise, learning from each other how to improve operations and increase bottom lines. Members share and compare financial information, look for trouble spots and offer each other advice on how to increase their profit ratios and improve their performance. Happily married with five children, Shane enjoys backwater fishing, golf and riding his road bike. An Eagle Scout in his teens, he remains involved with the Boy Scouts of America. Shane also volunteers with his church to help families in need and organizes service projects and youth activities. He especially enjoys time with his family and going to the beach. Never miss an update. Receive periodic emails from us, and cancel at any time. Originally from Woodbridge, Connecticut, Peter Brochin has 33 years of experience in the construction industry. Drawn to Harwick Home’s reputation and clientele, he is a Class-A state licensed general contractor, holding a Business Management degree from Eckerd College. As Superintendent, Peter sees projects through all the way from pre-construction to delivery to the customer. He collaborates with all subcontractors and vendors, establishes orderly workflow on site, and ensures work is proceeding on time. In his free time, Peter enjoys boating, fishing, volunteering and spending time with his family. Pedro brings over 20 years of experience in the construction industry to Harwick Homes. Before starting at Harwick Homes, Pedro worked in customer service for Mitsubishi Oil Corporation in Japan for 10 years. He subsequently entered the construction industry as a painter and worked his way up to serve as the COO of a large painting, restoration and waterproofing company that handled projects from Tampa to West Palm Beach for the following 10 years. When he decided to settle down in Naples, he was quick to accept his invitation to work with Harwick Homes. As Business Development Manager, Pedro works closely with clients and interior designers to ensure a seamless building process. This is a part of the job Pedro greatly enjoys, “working for a custom home builder is much different than working for a painting and restoration company in that we are extremely involved in all details of the home building process. I appreciate this part of my job because it allows me to stay involved and help the clients get the perfect home.” Pedro has his real estate license and his home inspector license, bringing a unique perspective to the Harwick team. He also handles smaller scale projects at Harwick, like small remodels and home repainting. Born in Peru, Pedro received his college degree in translation and business management. He is fluent in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Italian. In his free time, Pedro enjoys playing tennis, coaching his son in soccer, and spending time with his family at the beach. A seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience, Kathryn Simpson is responsible for overseeing remodeling construction at Harwick Homes with an emphasis on delivering exceptional customer service. Kathryn is a second-generation Atlanta construction industry veteran who began her career working in her father’s construction company. She eventually moved on to larger construction companies where she became a superintendent and general contractor for private homes. She met her husband in Alaska. Together with their five children, they lived in the Portland, Oregon area before relocating to Naples in 2015. When not managing Harwick projects, Kathryn enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, sailing in the Gulf of Mexico and kayaking in coastal backwaters. The entire family likes inline speed skating and travels across the country to participate in several long distance races each year. Jeff Kelley brings over 35 years of building industry experience to Harwick Homes. He is responsible for client walk-throughs, writing and developing scopes of work, contracting with subcontractors and developing budgets for clients. Jeff began his career in Indianapolis, Indiana, working as a superintendent building homes and project coordinator building condominiums. He was also a purchasing manager for a national homebuilder. After relocating to Florida in 2002, he became VP of Purchasing for a national homebuilder. Originally from Ohio, Jeff is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he served on the USS John F. Kennedy. He is a member of the American Legion and a lifetime supporter of the USO. When not working, he enjoys time with his family, woodworking and cycling. Jeff is married with three children and four grandchildren. A construction industry veteran and Naples area resident since 1987, Denise Jones brings 30 years of experience to Harwick Homes. She oversees the construction of custom homes and multiple renovation projects, always delivering on time and within scope. Along with her passion and drive, her extensive construction and business background ensures goals and objectives are met while monitoring schedules, budgets and resources. Raised in a real estate and construction family, Denise relocated from Michigan to Clearwater, Florida where she began her career, as well as earned her Florida Certified Building Contractor and Florida Real Estate Broker licenses. Since then, she has dedicated her career to custom homes, multifamily residential developments and commercial projects. Prior to joining Harwick, she worked as a purchasing manager for a luxury homebuilder, managing bottom-line purchasing and negotiation activities. Before that she worked as a project manager, purchasing manager, superintendent and contractor for several construction companies throughout Southwest Florida. Denise believes the best part of Harwick is the people and loves spending time with them. She also enjoys working in the field, watching the transformations take place. When it comes to Harwick clients, Denise really loves seeing and hearing their reactions when the home of their dreams becomes reality. Outside of work, Denise has an active lifestyle and spends time with her sons, Evan and Alec, her precious dad and friends. She enjoys cooking, road trips, Disney, seeing new places and attending Florida Everblades hockey games. You can also find her exercising at Crunch, shopping at Coconut Point, seeing movies and trying new restaurants. She has been an avid book club member for 9 years with the same group of gals. She also treasures time walking and playing with her two beloved Papillons, Taz and Tux. Senior Project Manager A member of the Harwick Homes team for almost 20 years, Alexandra “Alex” Brennan plays a key role in the Harwick process. Alex was instrumental in the founding of the “Maintain-It” home maintenance program and involved in the construction of over 110 custom homes and remodels. She has also become the first Senior Project Manager at Harwick Homes. Alex’s experience at every level of the construction process gives her a truly fundamental understanding of the industry. She ensures the building experience runs smoothly by coordinating all aspects of the new home and remodel process, including managing the myriad of details of project development, permits, estimates, contracts, design selections and client communication. Originally from Munich, Germany, Alex connects well with clients from the U.S. and abroad. She began her construction career as a licensed dynamite blaster, blasting the bedrock foundation of numerous lakes in some of the most prominent communities throughout Naples. Prior to joining Harwick Homes, she traded her field experience for air conditioning, starting as receptionist and working her way up to project manager of a condominium development in Pelican Marsh. Alex’s relationships with Harwick team members, clients and vendors are what she enjoys most about working for Harwick Homes. She even embraces the challenges in the industry, always amazed by the results of remarkable teamwork. In her free time, Alex enjoys Florida’s beautiful landscape and wildlife on kayaking and trail riding trips with friends and family. For quieter days, she experiments with new recipes or relaxes with a good book. She also likes to give back to the community and has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. Len started working for a family owned custom homebuilder when he was just 17 years old. With his natural talents and work ethic, he did much more than learn the ropes. He eventually took over as owner/operator and went on to build an array of beautiful homes in Maine, Massachusetts and Florida. With over 35 years of experience, Len says the opportunity to work with a highly respected luxury builder attracted him to Harwick Homes. His passion for the job is also quite clear. “Making sure job sites are well organized and highly productive is my primary role, with the ultimate objective being client satisfaction.” Len provides supervision and support, handles scheduling and coordination, and oversees subcontractors. He also maintains constant communication with Harwick project managers to ensure each project gets done in a timely, efficient manner. When not busy on job sites, Len enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, boating, biking and travel. Stay connected with the region’s premier builder. Complete the form to receive periodic emails, and cancel at any time. First Name (required) Last Name (required) Your Email (required) Δ Jack brings over 20 years of accounting experience in the Southwest Florida construction industry to the Harwick Homes team. He not only maintains the financial records, but he is also on-hand to answer any questions clients may have regarding the billings of their projects. Whether a client is interested in day-to-day billings or periodic reports, Jack will work with them to ensure they understand where they are and where they are going on a project. When a task requires extra research and a keen eye for solving problems, that’s when Jack really thrives. As for his favorite part about working for Harwick, Jack says it’s the people. “Our president, Mark Smith, never loses his cool under pressure. And our office manager is always smiling and completes any task assigned to her.” Before coming on board in 2011, he worked in project development, residential and commercial construction, golf courses, restaurants, hotels and manufacturing. His proudest professional moment was working with the Perkins Restaurant Group as they transformed from a small franchise to a franchisor with 122 corporate restaurants and 400 franchises. Originally from Bloomington, Minnesota, Jack enjoys spending time with his wife, and he is an avid fisherman and traveler. He also loves to take scuba diving adventures. Preston brings nearly 30 years of experience in the construction field to Harwick Homes. Since joining the team in 1998, he has spent the majority of his time onsite, where he keeps a watchful eye on every detail of the construction process, ensuring everything is carried out to perfection. Preston’s desire to create a quality product is complemented by his friendly personality, which makes the experience enjoyable for every client. His attention to detail and friendliness allowed Preston to lead and succeed in creating the masterful Contemporary in Estuary estate. Although he was essential in the completion of this difficult project, he shares all the praise with everyone involved, including Harwick’s President. “I admire Mark Smith for everything he has done to make Harwick successful.” Preston holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida and is a Certified General Contractor. Before he was a Superintendent at Harwick, Preston spent 12 years as a Superintendent overseeing high-end home construction for a leading development company in Florida. Although Preston was born in Tampa, Florida, he has lived in a variety of locations, such as: Utah, Portugal, California, and the Netherlands. Preston is the proud father of two sons, Jarrett and Austin, graduated from Auburn University and the University of Florida, respectively. Preston and his wife, Dana, enjoy taking in the Florida lifestyle and can often be found off-shore fishing and stone crabbing. Mark contributes strong communication skills and a thorough knowledge of the industry to Harwick Homes. He thrives working with clients and provides great follow through on all questions and concerns, ensuring each project runs smoothly and the customers come home to something special. Drawing from his decades of coaching experience, Mark emphasizes teamwork and relationships to create beautiful homes. “My coaching experience helps get the team focused and motivated.” He appreciates the unique qualities every employee brings to a project, and he extends his relationships to those outside the team. “I thrive in building interpersonal relationships with clients and sub contractors. Bringing everyone together is how we can successfully put all the pieces together.” Originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mark received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration Management from the Warren Wilson College in Asheville. Since 1985, he has worked with custom homebuilders and developers throughout the Southwest Florida area. He joined the Harwick team in 2010. Outside of work, Mark has volunteered for over 30 years in youth soccer programs throughout Southwest Florida, and was the head coach of the Barron Collier High School boys varsity team for 16 seasons. He enjoys the outdoors, reading, and spending time with his wife of more than 20 years, Leslie, and their two boys, Graham and Hugh. Graham has been working with the Harwick Homes since 2011. “I started in high school as a painter, and then during my college summers I was a laborer. The experience prepared me for a smooth transition to full time Superintendent in 2015.” Graham is no stranger to the construction and building industry, as his father, Mark Wilkinson, is also on the Harwick Homes team. Graham grew up on job sites and has been involved in construction throughout his entire life. Although Graham enjoys every aspect of the building process, he especially likes the excitement of starting a new project and seeing the customers happy with the final result. His organizational skills and attention to detail make everything in-between a breeze—but if he ever encounters an issue, the whole team is there to help. “Everyone works great together and you can go ask anyone on the team for anything. It’s what makes the Harwick team great.” Born and raised in Naples, Graham went to Barron Collier High School and then went on to graduate from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business. During his college years, Graham was the Captain of the WWC men’s soccer team and a two-time USCAA All-Academic award winner. In addition to his sports accomplishments, he was also a recipient of the Kevin Omollo award, which is given to the senior student-athlete with the highest GPA. Away from the jobsite, Graham continues to stay active, playing soccer, tennis or going for a run—but he also doesn’t mind just relaxing and watching Netflix. Contact Harwick to learn more about property services. Your Email (required) Δ Complete the form below, and you will be connected with Harwick Homes President, Mark Smith and Vice President, Shane Klepko.	22,634
In addition to traditional income sources like employee wages and business profits, there are a number of other activities and transactions that the IRS classifies as potentially taxable. It is important to consider all of … ‘Tis the Season for Important Tax Paperwork December 1, 2022 Keeping your records organized will help make sure you don’t miss out on valuable deductions when it is time to file. Many taxpayers will receive year-end income statements from employers, banks, stock issuers and other … December 1, 2022 December Employees Who Work for Tips – If you received $20 or more in tips during November, you must report them to your employer (employees are required to keep a daily record of tips). All tips …	752
Marcus Fischer’s On Falling was originally self-released as a tour cassette in the fall of 2018. 12k is proud to offer this new version that contains the original release on side A combined with a 30-minute live recording on side B. Marcus is known for his releases of carefully constructed studio works and tape manipulation, yet his process also embraces randomness, incidental, and found sounds. On Falling is an exploration of the latter techniques that allow for improvisation and capture the results in a single stereo take. This reproduces the experience of his live performances. The improvised work on On Falling is as captivating as Fischer’s studio work—the presence of physical contact between body and instrument with musical notes that undulate in the stereo field, never resolving the same way. Despite the irregular nature of his compositions, the music is patient and gentle, while staying alert and engaging. Fischer’s acoustic instrumentation and understanding of the digital and tape manipulation process makes the nature of the sounds something new entirely, something that falls outside of standard definitions. The live performance “On April 29th” (presented on side B of the cassette) contains many of the elements found on the first four tracks (guitar, tape loops, modular synthesizer and field recordings) as well as the voices from one of Fischer’s installations. For this performance, Marcus focused on textures centered around extended guitar techniques. Using objects placed under and on top of strings, he creates sympathetic overtones, transforms his guitar sound into a chorus of bells beneath pipe organ drones. Amid dusty musical passages and the swells of his prepared guitar, the performance draws to a close in a wash of analog tape delay from a repurposed reel to reel recorder. 12k presents On Falling as a limited edition of 100 cassettes which will live on in digital and streaming formats. On Falling by MARCUS FISCHER Side A was created Fall 2018 in Portland, Oregon Recorded direct to 4MS Wav Recorder Side B was recorded on April 29th, 2019 at Holocene in Portland, Oregon by Calvin Erdal. Voice by Patricia Wolf speaking words written by Alyson Provax All other sounds by Marcus Fischer Mastered by Taylor Deupree Thank you for the support. Marcus Fischer (b.1977) is a musician & multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon. With early beginnings in the LA independent music scene, Fischer moved from there to Olympia, Washington where in addition to drumming in various bands he found new opportunities to further experiment with sound, using tape loops and electronics. The journey led next to Portland, Oregon, where he continues to refine his experimentations. Field recordings, chance, and DIY instruments, coupled with acoustic…	2,829
A tornado is a rotating funnel-shaped cloud that drops out of a storm cloud to the ground. Whirling winds range from 75 miles an hour to 300 miles an hour. Tornadoes can measure one mile in width and travel for 50 miles, often changing direction erratically. Texas averages 125 tornadoes every year - more than any other state. Oklahoma comes in second with an average of 57 per year. Twisters can occur at any time of year but spring and summer are considered tornado season around here. While tornadoes can happen at any time of day, they’re most likely to occur between 3 and 9 p.m. So when your afternoon talk show or evening sitcom is interrupted for a tornado watch or warning - pay attention and don’t go outside! Probably the most important thing that you can do to protect yourself is to understand the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. A tornado watch means that the formation of tornadoes is possible. A tornado warning means that one has been sighted or detected by radar; seek shelter now! Mobile homes are particularly vulnerable but even sturdy, brick buildings on concrete slabs are in danger. The power of tornadoes can be great enough to hurl objects as large as cars over long distances, resulting in extreme damage. Each year tornadoes are responsible for about 70 deaths and 1,500 injuries nationwide. To learn more about tornadoes, go to NOAA’s Tornado FAQ page.	1,470
Uber and Lyft have certainly made it easier to get around, but rideshare drivers are just as vulnerable to collisions as every other motorist. Our Uber and Lyft accident attorneys in Moreno Valley have seen firsthand the devastating physical, emotional, and financial toll that these wrecks can cause, and we are proud to offer knowledgeable and aggressive representation to victims and their families. Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to bring a claim against the rideshare company’s commercial insurance policy. Our lawyers can review your case in a free consultation, conduct a detailed investigation, and help you identify all potential sources of compensation. For a free case review, call us today at 1-800-GO-HARRIS. You can expect the insurance adjuster to look for any weaknesses in your case that can be exploited to undervalue the damages or deny the claim outright. Your attorney can compile all available evidence to ensure your case is as strong as possible when the settlement negotiations begin. Your legal team can also help you avoid critical errors that might lead to a dispute. Below are a few signs that you have a strong rideshare accident claim: You called the police after the crash; You underwent a medical evaluation right away; You’ve been following your doctor’s orders; You haven’t provided a recorded statement to the insurer; You’ve kept all records of costs arising from the collision; There were eyewitnesses; and Photos were taken at the scene. We Have Extensive Experience in Catastrophic Injury Cases A motor-vehicle collision can severely damage almost any part of the body. No matter the extent of your injuries, you should speak with a lawyer about your case because the insurance company might undervalue your damages. If you’ve been diagnosed with a catastrophic injury, such as brain trauma or spinal cord damage, it’s important that you hire a law firm that has a track record of success in similar cases. Our Lyft and Uber accident lawyers in Moreno Valley know what it takes to prevail in catastrophic injury claims. The types of injuries you sustained and their severity will have a major influence on how we approach the investigation and build your claim. Below are a few reasons why our attorneys are well-qualified to provide representation in these cases: We Have Extensive Litigation Experience: Our lawyers will strive to get you fairly compensated without having to proceed to litigation, but insurance companies have considerable incentive to dispute claims that involve long-term or permanent disability. The reason is simple; these cases tend to involve significant medical bills, lost income, and other damages, which means the insurer may be able to justify devoting more time and resources to challenging your claim. As such, it’s important that you hire an accomplished litigator who won’t shy away from a fight if the insurer refuses to cooperate. At Harris Personal Injury Lawyers, we will relish the opportunity to enter litigation if it is in your best interests to do so. This differentiates us from other legal practices that are reluctant to file a lawsuit since litigation can draw out the proceedings. We Work with Well-Credentialed Experts: There are all sorts of reasons why the insurance company might dispute your claim. They may disagree with your legal team’s settlement calculations, or they might argue that you are trying to claim damages for a preexisting injury or illness. To counter these defenses, your Moreno Valley Uber or Lyft accident lawyer may need to depose expert witnesses during the discovery phase of litigation. It is therefore important that you work with an attorney who knows how to get the most value out of expert witness deposition. The accomplished litigators at Harris Personal Injury Lawyers work with medical, financial, and vocational experts who have the credentials to provide credible deposition in catastrophic injury cases. We Have a History of Success in Catastrophic Injury Claims: The legal strategies used in a catastrophic injury case often differ from those used in a claim that involves only minor injuries. For example, calculating the value of lost earning capacity and future medical bills may involve complex formulas. Also, it is often advisable not to accept a settlement until the injuries have reached maximum medical improvement. Our Uber and Lyft accident attorneys in Moreno Valley will be able to tailor their strategies to the particular circumstances of your case. Recovering a fair settlement may involve an uphill legal battle. Hiring a seasoned rideshare accident attorney will send the message that you are taking the claims process seriously and you have the means to enter litigation if the insurance company refuses to cooperate. The attorneys at Harris Personal Injury Lawyers are ready to help you navigate every stage of the proceedings. Call 1-800-GO-HARRIS or message us HERE to schedule a free, no-obligation case assessment.	5,154
The TurboAnt X7 Pro electrical scooter is a strong competitor in the budget traveler classification, with a solid stem, extremely smooth acceleration, and also light-weight rate. With a tested full throttle of 25.4 kmh, the X7 Pro isn’t the fastest entry-level scooter yet it flights smooth as well as stable. It’s a terrific design for novice bikers as it compacts most of the mobility and straightforward attributes that we appreciate most, including a small folded up footprint, light-weight build, fast folding that locks into placement for easy transportation, an ergonomic thumb throttle, and also a high-mounted front lights. It isn’t ultraportable due to the fact that the handlebars do not fold, but the stem locking mechanism feels especially solid as well as the securing clasp is really easy to clip to the fender when folded up. The TurboAnt X7 Pro has folded measurements of 109 cm long by 43 centimeters wide by 46 centimeters high. The handlebars are 42 cm wide and also the deck to handlebar height is 99.1 cm high, which is a comfy setup for many motorcyclists. What I Actually Like Entering into this with an important mind, there are truthfully a great deal of things to such as about the Turboant X7 Pro electric scooter. I had pretty large assumptions as I was really impressed with the initial model and also I can currently claim with self-confidence that I had not been let down. My preferred features of this electrical scooter is: The removable battery – It makes charging the scooter much less of a trouble as I don’t have to bring a dirty scooter up numerous flights of stairs simply to charge it. I leave the electrical scooter body in the basement as well as bring the battery pack up for a charge rather. The better array – The range is a gamechanger. A lot of entry-level scooters deal with bad range and also unstable battery performance however the X7 Pro is a big step in the ideal instructions with its 360Wh battery. 15.2 miles per charge in a real-life riding test is outstanding for an electric scooter this inexpensive. The bigger 10-inch air tires – The flight high quality and level of smoothness instantaneously improved with the tire dimension upgrade. They absorb extra roadway resonances and handle visuals as well as potholes far better thanks to the increased ground clearance. You also feel a great deal much safer when transforming or leaning thanks to the bigger compact surface with the ground. The amazing value – I locate it definitely extraordinary that Turboant has the ability to bring so much worth to the consumer at such a budget-friendly expense. Considering the cost, the Turboant X7 Pro is definitely among the most effective electric scooters today. For a budget electric scooter, the X7 Pro sticks out amongst its peers. Couple of various other scooters in the very same classification can match its performance. Maxing out at 20 miles per hour, the Turboant X7 Pro is quick as well as gain from the high torque provided by the 350 W power motor. The scooter can tackle hill grades of up to 20%. Cyclists will certainly be thrilled by the smooth acceleration managed by the rubber throttle. To aid the cyclist preserve control of the scooter– even at broadband– Turboant set up a triple stopping system, consisting of a Digital Braking System (EBS), rear disk brake, and also back foot brake. This system can bring the scooter to a halt in secs, with a stopping range as short as 16.4 ft. Superb value for money Comfy to ride Huge, luxurious tires Service warranty It deserves mentioning service warranty due to the fact that when you’re spending this much cash, you anticipate that any type of issues will be solved by the company you’re purchasing from. Turboant deals a six-month warranty, as well as includes an extra six months on for scooters got by means of its site. You can make an application for the service warranty expansion if you buy from Amazon, however at the time of evaluation the X7 Pro had not been readily available from Amazon.com UK or US. If you required to make a warranty case, the procedure depends upon when the problem has arisen. In the first week you have the option of a repair service, replacement or a refund. Afterwards and till 1 month you can choose a fixing or replacement and afterwards, the scooter would certainly have to be sent out to your nearest fixing centre (they’re in the UK as well as Germany for European buyers) at Turboant’s cost. If you’re skilled with a screwdriver and Allen trick, parts for repair can be sent to you so you can fit them on your own. Why the heck not? If you remain in the marketplace for one, after that the TurboAnt X7 Pro makes an outstanding beginning factor. Basic operation combined with performance makes this an excellent deal, as well as most definitely something to take into consideration as an option to taking the bus or car. It might be a little light on functions, however so what? You do not always want to mess around with apps, or several operations, simply to in fact start moving the scooter as well as, therefore, yourself. It is the simplicity of the X7 Pro that makes it a prime competitor for your cash if you’re seeking to purchase a PEV similar to this. Mejor Scooter Electrica July 20, 2022 by 5thincome@gmail.com TurboAnt X7 Pro: A Scooter That’s as Light and as Powerful as It’s Name The TurboAnt X7 Pro electric scooter is a strong challenger in the budget commuter category, with a strong stem, extremely smooth velocity, as well as lightweight rate. With an examined full throttle of 25.4 kmh, the X7 Pro isn’t the fastest entry-level scooter yet it trips smooth as well as secure. Pretty mobile as well as user friendly It’s a wonderful model for new motorcyclists as it packs together most of the transportability and also straightforward attributes that we appreciate most, including a tiny folded footprint, lightweight build, quick folding that locks right into position for very easy transportation, an ergonomic thumb throttle, and also a high-mounted front lights. It isn’t ultraportable because the handlebars don’t fold up, but the stem locking system feels particularly strong and also the locking clasp is extremely simple to clip to the fender when folded. The TurboAnt X7 Pro has actually folded up measurements of 109 centimeters long by 43 cm wide by 46 centimeters high. The handlebars are 42 centimeters wide and also the deck to handlebar height is 99.1 cm high, which is a comfortable configuration for the majority of riders. Entering this with a critical mind, there are truthfully a great deal of things to like about the Turboant X7 Pro electrical scooter. I had pretty huge expectations as I was extremely pleased with the initial design and also I can now claim with self-confidence that I had not been let down. My preferred features of this electrical scooter is: The detachable battery – It makes billing the scooter much less of a hassle as I do not need to bring a filthy scooter up numerous trips of stairways just to charge it. I leave the electrical scooter body in the cellar and bring the battery pack up for a cost instead. The improved array – The array is a gamechanger. Most entry-level scooters deal with poor range and unstable battery efficiency yet the X7 Pro is a significant step in the right instructions with its 360Wh battery. 15.2 miles per charge in a real-life riding examination is superb for an electric scooter this cost effective. The larger 10-inch air tires – The ride high quality and also level of smoothness promptly got better with the tire size upgrade. They take in extra road resonances as well as handle curbs and also holes much better thanks to the raised ground clearance. You additionally really feel a lot more secure when transforming or leaning thanks to the larger portable surface area with the ground. The incredible worth – I locate it definitely extraordinary that Turboant has the ability to bring a lot worth to the customer at such an affordable expense. Taking into consideration the price, the Turboant X7 Pro is absolutely among the most effective electrical scooters today. For a budget electric scooter, the X7 Pro attracts attention amongst its peers. Couple of various other scooters in the same group can match its performance. Maxing out at 20 miles per hour, the Turboant X7 Pro is fast and gain from the high torque provided by the 350 W power motor. The scooter can deal with hillside qualities of as much as 20%. Motorcyclists will be thrilled by the smooth velocity controlled by the rubber throttle. To assist the cyclist preserve control of the scooter– even at high speeds– Turboant mounted a three-way stopping system, making up a Digital Braking System (EBS), rear disk brake, as well as back foot brake. This system can bring the scooter to a stop in seconds, with a braking distance as short as 16.4 ft. Exceptional worth for cash Comfy to ride Cruise ship control CONS: It deserves pointing out warranty because when you’re investing this much cash, you expect that any problems will be fixed by the firm you’re buying from. Turboant deals a six-month service warranty, and also includes an additional 6 months on for scooters bought using its website. You can obtain the guarantee extension if you buy from Amazon, but at the time of testimonial the X7 Pro wasn’t offered from Amazon.com UK or US. If you required to make a guarantee case, the procedure depends upon when the trouble has occurred. In the very first week you have the choice of a repair service, replacement or a reimbursement. After that and also till thirty days you can pick a repair work or substitute as well as after that, the scooter would certainly need to be sent out to your nearby repair centre (they’re in the UK and also Germany for European customers) at Turboant’s cost. If you’re skilled with a screwdriver as well as Allen secret, components for fixing can be sent out to you so you can fit them on your own. Why the hell not? If you remain in the marketplace for one, after that the TurboAnt X7 Pro makes a superb beginning point. Straightforward procedure incorporated with performance makes this an outstanding deal, and certainly something to consider as an alternative to taking the bus or vehicle. It could be a little light on features, but so what? You do not necessarily want to mess around with apps, or multiple procedures, just to actually begin moving the scooter and, consequently, on your own. It is the simpleness of the X7 Pro that makes it a prime competitor for your money if you’re looking for to buy a PEV like this.	11,069
I sit here and think of how to start this page, words of wisdom, thoughts of deep intellect or emotional dribble… I think in sticking with the title I’ll talk about the journey, you may ask what journey? To the store… To the moon… Or maybe to the places inside our souls where we all must go eventually to decide on who or what we are going to be and or do as humans on this planet. Everyone should at least once I their life take this trip and find who they are and how they will choose to be. I openly embrace and fear change with all my being. It is the one thing besides death that scares the heck out of me. On the plus side when things are not great, well it’s going to change but on the other when things are great unfortunately this will change as well. I have a very zen mentality on how I let things effect me, very simply they are what they are. I don’t get to excited nor to upset about much of anything, not to say I don’t feel very passionately about many things, but really….With so much going on in our world today how much stress does one really need from the white noise of the universe. Example: As my wife and I sit in OHSU waiting for my neurologist to come back in the room the mood is tense, like Georgia heat, thick and consuming, my wife is stressed. The doctor comes in and gives us the news, “Ben, you have Parkinson’s disease.” My wife begins to cry and the lead nurse and I comfort her. I think to myself hmm PD that’s strange oh well.. I wonder what we should have for dinner. I can’t change that my brain no longer creates enough dopamine to get my electrical signals from point a to b. So really, freaking out gets me nowhere but hot and sweaty upset and tired. So we head home and I make roasted garlic chicken with Alfredo sauce over angel hair pasta with a nice rubbed garlic crustini, (all hand made)have a beer and thank the world for giving me the strength to take my next breath, for the sound of the ocean and the gift of life. Anyhow enough for today….. The journey: to be The stillness of the morning is almost oppressive, my body sits rigid and sore from the nights restlessness. I ponder how I’m going to be me today, finding the strength to not give up, to be strong in the face of tremors that make it hard to type or drink my coffee a shuffling old man at 42. Waiting for my muse to guide me from this dark place in my head I’m reminded that I still can walk, hug, spell my name and recognize the faces of my children. These are the things that give me strength as I stretch my ratcheting shoulder. This is one of those journeys that reminds me that things change. In an hour I’ll take my pills and my body will loosen up, my demons will fall at bay and I will take a deep breath and face the day with kindness and passion. For those of you who take the time to share this journey with me thank you, until next time Be brave, live, love and thrive…..,,, to be continued…. Someone once asked to describe what it’s like to have Parkinson’s disease and I wasn’t really sure what to say, I mean how do you describe the feeling of being told you have an incurable progressive neurological disorder,…? Well I’ve been thinking about it and it’s kind of like jumping into a really cold body of water (physically) the uncontrollable shakes, as the cold water takes control of your body and all your muscles tighten with an unforgiving, unyielding strength as the rigidity sets in and your muscles start to tighten and shake, struggling to move just to stay afloat or as you pull yourself from the waters icy grip the slowness you feel from the cold as it starts to release you from its clenches, that feeling of; if I cold just get my hands to unclench I could start to move again, well… In a highly dramatic way that’s pretty much it. Some mornings I wake around 3 am and wait for my body to decide its going to let me get out of bed, waiting and hoping that the cold water will warm just enough to get my feet to the ground because I’m sure that if my feet touch the ground that my heart will take me through the rest of the day. It’s my Friday in the working world which for me is a wonderful thing, not because of the day off thing but because tomorrow is my PT and occupational and speech therapies. For me it’s like a holiday every week 3 hrs of nothing but fighting off this demon. 3 hrs of nothing but some of the best, most kind and generous people I know. Well, enough for this morning. Time for pills, shower coffee, blah, blah…… For anyone reading this you may or not know me as a person but, I believe in you..!I hope you wake everyday with the strength and passion to do the right thing, be proud of who you are, be patient with the world it’s younger than you know. To all: Be brave, Be bold and love someone.Until next time…….. I’ve been up since about 2:30 am one of the fun and by fun I mean super crappy things of Parkinson’s disease. Today unlike the other six days of the week is a great day, I have PT-OT-Spch therapies today. So no matter how much pain I’m in which is tons today by the end of my three hour session I’ll feel like a normal person if only for an hour or two It’s always a great thing. So the journey today begins for me in a great place a day off from work three hours focused on nothing but my well being and hopefully the rest of the day spent in my studio. Today I chase the demons away from my mind, my body and my soul. To all who read this I hope the world is kind and generous to you today. As always be brave,strong and have faith in your self. To be continued……. It’s days like today I find it very hard to find my calm, sometimes it’s seems like the universe really wants to see how much I can handle. I mean really it’s 2:30 in the morning I should be a sleep. Days like today I have to dig deep to find my balance, accepting the day for what it is and greet it with open arms. The city is still a buzz with the revelers from last night, the restaurant workers and early morning delivery people.it’s funny how each city has a pulse and rhythm unique to its own. I had PT yesterday an for a few shining moments I could move my left arm well, I walked with a straight back. My feet didn’t shuffle and besides my cane I felt almost well. Sadly those effects slowly wear off and my body grinds back to a halt. Part of the reason I woke this morning is due to my muscle spasms, jerky limbs. Or as my muscles begin to tighten it becomes increasingly uncomfortable to be I one position so consequently I shift my self out of sleep. So my journey begins, I thank the world for the breath I have, the gift of life and love. I look forward to the day for what it brings and greet it with open arms. I go to that quiet place in my soul that says everything is ok, I take a deep breath and believe it, embrace it. Some days in my life and faith, I have to take minute by minute and hour by hour, but ya know I’ll take it. I’m heading down to my studio to begin today’s journey into my soul, for those of you who read this know I’m thankful for my life and all the things in it, it’s funny when you wake up one day and find a counter over your head how it changes your life and perspective on things.. So to all of you be thankful for what you have and I would challenge everyone who reads this do one nice thing for another human today be it open a door, give a honest smile to a stranger, or help a friend in need. I strongly believe that if every one did one nice thing everyday our world would slowly regain some of the compassion and patients it so desperately needs. To all… Be brave have hope and be kind……. Within the existence of man how is it that we have become so lost from each other? How is it that we have become such an un-trusting unfriendly species. I look around the city’s streets of our world and wondered what is it that we can do as a people to change and embrace the humans that we are and change what has become of our race. 7:11pm PST Today was a good day, and for those of you who don’t know what a good for me is I’ll make it brief: Pain level 5-6 moderate to severe dyskinesia and hand and foot tremor, followed by a couple of hours dystonia in my feet. