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https://www.scotttreks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/charles-goodnight-5.mp3 Not far from Clarendon, Texas is the homestead and ranch headquarters of Charles Goodnight, a pioneer Texas rancher. In the mid to late 1800’s, he controlled a ranch of over a million acres, had 180 cowboys on his payroll, and was an industry by himself. He was a tough man who lived to be 93, fought Indians and had Indians as long time friends. He experimented with crossbreeding buffalo and Texas longhorns and was responsible, with help from his wife Molly, for saving the short hair buffalo from extinction. He entertained Presidents and panhandlers alike in his dining room and, as a cowboy employee once said , ” when he told you to do something he expected it to be done. ” His house is on the National Register of Historic Places and was restored with private funds, grants, and donations. On a small horned couch in the upstairs master bedroom is an open Bible with a pair of reading glasses holding his place in Psalms. There are temptations and lines to be drawn in accumulating a million acres of land and running men and cattle. Mr. Goodnight was reputed to be a gruff, stern, no nonsense kind of man. Yet, he was also reputed to be kind and generous with his time, his money and attention to those who wanted to work hard and learn. If he liked you he would do most anything to help you rise on your merits. My brother Alan tells a story of our Aunt Roberta, my father’s sister, who lived in Clarendon where an old Mr. Goodnight had his city house and spent the last few years of his life. She and a girlfriend used to play jacks on the sidewalk in front of his home and she remembered a nurse coming out with a plate of cookies and telling them they could come anytime to play. Stern and gruff as he is in his photos and paintings, the man that sent out cookies to two little girls had a heart of gold. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * 3,832 Spambots Blocked by Simple Comments JavaScript must be turned on to leave a comment. Your purchase helps Scott continue his travels and he’ll reciprocate by taking you along in words, photos and videos!	2,337
For the last three years we have participated in Free Museum Day, the day when museums all around the country open their doors for free. Well, many only offer two free tickets per household which in our case doesn’t help a whole lot. Fort Worth does a Day in the District that coincides with Free Museum Day, and the participating museums are completely free on this day. This year we chose the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Well, that morning we dragged our feet getting ready. As everyone was heading out the door, my husband remembered that there was an In-N-Out restaurant somewhere in the vicinity and sent me to look it up. I ran back to my computer and did a speedy Google map search, located the place, wrote down the address, and ran out to catch up with the rest of my family. The museum was understandably crowded. We stayed in the hands-on kid areas and took turns swapping which kids we followed around. Our kids were having a blast, but at the same time they were being very cranky toward each other. The pregnant me was just not willing to do endless battle at free over-crowded museums, so much to their chagrin, we decided to leave much earlier than we had planned. Maybe they’ll remember this next time. Off we went to find the In-N-Out hamburger place. I yanked out my handy dandy directions and led us right to it. Yessiree–the In-and-Out auto repair shop. Oops! The little cliché “Haste makes waste” came to mind! And as is generally the case, I found it hysterically funny, but my husband not so much! “We’re going home,” he announced, and was met by groans all around. I quickly pulled out my phone and looked up the right address just in case he changed his mind, and somehow he drove right to it. I always wonder at how easily he can find places. So we took our grumpy kids to our new and exciting hamburger joint that was bursting with people. While my husband ordered, I stood with the kids close, but not too close, to a table of people that were almost through eating. A bit later I noticed a man came to stand on the opposite side. I wondered which table he was hoping to get. As “my” people got up from the table, the man rushed over and placed his stuff on “my” table. I am not normally the most assertive person in the world, but on this occasion, if the man was going to steal my table, I at least wanted him to feel guilty about it. I waited for the people to get out of their chairs first, but then went to the man and said, “I’ve been waiting for this table.” He was none too happy, but I suppose we looked so pitiful that he humphed and left. We crammed our family of six, well seven actually, into a table for four and gulped down hamburgers, fries, and shakes…that tasted much better on our romantic little date than they did on this day surrounded by our grumpy crew and wall to wall people. Whew. So that was our frugal though exhausting little family outing on Free Museum Day. Related Posts 6 Comments Filed Under: Kids, My Man Tagged: funny, husband, kids, marriage Comments Frieda says October 14, 2011 at 9:25 am Well, some looked-forward-to treats turn out not as well as hoped for. I think you have your share of good ones and bad ones. Hope the next one comes out better. Chances are the kids will just remember the fun parts. The crowds may not have bothered them as much as they bothered their parents. And in my experience, the kids never seem to remember fighting with each other or understand why their parents mind so much. Dr Momi says October 14, 2011 at 9:28 am I agree with Frieda…the kids will only remember the good parts. (I think it was hysterically funny that it was the In and Out Auto Repair too LOL) shari lynne says October 14, 2011 at 11:14 am Good for you Esther! On getting the little ones out of the museum and getting YOUR table!! LOL. I’m sure if you ask them about their trip they will say fun things:) Kids don’t tend to remember the frustrations as much as we do. Have a great day! Mari says October 14, 2011 at 1:04 pm How did I know….that when you said you looked up the In and Out Burger on the computer that a story would be a comin’? And I think you were a bit gracious. AFter that man put his stuff down at the table, I would’ve just sat down with my kids and let him figure it out. But either way – you got your table Hannah says October 14, 2011 at 1:35 pm You could have just stood close by rubbing your belly and saying loudly, “Don’t worry kids, SOMEONE will be nice enough to let us sit down soon, I HOPE”. There are some perks to being pregnant with other kids! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Δ Hi! We believe laughter is the best medicine. Join in with us as we share our family laughs, fun with food, and love of travel. Great to meet you! Esther Irish A Bug in My Shirt Why I don't fly with kids Archives Select Month April 2021 February 2021 January 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 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010	6,822
As many of you may know, I went to Kauai last Summer to get hitched to my wife and spend a week in paradise during vacation. I was lucky enough to go back and visit this year during my birthday week, which coincided with Spring Break. Thanks Rob! I say i was lucky because my grandfather, who is now retired, spends a month in Kauai each year, and has offered a room if we could just get out there. This was an offer that started nearly 10 years ago, so it was great to finally spend time out there with my grandparents. A great thing about them is they don’t like children, and they wanted us to get out of the house as much as possible… so we did and we had an amazing time. Hope you enjoy the photos, they never do the place justice. Round 2 This is the view over Hanalei Bay… truly amazing. The wife and I on our way to breakfast at the Wake Up Cafe. Then we got our feet wet at Anini beach. This was a perfect day. One day, my grandpa treated me to a round of golf on the island. I had never experienced a round of golf on the ocean and it should come to no surprise that my retired grandfather beat my ass. While golfing, my wife went to visit the Hindu Monastery of Kauai. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit, but the photos she took were amazing. While golfing, my wife went to visit the Hindu Monastery of Kauai. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to visit, but the photos she took were amazing. Pathways led you through these crazy tree formations that grew naturally. There were little spots where you could stand and meditate if you wish. Trees were all intertwined with each other. Apparently this location hold some spiritual value. Stone pathway. Here is where some sort of ceremony would be performed. An offering dish in one of the Buddha statues. The attention to detail on a lot of these are amazing. This is some sort of glass or crystal. The wife has a thing for gems. This is probably where the monks go skinny dipping. The view of the new monastery that is being built is seen in the distance. These views never get old. They don’t call it the garden isle for nothing. They don’t call it the garden isle for nothing. They don’t call it the garden isle for nothing. Private monk area… where monks do their private stuff… seems shady to me. Round 1 After a full day of travelling, it was nice to wake up the next day to find a ton of little lizards hanging out on the patio of my room. These two just so happened to be getting a little morning nookie. Naturally, I had to take a picture of nature taking it’s course. Do you think the “money shot” was green too? It wasn’t… it didn’t taste green either. On our first night, we set out to check out the local market and grab some drinks to celebrate my 31st birthday. We noticed a ton of these giant spider webs everywhere. It was actually impressive because the rain would fall, take them down, and they’d be back in 10 minutes or less. My grandparents told me of this bar called Tiki Iniki, which is owned by the world famous singer Todd Rund Rundgren. You know, the guy that sang “I Saw The Light” and “Can We Still Be Friends?” – Here is a portrait hanging in the bar for a reminder. Of course we had to get some tiki drinks… which were poored heavily with lots of rum. Yum. My wife got artsy with her drinks. My wife got artsy with her drinks. This place could not have been any more tiki and campy. Even the waitress had a surfer in her blue hair. My wife spotted this couple playing grab ass… this was the closest picture she could get… but they were grabbing ass all night. Even the stools (hehe) were little tiki guys. My grandparents went home well before dark, and after one drink. My wife and I stayed for one or three more and walked home in the dark. At least we had this giant fountain to guide our way back home. It was literally a 5 minute walk from where we were staying. Ooh pretty fountain. On day 2, we went out and did some hiking. Only to find a bunch of crappy waterfalls and awful looking green scenery. #sarcasm. More lush awfulness. I am probably relieving myself in this picture. Waterfalls and streams ran alongside the trail to Queen’s bath, which was far to rough to visit on this particular day. It’s been known to churn people up into the ocean and kill people.	4,547
When I learned to drive, I remember being told to keep my eyes focused on the center of the road straight ahead, and that will keep my steering centered; that if my eyes wandered off to the side, my car would start veering that way. When my thoughts go in a certain direction, same thing. When they are wobbly, I’m wobbly. When they are clear, I’m clear. When they are tired, I’m tired. But I am not my thoughts. When I start to think that I am, I can’t think beyond them, and I obey them despite knowing better. When I realize I am more than my thoughts, that’s when I can break free from its tyranny and its limitations. The part of me that can observe my own thoughts can override them and make different choices so that my thoughts begin to obey me instead. If my navigation goes to where my thoughts go, then I need to understand that I can have command over my thoughts to set the navigation straight. On Google Maps, we put the address in. We input the “thought” to go where we want to go. We decide on the direction and then the navigation takes us there. An address doesn’t just pop up for us to follow. This morning I woke up feeling like an hour more of sleep would be really great. Boy that would feel good. Obeying it would be to hit the snooze button. I got up. I override my thought with another one because I know that that’s what I really want. That would give me the experience of having a step up in my day. It would keep me on track and sustain my energy level, and I could give myself permission to nap if I want to later in the day. The irony is, I tend to need a nap when I hit the snooze button in the morning. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Related Posted bySavitree Kaur September 10, 2019 Posted inAuthentic Relationships Published by Savitree Kaur I'm a meditation and mindset coach. I teach you to use morning meditation and daily habits to bring purpose and energy into your life. View more posts	2,323
There aren’t many things as disruptive to the work flow of your office as moving, but if you are organized it will go smoother. Having a detailed office move plan will make your job much easier. Every office move will be different, but here are some basic things to have on your office move checklist. Delegate. It’s reasonable to expect people in specific areas, like it, to organize their part of a move. Management and staff will have different roles. But as the person in charge of the move, you will be overseeing their parts. Make sure to send out emails and notify each department. Give them basic moving instructions, and let them know what is expected of them for the move. Be sure to schedule the move at the end of the week. This will give your staff the weekend to unpack, and set up their work space for work on Monday. Start with your new floor plan. In a sense, you’re going to be working backwards, but start your move plan at the new office destination. Using a floor plan of the new office (you may be able to acquire this from property management or building owners), mark where desks, and other items will be located within that office. Start a numbering system, and assign a number to each person for all of their furniture, boxes, etc. That will be moved to the new office. ** If you are dealing with a modular/cubicle floor plan, Bart’s Office Furniture can help you set up your floor plan to maximize the space you have available. Inventory. No matter how organized and detail-oriented you are, you can’t keep track of everything. Make an inventory sheet for each person to fill out for their area. Management can make room/cubicle assignments. Don’t get involved in office politics. As always expect staff to be maneuvering for the best offices, or cubicle areas. Leave these decisions to management (that’s why they make the big bucks). Out with the old. An office move is a great opportunity to have a general housecleaning. A few weeks before your move date, hire a mobile shredding company if your company doesn’t have a shredding system in place. Ask staff to go through their areas and throw out, recycle or put things in the shred bin. Make sure moving boxes and labels are available. Ten boxes per office or cubicle should be enough. Professional office movers will likely have directions about how they want you to pack up the office. Get advice from them as needed. Forward all moving instructions to all office personnel that will be moving. Advocate personal responsibility. Shortly before the move, office staff will need to clear out personal items from their work space. This includes breakable, irreplaceable, & personal items. They will be responsible for moving these items themselves. This way only work-related contents will be packed up, moved, and need to be unpacked. Each employee should have a copy of the layout for the new office space. Ask all employees’ to use this when marking their belongings with their coordinating office number. Have you ever lifted a file cabinet? File cabinets are monsters. Unload and pack all but the last (2) drawers of the cabinet, and stick a label with the number on the front top of the cabinet. Be sure to label contents of the drawers along with any items you remove from a storage cabinet or bookshelf, so there is not confusion when unpacking these items after the move is complete. While unloading the file cabinets is a back saver, it also maintains the integrity of the cabinet, and prevents damages. Doing this will preserve the life of your cabinet, and save you on future repair costs. Move the computers. Everyone will be responsible for their laptops and should remove them from the office prior to the move. Bart’s office furniture knows how to move computers, so don’t pack those up. Your IT department will need to be in the loop to disconnect; reconnect and trouble shoot at the new location. Don’t get flustered when an unexpected crises pops up for you to deal with. There is always an unpredictable element for every move. Just go with the flow, and let the professionals do what they do best. Leased equipment. Make sure all Xerox machines and large copiers that are leased, or have a warranty through another company, are moved by those companies. If you wish to have Bart’s Office Furniture move the equipment, make sure to get clearance for this in writing. Reputable moving companies like ours will carry insurance to cover damages done during the move. However, if the machine breaks or needs service after the move, warranties and service contracts could be voided if clearance was not given prior to moving the equipment.	4,674
This paper addresses the issue of exam paper evaluation using neural network. This paper foresees the possibility of using adaptive real time learning through computers viz. the student is made to feed his answers in a restricted format to the computer to the questions it puts up and the answers are evaluated instantaneously. This is accomplished by connecting the computers to a Knowledge Server. This server has actually connections to various authenticated servers (encyclopedias) that contain valid information about all the subjects. The information in the server is organized in a specific manner. The exam is adaptive in the sense that the computer asks distinct questions to each individual depending upon their specialization. This paper also analyzes the role of existing neural network models like Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART), Back Propagation, Perceptron, Self-Organizing Feature Map (SOFM) can be optimized to implement such an evaluation system. Computers have revolutionized the field of education. The rise of internet has made computers a real knowledge bank providing distanteducation, corporate access etc. But the task of computers in education can be comprehensive only when the evaluation system is also computerized. The real assessment of students lies in the proper evaluation of their papers. Conventional paper evaluation leaves the student at the mercy of the teachers. Lady luck plays a major role in this current system of evaluation. Also the students don't get sufficient opportunities to express their knowledge. Instead they are made to regurgitate the stuff they had learnt in their respective text books. This hinders their creativity to a great extent. Also a great deal of money and time is wasted. The progress of distance education has also been hampered by the non-availability of a computerized evaluation system. This paper addresses how these striking deficiencies in the educational system can be removed. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an information processing paradigm that is inspired by the way biological nervous systems, such as the brain, process information. The key element of this paradigm is the novel structure of the information processing system. It is composed of a large number of highly interconnected processing elements (neurons) working in unison to solve specific problems. ANNs, like people, learn by example. An ANN is configured for a specific application, such as pattern recognition or data classification, through a learning process. Role of Neural Network: Tasks cut out for the neural network: a. Analyze the sentence written by the student. b. Extract the major components of each sentence. d. Compare the points and allot marks according to the weightage of that point. e. Maintain a file regarding the positives and negatives of the student. f. Ask further questions to the student in a topic he is more clear off. g. If it feels of ambiguity in sentences then set that answer apart and continue with other answers and ability to deal that separately with the aid of a staff.	3,158
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, the White House announced, underscoring the persistence of the highly contagious virus even as the U.S. eases restrictions in a bid to return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Neither President Joe Biden nor first lady Jill Biden was considered a “close contact” of Harris in recent days, said the vice president’s press secretary, Kirsten Allen. Harris had been scheduled to attend Biden’s Tuesday morning Presidential Daily Brief but was not present, the White House said. She had returned Monday from a weeklong trip to the West Coast. The last time she saw Biden was the previous Monday, April 18. “I have no symptoms, and I will continue to isolate and follow CDC guidelines,” Harris tweeted. “I’m grateful to be both vaccinated and boosted.” After consulting with her physicians, Harris, 57, was prescribed and is taking Paxlovid, the Pfizer antiviral pill, her office said late Tuesday. The drug, when administered within five days of symptoms appearing, has been proven to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease. Biden phoned Harris Tuesday afternoon to make sure she “has everything she needs” while working from home, the White House said. Harris, received her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine weeks before taking office and a second dose just days after Inauguration Day in 2021. She received a booster shot in late October and an additional booster on April 1. Fully vaccinated and boosted people have a high degree of protection against serious illness and death from COVID-19, particularly from the most common and highly transmissible omicron variant. Harris’ diagnosis comes a month after her husband, Doug Emhoff, recovered from the virus, as a wave of cases of the highly transmissible omicron subvariant has spread through Washington’s political class, infecting Cabinet members, White House staffers and lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., tested positive on Tuesday. Want more news like this? Get it delivered to your inbox for FREE Try The Paper by email for FREE By clicking submit, you agree to receive The Paper by email. We don't share or sell your info. That's just wrong. You can unsubscribe anytime. Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again. Allen said Harris would follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines “and the advice of her physicians.” It was not immediately clear whether she is being prescribed any antiviral treatments. The White House has put in place strict COVID-19 protocols around the president, vice president and their spouses, including daily testing for those expected to be in close contact with them. Biden is tested regularly on the advice of his physician, the White House has said, and last tested negative on Monday. “We have a very very contagious variant out there,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Aashish Jha on Tuesday. “It is going to be hard to ensure that no one gets COVID in America. That’s not even a policy goal.” He said the administration’s goal is to make sure people don’t get seriously ill. Jha added that despite the precautions it is possible that Biden himself will come down with the virus at some point. “I wouldn’t say it’s just a matter of time, but of course it is possible that the president, like any other American, could get COVID,” he said. “There is no 100% anything.” Psaki said she “would not expect” any changes to White House protocols. After more than two years and nearly a million deaths in the U.S., the virus is still killing more than 300 people a day in the U.S., according to the CDC. The unvaccinated are at a far greater risk, more than twice as likely to test positive and nine times as likely to die from the virus as those who have received at least a primary dose of the vaccines, according to the public health agency. Harris’ diagnosis comes as the Biden administration is taking steps to expand availability of the life-saving Paxlovid, reassuring doctors that there is ample supply for people at high risk of severe illness or death from the virus. In addition to her husband’s diagnosis, Harris was identified as a “close contact” after her communications director tested positive on April 6. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines “close contact” with an infected person as spending 15 minutes or more with them over a 24-hour period. The CDC says people with “close contact” do not need to quarantine if they are up to date on their vaccines but should wear well-fitting masks around other people for 10 days after the contact. Support Local Journalists. We never charge for local news. But local journalists still have to eat. Donate $15 Give Monthly Published by Associated Press Related Judge Orders End to Trump-era Asylum Restrictions at Border November 16, 2022 December 1, 2022 Voters in 5 States Will Decide Whether to Legalize Marijuana November 8, 2022 In "Elections" Advertise with us © 2022 Good Trouble, LLLP dba The Paper. Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic Terms, Conditions & Privacy	5,428
It’s Memorial Day weekend, the time we take to honor those who died while serving our country. In today’s post we’ll look at the life of Joseph and what he had in common with one U.S. war vet who died much later than you would imagine. Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and baker each have dreams on the same night. Joseph, their fellow prisoner, sees they’re dejected because they recognize the dreams as having meaning, but they can’t figure out the interpretation. So Joseph asks them the rhetorical question, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” So the cupbearer decides to share his dream with Joseph. The cupbearer, says, In my dream I see this vine in front of me, and it has three branches. As soon as the vine buds, it blossoms, and it’s clusters ripen into grapes. In my dream, Pharaoh’s cup is in my hand so I take the grapes, squeeze the juice out of them into Pharaoh’s cup, and put the cup in his hand. Joseph says, This is the interpretation, The three branches are three days. Inside of three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and call you back up to your former position. You’ll put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand just like you used to. Now listen, when you’re back in Pharaoh’s good graces, remember me and do me a favor: mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews, and I’ve never done anything to deserve a life sentence in a dungeon. When the baker sees that the cupbearer received a favorable interpretation he decides to share his dream as well. I also had a dream, the baker says. In my dream I have three baskets of bread on top of my head. Inside the top basket there are all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the only thing is, birds are eating them out of the basket on my head. Joseph says, This is what it means, The three baskets equal three days. In three days Pharaoh will have your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat your flesh. Cut to three days later and it’s Pharaoh’s birthday. He gives a feast for all his officials. Pharaoh lifts up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, in front of all his administration. He restores the chief cupbearer to his old position, so he’s serving Pharaoh his cup once again. But he has the chief baker impaled. Everything happened just as God, through Joseph, had interpreted. But the chief cupbearer forgot about Joseph and his request. Joseph and Jesus: The picture of Jesus painted in Joseph’s life continues in this part of Joseph’s story as we see parallels between them: 1) Both were sentenced based on false accusations: Joseph accused of raping Potiphar’s wife, and Jesus of inciting rebellion against the established government. (Luke 23:1-4) 2) Both were numbered with two transgressors: Joseph with the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and Jesus with the two thieves on either side of Him as He hung on the cross. (Mark 15:27-28) The baker of bread and the cupbearer of wine also speak of Jesus’ command for us to take communion. And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19-20) 3) And both endured feeling forgotten: Joseph thought he was forgotten by the cupbearer, but he wasn’t, as we’ll see later. And Jesus, felt forsaken when He was separated from His Father for the first time in eternity. He cried out “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:45-50) A good friend of mine shared with me recently about how he’s feeling forgotten. He’s separated from family, he has financial problems, and he has health problems. Maybe you’re feeling forgotten. Maybe you’re not stuck in a dungeon but stuck in a difficult work environment, or stuck on unemployment, or stuck in a house that’s upside down financially, or stuck in debt, or stuck in a tough marriage. You know, just a few chapters previous, the Bible says of Joseph, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness. (Genesis 39:21) Given Joseph’s story so far, you might be saying to yourself right now, “Are you kidding me? The Lord was with him? The Lord showed him kindness? What kindness? Joseph’s family badmouthed him behind his back, they plotted to kill him, they tossed him into a cistern, they sold him into slavery, they told his father he was dead, then he was falsely accused of rape, tossed into a dungeon, and now… Now the cupbearer’s forgotten about him altogether and he’s rotting in this dungeon for who knows how long! Kindness you say?” Speaking of God the Father, Jesus said, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45) In other words, we all have problems. Jesus said it again, even more directly, when He stated, In this world you will have trouble. (John 16:33) It’s not surprising then that Joseph has had trouble, serious trouble. We all either do have, or will have trouble. You either have, or are going to have trouble, serious trouble. Every single person on the planet experiences problems. No one escapes. Not one of us. No matter what we do. Because we live in a fallen world, we have no choice when it comes to troubles, we’ll all have them. The choice we do have though, is whether or not we want the Lord with us in the dungeon, whether or not we want Him to show us kindness when we’re stuck in that tough situation, when we’re in the midst of our trouble. Walking through problems with Him can make our difficulties so much better than they would be otherwise. Before he died I saw Louie Zamperini interviewed on a talk show. Louie is the character in the first movie Angelina Jolie directed, Unbroken. You may have seen it or read the book it’s based on. Louie was a juvenile delinquent who seemed to turn things around when he became a track star as a teenager. He went to the Olympics and it appeared he had a bright future ahead of him. Many thought he’d be the first to break the four minute mile barrier. But before the next Olympics, World War II started. Louie enlisted as a bombardier. During a rescue mission his plane crashed into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He was lost at sea on a life raft with two fellow soldiers for 47 days, longer than any other person in history at that time. And during that time he was nearly killed by starvation, sharks, storms, and a Japanese bomber that strafed his raft — twice. But that wasn’t even the hard part. On the 48th day they were captured by the Japanese. Louie was tortured mercilessly by a psychotic Japanese guard who was nicknamed “the Bird” by the prisoners. Zamperini’s torture at the hands of this man went on for years. During his time lost at sea and as a P.O.W. Louie prayed fervently for God to spare his life. In return, Louie promised he would serve Him. Miraculously, Louie did survive the war but afterwards he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. He had intense horrific dreams of his tormentor, the Bird, every single night. He even attempted to find him in Japan so he could kill him in revenge. He started drinking heavily. He had trouble holding a job. He was at rock bottom. Eventually his wife told him she was filing for divorce. Then one day his wife attended a Billy Graham crusade. She made a commitment to Christ and came home a changed woman. She announced to Louie the divorce was off. She also drug Louie to the next crusade meeting. He was resentful and angry about it. But then she talked him into attending another, and as he listened to Billy Graham that second time, it hit him. I have forgotten! On the talk show he said, I thought to myself, what an idiot! Here I had told God if He saved me I’d serve Him for the rest of my life. God kept his end of the deal, but I had forgotten mine. So I committed myself to Christ. Up until that time I dreamed of the Bird every night. But since the day I committed myself to Christ, I haven’t dreamed of him once, and I haven’t had any drinking problems. The point is, God didn’t forget Joseph while he was in the dungeon. And God didn’t forget Louie Zamperini, not even while he was stranded at sea and suffering torture from the Bird. It’s not a question of God forgetting you. It’s a question of you forgetting Him! I’m telling you right now, remember Him. Whatever you do, remember to take Him with you into the dungeon you’re dwelling in currently. Remember Him. Remember to take Him with you out in whatever sea you’re stranded in. Remember Him. Remember to take Him with you into whatever torture you’re enduring. Take Him into your heart and mind by reading His Bible. Take Him into conversation by praying to Him. Take Him into your company by worshiping Him at His house, with His people. He hasn’t forgotten you. It’s good to remember those who died in battle for our country. And it’s good to remember Him. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come. They said to him,“We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” 9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes.11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. 14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. 15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, 17 and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.”18 And Joseph answered and said,“This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. 19 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.” 20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants andlifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. (ESV) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Posted on May 23, 2015 by Kurt Bennett May 23, 2015 This is a great analogy of Joseph and the Vet, as well as a great admonition for all. I love the story of Joseph, being my favorite of all our brothers who lived long ago. It reminds me that life is not always fair as you indicated. I think life is no cake walk. There are times when we are locked up in our own prisons of “woe is me” and wonder why, God? I think it is best never to ask Him why, rather “What are you trying to accomplish in my life during this difficult time”? There is a game I remember long ago with the prize of gaining a “cake”. The scenario would be 10 chairs in a circle, but 11 folks were to walk around the circle of chairs while the music was playing. When the music stopped one would quickly sit on a chair. Naturally one person would be left out, thereby forfeiting the game, and progressively they would keep removing one chair each time until the elimination and the final contestant got the cake. I like cake, but sooner or later comes elimination! Our Maestro is conducting the symphony of life in which we are to play our very best for His Glory, yet no maestro will relish sour notes, we’re to be tuned up and tuned in. Direct us Father. Imagine our LORD as the prize as we go around the circle of life; sometimes we miss out on the cake because we are not swift enough to win the race. Scripture tells us: 1Co_9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. Heb_12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…	13,699