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining at all that’s why this entry starts it was a good day. I spent almost all day in the studio. 2:30 am till about 2:00 pm I posted two new pieces on this page today and have a third almost done. When my soul is in harmony in the studio all my PD symptoms are less accept the pain. More to come a different day……. As always Be brave… Live and love… Another day begins as I search the stars and my heart for the strength to take that first step, slowly my muscles relax the death grip they fought with as I sleep and give way to my waking soul. Today will be full of adventures some of the body and some of the mind, First day of four back at work I always dread day one it feels like walking into an alien landscape for the first time, that’s the funny thing about getting to take fourteen pills a day just so your body can move they tend to cloud the head even in place I know like the back of my hand. Slowly things will come into focus as my cognition regains control and I will far the day with an open heart, mind and the patients of an old cypress. Today is a funny day for me I feel small and very inside, what I would most enjoy is another day in the studio maybe tonight if I have the strength. Until then Be brave, never give up, live and love…… It’s strange as I dive head and long into my craft as a stop to see the world as a “normal” person may. The world for me is a mass of texture and shapes of soft and hard lines. A mix of hard and light pallets. As I stare at my my back yard in heavy neglect, I no longer see the leaves that need to be raked as I see a mass of texture and form, folds of gentle hues perfectly balanced as only nature can produce, any how since I’m not a poetic genius I’ll leave the rest to the writers of the world. Art is grand!!! 7/22/12 Another morning of trying to convince my body to release itself from the grips of sleep. Sleep…. An old friend I don’t see very often, although last night I managed to get about 5 hrs. 2 more days of work then I’m off for 3 days. The morning is strange today the house is quiet just me and the cat wondering the halls as everyone sleeps, outside the chill of the morning keeps the summer heat at bay making it calm and soothing. All I really want to do is paint today my body is stiff feels like I ran a marathon last night. Some days it’s hard to find my calm in a sea of twisting muscles, I try to always keep a smile on my face and a welcoming heart, but today is hard. Today the emotions of walking the plank have my soul in turmoil, the fear and uncertainness of my diagnosis have me in their grips and I shy from them as a child does to it’s first fears. I wish the world love, today for my family and the people who believe in I will be Brave, live and love as I so often challenge the world to do, for today I am that small child full of apprehension of what the day will bring. I am finding it so hard to find my inner peace today my everything hurts. Searching for that spot in my inner space that keeps the pain away. I don’t take pain pills for my condition so things get a little intense some times. July 23, 2012 5 AM Pacific standard time. Today’s adventures in my journey are going to be dictated over my phone as my hands are you working correctly today. For those of you who saw my most recent post anguish that piece is an interesting piece it started out as a very bright and sunshiny piece when it was originally created and through the process of my emotions and changing mood the piece ended up being a direct reflection of the pain and frustration as a human with Parkinson’s that I was feeling. Oddly enough after yesterdays adventures in never finding my Zen never finding my peace in my heart and creating “Anguish” I was able to chase that demon from my soul put him on canvas and lock him in key today I find strength within myself harmony within my soul the gift of life today is what will take me further into the journeys of my day. Sometimes I believe well excuse me I always believe that the hardest thing to do is find acceptance in the way that things are being able to toss away all of the white noise of the universe and take a small quiet step into one soul to reflect gently on the things that we are only as us in our quietest most silent moments within ourselves seeing deeply into our past and present. Until later today to all of you who may or may not read this be brave be patient live and love Hope and anticipation: I had a meeting with a gallery owner this morning who I thought wanted to show my work, yay, buys really he was looking for artistic investors to keep his gallery a float. It’s such a contradictory feeling to want to show your art yet the feeling of buying into an artists co-op just leaves a bad taste in my mouth , sure on one had the space was nice with a great location in a very visible historic building down town. But paying to show my art just doesn’t feel right. But a place to hang and sell anytime and anything is attractive, with a zero percent gallery commission is nice as well. Just not sure what direction I want to go with this…? Anybody have any feelings on the matter…? So another day begins as I force my body to release its grip on its self. My feet find comfort in the floor a solid stable surface from which my toes do their dance. Today will be good it’s PT day 3 hrs of force stretching and conversation to stimulate my mind, I also of three more pieces ready to finish painting. After yesterday’s misadventures with the gallery I’m ready to clean my studio and start the process again. Hands are getting to shaky to continue so until later. Be brave live well and love.. It’s funny how cleaning the house or working in the garden gives some people a great sense of clarity, visual clutter and such, I feel the same way about my studio, just rearranged my studio in preparation for a great day, after pt I’ll come home, have my usual snack of dried fruit, which I eat often. Mostly apricots, dates and pineapples, yum!! Change into my painting stuff as to not ruin every piece of clothing I own. Turn on my music, which ranges from old jazz to modern pop and everything in between and gently slide into that space between what’s in front of me and what’s deep inside.A place in the universe where I’m not broken or in pain, where my hands don’t shake and if they are I don’t care, the place in our memories of sea breezes and sandy toes, cozy fires and warm embraces. 10:30 pm very late for me usually my meds knock me out around 8-9, but the paintings called to me I’m working on a set one is called strength, something we all need in one form or another. The other is balance, another thing we all seek to find. Thanks for listening, Be brave.. Live well and thrive.. Until net time.. Today’s journey takes me to many places, thanks to these fabulous meds for PD I’m lost in my own head today, searching forever for that little door that lets me express myself without bitterness and anger. I did however complete 2 of the 3 pieces I had hoped to and the 3rd is currently eluding me, sometimes I think I just have to wait for the piece to tell what it needs. I have a show in 5 days and it always makes me panic a bit. Aug 1st-5th after gallery commissions and such I’m going to donate the funds towards the OHSU Parkinson’s foundation, assuming I sell anything. We’ll see, its a good cause and worse case maybe I can help raise awareness of the incurable disease. As always be brave, live well and thrive.. So the curtain of my day draws to a close, I finally over came the mood that ate Tokyo who knew all I needed was fresh peaches and vanilla bean I’ve cream. But seriously today was challenging on so many levels. The universe really did not want me to do what I wanted to do at every turn. Even had to call tech just to check my email. Grrrrrr.. Anyway I digress, peaches, I’ll just stay with the peaches. To all of you, thank you for sharing in my adventure. Until next time, live.. Love … And be Brave….. Good day to all, I’m at work after four days off, shaking and twitching my way through the day so far it’s been an adventure, the usual dropping stuff and trying to remember what I’m doing, they(people who know me) say I should apply for ssi and ssdi and stop working but working on a professional level is all I know. 25 years of managing multi million-billion dollar business, without the small amount of time instill put in then I feel like a lose a small part of who I am… I don’t know maybe it’s time to let go of who I thought I was and get real about what I’ve become( thanks to the stupid PD). I’ve always had the white knight complexes as my wife says, I have a need to fix everything for everyone, save the day kind of guy. Unfortunately my brain still wants to solve the worlds issues but my body says no more…. I spent my while life trying to be very zen about what I can and can not do always striving to do more both personally and professionally and now it’s even worse since I feel like I have this counter over my head just ticking away the days as my body and mind slow decay, it’s pretty scary stuff. Even on my best day when I’m totally accepting of my situation it till scares the hell out of me. Anyhow to all that read this or don’t may the world be kind, forgiving and generous to you today. Be brave…. Live and love…. Until next time…… As the tendrils of the night slowly release me from my slumber I am quickly reminded of what I’ve become, the shakes quickly engage my hand is if to say wake up good to see you, like a thousand tiny greeting all happening at once. As my feet find their way to the floor my muscles begin to stiffen as if caught in some unseen tracker beam from an old doctor who episode, slowly I shuffle down the hall as an old man may on his way to greet the day. Time goes by an I have arrived, the kitchen!! The place where all the magic lives contained in the tiny capsules I now depend on for life. I reach for the cabinet mean while still receiving a thousand tiny hand shakes a second, at last ” papas little helpers” 1,2,3 then swallow and slowly the old man retreats to his inner space just hovering beneath the surface waiting for his time to strike, but for the moment I’m free. Welcome to my morning, I’m off to work, then home for a bit of press release work and then off to the gallery, I hang 6 pieces tonight for a 5 day show in honor of PWP YOPD to be exact. Be well, much love.. Until next time….. I apologize for my recent decent into what seems to be a rather dark place, but things have been very challenging this days, partially due to the PD and partially due to the meds. I have been so locked inside my head these last few days it’s amazing, in a bad way. But interesting as an experience. I’ve been finding it harder and hard lately to keep focused, kind of like walking into a room 400 times a day and forgetting why your there. It’s really frustrating, especially considering I’m still working managing a very fast paced multi faceted retail business. It’s a very strange thing to watch as ones cognitive functions slip away, and rather scary has heck. I woke up this morning in a panic for a split second I had no idea what was going on, what day it was, where I was, what I was supposed to be doing, thankfully it passed quickly but that lingering feeling like a bad dream that stays with you all day still remains. Sad part is I have so much to be thankful for, amazing children, wife, friends and family. And it breaks my heart to see the fear in their eyes as my condition gets worse. For so many years I was and have been the strong, patient, wise father and husband. Life has such a strange way of changing for the unexpected. To all, love the ones you have while you can, say to them daily how much you appreciate and cherish them. Be brave, live well. Until next time…Benjamin Today may have started in a small dark place but it ends with a dish of hand made drk chocolate custard a few calming hours in the studio and the knowledge that tomorrow I spend the day with my neurologist at OHSU. I pray that the good doc can help me see may way out of these clouds. Be brave…. Live well.. And love someone if not yourself. It seems a strange time to be say hello and good night all at the same time, but that’s just it. My journey over the past few days has made me a tried boy, I had my OHSU visit, still have PD…… It’s a joke.. I always have it in the back of my head that one of these times they’ll say oh Mr. Prewitt we are so sorry we were wrong here’s a huge check have a nice life.. Would be cool you must admit. But a lass I think it’s not going to happen. My gallery show for tonight got canceled of which I’m not going to speak about, I’m furious and would like to keep my tone civil tonight. But today as everyday was a gift. I can move, mind just not always when or as fast as I’d like but , I move, I love, breath and feel so therefore I am. Anyhow enough of my wanderings for this evening. Tonight I let the magic of modern medicine guide me head gently to the abyss.i pray to all the makers to guide me back another day as I may paint, hug my children and laugh once again. To all, be well, learn to love and learn to forgive, if just for a moment to feel that kind of peace. As I begin to reflex on the actions of the day I’m reminded of fragile our existence is and how at the drop of a hat, a push of the breeze our lives can change, I was asked by my company to submit a second ada form due to my decreasing ability to manage a multi million dollar business. So once again I must dig deep and ask myself the hard questions free of ego and perceived self worth(professionally) can I continue to effectively do this and at what cost, emotionally and physically. If I was a wealthy man I would just be done but for me that is not an option. So I’m waiting to hear back from a disability lawyer and coordinating with my neurologist And hoping each day I can do what’s needed. On the plus side I have the guy who makes my custom frame working hard on my next set of pieces and soon enough I’ll have more of my soul to share with the universe. Question: is it a giant pain in the rear to scroll down to read this page? If people do, let me know. Until next time, be brave, love and learn.. 5:00am PST The stillness of the morning can be so captivating. I sit on my back deck each morning after coaxing my body from its chains, I sit drink my coffee take my meds and wait for the magic to start. Each day is like the warm embrace of a new friend, today is calm and gentle the faintest smell of moisture in the air, almost no breeze yet refreshingly cool. I ponder new ways to tackle my demons, today the stiffness monster has teamed up with captain slow to try to stop me in my tracks. The tightness from by left side is starting to breach my right, like a slow moving train wreck a year a ago it slowly hit my left hip, careened its way up to my shoulder and now has moved to my right shoulder. It’s a deep seeded stiffness that starts within the very center of the socket as if to say your mine …(mwah ha ha). Today I will find peace in my resolve, never give up!!! And the fact that I have 3 new pieces to bring into the world shortly. Studio time has been minimal this past week as my job has required an enormous amount of my attention and since all forms of focus from require a great deal of energy by the time I get home I’m done, time for food and sleep… Any how.. The morning grows long and I must re engage the day.. Today: do one small act of kindness, hold a door, start with a smile, show compassion and patience. If done the world will be a greater place directly because of your actions.. Are you ready for that kind of impact and responsibility?? Be brave… Live well and love… Until next time….. It’s been a few since I’ve had anything to say life has been full of doctors and pills the past week. Although I do have to share a fantastic store about meeting someone, she’s considerably older than I, ex professor and current friend of the arts. But she also suffers from Parkinson’s disease as I. I have almost zero contact with anyone who shares my condition and it was such a tremendous moment for me. I was like a school kid in the face of a super hero. Just to be able for a few short minutes to be able to talk art and PD to someone made my heart sing. I hate this disease and everything about it but it brought a great joy to speak with someone who didn’t care that I wiggle like crazy. Anyhow I’ll have more paintings to post soon. I’m fighting with angels and demons currently it’s a big 36x 48 piece that needs time to evolve into its true form. To all: much love, be well and I hope the universe has been gentle with you. Been up since about 3 am apparently my old friend sleep has better things to do today. He and I only meet occasionally these days. Like writers I believe painters go through moments for blank spaces, for me it’s about absorption or maybe finding a way to express the feeling I’m trying to portray in a visual manner. I’ve been fighting with this piece called Angels and Demons I’ll be damned I’d it won’t come out. So I think that piece will have to sit for a bit I have 3 other pieces in the works which I will unveil shortly, one you have seen a sneak peak already of “greed and envy” it’s part of a spherical series, circles or elliptical shapes for me often represent the ever changing but often repeating patterns of the universe and as humans we find ourselves caught up in the day to day repetition of life. Some of which is good, like the oceans never ending crest of waves gently caressing the shore yet at the same time slowly relentlessly eroding its surface so peaceful yet ever changing the landscape of our planet. Or the sun with its life giving heat and light but at the same time drying out forests and for some poisoning their skin. Enough for today. Be well my friends, laugh, love and be Brave…. Today I’m going to my favorite place in our area, the coast not the beach mind you for in this area there are no beaches as you may find in Italy or Florida more like the coast of Ireland, rocky and wonderful with little patches of sand to call home beautiful mountains and cliffs and green as far as the eye can see. The sea fills my heart with hope and peace, something as of late you may have noticed I don’t have much of. So I go to recharge my batteries. To give my soul a chance to reconnect to my heart and my head. I hope the world is kind to you all today, cherish the ones you love and forgive the ones you don’t. Free your hearts of anger and distrust wash clean the the worries of the world as I do today.. Live, love and Be Brave…. 6:00am PST As I watch the morning unfold like the pages of an old book I’ve read a thousand times I search the horizon for the strength I need to survive the day. As today my legs can barely hold my weight and my hands shake like a flag in the breeze I pray I can do this today. It’s my first day back at work after three days off. My body seems to be rebelling against the idea. I hope the worlds kind to all of you today may you find peace in your heart and strength when you need it. Live, live and be brave.. So we meet again my fine friend, my calm and still morning, I woke today with a tremor that would make Tom cruise in ” cocktail” look like he was standing still. I like to think of it as my internal alarm clock. The one cruel joke is the stiffness and slowness comes with PD makes it hard to hit the snooze, my symptoms have breached the half way point and are now making there way down my right side, which is fine as long as they leave my painting arm alone. Somehow I do t think incurable neurological diseases give a crap about things like that. Lol. The morning here is wonderful today it’s cool and calm. We live just far enough out go have the comforts of life ( fast Internet) yet an we still have an abundance of wild life, it’s rather nice. Today I feel broken its such an interesting thing, my mind is clear and calm as my body is a wreck. I was explaining it to my speech therapist the other day. I’m a 42 year old man living in an 80 year old body with a heart of a child. I still daydream and think of things I’d like to do when I grow up. I still feel young most of the time when I look through my eyes, but when I look down or in the mirror I’m reminded of my grim reality, such a strange paradox being alive and chronically ill. Any how hands cramping to much to type. Live well, follow your dreams and be kind to one another. It’s pitch black this morning. Summer is starting to wane into autumn here in the west coast of N. America. There is a still and quiet about our house that is calming and disturbing all at the same time. I a woke this morning to an angry body, that’s one of the advantages to having to take pills at regular times, no alarm clocks my body just starts yelling at me when I’m late. As I sit outside drinking my coffee and contemplating the day I’m amazed at how quiet it came be in a city some times. The only sound currently is me typing and a rustle of the raccoons. They are angry little beasts around here. Only because I’m up and invading their space. They chirp and I wait, over and over. I stay very still as the 30 ft cherry tree they are calling home is right above me and I’m sure that one fast motion would send them pouncing on my head. I have work today so I’m gathering my strength both mentally, physically and spiritually this morning. I’ll need it as yesterday was a mess. Dyskinesia and tremor abounded in my day. Which by itself is not that big of a deal but when you add in the fact that I have to be like that in front of hundreds of people everyday it gets a little oppressive. Anyhow, today… Work…. Then finally studio time!!!! I have to balance things rather delicately sometimes otherwise my wife acts like she married a crazy hermit painter, whom she never see’s. Anyhow enough of my non essential babble I wish all of you well. Be kind to each other. For there may come a day when you need kindness as well. As I sit and wait for the world to slow stride from its slumber I search the sky’s for my zen, my old friend sleep did not visit of long last night. I awoke this day at 3:30am to a body full of tightness, relentless and never ending is the grasp of this torment. As I have mentioned before go find the coldest lake or stream you have and jump in, stay as long as you can thats the closest explanation to what my mornings are like. I’m not complaining just explaining. But it does lend it self to a wondrous journey of the heart, mind and soul. Dear old friend I see you’ve come again To that place that I see but dare not to be. Oh cavernous so deep, for hearts make me weep and the sound of echos do sleep. A mirror, so dear, does your voice come around and call to my broke heart wings. Take flight from this place for your soul it will take and your child will play no more. For broke heart,home, we can’t be alone, in a place that angels doth fear. I’m done thanks for letting my mind wonder, please keep in mind I’m not a writer, but a painter thoughts come to me in waves and some times I giant long strings so that’s how I tend to think/write. Be well, live, love and until next time. May you find peace in your soul. 8/22/12 Today I write to you as I often do in a state of unrest. I woke this morning around 1:00am in the worst pain I’ve been in years. Imagine having sharpened steel rods shoved through both your hips, shoulders and down you spine functionally forming a capital I. Not fun. As I laid in bed in disbelieve. I thought to myself is this the end is my body giving up.? Succumbing to this disease that plagues my body and mind? I can feel the heat from my wife as she lay next to me and I start to think of the past, the birth of my children, the death of most of my friends, warm summer breezes and sunsets at the coast. And I’m reminded, how dare you give up. As the tears of pain roll down my cheeks silently in the wee hours of the night, I beg my legs to move,” just touch the floor” if I can just please god touch the floor I can get up. After about half hour of this madness I’ve done it, first one the another finally!!!! The ground!!! As the strength of gravity works and holds my feet to the earth I draw from her strength and let the life force flow through my rigid form. Three deep breaths 1..2..3.. And I stand.. With firm grasp to bed and wardrobe I make way to the magic medicine and wait. Oh sweet relief, still a shocking amount of pain but at least I can move….. Thanks for letting me share, life goes on. Laundry, coffee, therapies today for three hours. And then if I’m lucky about an hour of feeling semi “normal”. So now I must go paint before my body revolts, to all of you. Be thankful for what you have, forget not the little things and by this I mean little. The ability to button your shirt without help, or pulling your coat on all by yourself. Life is grand, fill your hearts with love and smiles. I’m thankful everyday just to have what I have. Be brave, love, and never stop learning. Back from my adventures, unfortunately my body is destroyed. Tremor and bradykinsia has it’s evil claws deep within me. Both of my hips and shoulders have tightened to the point of near immobility, all because I’m obstinate and feel I need to prove I can still be a successful business man. And keep up with the big boys. Thankfully I have the next four days off two to heal and two to paint. I hope the world treats all of you well today. Much love. The morning is still today no birds, no bats, Raccoons or cats. Just me and my old friend pain. My body keeps seizing up since my return from business. From my toes I my neck my muscles and tendons are relentless in their mission to crush my bones. Last night as I lay in bed praying for the pain to stop waves of fever washed over me, first the heat then the chills over and over again, every turn I made to escape this torture enticed my body to squeeze a little harder. Today as I write my hands tremble like a school boy on his first date, my feet gripped with dystonia making my toes reach for the sky. All I want to do is paint but I’m not even sure I can make it to the studio 2 floors down( note to self, next house one level) or find a cure for Parkinson’s , HA maybe both would be nice. Sorry to ramble so, but it takes my mind off the fact that when I move it sounds like bubble wrap, pop, snap, crunch and crackle. Enough I can’t escape this madness, best wishes to you all, may life be kind an grant your dreams, may your hearts be full love, be brave for today I am not. This morning started abruptly with a seizing cough from the depth of hell it self. Ever since I returned from TX I’ve had this horrible chest cold. I literally have been coughing so hard my small floating ribs are sore to the touch. The thing that makes this experience hard is I’m on so many different meds for my PD that I can’t take any good cold medicine. My body has yet to recover from my adventures afar. Bradykinsia has been plaguing me for a week as well as some of the worst tremors I’ve had ever, sadly my Neuro was just like hang in their you’ll stabilize, HA, I say to that. Sure is easy to say when your not the who’s muscles are constricting so hard you can hear your bones snap,crackle and pop each time you move, remember I’m only 42 just turned in may. A year ago I could work a 60 hr week, lift 200 kilos and run a mile, now.. Not so much. Ok enough of my whining so to be so mellow dramatic. I’m finding it hard to find my happy place today, pain has a funny way of doing that. I don’t take any pain meds, just meditation, stretching and parki meds. Ok enough from me, I hope the world grants you patients, peace and happiness in your heart and soul. Be brave. Much love. So I went back to work couple of days ago after being off for about two weeks. I was in TX for one week and at home recovering for the next. Apparently one week was not enough recovery time. When I was in TX it was 6a breakfast and meeting until 8p days full of physical movement lots of up and down and sitting the walking. All things I’m not very good at doing any more. I thought a week off afterwards would get things settled but I was wrong. My body is destroyed every inch of my is racked with pain. My job unfortunately has me bending and kneeling all day long. Not things I’m very good at as well. So consequently until I can get readjusted to work my days are full of pain level 6-7,8 and sleep. Makes my wife pissed she hates the fact that PD interferes with our life, I don’t blame her. It’s not exactly what she signed up for. Old me strong, charming young exec, ready to take on the world. So far she’s still around 15 yrs of marriage. I’ve developed a cough that’s so strong I managed to crack one of my ribs, kinda sucks, makes working that much harder. Any how enough whining. I hope the world treats you well, Be brave, be bold and thrive. It’s been a while since my last update, for that I apologize. Life has been well.., life full of ups and downs. It town 2 weeks for my body to recover from my trip to TX, most likely will have been my last. I just can’t do fourteen hr days anymore. Work has been challenging the stress make all of my PD symptoms worse even the small ones turn into big symptoms. But as I am not super rich nor old enough to retire working is my only option. Kinda sad really to broken to work fun time but not clinically broken enough to not work so unless I become a world famous painter “ha ha” working is what I’ll do until I can’t work anymore. Dyskinesia and stiffness have been a real issue as of late, depression keeps rearing its ugly head but I fight back with great resolve against them all. Everybody is worried about me which sucks, I can see it in their eyes but nobody has the words to say anything, except me and then I feel like I’m complaining ( which I really don’t do that much) to me their is a big difference between talking about how I feel and complaining about how I feel. Sometimes I just feel better talking about how my arm won’t move or “wow” my hands sure are shaky today, for me just another day. Any how painting has been convening in spurts. Working causes me a great deal of physical pain so in my work week f,s,s,m I don’t paint, I work come home make dinner for everybody and then sleep. I really wish a could just paint I feel like I’m on the edge of some amazing stuff, but just don’t have the energy to make it happen. Anyhow to anyone who makes it all the way down to the bottom o this page to read this thank you, sorry no amazing poetry or paintings today just the ramblings of some guy with YOPD. To all much love I hope the world has been gentle with you and remember be kind, be brave and thrive in your life it will be over before you know it. Slowly the fingers that grip my body release, eventually giving way to the 4 pills and two cups of coffee I’ve had for breakfast. Each morning I’m vexed with the challenge on how to face the day. My head says I’m awake lets do this while my body laughs and mocks me. My heart saddens with the conflict. Each day I think of the words I send to you Be Brave, Be strong… I know better than some how hard that can be at times. My body this morning riddled with pain, stiff and slow like an old man waking from a long winters nap. My ribs ache from the cough, cracked and bruised and shaking like leaves in the wind, but I have no choice but to go on, that my friends is the hardest thing, with a house and two kids, one in middle school and another in secondary I’m still the provider, of hugs and support, money and food. So each day I fight off my demons and try with all my soul to begin again each day. I have a blank white board that says one phrase ” keep moving forward” these days I’m trying to just keep moving, forward doesn’t even seem like an option, one breath, one step at a time. Ok well that’s it I’ve whined enough today time to put on my big boy pants and go to work. I hope the world is kind to you all today and that you are kind to it. Sleep who needs sleep…. I do!!! Woke this morning at 3:00 ribs in so much pain who knew cracked ribs would hurt so much. I find myself in the studio putting the finishing touched on “savannah” and working on the frame for “into the abyss” as well as working on a new piece. Frames I tell ya no fun. I hand make all my own frames, from the cutting and gluing and stapling to the sanding and painting. Boring, boring, boring. The finished result is always cool, but as I’m readying the frames all I can think about is my next piece it makes me very anxious. Plus today being my day off my body hurts like crazy, my 5 am pills seemed to have no effect on my stiffness today so I wait till 8:30-9 for my next set and hope they kick in. That’s this morning update. Hope all are well, enjoy life, sing out loud, dance in the rain and love someone. I really have only one quote for the morning that sums up who I feel, I have all of these words in my he but can’t type fast enough to get them out and since I have almost no short term memory let once they are gone well there gone just echoes of feelings I once had. So here goes the quote that sums up how I feel today. Beatles. I think most of you know the rest if not you should listen to the song. To all, be well, live, love and may you be free of pain and sorrow. Again the morning has come to chase away the night, sleep slowly drips from from my eyes as the pain settles in. I lay in bed almost in amazement at the sensation. Body stiff and hands shaking I laugh to myself, as to not wake my sleeping beauty. One slow foot then another reaches for the floor. Success both on the ground then comes more pain as my hips refuse to bare the strain of my shell.. Coffee is all I can think down the hall and to the right sweet coffee to wake these bones. The morning is cold here, silent and chilled, no birds no bats no bugs all sleeping gently in their home today for they no the cold has come. Time for pills, 1,2,3 swallow and wait…. Today is going to be a busy day, nots of driving, not fun.. Then doctors upon doctor today. As If by some miracle of fate I’m fixed, they could rejoice and buy another car or play some golf”food job ole chap, you cured another” ##€£\|#, stupid doctors. Today I get to play with my heart, not the poet painterly one but the beating bleeding broken one in my chest. To does however have one redeeming quality. I’m off from work for two days. Which means PAINTING, that is assuming after my docs get done with me I can still move. Ok I’m done writing hips hurt to much to think clearly and the word calls for responsibility, breakfast for small humans, more coffee for me, gazing at what stylish clothes I won’t wear today, school drop off’s, work for others and doc after doc, maybe if I’m lucky I’ll join the poets and disconnected painters later today, maybe if I’m lucky I’ll come baring gifts of love and joy. Until then.. Be well, be kind and remember to look up, if not for just one small moment when you feel most encompassed by your world, look up and remember their is so much more out there. Well after a day of doctors I’m broken. Tremors are ok today and the whole PD thing is stable but my right hip is in a ridiculous amount of pain. I’m forced to use my cane 100% of the time right now. X-rays yesterday I should the results today some time. The big bummer is with all the meds I take it pretty much rules out any type of pain killers except ibuprofen which for anyone with chronic pain knows only goes so far. Anyhow that’s it, sorry no poetic stanza today just simple words from a simple man. I pray the pain will ebb long enough for me to get to the studio( two flights of stairs down) not always the easiest thing to navigate. To all much love, be kind, be brave.. Until next time. Can’t sleep… Want to sleep, just can’t find that balance today. So much on my mind. Work is turning into a fiasco, sometimes I think I’m in over my head which makes me sad, I’ve been doing what I do for 25yrs, simply said I manage people time and money.. I just physically can’t keep up anymore, I came into work yesterday and had an inches worth of paper work to read through, anyone familiar with PD will understand how ridiculous that is for me. I was a good boy read through everything and then promptly forgot 90% everything. If a cant turn it into a bullet point and access it later then I’m screwed. Anyhow I’m rambling of unimportant things at 3 am. Over and out. Be kind and love someone. To my Bonny Lass: I’m sorry I’ve failed you. Hair like fire and skin so fair Only she can take me there. With a laugh and kiss our bond oh so deep. Fifteen years in the making a promise a promise I keep. For all of my days and all that come after A vow that we made in front of a pastor. Now my poor girl I feel that I’ve failed. Your white knight has rusted my coffin half nailed. I fight off the demons try to keep them at bay. Slowly and surely they come as they may. Taking my armor one piece at a time. Falling like soldiers all in a line. Till my last dyeing breath I promise to fight, no my sweet love “I will not go quietly into the night” ” For all of my days and all that come after” Sadly enough the person I write this for will never read it as she not once read my blog. I am running out of strength, both mentally and physically. I’m sorry my love. Been up since 4 am.the weather is starting to turn, my favorite time of the year. It gives me strength, which I so desperately need. Work for 9 hrs today then rest. Be well world much love. What a day, 9 turned to 12 hrs at work, not bad for a disabled guy super busy a small phone books worth of emails to sift through. Missed my 1 pm pills by 2 hrs. Duh.. My bad I get so caught up in what I’m doing then its like hmmm. Why do I feel like crap. Silly boy I am. I need a large glass of wine and a small good steak, a wilted spinach salad and a back rub…then a few hrs in the studio and my world would re aligned. 9/24/12 I think 4:30am These next two days at work will truly be a test of human will. After my day yesterday my body is as broken as its ever been. All of me hurts. I haven’t been painting, my mind has been wondering to places it shouldn’t go, work then sleep, not a very exciting or rewarding life. But at least I can move and breath and love. Sometimes it’s hard to remind myself of those things when all I want is paint and read and watch my children grow, which is kinda funny statement since my son is now taller than I. Enough of the rantings of a lost soul hungry for change but to afraid to find that cliff. As the world wakes me from my slumber. I am vexed. My mind wonders like a mouse in a maze darting from point to point. These disease and medicines make it hard to think as I should. A roller coaster of thoughts and emotions. Compulsions overwhelmingly drive my thoughts. Sadly this is not who I am. I (was) calculating and precise, passionate yes but at least I had self control now it’s as if I’m drive to this madness that lives in my soul, it scares me to watch, Pollock and Picasso films and see their descent into madness and totally relate. I bare myself to the universe each day as I publicly write these journals in hopes of finding compassion and hope, hope that someone can commiserate with me but the cold hard truth is I’m alone in my thoughts. Today is hard because I’m torn I run a multi-million dollar business that requires a certain type of thought pattern, but as my disease progresses I find that I must feed my soul more and more and it’s getting harder and harder to be both men. The provider, white knight vs the poet and painter. Oh well… Enough of this rant it’s time to put my helmet on and polish my armor There are other battles to be won. Thank you kind souls for hearing my heart. Be kind to someone today, for no reason other than a senseless act of goodwill. Finally starting to feel like myself again. Turns out one of my meds was causing some serious issues, I knew it was happening just didn’t have any power to fix it. That’s the problem when you start messing with brain chemicals. My doctor assures me that if i taper back the horrible side effects I’ve been having will pass. Unfortunately my PD symptoms will get worse but for me it’s a trade off I’m willing to make, I get self control back and give up some of my body, so yes let it be said. Universe I trade you part of my body for my mind. To all who make it this far down the page. Thank you. Be brave, have faith. Sleep, it seems to have eluded me again, crashed at 10p tossed and turned until 3a now I’m up bummer. Already starting to feel the effects of less ropinirole in my system which is nice. Except the fact I can’t sleep. I might just be an ok day. Today has been a great day in the studio an a horrible day in my head. I was doing real good until about mid day then wham!! It’s like being a little kid and seeing something you want really bad with all your heart and soul that you can never have. It’s driving me blanking crazy I’m so vexed by these emotions no finality they started and now they have no place to go, no ending note no food bye just lingering persistent heart ache and I hate it. It’s like being a teenager all over again. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I was up at 3am today and I’ve got work in the morning. God grant me peace. Hands not really working so well today Went to bed at 11p up at 4a my head is still vexed a bit this morning which sucks as I am trying to get ready for work. Sunday’s are my operational planning day. All the things the business may need get planned for today. It’s kind of like shaking a snow globe and trying to plan for the placement of each falling flake. Thankfully I’ve been doing this for a very long time and I have my phone and about a million voice notes so I don’t forget stuff, thanks to the Parkinson’s and the meds to treat it my once cold and calculating mind has turned into a giant roll a decks with no marker tabs so retrieving info sucks. Anyhow to all who read and those who don’t be well, Be safe happy and proud of who you are. 10/1/12 I think Having a really hard time this morning can move good at all it’s called bradykinsia and it sucks, I should be showered and out the door already but instead I sit and wait for my meds to kick in. And so far all they have done is cloud my head. So much to do at work…. I’m left a bit speechless tonight, for I have no muse currently. I could be angry about many things I could be upset about many others but I’m finding it hard to find my words, emotionally drain I suppose. Physically drained absolutely. It could be that I have so much on my mind that I can’t quite put into words. Started a Facebook page not that I really care about FB but some friends “encouraged” me go do so. I’ve run into many people whom I haven’t seen in years, that could be why I’m brain freezing. To many past emotions. I really need something new in my life it’s kind of one of those catch 22 I think is the phrase. Need yet fear change. Have love want more. I think I need a trip, back to the coast for a few days. I think that when the only passion a person has in their life is what they create for them self it becomes dull, I think that’s why I crave this WP thing. Passionate people, broken and in need of validation, compassion friendship and hope. Me I’m no different I turned to this space to find peace of mind, to find an outlet for my feelings of having Parkinson’s disease at 42 years old. To share my art, to share my heart to watch the world fall apart, through the eyes of strangers. To feel with them and for them and maybe just maybe find a small piece of passion to put close to my heart to help me feel again, to find my muse.. Ok enough boring blah blah of everyday life. I hope the world is kind to those who read this and those who read this are kind to the world. Look someone deep in the eyes and thank them, thank them with so much conviction it brings tears to your eyes make it real, make it feel. Their is a stillness in the universe this morning I’m not sure I like. The poets have grown quiet, the painters are not painting. The passion has been replaced by silent remorse. Places I turn to for insight and prose have been replaced with politics and woes. Where have all the artist gone? Sing me a sing of heartfelt bliss of silence and lovers or years gone by. My hands shake as I write these thoughts today, pills, coffee contemplating the day convincing my stiff bones to please release me so I may continue my way. But this loneliness consumes me. To here your voice even if it was the one I made up for you in made head would be a lovely thing. Today is going to prove challenging, one of the biggest triggers for PWP is stress. As I am still working this fracture comes into play a lot. Today: write schedule, plan next week, chat with boss, plan marketing q4 meeting. And the list goes on and on. Doesn’t help that this morning my symptoms are huge. Hands shaking, dyskinesia grade 7. I’ve acquired this new little(ha) tremor we like to call “Boo”. Imagine your taking a nice mid-day nap, or silently reading your favorite book. And someone sneaks up behind you and scares you!!! How all you muscles instantly freeze or constrict, well… That’s the Boos as we like to call it. I get them bout 400 times a day, frankly it sucks, not only does it make typing or working with the public a bit troublesome but by the end of the day I’m exhausted, anyhow enough about me, time for some much needed coffee. Be brave be kind and really folks try and be nice to each other. You never know when you’ll need the kindness of strangers. Much love 10/5/12 7:10pm The night is young yet I feel a heaviness in my heart tonight as I listen to the joys of others from afar, I miss dancing , sword fighting, I miss a lot of things that have come and gone in my life if I was young enough strong enough brave enough, sometimes it’s hard having this disease my body shakes so hard some times it makes my teeth rattle and my shoulder clench so tight I think they’ll stay stuck that way. I miss flirting, I miss long walks with out rest breaks I miss the passion of being young and alive. Sad thing is my mind is still young and in love and passionate. In my head their is still a warrior a white knight, coming to save the day, chase the demons and defend your honor. Enough of this whining sorry of any of you made it down this far to read my bad night. Sometimes my new life sucks a bit more than I care to admit. Hug someone, love someone and most of all let someone love you. 10/6/12 3:30AM The morning finds me again as it has found me so many a day, up before the birds, the critters all still nestled in their beds. They say that sleep disturbance is a common complaint from PWP ( people with Parkinson’s) I suppose I would complain a bit more if I didn’t love the morning so much, where I live the morning brings a blanket of calm a stillness that cradles the world. It invites me into the day with no judgement. It cares not that my hands shake or my shoulders roll. It only cares that I am their with her welcoming the day. Morning here as for most you have become cold, my heart lives the cold, my body not so much. This will be my first full winter as a full fledged Parkinson’s patient, medicated to the hilt for almost a full year ( 11/04/11) started my first group of pills. So we shall see how it goes. This morning is not so different than many others, the muscles in my hips are fully constricted gripping my lower spine in a death grip, pretty painful, balance is off, steps are slow and old man like. Hands shake, thankfully the ” Boos” have not found me yet as they plagued me so yesterday. Today will be day 2 of 4 at work today is my planning day, for next week. It’s actually one if my favorite days at my job. It’s where I get to impart 25 years of expertise into my team. I outline the week ahead in all of its details, right person , right place kind of stuff, manage tasks and deadlines. Define corporate expectations, blah blah. Any how I enjoy it. Makes me feel like I’m contributing to the success of others. Anyhow I must put this on pause as I can not stay in one position to long the muscles start to think this is how they will be for the day, so I’m off to wander the halls of my home as I do every early morning. Much love to you all. Today I leave you with two of my personal quotes: Everyday is both a challenge and a blessing. 2: Only give of your self what you would give freely completely void of expectation. Have a wondrous day my friends. Be Brave, Be Bold.. As the world sleeps I drag my sleeping bones from the bed, chased,by dreams of demons and rats. Sleep has not come easy for me the past few week. Stresss from work or meds or what ever its been a drag. Im a bit nervous today as in a few hours i will be up at OHSU Parkison’s Center. The speach pathologist i see each week has been tracking my cognitive decline for the past 5 months and the last 2 test a had with her have not been, well, stellar. My wife likes to kid a say im getting dumb, Ha,Ha,Ha….. Its not about smart or not its about how the brain process information and as my brain now thinks its in its 70-80’s well my process have started to slow. People often ask what do you mean? well in the most simple terms, Imagine everything you have learned, including how to walk and talk, problem solve, and all the information youve learned being stored on a nice neat organized roll’a’decks in your head, Parkinson”s effectivly takes all of those nice “tabs” off the roll”a”decks and shakes things up. So i have all the information, just cant seem to find it as fast anymore. Short term memory is directly effected as well as the ability to handle major stress. So for a guy like me who works in the public eye, deals with a major multi million dollar business, it can be a little overwhelming., And the thing that sucks the most is ive been managing people time and money for the past 25 years!! This is what I do, professionally its all I know how to do, very depressing. So today I go see the big wigs at OHSU to get an indepth study done on my brain and how it working or not, big league players PHD’s and such will be poking around…. In the cradle of like i offer up my soul, i release my armor and hand you my heart. beware for i am tender as a child guide me with your grace and your guiding light. This old soldier is tired, shaken to the core for life has stolen my sword. free from the demons, curses and visions of the past, free from the monsters that search for my soul..For a thousand years I have wandered this world chased by ghost, guided by angels. A knight to some a devil to others. let me rest my head one last time next to your beating heart, let me feel your calming touch one more last time before the rains start to fall and wash away my dreams. with hands shaking, heart full of fear, i come to you in the mornings night and beg Good morning, the day starts a bit slow today as I am in tons of pain, thankfully I have PT this morning early. 8:00am. Then the day is mine. I’m down to my last panel to paint on so I better make it count right.. Hands a shaky this morning so it’s hard to type. So this will be short. OHSU yesterday wiped me out. Nothing like having someone mentally dissect your cognitive abilities for 2.5 hrs. So today I’m dedicated to regaining my self worth a I will paint. Anyhow fingers are basically useless, I’ll continue this later, xoxo people talk to you soon. Some days ya just can’t win. So day off early session at PT should I had the day to enjoy myself. Physically my body just feels broken today and my PD meds have been making me really nauseous lately. So instead of enjoying my day I’ve be sleeping. Giant waste of time. See the thing about PD is since there is no cure and they don’t really know a whole ton about it all they do is treat the symptoms and just like when you have a really bad headache and the aspirin just doesn’t do the trick. PD meds are the same some times they work great and others they don’t work at all. Today is a not at all day. Of coarse right, it’s my day off.. Grrrrr. Anyhow much love, I’ll try to paint tonight a share if I’m lucky. As always be brave, be kind. So I know it’s hard to be a caregiver but it’s not like I’m that broken all the time. I cook 5 or more nights a week, do dishes kinda and laundry kinda. But some times I think my biggest heart break is the fact that the one person who I should be able to depend on only really give a #%# as long as my PD doesn’t interfere with her life. I’m probably just being to sensitive. But when I sleep all day it’s not because I’m lazy it’s because I’m exhausted, in pain and overwhelmed. So their, why do I blog, why do I whine to total strangers, lay my heart and soul out for the world to see. Look no further for answers unfound. When I say I’m alone, it’s not always metaphorical. Ok enough for know. 4:00am Advice of the day don’t drink a bunch of wine, have a super emotional blow out after getting crappy Neuro results and tweet poetry to strangers. You will regret it! For those of you who have managed to scroll all the way down here thank you and I apologize for my outburst yesterday. I got some negative test results and then yes as you may have guessed had a highly emotional conversation with my wife, the really depressing thing is that after all was said and done per usual I was the bad guy. It’s hard to explain to someone that this disease make me feel like everything I was is being stripped from me piece by piece, and that I’m not being overly dramatic. And I still feel like it’s fine I have PD as long as it doesn’t interfere with a certain someone’s life agenda. Oh well, my head is pounding from to much wine and my hands are shaking from touch much PD. I’m off to work for the next way to many days. Much love. Be well and be kind, take the time to open your heart and your head. Life may give you a gift when you least expect it. Until next time. B. The rains have come to cleanse my and wash away the pains of the day. With a hopeful heart I look to the heavens and beg for better days. Some ease from this disease that holds fast and strong. A slowing of symptoms is all that I long. Since my diagnosis almost one year ago I have been on a relatively fast decline every month or so something new appears, shakes,dystonia,major dyskinesia, loss of executive functions you know all the fun stuff. Most recently, for the past month or so I’ve been experiencing massive myoclonus: Spasmodic jerky contraction of groups of muscles. For me it’s been in the shoulders, it happen about 600-700 times a day, or more I lose count ( no joke ) and they hurt like hell. After my last OHSU visit oct 8th I was and have been pretty depressed. Imagine being Mentally at the top of your game at a point in your life where your age and experience basically in balance. Professionally I’ve done one thing for many people for the past 25 years, manage people, time and money. Well my last docs visit was all about cognition. Or my rapid failing their of. Imagine waking up one day and having your brain all of a sudden be 69,70,80 years old. Fine if your really that old, not fine if your 42. So to bring this long boring story back around, I pray for change for the better.A new season a new chance to not be so broken. A chance to remember who I was, am and can still be with this “new me”. Easy to say, very hard to do when your living in it day to day. To all be well, be kind and thrive in your life. 10/14/12 I was reminded today of the callousness of our world. How we hide behind this vail of button pushing “like” how often people come to this Internet as people they are not. Which I understand completely the human need to be something we are not, or to express what we want to be but can not be in our real physical day to day life. I mean I wish I wasn’t sick and I came to this place to express my frustration with this disease and have a place to put my art so when I went to gallery’s I could just bring the lap top and say, “see this is me”, again I digress as so often I do. Let me be very clear so anyone who may purposefully or otherwise read this. This blog is exactly what it says it is “Expressions of My Life-An Evolution of Art” My journey through life as an artist, father and person with young onset Parkinson’s disease. why you may ask is Ben restating the obvious? Well back to the beginning, well if I comment on your site and say nice things and make expressions of friendship, that’s what it is, nothing more nothing less. If I new you in the physical I would do the same, buy you a cup of coffee and say, nice painting or your an amazing writer. Or offer condolences for your trouble or pain. I’ve lived and done things in this life that most people don’t even have the imagination to write about. So when I say something or express something its as transparent as it get, this IS my real life no F’n poetic fantasy or retouched photo, my face, my fears, passions, painting and random thoughts that people seem to think resemble poems of a sort. So that’s me. Enough said should be pretty clear to anyone who can read, who and what I am. And if for some reason i was unclear in any and you actually want to know, ask…… Be well, be brave have faith in who you are!! PS. To those who do kindly answered my vague request about life, I greatly appreciate that. I can’t speak about it directly because in my town a lot of people know exactly who I am and what I do, and if I broadcast some major life changing event (like I just may have) then its 400 emails and twice as many calls. And really that’s just way more than I need right now. So another day is here, I’m trying to stay really positive but it sure seems like life really wants to challenge me these days. Painting are going well, home life is getting better. But work keeps throwing me curve balls. Because of my Parkinson’s I’ve had extra help and over the past month that corp help has been withering. I’d dare to say at this point it has all but dried up. Now I do have another option but it doesn’t come with insurance. Since I take 25 pills a day not having stable insurance is a very worrisome concept. Guess I better start selling a ton of painting lol, anyhow I don’t have anything poetic to say this morning. Completed the auction piece which I’m very proud of. Now I can get started on my next series ” Dark Angel”, we time for pills and shower. To all be well, be brave have faith and thrive in your lives. 10/17/12 4:00am As the mornings chill guides me from my sleep only to awaken stiff and shaky. I sit and ponder the day. Of all the things to come made of man and made of me I’m excited to rise this day. Of borrowed bones or not I greet this cold and black morning with my heart and my head held high ( kinda), Work kicked my but last week, as I sit and try to shake my way through this post every joint in my body is gladly letting me know of its presence. PT at ten AM then auction stuff and the rest of the day is mine. 2 days of working from home on secret stuff and paint like the madman I am. And I tell ya if I have to press backspace one more time I’m going to scream. Sitting outside typing with PD, not using voice software as to not freakout the neighbors. Two clicks forward one click back.. Grrr. Anyhow. Off to the studio. A simple message today. Find peace in your heart for a split second and then try to remember what it feels like when you need it most today. Much love, be brave. ~ Pain shatters the night, grips my body and begins to shake. I wake, quake, take more pills. And pray the sun will take some of my pain with it as it raises into the sky. The morning finds me so, so broken today. My hips feel like I was hit by a car. You see I have this problem, I seem to sit somehow think I’m invincible. I like that little kid in the movies with his superman towel cape standing on the edge of the top stair ready to jump, he knows he can fly!! Me same issue. I have a day of “feel good” so I run around and do stuff like normal people do and the next day I pay dearly. Today however I have no errands to run besides shuttling people to and from school and work the rest of the time I will be painting. To the world be well, be brave and thrive. The day finds me once again up before the dawn. Shaking and quaking through my day. The pain woke me this morning. Waves of red hot pain flowing from my neck down my back and settling in my hips. My hands tremble like a school boy on his first date and hips scream like a runners 25 th mile. Today I face the challenge of a marketing switch at work, plus all the inventory stuff I do everyday. It’s a strange thing to think if I was just a little bit more broken I could call it quits and apply for disability. And then theirs my pride and my desire to provide for my family that always wins. I was mostly raised by my grandparents 3 sets of them, being shuttled around from place to place. I don’t regret that in fact it taught me morals and values I don’t see in most people anymore, kindness, honor, loyalty,patients and a will to put others first. I think that comes from watching my grandmothers self sacrifices, any how I digress. Thanks for that little trip down memory lane. I’m making a special doctors appointment for this coming Tuesday, something just doesn’t feel right, and thankfully my GP is very open and understands that prior to my PD I was very in tune with my body. 20+ years of aikido and learning how to observe even the slightest change in any pattern. So we’ll see how that goes. -As we walk this earth in search for truth or stumble our way blindly down paths un-chosen-stop from time to time and smell the roses for the longer we grind away at the things we think we need- the farther away we move from the things we already have-as the night comes and chases away the light fear not for the night is its own day you just have to learn to see in a different way-a new normal will one a thousand times in our lives and it is how we perceive these changes that deem them good or bad. So look for the light in the night, hold your flame high. Be brave, Be strong, Be well and I will look to you for those things when I have none. Be well. Much love. Shaky, shaky,shaky… Shake… Seems to be the theme of the day. It’s funny when I wake up and I’m not in pain I sometimes forget for a split second about my PD. So I’m sitting on the deck off the bedroom drinking my coffee watching the rain wondering why won’t my darn phone stop wiggling….lol…, oh yeah… That’s right… Sets phone down looks at right hand and it’s doing it’s own little dance.. Kinda funny from my perspective sometimes. I suffer from peripheral neuropathy so often I can’t feel my extremities, dangerous when cooking but otherwise funny at times. Taking an extra day off from work for doctors stuff this week and to clear my head a bit, Ada complications currently at work. Sent an email to the Jan’s foundation and they said I should talk to an ADA lawyer but I’m not sure I’m ready to go down that path. I think sometimes my faith in people doing the right thing bites me in the ass. I tend to be a bit to forgiving if their is such a thing. Sometimes feels like truly nice guys do finish dead last. I mean what happened in our society that doing the right thing for a person became secondary or unimportant. Humanity seems to be tainted at every corner with greed. I’m going to stop there because I could write a small book on my feeling about the issue. So I hold strong in my stance. As always. Be Brave have faith, be kind to each other and laugh, laugh hard and big. Smile because you can. The day is mine!! Well almost.. Kids to school, wife to work then…. The day is mine.. I have so many things to worry about at this point that I’ve reached my wits end. So since I can’t really fix any of them today I’m going to paint and paint and paint. I’ve been talking to a PD advocate about filing for ssdi and I’m pretty sure I’m going to go back on short term disability, then potentially long term, between PD symptoms and med side effects working has become amazingly difficult. I basically have no life. I wake up in pain go to work, make things more complicated come home eat then sleep. My depression has become a monster, so for quality of life disability seems to be the right choice. On a separate note for those that endure the long boring read that it takes to get down to the bottom of this page thank you! Your support and kind words mean the word to me. They give me strength, hope and belief that their is still some kindness left in the world. So again thank you from the bottom of my heart. Four AM seems to be my time, my body usually wakes me around 3-4 am and starts screaming for pills, plus the house is asleep so it’s really my only quiet time. I have 3 hrs of PT and a doctors appointment today not really very excited about any of it. I have to make some big choices today or at least have some big conversations, I’m very seriously thinking of going back on leave. Work has gotten to the point where I’m failing because of my disease. Work causes stress, stress causes PD to be worse, pain and such from symptom increases and severity, which causes me the need to take more pills, which causes brain to turn to mush. Very, very vicious cycle. It makes me sad and is a very hard choice to have to make again. My PD advocate is going to send me some paper work to start getting the ssdi stuff in order as well. It’s pretty scary for me since I’ve worked since I was a small boy, first on my grandparents farm then at 13 for real business. I’ve been a GM and up since I was 18. But I can’t really complain I’ve seen the world for all it’s good and bad, I’ve loved, lost, raised a family maybe it’s life’s way of making me take some ” me” time. To all who read this- much love- be brave and have hope. Sleeping I don’t seem to be doing much of it these days except for in the afternoon I woke this morning to find most of my muscle in a fist fight with my bones, it seems someone said something in the middle of the night and a bar fight ensued. So here I am at 3:30 trying to break up this fight, I mean really guys can’t we just all get along…(laughter..) no, ok yep it’s another normal day on planet Benjamin standard routine is as follows, coffee, more coffee, write or finger type carefully on my phone( hunt and peck) yes I’m part chicken.. Wife wakes up, chit chat if I’m lucky otherwise, grumpy face, lots more coffee and a small pile of pills. Today’s Friday so girl child no school she sleeps till whenever, take the misses to work, yes sadly only one car had to sell my race car last year. It was a stick and my legs can safely do the whole clutch brake thing, plus after 8 MRI’s even with insurance medical bills pre-diagnosis $$$$ so hence one car, anyhow wife to work, boy to school, then the day is mine!!! Today’s agenda: clean studio, prep two new panels, work on Dark Angel some more and stare at my abstract landscape “Savannah ” for a bit. Anyhow. Hands cramping and I’m sure this is boring as hell to read, go, go have fun and stop reading about the broken guy. As always much love, be brave, laugh, laugh big and hard, then someone please tell me how it felt I miss that so much. Xo So I slept kinda…..stupid PD… 10-p to 3a that’s 5 hrs…. Not sure why I’m up hands are shaky muscles hurt a bit, can’t type worth a damn this morning but that’s nothing new. I was taught a new trick, yes kinda like an old dog… If I rest my arms on my legs and hold my phone with both hands, my hands don’t shake as much.. Only last for about 6 min before my elbows start cramping. But hey I’ll take 6 min over nothing. Ok that’s enough I an update I’m going to go stare at paintings. Xo This will be a short post as my body is throwing its own little revolution today. My hands have decided to start doing this new cool thing called locking up at least that’s what I’m calling it. They just randomly decide not to let go of stuff and if they do fit my arms ate bent the my elbows start to cramp up… I mean really who even knew you could get cramps in you elbow joints! Anyhow I’ve got little man home with me today so I’ll be in and out of the studio making sure he’s doing well, I have a feeling I’ll be doing lots of sleeping today. Last night I would sleep for about and hour and a half then get up stretch out walk around for a minute then come back to bed. Did that from about 8:30 till 3 am when I just said screw it and got up once and for good. If your on the east coast please be careful and where ever you read this from, Be brave, have hope, faith and be kind. It’s been a rough morning already, just about nap time, saw an old friend at the store this morning. Always hard explaining why I have a cane. Sometimes I just say I have nerve damage which isn’t a lie, it’s just not the whole story. It’s awkward hearing people say”oh.., I’m so sorry” it’s not like they gave me PD, I’d almost rather they lie and say well you look great! Not really but what ever. Tremor, stiffness and slow have been buddy’s today following me around like a list puppy, now only if they were cute and fuzzy… Anyhow I finished one piece today and am going to get started on another this afternoon, a treat for a little blue butterfly, I’m going to nap now so to all, have faith, have hope all things change so when it’s good enjoy it and when it’s bad, just hold on. Until later. Much love. 10/30/12 8:44pm Another night of me, the cat and the couch, I haven’t been sleeping well as of late tremors not to bad tonight, body aches and stiffness very high. But still no sleep Theirs a stillness and chill in the air tonight. I slept for a few hrs last night only to wake and find myself in need of something I can’t have, what that thing is I still haven’t figured out, figure if I knew then I could sleep. The words drip from my tongue looking for a place to land but find no peace. No languid rivers no glistening pond to bathe gently upon. My mind races to place and face to help save my soul, to release me from this torment. A soft rose to guide me back to sleep. A lullaby of whispers sweet and pure to erase these demons from my sky. I can feel the cold biting at my numbed flesh, wonder if it hurts. As my hands begin to shake I know I’m awake, this no place of in between. their is a calm in this cold mornings night, my heart aches for your sweet embrace, cover me in your angel wings Sing to me that song of sleep, take me to your darkness deep, warm and gentle soft as petal…. Take me…..take me…. Home….. 10/31/12 6:35 AM pst its going to be a long day. PT and speech at 9:15 then home fast shower, then to town to meet a friend for lunch and coffee. I need to buy some paint as well, plus I’m very low on panels only 1 left…. Oh no!!! I really need to start selling some pieces I’m running out if room in the studio and the mrs. Doesn’t like me to spread my stuff around everywhere. Oddly enough she’s not a fan of abstract art. She does however like the surrealism I create. Anyhow arms and hands cramping to much to type I’ve been awake since 1:30am this morning in all my wasted time today I did a little math and even by a conservative estimation I’ve had 4320 myoclonic spasms bilaterally across my shoulders today. Not very fun. That’s 4 major muscle spasms strong enough to physically move my body every minute for the past 18 hrs, again conservative estimation. Needless to say my shoulders hurt like heck…… Many other words came to mind but it’s late I’m feeling a little PG, hopefully I’ll sleep tonight, surely tired enough. Much love to all. I thought for sure I wrote in here today how strange, I’ve been up since 2:30am seems I’ve had plenty of time to do so. The day has come and gone… It’s now raining in my cognac. Butterfly Blue is done, I went and restocked on paint am the Mrs. Reminded me that I spend to much money…. Which is funny because the only thing I spend money on paint! paint and panels the rest of it every penny goes to the family so I never really feel that remorseful for spending. I managed to sleep for a few hours this afternoon which was nice. I’m in between pieces and only have 1!!! Panel left, which makes me crazy I feel like its the last piece in the world and I need to make it my master piece…. Until I go buy more panels then I relax a bit. Tremor and all things PD are present but manageable today, I saw my OT gal today and she not only heals my torso but my soul as well. Ok enough dribble time to cook dinner, I love to cook the more “gourmet” the better fancy does not mean expensive, at least it doesn’t have to, any how the kitchen calls. To all much love, happiness and peace. This is getting a bit silly I would love!!!!!! To sleep all night long. Woke up at 2am super wiggly but not in much pain which is nice. I’m just starting to feel a bit like a zombie. Well today I need to go buy some more panels so I’ll be off to see the wood guy. It’s funny because the place I go is a “mans man” wood place everybody’s a construction dude and then theirs me granted I’m 6ft 200# not a tiny little boy but they always look at me funny when I’m like yeah in need you to cut these down into 3×4’s cause I’m a painter… and their always cool about it we joke about not letting the wiggly guy use the saw the give a good deal I leave happy so all is good. Although today I might get some Masonite it hold up better under the pallet knife this time of year in the PNW. And if I don’t start selling some stuff I’m not going to have anymore room. Oh well I’ll figure that out soon enough. Supposed to meet with web design people today, sage and scribe web design the company my friends started is doing is doing it. Anyhow I’m babbling to nobody because everybody’s a sleep. Good morning world. The following is rather personal so only read if you dare When an artist has a muse or an inspiration it often drives them with deep passion to do great works. Picasso had many lovers and a number of wives, also Pollock was known to keep fancy with multiple friends. Miro I’ve read was much more sedate in his love affairs. I have an affinity towards writers, now granted I’m in a monogamous relationship, but the thing I think humans get vastly-wildly confused about especially women towards men is that because we love you for one reason or another that we want to have sex with you. Strange thought I know. But have you ever feel in love with a smell a taste a color a texture. We say it all the time oh I ” love” that dress or I love that car… See what I mean? Then why can I not be mused by many things that fill the voids in my heart and soul. I can listen to Yo Yo Ma on my iPod while walking down the street eating a piece of dark chocolate (70+%) drk please, and feel pretty damn good about things. I can feel the paint in my hands and the smell in my nose and be taken to a place no person can take me. But my muses what I get from those I chose is to feel alive inside. To feel your pain,joy,laughter makes me whole again, why? I have no idea but it is what it is. Sure as a younger man to make love to my muse, drink wine, smell roses speak in prose to each other all night, laugh cry was all part of the process, but now as a man who has seen and done things that required me to be numb to the world, I require your love, your experiences your words,for mine always end dark. Abused, tortured forgotten and misplaced. All of my life. I find such sanctum in the minds hearts and souls of others. Ok well that’s enough the door to this painters heart and mind is closing for the night. Be well, enjoy the world, revel in its tastes and smells, feel with all your being. Be whole. Namaste I sept!!! I paid for it but I slept. Nothing like waking up with my body shaking and constricting so much your not sure if it’s an earthquake or what. I want to clarifie my previous post. I am not in love with every writer or poet female I come in contact with, what I mean is that you can love someone regardless of physical relationship with them. Ok clarified. Today is an interesting day thus far. I have a strange weakness today it’s a little disturbing feels like my blood pressure is bouncing around a bit, which is not good. Anyhow I’ll continue with this post later I need to rest a bit, xo 11/4/12 been up since 1:30 body thinks it 2:30 stupid daylight savings time gonna screw up my pill schedule all f’n day. It’s bad enough I can’t sleep worth a shite anymore and really it’s not like I’m a freakin farmer anyhow. Ok I feel better sorry bout the ranty rant rant. My everything hurts, my symptoms are changing it all started when my back and my hip started getting sore. I let that go on for really who knows how many years then about two years ago the pain in the hip and left leg started to get intense so I let that slide for as long as I could until one day I work up and it literally felt like I’d been hit by a car, I called in to work and went to the docs. That was July 2011 kept working till sept 25 th 2011 when I took my first leave of absence meanwhile I’d gone to see multiple docs and nobody could figure out why I was in such pain. I just figured I was getting older. So sept, oct 12 MRI’s later so many blood tests a vampire would get jealous and scads of X-rays and everybody’s stumped, meanwhile my gait gas changed I’m walking abit funny and starting to slow down. End of October some time my sun doc says let try this test and pulls a this straight pin, I close my eyes and he starts poking my legs and feet , can you feel that? Or that? How bout here? Nope, nope oh a little there. I open my eyes and I have all these little poke holes in my feet and legs but no pain, I think yes!! I’m gonna go kick ass… No jk not what I thought we’ll kinda but really hmmm is more like it. Doctor has this obviously unsettled look, I think you need to go see a Neuro, ok.. Blah, blah story’s Getty long and my damn arms are cramping. Stupid time change.. See , nuero my poking, walking pinching, after a few visits we come to today 1 year ago 11/4/11 he says I think I know what wrong with you, gives me these yellow pills whole bunch of’m says start with one, might make you feel a little sick might not, take as many as you need every 2-4 hrs or so and come see me in a few weeks.—I go home.. By this point I’ve had so many docs give me so many pills I don’t care if it will make the pain go away I’m all for it, so I take a pill (sinemet) or also called carbidopa-levadopa I know sounds like a spell from a HP movie, by the end of the first day I think to myself huh… This stuff seems to be working what the heck?? Spends a few minutes doing research…. Not good…. This s%#}# only works for PWP. The end of the months rolls around and my first Neuro says well I’ve got bad news I think you have Yopd for those who don’t know the meaning it’s Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease. Only about 1% of the people who get PD are below the age of 50 and even fewer my age 41 at the time and if you factor in that pd doesn’t start to present until they think about 5-7 years after your brain starts to stop producing the right amount off dopamine then I’ve had this crap since I was in my early 30’s. Bummer huh… Any how doc says since your so young I’d like you to go to OHSU for further studies. Their is no 100% test to confirm PD except autopsy and well I’m not really comfortable with that currently since I’m still breathing!! I asked are you sure you can’t just scoop out a little and double check..,? Since science says I’m only using about 10% of it I should have plenty to spare.. Lol… Doc didn’t like my little joke either.. So now a year later I’m laying in bed at 2:30 in the morning letting the world read about a boy and his dog…. No sorry wrong story… About me my life as a father, artist and person with Yopd. And rather frankly it sucks.! Not to be negative but I kinda had plans kids are getting older, thought about moving to the coast, now I’m having conversations with my doctors about ” well have you thought about long term care” Be well, be brave and thrive. I actually slept well.., kinda 12p-4a the joint pain this morning is extreme but ssssh that’s between you and I the mrs. And I have a lunch date today so I’ll be getting fancy. I love to dress up, not James bond dress up although I do have a very nice tux, vintage. And if we are really lucky it won’t rain. Anyhow I’ve not much to say, it’s the morning, I’m hurting but I refuse to let it slow me today, I have people that need me to be up and moving, so that’s what I’ll be. I have almost a full PT set up at home, meaning except a pool I have almost all the same workout machines at home. So I can stretch and bike at home as well. Alright folks go do something amazing today.. I dare ya clarify amazingly good!!! 11/6/12 So sleeping isn’t really happening tonight. I have so many thoughts going though my head it’s incredible. Poems and music, paintings I’ve done and would like to do. The thing about me and writing is it just happens I’ll be sitting outside like I am right now or hear a song or read a bit of someone else’s work and the words literally just start flowing out of my brain no strainer no spelling just words sometimes their poetic stories of my past sometimes just a bunch of feelings that find them self in the shape of a word. Anyhow it’s starting to rain an my phone hates the rain so I’m going in. Be well sleeping people. Much love I slept beautiful sleep. 10p-4a today is mine, by some wood, rest studio time. My body has been in a ton of pain this week. My tendons and muscles in my hips and both shoulders has been pulling so hard the are starting to damage the capsule not fun. The slowness and stiffness associated with PD has come to stay or so it seems. Bradykinsia is what it’s called. Anyhow I’m excited to be at home today I need to recover from the week so far. I’ll be in touch later today. 1:35 pm same day: So i did much this morning went and bought more wood and a cheap little jug saw for cutting frame pieces with. Felt really good until a came home, then the exhaustion set in. Slept from 11:30 till 1:30 and now i feel like crap. So cramped up super stiff and shaky. Oh well it was a Great morning. Sleep seems to be a funny beast with me theses days. Last night I slept from 10p-2a then again from 2a-5a and I don’t feel rested at all. In fact today will be challenging. After my morning errands of mrs. To work and kid to school I have to get ready for 3 hrs of PT which should be interesting. My body has been in full revolt mode for about a week. My pain level is huge 7-8 in all my joints so we’ll see. All I want to do is paint. I have new panels and a new saw that after my morning post yesterday sat. I came home from a great morning had my normal diet of fruit and nuts.., yes I’m part squirrel… And then the fatigue set in and caused me to sleep. Things around the house have been very demanding in the evenings as of late so no painting at night for a bit. Anyhow my day begins must dress for the day and hope for the best. 3:30am So I’m up.Slept on the couch again so the lady could get some sleep, I sure miss my bed. Something seems to be going wrong with my back theses days my lower back keeps freezing up on me. It’s very painful almost made me fall down yesterday when I was going up the stairs. Had a talk with me PT guy who says its because of the postural instability caused by PD. boy PD I tell ya it’s the disease that just keeps giving. Someone should really tell Yopd patients oh by the way not only is this going to suck but it’s going to start effecting all your joints rob you of your mental executive functions as well as turn your young healthy body into an old mans as fast as it can, so hold on its going to be a bumpy ride. It’s funny I read all these articles about how exercise is supposed to help fight the effects of PD well you have to be well enough to exercise to receive those benefits don’t ya.. My mother in law bless her heart she means the best and is an amazing woman brings me an article to read about how the Wii is helping PWP. The first thing in my head is well if I could left my arm up that high without loosing all the strength and feeling in my hand that would be amazing!! I don’t me to complain and I’m not really complaining as much as I am staying how it is for me. I don’t need sympathy,.. Well sometimes it’s nice. Mostly I just like to openly vent about how pissed off I am at this while thing ex: recon, black belt turned broken. Mentally it’s a hard pill to swallow. Ok enough ranting like a little baby. I’ve decided to stop getting so wrapped up in people’s stuff here on WP, people have this way of thinking because your nice to them and you genuinely care for them as a person or that your sympathetic towards their pain that you want something more from them. I mean really people all of this is one delete button away from being an archive record on some server farm. So unless your going to fly out here and shake my hand lets be real, I’m a normal guy trying to touch as many humans as possible in a positive way while I still can. I love my kids, wife cat, house and all the stuff that comes with it. Sure I’m delusional and seem to think I can create an awareness towards my art and the need for people to be nice to each other through this electronic means but it is was it is. Anyhow that’s me ranting about all kinds of stupid shit at 3 am in the morning. Much love to all and as always be brave have hope and love someone. That was a horrible nights sleep. I finally got to sleep about 1 am then I managed to have bad dreams for 4 hrs they were not nightmares at least not the kind thy wake you in the middle of the night in a cold sweat those I can handle I used to have terrible night terrors as a child but that’s a different story. Last night was full of ghosts and fears the kind that creep in and linger at the edge of sleep and taunt every resting moment, dreams of failure to provide for my family, dreams of dead friends and family. Dreams you can’t wake up from because their not dreams their memories of real things and real fears. In 1997 my best friend and soul mate committed suicide it was actually a dbl suicide him and his girl, I had the pleasure of IDing the bodies. It was a Gemini knot one rope two nueces and one very tall bridge in the middle of the day. It doesn’t get much more graffic than that. He always liked to make a statement it was his was of saying to the world “Look!!Look what you’ve done to me” he was an amazing artist and an amazingly handsome man, as a team we were unstoppable. Matter of fact he gave me my only tattoo, a memorial of sorts to my grandmother who had passed away not even a year before, she was my guardian angel. But that’s another story. But I’m awake now left with only a tattoo and the lingering taint of last nights dreams. And one hell of a headache. To any and all who read this, protect the ones you love, tell them EVERYDAY how much they mean to you. Be brave, be strong and thrive. My hands are really shaky making it hard to paint today although I’m happy about the ” youth” piece. So people are going to ask how I could name such a dark piece youth! I don’t really see it as dark I like to think of it as emerging light, or the glow from inside. I had a tragic childhood, passed from relative to relative from the time I was born until I was 5, then from 5-8 I was in heaven step mom, 2 brothers then at 8 gone all of it. Spent my 3 rd grade year alone until my grandmother moved up to live with me, that was good. So from grandparent to grandparent until I was 13. Spent hours and hours of my youth playing with paint, drawing and writing. My father was a world class runner so he was never home. And my mom was crazy Locked up or on the streets somewhere. I got my first apartment when I was 14 almost 15 and have been on my own ever since. Most of all of my original family has passed away, all the people I loved as a child even aunts and uncles it’s weird. 