In October 2022, two events underscored just how far economic liberalism’s sway in politics across the world has declined since its period of relative influence between 1979 and 2008. One was former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss’s swift defenestration from No.10 Downing Street by her own party following her failed effort to introduce some mild supply-side reforms into an ailing British economy. The second was Xi Jinping’s re-election for a third term as Chinese Communist Party General Secretary. Since 2012, a hallmark of Xi’s rule has been a steady winding-back of the limited and selective liberalization of China’s economy that commenced in 1978. Many other indications of economic liberalism’s fading impact are observable. Whether it is the Biden Administration’s continuation of the Trump Administration’s protectionist policies or left-populism’s resurgence throughout Latin America, all signs show that we are light-years away from the Reagan-Thatcher era. Certainly, the enthusiastic free market rhetoric of those decades exceeded the more modest achievements. Yet interventionists of all stripes were unquestionably on defense through the 1980s and 1990s. In one sense, market liberalism’s present weakness represents a return to normal. In his monograph, The Changing Fortunes of Economic Liberalism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1998), the British academic economist and senior Treasury official David Henderson (1927-2018) pointed out that ever since basic market liberal principles acquired decisive intellectual form with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, there had “been no consistent trend toward liberal economic policies.” Between the late-1840s and early-1880s, Henderson observed, economic liberalism developed somewhat of an ascendancy in Western elite opinion and a degree of mass support in countries like Britain. But even before 1914, that trend was receding. Welfare states began to be established in countries like Germany. Other European nations and their colonies started re-embracing protectionist arrangements. From then on, interventionist trends accelerated, spurred forward by two world wars, government reactions to the Depression, and the fundamental rethinking of economics associated with John Maynard Keynes. At the time of his monograph’s publication, Henderson noted the trend toward economic liberalization which had commenced in the mid-1970s. But, he added, market liberalism still confronted formidable obstacles. First, despite positive shifts in what Henderson called “informed opinion”—civil servants, central bankers, politicians, etc.—toward market liberalism, profound opposition endured in much of the economic profession, large swathes of the left, some conservatives, and intellectuals in general. Recall, for example, the massive opposition from economists and many Tory MPs and even Cabinet ministers to Margaret Thatcher’s monetarist approach to inflation in 1981. Second, what Henderson called “Do-It-Yourself-Economics” (DIYE) in his 1985 BBC Reith Lectures continued to shape informed opinion. Time and again, Henderson wrote, his work in national and international economic agencies resulted in encounters with politicians and officials who held mercantilist economic views without even knowing it. Among the same group, Henderson detected an “unreflective centralism” (a default presumption that government officials must direct much of the economy) and what he called “essentialism:” the tendency to think that countries should strive for self-sufficiency in an ever-growing number of economic sectors to maintain their security. Third, Henderson stressed, economic liberalism in the 20th century’s closing decade had not shaken off a “chronic weakness.” “In most if not all countries,” he stated, “majority opinion remains hostile to the idea of what is termed ‘leaving it to the market,’ and ready still to accept and endorse a much wider role for government than economic liberals would wish to see.” Real existing socialism may have lost credibility, but market liberalism’s limited success in shifting informed opinion was, according to Henderson, even more restricted at a mass level. Expectations that the state should intervene extensively in the economy remained persistent. For however many people claimed to dislike bureaucrats and regulators or railed against high taxes and entitlement programs, Henderson emphasized how easy it remained to mobilize mass opposition against market liberalization policies. In many respects, the situation facing market liberals today is dire. DIYE economics is rife on the left and has been spreading rapidly throughout the right since 2015. Unreflective centralism has metastasized in the form of renewed interest in industrial policy, despite its demonstrated track record of failure. Likewise, essentialism is back, with pressures mounting to “re-shore” as many American business operations as possible or to turn every trade question into a national security imperative. Some conservatives have even called for autarky, apparently unaware of how damaging such policies were for countries that embraced them. This is further complicated by the proliferation of claims by interventionists that are, to put it mildly, highly contestable. We have been informed, for example, that Adam Smith only applied his free trade principles to domestic investment. That’s simply untrue. Other conservatives tell us that the New Deal was a marvelous thing, despite the mountains of evidence assembled by economic historians indicating that it did not in fact get America out of the Great Depression. As no less than FDR’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, stated on May 6, 1939, “We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. . . . And an enormous debt to boot!” Yet other conservatives (echoing arguments made by progressives almost 15 years ago) insist that we can learn many things from Chinese state-capitalism. This flies in the face of growing evidence (which Beijing is trying to hide) that the wheels are falling off that particular wagon. But while such propositions are easily rebutted, they have acquired considerable traction for several reasons. They provide, for instance, support for what some people want to hear: that economic salvation via the state is possible, despite the many indications to the contrary. In other cases, they create rationales for those whose primary goal in life is the acquisition of power, either for its own sake, or because they believe that technocrats can overcome complicated social challenges through top-down economic tinkering. Once such mythologies permeate public discourse, ousting them is very difficult. Then there are the image problems confronting market liberals. Many people associate free trade and economic globalization with the likes of Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum, and the ubiquitous Davos Man who dismisses patriotism as mere tribalism. The fact that such outfits’ embrace of stakeholder capitalism, DEI, and ESG reflects a distrust of markets and commitment to more-or-less corporatist economic arrangements is, alas, irrelevant. The fact that economic liberalism seems intrinsically linked in many people’s minds with these individuals and organizations is political poison for market liberals. To these difficulties, we must add a disconcerting fact. Western democracies are increasingly trapped in something akin to the soft despotism that Alexis de Tocqueville warned against in Democracy in America. There are many interest groups, rent seekers, and members of the general population who will resist even the slightest deregulation or retraction of government spending because they recognize that it will introduce unwelcome change into their lives. Plenty of politicians promise these lobbies and sections of the population “no change”—or even more privileges or entitlements—provided, of course, they reciprocate with financial contributions and reliable votes. Exacerbating this problem has been many governments’ propensity to rely on easy money policies and heavy deficit spending to paper over the subsequent and growing fiscal gaps. The rotten fruits of this are now manifesting themselves everywhere in the Western world. This will make implementing pro-market reforms politically difficult (as Truss discovered) and more painful than they might otherwise have been. By now, readers may be asking, “If this is true, how should market liberals respond?” Any answer to such questions should involve the recognition that there are no turnkey or silver-bullet solutions that will magically reverse present trends. No doubt, that is disconcerting to those who worry about their grandchildren growing up in a world in which economic freedom and constitutionally limited government are being voided of significance. Nonetheless, this tough truth must be said, if only for the sake of realism and expectations-management. Second, many things already being done—engaging policy debates, popularizing free market ideas, growing economic liberalism’s social media presence, etc.—should be continued and magnified. But if there is one thing that must change, it is this: more priority needs to be given to deeper formation in market-liberal ideas. Indeed, this should precede any embarkment upon activism in market-liberal causes. Aristotle was onto something when he cautioned about entering public life and conversations without adequate grounding in sound ideas as well as more experience of the world. Yes, that can be frustrating for young people anxious to make a difference sooner rather than later. And the sheer urgency of the challenges surely doesn’t allow for the decades of preparation that Aristotle considered necessary. That said, the “bench” of market liberalism needs to be wider and deeper than it presently is. If market liberals limit themselves to economic defenses of markets, they will struggle to refute philosophical, sociological, and historical critiques of market processes and institutions, and thus find themselves, by definition, on perpetual defense. In short, formation in the case for economic liberalism should include but go beyond economics. Market liberalism has always been defined by rigorous economics. If anything, the public square requires more of that today, given DIYE’s sheer pervasiveness throughout society. Going forward, however, market liberals will need greater knowledge of other fields. This especially concerns history (and not simply economic history) and political economy: the judicious integration of the empirical and technical knowledge yielded by economics with normative concerns for moral and philosophical truth. Many of the most potent attacks on market liberalism today are being made on historical, philosophical, and ethical grounds. Whether it is an attempt to put a shiny gloss on the New Deal, “creatively reinterpret” the Wealth of Nations along protectionist lines, conjure up visions of shadowy global neo-liberal conspiracies, rehabilitate mercantilist follies, or caricature market liberals as utilitarian robots, all these endeavors take the case against market liberalism far beyond economics. Ergo, market liberals need to counter their opponents on these terrains. In doing so, market liberals would be following the example of some of the greatest economic liberals. Appeals to economic efficiency and effectiveness were central to Smith’s case for markets. Yet his Wealth of Nations also reflected the wider civilizational agenda associated with the Scottish Enlightenment: one that sought to end legal privileges for the politically well-connected and create opportunities for millions stuck in crushing poverty, while simultaneously promoting freedom as well as commercial, classical, and religious virtues in the commercially orientated societies then emerging in the Anglo-American world. Contemporary market liberalism has many individuals engaged in the important work of policy development and advocacy. Yet it desperately needs more people like the historian Amity Shlaes or the philosopher James R. Otteson. Such individuals combine their academic specialties with deep appreciation of market economics. But the market liberal cause also needs more of an even rarer commodity: economists with the breadth and depth of knowledge that gives them the capacity to mix it up with historians and philosophers peddling left-populist or economic nationalist narratives—and to do so on their opponents’ intellectual turf. Such individuals additionally require the capacity to address often very different audiences: experts and non-experts; the secular and the religious; the business leader tempted by the ESG agenda and pushed by woke management consultants to turn her company into something akin to an NGO; or the homemaker who’s considering voting for the latest politician promising economic nirvana through state intervention. These are big asks in a world in which hyper-specialization is the scholarly norm, and where all of us are more at ease talking to some groups rather than others. But such intellectual depth and versatility will serve market liberalism well. For whenever a Black Swan-like event creates opportunities to shift opinion in market-friendly directions, or when that rare politician appears who combines an appreciation of market ideas with the political skills to advance commensurate policies, we need market-orientated scholars able to repulse the attacks of dirigistes in ways that go beyond the language of supply and demand. Put simply, market liberalism needs many more people capable of doing what the economist Wilhelm Röpke did to promote and defend the German economy’s liberalization in 1948, or what Milton Friedman and Michael Novak did to support Ronald Reagan’s economic agenda in America in the 1980s. Granted, such individuals and combinations of knowledge and skills are rare. They also take time to develop. Nor will they suffice to reverse the wave against economic liberalism currently sweeping the world. The Truss fiasco illustrated how much market liberals need to lift their game at every level if they are to combat the ongoing slide toward state capitalism. However, without more of the serious formation that I have in mind, and more of the individuals who embody it, I fear that the long-term prospects for market liberalism are grim indeed. facebook twitter previous post next post What's your reaction? Dislike Dislike NSFW NSFW Featured News 2 high-yield shares I’d buy now What’s going on with the Evraz share price? 1 passive income ETF to buy and hold for years! Editor's Pick, Stock I like earning dividends from my share portfolio. Sometimes those are fairly small. But I could Editor's Pick, Stock A bear market is when a market falls 20% or more from its recent highs. From Editor's Pick, Stock For much of the last decade, ‘Big Tech’ has been the place to be in the TheInvestingBox.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.	16,399
Orwell & Empire Douglas Kerr Oxford University Press, 2022, pp 240 ISBN: 978 0 192 86409 3 Once there was a British writer, an Englishman who was born in India. He was privately educated in England, did not go to university, returned to the East after leaving school, and lived and worked there for a […] September 19, 2022 “It would be dishonest of me not to feel pleasure and, indeed, pride, when I see the twenty volumes of The Complete Works and the facsimile of the manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four on my shelves.” […] July 23, 2022 Orwell’s Rats ‘The rat,’ said O’Brien, still addressing his invisible audience, ‘although a rodent is carnivorous. You are aware of that. You will have heard of the things that happen in the poor quarters of this town. In some streets a woman dare not leave her baby alone in the house, even for five minutes. The rats […] June 5, 2022 “I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject-matter will be determined by the age he lives in—at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own—but before he ever begins to write he will have […] April 18, 2022 “Newspeak was the official language of Oceania and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984 there was not as yet anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of communication, either in speech or writing. The leading articles in The Times were written in it, […] March 19, 2022 On first looking at J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) and George Orwell (1903-1950) they appear to have little in common, as men or writers, other than being peculiarly English authors with evergreen book sales. The year 1937 was a seminal one for both men and useful for highlighting their different lifestyles, politics and literary experiences. Tolkien, the […]	2,023
The subject this week is not for the squeamish for we are going to talk about composting toilets. That’s not a phrase you hear very often for the simple reason that we don’t talk about toilets, or certainly not what we do when we are in one. It’s one of the last taboo subjects, a topic of conversation guaranteed to ruin any good dinner party. I say this from experience as, whilst there are many aspects of our off-grid life that people are interested in, how we deal with our toilet habit is not one of them. If I bring the subject up the reaction is a horrified fascination that lasts for about twenty seconds and then it’s time to move swiftly on. People make certain assumptions about composting toilets, myself included until I had one of my own. First and foremost is that you only have one if you have no choice; it is a means of last resort and an unpleasant experience to be endured under duress. Secondly, the whole process must surely be a smelly, dirty, and un-hygenic affair. People recall images of the old-fashioned privy that they’ve seen in dated films, stinking hovels that have the nose wrinkling in disgust from twenty paces. And as for physically removing the unmentionable contents of our bottoms from a bucket into a composting bin at the bottom of the garden, well….. there are no words to describe the awfulness of it all. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Our humble loo shed We have a composting toilet through choice. There is a septic tank out in the garden and, if we wanted to, we could use up valuable space inside Le Shack plumbing in a conventional loo with flushing water. The lady who lived here before us chose not to do that and neither do we. There are three sound reasons for this. Before I begin let me reassure you that I am not going to go into intimate detail about what we do in the toilet, although it is tempting because the subject is fascinating. But I will use the words ‘poo’ and ‘pee’ and trust that this is acceptable to even the most squeamish of readers. Another couple of words that needs to be introduced are ‘humanure’ and ‘bio-solids’ both of which describe human waste or human manure. The three reasons it makes sense to have a composting toilet are because it saves water, it saves energy and it recycles a valuable commodity. Let’s look at the water issue first. Flushing the loo accounts for about 30% of average personal water consumption. On a planet where the water supply is finite, we should be doing what we can to conserve it, not throw it down the toilet – literally. We are the only animal that deliberately mixes water with our waste, thus making it far more bulky and expensive to get rid of. This leads us on to the second point which is about energy consumption. There is an inherent, invisible – and therefore easily ignored – cost both to conventional toilets themselves and how we remove the waste that they generate. The manufacture of a toilet requires energy; in fairness our plastic buckets also require energy but they are simple affairs compared to the intricacies of modern toilets. Treatment of our human waste at sewage plants also requires energy, as does the transport of waste from septic tanks. We are all under pressure to reduce our carbon footprint, and a composting toilet is one way to do this. Lastly there is the aspect of recycling and the clue is in the name here. ‘Humanure’ produces compost, just like your vegetable compost bin, rich in nutrients, helping to bulk the soil up so that it retains moisture and playing host to a mass of microbial and invertebrate life. There is an art to making good compost, vegetable-based or human. It remains to be seen how well ours will turn out. There is a fourth reason to have a composting loo but this only applies if your loo is outside, as ours is, rather than in a normal house. Our loo shed is admittedly a bit of a rough affair at the moment. I do intend to pretty it up, but there are other priorities in these early days. It is a wooden shed with a plastic laminate roof and as the wooden slats in the walls have dried out and separated by a few millimetres it is well ventilated. No bad thing I can hear you thinking, but that open structure has another benefit. When I visit our loo-shed in the morning I can hear the birds singing in the hedge behind me. When I go out at night I am treated to the sound of the owls hooting in the giant oak less than ten paces away. I am doing a natural thing in a natural place. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Brace yourselves – it is time to move on to the nitty-gritty of composting. Inside view of our loo. We have a new loo seat and I have splashed some blue paint about but I will make it prettier over the coming weeks. There are many different ways to build a composting loo but I will just stick to what we have done, which is the simplest option. You need a wooden box, in which you cut a hole and fix a conventional loo seat. Inside the box you place your bucket. The front of our box is removable, so when we want to replace a full bucket with an empty one, we simply open up the front of the box, slide one in and one out, firmly pushing a lid on top of it, and the job is done. A bucket next to the loo holds a store of shavings and a scoop. The empty loo bucket is primed for use with a layer of shavings on the base and every time we use the loo we sprinkle a scoop of shavings over the top. This is key for this is what stops it smelling and, for the record, it really doesn’t smell – at all. Some people like to keep their buckets dry, by which I mean poo only, others say it is fine to combine pee and poo. We are experimenting with the latter for our first year. We have four buckets and once all four bucket are full, which takes a month or so, then it is time for a visit to the composting bin down in the field. Michael has re-cycled three old pallets we found in the hedge to provide the walls of our composting bin. He informed me very early on that he would build the composting bin, but that it should be my job to empty the buckets in to it. A woman’s work is never done……. Our composting bin – primed and awaiting first consignment ! The base of the bin is lined with bracken. We used this as it was to hand, growing in wild abundance in our field, but you can also use straw. The important thing is that the stack needs to breath, to be aerobic, in order for it to work properly. The contents of the four plastic bins are duly poured, very carefully, in to the compost bin, then generously covered with more bracken or straw and left. When I come down with the next four bins I will pull back the bracken with a fork used only for this job, make a hole and pour the new buckets in to that hole so that they can benefit from the heat already there. Apparently the stack needs to be kept flat, not heaped, and definitely not turned or disturbed as that reduces the heat and slows everything down. There were no unpleasant odours either during this process of filling the compost bin or afterwards, when we might walk past it. There are four elements to successful composting and these apply to vegetables as well as humanure; temperature, moisture, oxygenation and time. We fully expect to have to leave this bin, once it is full, for a year or maybe two. Once the humanure has turned fully into a friable compost it can be used as a fertiliser for the garden. If it reached a good hot temperature, it is perfectly safe to use it on vegetable beds but this is a matter of personal choice. As we are only here for the winter we won’t have any vegetable beds, but we are looking forward to using it around our trees and the few shrubs that we have. And there you have it – wasn’t so bad, was it? Our efforts with our composting toilet may seem a small, insignificant action in the larger scheme of things, but it makes us feel better to know that at least we are trying to do something towards a more sustainable lifestyle. If all of us undertook one small change like this it might add up to something wonderful. I have something special for you next week – a FAF blog, which is our personal abbreviation for flora and fauna. We have been truly amazed at the proliferation of wildlife of all shapes and sizes that keeps throwing itself in front our camera as we walk, or sit, or potter about on the land so there will be lots of pictures to share with you – all of which are much nicer to look at than a composting loo! For this week I leave you with another video and a glimmer of hope as the coronovirus figures in France are beginning to go down. I hadn’t realised the full extent of how they been depressing me until I felt so hugely cheered up by the fact that the trend is very definitely going down, although not without the odd blip in the wrong direction. Wherever you live I hope things are moving in the right direction for you as well. We could all do with a bit of good news. Take care and see you next week. Sunshine and sunflowers Related Posted bymaryjane678 November 19, 2020 November 20, 2020 Posted inUncategorized Previous Post Previous post: Sinks, showers and sunsets Next Post Next post: 14 thoughts on “Let’s talk about composting toilets” November 20, 2020 at 1:00 pm I look forward to you weekly blog, friends in the Netherlands that live on boats call us the brown brigade as we always end up talking about toilets ever body has a story to tell always after dinner.keep it comming you brighten up our lives November 20, 2020 at 1:10 pm Hi Ken. Says a lot when toilet talk brightens up our lives doesn’t it!! But glad you enjoy. MJ Tricia says: November 20, 2020 at 1:16 pm Only you MJ can make such an interesting blog about composting loos! We learn something new everyday. I love the sunflowers and your peaceful walk, a welcome change from our rainy days here in UK. November 20, 2020 at 12:53 pm Glad you enjoyed it! MJ November 20, 2020 at 1:41 pm Interesting!! The acid test is whether, when they are free to do so, your visitors will volunteer to use your loo. Perhaps you should keep copies of this blog for compulsory reading on their arrival. Meanwhile happy composting. November 20, 2020 at 2:04 pm They won’t have a choice!!! And I am sure they will be converts once they do. MJ November 20, 2020 at 7:15 pm Very interesting – I think a few narrow boats in the UK are starting to use compost toilets. It completely makes sense. Lovely to see the old French gates and houses. Thanks! November 20, 2020 at 7:30 pm Glad you liked the gates, I think they’re fascinating. Hopefully more architecture once we can go further afield. MJ November 20, 2020 at 7:16 pm I think a few narrow boats in the UK are starting to use compost toilets. It completely makes sense. Lovely to see the old French gates and houses. Thanks! November 20, 2020 at 7:17 pm Sorry I seem to have said the same thing twice! November 20, 2020 at 7:30 pm November 20, 2020 at 7:23 pm November 20, 2020 at 7:31 pm And you. Best wishes. MJ November 21, 2020 at 9:30 pm ”If I bring the subject up the reaction is a horrified fascination that lasts for about twenty seconds and then it’s time to move swiftly on.” You must be mixing with the wrong crowd! It’s a rare extended meeting that we have with cruising friends that does not include a detailed discussion amongst all participants on loos. Our barge, Catharina Elisabeth used to carry cheese in her hold and tow floating containers of night soil collected from Dutch homes – and off we go…	12,053
Read the latest sporting results from Queen Margaret's, as well as an end-of-term report and video from the Sports Department! End of term report from Anne Davies, Director of Sport. As the term came to an end, Wednesday saw us attend our Mark Reading [a celebration of individual achievements]. With help from Rebecca (Sports Monitor \| Year IV), Ellie (Sports Prefect \| UVI), the senior captains, and of course Miss Bale (our techno wizard), we compiled an end-of-term video which showed clips of how much enjoyment, teamwork, competition and engagement had taken place this term [you can watch this below]. The adrenaline returned to us all as we were back playing fixtures with parents and grandparents watching from the sidelines as the girls took to the field of play. The buzz around school on such days is great to be a part of, so thank you all for making it a normal and special term. We competed well in all fixtures, and some girls still had opportunities to represent county, regional and national squads in Hockey, Swimming, Netball and Lacrosse this term. Our two QM Mavericks teams got back to their playing ways in the local York Leagues, featuring QM students playing alongside a number of PE staff which is wonderful to see as they play together in the same teams; how special that must be. We also hosted many tournaments - it was wonderful to see Escrick Park full once again. Thank you to the girls who send in reports of their successes outside of school - we have some talented riders out there! I know we also have surfers, skiers, climbers, BMX cyclists and so many more... so please share your stories and photos with us so we can celebrate what you do, both inside and outside of school. Our Swimming girls have a 100% record, as well as our very strong Badminton team. All girls have had the opportunities in lessons to work on skills and team-play, and it has been so lovely seeing girls pop up with new ideas and engaging with all that we have to offer here at QM. Omnikin has been really popular, and a big thanks to Mr Alpine Eales for allowing us to use his 'new fitness toys' - I'm sure there will be more to come next term. A gig shout-out for our amazing UVI... you are a truly amazing group and you have done me proud this term, and a big thanks to all our fantastic senior captains... you are legends! Have a wonderful Christmas wherever that may be, and let's hope and pray for a great and healthy 2022. 'Nadolig Llawen i chi gyd'. Sports Fixtures Saturday 11th December Saturday saw a mixed team of Year IV and III girls taking to the field for a match versus Withington. I was impressed with how the girls worked together and encouraged each other. The Year III girls looked nervous and a little shy to begin with, but they soon got involved and showed some quality skills. Pick of Year III for me was Lucy and Immi. Imi had only donned the GK kit a few weeks ago in lessons and, due to illness and injury, stepped up at the last minute to play for the school, but also against an older age group of experienced players. A remarkable feat and a big well done... you were very brave and very loud! The Year IV girls showed resilience and gave as good as they got. Some very good play in defence by Ilaria and Eve, whilst the middle of the pack saw the experience of Elsa aided by gritty performances form Rebecca and Olivia. Even though the score line did not reflect the game, it was clear the experience of their GK made a difference to the eventual result. Big thanks to many girls who came out to support, and of course your lonely parents and grandparents who I think enjoyed the hot drinks on the sideline. Anne Davies, Director of Sport The first lacrosse match of the year for the Year II's was a big one. Despite the cold weather, the girls worked really hard with some lovely passes being linked throughout the pitch. The girls had many chances against Withington's keeper, managing to put away eight goals in total over the course of the game with Poppy (Year II) getting half of them. The level of skill the girls had was really strong and they should be proud of their performance. Well done team. Player of the Match: Grace (Year I) The U12s took on Withington with most team members only having had three months of lacrosse practice under their belt. The girls worked hard and started to pick up more and more lacrosse elements as the game went on. This resulted in Grace getting a goal towards the end of the match which was well deserved. By playing in different positions and having loads of movement to support each other, the game ended up being a great learning experience for the girls as they look forward to more lacrosse in the new year. Well done girls. The Year II girls Celia & Fran represented North Yorkshire Hockey at the Academy Centre Competition today on Saturday 11th December.	5,085
Hello Commanders, My league has been discussing the idea of having Beginner Leagues in the game that support new players and those with a basic understanding of the way things work but possibly lack to knowledge of how important it is to contribute to their league even if its in some small way. In turn this promotes activity and also gives the new player a hunger to be active before, during and after the battlefield. With the help of JoyCrafter and also the bigger more established leagues we are hopeful that we can have a handful of new leagues become the starting point for those who have just left cadets but are still not ready for the big leagues. This would limit the amount of members taking up precious space in these A1 leagues and such leagues could work in syndicate with the Beginners Leagues to poach players who have proved their metal in the league and also on the battlefield. Both myself, my league and JoyCrafter would appreciate any help and input in establishing this as a key role in the games future. Thanks for listening BrotherGrimm - DeathSquadElite December 8, 2017 4 replies leagues learning training help Chrisom posted a topic in Suggestions It would be great to see allies being able to transport each other's troops. It would make for good friendships and improve the quality of alliances working together. Or if someone likes to build ships or aircraft even they get to focus on what they love most. Myself, I love the tanks... I want an army of them! Slow that they are, but my friend loves air craft and he's got his bombers and his transports to land me right into the action for a neat surprise attack. The enemy has a strong island to the west of us, my boat friend can send my tanks across and my air friend can come in right after I destroy those turrets! The boat friend is at the other side taking out the enemy's dock. All sorts of stuff can come about with being able to transport each others troops!	2,080
So you have decided to Divorce. Here is a helpful 10 step guide to reference as you go through this process. By Split Happy in Blog on Feb 15, 2021 If you have made the decision to divorce, plan before you announce. People respond differently to the “D” word. Keep that in mind. If you think your spouse might become violent, keep you from your children, take money from bank accounts or abscond with your property, you should think of a contingency plan before you announce your intentions. California is a community property state so each spouse has rights to money and property earned during marriage by either spouse. Also, if your child(ren) are with you or your spouse it does not mean that they will stay with you or them. In California, you cannot take your children away from your spouse without a court order. . A court order will also be needed to figure out custody, visitation, and other related matters. The good news is that you and your spouse can work out a plan that works for both of you during the separation and even after the divorce is finalized with a judgment. A divorce mediator can help you plan these matters out and reach an agreement if you're having a difficult time doing it yourselves. Your Divorce Plan can include seeing a therapist and a divorce mediator. The idea is to get on the same page with your spouse. Even if that page is partly what you would want and partly what they would want, it is better to have a plan to work things out amicably than to “prepare for battle”. Divorce mediation allows you to work out all the issues with your spouse and vice versa. If things escalate, however, you may need to obtain a court order to prevent domestic violence or award temporary custody of children. In these instances, you will need an attorney for further legal help that is not provided by Split Happy. When it comes to sorting out your financials, you will need to obtain records of how much money is in your various accounts, what your monthly expenses are, and also consider closing out joint accounts. If you’re concerned about your spouse possibly stealing or hiding money and assets from you, you may be able to get a court order preventing the disposal of assets. If you find yourself dealing with serious money issues right away, we recommend talking to a divorce mediator to work out financial arrangements during your separation period. To file for divorce in California, you must have been a resident of California for at least six months and a resident of the county where you will file for at least three months. Once you have made the decision to divorce, you will need to do some work to lay out what your marriage looks like on paper. If you planned ahead and obtained copies of bank statements, retirement account statements, it will make this next step easier, if you have not planned this far, do not worry, this is a process your divorce mediator can help with For divorces in California, you and your spouse will need to show how much you earn, what you own, and what you owe to creditors. If you and your spouse are cooperating this process will be smoother. Make copies of important documents such as bank and investment statements, mortgage and loan documents, credit card statements, pay stubs, W-2 forms and tax returns, deeds, vehicle titles, life, and health insurance documents, and utility bills, and make sure you have your spouse's Social Security and driver's license numbers. If you're missing something, like your spouse's car payment or mortgage, do not worry, these items are easily determined and do not change. Put your focus on items that can be affected, like credit card statements and bank accounts. You will also need to estimate your monthly living expenses and may also need to sort out living arrangements. You will need when you determine if you and your spouse can continue to live together, or if someone will have to sleep at their parents’, siblings’, or friends’ house. If you are working out these issues together it will help make the divorce process smoother and have a smaller negative impact on any children and even pets. Divorce mediation can help you and your spouse come to an agreement on the best options for your situation. If you realize that you do not have enough to be on your own and that moving in with your extended family is not the right option for you, you may be able to receive support for yourself and possibly your children during the divorce process. You will need to go to court or work out an arrangement with your spouse through divorce mediation. The agreement you reach can be kept informal if you are on good terms but if not you can seek a court order compelling support. This can be done with temporary spousal support and child support orders which will require completing and filing additional forms. These forms are available through Split Happy, but you may wish to consult with an attorney for any legal advice on this process. In California, the routes to obtaining a divorce - a traditional dissolution of marriage procedure or a summary dissolution of marriage procedure. To qualify for the summary procedure, you must meet the following requirements: You and your spouse agree to the divorce. You do not have children. You were not married for more than five years before separating. You don't have real estate, and only have a residential lease that expires within one year of filing and does not include a purchase option. There are no debts over $6,000, other than auto loans. Community property has a value of less than $41,000, and each party has no more than $41,000 in separate property, not including autos and encumbrances. You and your spouse have a written agreement dividing the property and debts and have executed the required title transfers. You and your spouse waive your right to spousal support, and rights to appeal and to ask for a new trial. You and your spouse have read the court brochure (also available through Spilt Happy) about the summary procedure. If any of these requirements are not met, you will need to go through the traditional dissolution of marriage procedure. At Split Happy, the official California divorce forms are available through completing our DIY Tool, which makes answering the numerous questions on the forms much easier. You may also obtain the forms from the court clerk at your local courthouse, various other online sources, or from publications at your local library. At Split Happy, our DIY Tool generates the court forms needed in most divorce cases. You will need to file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, as well as financial disclosure forms. If you are using the summary procedure, there will be a separate set of forms. If you have minor or dependent children, there also will be forms relating to child custody and child support. Many local court websites will have a list of the forms needed. With Split Happy, once you have completed the DIY Tool, or worked with your Split Happy Divorce Mediator to complete the forms, a PDF version of the forms can be generated and emailed to you. You can then use the Split Happy filing service or take your completed forms to the clerk's office of the Superior Court in your locality for filing. Please check the local court's website to make sure that additional forms or procedures are not required for your local courthouse or because of the Covid-19 Pandemic. You will need to pay a filing fee. Some courts are using special rules which may subject you to additional charges for electronic filing through third-party providers, please check with your local court. Your spouse must receive proper notice of the divorce having been filed. This is not just your announcement to them that "it's over." You have to serve certain legal papers on your spouse using one of these three ways: You give your spouse the legal paperwork informally and your spouse signs forms that show they are aware of the proceedings (in the summary proceeding your spouse will also sign the Petition) Your spouse is legally served with copies of certain court papers (you cannot serve your spouse legally, it has to be done by a non-party to the case, ask Split Happy Admin or your Split Happy Mediator for ways to have a non-party serve your spouse) Proper legal notice has been published (if you are unable to locate your spouse) If you use the summary procedure there may be at least one court hearing and you might need to provide other documents that the judge requests. However, most Courts have an uncontested process that avoids or limits the need for spouses to go to hearings. Split Happy can help guide you here as well including referring you to attorneys that can represent you so you won't have to step into a courtroom. Using the DIY Tool you can complete and generate almost all the forms you will need for your divorce, including the final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage form for the judge to sign, this is the document that will make the divorce final. Now the hard part. In California, there is a waiting period of six months between the time the Petition is filed and the time the Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage is final. Both you and your spouse will be sent a certified copy of the judgment by the Court. Make sure to keep you addresses current with the Court. Last updated on Feb 15, 2021 by Split Happy SPLIT This site uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. By using Split Happy, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.	9,926
Today Arbitrator James Dorsey released his initial decision regarding Bill 1, the Health Authorities Act, and addressed some of issues at the heart of the controversy surrounding the legislation – union representation. Bill 1, introduced by the McNeil Liberals on October 3, 2014, radically restructures health care in Nova Scotia by merging the nine existing district health authorities into one, and merging the 50 previous bargaining units into just four: nurses, healthcare, administrative support, and service support with four collective agreements. Bargaining association During the summer, all four healthcare unions worked together to propose a bargaining association model that would allow all of the unions to retain their membership while bargaining collectively. Today, Dorsey proposed the formation of an amalgamated healthcare union which would bargain collectively on behalf of healthcare workers. “We’re please because he has ordered the ability to create what we believe is a collaborative bargaining structure that would include multiple unions being part of that and this is really what we’d been arguing for all along,” says Lana Payne, Atlantic Regional Director of Unifor. Under the proposed model, 3 of the 4 bargaining units (healthcare, clerical, and support) would amalgamate to a provincial entity that would then bargain collectively on behalf of workers while all four unions retained their membership. This proposal significantly lessens the destructive impact of Bill 1, which was, for all intents and purposes, meant to arbitrate workers into unions. Without violating the trade union act or the legislation, Dorsey has put forward an alternative which balances the unions desire to retain their membership while continuing to honour the government’s intention of streamlining healthcare. Payne welcomed the proposal as a “made in Nova Scotia solution” that manages to “avoid clear division in workplaces which really is what happens when you end up with run off vote or massive carving up of members from one union to another.” “We’ve really been able to push the envelope. I think that the Nova Scotia government should be proud of some of the outcomes here because, as I say, this really is a big compromise. For him to be able to take what was a complex piece of legislation and craft a solution like this, I think this arbitrator needs to be commended for that.” Joan Jessome, President of the Nova Scotia Government Employees Unions (NSGEU), also welcomed this “union of unions,” and stated that, “It’s better than we could have ever hoped for as far as what he had to work with in the legislation. I could have been saying goodbye to 9,000 members instead of saying let’s negotiate a process that lets you stay where you’re at. That’s in the best interest of them and of the public they serve, too.” Under the proposed model, 3 of the 4 bargaining units (healthcare, clerical, and support) would amalgamate to a provincial entity that would then bargain collectively on behalf of workers while all four unions retained their membership. Unresolved issues trade unionists blockade the premier’s car during Bill 1 protests However, the issue of LPNs and RNs within the nursing bargaining unit remains unresolved and it seems possible that the matter may be decided by a vote. The major factor yet to be determined is which union represents a majority of nurses. Janet Hazelton, President of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union (NSNU), states Dorsey has asked several questions of the provincial government regarding whether or nor the Provincial Health Authority and the IWK will function as one employer at the bargaining table and whether or not they intended LPNs to be included in the nurses bargaining unit. As well, “generic positions”, or, “positions that may be filled by a nurse but don’t have to be filled by a nurse,” have been removed from the nurses bargaining unit, according to Hazelton. “All of these things change the numbers to get that majority rule,” says Hazelton, “So all that’s to say, there’s some questions that need to be answered before the decision of where the nurses are going to be is made clear.” Dorsey has posed questions to the government and the employer (HANS). A second round of arbitration will take place from February 2 to 6, 2015. CUPE was unavailable for comment. RankandFile.ca is committed to building a network of rank-and-file labour activists across the country. We believe sharing stories, experiences, debate, and analysis around our collective struggles strengthens our movement and builds solidarity.	4,763
As part of “The Mesopotamians” band he is the lead singer with sharply side-swept hair, one visible eye, and a ring in his lower lip. They Might Be Giants (TMBG) made him out to look part hipster, part emo, and at least to me, made his personality reminiscent of that of Ralph from The Lord of the Flies (LOF). He is Hammurabi. Clearly the picture above shows that Hammurabi was nothing like the lead singer of The Mesopotamians, but perhaps if Hammurabi lived today, he might just be a guy named Ralph who’s a natural leader, maybe a lawyer or a judge or a law professor, maybe even the president of a very wise nation, who leads by doing right even in the face of a not-so-right society, with hipster hair and the face of an emo accented with a lip ring. Who knows? (I mean, I don’t even know if Hammurabi’s hairstyle in the video was just a way to camouflage his other eye, which he might have had to give for an eye? Are TMBG trying to tell us that Hammurabi was so just that he did not exempt even himself from the Lex Talionis?) What we do know is that there’s only one Hammurabi, and he was like the new sheriff in town, or Ralph in LOF. He was really into keeping everyone civilized and under control. He was a great military leader who transformed a small city-state into one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. He was also one heck of an administrator. It is even said that he personally oversaw navigation, irrigation, agriculture, tax collection, and the erection of many temples and other buildings in Mesopotamia, which left him super busy, I’m sure. He even wrote about all the stuff he did in some 55 letters that were discovered, and the letters give a glimpse into what he had to deal with as the king of an eventual empire; on the side, Hammurabi had to deal with floods, making changes to the Babylonian Calendar and taking care of livestock. Hammurabi built only the second extensive empire in Mesopotamia, and ruled it justly by first allowing the leaders of the city-states he’d conquered to continue to rule over their city-states. He in turn ruled over them with laws that were fair enough to keep his reign as the first king of the Babylonian Empire relatively peaceful. Hammurabi was a generally peaceful guy. No blood was shed for his acquirement of the throne. Hammurabi succeeded his father to the throne of Babylon when it was still just a city-state around what scholars believe to be 1792 BC. This made him the sixth king of the city-state of Babylon, and nothing too special. But then, around 1786 BC, Hammurabi began working, or dictating to scribes scribing over tablets that measured eight feet in height and seven feet in width, rather, on what we know today as the Code of Hammurabi. Most people have heard of this big deal thing for humanity, or know of Hammurabi through it, and it is what made Hammurabi one of the most recognized leaders of the ancient world, and the lead singer of The Mesopotamians. Not to mention pretty special. The most recognizable ancient artifact the world over has got to be the Code of Hammurabi stele on which 282 laws, or judgments, are written in Akkadian Cuneiform script. The stele has a bas relief at the top that depicts Hammurabi standing before the throne on which it is believed the sun-god Shamash (also the god of justice), or as some have speculated, even Marduk, the patron deity of the city of Babylon, sits. It is this illustration that tells the story of how Hammurabi came to be the authority on what were dubbed the dinat mesarim or “just verdicts”. Hammurabi’s Code dealt with every aspect of Mesopotamian life, from trade to incest, and it is where the Lex Talionis or “Law of Retaliation,” or the “eye for an eye, tooth for tooth” deal first appeared. The Code of Hammurabi also introduced the idea of the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven, which gave the accused and accuser the opportunity to present evidence. Hammurabi introduces the purpose of his laws, which are really more like judgements, in this way: “To promote the welfare of the people, I, Hammurabi, the devout, god-fearing prince, cause justice to prevail in the land by destroying the wicked and the evil, that the strong might not oppress the weak.” No doubt when we look at certain offenses and the corresponding punishments, Hammurabi’s judgments may seem severe by our standards, seeing as how the punishments varied from disfigurement (he really meant eye for an eye, guys!) to just plain old death: “If anyone steals the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.” And although Hammurabi introduces his Code as a tool that stops the strong from oppressing the weak, it still maintained the social classes: “If a man strikes the cheek of a freeman who is superior in rank to himself, he shall be beaten with 60 stripes with a whip of ox-hide in the assembly.” (A side note) My favorite lyric in the song “The Mesopotamians” that drives home further the brand of justice, or logic, Hammurabi implemented throughout his Code is this: This is my last stick of gum/ I’m going to cut it up so everybody else gets some/ Except for Ashurbanipal, who says my haircut makes me look like a Mohenjo-Daroan. Over a span of some 42 years after he took the job of king, Hammurabi did his daddy proud, as he went from being the sixth king of a mere city-state, to the king of an empire he himself established by conquering other Mesopotamian warring city-states, including Sumer, Akkad and others to the south of Babylon around 1760 BC. He did this by knowing when to move in on his opponent, and when to stand back and strengthen not only his offense, but also his defense; he spent a lot of time heightening walls and improving fortifications of his cities, and continued to do so until the very end of his reign. As a result of his smart strategies, Hammurabi was even bring Assyria under his empire, a strong opponent he had to wait and build strength to acquire, and even northern Syria. He built and kept his empire with his military prowess first, and diplomatic justice wielding persona second. Although his reign was relatively peaceful, Hammurabi still had to fight wars, particularly in the last 14 years of his rule. The wars ranged from acquiring more city-states to his empire, including the city of Larsa, which helped him acquire older Sumerian cities in the south. In 1763 he fought to protect his empire’s access to metal-producing areas in Iran. Hammurabi was also an innovator and all-around improver. He built temples, dug canals and improved the irrigation process by implementing perhaps the world’s first use of windmills. “King Hammurabi of Babylon used wind powered scoops to irrigate Mesopotamia.” (Source) No doubt the improvement in irrigation kept city-states happy, and mostly peaceful, considering they were fighting each other for fertile agricultural land to begin with. Hammurabi also promoted astronomy, mathematics and literature. I’m guessing he probably also promoted literacy, and I surmise this from the fact that his code of laws was put on public display for everyone to read. He was really a humanitarian When Hammurabi died an old and sick man around 1750 BC, he left his empire to his son, and for humanity an eternal legacy. Although the dates of his reign are questioned, they do seem to coincide with biblical accounts that give him a possible place in the Bible as Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah. The Ten Commandments and the justice system as a whole are also linked to Hammurabi and his Code. Under Hammurabi’s rule, Mesopotamians enjoyed a time during which all sorts of amenities flourished, marking the Babylonian Empire as one with strong influences still seen today. When he died, no one was able to do what he did as well as he did, but it was going to be okay, because we’re still talking about him today and living by many laws he set in stone that continue to define our humanity. That’s a pretty great king, and a pretty great lead singer of a band like The Mesopotamians. Sources and Further Reading:	8,685
The annual 2nd Street Soundcheck Concert was held on February 28th and despite the freezing cold temperatures here in Austin (which is very unusual) I had a great time. The Piki Piki Bike was asked to be part of Toy Joy’s Kids Fun Zone. We had three bikes available for the kids who braved the cold weather to ride around on. The kids loved it and it certainly warmed my heart to see the Piki Piki's being enjoyed by so many. It was a very successful day for Gallo & Spence Toys and our bikes are now being sold in... Read more → February 16, 2015 • Gallo & Spence Toys In 2009, with a mix of sadness and excitement, the Spence family made the decision to leave our home of South Africa to begin a new adventure in the United States. While we'll always love our home country, we wanted a safer place to raise our kids, so we now call Austin, TX home. We had no idea what we'd do when we arrived, but we were enthusiastic, somewhat naive and absolutely believed in the American dream. As part of our move, we packed a container filled with virtually everything we owned, including my daughter's toys. One of her toys was a simple ride on...	1,149
Out of my personal exposure to of many close relationships within my lifestyle becoming dangerous, the followers often help - Anand Academy Company Secretary Careers Out of my personal exposure to of many close relationships within my lifestyle becoming dangerous, the followers often help Out of my personal exposure to of many close relationships within my lifestyle becoming dangerous, the followers often help Then i merely discovered that the guy died regarding a large cardio assault and you will I am asked from the people I imagined were back at my top feeling sadness and mourn. Really don’t become despair, Personally i think save one to I’m not planning to occur to run into your. I’m outrage that he never ever had to answer to own their criminal activities up against me. Personally i think rage in the members of my circle exactly who in fact is mourning that it monster, while the he “apologized” in it. No matter if I am aware he don’t apologize to possess intimidating the brand new life out of their children every day and for the fact he laughed within how weakened and simply controlled these people were. We-all require love and sometimes a person gets in the life and that is really expert during the luring when you look at the innocents to their harmful world Basically hadn’t encountered the bad judgment to express “I do” to that son, and you will rather he had attracted me during the, stored myself hostage away from relationships, and you can abused me personally how the guy performed and i also got escaped that, I would meet the requirements a courageous heroine and everybody is more knowledge since I’m happy he could be dead. But as the I produced this option nothing mistake, I have informed things like, “really here must be some great times, since you hitched him and you may lived married for so long.” My answer that is a loud vehement Zero. There have been No good times, I became hospitalized less than thirty days if we was basically hitched. When that you imagine I happened to be happier try bogus. It absolutely was every an operate therefore he wouldn’t do his issues to eliminate the children up to me. I found myself in fact impact responsible regarding the being delighted he was dead and you will effect unfortunate since I would personally not be able to share with somebody today the full knowledge about this time because the he “wasn’t around to guard himself.” Such he’d whatever genuine defense otherwise people directly to you will need to guard himself. Thank you for this article, getting showing myself it’s Okay to feel relief which he is deceased, and i can also be speak an entire realities regardless if they is “talking sick of your dry.” And also for indicating me that the best method to release these attitude regarding concern and you can fury circulating within the me is to try to talk on what occurred, perhaps not try to cover-up they. Hello Stephanie, I’m thus hit by your review here – you’re a hero! Your saved yourself by the leaving your. Your remaining the children surrounding you safer, while stood right up ultimately and you will left your. I’m able to realise why you are alleviated you might not find your! Exactly how interesting he generated amends within the a 1 / 2-margin treatment for some exactly who he’d hurt. But he was not repentant in full. He don’t create amends and you may apologize for your requirements, anyone the guy damage the quintessential, truly and you can mentally. 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Last August, Olufunmilayo Olopade’s long list of accolades grew even longer after she was selected as a winner of the FDR Four Freedoms Medal, an award given annually to four recipients who exemplify President Roosevelt’s four essential freedoms outlined in a 1941 speech. Olopade’s award, “Freedom from Want,” was given on the basis of her 18-year long research project linking specific, aggressive forms of breast cancer to women of African descent. The Maroon sat down with Olopade to discuss her research. Olopade is no stranger to academic accolades. Not only is she the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics, the Associate Dean of Global Health, and the director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, she’s also the recipient of the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist and Exceptional Mentor Award, an American Cancer Society clinical research professorship, a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship and the Officer of the Order of the Niger Award. MAROON: Can you tell me about what you found in your research on breast cancer genetics among women of African descent? OLOPADE: The work has been going on since 1997, when we first started doing work in Nigeria. Genetics is one of those things that is underappreciated in medicine, and so we were looking for families with inherited susceptibility to breast cancer. Because I am a medical oncologist, I see patients in the clinic. Most of what had been in the literature had been about women of European descent, especially Jewish women. In 1997, we published on a series of nine families that we had seen at the University of Chicago in my clinic. They were no different from the Jewish families that had been in the literature. The only difference was that no one had studied them because it’s hard for minority families to get access in this country. I then made it my life mission to increase the literature on minority families and raise awareness about the fact that research needs to be expanded to all racial and ethnic groups. It was easier for me to further the work by going to Nigeria and recruiting lots of women in my alma mater—my medical school. I think that’s something that’s unique about the work that I did. The more I looked into it, the more I realized how important that work was. Most people associate health disparities to lack of access, but it goes deeper than that. MAROON: You mentioned that there’s something deeper than just lack of access. Can you expand on that? OLOPADE: What has been really profound in the work we do is that if you have an understudied population, you’re not really going to be able to solve the problem that they have. It’s just that it’s challenging to study populations when they are not part of the larger biomedical establishment. Until recently, when NIH started funding work in global health settings, most of the work that’s really been done has been to take care of 10% of the world’s population in industrialized, Western populations. Because this country is an immigrant country, there really needs to be a lot more work based on population genetics that can pay attention to the geographic diversity in disease onset, as well as specific diseases that impact particular populations. MAROON: In the FDR Four Freedoms description of the award, they mention that your work would lead to a lot of clinical changes in the treatment of black women. Could you elaborate on what those clinical changes would be? OLOPADE: When we started our work, everyone thought breast cancer was one disease, and in low-resource settings, the policy had been: “Well, they don’t have a way to diagnose breast cancer, so if a woman shows up with a lump, just give Tamoxifen and send them back to their village.” We showed that that was the wrong policy because the majority of those women would not respond to that medication. In fact, their suffering will continue. What will it take to actually have the proper diagnosis and the proper treatment? A lot of policies that are based on what you see in the majority population actually end up being the wrong policies. In this country, black women are more likely to have breast cancer at a younger age, and yet we ask everybody to go get a mammogram at 50. A third of black women will get breast cancer before age 50. The question is: what should be our population strategy for identifying and taking care of those women? So that’s the kind of work that we are trying to shed light onto. MAROON: As far as your sampling procedures go, I looked briefly at one of your articles online and I noticed you had collected samples from various racial groups like Caucasian, African, Asian. How did you label the race of those samples? Was it self-identified, or did you assign races? OLOPADE: That’s actually been very interesting. We have a real debate about self-reported race/ethnicity versus using Ancestry Informative Markers (AIM). What we found is that the lived experience of somebody is just as important as their genetic background, and so in as much as we’re interested in gene-environment interactions, we ask the patients what they self-report, and then we also—at least in some of our work—try to use Ancestry Informative Markers. What we find is that there’s actually very good correlation between Ancestry Informative Markers and self-reported race, at least in our cohort of patients that we’ve studied. Part of the reason we went to Nigeria for our study is also to remove the admixture issue, and study a homogenous African population, and see what the gradient is in terms of the differences in breast cancer, age of onset, and breast cancer subtypes. MAROON: A lot of social scientists, particularly scholars in the anthropology, sociology, and history of science and medicine, have critiqued the use of race in genomic research because they argue that it creates a false biological idea of race. MAROON: Yeah. They argue it risks ignoring larger social determinants of health. Additionally, a lot of biologists also point to epigenetics as proof of how environment should be taken into account in genetics research. In your work, how do you try to balance the genetic and social components of health? OLOPADE: We actually just wrote a paper, The Perfect Storm, and this is really looking at how genomics and our healthcare system actually collide. A medical student went and said, “How many doctors on the South Side of Chicago will accept, or even know where to send, a woman to get a mammogram?” And so there are no doctors on the South Side. So, that woman will have to be sent to go and look for a doctor who can help her diagnose her breast cancer. Now, you can imagine how long that might take. So even if it wasn’t that the tumor was large at the time it started, by the time you find a doctor, in a rapidly growing tumor, it would be large, and it could be lethal. You also can see what happens when people have some form of deprivation in a low socioeconomic class. They’re going to be more spiritual, they’re going to not want to look for trouble because they are just barely making ends meet. They have to go to work, otherwise they’re not going to get paid. So if you have to go and find a doctor and take time off work, you might not be so happy to go, because you know you’re going to lose wages. So I think both are right, because the social determinants of health are really, really important, but there are also biological reasons why people might get sick. As a result of that, we cannot but study that. I think if there are population geneticists, or if you are a social scientist, you have to understand that biology happens, and you have to take that into consideration to explain even the social determinants of health. That’s how we’ve tried to integrate that into our work. MAROON: Great. Finally, looking to the future, what are your plans? OLOPADE: Right now, everybody really is doing Big Data science, and genomic technologies are getting cheaper and cheaper. One thing that we know we can do is diagnose cancer, and diagnose it accurately by using genomics. We should be able to do that for everybody, no matter where they live. As a result of the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative, we should be able to find the right drug for the right person at the right time. If we are able to develop such an infrastructure, then I think some of the misdiagnosis, misuse of treatment—because if you give somebody the wrong drug and they don’t get better, they’re not going to trust you the next time—and that’s why there’s been a lot of mistrust about medical enterprise in the black community. That’s real. And that’s really what we should be fighting to change by doing rigorous research and using it to inform policy. Donate to Chicago Maroon Contributed Our Goal Your donation will support the student journalists of University of Chicago. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.	9,096