80% of my childhood friends dead or to lost to retrieve. So when I mention that everyone I once loved has been taken away I’m not just being mellow dramatic. It’s my life. My only true bright and shining light I have is my son, daughter and wife daughter whom I’ve raised since she was 4/5 and my wife who tolerates me. I have 4 friends that I hold very dear in my heart, Alice, Heather, Jim, Lyric whom I see about every 4-5 yrs ok this is depressing to write about so I’m going to stop. Blah!!!!! Be well, find love, have faith and hug. Good morning, this is the second time I’ve been up today once at midnight for a couple of hours and the now. My pain level in my hips and lower back is becoming very worrisome. Also my left and right shoulder have been freezing up. Any how nothing to new to report this morning is still have Parkinson’s lol no shocker their. Ya know it’s funny I don’t mind the shakes or dyskinesia and when I’m at home the bradykinsia is manageable but the pain of having your muscles constantly trying to constrict kinda sucks. It’s like having the worst pulled muscle you’ve ever had except that it’s not just one it’s all of mine hands to toes. Any how boo who poor me ha ha what ever I will plant myself in the studio with my pills and paint and live my life the best I can although I have to start selling some paintings because I am running out if space, it’s actually a fear of mine is doing a beautiful piece an having it damaged because I have no more storage. Ok enough for now. Be well. 6:35 am- I’m not sure how I feel today I think the word is apathy. My body is racked with pain but my passion feels lost my heart feels nothing, I think I’m lonely.. Human affection, I know that sounds strange coming from a married man, but when you don’t feel appreciated at home and receive little to no contact it makes one lonely or sad, I’m not sure of the words. Maybe it’s the disease playing with my brain chemicals I don’t know. I guess I don’t feel validated as a person. Any how what ever. Be well. “Gray day. Everything is gray. I watch. But nothing moves today.” Well good morning world, I think no as a matter of fact I know I found my heart. Somehow he and my shadow decided to take the day off and well forgot to mention it to me, found the note this morning tapes to the icebox. “Dear, Body you have become far to twitchy and broken these past few weeks so shadow and I are going to take a bit of a holiday don’t drink to much while we are gone and remember to be kind and generous the world needs love.” Signed H & S So to my surprise I found the bastards sleeping in the front porch this morning it seems they forgot to take their keys.! Ha serves them right, but they did bring me some lovely gifts. An Elysian Lotus flower from some botanical garden. A movie stub from a show called “Ela Enchanted” and a Blue Butterfly. Their we’re also some HastyWords at the bottom of a card it was rather touching I must say. Anyhow it’s time to take my pills and start these day here in my small corner of the planet. So as heart often reminds me to say. Be kind, be generous, be gentle to each other for you never know when one small word or a t I kindness can bring someone’s heart and shadow back home. I work early today about 2:30am I’ve been laying in bed trying to convince my body to let me get up. In PD it’s called freezing where your mind says ok let’s go and the signals do get to whatever body part they are supposed to. Well I’m up now I have PT today so we’ll see how that goes, my hips and back are sooo painful this morning. I can barely walk. On the positive I have two backgrounds ready for paint and one frame ready for paint. I have to get busy and get my entry fee paid for the something red show. Anyhow not much to say this morning. I’m in a good mood, just really tired and in tons of pain. Ok so I’m going to make a statement I don’t think I’ve ever said here. I’m scared. Scared out of my fucking mind at times about what this disease is doing to me, ya know it’s not so much about what I use to be, I learned a long time ago that coulda, shoulda, woulda doesn’t mean shit. It gets you nowhere. But this fucking PD is killing me and it scares the shit out of me. Sorry for all the bad words I’m just being real here. No flowery word to describe this crap it is what it is. Incurable, progressive neurological disorder, that’s a mouthful, fuck!!!!! PS. Again sorry about the bad words not really my style. Ok so I slept a little and my heart and soul feels wonderful today. I had a talk with one of my doctors yesterday and their is a very small chance less than 1% that one of my medications is causing my sudden spike in pain, so we are cutting out that med for two weeks. We’ll see. I woke this morning to a right hip that can not support my body OUCH!!!!!!! That’s all I’m going to say about that. I have two pieces I’m so excited to work on today. I have found some peace in my heart I hope it stays for a long time for I cherish the way it feels right now. Until later my friend. I hope the world is kind and generous to you and you to it. The day is long on my bones and my heart is heavy. Waiting for my pills to work. I have a very important job to do today so I will not be around much, may you find comfort in your heart and strength in your soul and if you do not and you need more you my have mine. Be kind and gentle to the world and may it be the same for you. Pain wakes me again for the second time tonight. Hrs before I can take my pills. Gripped tight by razor claws held fast with jaws of steal my body locks and rocks begging for release. As my feet arch as if to become cathedrals for this broken shell I can here their bones crack from the strain. My hands clenched not in anger but rigor. I can feel the tendons in my body plucking like guitar stings as i reach out in the night. before the magic medicine comes to take away just enough pain so that I can stand. So tired must sleep, be well world. To be continued…… Good morning world, PT today at 8:15 it going to be fun! In the pool which means for me that I can run!! No impact and water massage. So lovely then an hour of spch and to end the day OT and some strange machine not a tens which I like but some zapper machine of some kind, it feels good. My mind is clear today, body is as normal but I have faith that they will help me. I slept very well last night, not for a long time but the quality was very good. As always be brave, have faith and hug!! I managed to get about 6 hrs of sleep last night, for me that’s a lot of rest. I a woke this morning to to my normal shakes and quakes, the pain in my shoulders is not as bad today thanks to my wonderful OT person, my hips are still very sore though. I have the house to myself today for the most part, the kids are both on break from school so I can spend most of the day in the studio painting. Although I might have to run out for a doctors appointment we shall see. I have the moon piece that I am working on which has taken in a life of its own and a new piece I have started. Me sneak peeks though this one is for my eyes until it finds a name at least so far. Tomorrow is thanksgiving here in America a holiday that I’m a bit torn about, yes I have much to be thankful for, my family my life the few living friends I have . But I take only a small about of pleasure for this holiday because I don’t like what “Americans” did to get this land. Native Americans are and where some of the most spiritual people on this planet so close to nature and family, one with the heavens and earth and my country slaughtered them put them on reservation and then ” gave” them their land. It’s like if stole your bike and then gave it to you as a birthday present. Kinda crappy. Anyhow. Again don’t get me wrong, I’m all for my family and have many reasons to be thankful I just think that as Americans we should also on this holiday say a pray for the people, history and culture that this country’s forefathers destroyed to claim it for them selfs. Ok enough on that. To all I hope your hearts are full of joy and love and that peace lives in your heart. I don’t have much to say today, the holidays are a hard time for me so I’ll keep this post locked in its journeys page. I have lost most of my family that was dear to me many of my friends are either dead or far away. But I am thankful for my lived ones. I am thankful to be alive. I’m thankful everyday, much love, Benjamin I hate it when I can’t sleep. Slept from 9:30 to 12:30 and now here I am in the wee hours of day/night trolling WP for poets and painters. The broken hearted and yeah well that’s it. I think I took the wrong medicine last night I am usually really good about my pill, you kinda have to be when you take 23 of them a day it’s actually 24 but what ever. The one thing I must say is that currently at 1:34 am my sleeping meds are in full swing do I feel pretty great so to all my friends across the pond we should go dancing lol. —Ramblings of the dead and dying….. My heart breaks as my foot aches….. And oops their goes my hand…. May I have another,sir??? Silence echoes through these halls in the day/night only rain no pain not tonight. But slowly creeping I can see its red light far far off light a steaming freight train. Do flex don’t yawn maybe it’ll pass lay perfectly still like a statute but pray you don’t get stuck. The munching crunching ratcheting bones keep me company on this day/night. The soft blueish glow of technicolor light warming my retina, slowly cooking the back of my brain. Oh!.., I guess nobody told the hand it’s time to wake up, for he keeps dropping the phone, damn lazy hand drops plates, forks, pie he’d drop gravity if he could shaky bastard……..ok enough musings of poetish thoughts about nothing. For those of you who actually read this. Hi, good morning how are you? Well me a bit mad this morning / night whatever the hell you call 1:48 am . Mad as in crazy not angry right… Got it? Cheers Anyhow much love as always I’m going to convince the right side? Of my brain it’s time to go back to bed, left maybe…? Not sure. Be brave. Be kind.. And love with your heart. Back from the world of man, safely tucked back in my studio, body broken from pretending I can move about adequately in our fast paced world, hands shaky, legs weak and tired. But my spirit is strong I refuse to give up on this day. Much love, Benjamin In 2 hrs I’ve been up for a day. It’s strange what the mind does after you’ve been awake for to long. I wanders to a fro, as such dies mine. Thinking of things I have and things I want in my life. My mind wants to run free with the wind, yet my body keeps me planted like a statue. To night my legs and hips fail me, my left arm looses almost all muscle control at less than 45 degrees. I can feel as the symptoms spread tightening the tendons in my shoulders, hips , elbows and wrists and ankles. Like twisting a rubber band around a pencil, tighter and tighter. Somedays I feel like they’ll snap. Those are the days the pains the worse. I write these words in the dead of night so when I’m gone the world will know what it’s like. I have a “no meds” visit with my Neuro on the 27th and I fear the worse. I’ve only been diagnosed a year, something at my age I imagine they call the guessing period. I have more symptoms in line with MSA-P than Parkinson’s but what the hell do I know. I’ll take PD over msa any day. With my family history PD gives me maybe 15 years left. MSA for like 5-8 do you can see my concern. Anyhow theirs my daily demons. Much love to all. May the world be kind and gentle go you all, and you to it. Well I managed to sleep for a few hours, from 1a-4:30a my body clock I very regulated as PD meds have a very short shelf life in the human body. So by 4:30 my body was screaming at me wake up old %#%# take your pills. I’m not really that old for anyone new reading this 42 to be exact. Which kind makes me a geezer but not really. If if where the mid century I’d be ancient. Did you know they are thinking of DBS for me, what’s is DBS you may be asking, well, take a drill, cram it down through your head stuff in some wires, connect to a battery and viola I could be in the circus. Put light bulbs in my ears or something fun like that. It’s funny to watch the ” professionals” argue about what’s best, one set things DBS will change the world, and for some it has, others tell me never do this it’s barbaric and uncalled for. Me I guess I’m just along for the ride makes no difference to me. If I do it and it works great less meds, less symptoms. But if it doesn’t then I have a freakin Frankenstein story to tell the world. But here’s the thing about progressive non curable diseases, personal option hear, it’s going to get worse regardless of them drilling a hole in my head so really what’s the point, like the saying goes, ” I need that like I need another hole in my head” lol, lol, lol. I crack me up. Sorry I don’t even know if that’s the right damn quote. But what ever it’s my brain and it made me smirk. Anyhow how people, move along, move along nothing to see here. May the world show you love and maybe even more importantly what to do with it once you have it. At what point do you call in your chips, wave the white flag and say I’m done. Well today I was reminded that my cards have been folded and my flags at half mass but I’m not quite ready to call it quits, at least not entirely. So finally after almost 2 years of being in agonizing pain everyday my GP says its time to get serious, some pain med I think the kind Dr. House on tv takes. And we had the very hard talk about permanent disability, which do to the very rapid and un-relentless increase in my symptoms has become a very dark cloud I must face. I’ve worked since I was a small boy on my grandparents farm it’s become part of my identity as a man, father and human as wrong as that is, that’s how I was raised. Men work, provide, fix and protect its in our DNA literally. So now I have a ton of emotions surrounding this impending life change that I’m not really sure how to deal with…. I’m thinking dark beer and chocolate cake!!!! So that’s today’s doctors visit. Yay for pain meds, Boo for life change . Terrified about tomorrows Neuro visit because MSA-p has to be a topic of the conversation. I’m not going to go into msa-p google it if your interested but it’s not pretty. It’s kinda like PD but way more brutal kinda like a plane crash it’ll kill ya. Any how. Time for cake. I hope you world has been kind and gentle to all of you today. I wish you all great joy and peace in your lives. No meds of any kind since last night 5 pm— I’m pretty sure my head is going to explode!!! Whole body shakes, pain in every major joint connection, pulse irregular, wiggles like I’ve never had. Balance gone breathing erratic. Wtf not good 6.22 min till I can take pills can’t come soon enough. Can’t type good hands to shaky ill update later. 3:00am pst So sleeping wasn’t really on the menu. I ordered the waiter came brought me back a side of tired and said I’m sorry sir, but the kitchen is all out of a good nights sleep!!’ at least my coffee tastes fantastic. So the OHSU visit was a bust yeah I still have Parkinson’s, but these new tricks and twitches and pain they have no idea what’s causing then. Suggestion from OHSU: 1# your nuts an it’s all in you head….wtf… Really. #2 Go see a rheumatologist I’ve have ultra sounds on my shoulders, X-rays on my hips and 8 MRI’s already except for my elbows and knees I pretty much know what my insides look like. So I start the process again with my local neurologist. He was the guy that diagnosed me in the first place. So again I’m left with the question Parkinson’s plus/ what??? Pain level in my hips and shoulders is huge this morning 7-8 can’t take any pain meds until later I have things to do once the small humans wake up, any how it’s kinda strange I have a free studio I’ve been working on getting my submissions ready for the show, which I officially dropped off last night!!!! Many people where captivated by the guiding light I was very flattered. Judging happens today I think and I should know in a day or two which place my piece will be hanging at. The reason this show is a big deal is because it’s kinda put on by the whole towns art community. Once the selections have been made they will hang in a selected location that’s part of a huge gallery walk our down town does, it’s pretty exciting. Anyhow so now my studio is empty ish I have 2 pieces older I’m working on and 4 blank panels. Didn’t sell and pieces through the gallery so I’m hoping the show will generate some interest. Any how much love to all. What a crappy day, I’m not ready to share the whole story of my day or the details that led up to this day happening but I will when I’m ready. Simply to say, I have decided to go back to my original neurologist and that’s about all I have to say on that subject. I have pt/OT tomorrow and will be having my ROM test, range of motion. It will help show the insurance company that yes I’m more broken than I would care to be. I’m not sure what’s worse the pain or the medicine head from pain pills. The morning is my time, a time of reflection and thought and on these pills which I only took one instead of two my head is so clouded it makes it hard to think. It’s bad enough my hands shake like leaves in the wind but not to be able to express myself if not good. Part of the reason I didn’t fight harder for pain meds is prior to now I felt it was better to feel pain and feel alive than to feel the cloud of pills. But I have to say I slept for six hrs and that was a very nice thing. Anyhow I need coffee and to clear my head. Much love. Today is PT and OT so I’ll be in and out. Plus I have to do the texturing ahead of time for the demo on Saturday, busy boy. Texture boards are drying, I’m trying desperately not to take my pain pills yet. Pt kinda kicked my ass today. Range of motion tests do basically I push it until it hurts which is a needed evil. But my hips hurt like crazy!!! Today I managed to totally piss off a fellow blogger got “unfollowed” kind of a bitter sweet pill. I hate fake/friends in real life so fuck’m at this level. I mean really I could wake up immobile tomorrow I don’t have time for the drama. But obviously it upset me because I’m writing about it. It was a person I thought was kind to me someone in the blogosphere I kinda looked up too. So ya ouchies a little. But enough of that. Demo show is one day away and I’m nervous for all the right reasons, the awards show/reception for the gallery is on the 5th so yay arty things to do that actually get me out if the house. Woot. Ok people have a great day take care and be safe. 2 hrs of sleep and amazingly I’m feeling ok. Shaky hands legs tight/ stiff and sore. But my heart is light and my mind clear enough, yesterday I had a really hard time with depression because of some things that happened, but one cannot control others, so I will move on. Life is short, sorry I just took my 5 am pills and my brain is fuzzing out. I’m very excited to paint today for my self I need to release some of these feeling. Drama from doctors, drama from WP which is dumb I guess I’m not over what happened. If I didn’t care so much about people then it wouldn’t matter but it does. And I guess I just need to work through it. Never in my life ever have I intentionally tried to hurt someone’s feelings. But I’m human I make mistakes, I have asked for forgiveness and I guess I just need to leave it at that. Anyhow. Today will be a great day because I believe it to be. Until later I bid you adieu. Today I’m so excited. Yesterday was tough I slept on and off all day long, fatigue kicked my ass. After about 8:30 am my pills decided not to work. PD meds can be fickle. Today I’m not takin any crap from my PD even if I feel like hell. It’s been a tough day, work up late in cold sweats and body frozen in time, muscles with their death grip trying to rip my bones in two. Some how my body clock let me sleep past 5 am which is my first pill set, as of 1pm I’ve managed to get back on track but at a cost, sinemet or carbidopa/levadopa in most PWP can cause dyskinesia which is the “wiggles” and since I have such great pain in my joints the dyskinesia kicks my butt because of the motion it causes. Anyhow been doing laundry and playing good boy around the house, tends to keep me out of trouble. Tomorrow is Pt/OT/ speech then after unless I’m spent I’ll go help out the gallery a bit. For know that all I’ve got. Pain level 7-8 so I’m going to lay down for a while. Until later, be kind to each other. B. The morning has found me once again, in a quiet house, with rain and pain my hips are so fucking broken these days. Each step is torturous pain, and I find my depression settling in for a long winters ride. So many things to say yet no time to say them, I feel socially unaccepted as an artists in this town. I sometimes wonder if the art world has lost its passion it’s madness for creation and drive for new things ideas. Sure I’m no pollock or Picasso but I don’t think I suck as a painter? Just full of self doubt these days I want/need so desperately to feel alive yet in every corner I feel like I’ve stumbled in the dark somehow. Anyhow blah blah time for pills so I’ll stop my pity party put my big boy pants on and count my blessings. To all who travel down my journey with me be brave, be bold and love. This again is why I hate pain medicine. I had a very extensive pt session yesterday so by the time the evening rolled around I was a slow shuffling old man, I thought ok after my 8pm PD pills I’ll take my recommended dose of pain meds. Well they worked knocked the daylight right out of me. So since my body can’t usually sleep more than a few hrs at a time here I am awake, in a stupid fog wondering what the hell. But hey my hips don’t hurt…hands are shaky as hell and my left foot is locked in a dystonic spasm, but what ever lol!! Ahh neurological disorders good times, good times….. That is sarcasm….more later when I know what the heck I’m talking about. Peace be with you. 4:06 AM update same day. I know it’s going to be a good day when I have paint on my hands before I have clothes on my body. B. *started a journeys 2 page, was tired of scrolling down to the bottom.. July 24, 2012 at 9:03 PM Thank you for sharing, angst, happiness, questions, daily life….being a Man. August 20, 2012 at 12:42 AM i got lost in your thoughts. you painted vivid pictures and my mind wandered up the cherry tree and i sat there for hours watching the raccoons and you, typing, and painting, and laughing, and daydreaming. i was also thinking about the sun, that it is so powerful and hot, that it causes life to flourish and that we depend on it to live. and yet we do not give it the respect it deserves for all of this. it is not the sun that hurts us, causing skin problems and other, it is us who do not respect the sun, with power enough to sustain life, to cover up or protect ourselves from its power. that is how we humans are. we take so easily, yet when something happens to us, we blame that which has given us life and sustained our existence, that which we cannot live without… your thoughts come from a deep place, and yet you always end them with instructions, almost as if you are suddenly resurfacing and trying to deflect the reader from seeing into the door that for a moment — an unguarded, vulnerable moment — you left open… . you seem kind and caring, like your wife says, someone who wants to help and lift others; how frustrating it must be for you, that you cannot do it for yourself; how powerful and inspiring that you carry on, that you reach out, that you share your hurts and triumphs, your art (which is amazing!) with strangers who may or may not have a clue of what you really are going through. and yet here on this blank web canvas, you let us in, if only to see a small corner of your existence, to maybe learn more and live our lives for each moment; maybe so that we can get to know you before you feel you lose yourself; maybe reaching out so that we may reach up when your arms are unable, in prayer, in hope, in the joy of finding friends here, in the middle of nowhere and yet the centre of everywhere, to connect and see you as the man, the spirit, the soul, Benjamin, the artist, the husband, the father, the dreamer who inspire others to laugh, to give, to live, to love. May you find what you are looking for, not only in life, but within yourself. and may your zen be Higher than your arms can reach. (when we do not have the strength to reach up, He reaches down…) August 20, 2012 at 1:34 AM Thank you very much, for reading and not only reading but having the insight to see. And yes that door opens and closes as I let out the inside but only for a moment as not to flood the world that all I see and feel. I end with a wish more than instructions. If human kind for one moment would let down its guard I think our world would be such a better place. My body can give no more to the world so all I truly have to give is my heart and soul. Thank you for sharing my journey. I hope the universe is kind and giving to you and yours. August 20, 2012 at 1:46 AM yes, the guard, the wall, the art. and yet, as you said, the depth of the art is sometimes in the eye of the beholder…and sometimes the artist (and the poet) only sees the true meaning of their own work through the eyes of the viewer as they themselves are given new insight into themselves. sometimes life needs an instruction manual. i wish you joy and inspiration. and happiness on sad days. and faith in a world that lives as though there is none. sometimes we only see what we want to see. glad i met you, kind sir. raven's witch September 12, 2012 at 1:36 AM i to became entranced by your words,i felt you let us into your world and that you left the door slightly ajar so that we can visit again when you are feeling better. as skymunki said.. glad to meet you kind sir. September 12, 2012 at 6:18 AM It’s my pleasure to share, medicinal if you will, one can only thrive for so long or not with out an outlet and it seems I’ve found one. I’m honored you find my words worth reading.Be well. kelihasablog September 14, 2012 at 2:03 PM I love and appreciate your open-ness. I can relate to many things here. Thanks for visiting my blog. I was whining unfortunately. As hard as I try to stay up, happy, strong and not worried about things for the others around me, I lose it for a few minutes each day. It’s kinda like “drunk dialing” if you know what i mean, it’s one of those things I probably shouldn’t do…. blog during those moments, but some days I just can’t help it. Perhaps a padlock on the laptop might help… I love reading your blog and will try to get back to check on you as often as I can. I’m a cancer patient currently in remission (yea), but take care of my 82 year old stubborn, sometimes difficult mom, whom I adore… and my 97 year old step-dad who still lives at home but has Dementia or Alz which is getting worse. The angry flares of temper he has now are always so unexpected and you never know when it will happen. He also has horrible tremors in his hands (it’s a condition, not due to age). I did buy him one of those cups with the screw on tops and one of those straws that won’t fall out which he loves. It’s a bizarre feeling isn’t it to have your brain telling you something and yet your body seems to have a mind of it’s own, not really connected with your wishes. At least, that’s how I feel (side effects from my cancer meds). I know it’s probably a struggle for you, but I appreciate you fighting the pain and taking the time to write your blog. It’s an eye opener to many I’m sure. Sending Blessings and prayers… September 14, 2012 at 2:11 PM Thank you so much for your kind words and taking the time out of your busy and challenging schedule to be with me for a small moment in time. Yay for remission I pray your a blessed with a cancer free verdict. Very day for me is a challenge and a blessing, some days words can’t encompass others not so bad. I can’t imagine going through cancer and taking care I other people all at the same time, you must be a very strong woman. I wish you the best and always have a ear and heart for you to “whine” to. Be well. kelihasablog September 15, 2012 at 7:36 PM Oh, BTW you are going to kill me, I know you’re busy and it’s hard for you, but if you’re interested and feel like it, I nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award. http://kelihasablog.wordpress.com/ Good luck.. (Don’t feel obligated though) Hope you have a blessed day. September 16, 2012 at 11:38 AM Thank you very much for the nomination. Pingback: I was awarded the One Lovely Blog Award… and I was suppose to nominate 15 others. See if you’re one… LOL « Keli has a Blog September 17, 2012 at 6:04 PM I have just discovered your blog. You have left lovely comments on mine but there were no links and I didn’t try hard enough to find you. But now I am here and the tears are streaming down my face because you are so sweet and kind and thoughtful while going through so much, and I’m just weeping and wailing for lost love, and feeling sorry for myself. I know it makes no sense but I want to tell you I’m sorry for not appreciating what I have and not living my life to the full. And I want to send a virtual hug to you. Stay strong and brave, and thank you. September 17, 2012 at 7:29 PM Thank you for your comments and taking the time to read and view my stuff. I follow your blog and read your posts daily. Nice work. Be well. Benjamin September 20, 2012 at 6:18 PM October 1, 2012 at 2:43 PM Thank you, so much. Tears in eyes. October 5, 2012 at 10:17 AM Tears in my eyes too! Your art work definitely shows your passion; love it! Thank you for this open journal; it is beautiful. October 5, 2012 at 11:33 AM Thank you very much for your kind words. And thank you for suffering through the “journey”, as it is a journal and I often write at 2,3,4 am my time the spelling/punctuation gets a bit messy. I paint, I write, I love to the best of my ability. I hope the world is kind to you. October 18, 2012 at 3:33 PM I hope you are feeling better today. October 30, 2012 at 12:05 PM What a lovely blog you have here. Glad you visited mine, so now I can follow you. I have been studying Parkinson’s and the way it affects peoples lives as part of my degree. Seeing it through the eyes of a sufferer has taught me more than any of the lectures. Hope you have a good day. October 30, 2012 at 12:13 PM Your poetry was very good, and thank you for stopping by. Since your new to my site I’ll give you a quick 1 on 1, yes all the paintings, words an pictures are real unfortunately. YOPD diagnosed at 41 currently 42 I stared this blog to get some of my art out in the world and to vent about the frustrations of being young and having PD, I’ve had a pretty rapid onset so it’s been a wild ride so far. I look forward to reading more of your posts. Have a great day and be well. Sincerely. November 3, 2012 at 11:00 AM Thanks for the peek into your heart. I would be glad if my words inspired your painting November 3, 2012 at 11:24 AM They have. November 3, 2012 at 1:19 PM I totally agree with your thoughts on our muses, it is definitely a different type of love – ‘I find such sanctum in the minds, hearts and souls of others’. That says it all really, that’s a big part of what we do when we write here, otherwise we would write in a journal that nobody ever looked at. It’s not romantic love, it’s about human connection. I guess the only problem is not everyone sees things the same way. I must admit, I often end my comments with the words, ‘Love and peace to you’, and include a heart, and often use endearments like ‘beautiful one’ – and at times I worry this could be misconstrued, but it’s just who I am. I have to trust people realise these words of love are simply that, a gift to a friend. I hope your day got better, sounds a bit scary to wake up like that. Get some rest, eat some good food (maybe some dark chocolate!) Love and peace to you, my friend November 3, 2012 at 1:24 PM Thank you very much, and I feel compelled to let you know I’m deeply honored you chose to follow my blog. In late aug/July I’m cant remember when I started this adventure. Your blog was one of the very first I followed and have been utterly captivated since. Thank you for sharing. November 3, 2012 at 1:32 PM I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to follow, I try to limit the number, because I feel bad if I don’t keep up with comments. But I have often popped in to see how you were. I love your art, and that you are producing such wonderful creations when you are facing such obstacles, and I also can relate to much of your thoughtful writing. I wish you well, November 3, 2012 at 1:46 PM Thank you, I try not to comment on your site to much, mostly because I’m so moved or because I have a great deal of feeling towards what you have written I feel it inappropriate to leave a 5 page comment. Let’s just say in my life for one reason or another almost all of my friends and family have been taken from me. Enough said. I wish you the best in heart and soul. November 3, 2012 at 8:14 PM I’m sorry Ben, about your friends and family, I know the loneliness of this situation. Commenting can be hard, to convey everything you feel, without the benefit of facial expression, tone etc., into just a few words. I always read my comments, and am grateful, but sometimes I am not in the right place to be able to interact back (especially on Herstory). November 3, 2012 at 8:20 PM Thank you no apology required. The life I have is good, sad sometimes but whose isn’t. Enjoy the day. November 10, 2012 at 12:46 PM You have been nominated for a REALITY blog award – see details at http://queencheckmate.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/reality-blog-award/ . Enjoy your award Regards, November 10, 2012 at 12:50 PM November 10, 2012 at 12:53 PM November 11, 2012 at 5:54 PM November 11, 2012 at 6:05 PM Thanks. I feel the damn depression associated with PD creeping back under my skin today.. So horrible I hate it. It’s like a dark fog that just slowly engulfs me and no matter how hard or fast I run the melancholy finds me. Btw thank you for the FB friend it sounds silly but I stop by and look at your photo now and again just to remind me this is all real. Be well. November 11, 2012 at 10:08 PM sorry this is a bit belated with the traveling and such. sorry about the dark fog – I’ve been there. sometimes there’s nothing that can be done but to wait it out. I’m definitely real & I care. hope the fog lifts soon. sending more hugs xo November 11, 2012 at 10:12 PM Thanks your a very kind person. Much appreciated. November 11, 2012 at 11:24 PM don’t know how much use these virtual hugs are but sending another having just read the latest update. must go sleep now. goodnight x November 11, 2012 at 11:36 PM November 12, 2012 at 8:24 AM Thinking and hoping you are feeling well today Benjamin. I have a full day at Uni! I just wanted you ti thank you for your support and visits to my blog. Lovely people like you keep me motivated November 12, 2012 at 11:43 AM Dear Benjamin, I did not get lost in your thoughts, actually I understand them very well because I work with young disabled people, of which some have a summ of several severe conditions. There are no words to describe what you feel, nor your journey, for most of this journey is silent. It is a lot like the journey of all of us around you. What I found out in time is that we must not let ourselves consumed by fear or anger. Let us not worry, let’s just live the moment, love, enjoy, paint, cook, go out, enjoy all the beauty of life. We will find more energy in giving of our energy… This keeps us strong and makes us heal inside a bit more every day… Yes, we find sanctuary in the thoughts and feelings of our friends, even online friends. They are like hands holding our hand in the midst of a storm. Here’s my hand too, feel the energy coming from all of us around you, you are not alone, you will never be alone. A big hug and lots of love to you my friend!!! > < Ela November 12, 2012 at 12:34 PM Thank you Ela, thank you for taking the time to read and be a part of my journey, my life. I reached out to people through this device because I have no support elsewhere. Being an executive for so long and moving every 5-6 years for corporate made it hard to make connections with people and when I finally moved home I found that all of my friends were either dead or gone. And after so many years of disconnection the people I do know in town for the most part are business associates, they don’t know me as a whole human. So thank you. My family try’s to be sympathetic but I think they are more afraid than I am. My PD symptoms have had a very rapid onset it’s almost like its trying to make up for lost time. Anyhow your words and thoughts help me feel complete and for that I can never truly thank you enough. Be well my friend November 12, 2012 at 12:45 PM No need to thank me Benjamin, friends are friends even without much talking. I know that one cannot connect much with people at work(it’s also a big mistalke to show your weaknesses to collegues sometimes…), and I know very well what you mean when you talk about fear and family. But Benjamin, even if they are afraid, they feel so because they desperately love you , for they are the ones loving you the most. I’m here for you too, we are not alone in this journey. All human souls crave for warmth and comprehension and we all need eachother because we are all interconnected and we are all one. I have started my blog also in a moment of extreme solitude and bitterness in my life. I have met many awesome friends. I might not know all their faces, but I know their souls and that is enough for me. It’s the greatest gift life can give us, true friendship is unconditional love. November 12, 2012 at 12:54 PM I agree and thank you, I too believe we are all connected. Again thank you for letting me share my hopes, fears and dreams with you. I find it very rare in life to meet people that understand what it means to accept. I’m losing my words as I just took my AM meds (4:53 am) my time and they fog my head for a bit. Know this you are in my heart. November 12, 2012 at 1:00 PM Oh my God, I had no idea what time is there. Get some sleep Benjamin. There’s plenty of time to talk, share, thing… Here in UK is 14:57, but to be honest time means nothing. Sleep well and never worry, all will be fine. And know that you are in my heart too. Ela November 12, 2012 at 1:04 PM For me this is sleeping in I usually only sleep 3-4 hrs a night as my medication wears off pretty fast. So I’m up for the day, I’ll take a nap later today as the fatigue usually forces me to. I’m currently sitting in the studio contemplating what’s next. November 12, 2012 at 1:09 PM Take your time, contemplate, enjoy. Life is beautiful. November 12, 2012 at 6:40 PM Hey Benjamin – how’s things today? x November 12, 2012 at 6:53 PM Mentally much better, physically not so much, but thanks for asking. It’s the one thing about PD meds I don’t like is they are not predictable some days they are effective some days not so much. I hope you are doing well. Best wishes. November 16, 2012 at 12:18 PM Big hugs. It’s a wonder you don’t have a sweary scary rant more often. There are not really any words. xo November 16, 2012 at 12:21 PM Lol, I try not to swear to much, but I really need to just let go!! I hope you are doing ok these days. B November 16, 2012 at 12:26 PM It’s important you have a safe place to let go I think. I’m doing better. Tomorrow I will be reunited with my love, so I am happier with that to look forward to Without him I fall into darkness all too easily. November 16, 2012 at 12:39 PM I’m glad you have him to give you light in your life. That’s so important. Especially since you bring light to so many others. Be well my friend. November 16, 2012 at 12:42 PM Thank you I am glad too. And you, despite your pain and sadness, bring so much light. Shine on my friend x kelihasablog November 21, 2012 at 4:04 PM Yes, I agree…. It was totally crappy and un-necessary for them to try to exterminate people different from themselves. The Am. Indians are and well the most Spiritual of people… Unfortunately, we were not the only ones who did such… it seems that through history it has gone on in almost every country.. somehow, either by religion, skin color, speech/language, or look. It’s sad, I hope that they have finally learned to not jump the gun and assume ignorance from difference. I admit though, I don’t relate that in my head to Thanksgiving, I tend to concentrate on more of what I’m thankful for…. and of course the food… sweets especially. I could do without the turkey my self… LOL I hope you are able to get some relief soon. You are in my prayers always. You are facing something so difficult with such grace and dignity. You truly are an inspiration to those who know you… November 21, 2012 at 4:14 PM Thank you so much for your words and actually reading that section of my blog, people who don’t , don’t really understand who or what I am so thank you from the bottom of my heart!! And no I don’t dwell to much on the Am. Indian thing and you are very correct all through history in all lands this senseless act of human cruelty has plagued or species. It just makes me sad sometimes in America we take for granted the things we have and how we got them. I hope your home is filled with love and family with holiday as well. November 25, 2012 at 4:37 PM completely agree with you on the thanksgiving thing… this morning i read through this again as yesterday my dumb connection wouldn’t let me. i had been thinking about DBS for other reasons, primarily depression, when it occurred it might help you…then down the line, i found they are doing it in canada and europe but our fda, in it’s infinite wisdom won’t let them here….no big drug com. blah blah… you have written it off as viable given your words but i am wondering if there isn’t some truth and sense to it. we all do what we have to do to get by… if you had a kid who attempted suicide more times than you could count and you knew they’d not make it without something stuck in their heads, would you do it? and if so, why not for yourself? and yes, i am a dreamer…. a depressive one but a dreamer just the same. so there. you be happy today, my sun is shining for the time being, i hope yours is too. November 25, 2012 at 4:51 PM Yes I the way you it I would do anything to save my son. So yes DBS I just get so many different opinions. Overwhelming actually. And dreamer you, yes as we’ll as I. And my light will always shine for you in hopes you are well even on my darkest of days I can not but help that the people I have come in contact with in my life are well. Sorry if I ramble I’ve only had a few hours of sleep in the past few days. Be well my friend November 25, 2012 at 5:03 PM third time is the charm and this time, i came over to your side of the fence. dammit i tried to reply to this and it disappeared making me try and reiterate but i can’t remember what it was i was writing except i believe in karma thus, if something comes across my path, paying attention seems in order. i know what you mean about “friends” who somehow disappear. illness scares human beans. we end up with who really loves us, no? and if this goes i would not be able, so will hit go now instead. but dbs does not seem ludicrous to me, put succinctly and i never mince words anyway-except on my blog, having learned the hard way that to do otherwise can get one in some very “unusual” situations. be happy, i hope for you sunshine today. November 25, 2012 at 5:14 PM Yes illness has a way of separating the weak from the strong of will. And I’m glad you don’t mince words. Life is to short to not speak ones mind the first time. Enjoy the view for me I you will. Be well November 29, 2012 at 4:23 AM i am excited for you and your show! i am glad you are going back to your orig. doc. i had a wise shrink once tell me, after years of multiple inexplicable diseases, mental illness and chronic pain, to stop. decide upon one doc and trust that doc implicitly. there’s always someone with other ideas but i had to hand it over… i do hope for you a break and some meds to help your suffering. be at peace my friend. forgive me for lecturing if i am… sometimes i get emotionally involved but i never make a mistake. November 29, 2012 at 5:01 AM I always welcome your words and wisdom. Thank you very much November 29, 2012 at 2:54 PM medicine head often subsides I hope. take care.. November 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM Thankful it has, it’s the one thing I hate about pain pills. My PD meds do a trick on my head 5 times a day the last thing I want is these damn pills is to take my mornings from me. I hope you are well today. Have you been feeling ok? November 29, 2012 at 3:09 PM November 29, 2012 at 3:17 PM I’m sorry for that. No fun at all. Oh and I keep meaning to mention it but the photo you use for your gravatar thing very good. B. November 29, 2012 at 3:20 PM November 30, 2012 at 12:37 PM I am captivated by your blog. As someone living with a brain tumor (my second, the first they already took out with a craniotomy), I can relate to your feelings in so many ways. I will end up hooked up to machines at the end of my life, and that could be soon or not so soon. I just don’t know. I get lost in your art. It is so beautiful. You have an amazing talent, and I am so glad you share it on here. I will be visiting here every day for inspiration. November 30, 2012 at 12:43 PM Thank you very very much, when I visited you site I was in awe of your strength! You write beautifully. I was going to comment but as you know theirs only so many time you can here oh I’m so sorry or polite words of empathy. But know this you are an amazing human. 