Earth Day is the day we celebrate the earth. Last week-end, people from all over the world came together to plant trees, pledge to compost and/or recycle more, remember their reusable mugs and bags. It seems to me that people sometimes forget that the earth needs some love the other 364 days out of the year. I look at it a lot like birthdays. We celebrate and show people how special they are on their birthday, but the rest of the year we don't just forget who that person is and ignore them. We continue to love and support them. I think it should be the same for Mother Earth. Do you ever wonder if people get wrapped up in the hype and think if they plant a tree on Earth Day their good deed is done for the year? For me, it is more than Earth Day – it’s more like Earth Year! Of course, I distinguish Earth Day from all the other days during the year and try to plan a special activity. However, the rest of the year I make sure to keep our planet in mind. We feel good knowing that our actions and choices do make a difference- no matter what others think. There are times when people look at me with a raised eyebrow when I pack up my food scraps in a napkin to bring home from a restaurant. Does it affect me? Of course. I am only human. There are times that I spiral down, get upset, question what I am doing & rethink my “greenness” – But I stop myself and remember who I am, and will not change that for anyone. I like bringing my compost to my local farmer, and I enjoy cloth diapering, but most of all, I love Mother Earth, and will do what I need to do to live a fulfilling and sustainable life. Not because I have to, but because I want to. Creating less trash is important to me and my family. I am always prepared with my “to-go goodie bag” which contains cloth napkins, glass straws, glass containers, cloth produce bags, cups, and utensils. Is it heavy? Yes. Can it be annoying to lug around? Absolutely. Why do I do it? I hate thinking that everything that we put in the garbage ends up in a landfill or somewhere else because it “fell off the truck and is now blowing in the wind.” It breaks my heart knowing that trash is just sitting there, not really doing much (except emitting methane gas). It takes a long time for trash to biodegrade because there is no oxygen in that pile of crap. Have you ever really thought to where your everyday trash ends up? Maybe today is the day to investigate a little further. Besides disliking the creation of trash- I do not appreciate when people do not put “their” trash in a garbage pail. They just drop it and let the wind take it where it will. I can’t count the amount of times I am at the park and there are candy wrappers, plastic bags, etc. just hanging out in the grass. Last year, I began bringing a reusable bag and gloves with me on my walks, so I can pick up other people's trash and at least dispose of it correctly. I am not sure why trash gets my blood boiling exactly, but what I do know, is that throwing something in the trash is not a difficult task. So please, give a hoot, and don't pollute. I am an addict. I can’t stop. I do it everywhere. I am addicted to composting. I love the rush I get knowing my food scraps can either be a farm animals food or go towards creating good quality dirt. It is one of the most fulfilling green acts that I do. I honestly believe that if we all did small acts of “earthness” everyday, and celebrated Mother Earth as part of our daily lives, the impact would be significant. Will you join me in celebrating Earth Year? This article was originally posted on Blogher. Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. Any purchase you make helps support this blog. Thank you! Comments Susan P says April 24, 2012 at 8:47 am I’m on board for Earth Day Everyday! My next step is the to-go-goodie bag for bringing home restaurant leftovers. Good Girl Gone Green says April 24, 2012 at 9:45 pm YAY! Happy to hear that! Subhadra says April 26, 2012 at 9:37 pm Ditto! Shane@EnviroBooty says April 24, 2012 at 9:27 pm I have such a desire to compost and we do, but I need to get a counter-top composter. Do you have a post that explains how you compost at your house? Good Girl Gone Green says April 24, 2012 at 9:46 pm I do have 3 posts I will send them your way! Good Girl Gone Green says April 24, 2012 at 9:46 pm I agree, too! I am addicted to composting what can I say….lol snosler says April 26, 2012 at 10:54 am My only goal right now is to try and convince my neighbors to recycle – seriously, it is ridicuolous! Stopping in to say hey from today’s hop – hope to “see” you soon! Good Girl Gone Green says April 27, 2012 at 12:16 pm Hopefully it will work!!! Sarah says April 26, 2012 at 4:53 pm I am glad to see that Earth Day is really starting to be incorporated in everyday mindfulness for so many. I try to be more conscious of all my actions and the effect they have on the planet. I think we might need an “Earth Decade” or even an “Earth Millennium” to save our planet! Good Girl Gone Green says April 27, 2012 at 12:17 pm Lol! It should be an everyday thing but most people don’t care! Good Girl Gone Green says April 27, 2012 at 12:15 pm Good Girl Gone Green says April 27, 2012 at 12:20 pm Lol. I don’t like sprouts. None of their bulk food is organic and most of theirvproduce is conventional. I go to the farmers market and whole foods.	5,584
I have been struck by an apparent trait of millennials lately. On the news they keep saying that millennials often choose experiences over buying products. They would rather take a trip than buy a new set of clothes. Now that is something I can relate to… I have always chosen an experience over buying something. Whether it be interesting friendships or trips to spectacular or exotic places, I was always up for an adventure. That’s why I traveled quite a bit in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. And now that I’m 60, I’m so glad I did! I went on a number of week-long river trips in Utah and Colorado in my twenties while living in Salt Lake City. These were marvelous, relaxing and unique journeys into the rural American West. And how can I forget that backpacking trip to Canyonlands in southern Utah at age 18, when a couple of my friends got lost, and the ranger took us on a helicopter ride over the area in search of them? How can my parents forget getting that call that I was lost, even though I hasn’t. And then there was that crazy trip to Mayaguez, Puerto Rico to pick up a sailboat and sail it to the British Virgin Islands. Come to find out the boat was a piece of crap, and there was no way it was going to sail that far. So instead we spent a few days in Mayaguez living on the boat, sailed to San Juan, and then a friend and I flew over to Tortola for one of the best weeks of my life, enjoying pina coladas and sunsets on Cane Garden Bay! I discovered Venice on a rather ill-fated trip in the mid-1980s. I first landed in Paris to visit a friend. We traveled to Florence together, where I became quite ill with hepatitis and never left the hotel room! But then it was on to Venice. I was alone for most of my stay there, it was January, I was still sick, and yet I LOVED VENICE! I will never forget my long walks around Venice in the thick London fog, or the man next door at my cheap pension, practicing his opera piece over and over again. It was as authentic as it gets! I have also spent over a year of my life in various countries in east Asia. Bangkok, Taipei, Hong Kong and China are familiar to me, with a million tales to tell about that fascinating part of our world. Travel today is just not as stress-free as 30 or 40 years ago. Yes, there was the occasional hijacking back then, but in general it was cheaper, a lot easier, and much safer. Building in December 2015 in southern Colorado Mike (who spent most of his 20s traveling the Pacific in the Navy) and I, don’t have any major urges to travel at present. A trip right now just sounds exhausting after our recent two year struggle to move south and build this amazing solar home in one beautiful part of the country. In fact, our new home still feels like a fantastic vacation home to us! We’re both glad we took those spontaneous trips back when it was fun and adventurous, and we look forward to exploring rural regions of the American southwest in the future. Don’t judge my story by the chapter you walked in on… aging, attractions in southern Colorado, Building a solar home, Getting off the grid, Laura Lee Carter, Life in the Colorado foothills, Life with a view, Living an independent life, nature watching in southern Colorado, NEW Old Farts, retirement in southern Colorado, Uncategorized, urban versus rural life, West of Walsenburg CO, writer a place you belong, experiences versus buying things, millennials and boomers, millennials and travel, travel tales from the past ← Revision of Dating Milestones for those 50+ Location, Location, Location – Where do you belong in this wild & crazy world? → 15 thoughts on “Millennials and Me (at 60!)” January 21, 2016 at 7:12 pm I would have to say that I have a more “millennial” way of thinking also even though I’m 62. I’m much more into experiences than stuff. Sounds like you’ve had some interesting travels. January 21, 2016 at 7:34 pm Yes Rebecca, I think those millennials have gotten a few things right, at least by my way of thinking! January 21, 2016 at 7:57 pm Fun to hear about all of your travels! “Stuff” isn’t so important to me either. I still love an adventure and am always up for a camping trip. January 21, 2016 at 8:50 pm Great Linda! Thanks so much for reading and hope you can make it down here for a camping trip next summer! January 22, 2016 at 2:52 pm I am not sure I will ever get enough travel time! Thankfully, our children prefer trips over gifts too. But surprisingly, they are not as adventurous as my husband and I!! ps – LOVE Tortola!! January 22, 2016 at 3:04 pm I’m much more into experiences than “stuff”. I’m happy I did the things I did in my 20s and 30s…now, some physical limitations would make what I did harder. And there is that thing called CAUTION and learning from some of the stupid things you did when younger. Like spending the night in an Albany, New York bus station after running out of money, but that’s a story for another time. January 24, 2016 at 7:38 pm My blogger friend Barbara Weibel has been traveling full-time for the past ten years! Here’s her response to me: “I just prefer being overseas these days to living in America… It’s not at all scary out here, despite what the media would have you think. Frankly, with all the mass shootings in the States, I feel lots safer here.” She has a GREAT BLOG about her travels: http://holeinthedonut.com/ Check it out! LikeLiked by 1 person January 30, 2016 at 2:48 pm Sounds like your passport is pleasingly full of stamps! I hope that soon, you’ll feel more settle and the travel bug will hit you again. (Hepatitis in Italy?! How awful!) January 30, 2016 at 5:49 pm You are well traveled! I was in Venice and took a gondola ride last summer. It was my 3rd trip to Europe. I am going to Asia with my husband this summer. I once traveled with someone who became ill. No fun. January 30, 2016 at 8:43 pm Wow, if you can still enjoy a place while experiencing it in the hotel with hepatitis, it must be rather wonderful. I’d love to see Venice. January 30, 2016 at 8:45 pm BTW, another thing you have in common with the millennials is that you started a blog. Every time I go to a blogging event, I’m one of the few non-millennials in the room. (I’m in my early 40s.) I’m impressed by their spirit of, “Hey, I’m just going to go out there and CREATE a dialogue or a thing.” Yeah! January 30, 2016 at 10:03 pm Thanks! I started my first blog at 50 years old. This has been such a liberating experience for me! I’ll never quit! And I had hepatitis and bronchitis in January in Venice, and loved it so much I didn’t want to leave! January 31, 2016 at 3:32 pm BVI’s non-delivery – phew! sounds like you made a most excellent call! I would love to get back to Venice – I went there once when I was in college and my dad was stationed in London. It was wintertime, it snowed, and they were putting out the platforms for acqua’alta just before we left. It was wonderful. I would love to get back there now ’cause I have an online friend I met through blogging who runs kayak tours of Venice. How incredibly cool would that be? January 31, 2016 at 3:42 pm Oh yes, I experienced aqua alta (high water) while I was there…amazing! Sign me up for the first kayak tour of Venice! What a great idea!	7,767
Dick Keyes is director of L’Abri, a residential study center in Southborough MA – one branch of an inter-national ministry founded in Switzerland by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer in 1955. Keyes in also an author and lecturer. Since 1997 he has served as an AIIA Resource Associate for world-views. The following article is original. What do you suppose will be the leading (predominant) worldview in the new millennium? The only reliable prediction is that most predictors will be wrong. Having said that, present trends point to greater fragmentation and more extreme pluralism. Designer religion looks like the order of the day, but there are too many factors to allow prediction. For example, what will make an enormous difference is whether or not the present economic prosperity continues along with relative social order. If not, our exuberant American idols will turn nasty. This is already happening with the idol of sexuality. Why should I care who believes what if I’m already convinced that religion is totally irrelevant? If you believe that religion is totally irrelevant, then it is irrelevant compared to something else, which is more relevant, maybe even true. What could that be? My hunch would be that in order to eclipse the relevance of religion, it is another religion – like money, upward mobility, technology, progress, fame, expertise… How can one individual’s presuppositions be any more “right” or “wrong” than that of another? Only by corresponding more closely to the real world. If I were to tell you that the presidential election in November had been between Bradley and McCain, you might want to take me aside and persuade me that I was wrong. Are our religious presuppositions so private and subjective that they are a completely different kind of knowledge, allowing us all to be “right” no matter how much the teachings of different religions contradict each other? If that is so, nobody’s language about God corresponds to who God actually is. Okay, it’s a free country, but then we must acknowledge that most of the people in the world are wrong about their religion, if only because they believe that their words can and do correspond, at least in some limited way, to who God is. Everyone who has taken the trouble to think about it honestly believes that most of the people in the world are wrong when it comes to their religious presuppositions. So, we are all in the same boat in that our beliefs exclude some of the beliefs of others. If the Christian God is truly sovereign, how is Christianity anything other than just a glorified, theological form of mechanistic determinism? God’s sovereignty is not a simple mechanical determinism, like the relationship of one end of a seesaw to the other. Strong statements of God’s sovereignty are side by side with strong statements describing or assuming significant human choice and effort (Matt. 11:27-28; Acts 2:23; Phil. 2:12-13). These are two giant themes in the Bible. Christians wanting a certain intellectual comfort end up reducing one theme to the other and so domesticating God down to the contours of their minds. God is greater than that. How do you explain the fact that I feel so perfectly content and happy in my theologically-agnostic frame of reference? The Bible tells of many people who are perfectly happy without being in a right relationship to God. Plenty of people feel happy if they believe just what everyone around them believes. Perhaps you are happy because you fit in, and experience no dissonance with your neighbors. Jonah was so peaceful that he would have slept through a hurricane at sea if the sailors had not awakened him-though he was going exactly in the opposite direction from what God had commanded. The prodigal son was perfectly happy while he still had daddy’s money in his pocket. Wait a while. But keep thinking. What course of action would you recommend for an individual trying to settle on a wise worldview in the midst of the plethora of views and confusion of thought that is out there these days? Don’t be daunted by the number of options. Be ready for some hard work. Start by asking, “What are the most important aspects of life and human existence?” Then ask what worldview accounts for those most central things of existence. James Sire’s The Universe Next Door (IVP) is not a bad place to start. Read the Bible. Look at the worldviews that are the most likely contenders in your mind. Be as critical of them as you are of the Bible. Pray, “God, if You are there, please show Yourself to me in some way.” Come to a L’Abri study center, communities set up for this very purpose.	4,783
Ontario’s new broadband fund to connect residents and businesses in Bay of Quinte - Todd Smith, MPP Bay of Quinte Forms Facebook Twitter Or sign in with email Don't have an account? Register now Home » Ontario’s new broadband fund to connect residents and businesses in Bay of Quinte Posted by Adam Bramburger 5sc on June 03, 2020 Bay of Quinte – The Ontario government has announced an investment of $150 million over four years to address much-needed broadband infrastructure across unserved and underserved regions of the province, MPP Todd Smith announced. This investment looks to connect more residents and businesses in Hastings and Prince Edward counties to reliable broadband and cellular service. The Improving Connectivity in Ontario, or ICON, has the potential to leverage up to $500 million in total partner funding. “I have heard from many of my constituents, especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges they face in staying connected with limited to access to cellular and broadband connectivity, said Smith. “I am proud to see our government announcing this significant investment to bring the people of Bay of Quinte one step closer to more reliable connectivity.” Once the ICON program opens its initial application intake later this month, applicants – telecom companies, municipal governments, Indigenous communities and non-profits – will be invited to submit innovative proposals to lend their investment, expertise and experience to improve connectivity in communities across Ontario. The province will fund a portion of each approved project. “Now more than ever before, our government recognizes that the people of Ontario need to be connected to learn, work, and run their businesses. This program is an important step toward bridging the digital divide,” said Minister of Infrastructure Laurie Scott. The Improving Connectivity in Ontario program is part of Up to Speed: Ontario’s Broadband and Cellular Action Plan, which includes $315-million to improve and expand cellular service and broadband in rural and remote communities across Ontario. That plan also includes a separate $71-million investment in the Eastern Ontario Regional Network’s $212-million public-private partnership to improve cellular coverage within the region. In the span of a year, Ontario has advanced initiatives to improve access to broadband and cellular service across eastern, western and northern Ontario. All of these initiatives are expected to generate more than $1 billion in investments over five years. As many as 12 per cent of households in Ontario – mostly in rural, remote or northern areas – are underserved or unserved, according to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. In the past several months, Ontario has partnered with the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) to leverage $213 million to improve access to cellular and mobile broadband in eastern Ontario The Province is investing in the $190 million Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) project to bring high-speed broadband to 50,000 more homes and businesses across Southwestern Ontario. Recently, SWIFT Inc. awarded contracts to bring high-speed internet to thousands of homes and businesses in Lambton, Wellington and Norfolk counties. More contracts are expected for additional counties across southwestern Ontario. Ontario has invested in initiatives to improve connectivity in northern Ontario, such as a project that will connect five remote Matawa-member First Nation communities, and investments in broadband projects through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and the Next Generation Network Program.	3,782
Award-winning author, Anita Higman, has twenty-five books published (several coauthored) for adults and children, and she has been honored as a Barnes & Noble Author of the Month for Houston. Anita has a BA degree, combining communication, psychology, and art. Favorite things include exotic teas, movies, and all things Jane Austen. Books by Author A Marriage in Middlebury Charlotte Rose Hill has been serving up country delicacies, uniquely blended teas, and matchmaking advice for her quirky but beloved customers for more than 10 years. But for her, love seems like an elusive butterfly, always out of reach. At 18, Charlotte fell in love with a young man, Sam Wilder, but… Developed by Camna, LLC This is a service provided by ACFW, but does not in any way endorse any publisher, author, or work herein.	855
The latest Montana Democratic fundraising report is here, and the Montana GOP report is here. The former is 133 pages while the latter is just 30. The GOP raised $20,000 in September and spent $28,000. They now have $27,000 in the bank. The Dems raised $113,000 in September and spent $72,000. They now have $123,000 in the bank. The Big Sky Opportunity PAC was the biggest giver to the GOP, with a $5,000 donation last month. This was the third largest PAC in the 2018 primary cycle here in Montana, with $71,000 spent. They gave Gianforte alone $20,000. Just about every month this year, the Montana GOP is giving $8,250 to Ascension LLC, based in Bozeman, for political consulting. That’s quite a hefty paycheck for the person running that outfit. Besides that, there is no one listed as getting a salary for the GOP. I saw just one instance of eating out - a Panda Express - which may have been associated with someone’s trip to Charlotte. The GOP has a very good strategy, one that doesn’t cost them much money. They have no staffers and spend very little money, and yet when it comes time to vote, the GOP usually wins. 90 pages of the Democrats’ report consists of donations. The final 40 or so pages consists of the money they spend on things. This is what we’ll focus on today. As usual with these reports, various payments are broken down into different categories based on how much time was spent on statewide activities vs. federal activities. The former is labeled as Schedule B while the latter is called Schedule H. For regular workers like you and I, it doesn’t make one bit of difference how they want to label it - the money was still spent. Here are two odd ones that stood out to me: $219 for ground transportation in Kansas City. Someone named Xio Lopp was given $409 for a housing stipend in Kalispell. A name like that is really going to convince people to vote Democratic, now isn’t it? Most of the rest of the report is bank fees, printing, some transportation things, credit card fees, website stuff, and the like. And then we have the employees, which is really sucking the money out of the Party. The Dems have cut down on staff considerably since the pre-election days of last fall. Currently the Dems have 7 people on staff, and they’re paid like so: It costs $23,214 a month to pay those people...but that’s not the whole story. The Party actually pays more in payroll taxes for those employees than they pay them in salary, if you can believe that. While $23,000 was spent on salaries last month, $38,000 was spent on payroll taxes and payroll-related accounting. That’s a $15,000 discrepancy. I I were donating to the Party on a monthly basis, I’d want a little bit of an explanation on that. Another $5,579 was spent on the employees’ healthcare costs last month, though I do feel bad for poor Samantha Offerdahl. She was the only employee forced to contribute to her own healthcare costs, which cost her $474 for the month. I wonder why she got shafted and no one else did. Dems have curtailed their voracious appetites. $657 was spent eating out this month, including $172 at a brewery. All told, if we add up the salaries, healthcare, payroll and food costs, we realize that it costs the Montana Democratic Party a whopping $67,000 a month just to keep those 7 people on staff. What is it they do all day, you might ask? Well, isn't it obvious? They send out fundraising emails, and nothing more. Of the $113,000 they raised for the month, just $45,000 is left over after the staffers are taken care of. So in effect, the Dems have to sit down at the beginning of each month, having a staff meeting to make it clear to everyone that if they want to keep their jobs, they have to find a way to raise $70,000 that month. This is the most important role played at MT Dem HQ on Sixth Street - raise that money so we can keep our jobs. This is the goal of Monica Lindeen, same as it was for Nancy Keenan before her. Both of these women are doing their part to run the Party into the ground, while laughing to the bank all the while. Lindeen up front, turning around to laugh There Lindeen is, at the very front table at the Perez Dinner. She makes $72,000 a year working for the Dems, so you know she’s going to take a spot at that front table. No, we’re not going to give that spot to the top donors, you know...the ones paying Monica’s salary. That might hurt her ego. She’s sure fattened up that bank account of hers on the largess of others. My how its grown. It’ll be interesting to see how much money the Dems wasted on the Perez dinner, which was nothing more than a night out to congratulate themselves on how good of a job they’re doing. If I was in the Montana GOP, I would put my feet up on the desk and let out a satisfied sigh. The GOP doesn’t need to do anything to win because the Dems are doing everything to lose. At Dem HQ, it’s all about self-aggrandizement and how high on the trough they can live with the money people donate to the Party. This is so good for the GOP. The Dems waste tens of thousands of dollars each month for staffers, while the GOP doesn’t have any staffers...and they’re winning. I hope the Montana Democrats continue just the way they are. I know when reports like this come out, they shrug them off and ignore them. This is exactly what we want to have happen. Let the Dems live in their cozy little bubble of a world, thinking that if they just raise a hundred grand each month, they’ll win.	5,681
Steam rises from the coal-fired power plant with wind turbines nearby in Niederaussem, Germany, as the sun rises on Nov. 2, 2022. When world leaders, diplomats,… Steam rises from the coal-fired power plant with wind turbines nearby in Niederaussem, Germany, as the sun rises on Nov. 2, 2022. When world leaders, diplomats, campaigners and scientists descend on Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt for talks on tackling climate change, don’t expect them to part the Red Sea or perform other miracles that would make huge steps in curbing global warming. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File) U.S. and World War fallout, aid demands overshadow climate talks in Egypt Posted: Nov 4, 2022 / 03:41 AM EDT Updated: Nov 4, 2022 / 03:41 AM EDT Steam rises from the coal-fired power plant with wind turbines nearby in Niederaussem, Germany, as the sun rises on Nov. 2, 2022. When world leaders, diplomats,… Steam rises from the coal-fired power plant with wind turbines nearby in Niederaussem, Germany, as the sun rises on Nov. 2, 2022. When world leaders, diplomats, campaigners and scientists descend on Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt for talks on tackling climate change, don’t expect them to part the Red Sea or perform other miracles that would make huge steps in curbing global warming. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File) Posted: Nov 4, 2022 / 03:41 AM EDT Updated: Nov 4, 2022 / 03:41 AM EDT BERLIN (AP) — When world leaders, diplomats, campaigners and scientists descend on Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt next week for talks on tackling climate change, don’t expect them to part the Red Sea or other miracles that would make huge steps in curbing global warming. Each year there are high hopes for the two-week United Nations climate gathering and, almost inevitably, disappointment when it doesn’t deliver another landmark pact like the one agreed 2015 in Paris. But those were different days, marked by a spirit of cooperation between the world’s two biggest polluters — the United States and China — as well as a global realization that failure to reach an agreement would put humanity on a self-chosen track to oblivion. This November the geopolitical tiles have shifted: a devastating war in Ukraine, skyrocketing energy and food prices, and growing enmity between the West on the one hand and Russia and China on the other make for difficult conditions at a gathering that requires cooperation and consensus. “There’s a lot of high and low expectations around this Egypt COP, a lot of mix of ambition and fatalism,” said Avinash Persaud, special envoy for the Barbados prime minister. Here’s what to look out for during the 27th Conference of the Parties, or COP27, from Nov. 6-18 and why it might still end up being a success. Scientists are more concerned about global warming than three decades ago, when governments first came together to discuss the problem because the pace of warming in the past decade is 33% faster than in the 1990s. Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, while tangible impacts from climate change are already being felt around the world. But there is some progress. Before Paris, the world was heading for 4.5 degrees Celsius (8.1 Fahrenheit) of warming by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times. Recent forecasts have that down to 2.6 C (4.7 F), thanks to measures taken or firm commitments governments have already made. That’s far above the 1.5 C (2.7 F) limit countries agreed to seven years ago, however, and the time for keeping that target is fast running out. Researchers say the world has already warmed by 1.2 C (2.2F) and capping temperatures at 1.5 C would require emissions to drop by 43% by the end of the decade, a highly ambitious goal. To get to the less ambitious 2 C (3.6 F) goal emissions have to fall 27%. “The 1.5 degrees is in intensive care and the machines are shaking. So, it is in high danger. But it is still possible,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “My objective in Egypt is to make sure that we gather enough political will to make this possibility really moving forward, to make the machines work … We’re getting close to moments where tipping points might, at a certain moment, make it irreversibly impossible to achieve. Let’s avoid it at all costs.” Prices for oil, coal and natural gas have jumped since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some countries have responded by trying to tap new sources of fossil fuel. This has raised concerns about governments backsliding on their commitments to cut emissions, including the agreement at last year’s climate talks to “phase down” the use of coal and sharply reduce the amount of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — released into the atmosphere. At the same time, rising fossil fuel prices have made renewable energy more competitive. Building solar and wind power plants remains more expensive for developing countries though. To help them cut their emissions quickly, rich nations are negotiating aid projects known as ‘just transition energy partnerships’, or JET-Ps, with several major emerging economies including Indonesia and India that could be finalized during or shortly after COP27. One of the big sticking points in past negotiations concerned the financial support poor countries receive from rich nations to cope with climate change. A deadline to provide $100 billion annually by 2020 was missed and now looks set to be achieved only next year. Future funding needs are likely to be in the trillions, not billions, said Mohamed Nasr, Egypt’s lead negotiator. “The gap on finance is huge,” he said, noting that half the population of Africa doesn’t yet have access to electricity, much less clean energy. Developed countries including the United States have also yet to make good on a pledge to double the amount they provide for adaptation, and make that half of the overall funding. Discussions on climate finance also include the highly contentious issue of countries being compensated for the irreparable harm they’ve suffered as a result of global warming. Big polluters have strongly opposed demands for ‘loss and damage’ payments in the past, but observers say they’ve seen a softening of positions recently, including by the United States. “I think that people are not expecting miracles in terms of a huge fund just miraculously appearing, but they are expecting a credible, meaningful pathway,” said Inger Andersen, head of the U.N. Environment Programme. This would give countries that have done very little to cause the climate crisis but are on the front line of dealing with it “something to hold on to,” she said. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is not coming to this year’s gathering and recently called the U.N. process a “scam.” Other activists have also voiced frustration at the slow pace of negotiations, given the scale of the threat posed by climate change. But Harjeet Singh of Climate Action Network International said there is no other space where all countries are equal. “Tuvalu theoretically is as powerful as the U.S. and Malawi as powerful as the European Union,” he said of the talks. “For us as civil society it’s also a place to call out these countries, to call their bluff, to put a spotlight on those polluters and raise our voices.” University of Maryland social scientist Dana Fisher, who studies the environmental movement, said given Egypt’s authoritarian government and an escalation of in-your-face tactics by frustrated protestors, especially youth, she would not be surprised if there are clashes. “There’s going to be a vanguard of them who are going to be willing to break the law and engage in probably what will start out as civil disobedience, peaceful civil disobedience,” Fisher said. “And they’re probably going to get beaten up. And it’s going to be very good for mobilizing sympathizers.” Egypt has insisted that campaigners will have “full opportunity of participation, of activism, of demonstration, of voicing that opinion.” The gathering in Egypt will be the first time since 2016 that U.N. climate talks have taken place in Africa. Experts say it is important the continent gets more attention, given how heavily it is affected by rising temperatures. “If we look at the 50 countries that are most vulnerable to climate change impacts and who have the least resilience, these are low income countries and most of them are in Africa,” said Preety Bhandari of the World Resources Institute. “So it is fortuitous that we are having this particular COP in Africa to highlight what the vulnerable countries are asking from the climate regime.” Campaigners say that recognizing the challenges Africa faces and prioritizing the needs of vulnerable countries is essential for a successful outcome this year. Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report. Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.	9,437