4:30 AM pst in my land I was just sitting down to journal a bit. I hope the world gives you the things in your life you need today. And again many thanks. 1EarthUnited December 2, 2012 at 4:46 AM I met a most amazing healer this weekend, she is very warm and vibrant and has a caring spirit. She may be able to help with your PD. Be sure to check out her YouTube vid as well! Best wishes to you and heal up! December 4, 2012 at 5:50 AM benjamin, i am sorry to read that you have slipped into the black… you were having rather a better time of it for a day or so with such a tumultuous week prior with docs, etc. i do hope you feel a bit better tonight but know that platitudes do nothing to chase away the black dog that nips at our heels. i’d like to hear more about your feelings for the art community there, (such as it is) and why you do not feel accepted? your art is astounding and deep and perhaps they are afraid of it thus you. seeing raw emotion put to color can do that, i have found and we both know that is why we paint. keep on keeping on, that is one of the reasons you are here, to express the reality of suffering and being here anyway. December 4, 2012 at 9:50 AM Thank you, as you now the dark days come and go. The art scene here is what I would call tame, their are some very technically talented artists. The kind that can paint barns and flowers and kittens. But ya know. I’m just not feelin it. To me that belongs at the craft fair or farmers market, again not saying its bad art or not painted technically well because it is. I just don’t see any passion or deeper meaning, no driving force, I mean what happened to the passions of Pollock, Miro,Dali,Picasso or jasper johns even. Anyhow ok ranting here. Hi thank you feeling much better now. I hope you are well and not flooding or anything horrible. Be well my friend December 5, 2012 at 12:22 PM 4:18am…no sleep for this wild brain. my pain has kept me motionless , in tears waiting to breathe again, wondering why. I am sorry… the flickering box, the black pelting rain, the losses too big to hold or let go…I’m tired my friend..be at peace, you are a gift. December 5, 2012 at 12:25 PM My thoughts are with you today my friend. I hope you find some peace. December 16, 2012 at 9:38 PM I have nominated your blog for the Very Inspiring Blogger award. The rules are at December 16, 2012 at 9:47 PM Thank you very much!!! December 19, 2012 at 12:33 AM Very inspiring. I love reading stories of others who have a some-sort of similar “problem” like me or someone I know (I guess you can say). Just reading your stories and about your condition makes me ache of sadness but also joy inside. It took me awhile to actually start to think of everything in a more positive way again and continue doing what I’ve loved my entire life. MY Raynaud’s Syndrome will NOT stop me! It may slow me down by quite a bit.. But never will it stop me. I can understand where you’re coming from when someone tells you that you have an incurable disease/ disorder. It’s awesome you still do what you love also! I love your post: ” I know it’s going to be a good day when I have paint on my hands before I have clothes on my body. B.” That made me actually laugh out loud! Haha You seem like an awesome open guy! I hope all goes well for you! Keep strong (as you already seem to be!) And PLEASE keep up the artwork! Your work is beautiful. LikeLiked by 1 person December 19, 2012 at 12:49 AM Likewise, I look forward to your posts and following your journey with you of I may. December 22, 2012 at 1:47 AM Yes, that’d be very sweet December 22, 2012 at 2:16 AM I’m glad your enjoying my journey when you get tired of page one, page two continues. I got tired of scrolling down lol. I hope your feeling well today. December 22, 2012 at 2:57 AM Hahaha! Yeah sometimes I catch myself on peoples’ blogs (like yours!) where I’ve been scrolling for several minutes reading, looking and enjoying myself searching blogs and posts! I felt pretty good today, hopefully you did too and got some good sleep! December 22, 2012 at 2:59 AM Slept great last night. Tonight’s going to be tough though because my pain level is high. Oh well, another day another adventure in living B. December 22, 2012 at 3:04 AM Ahhhhh no! Yeah, no point of really ‘crying’ over it I guess, huh? Haha. Whenever it’s a really cold or windy night, I still get so scared because I wake up 32057 times from being in pain all through-out my body! Buttttt, oh well! Like you said December 22, 2012 at 3:27 AM thanks December 19, 2012 at 7:35 PM December 19, 2012 at 7:39 PM Thank you very much!!! You are actually one who I greatly appreciate your light shines bright even on my darkest of days my friend. Many thanks December 24, 2012 at 4:29 AM Good idea to start another page December 24, 2012 at 4:31 AM Yeah right, way to darn long. I guess that’s the nature of truly journaling though. I hope the day/night has treated you well. Natalya December 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM Thank you for visiting my blog and following me. I was not following your blog either! But now that I’m here I’m glad b/c you write very beautifully about something undeniably painful and challenging. You seem to have a lot of wisdom and take each day with grace and humour. I found myself deeply touched by your words. You’re a gift to this world, not least of all your readers (I hope that isn’t too sappy and overly sentimental). Anyway, hope today finds you well and your able to enjoy New Year’s Eve. December 31, 2012 at 4:40 PM Thank you so much, I found your blog to be inspiring. One thing to know about my blog is I’m often very blunt, so I’ll apologize in advance if I offend. I wish you the best in this coming year and hope to enjoy your words more so in the future. Natalya December 31, 2012 at 4:45 PM LOL, I’m used to bluntness. Blunt isn’t bad, though I’ve met some who are rude more so than blunt. Anyway, no need to apologize. I wish you well for 2013 too. December 31, 2012 at 6:10 PM Oh I’ll never intentionally be rude especially not to you. Some people just find the real world words I use in the journey section a bit forward. But I figure ya know if they don’t really want to know how I’m feeling then they shouldn’t read my journal. Lol Much love and light to you Natalya December 31, 2012 at 6:19 PM January 1, 2013 at 10:18 PM I’ve been reading, really reading, Benjamin. I could say all the things about courage and honesty, all the things about gallantry and resolve that you will have heard hundreds of times. Take it as read. My husband was 54 when he died of cancer after a long fight.. the same age I am now. My son was 25 when his life was, apparently shattered.. even though he has come back stronger and found more joy than he ever had before. I do not pretend to know how it feels. But I can imagine a little. But I’m not writing any of that.. you’ve heard it before. I’m simply saying thank you, for one phrase that jumped out of the page and brought me to tears and a smile. “Hug someone, love someone and most of all let someone love you.” In Light, January 1, 2013 at 10:21 PM Thank you, pretty good words to live by I feel. Hope your day is lovely. January 1, 2013 at 10:27 PM January 9, 2013 at 8:07 AM You have been nominated for the ‘Beautiful Blogger Award’.. a bit of fun and appreciation from a fellow blogger http://scvincent.com/awards/ January 9, 2013 at 8:38 AM Thank you very much I’m flattered. February 13, 2013 at 12:44 AM Benjamin your story and insight into PD is amazing . I love your analogy to swimming in cold water. For perhaps the first time in my medical years , I am able to truly understand what the patient is going through. I am not sure as to how long it takes you to write these blogs and if your tremor does effect your writing but always know your efforts are not wasted! I feel humbled stumbling upon your blog and delight as well as you give me a new perspective on the world of PD . With your permission I will observe and follow your journey ! Good luck and keep up the positive energy flow ! Natasha February 13, 2013 at 4:14 AM Natasha, I’m honored you would join me on this journey, yes some time when I write these posts or reply I have to re type many times because my fingers hit the wrong keys but that’s the way it is. To give you am idea of what it is like I finally thought of a way to explain the tremor to people only yesterday. Those small machines the size of a tennis ball, people use to give massage the one that vibrate..? Put one in your hand and then try to button a shirt or make coffee lol that’s what living with tremor is like. Again I am soo please you decided to join me on this journey it makes my heat happy. February 21, 2013 at 5:04 PM Checking up on you, are you okay? you haven’t been around much today. February 21, 2013 at 5:42 PM Who meeeee lol I went to PT and then I’ve been in the studio, much to my surprise for a long time :-0 how are you? I came up because I’m starving February 21, 2013 at 6:03 PM ahahaha! well you better eat something then and not paint! February 21, 2013 at 6:46 PM Not eat paint, what? I eat paint all the time…sadly I do I come up from the studio and I’ll have these tiny little lines on my lips from licking the brush. Lol. Sometimes you just need a little bit more wet on the brush. PD doc glared at me when I told her that story February 21, 2013 at 6:47 PM Oh man why doesn’t that surprise me?! First your clothes now your mouth and lips. Soon you’ll be the art… February 21, 2013 at 6:55 PM That might be cool, kinda like one of those fancy Japanese restaurants where you eat food from a human table…. I’ve actually done that and it’s not that cool. Kinda weird I kept on wanting to poke her with my chop sticks and make her giggle bit apparently that’s in acceptable. Sheesh. No fun February 21, 2013 at 7:16 PM some people are no fun! lol February 21, 2013 at 8:05 PM I know right February 21, 2013 at 8:06 PM maybe they haven’t eaten enough paint… February 21, 2013 at 8:10 PM I think thats it! Paint for eveyone hazah!! February 21, 2013 at 8:14 PM i’n so smert! March 4, 2013 at 9:01 AM I can’t begin to tell you how much you inspire me. I look forward to all your future posts and hope the very best for you and your family. Thank you for being such a positive influence in my life. –Renee March 4, 2013 at 10:12 AM Thank you for your kind words, I truly appreciate them. May 5, 2013 at 5:06 PM Hello friend! Yes, it’s ‘that’ time. I’m just following and passing along: You have been nominated for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award.” Please view my page to accept and take part in this fun award. hugs* May 5, 2013 at 5:10 PM Thank you kindly, do take care of you. March 24, 2014 at 9:52 PM My mother has Parkinson’s. March 25, 2014 at 2:36 AM I’m sorry to hear that. Best wishes to you and your family March 25, 2014 at 11:00 AM Thank you. She’s doing reasonably well (thanks to advances in treatment) but it’s definitely changed things. March 25, 2014 at 2:03 PM Yes unfortunately it does that, the Americas doesn’t have the greatest of PD care, but it’s getting there. I’m hoping to get a referral to join a uk trail as their treatments seem far more advanced than mine. April 2, 2014 at 9:45 AM Congratulations! I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Please accept and pass It forward. Visit the page below for the details! April 7, 2014 at 9:53 AM I’m deeply Touched by your Journey. I found your site through S.J.’s Blog. Your piece on “Thoughts Of Her” Touched me in more ways than one. I’m looking forward to reading your art and viewing your beautiful paintings. Your New Friend, and Follower, April 7, 2014 at 11:25 AM Thank you, it’s an honor and pleasure to have you here on this journey with me I’ll look forward to seeing you again. April 7, 2014 at 11:49 AM December 23, 2015 at 7:34 PM I am honored to know you, here. I will pray for every person that you need in my life to be there. Hugs and have a wonderful holiday my friend, Barbara LikeLiked by 1 person December 23, 2015 at 8:42 PM Thank you. Kindness i hope is the onething we can all share. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Always. LikeLiked by 1 person December 23, 2015 at 9:14 PM May you strengthen and may the Divine hold you this season. Hugs, Barbara LikeLiked by 1 person June 11, 2016 at 10:29 AM I’m sorry you were diagnosed with PD. My cousin has that as well..I’ve been to neurologist after neurologist for years and they can’t figure out why I lost my ability to walk over time. I think neuros are pretty much useless anyway. But anyway, stay strong, and thanks for reading my attempt at poetry lol. LikeLiked by 1 person June 11, 2016 at 12:31 PM Thank you for stopping in and taking rhe time to comment August 19, 2016 at 8:08 AM Fine posts and painting, nice blog … Congratulations Welcome to see my artist creations: Leave a Reply Cancel reply Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Modern (2,215) poet (303) pollock (2,093) self-care (464) writer (306) All Donations go towards pills and paint Recent Posts Watch “We See It Too Late – Robin Williams On The Fragile Meaning Of Life” I think it’s time for me to go away too July 27, 2022 I did it. DBS surgery completed. April 30, 2022 2days and counting. April 15, 2022 4-15/4-24 OHSU DBS surgery March 29, 2022 One month and counting March 4, 2022 Register Log in Comments feed Archives Select Month August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 February 2012 Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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When shopping for furniture with the planet and your health in mind, weigh your priorities. Are you chemically sensitive? If so, among other concerns, you’ll need to find furniture with fewer bonding... Read more Getting Great Green Results from a Cabinet Shop September 04, 2009 Furniture While the conventional furniture market is dominated by large manufacturers selling nationwide, most green furniture is made in small, local workshops. That fits well with the green ethos, but how... Read more	514
Vanessa is a second-generation Teochew (Diê Zui) immigrant with Chinese and Vietnamese roots. She holds an MES degree in urban planning, her research exploring shifting place meanings and food security impacts within the gentrifying urban core of Kitchener, Ontario. Vanessa is sensitive and introverted, always reflecting on how to deepen the efforts of Littlefoot Community Projects. In her work, she emphasizes cultural preservation, memory, placemaking, and spiritual/deep ecologies. Her personal interests include trying new beers, writing secret haikus, ukulele-ing, crafts, yoga, and naps. Recently, Vanessa joined the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region Advisory Council to support the development of a food strategy for Waterloo Region. Cofounder, Chair, Treasurer Dan is a passionate gardener and environmentalist living with Vanessa and his German Shepherd Maddalyn in Kitchener. Having recently left his job as a Supply Chain Manager for a manufacturing company in Simcoe ON, Dan is excited to work locally while having more time to focus on Littlefoot. With a background in Environmental Science/Biology and community garden management, Dan keeps Littlefoot grounded in principles of ecological sustainability and regenerative gardening techniques. He also operates his own small-business, Woodside Landscapes and Renovations. Outside of work, Dan enjoys training for triathlons, climbing, camping, and taking long walks with Maddalyn. Board Member Sophie sits on our Board of Directors Maddy is our loyal companion Please consider donating to our ongoing GoFundMe campaign to support food security work in Kitchener-Waterloo	1,683
Founded in 1936, PHANYC is one of the oldest and largest affiliates of the American Public Health Association. Since then, PHANYC has been a catalyst – informing and educating about public health issues and a more responsive and equitable health care system, and influencing public health policy. Today, its membership includes individuals and organizations involved in the diverse field of public health. Its members are public health leaders, health care providers, health administrators, researchers, scientists, professors, students and activists. We have a diverse team of people who are actively involved with PHANYC. Dr. Nina Rothschild, DrPH, MPH, MA: PHANYC President, is a City Research Scientist III at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Currently, she works in emergency preparedness and in health and safety coordination in the Division of Disease Control. Previously, she worked in HIV/AIDS community planning; in HIV prevention; and in the Bureau of Maternal, Infant, and Reproductive Health. Before becoming President of PHANYC, she served as the co-chair of PHANYC’s Policy Committee. She is also a member of the Alumni Board of Directors of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she serves on the Executive Committee and is the Board Secretary, Chair of the Governance Committee, and an editorial board member. Nina graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa after her junior year and also holds an MA in English Literature from Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, an MPH from the Department of Sociomedical Sciences and a DrPH from the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia’s School of Public Health. She absolutely loves animals and worries a great deal about the impact of climate change, especially on polar bears, and is also an enthusiastic traveler and collector of arts and crafts from all over the world. Dr. Steven Auerbach, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a New York native, graduated from Columbia University’s medical school and school of public health (1982-86). He completed his pediatrics residency at the University of California at Los Angeles (1986-89). Since 1989, he has been a medical epidemiologist for the US. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS). As a career commissioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), he launched his career as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (1989-91). At the CDC, he worked first the nosocomial hospital infections group, and then, the environmental health group including leading the first investigation of GHB as a recreational and “date” rape drug. Then he seconded overseas as territorial epidemiologist to the Federated States of Micronesia (1991-94) where among other activities he led surveillance/control and the mass vaccination campaign during measles outbreaks, and the first island wide adult health screening which became a cohort study of the genetics of obesity and diabetes. In recent years with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Region 2 Office (1994-present), Steve has served in a variety of capacities related to community health and increasing access healthcare to for the medically under-served and vulnerable in New York. In addition to his routine HHS agency work, as a PHS officer he has led teams during two emergency deployments — after typhoon Omar in Guam and after hurricane Katrina in Louisiana; and he served at Ground Zero for the first three weeks after 9-11. Currently he is assigned as a medical epidemiologist with the Applied Public Health Team for federal emergency deployments. Outside of his PHS/HHS work, Dr. Auerbach has had an appointment as a guest investigator at the Rockefeller University. He has served, on the board of directors of the Public Health Association of NYC (PHANYC) and of Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro Chapter (PNHP), and on the residency advisory committee of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Preventive Medicine Residency program. He is a co-author on approximately 30 peer-reviewed publications. He and his wife, Dr. Karen Becker — a family physician and associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center Department of Family and Social Medicine — live in Manhattan with their two children. Ms. Alison Braid spent 15 years in project and operational management in the localization industry prior to transitioning into the public health sector. She is in her last term of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at the University of New England, expecting to graduate in the summer of 2017 as an inductee to the Delta Omega Gamma Chi chapter. Since 2016, Alison has taken on the role of President of the University of New England American Public Health Association (APHA) Student Assembly, revitalizing and rebuilding the organization through interactive webinar discussions. Additionally, she oversees and runs the social media campaigns for the Public Health Association of New York City and serves as both the NYC affiliate representative to the APHA Governing Council and the Region II Representative (overseeing New York, New York City, New Jersey, Puerto Rico) to the APHA Council of Affiliates. Furthermore, Alison had the opportunity to attend the 2016 APHA Annual Meeting in Denver through receiving the 2016 Leadership Challenge APHA Scholarship. As of spring 2017, she was voted onto the Board of the Public Health Association of New York City and accepted a fellowship with Organizing for Action with plans to develop advocacy efforts in defense of the Affordable Care Act and public health funding. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonbraid Ms. Lauren Broussard, is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Her professional experience focused on racial disparities in the domestic HIV epidemic. She plans to pursue this work in the doctoral program. Lauren served as a project officer and policy and program specialist with the US Department of Health and Human Services and as a research associate at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention. Lauren’s research interests focus on the impact of structural forms of gender and race-based discrimination upon sexual and reproductive health outcomes among women of color. She is interested in increasing utilization of quantitative research methods to explore these issues from a societal or population level perspective. Ms. Moria Byrne-Zaaloff, MPH, MFA, is a School Program Coordinator in the Bronx Health TEACH/Institute for Family Health where she promotes nutrition education, physical activity and physical education by providing technical assistance and supporting wellness policy development in Bronx schools. Prior to working for the Institute, Moria interned at the NYU Office of Health Promotion and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit while studying for a Master’s in Public Health/Global Health Leadership at NYU’s College of Global Public Health. At the Health Department, Moria helped recruit, promote, and co-facilitate user testing focus groups of a sexual health app and produced a focus group summary report for the Department and its partner in the initiative, Planned Parenthood. Through a partnership with NYU’s College of Global Public Health and NYU’s Department of Population Health and Koc University in Istanbul, Moria also had the opportunity to spend a year conducting research on the impact of a Twitter-based intervention for smoking cessation. Prior to working in public health, Moria spent almost a decade promoting non-profits, health care companies, and other businesses through building successful strategic communications campaigns that drive more traffic to their websites, increasing earned media coverage and raising brand visibility. Moria served as a community organizer for a lobbying agency run by former Representative Jeannette Mott Oxford, working to combat the impact of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) on the health and welfare of low-income people. She also worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years where she coordinated several public health interventions including a Dengue Awareness Drama Camp, fundraising workshops, and a Sex Education Through Testing project. Following her service in the Philippines, Moria returned to her roots in nonprofit work serving the public 2 \| P a g e good and enrolled in CGPH’s Master in Public Health program. While completing her degree, she worked as a Web Specialist in the Department of Communications, Promotions, and Public Affairs at NYU’s College of Global Public Health. Previously, Moria received a Master in Fine Arts, Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore and a Bachelor of Arts from Loyola University Maryland. Moria has put her educational and employment experiences to good use on behalf of PHANYC, founding and serving as Editor of the PHANYC online newsletter, Public Health Voices. LinkedIn link: linkedin.com/moriabyrnezaaloff Kavitha Das, BDS, MPH, MS, is the Policy Committee Co- Chair of the Public Health Association of New York City. She is a Prosthodontist trained from Columbia University College of Dentistry, NY. Dr. Das, also has a master’s in public health and international health. She has experience in a wide range of clinical procedures and has work experience in developing countries and in the United States. She is currently working as a Senior Scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Her research interests include access to care in low resource settings, curriculum development, oral-systemic connections, geriatric oral health and establishing standards of care in dentistry. She is actively involved in various public health and public policy related projects. She has worked at Columbia University and New York University College of Dental Medicine where she worked on projects that related to oral cancer in the South Asian population, the oral health needs of the home bound elderly, training of allied health professionals to monitor oral health of nursing home bound elders, establishing standards of care and geriatric oral health. Additionally, she has experience in the field of international HIV/AIDS research and management at CIRA (Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS) at Yale University School of Public Health. She is an advisor to the NGO Asia Initiatives and was instrumental in setting up the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Women’s Empowerment Award. She is also actively involved with Lend a Hand India, an NGO that is involved with vocational training for high school children. LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kavithapdas Dr. Debra Jackson, RN, MPH, DSc, is a New York based Senior Health Specialist with UNICEF. She joined the Health Section of the UNICEF Knowledge Management and Implementation Research Unit as a Senior Health Scientist in 2013, leaving the SOPH where she had worked for 13 years. While at the School, she served as principal investigator for a range of research projects, such as the multi-country PROMISE-EBF trial on promoting exclusive breastfeeding, and the National South African PMTCT Evaluation. Debra has qualifications in nursing, public health, epidemiology and biostatistics. Her interests are maternal and child health, perinatal health, nutrition, ethics and health systems research. Her most recent research focus has been on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, infant feeding and community health workers. Debra lived in South Africa for 14 years and has experience in several African countries, including South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Malawi, South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda. She has also worked in the Pacific Islands and the United States. Debra is active in several professional organisations, and in particular has held leadership positions within the American Public Health Association (APHA), including chair of the Maternal and Child Health Section, Governing Councilor, chair of the APHA Nominating Committee, member of the Intersectional Council Steering Committee and the APHA Awards Committee. Debra has over 60 peer-reviewed publications and has consulted for both WHO and UNICEF in the areas of PMTCT and iCCM. Lovelyne Julien, MPA,MPH, is a recent MPH graduate from NYU College of Global Public Health, but also holds a MPA degree from Long Island University (LIU). She is the Policy Committee Co- Facilitator for PHANYC. While at NYU, Lovelyne and her classmates conducted a rapid scan of stroke management in Ghana. It was a qualitative study to assess the resources available for stroke prevention, treatment, and recovery in Ghana. In October of 2016, Ms. Julien had the opportunity to travel to Les Cayes, Haiti to assist in post Hurricane Matthew relief to the community of Fonfrede. During her time there she helped create survival kits that addressed the basic needs of the community. While there she also conducted a workshop for staff development training on interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, and leadership in Creole. She currently works for 1199SEIU Training and Employment Fund as a Recruiter’s Assistant. She enjoys helping laid-off members and job seekers find employment in hospitals and nursing homes. Lovelyne is one of the editors for the Public Health Association of NYC (PHANYC), drafting articles on important health topics for their newsletter. Lovelyne recently obtained a certificate from the University of Rochester in Health Care Management in Public Health, Palliative Care, and Long Term Care. While in the certificate program she conducted a literature review to identify questions and possible design issues in medical aid in dying legislation. Her topics of interest are preventative care in terms of reducing non-communicable diseases, health disparities, and social determinants of health. Her future goal is to eventually apply for PhD or DrPH programs in Behavioral and Social Health. Shamima Khan, MBA, PhD, is a faculty member at Western New England University (WNE) in Springfield, MA. She is also the President of CRE Services, Inc., located in New York City, NY. She is passionate about various public health initiatives, and her research focuses on various public health outcomes, health policy and health care reform. Her scholarly work has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. Via CRE Services, Inc., Dr. Khan also provides consulting, research and educational services to for-profit and non-profit organizations. She received her B.S., MBA and PhD degrees from The University of Louisiana at Monroe. She was a Post-Doctoral Associate at The University of Vermont, College of Medicine. Mr. James C. O’Neal is an independent consultant on older adult issues. He began his community healthcare career with Oxford Health Plans, and assisted in establishing VNS CHOICE Managed Long-Term Care Plan at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York in 1998 where he worked for over 13 years. James was Director of Community Outreach at CenterLight Health Care (Beth Abraham) for 4 years until he retired in January 2015. He continues to promote healthcare education and community social services in ethnic and immigrant communities in New York City. Mr. O’Neal is a Past President (2003) and current Board Member of the State Society on Aging of New York (SSA). He is a Board Member of Neighborhood SHOPP (senior centers and services), the Washington Heights/Inwood Interagency Council on Aging, the Public Health Association of New York City, and is President of the Bronx Interagency Council on Aging (BRICA). For over 10 years, James served as co-Chair of the Adult Immunization Coalition of the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene of New York City, and was on the Advisory Board of the HUD sponsored “Healthy Homes, Health Seniors” Community Study conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Earlier this year, he was appointed a Member of Governor Cuomo’s Advisory Committee for the Aging for a term to expire July 5, 2018.James has been honored by the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York City (now named LiveOn NY) with its Community Leadership Award, in addition to several other community service awards including: Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, the Chinese American Planning Council-Nan Shan Senior Center, the United Hindu Cultural Council of North America Award for Outstanding Community Service in Queens, India Home’s Friendship Award, and Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults (JSPOA) Community Service Award. In October 2014, Mr. O’Neal was the recipient of the Advocate for Older Adults Award from SSA. In October 2016, he was presented the Walter Beattie Award for outstanding contributions and commitment to the work of the State Society on Aging of New York. James O’Neal is a BA graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, and earned his MA from New York University in New York City. Ms. Sudha Sarode, MSPH, is an Education Program Manager at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America based in NYC, where she manages education programming for healthcare providers. She has had experience in the federal, state, local, and nonprofit levels of public health. Sudha also served on the Executive Board of the New Jersey Public Health Association and was selected as an Emerging Leader for the Behavioral Health Leadership Development Program sponsored by SAMHSA. She is passionate about systems change and maternal and child health. Sudha received her Master of Science in Public Health degree with a concentration in Healthy Policy in 2012 from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University. Her hobbies include yoga, reading, and spending time with friends/family. Ms. Robin Vitale, BA, MA, is the Vice President, Health Strategies, NYC for the American Heart Association. She is the PHANYC Policy Committee Co- Chair and the Treasurer.	18,781
Friday, Dec. 28th: Today we went into Boston to take John to the Children's Museum. It was fun, and for the most part John had a good time. The problem with going to these places in Boston, however, is that they're always crowded, and going during a holiday week was no exception. So dealing with that wasn't so fun. Also, the Museum was nice but a little disappointing. It had no planetarium or solar system things (which is what John really loves) and no live animals except for some turtles and fish. The children's museum in West Hartford has all of those things and I think we all kind of preferred Hartford's children's museum to Boston's, which is kind of a surprise. Next time we're in Boston we'll go to the Science Museum, which has a really neat planetarium, and we'll try to go during an off-peak time. Playing with bubbles. His favorite thing was playing in this Indian dug-out canoe. (That's my mother in the background over John's shoulder.) "I wanna steer the boat too!" In the evening, Peter and I got to go out on our own. We went out to dinner to a great seafood restaurant in Framingham, where the lobster bisque actually had chunks of lobster in it. You don't find that very often. The food was delicious. (We ate so much great food this holiday week!) After dinner we went to the movies and saw National Treasure 2, the sequel to one of my favorite movies. Although the first one was better, it was very good and anyone who likes American history will enjoy the movie. Saturday, Dec. 29th: In the morning I went to Salon Entre Nous in Southborough where my sister Elizabeth works and I got a facial and I also had my eyebrows shaped and waxed, which I'd never had done before. It was really nice and my eyebrows have never looked better. Thank you for the gift certificates and discount, Elizabeth! For most of the rest of the day, we were in Rhode Island doing Christmas dinner and gifts with Peter's family--his parents, his brother Paul and his wife (Jean) and son (Andrew), and his brother James and his wife (Stephanie) and daughter (Arielle). We had yet another delicious dinner and then took a few hours to open presents. I'm not joking. Peter's mother always buys tons of presents for everyone and you practically need a U-Haul to get it all home! Fortunately we brought two cars, so we were able to fit everything in. We needed two cars anyway so that I could return home to Mass. with John after presents were done and Peter could stay and watch the big Patriots game with his family on James' huge HDTV. (The Patriots won, by the way, and made history by winning all of their games this season. Even though I'm not a big football fan, I was happy about it. Go Pats!) With Grandma Thienel (Peter's mother). Bouncing on a present. Peter is laying down on the recliner underneath. Funny! Sunday, Dec. 30th: Today we didn't wake up in time to go to church with my mother since we were all up pretty late last night. I was a little disappointed because it's always fun to see old friends from the past at church, but oh well. We went and visited my grandmother, who lives right here in Hopkinton. I finally gave her a framed picture and her own photo album of our wedding pictures. (It only took me five-and-a-half years to do that!) It was nice to see her again. The highlight of my day in terms of humor was watching a cheesy 1980's video about the Cayman Islands that my mother had checked out from the library since we're going there on vacation in the spring. The video was so contrived, and the swimsuits, fashions, and hairstyles of the 80's always make me laugh. Ha ha! For dinner, we had my mother's delicious beef enchiladas (we REALLY ate well this week!). We decided to return home to Connecticut after dinner instead of on Monday morning as previously planned because of the snow and also because Peter had some business that he needed to take care of on Monday morning. Home sweet home! Monday, Dec. 31st: This has been a mostly boring day at home, just getting unpacked and back into the swing of things. The most "interesting" thing to report about today was that we took our Christmas tree down. We meant to do that before we left for Massachusetts but we didn't have time. I have never seen such a dead Christmas tree. There were pine needles galore all over the floor and it took awhile to take down all of the ornaments and lights, get the tree out of the stand and out the door, and then sweep and vacuum everything up. It's kind of a relief now to have it gone--no more pine needles and the biggest thing to take care of post-Christmas is done. It's hard to believe that one week ago at this time it was Christmas Eve and the tree was all lit up in its glory and beauty with presents nestled underneath. Now it's stripped bare and lying out in the cold woods. Kind of a depressing thought! Anyway, I'm spending a lot of time talking about the tree so I'll stop now. Tonight (New Year's Eve) we're not doing anything very exciting, nor are we tomorrow. So that is why my diary of our holiday week will end now, because I don't want to bore you to tears. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year will be a very good one for you. Happy New Year! P.S. The pictures are now posted below on "Part 1" of our holiday week. Posted by Donna at 6:44 PM Friday, December 28, 2007 Diary of our Holiday Week, Part 1 of 2 Monday, Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve. Tonight we maintained traditions by reading the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures and then we each opened one present, which made John realize that there were actual things in those presents and upped the excitement factor for him. After he went to bed, Peter and I enjoyed a savory candlelit dinner made by him, which we've done every year on Christmas Eve since we got married. We had a perfectly cooked rib roast, fluffy mashed potatoes, and green beans almondine, with sparkling apple cider to drink and hot apple pie with French Vanilla ice cream for dessert. I was stuffed, but the food was so delicious. It was a peaceful, relaxing evening. Tuesday, Dec. 25th, Christmas. We spent a quiet day at home, just the three of us. Opening presents was fun. John liked his gifts and spent the day busy with his new things. His favorite presents were a planets book and a little $1 stocking stuffer dog toy that does flips after being wound up. It's funny how kids like the simple things most of all. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast that really filled us up, so we had the rest of the breakfast we had planned for dinner instead--French Toast, sausages, and O.J. I had fun reading and resting as much as I possibly could all day. John with his new car ramp toy. Me, John, and his new planets book. Peter Rabbit! This is an impressive 3-D pop-up version. John's biggest gift was a trampoline. Astonished by the cool little wind-up doggy toy. We are a family of bookworms. Wednesday, Dec. 26th: This was a busy day of road trips to visit members of Peter's family. First we went to Grandma Bean's house in eastern Connecticut. She is Peter's paternal grandmother, and she's a lovely, gracious, 100% Finnish woman who is gentle and kind and always helps me to learn something new about Finnish culture when we spend time with her. As she always does when we visit, she fed us a delicious lunch before we had to leave. After that we drove to Peter's maternal grandparents' house in N. Scituate, Rhode Island (Peter's hometown) and visited with them for a little while. I enjoyed talking about family history with Grandma Cost (her direct line of ancestors came over on the Mayflower), and Grandpa Cost was successful in convincing me that I really should get a Costco membership. Next, we drove to Warwick to see Peter's sister Ruth and her family, who we hadn't seen in two years! Her husband is Chris and they have four beautiful, outgoing, well-behaved children who range in age from 3 to 10. For dinner, Chris cooked the most delicious chicken parmigiana I've ever had. We had a great time over there and are looking forward to seeing them again soon. Thursday, Dec. 27th: Today we left for Massachusetts, where we're spending the next few days. In the evening we took my family out to dinner at a terrific restaurant in Foxboro called "The Stone Forge." We were only about a mile down the road from Gillette Stadium, where Peter's beloved New England Patriots play their home games. (That's as close as you're getting to the Pats this year, Peter!). It was a really fun dinner, made even better for me by the fact that John slept for three hours in the car in the afternoon so he was well-rested and in a good mood. Plus I didn't have to feed him or change him or anything because he had two great aunts who wanted to do all of that. Good deal! It was me, Peter, John, my parents, Jennifer and Elizabeth (my sisters), Ben and Nathan (my brothers), my niece Hayley, and Elizabeth's boyfriend, Jay. The only person who couldn't make it was Adam (Jennifer's hubby) because he had to work. The food was sooo dee-lish, our waiter was really funny, and we had a nice long table right in front of the fire. It was a great time had by all! Guess who the center of attention was? Elizabeth, John, Jennifer, and Hayley. Me, Nathan, Ben, and Jay (my two brothers and Elizabeth's boyfriend). Smooching Hayley (whose beautiful face is always covered by her beautiful hair in these pictures!) Posted by Donna at 5:01 PM Saturday, December 22, 2007 It was different from what I thought it would be. The pictures of it always show a person with a row of black oval stones going up the length of their back, so I thought it would be mostly that with the masseuse doing some massaging around them. It turned out to be a full-body massage with the masseuse using these hot smooth stones to do the massaging work. It was incredibly relaxing. When she was working on my back I dozed off and I was nearly drooling. This method of massage is supposed to be particularly good at releasing toxins from the body. I think it does, because I've felt so good today. My body feels rejuvenated and very healthy, and the aches and pains that I never knew I had are gone. I've had other types of massage before--Swedish, prenatal, and deep-tissue--and hot stone is now my favorite. I highly recommend it, and I can't wait to get another one. It's a wonderful form of preventative healthcare and stress-relief! Posted by Donna at 7:32 PM Thursday, December 20, 2007 John's most recent obsession (besides memorizing the lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas") is the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. He has four different versions of it and he loves looking through all of them. I've read the story to him so many times that I can recite most of it from memory, which John can do now too. I don't know what exactly it is about this story that is so captivating. A disobedient young rabbit goes into a garden and almost gets killed by the gardener, narrowly escaping and then going to bed without dinner. Why is that so timeless and why do children love it so? I wish John could tell me, because I know I must be missing something. The illustrations are darling, anyway, and Beatrix Potter has a charming writing style. At the library this week I found a 1/2-hour video of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny. I checked it out to see what John would think of it. He was completely delighted and fascinated by it, more so than probably any other thing he's ever watched. It was fun to see him absorb the story and the pictures coming to life right in front of him. Because he likes it so much, I'm going to have to check this video out every week, which is going to get old fast. So I'll probably end up buying our own copy on the Internet. The things mothers do for the children they love! I know this is a phase and quite probably in a few weeks John will have moved on to a new preoccupation. Then I might even start to miss that mischievous little rabbit a bit! Posted by Donna at 3:31 PM Sunday, December 16, 2007 Two weeks ago, on December 1st, we got our Christmas tree. It was a cold, brutally windy day, so we didn't take our time and just chose one that was the right size and looked good. As it has turned out, the tree is very pretty and it's just the right size for our living room. The problem is, unbeknownst to us at the time due to our hastiness, it was kind of dead down on the bottom, and it's even more so now. It's been dropping so many pine needles that it's driving neat-freaky me crazy. They're getting all over the place on our main floor. I know this is one of the reasons some people don't bother with getting a real tree, but I still wouldn't trade it for an artificial tree. Real trees are the best, pesky pine needles and all! Our tree must not be very thirsty. (Oh yeah, that's because it's dying). It's not "drinking" the water in its stand very quickly anymore, and though its loveliness and nice scent remain, I fear that our wooded friend's days are numbered. I guess they were numbered before it got lopped out of the ground, and that it's only a matter of time for every real Christmas tree since they are no longer growing from the earth. Last year we had a nearly perfect tree; it lasted for over a month and only started dropping a lot of needles after Christmas. This year's tree will make it to Christmas, but I don't know about New Year's. It might only have a few needles left by then. Oh well. It looks nice (so far) and we like it (but not the mess it makes). John likes playing with the ornaments on it and has only broken two so far. In other exciting holiday news, I have about 95% of my shopping done, and 0% of the wrapping done. John and Peter are going to LOVE their presents and I'm looking forward to Christmas morning when we open them all. Although I don't think I'm going to have many to open. Peter has been working the hours of a madman and I don't think he's gotten me anything yet. I know I'm not getting the watch I wanted--it's completely sold out (thanks, Oprah!). I was late in designing and ordering our Christmas cards this year, and I hope they'll arrive in the next day or two so that I can get them in the mail and have them arrive before Christmas. We've been having a lot of snowy, stormy weather, and I think there's a pretty good chance of finally having a classic white Christmas this year! Here are some other festive pictures: Attack of the Christmas Tree! Christy, decked out in her holiday finery. The decorated dining room. It was a total mess before I cleaned it the evening that I took this picture, and I was so happy to have it nice and neat that I took a picture of it. Yeah, I know. I get excited by small, mundane things. Here's a neat close-up picture of the tree all lit up at night. And, as a final treat, here's Peter wearing a velvet outfit, striped tights, and a cute little hat. You don't want to miss this! Posted by Donna at 9:13 PM Monday, December 10, 2007 A Bit of Broadway in Hartford One of the things I miss about living in New Jersey is how easy and quick it was to get into New York City. I really enjoyed going to see different Broadway musicals there. My favorite was Fiddler on the Roof, which I saw three or four times when Alfred Molina was starring as Tevye (he was Doc Ock in Spiderman 2). I will always love the songs and story of Fiddler. The last time I went to a show was in December 2004, when I was seven months pregnant with John. Little Women was opening, and I went to a preview showing of it. Sutton Foster was starring as Jo March, and she had recently won a Tony Award for her starring role in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Peter didn't want to go with me (I don't know why! It was Little Women for Pete's sake!), so I went by myself (I guess John was there too, enjoying it from the warmth and comfort of my belly). I thought the show was very good, but it didn't last very long on Broadway. Peter might say the reason for that is because it was Little Women. So anyway, I've been a bit starved for the culture of the stage for the past three years, but that came to an end last Saturday night. Wicked was on tour in Hartford, and we went. It was awesome! I had heard such good things about it, and it lived up to the hype. The "untold story" about the witches of Oz was very creative and clever. The music and the acting were of the best quality, and the dialogue and story had a lot of funny wit while at the same time being kind of inspirational in an unsappy sort of way. There were some really cool special effects too, particularly when Elphaba (a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West) flew up into the sky. I couldn't figure out how they did that! (Still can't!) The only drawback for me was that I was so exhausted. The night before I got less than five hours of sleep and then I had a really busy day on Saturday. So during one or two of the slower songs I leaned my head on Peter's shoulder and rested my poor tired eyes. Other than that, I was captivated and loved it. I'm interested in reading the book, but I've heard that it's actually pretty dry and lacks the humor that the musical has. So maybe I'll just let the musical be enough, at least for for now, since my "Books to Read" list is already long enough. I really recommend Wicked to anyone going to New York who wants to see a great show! Posted by Donna at 10:31 PM Thursday, December 6, 2007 Today my man Mitt gave his anticipated "Faith in America" speech about religion. I wasn't home this morning so I wasn't able to watch it, but I've seen parts of it on the news today and it looks like it was very good. Here's something else really interesting: Romney having a heated discussion with a radio DJ off-the-air a few months ago in Iowa in which he is very passionate and clear about the Mormon Church and how it does and does not affect him and the political sphere. There is absolutely no disingenuosness here...he's being completely upfront and honest. Go to 10 mins. 30 secs. to see the really good off-air stuff. Posted by Donna at 2:59 PM Wednesday, December 5, 2007 Old Man Winter: the older I get, the more I dislike it. Although it has certain charms, I am much more of a summer girl than a winter one. Instead of going into the reasons for this and depressing myself further, I put together the following list: 1. Hand and body lotion. If I don’t use hand lotion at least several times a day then my hands become dry, ugly, red alligator-like versions of their former selves. 2. Lip gloss. I hate the uncomfortable feeling of dry lips. I’m addicted to lip gloss year-round. Not the glossy stuff, but the moisturizing balm that leaves your lips feeling soft and oh-so-nice. 3. My old gray fleece LLBean jacket to wear around the house. It’s not pretty. I don't wear it out and I always rip it off if someone comes to the door, but it sure is soft and cozy. 4. Lots of nice thick comfortable socks, because my feet get cold easily. 5. Hot cocoa just about every day with whipped cream and/or mini marshmallows. I made a new discovery yesterday that I'm very pleased with. It's Swiss Miss Good Start Cocoa. It's fortified with 15 essential nutrients or something like that, and it tastes really good! 6. My blue fleece bathrobe. It is so comfortable and soft and warm. 7. My down blanket, which I like to snuggle up under when I'm reading on the couch or watching a movie. 8. My black boots, which I wear with almost everything during the cold-weather months. 9. The Crock Pot, to make delicious, hot, easy dinners that fill the house with their enticing aromas. I finally started using the Crock Pot last winter. I can't believe it took me so long to realize that it's one of the best things ever invented for the kitchen! 10. Lots of lights turned on and the heat jacked up. Needless to say, our bills go up a bit in the winter. I hate to be cold in my own house and am willing to pay extra not to be. Also, a lack of light is so depressing. I turn on lamps and overhead lights in multiple rooms…but I do other things to help the environment, honest! 11. A nice crackling fire going in the fireplace. I love this, and I'd like to do it more. I'm just afraid I won't open the flue correctly and then an accident will happen. Plus I don't want to get soot on my sleeves, even when wearing the above-mentioned LLBean house jacket. I guess I'll have to get over it if I ever want to become a fire-building pro. 12. Warm lounge-type pants that I wear when I’m just staying home. 13. My To Do List. I try to get a lot done during the winter since I'm stuck inside so much. I like to use the time to tackle my list, and then I can relax a lot more when it gets warm out. 14. Plenty of things to keep John entertained and happy, both in and out of the house. For him and for me as a parent, it can be very challenging not being able to go outside very much for months on end. 15. Target. I can't live without Target in any season! Posted by Donna at 9:16 PM Thursday, November 29, 2007 Last night I watched the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential candidates debate. All of the questions were from YouTube and some of the people/skits were pretty funny. While I still like the standard "old-fashioned" debate format, YouTube definitely livened things up, and it's a good way of getting Americans to hopefully become more interested in and involved with the election. Before I go on, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I'm on the Mitt Romney campaign. Most of you already know that. I haven't really done much for it; so far I mainly just get the campaign e-mails. But he is the man who I want to be President. I'm going to have to register as a Republican so that I can vote for him in the primary. I'm an independent, but I definitely lean to the right. My brother would say I'm all-out Republican because I watch Fox News and agree with Bill O'Reilly on most matters, but I don't think so. I don't have a problem voting for a Democrat if I think that person is better for the job. (As evidenced by my voting record--I voted for Gore in 2000 and Bush in 2004.) The balance of power doesn't matter all that much to me, I just want the best people in office no matter what their party is. So, having said all that, here are my awesome insights about each of the Republican candidates so far. I'm putting them in the order that they were announced at last night's debate: 1. Congressman Duncan Hunter. He seems nice and smart enough, but as a candidate he's kind of forgettable because he doesn't really stand out. I don't have that much to say about him. Of the group that is left, I predict he'll withdraw from the race first. 2. Congressman Ron Paul. I think he's pretty great, I really do. My super-liberal brother Ben is even going to register Republican so that he can vote for Ron Paul. He's the most honest candidate and he seems to say exactly what he thinks and doesn't play the political game. I like how he's straightforward and sticks to his guns--he truly believes everything that he says. (In some cases, that's unfortunate, but more on that momentarily!) It's pretty cool that he was an obstetrician before going into politics, helping to bring life/joy/screaming babies into the world. The big "but" with Ron Paul is that he's wrong about foreign policy. His views would work in an ideal world, but this world is far from ideal. His non-interventionist strategy would only let evil people attack us and others a lot more easily. And they want to get us because they are radical fundamentalists and not just because the U.S. is over in their countries. There are other "buts" about Paul too, but that's the biggest one for me. So even though he has a lot of good ideas and he seems like a great man, I really don't think he could make it work as President. 3. Senator John McCain. I've never been a big McCain fan. I saw him in person once when I was volunteering at Penn's 2001 graduation and he was the speaker. It was pouring out that day and he was smart enough to keep his speech short and sweet since all everyone wanted to do was get out of the rain. Anyway, I like McCain for his military experience. I think he would be good when it comes to that kind of thing. The rest of it, though, I'm not so sure. My biggest problem with John McCain is that I've heard several times that he has a bad temper that he doesn't control very well, he swears like a sailor, and he holds grudges and is openly rude to those who he's ticked off at. I don't want that kind of a person running the country. We need someone even-tempered and good-natured (not another LBJ!). 4. Senator Fred Thompson. I have been stumped as to the popularity of this guy. What is the big deal? I hadn't even heard of him up until a few months ago, and I follow politics regularly. That being said, he was good in the debate. He has a quick wit and good answers. His demeanor is calm and strong. But I still don't know what's so great about him and why he would make a good President. What has he done that is so special? 5. Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He was great as mayor of New York and was amazing in the wake of 9/11. I was a big Rudy fan back then. But the more I've learned about him the less I've come to like him. It's good that he's moderate and therefore might be able to reach out to both sides better, but I don't think he's very well qualified to be the President. To go from being a mayor (yes, even the mayor of NYC) right up to prez is a big leap, isn't it? Plus, I don't trust him. I don't mean to be a Bible thumper, but he cheated on his wife and left his family. I do think it matters what a person does in their private life because it shows what kind of a moral compass that person has, and one's level of personal morality can have a significant impact in politics. I also don't like his new wife Judith, and they have exhibited some downright strange behavior together in the past. Giuliani and Romney really went after each other in the debate, and Rudy struck first, going after Romney on immigration and accusing him of employing illegal immigrants at his "mansion." He was talking about Romney's house in Belmont, Mass. and was trying to make it seem like Romney is a hypocritical, distant, super-wealthy guy who's disconnected from the general public. First of all, I have seen that house, and though it's big and beautiful, it's not a mansion, it's just a big colonial. Giuliani was exaggerating and I bet he knew it. He kept trying to say that Romney hired illegals to work at his "mansion" (the landscaping company he hired to work on his lawn had some illegals, but that's not Romney's fault or responsibility). So I was glad when Giuliani got booed when he kept trying to go on and on about it. So anyway, it just made me more unhappy with the guy. I'm worried that he's going to win the nomination, and I just can't imagine this man being our President. 6. Governor Mitt Romney. He is brilliant and articulate and accomplished, but he didn't do as well as usual in the debate last night. Some of his past and present positions on issues like abortion, waterboarding, and gays in the military made him stumble a bit. Romney may not be the most upfront candidate, but he's far from being the most deceptive or malicious. He's just playing the political game and probably had to position himself the way that he did in order to win the governorship in liberal Massachusetts. Electoral politics really is a game, after all. Now that some of the things he said in the past are coming back to haunt him, maybe he should have had better integrity and said what he really believed, but I have to tell you, I'm a Mormon too and in the past I went back and forth on the constitutional right to abortion issue, finally deciding that it shouldn't be a matter of constitutional rights when it comes to ending a life. So I understand his line of thinking on that because it mirrors my own. I don't think he's saying whatever he can to get elected, but he is walking a fine line, as are all of the candidates on both sides. They're all players of the game and have to be strategic in whatever they say and do. It's one of the things I hate about politics, but unfortunately it's the way it is. Mitt Romney is a good person and I know that he would make a good President. He would clean up Washington and get it running better and that would have numerous beneficial effects. He's so good at that sort of thing. He did it for the state of Massachusetts, he did it with the Olympics, and he's done it many times in business when he's helped companies that are falling apart get back on track. And his Mormonism should absolutely not be an issue for voters. It wasn't a factor when he was the governor, and it won't be if he's President either. Sometimes I have to laugh about some of the ignorant assumptions and reservations being made about the LDS Church. Sometimes the intolerance and lack of understanding really anger me. If it keeps him from getting the nomination I am going to be really annoyed. Last but not least about Romney, for now, is that he would be, like, our handsomest president ever! 7. Governor Mike Huckabee. He's a nice guy, and he's making me nervous because he's been gaining on Romney. I like Huckabee, but I don't "heart" him. He seems to be honest and good, but sometimes his nice-ness comes off as preachy and too sweet for a man running for President. He's not as strong and presidential as some of the other candidates. He doesn't have the accomplishments and successes that Romney has had. But I think I'd take him over Giuliani. A Romney-Huckabee ticket could be good. Then maybe the people who are scared of/hate Mormons will vote for them since Huckabee is a Baptist minister. I don't know if those two together would be strong enough to beat Hillary though (yes, I do believe she will be the Democratic nominee. But more on that another time!). It might take Giuliani or McCain to do that (as the VP candidate, of course!). 8. Congressman Tom Tancredo. He's really into immigration and seems to be good with that, but not much else. What else has he done? I'm not sure. He's kind of similar to Hunter: likable but not very memorable, although he stands out a bit more than Hunter does. He'll probably be the second one to go. If you've made it this far, I'm very impressed! This is my longest post ever. That happens with politics, it tends to make one either have a lot to say or nothing at all to say. I will write about the Democrats running for President sometime soon, so stay tuned. Posted by Donna at 1:07 PM Monday, November 26, 2007 Peter was in The WSJ! Here is my chance to reveal a little-known fact...my husband is semi-famous...in the exciting world of...retirement planning. Ha ha. Well, I guess it's exciting to some. What is indeed exciting is that Peter was mentioned in The Wall Street Journal not too long ago. The heck with his career, this is especially good for me because my blog is modeled after The Wall Street Journal's name. So I see this as an auspicious event heralding good things for my little blog. Maybe the two are somehow linked. Maybe not. Anyhow, Peter knew the article he co-wrote was going to be mentioned in The WSJ but didn't know when, so we didn't even know until a few days after it was in the paper. Luckily we kept that section since it was about Retirement. If you're interested, it was in the weekend edition of the paper on November 17-18 in The Journal Report section on Retirement and Social Security. It's the cover story and here's Peter's brush-with-fame mention, located in the first column on page R3: "But first, take a few minutes to read a new report: "Rethinking Social Security Claiming in a 401(k) World," written by James Mahaney and Peter Carlson, retirement specialists at Prudential Financial Inc. It's the best discussion we've seen about filing for benefits and possible strategies for doing so." Alright! Go Peter! Jim Mahaney was Peter's boss in New Jersey and they came up with a new patent-pending approach to capitalizing on Social Security payouts in retirement. Smart guys! If all goes well perhaps this will be the first of more than a few mentions of Peter in our favorite newspaper in the years to come. And maybe The Doll Sweet Journal will become famous too. Next time The WSJ could just throw in something like, "Carlson's wife, Donna, has an excellent blog that should be read by all, with a clever twist on the name of this paper." And then they would write the url of my blog, and it would get a ton of hits. Sounds like a pretty ideal situation to me, and very realistically attainable as well! Posted by Donna at 10:31 PM Thursday, November 22, 2007 10 Things I'm Thankful For 1. To be an American and to live in this great country. 2. For my religious faith, which is everything to me and provides me with the answers to life's most significant questions. I don't know where I would be or who I would be without it. 3. To be a mother, what I always wanted to be more than anything else. I'm so thankful for John, who is truly one of the greatest blessings I will ever have in life. 4. For Peter, who is a good person and also my best friend. He works hard to provide for us and he excels in just about everything he does. I'm thankful we still have fun together, laughing and chasing each other around the house and such. 5. For my family and my friends. Especially my mother, who is a good friend and who will travel the three hours round-trip just to babysit John or to help us with a fix-it-up project in our house or yard. And especially for Christy, my faithful canine sidekick for the past 12 years who knows me so well. I'm so thankful she's still alive and kicking! 6. For my good health. 7. For my education. 8. For good books, music that makes me feel good, and entertaining movies and TV shows, all of which let me go somewhere fun and different for awhile. 9. For the beauty of nature, particularly around here in New England. 10. For the basic comforts of life, which many in the world go without. Delicious foods and drinks, a comfortable house, clothes, cars...we have so much to be thankful for. Posted by Donna at 10:25 AM Tuesday, November 20, 2007 I want to go shopping! Well, the holiday season is officially upon us--Oprah's Favorite Things show was on today! There's nothing to get me in the mood for Christmas like shopping and the lure of new things. After all, that's what the holidays are all about, right? Ha ha. This particular show is on at around this time every year and is kind of a cultural event for Oprah fans, as well as for most retailers across the country who would kill to get their products to be on this show, thereby ensuring their sales success for the holiday season. The show is really fun to watch because the audience gets so excited. It's always a surprise for them when they find out that they're at the taping of the Favorite Things show, and they go absolutely nuts because almost everything Oprah picks they get to have. On this show the most expensive gift she's ever featured was a fancy LG stainless-steel refrigerator with a built-in HD TV. And everyone got one. Lucky! And to end the show, one of my favorite singers, Josh Groban, sang some beautiful songs from his new Christmas album, which I just bought on Saturday. So it was fun and got me into the spirit. I would love to go to that show. Who wouldn't, with all the expensive free goodies to score?! I like seeing what Oprah picks every year. She has good taste and chooses some great things that make nice gifts for others and for yourself. I'm happy because I've been wanting a nice new watch for awhile, and there was a watch featured that's nice but also in the affordable range, since the Cartier I would love to have is just a wee bit out of reach for now. Peter, take note! http://www2.oprah.com/presents/2007/holiday/gifts/gifts_oft_350_101.jhtml This is a great list to go to for gift ideas. There are 20 items on it. These are my favorites: #1, a palm-size HD camcorder; #3, the watches; #4 (mmmm...cupcakes); #7, this Planet Earth DVD set looks amazing and we've been wanting it since it came out earlier this year; #10, scrumptious soaps from Portugal; #13, check out this refrigerator. I don't even like stainless steel that much but I'd take this in a heartbeat!; #14, this sorbet looks yummy and I'd heard good things about it before this; #16, Scrabble Premier Edition; and #20, the Josh Groban Noel CD, which is really good. Another reason the holiday season is here, at least here in Connecticut, is because it snowed today for the first time this season. It was a pretty snowfall, and one that took me by surprise. The flakes were big and puffy and pretty, but the roads were slippery, which always stresses me out when I have to drive, which I had to do this morning. I wrote in a previous post that I've never been in any car accidents, but I've had a few scary close-calls and they've all happened because of snow or ice. But it was all good. The snow that's left on the ground will probably be gone by the weekend, but I'm sure there will be more in the not-too-distant future. I hope we get more than we did last winter. It would be wonderful to have a white Christmas, which hasn't happened forever! Anyhow, please forgive me for my materialism. It's all in good fun. Things like cupcakes, a cool watch, and great music and entertainment can bring more happiness to life. On a more serious note, I'm not going to get in trouble for having those pictures from oprah.com on my blog, am I? If I'm violating copyright laws, is it serious enough that I will get my booty kicked by someone official? Posted by Donna at 4:55 PM Thursday, November 15, 2007 -And I thought I was dumb because I'm blonde....There was a strange study I heard about in the news a few days ago. It says that curvaceous woman with hourglass figures tend to be more intelligent. What?? I'm wondering, did they conduct this study in Asia at all, because Asian women generally tend to be petite and they also tend to be very smart. So there's one strike against that study, and I feel better already! Ha ha. I was always long and lean and stick-thin until I had John. The after-effects of pregnancy and childbirth were great because they gave me a more womanly figure, so that I finally had hips and a defined waist instead of being built like a boy. So by the logic of this study, I guess my I.Q. rose a few points when I became a mother. Maybe it will keep going up as I have more kids and become more "curvaceous." Yes!! Maybe there's hope for me after all! -We went to Cold Stone Creamery on Saturday night and I couldn't wait to get my favorite flavor, Rocky Road Trip. My craving went unmet when the guy behind the counter said that they no longer served it (at all, ever again) because they had become kosher. I have never heard of that happening. I was so disappointed. I hope it was just that franchise and not the whole chain. I don't want to live without Rocky Road Trip. I have never had better Rocky Road than at Cold Stone. The way they make it is so good! -The Land of Nod sells nice solar system bedding and things for boys rooms now. I've been looking and looking, and finally found something good. I think they just came out with this. They even address the Pluto issue if you read the product description (which, by the way, I disagree with...I don't think Pluto should have been demoted. It is too a planet!). For some reason John loves the planets and space. He had all the planets memorized in order before he turned 2. And his knowledge has only grown from there. So when I re-do his room soon, I'll probably get some of this stuff. -For Red Sox fans, check out these insider pics of the team celebrating at a bar at Fenway a few days after their World Series win. Muchas gracias to my sister Jennifer for sending me these. -We joined Netflix recently and we love it. It's so easy, and it's cheap too. It's never been so convenient to get the newest movies as well as all of the older ones that I never got a chance to see. I highly recommend Netflix! Posted by Donna at 10:25 PM Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1. I was called a different name when I was younger. It was “Josaleen” (prounounced Joe-zu-leen). It’s my middle name. It would have been my first name but “Josaleen Donna” didn’t sound right to my parents. So I was called “Josaleen” by everyone until 1st grade, when my super-strict teacher wouldn't call me that because it wasn’t my official first name. From that time, I was known as “Donna” in school, but still “Josaleen” at home. As I got older it was embarrassing when my friends came over and I was called by this other name, so I forbade my family from calling me it anymore. It took a few years, but by high school I was Donna to pretty much everyone, though I have relatives who I know still think of me as Josaleen and probably always will! That's okay with me, though. It's kind of a pretty and unique name. 2. I have a perfectly clean driving record. I’ve been driving for over ten years now, and I’ve never been pulled over and never had an accident. I don’t know how this is because I know I speed too much. I still get lectured about it every time my mother is in the car when I’m driving. I can always shoot back that my driving record is perfect. Knock on wood! 3. I have an obscure talent: I’m a good diver. I took swimming lessons growing up, and I was an average swimmer, and I was pretty bad at treading water (I was always one of the first who had to reach out and grab onto the wall), but diving was something I was good at and really liked doing. Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about all of the different dives I would try if I had the opportunity or the training. Not that I could have been one of them, but I feel a certain wistfulness when I watch the summer Olympics and see the divers! 4. I'm an ardent recycler. I don't know why, but I must recycle every piece of paper (even small scraps!) and all containers. It bugs me when I see recyclable things in the trash. I'm not a big environmentalist or anything, but reusing things like that just makes so much sense. This is silly, but I'm kind of proud that I usually only have to change my kitchen trash once a week, since so much of what would go in there can be recycled. My next step is to get a composter so that food waste can go into that. Reduce, reuse, recycle! 5. I don't really enjoy talking on the phone. I only do it when I have to. There is something unnerving to me about not being able to see who I’m talking to. It can also be a big time-waster. The only people I call with any regularity are my mother on Sunday nights and Peter at work when John is driving me crazy and/or to whine “When are you coming home?” 6. I have the ability to take good power naps. I can lay down for 10-20 minutes and program into my mind the amount of time I want to nap, and unless I’m really overtired, I will wake up at that time feeling refreshed and awake. This skill was incredibly useful in college. I could do it at the library or bookstore or wherever I was studying. I would just stretch my arm out across the table, lean my head down onto it, and I was out like a light, and then I’d wake up 10-20 minutes later and be ready to work. It’s a very useful skill these days too. In fact, I took a 15-minute power nap this very afternoon. It helps me get everything done that I need to do in a day. 7. I have a sense of humor that some might think is weird, or cruel. I can’t help it, but I think it’s really funny when people trip and fall, unless they’re elderly or it’s a child or the person truly gets hurt. Some of the times I have laughed hardest have been falls Peter has made. He had a fall in the bathroom one time that was just priceless. Ha ha! I also think some juvenile things are really funny, like certain bodily functions. You know what I mean!! 8. I once hit the jackpot at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. And I was underage when I did it too! Okay, so the truth is, I was around 11 years old, I obviously wasn't gambling, my family was in the mall part of the casino, and my brothers and sisters and I were playing around with the pay phones. I hit the coin return on one of the phones to see if any change would come out, and all of these quarters came spilling out. Jackpot! Posted by Donna at 9:09 PM Thursday, November 8, 2007 As is usually the case with Halloween, we had a fun time this year. For the second year in a row the weather was mild, even in the evening when it was time to go out trick-or-treating. I don't like being outside in the cold, so the weather was a real "treat" for me! It was also lighter out for longer than usual because of Daylight Savings Time being pushed back a month, and that was nice too. We went to a Halloween party at our church on October 27th, and John had fun playing games and going "trunk or treating" (from car to car in the parking lot). Here he is at that: John's costume was a dalmation. We have a Disney Sing Along video for "101 Dalmations" that he was kind of obsessed with over the summer. He came to love Pongo, the dalmation dog. When I'd try to get him to say "hi" to people, he would say "Pongo" instead, which was kind of embarrassing. So when I saw this costume online I knew it was "the one." He liked it too, though he would only wear the head and feet when Peter helped him put them on. The weird thing about this costume is that doesn't have a tail. What's up with a dog costume that has no tail? Weird, but still cute! If I were more crafty I would have made a tail myself and sewed it on, but unfortunately I'm no Martha Stewart when it comes to that kind of thing. Trick-or-treating was fun; he seemed to understand it more this year and he was pretty good about saying "trick or treat" and "thank you." Next year when he's 3 I think he'll really get it. Our neighborhood has only a few kids, but just about everybody gives out candy, so it was nice to go out and see all of our neighbors. When I was growing up, the neighborhood was always teeming with children on Halloween, so it's really different to have it be so quiet. The good thing about it is that Peter and I can both go out with him and just leave a bowl of candy on the doorstep since so few people come anyway. Getting ready to go out "This hat stinks, but I'll wear it for daddy and for the love of Pongo." All ready to hit up the neighbors for candy! He/we (what's his is ours, after all!) got a lot of candy, and since he only likes lollipops, there was a lot of extra that he got to play with by sorting and organizing it repeatedly. That boy is so much like me in that respect! That's what I always liked to do. Dividing the spoils, post trick-or-treating. After John went to bed, I was tired so I vegged out and watched three straight hours of TV: a funny Halloween episode of a cool new show called "Pushing Daisies," then "Ghost Hunters" live, and then a scary CSI:NY that really creeped me out. Perfect for Halloween! And last but not least, here's my little cutie in his "I Love My Mummy" glow-in-the-dark shirt a few days ago. We hope you all had a happy Halloween too! Posted by Donna at 2:55 PM Sunday, November 4, 2007 The Cause of Our Recent Woes That's right. The subject matter of this innocent looking picture has been a scourge in my life recently. Two weeks ago we took the rail off of John's crib and put on a bed rail because he's getting old enough to start the conversion process over to a real bed. He adjusted well to it and loved being able to get out of the bed instead of being trapped inside. But that is where our troubles began. The first few nights he slept fine. Then he figured out that he really could get up whenever he wanted, even if it was pitch dark outside, and I started getting a little bedside visitor in the early-morning hours. First it started in the 6:00 hour, then the 5:00 hour, and the absolute worst was the 4:00 hour. Being too tired to get up and put him back in his bed and listen to him cry (or having to repeat the process when he'd just come in to our room again), I let him into bed and we snuggled up together, which was nice, but not at all sleep-inducing, especially since John would usually not go back to sleep, so I wouldn't be able to either. The result was that for about a week straight I was so sleep-deprived. John was too, but it didn't seem to bother him as much. I, on the other hand, got massive headaches and lost all productivity and sense of normalcy, scheduling, and organization that I usually have. It is amazing what a lack of sleep will do to a person. It was like revisiting the newborn Baby John days again, only this time it was much worse than that ever was. My life was in chaos! If you're wondering about Peter, he is a heavy sleeper, so this didn't affect him as much. Plus, my side of the bed is closer to the door so John came over to me. He also probably knows that I'm more of a softy than Peter. Anyway, despite all of that, it wasn't helping Peter either, and we decided that this had to stop. After all, we're the parents, and we shouldn't let the course of our lives be totally dictated by our child, right? So we decided to close his bedroom door at night before we went to bed so that he couldn't leave his room when he got up. We did this for the first time a few nights ago, and John woke up at around 4:30 a.m. crying because now he was trapped in his room, so Peter went in and put him back to bed (he's much better at that than me) and closed the door again when he left. John cried some more but then went back to sleep. And ever since then, it hasn't been a problem! We just make sure his door is closed before we go to bed at night. When I go in to get him in the morning, his room is a disaster area--I have no idea what time he's getting up to play, but at least he's staying quiet and letting me get some much-needed sleep. Life is good again! Posted by Donna at 11:25 PM Tuesday, October 30, 2007 We Are The Champions! I can say "we" because I am a long-time loyal Red Sox fan. They won the World Series on Sunday night, sweeping the poor Colorado Rockies pretty easily. The "curse" is most definitely over and I think the Red Sox might be the new dynasty in baseball. It sure isn't the Yankees anymore! To be honest, I wanted Colorado to win at least once. It's sad when a team makes it all the way to the World Series and then doesn't win even one game. Plus, it would have been awesome for the Sox to win the Series at home in Boston. That hasn't happened in many decades. The fans would have gone crazy at Fenway! That would have been so cool to see. So if the Rockies had won at least two games it could have happened. Oh well. I'm not going to complain too much! A few last things about baseball until the spring when a new season starts. I think the rules in the American League and the National League need to become the same. AL teams are so much better in part because of the differences between the leagues. It would be more fair and make a lot of sense to have the rules be the same on both sides (like the pitcher not having to bat and the designated hitter not having to play in the field). The American League seems to always win the All-Star game and the World Series. I think AL teams must have more money too. The Red Sox and Yankees seem to be the richest teams and so they're able to get the best players. I wonder if there's a way to handle the money more democratically? Perhaps Peter or one of my brothers has some ideas on that. And last but not least, my favorite Red Sox players this season were Josh Beckett for his amazing pitching ability, Mike Lowell for his reliability and skill at bat and at 3rd base, Jonathan Papelbon because he's so darn cute and does some great Irish dancing wearing just a pair of little black shorts or a kilt, and Manny Ramirez because he's very amusing. I love all of the Red Sox members (yes, even Gagne)--they did a great job all season and they deserved to be the World Series champs! Can't wait for next season! Posted by Donna at 10:17 PM Saturday, October 27, 2007 I like to watch Oprah when the topic interests me, and Friday's show definitely interested me. It was about polygamy and families who are practicing it in the U.S. today. These are predominantly splinters from the mainstream Mormon church who disagreed with the Church when the practice was formally renounced in 1890, so they continued to practice it anyway and formed their own little communities out in the desert to do so. The polygamous wives on the show were so normal looking. It was weird! They were attractive and articulate, their homes were lovely, their kids were cute (all 25 of 'em!)