Earlier last weekend, Mrs Budget and I made the decision to exit the Singapore market fully because of the lacklustre performance of Singapore stocks. After investing in the Singapore market for slightly over 3 years, we have finally closed off all of our Singapore positions earlier today to fully invest in the US market and in cryptocurrency. Here are the final trades of our SG stocks earlier today: We have probably written much about the benefits of investing in the US market previously and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Singapore index really provides far inferior return than what the US or the crypto market can return us. For example, about a month ago, we were kicking ourselves a bit for selling off our SG shares earlier in December because right after we sold our shares, SG market rallied even more in January. We sold off our DBS shares in December as mentioned in our December update. In January, it rallied a further 7-8%. The same goes for the rest of our Singapore counters, which saw a huge rally in January, but we have sold too early. However, the prices have since dropped back to December level, leveling out any “potential” gain we would have made if we held on. So the value of our Singapore stocks in February is actually roughly the same as it is back in December. But since we have rotated our capital into crypto and the US market, because of the ongoing US stimulus and extended bull run, our capital rotation into the US market and cryptocurrency has returned us 10-20% so far, with the potential to go even further in the next 3-5 years. If you’ve been following our latest monthly updates, you’d noticed that in January, our net worth increased by +S$82,000. Of that, our US portfolio contributed more than S$30,000, with SE, Tesla, Fastly, Palantir making the bulk of it. Our crypto holding also returned more than S$20,000 to us. Even if we were to hold onto our Singapore stocks, in the next 3 to 5 years, optimistically perhaps we can make a 20-30% simple return, but for US market and crypto, we could potentially be making way more than that. In fact, we are already making 20-30% return on some counters in just one or two months. This is because US and cryptocurrency has a bigger global audience, and hence a bigger potential market cap. We asked ourselves why do we hold onto our current Singapore investments, and found that the reason is because we wanted to earn the dividend returns and wait for the recovery of the stocks we are holding. While these are all valid reasons, we found more counterarguments to these reasonings. The dividend returns on the stocks we are holding is only 3-5%, and this can be easily replaced by US growth stocks. As for the recovery themed stocks, we realized that the opportunity cost of waiting for the recovery is very high. For example, if we had the money earlier in December, we would have average more into Tesla or any of our current holdings, or even initiated a position on SKILLZ, a speculative counter that caught our eyes since ARK started buying them a month ago. SKILLZ has since almost doubled in price. Based on the potential returns on investment alone, coupled with the high opportunity cost, we have decided to exit the Singapore market completely and to raise our cash level. After we click the sell button, it felt like a huge “burden” has been lifted from our shoulders, and that we dont really miss these counters. We may possibly regret this decisionn when the stock market crash and we have no dividend cushion stocks to fall back to, but I think as long as our conviction is high on our current investment thesis, and we have a long holding period, I think we will potentially get more returns from investing in the US market and in cryptocurrency. Historically, that has been the case too: with S&P500 returning 9-10% pa over the past 100 years, and with noone losing money in bitcoin or ether so far with them hitting all time highs recently. Institutions are all also starting to snap up cryptocurrencies. With funds coming in from our Singapore stocks which we sold off, we will be allocating a small portion of that into some speculative cryptocurrencies, and save up the rest to build up our warchest for the upcoming market correction. Follow our Facebook page for more stories like this. Related Previous Next Hi – I just want to comment that I cannot agree more with you that the SGX is lackluster in its performance and for growing wealth. The US markets offer a much better opportunity. Just want to point out that there are US stocks that pay pretty good dividend of 5% and above. They have so many REITs and other choices to choose from. And what’s more – some of them have grown their dividends paid out consistent over many years. So even a strategy of investing for dividend in the US markets is something highly do-able. February 8, 2021 at 1:10 PM Reply Mr Budget yeaps there are definitely dividend paying counters. definitely stg for sg investors to look into. February 8, 2021 at 1:33 PM Reply All I can say is why didn’t we discover this earlier? STI is plagued with antiquated “blue chip” companies that were highly disrupted and lacks innovation. February 8, 2021 at 3:50 PM Reply Mr Budget indeed indeed. But better late than never! February 8, 2021 at 4:08 PM Reply My current SG portfolio is at 26.18% profit and my US portfolio is at 77.03%. Both of which I have only been holding for about the past 11 months. Therefore, yes I agree that the US market is definitely better in terms of growth. However, the cons of holding overseas stocks are the custodian fees that you will incur. SG stocks are not necessarily bad but you will need to put in the effort to find a few diamonds in the rough. Crypto on the other hand has performed much better for me but it is very volatile and investors should be cautious when entering. Just sold a portion of my crypto after it hit another all time high. Cheers to Elon Musk for the treat February 9, 2021 at 9:33 AM Mr Budget Congrats Eugene! Yeah the past 9 months if u are invested in the us market or crypto, u would have made great returns. For sg, yeaps there are probably a handful of good stocks eg ifast / aem or sheng siong, but that’s probably it – relatively low amount of “diamonds” as compared to the us market.	6,766
The last thing that you want to do when you’re facing DUI charges is put off the decision to hire a defense lawyer in Cantonment. Most individuals are not familiar with the ins and outs of the local laws. As such, they are not well-prepared to fight their charges by themselves. Instead of wasting a lot of time, incurring more costs and fines, and running the risk of making legal mistakes, hire the lawyer that you need as soon as possible. DUI charges are some of the most common city-level criminal charges in Florida. As such, DUI defense lawyers have extensive experience with them and know all of the ins and outs of DUI regulations. When you hire an attorney, make sure to ask about his or her experience with DUI charges. You want to work with someone who has successfully fought many similar cases. Depending on the circumstances of your particular situation and your prior criminal record, the penalties for DUI charges can vary substantially. The consequences may include alcohol education courses, a suspended driver’s license, hefty fines, and/or a jail sentence. Our drunk driving defense lawyers have a strong commitment to fighting for the least severe consequences possible for all of their clients. For instance, an attorney may be able to get community service hours and a fine for a first time offender in lieu of the individual serving jail time. Why You Should Use One of the Experienced Cantonment Lawyers Whether this is your first DUI charge or you have faced DUI charges in the past, you cannot assume that you’re familiar with the local regulations and laws that are applicable to your charges. Every city doesn’t necessarily have the same laws, including the laws that relate to DUI charges. Our lawyers have extensive knowledge of these laws and are ready to use them to protect your rights. They have worked with the same Cantonment judges and prosecutors in many of the same local courthouses on multiple occasions. As you prepare for your first meeting with a DUI defense lawyer, go through your entire story so you don’t forget any information. Many people find it beneficial to prepare notes ahead of time. An attorney will expect you to relay every applicable detail of your case. The more information you can offer, the better the defense. The lawyer will explain his knowledge of the laws that are relevant to your charges. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions that you have during this meeting. You want to feel comfortable proceeding with this lawyer. How You can Assist Your DUI Defense Lawyer When you partner up with a qualified Cantonment drunk driving defense attorney, you get a peace of mind about your future and the protection of your rights. Once you have hired this lawyer, there are a number of things that you can do to assist this individual: Don’t miss any of your appointments Follow the legal advice that your attorney provides Complete and return all of your required paperwork in a timely manner Show up to your meetings early, properly dressed, and thoroughly prepared Be patient, keeping in mind that sometimes the proceedings will take longer than planned Get in Touch with an Attorney Today Individuals facing DUI charges who don’t take immediate action run the risk of compromising their futures, including potential schooling opportunities, jobs which require licensing, and community positions, as well as the future of their loved ones. Get in touch with us today. Δ Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau Trusted By DUI In Florida there are many defenses that are available to people arrested and charged with DUI. If the attorney is not able to suppress evidence to the extent that your case can not proceed, or if the attorney is not able to have the case dismissed outright, your case can proceed to trial. If it goes to trial you will have to present a defense. There ... When a person commits a moving violation, such as speeding or running a red light, their consequence for their actions will be a traffic ticket. In Florida, traffic laws are heavily enforced by police who drive around all day and catch people breaking the law. When an officer sees a person committing a moving violation they will pull them over ... Whether it is a misdemeanor or felony, if you have recently gotten into trouble with the law, then you need to get in touch with a Florida criminal defense attorney today. Working with an attorney can help you present the best possible defenses to the charges against you. The attorneys at Finebloom & Haenel P.A. know that the criminal ...	4,819
With his day job as an engineer, a small business and a brewery in the works, MBA in Aviation major Ryan Harper is one busy student. Next Story Worldwide alumnus and student Ryan Harper is currently working on his third degree from Embry-Riddle. (Photo: Ryan Harper) Ryan Harper ('19, '21, '23) got his start in aviation in the Marine Corps as a Sikorsky CH53E helicopter airframe and hydraulics mechanic at Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464. During his time there, one of his senior leaders recommended that he attend Embry-Riddle. Given ERAU’s reputation and the flexibility that the Worldwide Campus offers, Harper has been able to complete his degrees while building a successful career. So far, he has earned his A.S. in Aviation Maintenance and B.S. in Engineering Technology and is currently working toward his MBA in Aviation. “I always wanted to be an engineer, but I had an aviation mechanic background, so naturally I started my engineering technology degree,” he said. “I was awarded a lot of credit for my background, so I completed those degrees simultaneously while working in aviation mechanic and engineering roles.” Harper currently works as an engineer at Northrop Grumman, but his accomplishments don’t stop there. When he found himself out of work at the beginning of the pandemic, he decided to start Harper’s Hops – a natural hair and beard care business that utilizes beer hops in each product’s ingredients. “I had nothing else to do besides schoolwork and speculate what I really wanted to do in my life because working for General Electric Aviation was always the goal, but plans change and the Marine in me saw it as a challenge to better myself,” he said. “It was also a way for me to give myself a crash course into opening my first business at a forgiving micro level.” Harper is also the senior business leader of Amp House Brewing – a new brewery that is scheduled to open in early 2023. Along with his team, he plans to use this new development as a way to help revitalize the city of Hamilton, Ohio. “I have a business partner who’s owned another local brewery and has been a beer brewer for over 20 years,” said Harper. “We plan on building a team of over 20 people from the local community.” When it comes to his plans for the future, Harper is taking it one step at a time. “Just when I think I have it planned out, my plans change and I find something that’s going to make a positive impact on myself and the ones around me,” he said. “For now, I’m focused on my career as an engineer, finishing my MBA and getting this brewery up and running.” His advice for success? “Don’t let education get in the way of what you want to do. Throw yourself into uncomfortable and challenging positions even if you don’t know how to do it. Cling to your mentors, community and resources you have available and let change become your impetus, not your resistance.” This website uses cookies and similar tools and technologies to understand visitors’ experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s use of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Embry-Riddle Privacy Statement.	3,342
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Firm with ties to Stanley Morgan recruited veterans of intelligence agencies including the FBI, the NSA, the GCHQ and Israeli Unit 8200 Tom Glocer, former CEO of Thomson Reuters and co-founder of BlueteamGlobal Co-founded by CEO Jim Rosenthal, the former chief operating officer at Morgan Stanley, and Tom Glocer, former CEO of Thomson Reuters and a member of Morgan Stanley’s board of directors, the new firm aims to provide customers with cyber threat intelligence and managed services. A former head of the FBI's New York cyber branch, Austin Berglas, and Milan Patel, former chief technology officer for the Cyber Division at the FBI, will lead managed security services at BlueteamGlobal. Robert Hannigan, former director of GCHQ, will head the company's European advisory board. The company was created by unifying BitVoyant, a cyber intelligence services company, with two K2 Intelligence entities, K2 Cyber defense and K2G Global, an Israel-based cybersecurity subsidiary. Gad Goldstein, founder of K2G Global and a former division head at the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, will lead the new firm’s dark web intelligence team. Daniel Ennis, former Director of the threat operations center at NSA, will co-lead advanced cyber threat intelligence at BlueteamGlobal, along with Ron Feler, a former deputy commander of Unit 8200, the Israeli army’s digital surveillance unit and an equivalent of the NSA. Nadav Zafrir, Unit 8200 former commander, will join the company’s board of directors. Mr. Zafrir is the CEO of Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity foundry Team8, which raised $56 million to date according to Reuters.	1,718
The main reason for coming to the Prague is the incredible amount of jobs available on the market. Boasting the lowest unemployment rate of any European City, combined with a low cost of living, no wonder foreigners are flooding to Prague for a new start. And in terms of getting a foothold in the Czech Republic, the majority of opportunities come from the option of teaching English in Prague, thanks to the language boom that is gripping the country. If you’re a native speaker, then you’re as good as guaranteed to be working right from the off. What qualification do I need to teach English in the Czech Republic Obviously being lucky enough to be born in the UK or USA doesn’t mean employers will necessarily be falling at your feet, but that’s where the TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate comes in. Although not the cheapest of endeavours (expect to pay around …..), gaining the qualification is beneficial in a number of ways. First of all, it provides evidence to future prospective employers that you are capable of teaching English in the Czech Republic. Secondly, considering you’ll be moving to a country where you probably don’t know another person, enrolling on a course with fellow expats, who are in the same boat as you, provides the perfect opportunity to make new friends and kick-start this new chapter in your lives together. Thirdly, you yourself do learn some useful things about teaching English in the Czech Republic that will give you confidence and provide a foundation for how you’ll perform in your career here. And lastly, the school where you do the certificate will allow you access to the vast amount of resources available to teach. Shelves upon shelves of textbooks, new and old, ranging from pre-school to business English. The option of being able to print in the teacher’s room is also something that you cannot put a price on, allowing you to collect worksheets and copy pages out of your favourite textbook. Where to do TEFT certificate There are quite a number of places available to do your TEFL certificate, and it can be a difficult decision to decide on which institution, considering they all seem to offer an identical service. They charge the same price, offer the same course duration, have the same course syllabus, provide the option of housing during the course, and more often than not, they provide a job guarantee for anybody who passes with flying colours. In the end then, such decision making should not be something you lose too much sleep over. As long as you acquire that certificate and establish a social standing in this City, teaching English in Prague will be a worthwhile choice. How to start teaching in the Czech Republic? And in regards to the job guarantee, it certainly provides a good safety net to guide you through those difficult first weeks in a new country, but by all means, do not think that it is necessary to follow through with. The TEFL organisations and their affiliated language school have a knack for making it seem like you need them, and will be lost in the wilderness unless you blindly accept their job offer without considering the terms and conditions. However, if you begin to consider other options and scout the ESL job market elsewhere, you’ll see that the options are almost endless. There’s a viscous rumour that September and January are the chief hiring months, and applying any other time in the year is a futile effort. This may only be true (half true) when speaking about teaching English in children’s schools, which is, in fact, a small fraction of the amount of English teaching that happens across Prague. Teaching English in the Czech Republic is more than a child’s game. Residents of all ages and all backgrounds are desperate to learn, so picking up classes is achievable throughout the year. The pay is usually based on per lesson, unless you have a fixed contract in a children’s school, which works out around the same wage regardless. A visa for the Czech Republic for purpose of teaching in Prague Now on to the difficult topic of visas. As an EU citizen, I am fortunate enough to not have to deal with such issues. Coming from any one of the countries within the union, showing up with your passport is adequate to establish yourself in the Czech Republic and do as you please. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it! However, because my social circle includes a lot of American expats, I’m fully aware of the hurdles that non-EU citizens have to face. Visa applications are lengthy, include a lot of paperwork, trips to various government buildings, and a whole load of emotional strain. You need proof of employment, proof of accommodation, proof of health insurance and proof that you have sufficient funding to live and teach English in the Czech Republic. If this sounds like too much for you to handle, then luckily, most TEFL courses will provide visa assistance, albeit for a significant price. Although definitely useful to have while you deal with other very important things, don’t expect it to be the most efficient process you’ll ever be involved in. Receiving the “Czech treatment” is something to get used to, amongst other things. Furthermore, I’ve heard from those in the know that the visa assistance from TEFL courses are actually overcharging for their services that are available elsewhere for a much reduced price. Finding accommodation in Prague In regards to this type of marketing, there’s also this kind of deceiving happening in the housing market. The TEFL courses may well offer you housing assistance also, claiming that it’s impossible to do so alone and that handing over the equivalent of one month’s rent is the only way you won’t end up homeless. But thanks to Facebook, there are numerous groups established to advertise rooms, house-shares and apartments independently, dispensing of the devious middle men altogether. Where can you receive help and assistance The internet is your most valuable resource here, but also in many other areas too. Once you get up and running teaching English in Prague, although you will be supported in your work, don’t expect to be given everything on a plate. The job demands a lot of work both in and outside the classroom, mostly racking your brains about how on earth you’re going to teach that particular piece of grammar. But there are hundreds upon hundreds of websites there to be your saviour, providing worksheets, explanations and fun activities for both children and adults. Should I teach privately or work for a language school? One big decision you’ll have to make is whether to work for a designated language school or be a private teacher. Or even a combination of both! The benefit of teaching privately is that you are your own boss and don’t have to work with someone breathing down your neck. Everything is done on your terms. Don’t like early mornings? Nobody does! But as a private teacher, it’s not something you have to live with if you really don’t want to! However, the negative of teaching privately in the Czech Republic is the realisation that your students can (and often will) cancel on you without much warning, and unfortunately there isn’t much you can do about it. Working for an established organisation that allocate the lessons for you brings added security where you’re guaranteed to still be paid for a lesson that is untimely cancelled at the last minute. On the other hand though, this can be offset by the bureaucracy and added paperwork that will inevitably be thrown your way. Perhaps the best solution is a combination between the two modes. Work some hours in a language school where you know you will be paid, while also maintaining some independence with private students, who usually provide more fulfilling and personal interactions. Why you should say YES! Overall, teaching English in the Czech Republic can be a highly satisfying job, but only if you truly have a passion for teaching. People come to this country and begin in this sector because of its easy accessibility but then move onto something else quickly upon realisation that it’s not for them. By all means give it a try, but don’t feel like you’re trapped in that one job. Prague is a City full of endless possibilities and you may just end up living the life here that you never dreamed of. Teaching english in the Czech Republic 4.5 (90%) 8 Filed Under: Living in the Czech Republic, Tips I contribute to infocizinci.cz since 2013. As a foreigner who lives in the Czech Republic I use my own experience for writing the articles. I hope my articles help all foreigners who want to study or relocate to the Czech Republic.	8,673
Experiment solitary touching the condensing of air in such sort as it may put on weight, and yield nourishment. 29. ONIONS, as they hang, will many of them shoot forth; and so will penny-royal; and so will an herb called orpin; with which they use in the country to trim their houses, binding it to a lath or stick, and setting it against a wall. We see it likewise, more especially, in the greater semper-vive, which will put out branches, two or three years: but it is true, that commonly they wrap the root in a cloth besmeared with oil, and renew it once in half a year. The like is reported by some of the ancients, of the stalks of lilies. The cause is; for that these plants have a stong, dense, and succulent moisture, which is not apt to exhale; and so is able, from the old store, without drawing help from the earth, to suffice the sprouting of the plant and this sprouting is chiefly in the late spring, or early summer; which are the times of putting forth. We see also, that stumps of trees lying out of the ground, will put forth sprouts for a time. But it is a noble trial, and of very great consequence, to try whether these things, in the sprouting, do increase weight; which must be tried, by weighing them before they be hanged up; and afterwards again, when they are sprouted. For if they increase not in weight, then it is no more but this; that what they send forth in the sprout, they lose in some other part: but if they gather weight, then it is magnale naturæ; for it sheweth that air may be made so to be condensed, as to be converted into a dense body; whereas the race and period of all things, here above the earth, is to extenuate and turn things to be more pneumatical and rare; and not to be retrograde, from pneumatical to that which is dense. It sheweth also, that air can nourish; which is another great matter of consequence. Note, that to try this, the experiment of the semper-vive must be made without oiling the cloth; for else, it may be, the plant receiveth nourishment from the oil. Experiment solitary touching the commixture of flame and air, and the great force thereof. 30. FLAME and air do not mingle, except it be in an instant; or in the vital spirits of vegetables and living creatures. In gun-powder, the force of it hath been ascribed to rarefaction of the earthy substance into flame; and thus far it is true: and then, for sooth, it is become another element; the form whereof occupieth more place; and so, of necessity, followeth a dilatation and therefore, lest two bodies should be in one place, there must needs also follow an expulsion of the pellet; or blowing up of the mine. But these are crude and ignorant speculations. For flame, if there were nothing else, except it were in very great quantity, will be suffocate with any hard body, such as a pellet is; or the barrel of a gun; so as the flame would not expel the hard body; but the hard body would kill the flame, and not suffer it to kindle or spread. But the cause of this so potent a motion, is the nitre, which we call otherwise saltpetre, which having in it a notable crude and windy spirit, first by the heat of the fire suddenly dilateth itself; and we know that simple air, being preternaturally attenuated by heat, will make itself room, and break and blow up that which resisteth it; and secondly, when the nitre hath dilated itself, it bloweth abroad the flame, as an inward bellows. And therefore we see that brimstone, pitch, camphire, wild-fire, and divers other inflammable matters, though they burn cruelly, and are hard to quench, yet they make no such fiery wind as gunpowder doth and on the other side, we see that quick-silver, which is a most crude and watery body, heated, and pent in, hath the like force with gunpowder. As for living creatures, it is certain, their vital spirits are a substance compounded of an airy and flamy matter; and though air and flame being free, will not well mingle; yet bound in by a body that hath some fixing, they will. For that you may best see in those two bodies, which are their aliments, water and oil; for they likewise will not well mingle of themselves; but in the bodies of plants, and living creatures, they will. It is no marvel therefore, that a small quantity of spirits, in the cells of the brain and canals of the sinews, are able to move the whole body, which is of so great mass, both with so great force, as in wrestling, leaping; and with so great swiftness, as in playing division upon the lute. Such is the force of these two natures, air and flame, when they incorporate. 31. TAKE a small wax candle, and put it in a socket of brass or iron; then set it upright in a porringer full of spirit of wine heated: then set both the candle and spirit of wine on fire, and you shall see the flame of the candle open itself, and become four or five times bigger than otherwise it would have been; and appear in figure globular, and not in pyramis. You shall see also, that the inward flame of the candle keepeth colour, and doth not wax any whit blue towards the colour of the outward flame of the spirit of wine. This is a noble instance; wherein two things are most remarkable: the one, that one flame within another quencheth not; but is a fixed body, and continueth as air or water do. And therefore flame would still ascend upwards in one greatness, if it were not quenched on the sides: and the greater the flame is at the bottom, the higher is the rise. The other, that flame doth not mingle with flame, as air doth with air, or water with water, but only remaineth contiguous; as it cometh to pass betwixt consisting bodies. It appeareth also, that the form of a pyramis in flame, which we usually see, is merely by accident, and that the air about, by quenching the sides of the flame, crusheth it, and extenuateth it into that form; for of itself it would be round; and therefore smoke is in the figure of a pyramis reversed; for the air quencheth the flame, and receiveth the smoke. Note also, that the flame of the candle, within the flame of the spirit of wine, is troubled; and doth not only open and move upwards, but moveth waving, and to and fro; as if flame of its own nature, if it were not quenched, would roll and turn, as well as move upwards. By all which it should seem, that the celestial bodies, most of them, are true fires or flames, as the Stoics held; more fine, perhaps, and rarified than our flame is. For they are all globular and determinate; they have rotation; and they have the colour and splendor of flame: so that flame above is durable, and consistent, and in its natural place; but with us it is a stranger, and momentany, and impure; like Vulcan that halted with his fall. 32. TAKE an arrow, and hold it in flame for the space of ten pulses, and when it cometh forth, you' shall find those parts of the arrow which were on the outsides of the flame more burned, blacked, and turned almost into a coal, whereas that in the midst of the flame will be as if the fire had scarce touched it. This is an instance of great consequence for the discovery of the nature of flame; and sheweth manifestly, that flame burneth more violently towards the sides than in the midst: and, which is more, that heat or fire is not violent or furious, but where it is checked and pent. And therefore the Peripatetics, howsoever their opinion of an element of fire above the air is justly exploded, in that point they acquit themselves well: for being opposed, that if there were a sphere of fire, that encompassed the earth so near hand, it were impossible but all things should be burnt up; they answer, that the pure elemental fire, in its own place, and not irritated, is but of a moderate heat. Experiment solitary touching the decrease of the natural motion of gravity, in great distance from the earth; or within some depth of the earth. 33. It is affirmed constantly by many, as an usual experiment; that a lump of ore, in the bottom of a mine, will be tumbled and stirred by two mens strength; which if you bring it to the top of the earth, will ask six mens strength at the least to stir it. It is a noble instance, and is fit to be tried to the full; for it is very probable, that the motion of gravity worketh weakly, both far from the earth, and also within the earth: the former, because the appetite of union of dense bodies with the earth, in respect of the distance, is more dull; the latter, because the body hath in part attained its nature when it is some depth in the earth. For as for the moving to a point or place, which was the opinion of the ancients, it is a mere vanity. Experiment solitary touching the contraction of bodies in bulk, by the mixture of the more liquid body with the more solid. 34. It is strange how the ancients took up experiments upon credit, and yet did build great matters upon them. The observation of some of the best of them, delivered confidently, is, that a vessel filled with ashes will receive the like quantity of water, that it would have done if it had been empty. But this is utterly untrue, for the water will not go in by a fifth part. And I suppose, that that fifth part is the difference of the lying close, or open, of the ashes; as we see that ashes alone, if they be hard pressed, will lie in less room: and so the ashes with air between, lie looser; and with water, closer. For I have not yet found certainly, that the water itself, by mixture of ashes or dust, will shrink or draw into less room. Experiment solitary touching the making vines more fruitful. 35. It is reported of credit, that if you lay good store of kernels of grapes about the root of a vine, it will make the vine come earlier and prosper better. It may be tried with other kernels laid about the root of a plant of the same kind; as figs, kernels of apples, etc. The cause may be, for that the kernels draw out	10,006