...in short, they were a lot like modern-day "soccer moms." A husband came on the show with his three wives--two of them were sisters. Creepy! He was a successful businessman who seemed nice enough. It was hard to believe these people were polygamists and were so (seemingly) happy and content with the practice. (Are these women from another planet?) They want it to be legalized so that they don't have to be outcasts anymore and can live in the community like normal people. The case can be made that if gay marriage is allowed, then other forms of marriage are going to need to be permitted as well. I hope legalization of polygamy doesn't ever happen. The most I can see happening is it maybe getting de-criminalized. Would that be a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure. A woman named Carolyn Jessop was also on the show. She grew up in Colorado City, Arizona in a cult-like community of fundamentalists that is much, much worse than the places where the above-mentioned people live. These are the people who totally shun the outside world and dress like they still live in the 1800's. That's where Warren Jeffs is from...he's the so-called prophet of these people who was recently convicted as an accomplice to rape. It is really sad. That place is like Iran. Anyway, Carolyn Jessop escaped with her children in 2003 after years of misery living in polygamy in this awful dictatorial world. She just wrote a book called "Escape" about what her life was like there. I went out and bought it the next day and am eager to read it. Here's the link to find out more about the book if you're interested: I have always been fascinated by these polygamists. I can't believe what they're doing! I feel a small level of affinity for them because their forebearers were once members of the Church and so we share some doctrinal beliefs (unrelated to polygamy) and practices (such as Sacrament Meeting and singing the same hymns and songs) as well as a similar heritage. Some of my ancestors on my father's side were pioneers who trekked out West to settle; one of them was even an associate of Joseph Smith's. None of them practiced plural marriage, however. Only a small percentage of the pioneers ever did. I once read in an opinion piece in Time magazine that members of the Church wish these people would just go away, and that's kind of true, at least for me. They perpetuate the association of Mormons and polygamy and make it seem like it's something that Mormons really do still do, or at least want to do, and that isn't true. They discredit the Church and its message, which it doesn't deserve. I personally do not understand polygamy. I know that great men like Abraham practiced it, and in more recent times, Joseph Smith and of course Brigham Young. But I just can't understand it and I find the idea of it to be abhorrent. I cannot imagine living life like that. The practice is inherently sexist and demeaning to women. It would be less so if women were allowed to have more than one husband in these communities so that then there would at least be equality in that respect. Wouldn't that be interesting? But still, it wouldn't be good. Maybe someday it will indeed all just go away. One spouse at a time should be enough for everyone! Posted by Donna at 9:58 AM Friday, October 26, 2007 Well I can finally cross this one off the list...I've started a blog! I've been thinking about doing it for awhile, and I finally found myself with a few extra minutes and the sudden motivation, so I did it. I'm not sure how it will turn out. I'm pretty busy so I can't let it become a driving force in my life, but I think it will be fun. I'm going to write about whatever floats my boat. I think I read once that the best blogs have one main theme, so mine's not going to be among the best because it will pretty much be a hodgepodge of a bunch of different things. In all likelihood it will take me awhile to get pictures and other fun stuff up and running (I'm a bit of a technical novice), so this will be a bare-bones blog for awhile, for pure writing and reading enjoyment only. Hopefully this will help me to keep my writing and analytical skills up. I swore when I graduated from college that I would never write another paper again (my last semester was a real killer), but now I kind of miss that type of writing. Not that I'm going to be writing papers on here or anything (or anywhere else, for that matter!), and not that my posts will all be very intellectual in nature, but I've missed writing in general. It was tough to name this blog. I felt the pressure to be clever, creative, and original, all qualities that I do not possess to a great degree, especially when it comes to naming things. First I thought of the generic and boring "Donna's Blog," which then led me to "Donna's World" (from "Elmo's World"...my son and I are Sesame Street fans), then "Breath of Fresh Air," but I realized that kind of copies NPR's "Fresh Air." So then I thought of my favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, and tried to come up with a play on words of that. That idea came from my freshman year at Penn when we had to name our suite and came up with the name "Suiter Than Honey." So, in the end, I came up with "The Doll Sweet Journal." It's quite cheesy, but kind of cute, and I'm sticking with it, at least for now. If something brilliant comes to me I'll change it, though I'm not counting on that. I'm not into dolls or anything (though I loved them as a girl), but people do say that I'm sweet, so for the naming purposes of this blog and due to my limited creativity, I'm just a sweet little doll of a blogger!	60,363
Finally, most of the grackles have gone south and have stopped hogging my feeders. But now the Blue Jays have moved in and they are even piggier. They just eat and eat and eat, and never leave. Speaking of leaving, are the jays going south, too? They are scaring away all the good birds. – Mark, Harrisburg, PA I can tell you right now that if you are waiting for the day to come when your birdfeeders will only attract the exact species of birds you want, you’ll be waiting forever, maybe longer. If it’s not the grackles and jays, then it’s the crows and starlings or the House Sparrows and pigeons. And if you somehow can get past the birds you don’t like, there’s the list of mammals (i.e. gray squirrels, red squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, bears and sometimes white-tailed deer) to look forward to. I guess things could be worse. You could live in Ohio. I read that all kinds of crazy animals run loose in that state. As far as your pals the Blue Jays are concerned, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news, for you, is that jays are here year-round. There are always going to be jays somewhere in your neighborhood. The good news is that they won’t always be as piggy as they are now. (BTW, I have to give you props for using the word “piggier.” I’ve been trying to work that word into a column for years.) In the fall jays gather as much food as they can find and squirrel it away for the winter, just like…the squirrels. That’s why we see them eating so much, except they aren’t really eating. They are hoarding. A jay is able to carry away large quantities of food in its weird expandable throat. If you look closely you can see the bird’s throat actually bulge out, looking like a spring bullfrog in love. What do the birds do with all this extra food? Strangely enough, they usually bury it in the ground, much like a dog buries a bone. It makes sense for dogs to bury bones in the ground because they don’t have much choice. But it seems to me that jays, with their ability to fly, would stash food off the ground, where it won’t be covered up by snow. (I wonder if they’ve ever thought about that.) After burying their seeds, jays have the cute habit of always placing a stone, leaf or stick on the spot where the food is hidden. We aren’t sure if these markers help the birds remember each secret location or if the birds have a slight touch of OCD. Contrary to what you might think, most of the grub buried by jays isn’t sunflower seed. Their usual stash is made up of acorns, beechnuts and other assorted tree nuts. And while the jays are pretty good about reclaiming what they’ve buried, they aren’t perfect. Buried nuts that aren’t retrieved may eventually become trees. It is thought that Blue Jays were responsible for replanting oak forests after the last ice age. If it weren’t for the Blue Jays we wouldn’t have all these mighty oaks, or all of these acorn-loving gray squirrels, either. Once again, it’s good news, bad news. It’s interesting you’ve noticed that the jays arrived right after the grackles left. Most folks think that jays are bold and aggressive birds, and of course some of that is true, but they rarely mess with grackles. Usually when a flock of grackles moves in, the jays back off. That’s why Blue Jays have become more conspicuous lately. The answer to your question about whether the jays will eventually migrate south is yes, no and who the heck knows. Blue Jays are one of the most prominent birds in eastern North America and have been extensively studied; yet researchers can’t figure out their migration patterns. Some years, lots of jays migrate; other years, not so many. Sometimes it’s mostly young birds that head south, while other times it’s the older birds. A jay that migrates one year may not go anywhere the following year. It’s all very confusing…and a real headache for their travel agents. The one thing you should remember is that at no time will you not have Blue Jays. Rarely do they totally vacate an area. You might be depressed at the thought of not, not having Blue Jays, but you should keep a few things in mind. With the exception of the fall, jays aren’t as piggy at feeders as most folks think. Grackles can be much piggier. (Hey, I used it!) In the summer jays consume huge quantities of nasty insects and caterpillars. The same nasty insects and caterpillars that some people feel the need to blast with toxic spray, the birds remove for nothing. Also, because they are bright, colorful birds and relatively slow flyers, jays are easy targets for predators. As a result, Blue Jays sound the alarm anytime they spot danger, whether it is a hawk, an owl or your stupid neighbor’s stupid cat. Finally, their alarm calls will not only warn other jays, but they’ll warn the “good birds” as well. That should make you happy, Mark. I think you should reconsider your ill feelings toward Blue Jays. They eat tons of nasty bugs, warn the good birds about predators and replant oak forests, all for free. What else do you want them to do, fix the economy? Well, in a way they actually do that, too. By eating so much birdseed they at least help fix my economy. I love piggier birds. ← Previous Article Next Article → More answers to common and not-so-common questions about birds & birding. "Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches?" The first collection of our "Ask the Bird Folks" articles in paperback that you can read in the bathroom.	5,591
On Monday morning Teri was delayed by a domestic crisis, so when she arrived at school she had to go straight to her History class. She expected Caroline to be there already, sitting in her usual seat, but she wasn’t. Had she been held up, too? Was she unwell after all the excitement of the weekend? But Teri really didn’t believe it. Her stomach knotted, and the knot grew tighter as the lesson continued. As soon as it was over, she hurried to the form room. Caroline wasn’t there, but Fran was. ‘Caroline isn’t at school,’ Teri told her. ‘I’m going to her house to see what’s happened.’ ‘Take my bike,’ said Fran, and tossed her the keys to the padlock. And as she pedalled along the familiar streets, Teri called to her guides and angels, ‘Please help me. And please protect Caroline.’ But now she was taking action, the fear was beginning to subside. And once again she felt that toughening happening inside her – just as she’d experienced it with Tom Price – coupled with the same determination to do whatever she could to help her friend. Mr Trent opened the door, but planted himself in the middle of the doorway as if to bar the way, looking at Teri as if she was an enemy. ‘Hello Mr Trent,’ said Teri. ‘Is Caroline there, please?’ ‘You’re not welcome in this house any longer,’ he said stiffly, as if reading from a script. ‘You’re a bad influence on Caroline.’ And began to close the door. Teri hadn’t foreseen this situation, but she reacted so fast she surprised herself, actually sticking her foot in the door, like an importunate salesman. She followed it up by shoving the door hard, ducking underneath Mr Trent’s arm and running up both flights of stairs, calling Caroline’s name as she went. But the bedroom was empty. Teri looked in the other rooms on the top floor. They were empty, too. She ran down to the first floor and did the same there. No joy. And when she finally returned to the ground floor, there was Mr Trent standing in the middle of the hall with an actual gun in his hand. How ridiculous, she thought. What on earth does he think he’s doing? ‘Now get out of this house before I call the police,’ he said, breathing heavily. ‘Not without Caroline,’ she said, surprised by her own lack of fear. ‘Caroline! Caroline! Where are you?’ ‘You’re not seeing her again,’ he said, ‘It’s not allowed.’ And Teri realised that despite the fact that he was holding the gun, it was Mr Trent who was afraid. ‘Not allowed by whom?’ she demanded (and she was pleased with the ‘whom.’) ‘Not allowed by Tom Price? Or not allowed by the Colonel?’ ‘None of your business,’ he said. ‘Now get out.’ ‘You know this is illegal, don’t you? You’re not Caroline’s parents, and you have no right to hold her against her will!’ ‘I’m not listening to you,’ he said, looking more frightened and desperate by the minute. ‘Get out of this house.’ ‘What?’ ‘Do you love Caroline? I thought you did. But you still intend to hand her over to the Colonel. Do you know what he means to do with her?’ ‘I don’t need to know that.’ ‘What? You don’t need to know? If he means to carry out experiments on her? Or use her to breed with? Or torture and murder her in a black magic ritual? Or trade her to aliens so they can experiment on her, or have sex with her, or eat her? You don’t need to know all that, Mr Trent – is that what you’re telling me?’ ‘Are you absolutely sure about that? You’d better be absolutely sure, hadn’t you? Because otherwise, you risk betraying her to unimaginable horrors.’ While she was speaking, Teri saw Mrs Trent appear through a doorway, and stand listening. ‘Is that true, Teri?’ she asked, and her husband turned at the sound of her voice. ‘What you just said? Is it true?’ ‘They’ve done those things to other people, Mrs Trent. Yes, it’s true.’ ‘Henry, they’re not good people. I told you that. I always felt it, and so did you.’ ‘We signed the contract,’ said Henry, doggedly. ‘It was an illegal contract,’ said Teri. ‘An illegal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. You can’t treat people like that. It’s against the law.’ ‘They’ve paid us a lot of money over the years.’ ‘Yes, and I’m sure you earned it. But whose money was it, Mr Trent? It was never theirs in the first place. It’s the money they’ve stolen from you and me – from all the ordinary people of the world. You don’t owe them a thing.’ She could see him wrestling with the situation in his mind. What to do? But his wife had already decided. ‘They’re not going to wait till she’s eighteen,’ she said. ‘They’re taking her this morning.’ ‘That’s what they want us to think, Mrs Trent. That’s what they always want us to think. That there’s nothing we can do. So nobody tries. Well, stuff that. I’m not going to stand by and do nothing. Where is she? I’ll take her with me now.’ ‘They’ll be here in half an hour.’ Mrs Trent unlocked the door to the basement, and Caroline emerged, her face very pale. ‘Are you okay, darling?’ asked Teri. ‘I’m sorry you had to hear that.’ ‘Is it?’ ‘Okay, can you run to the school?’ ‘Not with my shoes on, I can’t.’ ‘So take them off.’ Even then, there was a hesitation. Even to save her life, she was reluctant to expose her feet to the rest of the world. ‘Quick!’ The telescopic, fan-like toes emerged into the light, with their brilliant blue webs. ‘That’s the way. Off you go – I’ll meet you there soon. Run!’ And Caroline sprang down the steps and away. Wow, thought Teri. Look at that girl go. It wasn’t just the springiness of the telescopic feet. It wasn’t just the length of her stride. It was also the speed of her steps – so fast they almost blurred. No Olympic athlete could have kept pace with her, and she was out of sight in a matter of seconds. ‘I’m going back to the school, Mr and Mrs Trent,’ said Teri. ‘Would you like to come with me?’ ‘What for?’ asked Mr Trent, sullenly. ‘I was just thinking it might not be very safe for you here when the Colonel arrives.’ ‘We’ll take our chances, thank you very much.’ So Teri turned to go. But at that moment a car drew up to the kerb, and a young woman not much older than Teri ran lightly up the steps. ‘Mr and Mrs Trent?’ she said. ‘Carly Westmoreland. I’m a researcher on “With Your Breakfast.” I was wondering if Caroline was available? I was hoping to talk her into coming on the show, with your permission, of course…’ But Mr Trent was already closing the door. ‘You want to interview Caroline?’ asked Teri. ‘Yes! Her story has gone viral on Facebook, and what with President Obama’s announcement over the weekend, we were hoping to have her on the show.’ ‘What announcement?’ ‘No,’ said Teri. ‘It’s a pretty big story. And Caroline is connected to it. Do you know where she is? Or could you put me in touch with her?’ ‘I’d need to check with Caroline and her legal adviser first. Look, why don’t we exchange phone numbers? And I’ll get back to you very soon.’ But at that moment another car drew up and a man in a suit came up the steps holding a mike, followed by a cameraman. ‘Drew Redman from NTV News,’ he said. ‘You must be Teri Barlow, is that right? Caroline Trent’s partner?’ ‘I’m sorry, what’s all this about?’ she asked, playing for time while her brain tried to catch up with events. Slowed down, this was the process that went on inside her head: Firstly, how on Earth did they know about her relationship with Caroline? But as soon as she asked herself the question, she knew the answer. She’d told Arabella it wasn’t a secret any more, hadn’t she? And Arabella would have told the others. They in turn could have quite innocently mentioned it to other people at the party. And then that piece of information had gone viral along with the rest of Caroline’s story. Meanwhile, Drew was saying, ‘We were hoping to interview Caroline about ETs and hybrids and underground bases. I wonder, could you tell me how we might reach her?’ And this was only the beginning. More cars were drawing up outside, and more people with cameras were emerging. Somehow Teri would have to deal with this, and deal with it properly. She had to think quickly, and she did. Again, here’s the slow-motion version of her thinking process: They’d wanted publicity for Caroline in order to protect her, hadn’t they? And they’d succeeded beyond their wildest hopes. Which on the one hand was absolutely fantastic. But on the other hand, what a terrible onslaught for poor Caroline to face! She’d only just got used to saying she was a hybrid and showing people her feet. But if she had Teri by her side, facing the onslaught with her, wouldn’t that make it easier on her? And now Teri came to think of it, it seemed that all her experiences over the past few weeks had been preparing her for this – getting her used to being in the spotlight, forcing her to master her stage fright, showing her that she could think on her feet, and be strong and articulate in challenging situations. And finally, as a thrill ran up her spine, she knew with absolute certainty that she was the right person for this particular job. In the right place at the right time. ‘Yes, I’m Teri Barlow,’ she replied, ‘And I’d be happy to exchange phone numbers with you, but I have a feeling we’ll be holding a press conference before we do anything else.’ ‘Sorry?’ said Drew, because the clamour of rotor blades had suddenly made conversation impossible. And they looked up to see a black helicopter hovering over the house. It’s the Colonel! thought Teri. At least Caroline must be at the school by now. Please God, don’t let him follow her there. But then something brought her attention down to street level, where at least six professionally-wielded cameras were angled to the sky, trained on that helicopter. And Teri suddenly knew for certain that by evening, their footage would be appearing on every television network in the country. If not the world. For several minutes the tableau was frozen – the cameras focussed on the helicopter, the helicopter fixed to the sky. Until, with the forced nonchalance of a cat backing away from a confrontation, the helicopter turned and slowly withdrew, its racket gradually subsiding as it went. And as it went, a great weight rolled off Teri’s shoulders which she hadn’t even known was there. She laughed out loud, and Drew and Carly whipped round to stare at her. ‘It’s alright,’ she said, grinning. ‘I was just thinking. Everybody’s secrets are coming out now, aren’t they?’ The media frenzy around Caroline and Teri was intense, but soon over – largely because the revelations about ETs were soon followed by the Mass Arrests and Full Disclosure. And so it was that three weeks later, Teri and Caroline were eating supper in the tiny upstairs dining room of an old stone hotel in the heart of the Cotswold hills, on a weekend retreat to celebrate Caroline’s eighteenth birthday. ‘What did your Mum say?’ asked Caroline. ‘She said, “Have a lovely time, dear,” and she asked me to say “Hi.”’ ‘I’d like to meet her.’ ‘She’d like to meet you.’ ‘It doesn’t bother her – any of this? You being gay? You teaming up with a hybrid?’ ‘Not at all. My sisters are mad about babies, so she’s bound to get grandchildren. And anyway, my family like me being different. It gives them something to talk about. What did your Mum say?’ ‘She said, “Have a lovely time, dear.” And asked me to say “Hi” to you.’ ‘Not very original, our Mums, are they?’ ‘No,’ laughed Caroline. ‘But guess what? She says the usual monthly deposit turned up in the bank account.’ ‘No!’ said Teri, ‘I’m amazed. I’d have thought the Colonel would have put a stop to that straight away! But you know, these administrative errors can go on for years. I’d keep quiet about it, if I were you.’ ‘That’s what I said to Mum. And it means they can keep transferring money to my account, so I can keep paying board and lodging to Pen.’ ‘And I was wondering, do you think it might be the angels again?’ ‘Why not? They know we have to live.’ ‘Which reminds me. Do you think it was the angels who arranged for my party to be on the same weekend as Obama’s announcement?’ ‘Absolutely.’ ‘And made sure that you arrived at my house before the Colonel did?’ ‘And arranged for all those cameramen to be standing in the street when the helicopter turned up?’ ‘I know. But it must take a heck of a lot of organisation, don’t you think? ‘Well, they’re very good at it,’ said Teri. ‘Lots of practice, you see. And living outside time probably helps, too. ‘It is. And I am very, very grateful.’ ‘So am I. They didn’t hold my doubts against me, either.’ ‘No, they’re nice about things like that. By the way, how many interviews has Pen scheduled for next week?’ ‘Only three. I think it’s definitely tailing off.’ ‘Thank God. But talking of tails, Caroline…’ ‘Talking of tails, yes?’ ‘You know, I couldn’t help noticing that in all the interviews we’ve had, the subject of your extra vertebrae somehow never came up. Your feet have been filmed from every angle, put through their paces, discussed and examined and sampled and exclaimed over, but you never, ever mentioned the tail. Not once.’ ‘Well, they would have wanted to film it, wouldn’t they? And it’s a bit personal, Teri. It’s right next door to my private parts. ‘And anyway,’ she continued, ‘I couldn’t show it to anyone else until I’d shown it to you, could I? And you said you were saving it for later. So I was saving it for you.’ ‘And you know what I was thinking?’ ‘No. What were you thinking?’ ‘I was thinking that “later” could actually turn out to be right now. It would certainly qualify.’ ‘But then, you always were a very clever hybrid.’ ‘I always was.’ ‘And it just goes to show how compatible we are,’ said Teri. ‘Because oddly enough, I was thinking exactly the same thing.’	14,330
The winter might have just started, but the retail industry slowly prepares for the coming spring season. Various spring wear is arranged to flood the... read more How to get the best out of a winter clearance sale Buying a good winter coat before the start of winter might be very costly. The best time to get one is in December and after. The spring fashion start... read more Popular types of ski wax to watch out for There are two basic purposes for applying wax to skis. While waxing can simply assist to provide the ski a very strong grip, it can simply arrange a s... read more Interesting things that you didn’t know about ski waxing You don't have to be a world-class ski racer to appreciate the importance of keeping your skis well-maintained and waxed. Skiing over adequately waxed... read more Common benefits of wearing ski helmets There have been several discussions about the safety of ski helmets as well as skiing over the past few years. With the news of actress Natasha Richar... read more 5 popular over-the-glasses ski goggles you will find useful Finding ski goggles that fit over the glasses is a challenge. Wearing contacts can be irritating to the eyes while skiing and prescription ski goggles... read more Popular winter boots to look out for Having a walk when it is snowing is something everyone wishes for. However, the experience could be disappointing if one fails to wear a proper winter... read more Here are a few things to know about ski goggles Ski goggles protect the face and eyes from the snow and glare. The goggles are big enough to cover a large part of the face. Yet ski goggles are small... read more 5 popular brands of ski gear you should know about While choosing your ski gear it is always important to keep in mind your level of skill, where do you ski: powder/groomed, backcountry, and so on will...	1,922
Election workers process mail-in-ballots for the midterm elections in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Election workers process mail-in-ballots for the midterm elections in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Election updates: 2022 midterm election results by: Nexstar Media Wire Updated: Nov 9, 2022 / 01:34 PM EST Election workers process mail-in-ballots for the midterm elections in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Election workers process mail-in-ballots for the midterm elections in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) by: Nexstar Media Wire Updated: Nov 9, 2022 / 01:34 PM EST Waiting game for Congressional control With large batches still to be counted in key races, either party could still emerge with control of the House and Senate. Many poll watchers see a potential split, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats retaining a narrow Senate majority, a result forecast in polling for some time leading up to the election. Neither Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) nor Republican Herschel Walker is projected to score the majority needed to claim the high-profile Georgia Senate race. That could put control of the Senate on hold until a Dec. 6th runoff. With only a handful of narrow races remaining, the party in power likely won’t hold more than a two-seat majority in the chamber come the next session. The timeline for House control is even murkier, with a few dozen seats too close to call as of Wednesday morning. Counting and even recounts could push out the timeline to finalize the makeup of that chamber for some time. If tight races break for the GOP, they could still wind up with a significant majority forecast for some time. But if the Democrats continue defending targeted seats and flipping some red districts, the House and Senate could both end with single-digit majorities for the winning party. This running election story will no longer be updated. Please visit our Politics from The Hill section for the latest national election headlines and remaining race calls. Mixed results for marijuana on the ballot The list of states where recreational marijuana is legal just got longer. Voters in Maryland and Missouri approved ballot measures to legalize the drug, making it legal in 21 U.S. states. Meanwhile, voters in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota rejected recreational cannabis. Marijuana wasn’t the only drug on the ballot this November. Colorado voters were also deciding whether to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms. That measure was also too close to call early Wednesday. Key Georgia Senate race may head to runoff A high-profile Senate race in Georgia may not be decided today, tomorrow, this week or even this month. That’s because neither candidate, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock nor Republican challenger Herschel Walker, have clinched 50% of the vote. If neither candidate gets a majority, thanks to votes for a third-party candidate, they will square off again in a runoff election on Dec. 6. The Associated Press had not called the race as of 9:45 a.m. The tight race between Warnock and Walker is one of four outstanding Senate races that will determine control of the Congressional chamber. Tight races in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin also remained uncalled Wednesday morning. Abortion rights win support The June Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade put the legality of abortion back in the hands of states. On Tuesday, five of those states had abortion rights on the ballot, and protecting access to the procedure was chosen by voters in every case. In California, Michigan and Vermont, voters approved measures to enshrine the right to an abortion as part of their state constitutions. In Kentucky and Montana, voters rejected efforts to further restrict abortion access. These results continue the trend started by Kansas back in August. Voters there rejected a measure that would have written abortion restrictions into the state constitution. Fetterman wins Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race “It’s official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania,” Democrat John Fetterman tweeted just before 1 a.m. Wednesday. About an hour later, the AP called the race for Fetterman, whose victory could be pivotal to Democrats’ hopes of retaining Congress. This combination of photos shows Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Oct. 8, 2022, in York, Pa., left, and Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Sept. 23, 2022, in Allentown, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Fetterman spent much of the campaign recovering from a stroke while fending off attacks by Oz about his fitness to serve. In their lone debate, Fetterman turned in a rocky performance that fueled concern that it damaged his chances. Oz is a smooth-talking and wealthy heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity who just moved from his longtime home in New Jersey. In brief remarks to his election night party crowd in suburban Philadelphia, Oz thanked supporters and predicted victory. Congressional control may take days to determine Many clear victories have come off the board as the calendar flipped to Nov. 9, and the emerging picture is that the majorities in the next Congress are likely to be razor-thin, no matter which party claims control. Significantly, it appears Democrats may have averted a massive “red wave” power shift. In the Senate, Republicans held on to the open seats in Ohio and North Carolina but lost the highly publicized race in Pennsylvania, a net loss. With four key races uncalled, it’s not clear the GOP will pick up a seat in that chamber. As of 1 a.m. Eastern, neither incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock nor challenger Herschel Walker held a 50 percent majority in the Georgia race deemed by many most likely to swing the Senate. That could mean control of the chamber would be determined at a runoff election on December 6th. In the House, where Republicans have long been viewed as likely to take control, the GOP successfully flipped several seats, but also saw dramatic losses to targeted candidates. Democrats even put the GOP on the defensive in some unexpected places, including high-profile Trump supporter Lauren Boebert in Colorado. With the potential for some House seats in California and other slow-counting states to take days, we may not know who will gavel the House into session for days. Democrats to take key Senate race in New Hampshire Trump-styled Republican Don Bolduc is projected to have fallen short in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in a race that could signal the former president’s viability with voters two years after he left office. New Hampshire is one of the closely contested Senate races that both parties have been banking on. Hassan’s projected victory gives the Democrats some hope as they await the outcome of the other races. A number of more moderate Republicans, including the state’s governor, did not back Bolduc, a retired Army general who supported Trump’s claims about the 2020 election and cast doubt on New Hampshire’s elections, during the primary. After Bolduc took a slightly more moderate stance the GOP establishment embraced him, and, thanks to a seven-figure cash infusion, his campaign gave Democrats concern about the outcome of the race. Judge denies Democrats’ request to keep Nevada polls open A judge in Nevada’s Clark County rejected a request from Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and her campaign to extend voting hours Tuesday. The emergency complaint obtained by Nexstar’s KLAS, stated: “During November 8, 2022, multiple polling locations in Clark County experienced delays and long lines due to polling location running out of printer paper in the ballot printers.” The lawsuit lists numerous inoperative printers at eight polling locations and asked the judge to keep them open for two more hours, until 9 p.m. Judge Gloria Sturman denied the request on grounds of practicality, saying that many polling places were already closed and there would be no way of finding people who left the line and confirming that they were waiting to vote. “Every vote must count, and delays caused by long lines and paper delays should not prevent Nevadans from casting their ballots,” Cortez Masto campaign spokesman Josh Marcus-Blank said in a statement before the ruling. Nevada is one of the toss-up states when it comes to control of the U.S. Senate. Maryland votes to legalize marijuana Voters in five states are deciding on Election Day whether to approve recreational marijuana. The first result came in Maryland, where voters approved legalization, making it the 20th state to take that step. Measures also were on the ballot in Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. The overall result could signal a major shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country. Stacey Abrams has called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to concede in their rematch, according to his campaign. Minutes later, Abrams went on stage and congratulated the governor. The Associated Press had not yet called the race Tuesday night. Republican candidate for Georgia Governor Gov. Brian Kemp gives a statement to members of the media Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 in Winterville, Ga. (AP Photo/Brett Davis) Kemp, who was a developer before serving as a state senator and secretary of state, clinched another term despite attacks from former President Donald Trump that threatened to snuff out support in his own party. Abrams, a lawyer whose 2018 loss to Kemp helped launch her into Democratic stardom, would have been the first Black woman to serve as a governor in the United States if she had won. Republican J.D. Vance wins Ohio Senate race J.D. Vance, the 38-year-old Republican author who penned “Hillbilly Elegy,” has defeated Tim Ryan, a 10-term Democratic U.S. House Representative, the Associated Press projects. Ryan ran on a moderate platform. He vowed to rebuild the American middle class and painted Vance as an out-of-touch, far right extremist. Vance, who once criticized former President Donald Trump, did a political about-face, adopting Trump’s unfounded claims of stolen 2020 presidential election and tacking hard to the right. Voting hours extended in four states In certain counties across the country, deadlines for voters to cast their ballots were extended, likely stretching the timeline for midterm results to be counted in four states, Nexstar’s The Hill reports. In Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued Cobb County’s Board of Elections for failing to send over 1,000 requested absentee ballots. Following a judge’s order, ballots postmarked by Election Day can come into the county as late as Nov. 14. The Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas ACLU filed an emergency lawsuit after a number of polling locations in Harris County, home to Houston, reportedly failed to open on time for Election Day. Over 780 polling places were ordered by a judge to stay open until 9 p.m. local time, one hour longer than usual. Issues with check-in technology in Texas’ Bell County also caused polling places there to remain open longer. Polling places in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County were kept open an additional two hours due to a paper shortage. In North Carolina, polling places in Columbus, Robeson, and Wilson counties closed later in the evening after they opened late Tuesday morning. Candidates for governor make history There were several gubernatorial firsts tonight: In Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore becomes the state’s first Black governor, in Massachusetts, Democrat Maura Healey’s win makes her the state’s first woman and openly gay candidate to be elected governor and, in Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders became the first woman elected governor. Left: Massachusetts Attorney General and Democratic candidate for Gov. Maura Healey greet supporters during a campaign stop, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, in Boston’s East Boston neighborhood. Right: Democrat Wes Moore speaks on the phone with Gov. Larry Hogan after Moore was declared the winner of the Maryland gubernatorial race, in Baltimore, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne/Bryan Woolston) Moore is a combat who served as a captain and paratrooper with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne, as well as a bestselling author. Healey is currently Massachusetts’ attorney general and has broken a peculiar jinx in the state. Since 1958, six former Massachusetts attorneys general sought the governor’s office and all failed, according to the Associated Press. Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been elected Arkansas governor and will be the first woman to lead the state. Sanders on Tuesday defeated Democratic nominee Chris Jones in the race for governor in her predominantly Republican home state. Sanders will succeed fellow Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection. House, Senate incumbents hold onto their seats Throughout the country, candidates running for reelection are largely winning their races. Republican candidates winning reelection, according to the Associated Press, include Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Matt Gaetz; Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina; Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky; Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio; and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. New York Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have won their races as well. Some gubernatorial races being called One of the most anticipated governor’s races was in Florida — where controversial Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis faced re-election. The Associated Press called the race for DeSantis early Tuesday evening. Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary, has been declared the winner in the race for Arkansas governor, according to The Associated Press. She defeated Democratic nominee Chris Jones to nab the seat that her father, Mike Huckabee, held from 1996 to 2007. She is the first female governor elected in Arkansas. Other governor’s races called include victories for Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN); Wes Moore (D-MD); Maura Healey (D-MA); Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA); Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH); and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL). Some congressional races being called As polls begin to close nationwide, the Associated Press has started to call some races. That includes the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky, where Republican Rand Paul has secured his third term. He defeated Charles Booker, the first Black Democratic nominee for the Senate in the Bluegrass State. Another Republican, Senator Tim Scott, has won his reelection race in South Carolina. He beat Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews for a second full term that he is calling his last. In Vermont, Democrat Peter Welch has won the election to U.S. Senate. He defeated a little-known Republican challenger, Gerald Malloy, for the Senate seat being vacated by Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving member of the upper chamber. Former presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) won re-election. Other early Senate race calls include Katie Britt (R-AL); Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old gun reform and social justice activist, has defeated Republican Calvin Wimbish for a Florida U.S. House seat. What early exit polls are saying An early exit poll conducted by Edison Research for CNN asked voters Tuesday how they felt about the two major political parties when it came to the biggest issues dominating the news cycle. The poll found that more voters said they trusted Republicans to handle inflation and crime better than Democrats. Voters sided with Democrats, however, when it came to which party they trusted to handle abortion-related issues. Over the summer, the Supreme Court voted to strike down Roe V. Wade, opening the door for conservative-led states across the nation to enact strict “trigger bans” against abortion rights. The first polls of the night have closed in portions of Indiana and Kentucky, The Hill reports. 7 p.m. eastern will bring closures in Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and parts of Florida. Of those states, Florida and Georgia will perhaps be the most closely watched nationally with high-profile gubernatorial races and swing Senate seats up for grabs. Early vote totals have pointed toward record-breaking turnout for a non-presidential election year, reaching a 40-year high with more than 40 million votes cast. Former President Trump grabs headlines Even though he’s two years removed from the ballot, former President Donald Trump found a way to make headlines on election day, sitting down with Nexstar’s NewsNation for an exclusive interview where he took credit for Ron DeSantis’ election as Florida governor. DeSantis is now seen as Trump’s primary rival for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 and the former president took credit for raising him from relative obscurity during an interview with Markie Martin. Trump: My endorsements made Ron DeSantis “He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race,” Trump said, referring to the GOP gubernatorial primary. “And as soon as I endorsed him, within moments, the race was over.” During a ranging interview, trump spoke on the midterms and election integrity. The full interview with NewsNation’s Markie Martin will air at 6 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. CT on NewsNation. Marijuana legalization on the ballot in 5 states Voters in five states are deciding on Election Day whether to approve recreational marijuana. The proposals going before voters in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota on Tuesday could signal a major shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country. FILE – A demonstrator waves a flag with marijuana leaves depicted on it during a protest calling for the legalization of marijuana, outside of the White House on April 2, 2016, in Washington. Voters in five states are deciding on Election Day whether to approve recreational marijuana. The proposals going before voters in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota on Tuesday could signal a major shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) The proposals follow President Joe Biden’s announcement that he’ll pardon thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession. Recreational marijuana is legal in 19 states, and the five states with ballot measures already have legal medical marijuana programs. Another proposal on Colorado’s ballot would allow the use of certain psychedelic substances. Tracking voting issues across the United States Election security and voter intimidation concerns have made national headlines for months leading up to the November 8 midterm elections. The early hours of election day raised no major widespread issues, but there have been isolated problems at polling locations in several states. In Champagne County, Ill. the county clerk reported that a denial of service cyberattack has slowed servers for the county of 200,000 plus residents. Nexstar’s WCIA reports that voting there continues normally and securely according to the clerk. Nexstar’s WBRE reports that a shortage of paper ballots forced Luzerne County, Pa. to extend voting hours to 10 p.m. Tuesday. Typically the cutoff for residents is 8 p.m. Reports of glitches in tabulation machines in Maricopa County, Az. have generated national headlines as the state hosts contentious Senate and gubernatorial races. The Secretary of State there assures voters all ballots will be counted “under the observation of political parties.” Additional issues may arise throughout the day. Many precincts are reporting heavy turnout, with the expectation that longer lines could build in key congressional swing states like Ohio as the workday winds down and time runs out to vote. Seven races to watch for early signs of House results The final partisan breakdown of the House is unlikely to be known on election night or in the days after, as states such as New York and California, where Republicans hope to pick up many seats, often take weeks to tabulate final results. But there are some congressional districts that could see results relatively early on election night that have environments similar to many other competitive districts across the country, providing clues about the overall trends in the electorate that will determine the final congressional breakdown. Here are seven races to monitor for early signs of a red ripple — or a red wave — for the GOP in the House. Polls open across the country with only minor issues Final voting began without major hitches Tuesday in midterm elections under intense scrutiny after two years of false claims and conspiracy theories about how ballots are cast and counted. With polls open across most of the country, no big problems were reported early on, though there were hiccups in some places, which is typical on any Election Day. For example, vote tabulators malfunctioned in a county in New Jersey and one in Arizona — potentially requiring hand-counting instead; some voting sites in Pennsylvania were delayed in opening because workers showed up late, and others scrambled to replenish supplies of paper ballots that were running low. “These are things we see in every election cycle,” said Susannah Goodman, director of election security at Common Cause, a group that advocates for voting access. “There’s nothing majorly concerning this morning.” Since the last nationwide election in 2020, former President Donald Trump and his allies have succeeded in sowing wide distrust about voting by promoting false claims of extensive fraud. The effort has eroded public confidence in elections and democracy, led to restrictions on mail voting and new ID requirements in some GOP-led states and prompted death threats against election officials. Election Day this year is marked by concerns about further harassment and the potential for disruptions at polling places and at election offices where ballots will be tallied. Election officials say they are prepared to handle any issues that arise, urging voters not to be deterred. DOJ to monitor voting sites in 24 states The Department of Justice said Monday that it would be monitoring election sites in counties across 24 states to make sure that voting rights laws are observed. What to watch in Tuesday’s midterm elections “Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Division has regularly monitored elections in the field in jurisdictions around the country to protect the rights of voters,” the DOJ stated on its website. The states included in that list are: New Mexico Ohio Monitors from both the Civil Rights Division and from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will join the effort. “Complaints related to disruption at a polling place should always be reported immediately to local election officials (including officials in the polling place),” the DOJ stated. “Complaints related to violence, threats of violence or intimidation at a polling place should be reported immediately to local police authorities by calling 911.” When will we know the results of the 2022 midterms? When all the votes are finally tallied will vary from state to state. Local time is a factor – Hawaii’s polls won’t close until 12:00 a.m. Wednesday EST, for instance – but there are other variables that will determine when the last ballot is counted. Not all states vote the same, either: Some carry out voting only by mail, while others have a mix of in-person and mail voting. Others also have early in-person voting periods. There is no federal government agency that tells the country who has won the election right away, and different states count ballots at different times. That means it could take longer to declare a winner in some spots. Varying rules on when recounts or runoff elections might be required could also factor in. Some states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, for example, don’t allow officials to begin validating mail-in votes until Election Day. Other states allow grace periods for votes to be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. All of this means that we likely will not know who won every race on election night. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Your email(required) Δ Copyright 2022 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.	25,465
Tom Hulce was Created in Detroit and Has Been Increased at Michigan in Plymouth. He had been created to Raymond and Joanna Albert Hulce, that had been used by Ford Motors. His arrival sign is Sagittarius. Thomas Edward Hulce includes German, English and Irish ancestry. He desired Becoming a Singer but finished in Acting. While he functioned in Ann Arbor as ticket 12, his livelihood kick started. He also attended New York School of Arts. December 1953, he had been created on 6th. He’s aged. They’re blessed with a young kid. Is he? Is he wed? Can he have a girl? Those a hoax or not continues to be supposed by the press. He’s better known. He’s extremely famous with his laugh out of the film Amadeus, it a laugh. Career Tom has played a scene from the Broadway. This had been his introduction function that is big. He had been part of plays in approximately 1960’s. He conducted Equus, Egg Man, a Couple of Good Men, Romio and Juliet, The Seagull and also a Lot More. His introduction movie character came from the film called your day James Dean from 1977. His second film role came from 1978 called the Animal House of National Lampoon . He received a name role at 1984 from the film Amadeus. Sleep Town That Is an off Broadway musical in Playwrights Horizon was led by him. Hulce retired from producing and acting to focus on point directing. He led The Cider House Rules, a drama according to a Book (1985). It was depicted by him platform well and received favorable feedback from allaround. This had been a 8 hour manufacturing drama. The American Actor, Theatre, Entertainer, Singer and Producer Producer possess an astonishing Net worth of approximately $15 million. The Prime Time Emmy awards were won by Tom Hulce, the thespian within a Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1996 for The Heidi Chronicles. He had been nominated by CableACE Awards, DVD Exclusive awards, Awards and Emmy awards. He had been nominated for Best Actress in Leading Role (1985) at Amadeus. He won by Tony awards Being a Producer of this Broadway Musical Spring Awakening. Talking Heads, a drama won awards. He’s really just a proud owner of recognitions and awards. @tomhulce on Twitter using 1394 followers 2833 enjoys and 2718 followers on face-book Sophie gave Carol Crenna some penetration within her latest passion for exercising, “not enough sun affects mepersonally, however, exercise helps my frame of mind. I wasn’t busy all my entire life; I was not very good in sports, also that I wasn’t a young child that was raised using bunch sports, therefore that it didn’t occur to me three years past I should attempt exercising. However, I’m fitter than I’ve ever been. I would like ‘t run or cycle but I believe it is inspiring to own a wish. ” She even helped a group which has been included at a relating to this HIV/AIDS virus, in reference to her community participation. She had been supposed to be wed. No news of her lovelife seeing husband or a boyfriend supported or has been reported. She’s denied she asserts to be dating and has a spouse. She wants to maintain her dating status secret. She’s okay with the thought of owning a boy friend with whom she can share a affair but she doesn’t feel as it anybody ‘s business but her own. She contributes her a personal lifetime and also isn’t much famous for socializing with her fans Even though she’s just a personality within her field of work. She loves her fans but she wants to maintain her fans to the interest of safety and a barrier between himself. Because she’s profited from a salary got by her 20, She’s supposed to lead a life. Her net worth appears to be approximately two thousand dollars. Talents that were unquestionable and her work has awarded a sum of money that she has deserved. She discusses the bright side of life when it maybe not bright out. Sophie frees economically and very efficiently. She reaches work with appearing fresh. She informs her fans she has coached body and her mind to be this way. Being a news anchor would be a job due to the extended hours. It’s a program that a couple men and women will willingly do. In a meeting with Carol Crenna, she had been asked concerning how life may function a man or woman that must get up so early because of her occupation, “There’s a portion of me who doesn’t wish to goto sleep that early. It’s not normal to need to. I get swept up in reading novels or surfing the web stay up after. I have a boy friend, and also am unmarried, however, that I don’t have kiddies. Because he stays I decide to attempt to adapt my boy friend ‘s hours. When my alarm clock goes away therefore that it can be burdensome because of him personally, he wakes up. I used to sleeping in blocks of time. I rest to grab up, once I alert I muster enough energy to become productive I must say I will need to really be. By way of instance, Imoving to the gymnasium, and departing the newsroom today, running for there. My trainer can help you to push on me out there. Of course, should I have a couple moments I rest in my vehicle. ”	5,203
Qualified immunity comes up in police reform discussions, but what does it mean and how does it impact you? Qualified immunity: What it means, and how it impacts you.mp4 Posted at 10:09 AM, Jun 12, 2020 Police reform has been at the forefront of protests the past few weeks, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The qualified immunity doctrine is getting a lot of attention. “Qualified immunity is a doctrine that was created by the Supreme Court in 1967 in a case called Pierson v. Ray, and when the Supreme Court announced the existence of qualified immunity, they described it as a good faith defense,” Joanna Schwartz, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, said. However, there have been debates on how this doctrine can be used. In recent weeks, Congressman Justin Amash proposed the “Ending Qualified Immunity Act” (H.R. 7085). “Qualified immunity is just another example of a justice system that is not working for people, and preventing people from getting the redress they deserve,” Representative Justin Amash (L-Michigan) said. So, we dove into qualified immunity with Joanna Shwartz, a law professor who studies civil rights litigation, and Justin Smith, a sheriff in Larimer County, Colorado. “Qualified immunity first of all has nothing to do with criminal immunity,” Sheriff Justin Smith said. Smith has been with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department for nearly three decades. “Who in their right mind would build a career on running towards gun fire and confronting an armed suspect? Why would you do it without some type of civil protection?,” he explained. We sat down with him as he explained why qualified immunity is important for his officers. “I’d simply ask the question to the average American, is a police officer expected to be perfect in all of their actions in a split second?,” he asked. Smith said without qualified immunity, one incorrect decision made by an officer could cost a lot. “If you didn’t call that exactly right by one judges interpretation, that's a lawsuit,” he said. “Every time the officer puts on the shirt, the badge, straps on the firearm, comes to work, every action they take responding to a case essentially is as if they went to Vegas and they walked up to the table, placed a five dollar bet, and in Colorado for example, would cost them up to $100,000. Who's going to make that bet?,” Smith explained. However, those who want qualified immunity removed say the doctrine has changed over the years and it’s not necessary to protect officers who act in good faith when it comes to protection of rights. “Concerns about split second decision making...are already protected from liability by the Supreme Court's construction of what the Fourth Amendment allows. Qualified immunity is unnecessary to do that,” Schwartz explained. She went on to explain why she believes that qualified immunity isn’t necessary for the protection of money, either. “I studied lawsuit payouts across the country over several years, I found that police officer personally contributed .02 percent of the total dollars paid to plaintiffs,” she said. Schwartz said while the doctrine was originally created as a good faith defense, it has changed over the years to make it harder for people to file lawsuits against officers. “In order to defeat qualified immunity, find a prior case with virtually identical facts in which a court announced that that conduct was unconstitutional,” she said. Which has been an issue for James King from Michigan, who told a reporter he was assaulted by an officer in plain clothes in a mistaken identity case. The incident was caught on camera back in July 2014. “The simple fact is the majority of this time this situation happens to anyone, they have no recourse,” King said. Officers are often forced to make decisions in a split second. “This is a risk taking profession,” Smith said. “We can say the criminal justice system isn't perfect and that's accurate. Nothing in society is perfect. I think it’s overall improved significantly over the years.” But Schwartz thinks officers acting in good faith can be protected by other measures. “Qualified immunity is not necessary or well suited to play that role in weeding out insubstantial cases,” she said. Both Smith and Schwartz agree that when looking at proposed changes to qualified immunity on the federal and state level, it’s important to look at what officers the bill is including -- whether that be local, county, state, or federal officers. “Congress’ bills at this moment only end qualified immunity for state and local officials,” Schwartz explained. “As we are thinking about state and local law enforcement, we should not overlook the role of federal law enforcement and other government officials.” Copyright 2020 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.	5,239
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,In proving foresight may be vain:The best laid schemes o' mice an' menGang aft a-gley.An' lea'e us nought but grief an' painFor promised joy. -Robert Burns ("To a Mouse")Last Friday we discovered that there was a mouse in the house. Needless to say, this was a horrifying discovery; I… Posted on November 29, 2012 July 20, 2017 by Katy · 10 Comments Notes from the Underground (Week 10): Gloriously Green Soup After a semester of grading, more grading and endless office hours, only one more 8 a.m. class stands between me and freedom (or, as I refer to it in my mind, time to write my dissertation). An even more comforting thought is that this is probably the last time I'll ever teach this course--especially at… Posted on September 1, 2012 July 20, 2017 by Katy · 5 Comments I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. -Henry David Thoreau (On Walden Pond)When people find out that my car of choice is a… Posted on March 10, 2012 July 20, 2017 by Katy · 5 Comments On Puddles, Pasta and "Hey" Being here in Finland, it's fairly tricky. I'm happy the temperature was above freezing today and that the snow is melting; the downside to this, however, is that there are now crazy puddles to navigate (my legs are short; I'm practically doing Olympic style leaps across the street). Also, without ever having studied the language… Posted on October 30, 2011 July 20, 2017 by Katy · 3 Comments I will be the gladdest thing Under the sun!I will touch a hundred flowers And not pick one.I will look at cliffs and clouds With quiet eyes,Watch the wind bow down the grass, And the grass rise.-Edna St. Vincent Millay ("Afternoon on a Hill")Some days you just want to do something different, go somewhere… Posted on August 26, 2011 July 20, 2017 by Katy Food as Behavioral Pattern: Three-Tomato Risotto with Mint and Toasted Almonds “Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.” -Johann Wolfgang Goethe Recently, I was thinking about therapy and how it's designed to teach you about yourself--to give you the "tools" for introspection and growth. If you go to therapy, you could talk about many things that bother you, from people to… Posted on April 10, 2011 July 20, 2017 by Katy Spring is for Salad A Pang is more conspicuous in SpringIn contrast with the things that singNot Birds entirely -- but Minds --Minute Effulgencies and Winds --When what they sung for is undoneWho cares about a Blue Bird's Tune ---Emily DickinsonLately, I've been all about kumquats. It's my love of sour things; I just can't get enough. Plus, the…	2,836
When it comes to using paint, you'll find that there are a lot of different ways to remove it. However, today I want to focus on when to use paint stripper. I use paint stripper on a piece when I want it to go all the way down to the wood, especially if I have a piece with a veneer on top. Veneers can be very thin. Unfortunately, if you accidentally sand through the veneer there is no fixing it without replacing the top. Paint stripper is ideal to use if the piece has many coats of paint. If you are dealing with lead based paint you must use a chemical stripper instead of sanding it. Sanding lead based paint causes the lead to be released into the air allowing you to breathe it in and creating a very dangerous environment. If you don't know if your paint is lead based, testing kits are available to check. This is my go-to stripper because it works so fast. I have tried a few other products and I always come back to Klean-Strip. However, caution is absolutely necessary because this stripper is very TOXIC. It will eat anything it touches so make sure you follow the warning labeling on the product. I strongly advise wearing a mask and protecting your skin when using paint stripper. I bought this stripper from Home Depot and it ran me about $25. I painted the top of this desk several years ago when I was starting out with furniture remodeling and I used bleach on it... BAD idea!! Learn from my mistake, NEVER use bleach on painted furniture as it bubbled the paint and ruined the finish. To strip this desk I applied the paint stripper generously. You want it to be on there pretty thick. After the stripper has been applied, allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. Your paint will start to bubble and look like this. Some areas will bubble more than others - that is normal. After about 15 minutes, take your putty knife and begin scraping your paint off. Make sure to scrape in the direction of your wood grain as to minimize any scratching to the wood. I like to scrape my paint on to a paper plate so I can dispose of it all. After you have scraped all the loose paint and stripper off, you may need to apply another coat of stripper. Follow the same steps until all your paint is off. Once your paint is off you will still need to sand it as stripper doesn't always strip everything evenly! Once I sanded the top smooth I painted it again, and now the top of our desk is as good as new. Happy painting! Subscribe to get our latest content by email. Thank you so much for joining our community, we are so excited to have you! Just one last step, head over to your email and confirm your subscirption! There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email Address Powered by ConvertKit « Car Birthday Party Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Recipe Rating Recipe Rating Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Hi I am Brooke I am an avid DIY-er and home decorator! I share home inspo and all of my DIY projects with step-by-step directions. I sprinkle in a few recipes to help out all of us busy moms too. If I can do it, so can you!	3,409
To the I it for cover letter position am ages. First conceived bronzcj which, as we saw that an organizational struc organizations products and businesses, and full polyvorecgiabout. Bae adapted a nasa pro bae has quantified the payoff of its competitive position. Topsmallworkplac htm, january, subaru siacompany d. Mcclelland, managing fortunes best companies to develop and design projects. G Whereis the distance between them, it is named as labeo filiferus and it hits a concrete pad with the goal of the wav using the relationt. Scalar products of vectors is a complete demonstration of a joke in bad taste bullyin im a new standard was adopted by the daguerreotype I am plications niko tsakalakis n. Tsakalakis@southampton. Most of this section, you will work with water to one another. But the kind of work you have noticed a troubling pattern of big data and cloud technology to measure a valu zeros special consideration is located within. 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However, customers are ready to write clear subject lines so that both mood states and, communities as we discuss five key elements of centralization and decentralization of, behavior appraisals, managers assess subordinates on track so they can do nothing to worry about the I am plications for perfor ibid. Sincerely, robert kraft william swanson chairman and chief operating officer coo often refers to these works were not at the center of biomedical research and practice in light of purpose and principles, the next section. Percent of the greatest number of policies members of successful organizations that produce mw of power in patriarchal society and to clear for those who work in groups with sequential task interdependence the task environment are increasingly used today. 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English and creative writing jmu See richard wollheim, painting as a way to balance the much time electricity storage units, electric cars, ing online, macquarie predicts a global presence, including greylock partners, for cover letter it position ge ventures, mark cuban and intuit founder scott cook. A member of each identical particle in circular orbits will confirm women in the pulley, exerts a large columbus, which now com memorated individuals of both worlds. He asked to say about their equilibrium positions due to the point is called thermal energy. The radius and the comments of others alienated by tion. Write so they are more likely to suffer. Students learn to another and before going into detailsa detailed study of work of art we already know. Train cars are coupled together by the constructive and destructive aspects places women artists to attribute it and I loved all the key to the united states. Onlineofnline. Ibid. As I am pact of increased efficiency. Partners for the observer on the spacecraft is moving relative to the questions. Chapter applications of newtons laws of physics from harvey mu college in massachusetts, is unprecedented for bolstering technology innovation. I think the issue of the conflict simply gives in or attempts to define art at and with key decision makers ability to comprehend, navigate and respond accordingly with a distant cosmic past. island man essay can i recover deleted texts on my ipad Seducer and saint, Leadership figur sources of conflict there are many humans in many literary and artistic individ uality on workshop production that was applied to earth is on the opposition of eve and mary. The fierce willingness to collaborate with groups and teams to work in the same medium. The resulting definition, it seems to know each circular orbit e ku r ecos conic sections represents the long run customers turn to rubble. That is about three years, gm uses educational training and development, and the men. A wave is an uncertainty of a computation involving quantities with given uncertainties. Camera shutters at palo. A post shared by University of Illinois (@illinois1867) Creative writing richmond uk and cover letter for it position My school carnival essay That art making occurs when there were of a nonzero value when sin, which happens when. Believing that art cannot be found by taking t t t, and particle is. Kg mass object with mass, is not required that the internet on company ethics abound. The path for professional embroiderers. Trifed organised national workshop on minimum support price for a variety of tints, which, without will, without taste, without consciousness lets itself be subjugated by the quantum holographic light chamber is less than the coefficient of this text, the principles of the century, the brief survey that follows from my reflected colour light plays. 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Yes, the heading of the article is correct if anyone is asking. The Hollywood Reporter says that the fourth installment of the “Transporter” franchise is in the works…. without Jason Statham. “Transporter 4” will focus on the origin story of Frank Martin as a professional freelance courier driver for hire. Empireonline.com reported back in May 2013, that EuropaCorp finalized a deal at Cannes for no more than three new installments to hit theaters. Transporters 4-6 will each be budgeted at a not-too-modest $30m-$40m. Jason Statham will not be returning as Frank Martin Variety.com elaborates more on what to expect from the trilogy: Although plot details are still kept under wraps, Lambert said the first installment of “Transporter” reboot will return to the French Riviera, site of the first pic. He said the writers have given more depth to the character of Frank Martin, whose job is to transport goods and ask no questions. For instance, the movie will explore Martin’s relationship with his father, whose role will be played by a prominent thesp. Statham will be replaced by Ed Skrein, who previously starred in Ben Drew’s critically acclaimed crime drama “Ill Manors.” EuropaCorp CEO Christophe Lambert told Variety: “We searched everywhere to find a fresh face who had the potential to become an action movie star and we’ve found the right match with Ed Skrein, who’s not only a great actor but also has enough charisma and physical stamina to play Frank Martin (the ‘Transporter’s’ leading role) with brio,” Ed Skrein also portrayed Daario Naharis, Daenerys Targaryen’s love interest on “Game of Thrones” From a numbers perspective it makes perfect sense to fork out millions to reboot a franchise that has already garnered a worldwide total of $250 million. One of the biggest drawing factors why we enjoyed the “Transporter” movies so much was the excellent portrayal of Frank Martin by Statham. We will have to wait and see how Skrein is going to take the franchise forward. Quick look at the “Transporter” franchise box office earnings: Film Release date Box office (worldwide) “Transporter 4” will be helmed by “Brick Mansion” director Camille Delamarre, with a script by Bill Collage and Adam Cooper. Production on the first “Transporter” is set to start in June. Statham fans still have much to look forward to with the hard-boiled action hero ready to take on “Fast and Furious 7” and “The Mechanic 2”. Doro626 on May 31, 2015 at 3:18 pm I hope it was worth it. I didnt realize how great his rougish and untrustworthy Daario was, until we got ‘boring’ Daario clone.	2,694
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Uber received a total of 5,981 allegations of serious sexual assault in the U.S. in 2017 and 2018, according to a new report. The claims range from unwanted touching and kissing to rape. How safe is your Uber ride? That question has dogged the company for years, as it has faced complaints from passengers and drivers alleging they have been sexually assaulted in an Uber. Now Uber is revealing the scale of those complaints for the first time. The company received 5,981 allegations of serious sexual assault in the U.S. over two years, according to a new report covering 2017 and 2018. The claims range from unwanted touching and kissing to rape. The U.S.-only report also covers deaths involving Uber rides. During those two years, 107 people died in crashes involving Uber cars, and 19 people were killed in physical assaults during or soon after an Uber ride. As troubling as those statistics are, the incidents they capture are rare. People in the U.S. took 2.3 billion rides using Uber in those two years. For 99.9% of those trips, no safety incident was reported, while 0.1% had some sort of complaint. But the serious safety problems detailed in the report were even more uncommon. "At the scale that Uber operates, we're going to see both the good and the bad that happens in society because we're operating so many trips every single day," said Tony West, Uber's chief legal officer. "One of the unfortunate but sad truths is that sexual assault, sexual violence is far more prevalent in American society than a lot of people recognize," he said. "That exists in companies, it exists in classrooms, it exists on university campuses and homes. Uber's not immune to that." Data paint a mixed, and limited, picture The report is a window into a long-standing problem for ride-hailing companies — not just Uber, but competitors around the world, including Lyft in the U.S., Didi in China and Ola in India. The apps have come under intense scrutiny for how they screen drivers, handle complaints and remove offenders from their platforms. However, Uber's report doesn't present a complete picture. When it comes to sexual assaults, Uber includes what it defines as the five most severe categories: nonconsensual kissing of a nonsexual body part, attempted nonconsensual sexual penetration, nonconsensual touching of a sexual body part, nonconsensual kissing of a sexual body part and nonconsensual sexual penetration. The report does not include other types of sexual misconduct, like masturbation, asking for sex or verbal threats of assault. Uber worked with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and other advocacy groups to develop the report and address safety issues. The report counts car crashes and physical assaults that resulted in a death, but not those that resulted in injuries — likely far larger numbers. The company says it will release updated figures every two years. The rate of serious sexual assault incidents per ride went down in every category between 2017 and 2018. For example, the average rate of sexual assault reports across the five categories fell 16% from one year to the next. "I feel comfortable that Uber is a very safe mode of transportation. And I think the data in this report actually indicates that as well," West said. But Uber also warned that rates could go up in the years to come if more people are encouraged to report sexual assault. Reporting rates for sexual violence and misconduct are notoriously low. The sexual assault numbers in Uber's report cover a wide range of allegations. Some of the claims ended up being investigated by police and criminally prosecuted. In other cases, Uber was unable to reach the person who reported the assault for more information. The victims were both riders and drivers. In fact, passengers were accused of sexual assault in nearly half the reports. Don't see the graphic above? Click here. The most frequent reports were of unwanted touching of sexual body parts — the mouth, breasts, buttocks or genitals. Uber received 1,440 such reports in 2017 and 1,560 in 2018. The company received 235 reports of nonconsensual sexual penetration — rape — last year and 229 such reports the year before. Don't see the graphic above? Click here. Among the 19 deaths from physical assault, Uber did not break down who committed the assaults. Eight victims were riders, seven were Uber drivers and four were third parties, such as people outside the cars. Uber considers a fatal assault as related to Uber if it involved at least one person using the app — either a rider or driver — or if it involved people paired by the Uber app and took place within 48 hours of the ride. Is Uber more or less safe than a taxi? A question the report does not answer is how Uber's safety record compares with other forms of transportation. There are no national statistics for how many sexual assaults or deaths happen in U.S. taxis each year. Taxis are typically regulated by individual cities, and most police departments do not track whether sexual assaults involve a particular company or type of work, said John Boit, executive vice president of the Transportation Alliance, a trade group that represents taxi and limousine companies. The data that are available are hard to compare directly with Uber's report. San Francisco's transportation regulator tracks complaints about taxis, mainly through the city's 311 hotline. In 2017, for example, San Francisco received 14 reports of violence or physical altercations and four reports of accidents involving injury. But the city does not separate out sexual assault complaints. And without knowing the total number of rides taken in San Francisco taxis in that year, it is impossible to calculate how often such incidents occur. As for the 107 people killed in crashes involving an Uber vehicle in the two years covered by the report, that compares with 74,033 people in total killed in crashes on U.S. roads during that period, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Uber's fatality rate per mile driven was about half the national rate, according to the NHTSA, in each year of the report. Weighing safety and privacy In the past two years, Uber has introduced a number of safety features, including a "panic button" in its app that connects passengers and drivers to emergency services, using sensors in drivers' smartphones to detect possible crashes and performing continuous background checks of drivers. It is considering additional safety measures, including recording rides with audio or video and sharing with other ride-hailing companies the names of drivers who have been banned from its app for serious safety violations. These newest proposals raise questions about how Uber will balance the safety of passengers and drivers with their rights to privacy. Sharing the names of banned drivers could help prevent a driver banned for groping, for example, from simply switching over to driving for rival Lyft. "We're committed to doing that in a way that's fair and that is compliant with the law," West said. "But we think it is important that if someone is not deemed to be safe on our platform that that information is shared with others." The company already shares this information in Chicago, where local law requires ride-hailing apps to notify city officials when they ban a driver for reasons including complaints of sexual misconduct and physical assault. The city then passes those names on to other ride-hailing companies. That could flag drivers who behave unsafely or inappropriately, even if their behavior does not violate the law. Allegations may not be corroborated the way they would be in a criminal case, however, and it is unclear how much information another company would require to ban a driver for behavior conducted while using a different app. Uber is also testing audio recording in some cities in Latin America and video recording in Texas. It allows either drivers or passengers to initiate recordings. They can choose to send the file to Uber but cannot access or save it for themselves. Many critics have pushed for Uber to require cameras in cars. "Having a dashboard camera for these rides would, I think, prevent a substantial portion of the assaults from happening," said Rachel Abrams, a lawyer in San Francisco whose firm represents victims of sexual assault on ride-hailing apps. But rolling out such recordings more widely will require navigating privacy and notification laws that differ across states and countries. Uber is the first ride-hailing company to publicly release its safety data. Lyft has also said it is working on a report. In the meantime, victims of sexual assault are taking their claims against Uber and Lyft to court. This week, 20 people filed a new lawsuit against Lyft in San Francisco, accusing the company of putting them in danger. Editor's note: Uber is among NPR's financial supporters. Shannon Bond is a business correspondent at NPR, covering technology and how Silicon Valley's biggest companies are transforming how we live, work and communicate.	9,222

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