It is often said that the delivery bike rider is asked whether he has a licence, given the bike, keys and a helmet and off he goes – Do you believe this is true? In some cases this is very real and indeed a major concern. These delivery riders are shown the very basics by fellow riders, and put out on the roads with a mere Learner License or none at all. As for riding gear nothing special apart from a useless R500-R600 helmet, and maybe a rain suit or a hi-vis vest. Companies employing delivery riders or motorcycle fleet owners are in for a huge surprise if and when they don’t take the lives of these men and women seriously. To give an example: Company X here in Durban had an incident where one of their riders was involved in a motorcycle accident early 2014, and died due to his injuries. The family turned and took the Company (Employer) to court, claiming that the company never equipped the rider with the necessary personal safety gear and training. This oversight cost the company a pretty penny, and since then, became the benchmark for all delivery riders employed and in service on motorcycles. I’ve seen over the following months, a number of fleet owners sending their riders for proper training and equipping them with the required safety gear. Well-done to this family, and may this be the beginning of change for those running the gauntlet every day. What are the requirements for a delivery biker with regards to an effective delivery vehicle – what do you believe should companies consider with regards to engine size of a bike etc.? I deal with fleets all the time and noticed a trend where almost every one of these companies are out to buy the cheapest piece of scrap, reflecting a very short term and inconsiderate attitude toward their own pockets and the lives of others. I’ll keep this short – most delivery riders are older than 18 years of age, and if he/she is still riding on a learner license will need to do the K53 Motorcycle Test on a motorcycle with an engine capacity bigger than 125cc (150cc and up) or they will be licensed as a Code A1 rider, licensed to ride a motorcycle of up to and including 125cc. Putting him/her on a scooter with a Learner License, and when sending him/her for the Test, will only be licensed to ride an automatic “gear box” motorcycle/scooter. Some thinking and forward planning will save the employer/company a lot of time and money in the long run. It really depends on the rider’s status and the employer requirements for service delivery. There is not a big price difference between a 125cc and a 150/200cc motorcycle. Spend the extra cash and save in the long run. I’m not here to discuss or recommend brands, but these bikes are out there and available from reputable dealers nationwide. I generally recommend that a rider be put on a motorcycle nothing smaller than a 200cc if he/she will be riding on a Freeway where other road users are travelling at an average speed of 110-120km/h. This engine capacity has enough power to maintain these speeds without straining the motor beyond its performance boundaries. The total daily travelling distance should also be considered. If however the rider will be operating mostly within city limits on urban roads at a maximum of 60km/h, a 125cc motorcycle will suffice. Expecting a rider to operate a motorcycle beyond its performance limits will not only push the motorcycle to destruction, but also stretch the rider and his/her abilities outside their comfort zone. Further to this it is proven that small diameter wheeled scooters are prone to a higher accident rate due to a few factors. Rather invest in a big/normal diameter wheeled motorcycle or scooter which gives added stability and handling or dealing with our road conditions. The delivery guy has to operate effectively in urban areas – are there specific skills and techniques required? Skills are taught and only obtained by a select and committed few. Here are a few very basic tips these brave souls can take notice of if they wish: Keep your following distance and keep your levers (brakes and clutch) covered at all times, ready to react if you need to. Lane split with caution, nothing faster than 10km/h to the other stationary road users. Always have an escape route and never ride next to another road user or in his/her blind spot. Ride with your high-beam on at all times, and make yourself visible to other road users. Keep to the legal speed limit, I know it is difficult, but why rush and put your life and that of others at risk. Ask your employer to send you for a suitable Rider Training Course; it could save your life, save him money and make him look like a caring and concerned individual. Ride to Live! It is you on the motorcycle, not your employer – Take Care of Yourself! Are you aware of typical types of crashes involving our delivery bikers? There are four very distinct accidents that jump to mind but nothing different from a regular daily commuter on a motorcycle: Rear-ending another road user due to lack of anticipation Being rear-ended by another road user due to cutting and braking Being pushed off the road due to lack of anticipation and awareness And then the very famous T-bone, bike hitting car or car hitting bike due to ignorance Are there specific bike checks you would advise before a day at work for the delivery guy? A good pre-trip inspection is as good as the person conducting it, and how regular it is done. A daily inspection is very important and should be seen as taking out a life insurance policy. Here is a common method of a good pre-trip inspection: O – Oil A more comprehensive explanation of each pre-check item can be downloaded HERE What would be the most important aspects to consider with regards to the load carried – where to carry / where not to / weight distribution etc. Legally any load on a motorcycle may be carried on the tank with the use of a proper tank-bag but not obscuring the view of the rider or hampering the safe operation of the motorcycle. The most common place for the load on a delivery motorcycle, is by means of a suitable and purpose built box affixed to the back of the motorcycle held in place by a steel or metal bracket, and in turn affixed to the frame of the motorcycle. The box should be mounted over the passenger seat or directly above the rear axle so as to not alter the handling or road holding of the motorcycle. The box should be of a manageable size to not create a “sail” effect, pose a risk to the rider or make the motorcycle unstable when placed on its side-stand. Most reputable dealers have these guidelines and should stick to them no matter what. Heavier goods should be placed at the bottom of the box and lighter items to the top. An additional method is panniers or better known as saddlebags. This way the load is low down and near (next or above) the rear wheel or axle. If there are several guys doing deliveries and several bikes – how important is it to have a “dedicated” bike for a specific delivery guy? Good point! Most employers do issue each rider with his or her motorcycle, leaving the responsibility to one person; the rider. Sure there will be initial little adjustments that will have to be made like seat height, mirror setup, brake and clutch lever setup, etc. Only when change in employment occurs will these items have to be looked at again, or when it returns from a scheduled service or repair. A dedicated motorcycle provides the operator with confidence purely because he knows the motorcycle inside and out – His home away from home! Are there specific considerations with regards to protective clothing to take into account – does he have to wear “ALL the protective Gear” or what would you regard as the most important essentials? [weather / visibility etc…] ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time) should not only apply to the “other” motorcycle riders on our roads, but to EVERY one operating a motorcycle, and that includes these brave young men and women. If skin is exposed it needs to be covered, and compromising on any item leaves room to chance. The everyday commuter or delivery rider needs to make him/her -self super visible and putting reflective tape on the motorcycle or box and wearing a hi-vis vest or rain suit can and will increase your chance of survival in this jungle. Let others laugh and call you a “Power Ranger”; it is your life, take it serious and dress for the fall not the ride. Any other aspects you as an instructor believe could add to the safety of the Bike delivery rider? I can only say because it is easier to talk than to put myself in their boots or shoes, having to deal with a difficult employer. Insist or ask nicely: “Mr Employer, I am a human being, I have a family and value my life, please look after me and I promise I will look after you and your customers.” Ask to be geared-up and trained-up properly, and if you feel your life is at risk, look for a position elsewhere. Your life is more important! This has been an interview by Johan Jonck of Arrive Alive delivery rider motorcycle merchant motorcycle safety road safety You may also like Published September 22, 2015 This has been a bone of contention for a very long time, and a way overdue point of implementation into our local […] Published September 22, 2015 You used to live to ride, but then life took a different turn–varsity, a family, a career–and you sold your bike and […] Published September 21, 2015 Braking is one of the most important things you’ll learn to do on a motorcycle; though newbies tend to get stuck on […] Published September 22, 2015 Once again I heard experienced riders only partially explain to some newbies that they needed to be careful after putting new tyres […]	9,869
Sofa Hotel Nisantasi `s decided to discontinue the court in July in connection with the sale of the building. However, the expert's report appeared in August. Well-known businessman Ahmet Nazif Zorlu Cumbusun Harry Cətinliklinin daughte... The Dubai hotel will be built under the water. The Dubai hotel will be built under the water: Dubai has the largest concentration of most extraterrestrial and huge structures and buildings from the metro station, and the last hotels. It all seems real: the tallest building in the world's most luxurious ho... Azerbaijan is growing year by year in the field of tourism. Azerbaijan is growing year by year in the field of tourism. Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization Taleb Rifai said. According to him, the tourism industry occupies an important place in the economy of Azerbaijan....	876
My job gives me the wonderful opportunity to not have to repeat the same mundane tasks on a daily basis. No endless screwing on of toothpaste caps for me. What it also gives me is the opportunity to fuck with things that I would rather not, such as electricity. I have a pretty good basic knowledge of electricity, which I actually learned in high school in the improperly named Introduction to Technology class. Of course since the only computers we had in my high school were in the library, and only there as a replacement to the card indexes with no other purpose whatsoever, I guess basic electricity really was technology in their eyes. That aside, I loathe electricity. It is wonderful when it is working as expected, but when I have to actually start wiggling wires I get a tad bit nervous. This is compounded when I have to do it where I work. To say that the wiring in the building I work in is old would be like saying that Hitler was merely a bit quirky. Many of the electrical panels in the building are at least forty years old, complete with the old screw in fuses. The disconnect boxes on the outside of the building are likely every bit as old and scary as hell. Not to mention that, as I think about it, there are at least five separate breaker boxes in the building (two of which have been replaced within the last ten years, two which at least have breakers, and one that still has screw in fuses). As far as power cut off boxes, there are at least (wait while I try to count from memory) 14 of those. Most of those are for specific refrigeration units, while there are a couple that are there for no damn reason at all. The 14 number was counting only the ones that are active as well, there are at least another half dozen that are hanging on the walls but not connected to anything. It is old, it is complex, yet it works just fine for the most part. I will leave it at that for now. Yesterday, I noticed that the fans in the dairy walk-in were not working so I went to investigate. Here I must note that there is another light outside of the walk-in that runs on the same circuit as the fans, that light was still working. I assumed that this meant that there was something wrong with the compressor for the dairy walk-in itself, when I got outside to the compressor I saw that the compressor for the wall freezer was working just fine, since it is on the same, huge, 100 amp circuit as the dairy compressor I was confident that my initial guess was correct. I pulled the fuse block from the dairy walk-in’s compressor (it is a block about three by four inches that holds three fuses. The fuses look like miniature shotgun shells but with copper on both ends) and tested the fuses, they were all fine. So up the line I went. The next set of fuses that needed testing were the massive 100 amp ones that I so fear. They also look like shotgun shells, but they are about three inches long with an additional inch of a copper blade sticking out of each end. It is not that I fear the fuses really, but that one of them will not blow out unless the amperage across it has reached 100 amps. If the amperage across the fuse reached 100 then that means that there could be a serious short in the electrical system. Since less than one amp can be fatal I am really scared of touching 100 amp fuses. I think that fear is pretty justified. In any electrical installation the line (power) always comes into the top of a box, while the load (the place the power is going to) always goes out the bottom, always, in every instance. I didn’t trust that in this particular case, so I traced the wires myself before trying to test the fuses. It was, astonishingly (to me anyway), actually wired correctly. I threw the lever down on the box to test the fuses (this is, I assume, why they have standardized it so. There must be a standard way to run the power into and out of the box, if the power goes in through the top it is possible to test the fuses without having to remove them. Time saving as well as standardizing, good all around). I tested the left fuse, then the right, both of which were fine (I only tested the left and right first since in a home application, like a dryer, the left and right will each be power while the middle will be ground). Then it went really bad. Just a quick aside. I had taken the rubber mallet outside with me when I went to check those fuses. The reason why is that when you flip the switch back up the blades do not contact with the power supply very well, this has led to many a blown fuse on that system. The way that I circumvent that problem is to turn off both of the compressors, turn the switch back on, then tap the blades into place with the rubber mallet. This time, thankfully, I had used the rubber mallet to also hold the cover (it opens up) on the box open. I say thankfully since I normally just use my head to hold it up since it only takes a couple of seconds. I touched my continuity tester to the top of the center fuse, then the bottom. I then immediately dropped to the ground with what used to be a continuity tester in my hands, and a horrible, unstoppable, muscle jerking thing going on. I really got a jolt out of that one. That was the worst shock I have ever felt in my life. I have been shocked by your standard electrical outlet many times, to me that feels more like a tickle than a shock, but this one, boy howdy, I thought I not only bought the farm outright, but possibly also a considerable amount of acreage around it. Funny thing is that it doesn’t really hurt exactly, it is more like you are just wasted of any physical energy, as if you had just done a decathlon a few times in a row. This one took me a good thirty minutes to settle down from, at least to the point that I was able to think and act coherently again. Certainly not recommends for entertainment purposes. The reason that I got shocked (which completely destroyed the continuity tester, as I may have mentioned) is that when I threw the switch off on that box I didn’t even look to see if all of the blades were removed from power. It turns out that the center blade stayed connected because the arm that pulls that one away from the power was actually broken off. I tried to test a 100 amp fuse with a continuity tester, while it had power. I wonder how many people have ever done that and lived. Yet, I still had to test that fuse somehow. It was at exactly this moment that I decided the store was going to pony up the ten bucks for a fuse puller. The fuse puller is just like a big set of pliers that is made all out of plastic. That in hand, I pulled the center fuse and took it to the hardware store to have it tested (since my tester was beyond repair) and found that it was also good. If that fuse had been bad, I think I might not be alive right now. That fuse runs to the compressors which are solidly grounded with copper, I only took a portion of the voltage (since the fuse was good, and the copper was a better ground than me. Love those rubber soles), and, more importantly, the amperage. If it would have been only me completing that circuit I would likely only be able to blog in a posthumous fashion. Another aside. If you ever try to steal power from the warehouse next door, keep in mind that there is something (which I had never heard of previously) that is called a wild leg. It is used exclusively in industrial applications. I am not sure exactly what its purpose is, but it makes it so that the wires that carry power run at 120v, 120v, and 208v. None of the three are a ground or common wire. If you pick the wrong wire (while trying to steal power) and get the 208v one, you will likely destroy every electronic device in your whole house. Keep it in mind. The problem with the walk-in was eventually resolved, quite simply, but I am gonna leave that for another post, as this one has gone a bit long already. Filed under home repair, Personal posts \| Comment \| Permalink You must be logged in to post a comment. « Are people really that fucking darn stupid? Open question about physiology » Music that defines me My stocks are tanking! 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In this case, I don't think the song is lost to history, but the video is. When this video dropped (I'd guess it was about 1989) I thought it was the most powerful video I had ever seen. Now, nearly thirty years later, I still believe it is the most powerful music video ever made. The story may not be completely unique (the imagery is recycled -but from a film that was so old that my -then fifteen or sixteen year old- eyes had never seen. My now forty-five-ish year old eyes had never seen it either) but that video is shot and edited so well that you will be crying by the end. If, that is, you have a heart. The video for Metallica's One surpassed all expectations for music videos, set the mark for what music videos would, could, and should be. It rocketed the group from garage band to the biggest group that ever lived. This single video defines not just that band, but the entire genre. No other video has ever had such an impact on on the world of music. Not Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video (which I believe to this day gets far too much credit) not The Beastie Boys song Sabotage which was a wonderful throwback to the seventies era cop show, but which I believe, also gets credit far beyond it's worth. Metallica's video for One, on the other hand, didn't try to look like anything more than it was. It was a hard-rocking song and Metallica used some masterful movie clips to add to the morose feel that the instruments generated. That video, for that song, was absolutely perfect. It is without any form of doubt that I say the video for Metallica's song One was, and ever will be, the best video ever made. Don't take my word for it though, watch the video above (with low light and in a dark room) . If it doesn't move your heart, you're living this life all wrong. Stretch pants. While the Lord giveth (that one hot chick you've seen in the last decade who could totally pull off the stretchy leggings) the lord also taketh away (every other woman on the planet. This is probably 90% of all women on earth). Any woman over a size four shouldn't wear stretch pants, but only women who add ten to that number seem to wear them. "You wish." In fairness, this one was all about context. I'm still not sure which side of 300 pounds this particular girl fell on (honestly not sure if she came in under 400 actually) but the 'you wish' T-shirt on top of the 'you'd pray it doesn't come to this' body piqued my interest. Her body stretched the stretch pants to the point that you could see more skin than pants in them. Stretch pants will only be sold through size four. If you want to show off your big ass, do it like a real woman: Mardi Gras. Wildly inaccurate, yet shockingly precise, predictions based completely on happenstance and arbitrary universal fluctuations. – I Mean Horoscopes: July 2017 For 34 years you have been painstakingly removing a single hair from the head of each of woman you murder -with plans to weave them into a belt. A mishap involving a a candle-warmer, a vacuum cleaner, and the police breaking down the door to take you 'dead or alive' will bring your collecting days to an unfortunate end. Your plan to rook your boyfriend into marrying you by faking a pregnancy will fail this week. There are several reasons why this plan will fail: 1) you have denied him sex for your entire relationship, promising him that flower on the honeymoon. 2) You actually are pregnant. 3) You've been wearing a T-shirt that says 'Gold Digger' on it since the day you met him. 4) The single strand of hair that the Cancer (horoscope above) pulls from your head will be the one and only time he leaves his own DNA at the crime scene. Okay, maybe the stars have been a bit harsh. They know you are a good guy, but you've made a lot of mistakes. The stars are willing to meet at Gina's Coffee Shop on July 12th at noon. If you aren't there, you may as well write off visitation of your kids. 98% That is the specific number you will give your wife before you jump out of the plane. That optimistic chance of survival will slowly fade as you realize that gravity doesn't care a great deal if you have your arms out or not: Terminal velocity is terminal velocity. Your attempt to recreate the famous scene from the movie Point Break will end just as it should have in the movie: A horrible mass of flesh and bone several miles away from the guy who actually did have the parachute. The stars have a huge "to do" list. As such, your childhood wish to have sex with Anna Nichole Smith will finally come true this week. No, there's no way to stop it. The stars do apologize for the lateness of the fulfillment of this request, but they think your friends will count it anyway. You've seen the movie The Number 23 exactly twenty-two times. You've built your life around avoiding that number. You''ll feel supremely confident when you leave your house on 07/12/2017. But, on 07/12/2017, you will step onto the sidewalk only to be struck and killed by a drunk driver. The time of impact? Exactly 11:01:00am on 07/12/2017. You will have exactly enough time to add up the digits of the date AND time: 1+1+0+1+0+0+0+7+1+2+2+0+1+7=23. Your realization that any date, time, or irrelevant number can be made to equal 23 will be moot. The stars have been watching you. And your daughter. Oh my, how we have been watching your daughter... Blah, blah, something about a star rising in Orion, blah, blah. The stars will definitely offer you better guidance once that daughter is of legal age. Every man wants to die a hero. That's human nature. But you have obsessed about it. When little Johnny accidentally starts a fire in his trash can this week, you should calmly walk out of the house with everyone else. If you happen to stand in Johnny's room screaming "take me, I'm the one you want!" That action may be ill-perceived by the police. The firefighters aren't even going to respond; the trash can fire burned itself out without even melting the plastic of the can. Billy-Ray has been wearing that mullet for thirty damn years, so you figured yours would be fine, too. You'll soon realize that Billy-ray can rock that hairdo because he doesn't have to get it near the shake machine at Dairy Queen. You, on the other hand, have to get those lovely locks right up in there. Or, your now-naked scalp did. While the police report will read "failed attempt to jump the Grand Canyon", and the coroner's report will read "severe blunt-force trauma", everyone who knows you will know that they should have read "Eh, I think I can make it." Rape. It's a big, scary word. It will also be the most appropriate word for what the biggest guy in jail is about to do to you. Please confer with a Cancer for advice on how to handle it. Yeah, your Lyft driver is also carrying a knife. Unwanted advances will also result in removal of the penis. Keep it in your pants. Unless, of course, the Uber driver already handed it to you. In that case you can wave that thing around like a flag. You're probably not going to get a ride, but you are going to be one in a very exclusive group of men who can 'wave it around like a flag'.	18,123
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Steam tower slot machine as of recently, an associate’s or bachelor’s degree is beneficial. However, but not required. Previous Court in Malawi jails man for 21 years for defiling daughter Next Malawi asked to go beyond offering post-abortion care Recent Posts Authorities bemoan unsafe abortion surge in northern Malawi Human rights lawyer says women in Malawi can request access to safe abortion No unanimous religious view on abortion, says Malawi religious network Centre for Solutions Journalism in Malawi (CSJ), is a media development organisation whose mission is to promote professional solutions journalism by disseminating best practices and offering solutions to social, economic and developmental challenges facing people in Africa.	11,283
What kind of child might you get if you matched a world-famous poet known for his outrageous lifestyle and a genteel woman with a penchant for knowledge and restraint? If it was the early 1800s in England then you’d get Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate heir of Lord George Gordon Byron. Enchantress of Numbers is Jennifer Chiavarini’s new novel about Ada’s life—a life that is as fascinating in its own way as her father’s was tempestuous. By the time Ada was born, the marriage of Lady and Lord Byron was already dying. Byron was famous for his mercurial temperament and his wife had hoped marriage would give him much needed stability. Instead, she learned of parts of his past that made her question his sanity so she took their baby daughter and moved back to her parents’ estate. Given that this was the early 1800s divorces were virtually unheard of, so they were separated, but Annabella was determined to keep Byron out of Ada’s life. Moreover, she worried Ada could have inherited his bad blood; she believed that for her daughter Her salvation depends upon developing her moral and intellectual powers and suppressing everything of the imagination. To this end, not only did she never see her father in her lifetime, but also, she was allowed no fairytales at bedtime, no imaginary friends, none of the normal inclinations of childhood. At the same time, her mother’s fears were so great that Byron would try and steal Ada that guards patrolled the estate. The result was a lonely, isolated childhood because, for all her concerns about her daughter, Ada’s mother was even more concerned with herself and her impossible-to-diagnose illnesses that kept her traveling to spas around the world for months on end. Her neuroses extended to firing any nanny or governess if Ada appeared to love them more than she loved her absent mother. Despite these emotional deprivations, Ada found solace in the world of mathematics and by the time she was 20 she was attending salons with notable inventors and scientists and being lauded for her genius with numbers. She was also beginning to find her way socially as well. Much like the children of celebrities today, as the only known child of Lord Byron, Ada was hounded and sought after by the press and fans of her father. It created a fear in her that she could not be loved just for herself. At the same time, she did not want to be forced into marriage, knowing full well that few men of the times would allow their wife to continue with scholarly pursuits. These fears was allayed when she met William Lovelace, a man who met all of her mother’s stringent requirements and who loved and accepted Ada. Given that Ada’s passion was mathematics there are many ways in which Enchantress of Numbers could become less-than-interesting reading. Thankfully, Chiaverini’s combines authenticity with the less tangible aspects of human nature for a novel of richness and depth. She uses the facts of Ada’s childhood and relationship with her mother to write fascinating fiction, but never strays into sensationalism. The same is true regarding her life after marriage. In doing so, she provides a nuanced look at a woman with an extraordinary mind who lived an extraordinary life. Enchantress of Numbers makes it clear that, whether by nature or nurture, Ada was the perfect amalgam of her parents. After watching how a mechanical loom worked her brilliant mind led her to create an algorithm and to suggest the use of punch cards in order to allow the first adding machine to calculate much greater sums than what the inventor intended. In this way, a fantastical leap of imagination from loom to calculation made her the first person to create a computer program. The boundless leaps her mind took into unknown territory is astonishing. These pragmatic solutions did not exist, had never been conceived, yet in her fertile mind she created them. In her own way, she made of numbers a poetic greatness. She was, despite her mother’s best efforts, her father’s daughter. I think that all my life, in small ways and great, I had tried to bring together the intellect and the imagination, sensing that they were not two separate faculties, but two halves of the same genius. Related Posts Related Posts March Reading Recap The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi Six Books I’m Ready to Read in July The Second Mrs Hockaday The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta The First Actress: A novel July Reading Wrap-Up A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, Dutton, historical fiction, women Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam! Email Address Currently Reading by Emily Nagoski The Dutch House by Ann Patchett Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me Share book reviews and ratings with Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books, and even join a book club on Goodreads. Affiliate Disclosure I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you! 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This prayer is particular helpful if you experiencing demonic oppression. For example I first came to know about this prayer because I was experiencing some demonic interference with equipment used for my job. It is taken from Fr. Ripperger's book Deliverance Prayers For Use By the Laity. I (Name) a faithless sinner renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before. In the presence of all the heavenly court, I choose thee, O Mary, this day for my Mother and Mistress. Knowing that I have received rights over all my exterior goods by the promulgation of the Natural Law by the Divine Author, I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, all of my exterior goods, past, present and future; I relinquish into thy hands, my Heavenly Mother, all rights over my exterior goods, including my health, finances, relationships, possessions, property, my job, and my earthly success (add any exterior good being oppressed) and I retain for myself no right of disposing the goods that come to me but leave to thee the entire and full right of disposing of all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity. As I now interiorly relinquish what belongs to me exteriorly into thy hands, I entrust to thee the protection of those exterior goods against the evil one, so that, knowing that they now belong to thee, he cannot touch them. Receive, O good and pious Virgin this little offering of what little is, in honor of, and in union with, that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to Thy maternity; in homage to the power which both of You have over this poor sinner, and in thanksgiving for the privileges with which the Holy Trinity has favored thee. Trusting in the providential care of God the Father and they maternal care, I have full confidence that though wiltst take care of me as to the necessities of this life and will not leave me forsaken. God the Father, increase my trust in thy Son's Mother; Our Lady of Fair Love, give me perfect confidence in the providence of Thy son. Amen Click here to buy the book Battle Buddies Persecuted Church Series Author I came home from Iraq in 2010 at the age of just 20 years old. like many of my generation, I struggled for years with trying to find my place in the world (sometimes with disastrous consequences). I often felt restless and that everything I was ever going to do paled in comparison to the war I had just been a part of. Oh how wrong I was. The Lord in all of his mercy woke me up to the fact that the most important battle I will ever fight is one that can't always be seen; The one for my soul and for the souls around me. It is against powers and principalities who influence the earthly enemies I had just encountered. Over the last 5 years or so, I have become intimately aware of this battle, and more importantly how to fight it! Although the weapons are different, the concepts are the same. My mission is now to share my knowledge with others, especially my fellow combat veterans who are struggling in the midsts of dysfunction or an identity crisis. I assure you brothers and sisters, we are in the fight of our lives.	3,516
That’s my son Ben up there with the first Twin size quilt I ever made in 2008! Block tutorial can be found here (click here). I received a question about quilting a large quilt on a home sewing machine, and while it was on my mind I thought I’d post a few tips for quilting a large quilt! First you should decide whether to quilt it yourself or not. Let’s say you have a Queen size quilt that needs finishing, and you are deciding whether to send that bad boy to a quilter or tackle the quilting yourself. There are a few things you may want to consider to help you decide, like if your sewing machine is sturdy and handle the weight and size of the quilt, if your back and shoulders are strong enough to hold up the weight of the quilt for long periods of time, and if you’re prepared to baste a large quilt (and if you have space!). If you are confident and want to try it…then go for it! Everyone should quilt one huge quilt themselves at least once, and it’s pretty awesome to make a big quilt from start to finish by yourself! These days I pretty much send everything a Twin size and over to a long arm quilter, because I don’t have the space to baste it, I never have the time, and it kills my back. I also send out anything that is for display at a quilt show or will be hanging in a shop. Basically anything that will be looked at closely by other people I send to a professional. Baste it really well. If it’s not basted well you’ll end up with bumps and folds and extra fabric in the center. Spray basting a large quilt can get expensive quick, but you can spot baste it and just do the center, or use a dot of spray baste every 6-8″ or so. Then use pins to go over everything again and make sure it’s all very secure. I have a tutorial on spray basting here. Also that tool down below is the Kwik Klip and I can never baste without it. Make a quilting plan of action. Layout your quilt and figure out where you are going to start and stop quilting. I find it easiest to break my quilting into smaller sections. The image below is of a Throw size Shortcake Quilt, and imagine if I was sitting right at the START points. I quilt up and down the rows until the section is done, then I turn the whole quilt and start at the other section. Breaking it up into sections makes it less overwhelming and easier to handle under the machine. Don’t be afraid to start and stop in the middle! You don’t have to start and end on the edges…and it’s really hard to smoosh the whole quilt through the machine neck to get to the center. Instead just start in the center, quilt a section, and end in the middle. Just stitch in place a few times back and forth to make sure your thread is secure, and bury your thread if you prefer (or not!). You can start/end stitching in a seam to hide it even better. Choose a design that you can keep consistent. Don’t pick something super complicated or that requires moving the quilt around a lot. Support the weight of the quilt. Use a table or ironing board, or whatever you have that can support the quilt to the left and back of the machine. It will save your shoulders and back if you are not holding all of the quilt weight by yourself! I move to my huge dining table when I’m quilting something big. Use gloves. Quilting gloves (these are cheap and have great reviews) make gripping the quilt so much easier, especially in the center of a large quilt. Trust me, you don’t think you need them until you try them. You don’t need fancy quilting gloves either (see my photo below from 2009 using my yucky-but-clean gardening gloves)! Most importantly I’d say don’t worry too much about perfection or screwing it up when your quilting . Just relax, have a plan, and go for it! You gotta start somewhere! That being said…if you are a beginner you might want to practice a lot on smaller quilts before you jump into a king size. :) Happy quilting! 48 Responses to Tips for Quilting a Large Quilt jennifer ziehl vacca September 29, 2017 at 1:07 pm # I’ve quilted more than one king sized quilts on my Janome 1600P, I work at my dining room table and it’s like a wrestling match some days!!! LOL. The only thing I would add is make sure to take breaks, it can be hard on your back and shoulders. I’ve also ripped out a lot of quilting if it’s just not right. Allison September 29, 2017 at 2:08 pm # Yes…taking breaks is so important! I usually give myself a few days to do big quilts and come back to it now and then so it’s not a huge task all at once! Thanks for visiting! Janie September 29, 2017 at 3:45 pm # Thanks for the great tips. I agree with you, practice before starting in on a king size quilt. Vicki September 29, 2017 at 5:30 pm # I’ve quilted a couple twin-size quilts, and my cheater trick is to quilt in rows down the length of the quilt — a dogwood pattern, or an orange peel works — and then you can roll the sides up nice and tight. This gives you a nice flat work space, and you can use those rolls as handles. :) Jean September 29, 2017 at 5:57 pm # I’m fairly new to quilting and I’ve quilted each of my own quilts; my first being a king log cabin that I did ‘in the ditch’. Boy have I learned since wrestling that one round and round for each block! Basting your sandwich well, working from the middle out in quadrants, and taking breaks often, are good tips. Never let the weight of the quilt drag on your machine…therefore, stop and readjust your FMQ often. And just enjoy It! You’ll get better with each quilt! -Jean Allison September 29, 2017 at 9:15 pm # Jean September 30, 2017 at 4:18 am # Carolyn Phillips September 29, 2017 at 10:56 pm # Who is that sweet little thing holding up that whole quilt all by herself? I can’t believe how big she has gotten! I quilted my Tahoe quilt on my huge dining room table, it was like wrestling a soggy wet blanket. The quilt was about 86″ x 73″. It took me a more than a week to quilt it. Once I figured out how to distribute the weight and bulk of the fabric, and was about a third of the way finished with the quilting, I was finally felt pretty comfortable and confident. I don’t know if I would do it again, but I probably will. What surprised me most was how physically exhausting it was! The really good part, though, is that the quilt turned out to be beautiful! My daughter loves it! Danice G September 29, 2017 at 11:05 pm # Very helpful and practical tips. Thank you so much. We probably all fear quilting large quilts :) Kathleen Smith July 20, 2019 at 11:41 am # I split a large quilt in half, quilt each half separately, then join them together and do the last bit of quilting to join the design. I even quilted the borders separately and added them afterwards. You have to plan the whole process from the get go, but I don’t think I’ll ever send out another quilt to the longarmer. I’m now experimenting with quilting individual blocks in a spiral design then joining them together. There’s a variety of techniques for covering the seams on the back. Allison July 24, 2019 at 4:17 pm # María September 30, 2017 at 3:39 am # Nice works. Barbara Esposito, The Quilted B September 30, 2017 at 5:46 am # Oh My Gorsh! Early on in my quilting adventure I made a queen size and at that time I had no idea what a longarm was. The quilting is messy and the binding is all wonky, but we use it on our bed all winter. It was made with love and high hopes and it reminds me that this quilting journey is a process and an adventure and when I find myself fussing over perfection more than I loving what I am doing then it’s time to quit! When friends ask me about the quilt my instant reply is, “Never again! I will either stick with smaller quilts or send them out!” ;o) Thank you for the tips. I may just have to try my next queen size on my home machine! Carolyn Phillips September 30, 2017 at 2:30 pm # My thoughts exactly Allison October 11, 2017 at 3:12 pm # YES! I love this comment!!! I did the same thing with my first larger quilt…I had no idea what long arm quilting was, and my quilting was TERRIBLE but I still love that quilt and was extremely proud of it!!! Love your comment about fussing over perfection…so good! Thank you! When I started quilting on my own I jokingly remarked that I was the Present of the American Association of Quilt Wrestlers! I learned by trial and error. That was about 25 years ago. I certainly appreciate your hints. I started quilting on a domestic machine. Learned lots of lessons. Then 6 years ago I bought an HQ Sweet 16 sit-down long arm. My oh my, what an improvement for me but at the same time I was still moving a big quilt. I made many on that machine but with age and arthritis I have adjusted yet again to a Baby Lock Coronet. Love it. No joint stress, great stitches, I am happy. Ben September 30, 2017 at 6:38 am # A machine with a generous harp space makes a big difference in reducing the amount of quilt wrestling required. As for basting, I’ve had a couple of large quilts basted on a long arm, then quilted them myself. Annie September 30, 2017 at 7:04 am # I have only ever done hand quilting which I always find relaxing but it does take a lot of time and my 82-year-old hands tire too easily these days. I have three ‘unfancy’ sewing machines, all in the Singer family, and have quilted small pieces with them but been too timid to try larger ones. Your advice is clear and encouraging and I may try a larger one. It IS costly to send quilts out for long arm quilting but I am tempted, especially when I’m crushing to get out a few at the same time for gifts. I don’t have access to a long-arm quilter in the New England area where I live – do you or any of your commenters know of one? I just began receiving your blog and love it. You are a sweetheart! ws rupp October 1, 2017 at 10:52 am # I do know of someone in Maine that does long-arm quilting. Judy September 16, 2018 at 2:12 pm # Quilts can be sent to Missouri Star Quilt Company. They do excellent work. They also gave wonderful products and a knowledgeable staff. You can find their quilt tutorials on You Tube. Alicia Key September 30, 2017 at 12:30 pm # Rosemaryflower September 30, 2017 at 3:04 pm # These are such great tips. I do not know if I could do a quilt on my machine. So far, I have anxiety about that and I have not attempted fully. — okay, I have a small quilt under my hard working machine right now. …. it has been a while since I have looked at that. The dining room is faaar far away from my sewing area next to the kitchen haha Allison October 11, 2017 at 3:10 pm # Starting small is the best advice! peggy October 1, 2017 at 6:05 am # If you have the room get yourself a ping pong table (craigslist – $75.00)…sure helps when doing basting (I swear by spray basting) and for doing your quilting…I got the table when I was making a T-shirt quilt for my sister and we’ve used it for more things than quilting…right now it has about a bushel of hazelnuts drying on top and using it for storage underneath… Allison October 11, 2017 at 3:09 pm # Peggy November 2, 2017 at 6:47 pm # I use a ping pong table for spray basting. Works well. ws rupp October 1, 2017 at 10:46 am # Great tips! I was just looking for ideas to move forward in doing machine quilting. plysjopropell October 2, 2017 at 10:27 am # Great advice! I loved reading this, as I am far from an experienced machine quilter. I do practise on smaller items, like mugrugs and table runners, but there’s quite a way to go until I feel ready to tackle a “proper” quilt. Ellen in North Florida October 3, 2017 at 7:18 am # Thanks for the comments. I love your quilts and have made a few. I just want to add that spraying does not have to be expensive; I spray very sparingly and a single can has lasted for a few queen-size quilts. Just be sure to press the quilt on both sides after spraying to fix the bond and give yourself a nice flat surface. My quilting is mostly with a walking foot (thanks, Jacquie Gering) and it is slow! Even with my big-throated Juki the quilting takes almost as long as the piecing for many quilts. dondim October 3, 2017 at 8:55 am # I loved reading this! The mistakes I have made quilting! That would make a three page blog…But doing your own quilting does teach you so very much. I won’t do anything larger than a double now. We do need to take care of our bodies since we are only given just the one. I think your quilting looks so great. Few people ever find our errors. I don’t make my quilting look too uniform so that the little mistakes looked like individuality. A little weird to build this in, but I know I will make some errors. There, I told the truth again and I am free. Allison October 11, 2017 at 3:07 pm # Love this comment! Yes the mistakes no one else notices but us and it gives it personality and teaches us a lot! Linda Chin October 4, 2017 at 11:46 am # Is that a Juki TL98Q you at using? I just inherited one and I am kind of scared of the speed. All my be ever used is a Singe Featherweight. Is there a ay to slow it down a little so I can practice? Allison October 11, 2017 at 3:04 pm # Mine is the 2010Q I think…but virtually the same as yours! You’ll get used to the speed quickly! I did a post about my machine a while back, search JUKI in my toolbar at the top and you should find it! Phoebe Ingraham October 4, 2017 at 2:47 pm # These are really helpful suggestions, Allison. I followed your advice for my second quilting project and got gloves. I won’t quilt without them now! Such a difference in your muscle tension when the rubber grippers work to hold the quilt in place and move it along, instead of your gripping and tensing your muscles! I just finished a top from your pattern, Easy Bake, and I love it! I plan to use fleece for the backing and have checked out your suggestions for this as well! I learn something new with each quilt. I had never thought of ending on a seam. Of course! Your advice is always helpful, whether it’s a new idea or a reminder of a better way to do this. Thanks so much! Allison October 11, 2017 at 2:59 pm # A fleece backing sounds heavenly today…what a great idea! Aren’t gloves the best? It drives me nuts to quilt without them! Suzanne October 5, 2017 at 3:45 pm # I agree with all your points. I tend to sew large quilts and FMQ them myself. My only suggestion to add is that instead of quilting an all over design, work using filler patterns in individual blocks or sections of blocks. That way you are only moving a small amount of quilt while you are sewing. Note that even doing that I still split the quilt into quarters and use a similar plan to yours, and work from the middle section towards the outer edges. Allison October 11, 2017 at 2:58 pm # Rosanna October 17, 2017 at 11:43 am # Thank you Allison! I’m just ready to quilt a pink log cabin quilt for my one-year-old and this is SO helpful! Debbie Huber October 27, 2017 at 7:25 am # I know this is well after your post, but I want to thank you. Because of your diagram and instructions, I was able to complete the quilting on my small lap project much easier. Having a direction in mind, helped me to be more organized instead of so random and it really worked out much better. Thanks again.P.S. I love your blog and I think Hazel is still my all time favorite fabric line. Allison October 27, 2017 at 11:21 am # Ava November 1, 2017 at 7:20 pm # Carolyn November 26, 2017 at 6:52 pm # Beautiful quilts! I love your colors. Thanks for sharing your designs. Jackson Watkins December 2, 2017 at 3:45 am # Hi Allison, I love CluckCluckSew! All of the comments here are very informative and incouraging. I have been quilting off/on for a few years and understand the importance of having a small pile of practice sandwiches so you can practice each new design you are learning. To improve my skills, and also do good in the world, I started volunteering with an organization “Quilts For Kids”, and always FMQ their quilts. The quilts go to children in hospitals, homeless shelters, etc. Once I started FMQ their quilts, approximately 40″ x 50″, my skills improved tremendously over time. I continue to work with the organization, but am also increasing the size of my personal quilts to get more experience quilting larger quilts on my new Janome 6500P, which was a recent birthday gift. Something I read from another FMQ blogger “You can practice until you are blue in the face, but at some point you just have to dive in and do it!” It has worked well for me, before reading that comment I was stuck in the “Practice Phase”. Janna Payne January 24, 2018 at 6:30 am # Just found your blog and enjoy it very much! I am new to quilting, only about a year and have been going quilt as you go since quilting a quilt top is scary to me. Most of the tutorials and articles I have read stress that you should always start in the middle of the quilt, SHOOT my throat isn’t that big. LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of breaking it up into quarters so only a bit is in the throat at a time! Next one I am making is for my brother, I am definitely going to try your method. I have some fabric I was putting aside to make my daughter something, might make her a lightweight quilt to try this out before I tackle a larger one Kathy Pappert June 9, 2019 at 7:33 am # Hi Allison, I love your blog and am getting tons of good info, thank you, I’ve been reading everything I can about quilting, and ready to start. Can you suggest a great Beginners sewing machine for quilting? I will start small, there are sooo many quilts that I hope to make. But first I need a sewing machine. Thank you, Allison June 11, 2019 at 8:16 pm # Hi Kathy! I don’t know that much about sewing machines, only the ones I have. I have a Bernina 440, and a Juki 2010QE I did blog posts on both. It totally depends on your price point. The Juki only has a straight stitch, but I would highly recommend it! Leave a Reply to Linda Chin Cancel reply Links: Strip and Flip Baby Quilt Binding a quilt with the quilt back Archives Select Month November 2022 September 2022 June 2022 April 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 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 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 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007	21,009
Delivery companies are becoming popular every day because people prefer it order food from the comfort of your home and be able to share it with friends, family or partners while they are doing an activity such as playing video games or board games or enjoying a good movie. What other companies like Glovo bring me to eat? In these times of quarantine, where you have to avoid leaving the house, it is wonderful to meet companies that can bring us food. Glovo is one of the most important delivery companies in the world. The well-known company has branches in different countries around the world and each of them has its own couriers who are willing to take your order, go to the food establishment and have it delivered to your home. However, Glovo doesn't just stand out as a delivery company. If you are looking for alternatives, in the following article we will mention what other companies there are like Glovo that can bring food to your home. Uber eats The well-known taxi service company has now joined the boom in food deliveries. In its catalog there are a large number of restaurants and fast food chains, among which we can highlight Subway, Papa John's and many others. Best of all, it offers several payment methods to make your life easier. We can pay by debit or credit card and also Paypal. It's easy to order food on Uber Eats. Enough enter the app and search for the restaurant of your choice, request the order and voila. In a few minutes you will have your food at your door. It should be noted that you can see the path of your order in real time. Read How to download and install Harry Potter: Wizards Unite on my Android phone if it doesn't appear in the Play Store. It's possible? This Colombian company is dedicated to sending orders by bicycle. It has branches in countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. Rappi is associated with most restaurants that don't offer delivery service, so you can order whatever provokes you. Furthermore, Rappi offers discount coupons to encourage its users to use the application. Also, from time to time, Rappi bids on its services, the which makes it a very attractive alternative for users. Best of all, you can't just order food, as with Rappi you can order anything from products and food, to medicines and first aid. Another of the best known and most used applications in the food delivery sector. Its geolocation feature allows you to find associated restaurants close to your location that will guarantee you a delivery in a period of time not exceeding 30 minutes. Like Rappi, with Deliveroo you can follow the progress of your order in real time. As for the means of payment, you can do it with one letter or process Google Pay. Just eat This is a great alternative to Glovo as it is dedicated solely to the food delivery service and has more than in its catalog 9000 associated restaurants , so the presence of several is guaranteed no matter where you are. Among the different types of restaurants and foods you can find establishments Chinese food, hamburger, sushi, Italian, Mexican food and a long one etc. Just Eat, along with Glovo, is the most used food delivery app in Spain thanks to the good service it offers and payment services, including payment in cash, by card or via Paypal. Read How to Quickly Download and Install Psiphon on My Windows PC Another good alternative not only to order food but also any type of product that ranges from medicines and pharmacy products, to pet food and related products. Its main feature is the ability to order anything and the speed of delivery of products, where you can see the path of your order in real time. To place an order you just need to log in to the app, select the place , add your products to the cart and then give your home address. McDonald's The most important fast food chain in the world has its own app that indicates its product catalog and multiple offers and we can request delivery via the option. What other games are there like Counter Strike for PC, PS4 or Android? add a comment of What other companies like Glovo bring me to eat? Comment sent successfully! We will review it in the next few hours. Terms and conditions Who we are Bibliography consulted in Spanish	4,433
I rolled out of a meeting at the Rescue Mission at 5pm this afternoon to the news that my g-tube (feeding tube) placement surgery is happening tomorrow (Thursday) at 11am! Surprise! Although Rolf and I talked with the neurologist recently about it being time to schedule a GI consult to discuss the plan for a g-tube, I guess our call to 911 last Friday was reason enough for Dr. D to expedite the process…catching us off guard a bit. This is a routine, out-patient procedure usually done in the GI office. The only reason they scheduled mine at the hospital is because I have ALS…I should be home by mid-afternoon. I’m not nervous about the procedure (‘been through this before with Rudy) but I would appreciate your prayers for the recovery. It’s hard enough for me to find comfortable positions in bed or my chair on a normal day, I can’t imagine adding wound care and pain management to the equation. I don’t want to overdramatize the situation but I sure hope this move improves my quality of life and doesn’t diminish it. I’m going into this not knowing how I feel about it and I’m weepy. I feel like we just unloaded all of Rudy’s enteral supplies and the thought of resuming regular supply shipments from crApria discourages me more than the fact that I need a feeding tube. I know too much and have too much history in this arena to see this as anything but a major setback…I hope I’m proven wrong but tonight I’m uncharacteristically pessimistic and wonder if all the effort will even be worth it…but then again I want to see my baby girl graduate from high school so…! Prayer PLEASE!! I’ll be off the grid for a few days and I’m already behind in responding to texts and emails this week so if you don’t hear from me (especially regarding requests to visit), please be persistent and try again. Thank you dear ones. Related Published by Trish View all posts by Trish Published June 12, 2019 Previous Post DIYers 9 thoughts on “Surprise!” Joyce says: June 13, 2019 at 4:37 am Dear Trish, I’ve always been a big believer that knowledge is empowering, but not when it came to the day John was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer because my father died of the same merciless disease so I knew, in detail, what was going to unfold, whereas others who loved him did not – for a while… The fact that you know what’s coming with this tube is horribly disturbing, but it may actually help you adjust to it. The single hardest thing for John and I was not his pain (but that was right up there) but rather the loss of control- both the big picture and small daily details. I know you feel out of control with what will happen to you today, but with your love for God, your incredible family and your devoted friends you will find your way because you have hundreds of times before. Much love Joyce (& John) June 13, 2019 at 7:09 am Precious Precious Precious TRISH! I am praying for you, your emotions, your surgery this morning, for the Doctors and Nurses and caregivers, for your family, for a speedy recovery, also against any infection or adverse side effects, that you would not have pain and that the presence of the Lord is tangible for you from this moment forward. DEAR LORD as we approach Your Throne of Grace today I humbly ask that You surround Trish this morning as she prepares to go to the GI office. Calm her fears and anxiety. Give Rolf, Wilson, Max & Olivia a supernatural strength as they minister to Trish. Guide and direct the doctors and nurses as they perform their duties. May there be Your sweet sweet Spirit surrounding all involved through this process. Keep all obstacles out of their path as they travel and may they get to and from their destination safely. Keep them in Your Perfect Peace. I ask this in the Mighty and Majestic Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen, Amen & Amen! I love you Trish! June 13, 2019 at 8:38 am Praying for you this morning! I am so sorry I wasnt sensitive to the difficulty of this decision. Its huge. Somehow in the midst of this your smile radiates the Lord’s heart. Thank you for all your support for auxiliary! “ the Joy of the Lord is your strength”. You truly exemplify this Greetings from Lorette June 13, 2019 at 10:26 am Dearest One, We all surround you with prayer and know that God has His hand on you. May this step forward ease your anxiety and allow you to get the nutrition you need. God in in this, and He will give you the strength you need to carry on. May His peace which passes our understanding fill your heart today. Prayers for Rolf and Olivia, Max and Wilson. So glad they are with you! June 13, 2019 at 1:39 pm Dearest Trish, Your recent posts have never been far from my heart, thoughts, and prayers. As I think of all the gifts you have shared with each one of us over the years I know my life and those of so many others have been enriched and challenged in wonderful ways. You have blessed us with laughter, love, your smile, energy, strength, music, fellowship, and so much more. As some of those attributes may feel like they are slowly slipping away I see your core remaining steadfast and true….authenticity. Brene Brown a professor at Houston University so aptly put it, “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make everyday. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” Trish through your transparency you challenge me daily to make more authentic choices in my life and remind me that it is okay to be me, just as I was created, flaws and all. What a beautiful gift that you continue to give each one of us by blessing us with your story. Thank you so much. My prayers walk with you on this journey. Janet Wright says: June 13, 2019 at 7:10 pm Dear Trish, You are much in my prayers and I thank you for sharing your journey with us. I saw Max at Kyle’s Kitchen and even though I’ve never met him I knew right away who he was. I stumbled over my words like I was seeing a celebrity! He must have thought “that’s one crazy lady!” All that’s to say that your family is dear to us because you’ve let us get to know them and they’ll stay in our hearts, even as you are. I am in awe of you and see Jesus in you–through the good and the bad times! Bless you, Trish! Janet Wright June 13, 2019 at 8:22 pm I hear — no, I feel — every word of this. It is HARD. Extraordinarily hard. Praying for ease, freedom from pain, psychological as well as physical strength, and for a growing sense of God’s presence, right in the middle of all this hard. I am more sorry than I can say for all that you know and why you do. I am more sorry than I can say for the fear, for the frustration, for the anger. And yet — I also know that those very things will help to give you what you need to move through this next hard thing. Because anger, even fear, when offered up to God, can empower us in strange and wonderful ways. That’s what I am asking God to give you, dear Trish. BIG time. So much love to you.	7,223
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Look to online public sale sites and get the very best bidder to get your objects.</p> <p>One in every of the most popular hobbies on the planet as we speak is gardening, and for good cause. If you're looking for a valuable strategy to spend your time, consider tending to flowers or growing your own veggies. It's a peaceful option to unwind, and the fruits of your labor make nice centerpieces or side-dishes!</p> <p> see site has at the least one interest that they enjoy doing. Because hobbies are so satisfying, we are inclined to lose monitor of what's going on around us and forget to remain hydrated. So remember, if you are having fun and enjoying yourself, remember to keep drinking water in order that you do not grow to be dehydrated.</p> <p>Select reading as a household pastime. Do not suppose that a reading interest means everyone holed up alone with their nostril in a guide. Make the seek for good books an adventure in itself. Get the household collectively to peruse the library, to pour through shelves at a thrift retailer, or to analyze a dusty box of books at a yard sale.</p> <p>A fun hobby to have is trying to find clothes in thrift shops. You do not have to buy your clothes from excessive finish retail shops. Yow will discover lots of cool stuff at thrift stores for only a fraction of the worth. Part of the fun of going there may be discovering stuff.</p> <p>Your pastime can actually change your life, so take the guidelines here and turn them into a new pastime. If you place your heart into it, you'll discover it brings you a large amount of joy. Right this moment is one of the best time to go forward and try out a brand new passion for your self.</p> - Comments: 0 <p>AN AUSTRALIAN teenager has received free KFC for a yr - for getting a tattoo of the brand's emblem on her foot to indicate her “dedication and love” for fried hen. 5,200 (£2,900)“Chicken Cheque” for her entry on the KFC Fb web page, where followers were asked to leave a remark explaining why they deserved the prize. The 19-12 months-old school-leaver - often known as a "schoolie" in Australia - was crowned “Queen of Rooster 2018” for her and a friend’s matching KFC tatts. Brooke, from Sydney, said she and her pal Brielle Sharkie “both had a bond over KFC throughout 12 months 12, and both wished to get matching tattoos at Schoolies”.</p> <p>She defined: “I ended up making a standing to see if we might get a certain quantity of likes and we'd get it, and obviously we did. “So we got to the Gold Coast and had time to kill before check-in, and basically went and obtained the tattoos after being at Schoolies for not even half an hour! A hundred (£55) worth of KFC products each week, for fifty two weeks. Brooke, who works at a physiotherapy clinic, said it was a “big deal for me”. A number of other entries also featured KFC tattoos.</p> <p>Angela stated:“National Fried Chicken Day is kind of clearly one among our favourite calendar dates, so we wished to do one thing particular not only for the joy of fried hen however the individuals who adore KFC essentially the most. “Nothing says, ‘I love the wonderful style of the Colonel’s secret recipe fried chicken’, greater than a year’s provide of the Colonel’s best.</p> <p>“We’re looking for hilarious tales, wacky anecdotes and large shows of immense love for KFC tasty fried chicken to assist us choose our overall winner. The larger and bolder the story, the better! Brooke is not the primary Aussie to get a KFC-inspired tattoo. The Solar Online told in October how Tom Fletcher, from New South Wales, showed his true love for the chain by getting the identify of his favorite dish - the Zinger stacker - inked on his torso in Arabic. We pay for your tales! Do you've a story for The Sun Online information workforce? Click right here to upload yours.</p> <p>Many slang terms have change into frequent in written class assignments. Another key level to not be overlooked is the impact of social media on face-to-face communication. Clearly, if college students spend extra time on social networks then we can agree that they spend much less time socializing in person. Lack of face-to-face interpersonal interactions could be immediately linked to lack of social skills and etiquette. We study vital behaviors and emotional cues from shut personal contact that can not be learned on-line. Because of this some students never study to learn physique indicators and different nonverbal cues, like tone and inflection.</p> <p>Social networking sites should not be seen as a substitute for private contact however a priceless addition that may create a nicely rounded socially adjusted particular person. At the moment many college students have grow to be less social with one another preferring to work together on-line and reside a virtual world based mostly on false personas made easily accessible by social networking websites.</p> <p>This after all can have an enduring effect on the family unit, the place efficient face-to-face communication is essential in maintaining healthy relationships. Can we then solid some of the blame of at the moment's social ills and break down in family structure on social media? Usually times, we go to eating places, or different public spaces and everyone is busy on a gadget, thus little or no face- to- face communication is going on. The query is how can we create a stability? How do we compete with this priceless software we name the Web while nonetheless sustaining healthy relationships?</p> <p>Social media/networking impacts each college students and teachers alike. For example, cyber-bullying could be seen as the leading adverse proponent of social media. Many instances violence in faculties has started via a social networking site. Teachers are also affected by cyber-bullying. The perpetrators are typically college students and/or dad and mom. This abuse can be very damaging for a teacher as it decreases total effectivity and confidence within the classroom. Teachers experience climbing levels of emotion stemming from being sad to becoming offended over online harassment.</p> <li>Why did you leave your last job</li> <p>The experience can be humiliating and embarrassing. Defamation of character is kind of frequent in the cyber world and continues to have an effect on each teachers and college students alike. Social Media clearly impacts all of us in some way or the other whether positively or negatively. Expertise will proceed to evolve, due to this fact; it's crucial that mother and father, instructor's directors and college students all join hands collectively in encouraging optimistic, productive, efficient, safe and accountable use of this worthwhile device. The lengthy-term results of misuse can be very dangerous to progress in education and social improvement.</p> <p>If you happen to don’t have a type, reach out to us, and we’ll get you one. To verify your writing is constant throughout the board, we suggest always using AP type. In the event you write “M.D.” then don’t flip between that and “MD.” Same with “board-certified.” Don’t throw “board certified” into the combo or you danger looking inconsistent and unprofessional. Individuals discover these items. When you capitalize the name of your specialty, then keep that as a constant follow. The very last thing you want a potential patient to say is, “Well, if they’re messing their grammar up, I don’t know if I really want them doing my surgery.” Put your finest foot forward in all of your content material efforts.</p> - Comments: 0 Naturally, fundamental baker's yeast is off-white , but by adding just one particular gene that produces red fluorescent protein, Dr. Boeke's lab created it red. To get orange and yellow, they altered genes to pump out beta carotene, the pigment discovered in carrots. In case you liked this article and also you would like to receive guidance relating to you could try this out i implore you to visit the page. Purple was challenging, and you could try this out green nevertheless is not best. To create the images you see here, a robot picked up tiny droplets of color-producing yeast strains and utilized sound waves to blast them upward into preprogrammed cells on an agar development plate. The scientists then incubated the plate, and the colors got stronger as the yeast grew.Interior Design has been a passion I have longed to explore. I have spent most of my career in various sales roles, which includes 3 years as a legal recruitment consultant. I have often enjoyed looking at architecture, art and interior spaces.Making an incredible workplace atmosphere is not challenging, but it does require careful thought and consideration. Use the interior design ideas here and seek advice from with a professional to find out far more. Chelsea holds a masters in Business and a bachelors in Interior Design & Style Merchandising. She is an adjunct professor and independent designer.Get home decoration tips, guidelines and inspiration to help make your home a dream residence. In our most recent reader survey, we asked what you required from us to improve your residences. Decorating suggestions!" came in loud and clear. To give you the really very best, we approached ten of America's hottest designers for their No. 1 tip—hits for your property, and classics all.What is all the fuss about natural wines? To recognize the drinking trend that has swallowed this city whole, descend a half flight of stairs to Den Vandrette , a harborside wine den that feels like a sommelier friend's living area, with flickering candles and flowers in bottles with artsy labels. Right here, enthusiastic servers sing the natural wine gospel, pouring tastes from a magnum of Bodega Cueva's Tardana Orange and urging you to poke about the wine cellar. Order a jar of olives and keep a whilst, or continue a wine pilgrimage to the below-a-bridge locale of Rosforth & Rosforth , an influential wine importer that hosts weekly tastings and summertime pop-ups on the quay.Last year, scientists in the Netherlands who designed the game reported that, primarily based on the recognition speed of about 12,000 people, the catchiest single was Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. And the catchiest part? Not the I will tell you what I want, what I truly, actually want" part or the zigazig ah" component, but the If you wanna be my lover" part. When the song started at that point, a typical player guessed it in two.29 seconds.What ever you wake up craving, it really is likely becoming served at Moller Kaffe & Kokken , a bustling Norrebro cafe favored by locals significant about their morgenmad (breakfast). From the menu of two dozen or so modest dishes (all below 50 kroner), produce your ideal smorgasbord: possibly Danish porridge with sea buckthorn jam, tart apple slices with lime and sea salt, fried eggs with herbs, crushed potatoes with yogurt and parsley, and waffles with marmalade and crème anglaise. A basket of homemade bread — sourdough, dark rye and whipped butter — is a must. Afterward, stroll via Superkilen, a half-mile-lengthy urban park whose colorful, eclectic style mirrors Norrebro's multicultural diversity.Take inspiration from nature. Anytime you notice a pleasing arrangement of greenery or flowers, note the colors present and their proportions. You can adapt these colour schemes to your interior decorating. Understand the fundamentals of house decorating, like design principles, decorating types, and answers to decorating challenge.Contemporary is a softer variation of contemporary design and style. It is typically confused with modern because it also functions a clean appearance with straight lines. It permits for bold, soft, and neutral colors. Modern is distinct from contemporary style simply because its style is often altering. It focuses on styles and trends of the present what defines modern design right now might not define it in the future.Healthcare facilities are concerned with the mobility of their sufferers and furnishings need to be designed to accommodate this. For example, hospitals have to incorporate wheelchair accessibility into their floor plans. Couches, tables, and chairs can be placed in a way which allows individuals with restricted mobility to appreciate the design of the space the exact same as other people would.Get house decoration suggestions, directions and inspiration to aid make your residence a dream residence. The way this consumer likes to travel is not to devote time in the guest space but to have access to communal spaces," mentioned Tina Edmundson, worldwide brand officer of luxury and life-style brands at Marriott International, which just opened Moxy New Orleans , its second American Moxy hotel. - Comments: 0 No ring of the doorbell, just a text. No tip for the driver? No difficulty in this test, exactly where Domino's and Ford are teaming up to see if buyers will warm to the idea of pizza delivered by driverless automobiles. If you have any queries regarding in which and how to use Highly recommended Site, you can speak to us at our webpage. Make confident you have every thing you need to have with you just before you start off your trip: driver's license, auto keys, funds, water, juice, snacks, meals, etc. For straight driving practise head to the freeway, the highway or the city centre. For Highly recommended Site curved roads head out to the countryside, the coast or Highly recommended Site the hills. Practise driving around roundabouts as well. For Sgt Heard, Mr Billins is a shining instance of how older drivers can advantage from typical tests - a scheme he's working to implement.During the 19th century, Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, spent much more than 15 years understanding random strings of nonsense syllables, and testing himself on their recall. What he discovered has grow to be one particular of the few certainties of neuroscience: namely, that all memories grow constantly weaker, but that the rate of "decay" lessens each and every time you review the info.Hosted by Karen, Colin, Dana and Chris. The great issue about becoming truck drivers is the trivia we pick up in our travels which makes this the perfect show for a road warrior. The hour starts with random questions from Trivial Pursuit. It really is amazing what I can absorb in a ten-hour driving shift, and the show that incorporated castoreum (Google it!) nonetheless has me reeling. It has a weekly theme and seems to have a factor for mnemonics For instance, if you want to keep in mind the nations of Central America, the full report attempt this: Infant Godzilla Eats Hotdogs, Not Cocoa Puffs (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama).A driving instructor has been handed a £60 fine right after utilizing a near-deserted pay and show vehicle park for 5 minutes so a learner could practice their bay parking. And whilst learners will nonetheless want to be accompanied by an official driving instructor, it pays to know main variations with key high-speed roads for yourself.I can hardly believe it I thought I was alone! I could not locate my way to school, then got lost at work. I get lost in ladies toilets going into an additional cubicle considering it is the exit. I cant uncover my seat in church if I go forward for communion! I go round in circles in supermarkets passing the same shelves possibly four instances. I can step out of a shop and feel I am in one more town, factors are not very 'the same' it has been so undesirable that my husband has to come and discover me. Driving is a nightmare and closed roads and diversions leave me with extreme panic. I could tell of incidents that would make you die laughing but I am crying inside. I am now 73yrs old but can recall this manifesting itself when I was about 11. Bless all you brave individuals for confessing, this is the first time I have completed this myself.Program your practise drives about different kinds of intersections (visitors lights, Give Way indicators, Stop indicators, &c) and different levels of Highly recommended Site visitors so you can create the potential to promptly and confidently cease and start off your vehicle. The motoring organisation wants poor road surfaces to be incorporated in the hazard perception test, which is element of the theory driving test, due to the fact of the harm they lead to to cars. Circle check: Prior to getting in a car, stroll about it to appear for damage or objects blocking the automobile. As component of an earlier study, the drivers in these accidents had all been interviewed in depth by investigators from the US Division of Transportation.Learner drivers are unable to take their sensible driving test till they have passed their driving theory test. Your instructor must give you some theory studying sources after you realize the fundamentals of driving. But there are plenty of fantastic extra components you can access whenever you like online, which includes a practice theory test primarily based on the real point.This book is a relatively quick study. Even so, Highly Recommended Site I actually enjoyed it. It has a lot of actually useful and practical suggestions and practices that will let drivers to drive far better and to limit unfortunate problems when it comes to maintenance of a automobile. I appreciate that there are both security suggestions, sensible guidelines, and suggestions on how to maximize your driving experience. This will be genuinely valuable for people just finding out as effectively as those who need a rapid guide to driving and sustaining their automobile. Well accomplished. Clear and to the point.Extended drives can tire you out sooner than you might consider. Take normal breaks and remain hydrated, make sure you're protected against the sun (you can still get sunburned even though driving), and drive at a speed which suits you. If you put on glasses, you may like to get some prescription sunglasses to make lengthy hot drives easier on your eyes, as contacts can get scratchy when your eyes dry out. - Comments: 0 Get rid of the bags and add pasta, rice or other grains to your water. If you loved this posting and you would like to acquire more facts with regards to Visit Web Page kindly pay a visit to our own internet site. Your carbohydrates will now be delicately flavoured. You can experiment with different kinds of tea such as jasmine, chai or cinnamon spice. Nowadays I share my leading suggestions for enjoying your ideal cup of herbal tea. There is a excellent quantity of coffee accessories that are important if you want to brew the ideal cup of coffee at residence. The list can be very long, but three of the most essential factors there are a coffee machine, a coffee bean grinder and a coffee filter.Use just-boiling water. Steep the tea for 1-two minutes. As well lengthy and the tea will be too strong and taste bitter. There are lots of different types of tea infusers, which includes brewing baskets, mesh metal balls, cute silicon infusers, as nicely as travel mugs and teapots with infusers constructed into the design.We frequently steep tea with higher-temperature water , nonetheless, incredibly hot water will irritate your mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach. Some studies have identified that drinking tea over 69 ℃ will result in harm to your stomach. If you're employed to drink really hot liquid regularly, it will be less complicated to have the stomach difficulty and also have a larger risk of creating esophageal cancer. As so far, 60 ℃ is the most preferred temperature which is agreed by lots of scholars and tea lovers.With regards to your concerns about there becoming plastic inside tea bags we can confirm that specific types of tea bags do include polymer fibres. Normal square or round tea bags which are the most typical in the UK industry will all contain a variety of polymer fibre as they are produced utilizing heat-sealable filter paper. The tea bag filter paper requires a means of sealing the two layers of paper together as paper will not stick to paper and glue is not utilised. The filter paper Clipper makes use of for this type of tea bag contains polypropylene to give the heat-seal function. The filter paper is food grade for its intended goal and meets all relevant UK and Visit web page EU Regulations.Preparing tea is an exercise in simplicity that, to paraphrase the words of the Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu, consists of practically nothing but boiling water, making the tea, and serving. The tea turns the water cloudy, suggesting there is also much dust in the bag and it is leaking out via the holes. The TEAS test is crucial, which is why you should not take studying lightly. If you want to pass it on your 1st attempt, then you need to program on devoting some time and power into preparing.Whether or not salty foods or alcohol are to blame for your blimp-like belly, lemon tea can assist fight the bloat thanks to its d-limonene content material. The compound, which is identified in citrus rind oil, has been utilized for its diuretic effects considering that ancient times. But until not too long ago, there were no scientific findings to back the claims. An animal study published in the Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan confirmed D-Limonene can indeed banish boat due to water retention.Preparing tea is an physical exercise in simplicity that, to paraphrase the words of the Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu, consists of nothing but boiling water, producing the tea, and serving. Fresh almond-macadamia milk, produced in-house, is shaken over ice with espresso, then strained into a chilled Mason jar filled with ice from a Kold-Draft ice maker, an pricey machine you locate in cocktail bars. The drink is so very carefully formulated and fastidiously made that it tastes much more like a cocktail-dessert hybrid than a coffee on ice.Brewing tea with the incorrect water is a disaster waiting to come about. Make sure you are employing water that lacks a funky taste (even RO and distilled water fall into this category). At Passport, we advise customers to use bottled water for the best effect. Much more importantly, the temperature of the water can ruin a fresh pot of brewed tea. Water that is also hot causes the tea leaves to release bitterness. Brewing at a reduced temperature reduces the level of bitterness. A temperature around 175 degrees F must do the trick. At house, just wait a few minutes soon after turning off the burner when a pot of water comes to a boil 3 minutes in the microwave must have the exact same impact.If you are keen to not use tea bags that contain these fibres probably I can recommend our Tick Tock Loose Leaf tea which is scrumptious. 9. If you're making use of a teabag, add the milk second. White tea is the rarest and Visit Web Page the most exclusive tea. White tea consists of the whitish buds of the tea plant which are steamed and then left to dry naturally. This tea is low in caffeine and has a slightly sweet flavor.Paper tea bags never offer you the best taste. Biodegradable pyramid bags are normally best. For example, green tea does not like to be steeped in the exact same manner as black tea and white tea strategies are distinct again. Understanding these variations is the initial step to acquiring scrumptious outcomes from your tea. - Comments: 0 The "saddle-nose deformity," as it was known as, was especially tough to treat due to the fact adding substance to the human body is harder than subtracting it. Some surgeons had recorded attempts to develop up noses employing internal prostheses or bone and simply click the up coming article cartilage grafts, but these strategies have been challenging, time-consuming, and usually unsuccessful. Grafts at times failed to take, and the human body, they located, had an unfortunate tendency to reject foreign substances such as ivory, frequently years later. Paraffin, in contrast, seemed best. It was fairly easy to inject, it did not demand any troublesome incisions, and, at least initially, it appeared to stay inert when introduced into the body. For ongoing advertising, we generally suggest the following for our plastic surgery clients, based on the revenue figures shown. You can see how the recommended advertising and marketing mix evolves as your practice becomes more established and far better identified. If this all appears like a lot of work, it can be. Hiring an experienced team such as ClearPivot on an ongoing retainer lifts the burden from your shoulders. You can concentrate on treating sufferers and generating revenue, confident your advertising is proceeding to strategy and budget.Commence hunting for plastic surgeons in your area and visit their internet sites. If you do not know exactly where to commence, go to Google maps and kind in "plastic surgeons in my area". This will list nearly every single plastic surgeon close to you with a map and directions. Initial impressions say a lot. Do you like the doctors website? Appear for a surgeon who is double or triple board certified. 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I am seeking forward to my subsequent visit and will be acquiring a handful of of my favorite Neocutis merchandise although I am there.Patients ought to remain in the location where the surgery was performed for at least a single week, depending on the process. Traveling too quickly right after surgery increases the risk of pulmonary embolism and blood clots. Find out in advance exactly where you will stay and if this facility is ready to care for your post-operative wants.Modern day plastic surgery procedures are completely protected and minimally invasive. For decades, performing face-lifts hasn't been about merely pulling the skin toward the ear. At the extremely least, underlying layers of tissue and fat should be repositioned some doctors also attempt to restore the curves and volume lost to aging. Being the one that gets picked out of hundreds and thousands is the challenge for the plastic surgeon," said Mr. Miller, who said that Etna operates with 165 cosmetic physicians, up from five in 2003. We will guide you step by step through our established process to move your practice to that essential prime spot. Prior to we get started, though, let's take a look at why local Search engine optimization is so critical for plastic surgeons. In contrast to surgery, Botox is swift and easy, medical doctors who do the procedure say.When I feel of Mexico, I never necessarily think of plastic surgery. Dr. McGee has been practicing plastic surgery for far more than 18 years in all places of the field, like cosmetic surgery and reconstructive breast and facial surgery. Dr. McGee is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery. He has numerous hospital affiliations in the Round Rock and higher Austin places and is a member of the American Society of plastic Surgeons, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, American College of Surgeons and Austin Smiles. - Comments: 0 Set up a effectively built theme and go Source you have a blank canvas for Go Source creating whatever you want. Whichever way you appear at it, WordPress is the foundation your site is built on. The WordPress theme or framework you pick is the toolkit you make a decision to build your web site with.When you use a premium theme like iBusiness, you get a thoughtfully designed homepage. Nonetheless, with the editing options, you are free of charge to customize it as significantly as you like. I have a query I am hoping you can help me with. The original web site I started was a cost-free weblog by way of wordpress website.Mainly simply because it will make the development approach a lot less difficult. 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Use first gear for really steep inclines and low prices of speed. 1st gear is also helpful when driving downhill on very steep slopes — it allows you to the engine to assist slow your car.Possessing taken the problems to apply for a provisional licence, and started on the road towards the UK driving test, it is essential you take care of your licence particularly if you want to legally drive nice vehicles and take your pals to a game of football or that dream pop concert with no obtaining a hefty insurance bill or the threat of losing it due to the two year probation period after passing the driving test. In the not so distant previous, opting for an automatic gearbox in your automobile rather than a manual meant you have been destined to feel the wrath of a entire host of other drivers. Petrolheads more than anybody, saw the an auto ‘box as operate of the devil, reserved only for lazy drivers of executive saloons, Americans, and the tiny old lady down the road who nevertheless has her ancient Austin Metro. How occasions have changed, as some of the most hugely praised cars of the previous ten years have been automatics.Vehicles with automatic transmission are developed to naturally or automatically shift gears for you. Even so, this may not be usually the case when you need to have to drive through an uphill road. Why? This is due to the fact you require to have enough pulling or engine power to safely climb an inclined road. What you need to do is shift to a low gear, which is either the D1, D2, or D3 that is discovered on your car's gear lever. Of note, check out here some automatic cars have it labeled as L, two, and 3.Manuals are far a lot more common than automatics, at least in the UK. An AA Populus survey from September 2016 revealed that 70% of these surveyed drove manual cars and have often done so, with only 4% saying the very same about automatics.Obtaining taken the problems to apply for a provisional licence, and started on the road towards the UK driving test, it is essential you take care of your licence specially if you want to legally drive nice vehicles and take your close friends to a game of football or that dream pop concert without having a hefty insurance coverage bill or the threat of losing it due to the two year probation period following passing the driving test. Practice until you can modify gears with out seeking at the gearstick. That way you can maintain your eyes on the road and focus on what is ahead of you. Initially, you feel inclined to look at the gearstick, but you will require to resist the temptations.But not everyone wants a manual gearbox, so when need to you shell out much more funds on an automatic model? The 1st thing you want to do is establish the type of driving that you do to see what gearbox suits your requirements. Do you drive a lot in cease-start off traffic? Do you just drive as a implies to an finish with out considerably thought to enjoying the process of obtaining to exactly where you are going? Or are you an enthusiast who loves absolutely nothing better than a nicely judged manual downshift? If you liked this report and you would like to get additional details with regards to check out here [Sealviola9.phpground.net] kindly take a look at our own page. Our guide will support you decide which variety of gearbox is the ideal selection for you.If you've noticed any American film about driving, you'll quickly notice that manual automobiles are a bit of a novelty. So considerably of a novelty, the Quickly and Furious franchise make a point of zooming in anytime a character alterations gear. Once you see it, you cannot un-see it. Coming ‘round the mountain positive sounds like entertaining, but the fact is that traveling steep slopes on narrow mountain roads can be challenging for motorists and their cars. Nonetheless, with some positive-footed driving abilities, you are going to be ready to navigate via mountain ranges without having be concerned.Possessing taken the problems to apply for a provisional licence, and began on the road towards the UK driving test, it is essential you take care of your licence especially if you want to legally drive nice automobiles and take your friends to a game of football or that dream pop concert without obtaining a hefty insurance bill or the threat of losing it due to the two year probation period after passing the driving test. Reduces Accidental Stalling: For manual cars, there are caches of stalling at the traffic light changes. This can occur for the automatic cars only if a mechanical dilemma happens in your car. The quick clip shows the driver with his head tilted against the window and with his eyes shut, as the vehicle slowly moves along in the visitors.Because there is less ‘to master' in an automatic car, some learners might find it quicker to pass their test. And the faster you pass your test, the much less money you'll commit on driving lessons. But, lessons in an automatic automobile may possibly be far more costly than finding out to drive in a manual. - Comments: 0 five Automobile Insurance Suggestions - 24 Nov 2018 06:57 Cars that are worth less and have smaller sized engines qualify for reduced insurance coverage bands, which indicates they attract decrease premiums. When you figure out how a lot coverage you are going to want, you can consider about the very best kind of policy to meet your requirements.Does all travel insurances covers your health, life and even pricey gears? or it depends on what sort of travel insurance you utilised to purchase? Thanks for this data. There are the big brands like Allianz and American Express To evaluate travel insurance coverage firms, verify out Insure My Trip and Squaremouth.Recognize yourself - Perhaps a single day your insurer will be able to recognize your voice over the phone and quickly pull up your file. Till then, be prepared to at least inform your insurer your full name (or, if distinct, the name the insurance policy is under) and the policy number.If you have any thoughts about where by and how to use please click the up coming document, you can call us at the web page. If, as owner or occupier of your residence, you are responsible for an injury to a person, or for harm to their home, your policy would spend the Damages and Fees - with an upper limit, frequently $500,000 or a lot more - for which you are legally liable.When you're researching plans and comparing travel insurance coverage quotes , be sure to overview the exclusions so you know whether to add the adventure coverage upgrade Each plan is various - some exclude skiing and please click the up coming document other people let it, for instance - so take the time to be certain so you happen to be not left holding a health-related bill you believed would be covered.Of all tiny companies, 52 % are home-primarily based. That signifies millions of Americans are earning their enterprise earnings where they reside. But enterprise owner beware: Don't anticipate homeowners insurance coverage to cover organization risks. Organization insurance coverage offers protection from liability and house risks. Often these coverages are combined into a package policy referred to as a BOP or company owner's policy. Millions of small and mid-sized organization owners obtain or renew their BOP each and every year.When you rent a auto, the price tag typically involves insurance cover for a key crash, create-off, etc, but leaves you with the bill for the 1st £500 to £1,000. If there are any modest scratches or scrapes, adding up to, say, £500 worth of harm, it implies you have to spend it in full. So the automobile hire firms attempt to persuade you into purchasing super CDW insurance coverage to cover this 1st £500-£1,000. But they charge as significantly as £150 for a week, compared to the £33 cost of getting it independently.You could also want to study the book Fight Back & Win - How to Get Your HMO and Overall health Insurance to Spend Up, by William M. Shernoff, for further data. Be prepared to fight your denied claim. Explosion, Collapse, Underground, please click the up coming document Snow Removal and Roofing coverages might be excluded from your policy, but you can buy the coverage back in some organizations.Even though you are there, you will have to answer inquiries about your medical history and your well being insurance coverage You may well have to make important decisions about tests and procedures, as well. Becoming ready may assist you avoid huge medical bills.The term travel insurance is generally utilized to describe a couple of distinct sorts of insurance. It can occasionally be quite confusing for new travelers. Don't forget, least expensive is not necessarily ideal. Get the right cover or your policy will not pay out when you want it.Vehicle insurance coverage premiums are being driven up by sneaky firms which trick consumers into using them and then take hundreds of pounds from payouts, The Sun can reveal. Even when there is a two-way wellness agreement, the degree of free healthcare is typically restricted. For instance an air ambulance from Spain back to the UK can price more than £10,000 in some situations.Healthcare payments coverage - Aids pay for funeral costs, injuries suffered by your passengers, injuries to you if a car hits you although you are walking or biking, and necessary dental care resulting from a vehicle accident. In addition to our residence nation of Australia, please click the up coming document we have lived in Ireland, England, Thailand and the US, and I don't think we ever had a travel insurance coverage policy for when we have lived in another nation.The Trip Transit policy insures your house for harm throughout a specific trip or transit occasion. In this case, the trip transit policy would be covering you for your certain move. It would typically cover you in the very same way that your property insurance coverage would cover your personal things, but would not necessarily cover harm caused by the movers themselves.Residence insurance coverage is a important requisite for all mortgages and a single of the most crucial aspects of this is the letter of indemnity, which the bank will request from your insurance coverage provider. Merely state your bank as an interested celebration on your policy and your insurance provider will send you a letter outlining exactly what is covered. This must be passed onto your bank in order to ensure a satisfactory conclusion to please click the up coming document obtain of your 1st home. - Comments: 0 Studying From Our Parents' Heart Wellness Mistakes - 24 Nov 2018 06:11 Hospitals are harmful places. There is often a threat of catching anything when you are there, even even though the superbug MRSA and C Difficile rates have come down and are not so a lot discussed at the moment. Falls in hospitals are also not uncommon, simply because individuals can be each unsteady on their feet and uncertain of exactly where they need to go. Very good hospitals attempt to ship out elderly men and women as quickly as achievable. Maintaining match and wholesome - see smoking, drinking, diet plan and exercising above - will keep most of us off the wards for pop over here longer. Several occasions coaching BJJ for longevity is overlooked, and the focus is place a lot more on the younger competitors. Catch 22 started life in 1982 and has created an enviable reputation for its ability to supply high good quality short-term support employees and permanent candidates in the facilities and home management markets. That reputation is firmly primarily based on the longevity, experience and expertise of its directors and senior employees. We currently operate from offices in London and Leeds but are hunting significantly further afield, thanks to a strategic agreement.Several high-quality investigation studies have confirmed that the use of aspirin not only substantially reduces the danger of cardiovascular illness, but it can even ward off a medley of ailments by way of its anti-inflammatory powers. I decided to study once again Transcend , and this time I took notes. Here are a handful of ideas, in really synthesized type, to have better health and make sure greater longevity.The blue zones at the moment are in danger of disappearing due to the forces of globalization, which have a tendency to level food culture and social mores. But if men and women do handle to adopt even just a couple of the lessons gleaned from these populations, they're probably to see at least 1 benefit.Whether your green roof is focused on water or environmental management, biodiversity, aesthetic green space or a combination of these, getting the appropriate combination of plants and substrates is essential to creating a successful living roof. True! According to a new German study, individuals who suffered from heart attacks have been three occasions much more probably to have been in targeted traffic shortly ahead of symptoms began. Whilst the precise hyperlink cannot yet be determined, scientists hypothesize that the mixture of air pollution from oncoming cars and pressure could increase the threat of a heart attack.Which food sort increases lean muscle mass much better than any other? Animal protein. Beef, wild game meats, poultry, fish and seafood - all staples of a Paleo diet regime - contain the greatest concentrations of important and branched-chain amino acids, as well as creatine which are crucial for developing and sustaining lean muscle. I encourage all of my male clientele to consume a portion size equal to 1.5x the size and thickness of their palm at each meal, and females to consume 1. If you beloved this posting and you would like to receive additional facts about pop over here [Wilfredoschlunke.Wikidot.com] kindly pay a visit to the site. 0x the size and thickness of their palm.Skepticism aside, it makes some sense that particular populations would live longer than other people, says Dr. James Goodwin, director of the Sealy Center on Aging at the University of Texas Health-related Branch at Galveston. Studies have shown, for example, that residents of rural communities have a tendency to live longer than those primarily based in urban places married couples reside longer than single or divorced people and ladies regularly outlive guys by about six years (even though the gap is acquiring smaller due to advances in awareness and the remedy of heart illness).A swift search for guidelines from those in the one hundred+ crowd yields advice as diverse the decades. For each healthful-living centenarian who stayed active in family members and neighborhood, you will uncover an equally aged whisky-loving example who smoked unfiltered cigarettes and shunned organization.Be certain to schedule time for aerobic fitness. Keep the heart muscle sturdy for longevity. Try alternating strength training with cardio perform to achieve a balanced fitness routine. Expel anxiety, along with calories, to remain balanced and strong despite life's challenges.The Amazon blurb for The Lucky Years boasts that it provides you the keys to the new kingdom of wellness". That is a stretch. It critiques the most recent research into illness and healthcare, taking in genes, drugs, diet program, sleep and exercise, and breaks it down into bitesize recommendations. The techno-utopian tone hails a golden age", but says sufferers and physicians need to have to be savvy and learn how to crunch information, for example, to actually benefit.Elmhurst, Illinois, resident Andy Medema lived to the impressive age of 101 thanks to "a vodka martini a day, no cigarettes, and tough work." No word on regardless of whether he liked them shaken or stirred. As an alternative scientists either appear back at existing wellness records or recruit volunteers for research that use shorter time periods, measuring death prices and seeking to see which group, on typical, was largely probably to die very first. - Comments: 0 Help \| Terms of Service \| Privacy \| Report a bug \| Flag as objectionable Powered by Wikidot.com	55,980
Senior Luke Herman is just one in a long string of family success in the program, but he's keeping the family name proud. Herman scored the game-winner in a key Mid Penn Colonial Division match against Boiling Springs, and he is the Public Opinion Male Athlete of the Week. P.O. Female Athlete of the Week: Taryn Parks For Herman, there's always been pressure to perform as a Blue Devil, but it's not something he's shied away from. "It's a little bit of both, actually; it was kind of a natural thing," Herman said. "Every single one of (my siblings) played soccer before me, and all of my older brothers were captains of the boys team. So there was definitely some pressure there, but it definitely felt natural because I grew up with it. We all played soccer throughout the years." Herman hasn't disappointed, though. He's followed right in Jesse, Stephen and Paul's footsteps. Now a senior, Herman is a captain for Greencastle. "He's just such a hard worker," G-A coach Scott Gelsinger said. "He's a team leader, and is an all-around great kid and great player. You know when you get a Herman, you're going to have a great kid and nobody is going to out-work them." Already this season, Herman has had to show off his versatility. Early in the season, Damian Sherrill, one of the Blue Devils' top strikers, suffered an injury, causing Herman to move to the left-midfield position. "That hurts a bit, but we're working through it," Gelsinger said. "I moved Luke out to left mid, even though he's a right-footed player. That's one thing Luke has worked hard at - he hits the ball well with both feet, so we were able to move him out." Herman said, "With Damian being out, that leaves a hole in the offense, so we've had to juggle things a bit. Some of the other guys have really stepped up in taking a new position, but it's been a little challenging." Herman's new position paid off this week, though. In a knotted 1-1 game, Herman finally broke through for the final nail in the Bubblers' coffin. He said the Blue Devils had something to prove as the defending Mid Penn Colonial champs who were pinned as the underdogs that day. Grade: Senior Position: Midfielder Other interests: Luke also enjoys running, swimming, hiking and hanging out with friends. Surprising fact: Herman has seven brothers and sisters. Favorite team: Green Bay Packers. Athlete most admired: Aaron Rodgers. Statistics : Herman scored a goal and had two assists this week ... He scored the game-winner in a key Mid Penn Colonial Division game against Boiling Springs.	2,632
May 15, 2020 Auckland Transport is reminding Aucklanders that as the city begins to open again under Alert Level 2, more vehicles are returning to the road. Whether its construction or freight vehicles, buses, or personal motor vehicles, we ask that everyone follow … Auckland Transport is reminding Aucklanders that as the city begins to open again under Alert Level 2, more vehicles are returning to the road. Whether it’s construction or freight vehicles, buses, or personal motor vehicles, we ask that everyone follow the rules so everyone can get to where they need to go more quickly. This means that paid parking is back throughout the city for both on and off-street parking under Alert Level 2. In addition, parking restrictions such as time and other illegal parking is being monitored, including bus lanes, cycle lanes, T2 and T3 lanes and clearways. Parking officers will be seen throughout the city to help remind drivers of their responsibilities. “We saw fewer vehicles on the road under Alert Levels 4 and 3, which meant we were able to provide some flexibility for essential movement around the city,” says John Strawbridge, AT’s group manager of parking services and compliance. “But now with much of the city reopening under Alert Level 2, we will be returning to our usual work to help make sure everyone can keep moving and get to where they need to go quickly. “And as a reminder, the bus lanes, T2/T3 lanes and clearways are operating normally so please comply with the restrictions. We don’t want to issue you infringements, we want to keep the city moving,” Mr Strawbridge adds. North Shore Councillor and Planning Committee Chair Chris Darby says, “With business firing back up again we need to be mindful of competing demands for space on the road. “Parking monitoring helps make room for the next car and the next visitor so we are best utilising our parking areas and encouraging people to visit local businesses.” AT also reminds drivers that people walking and cycling also need to use roads, shared pathways, crossings and footpaths safely. Be aware of the increase in these areas under Alert Level 2 and remember your responsibilities. The Government has advised that the general rule for Alert Level 2 is to play it safe. This means that if you are feeling sick you should stay home. Do not go to work or school. Do not socialise, and if you are showing symptoms of COVID-19 you should avoid using public transport when travelling to a medical appointment. The best place to find the latest information about the COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is on the Government’s special COVID-19 website: https://covid19.govt.nz/ Auckland Transport’s COVID-19 page, which includes up to date public transport timetables, is at: https://at.govt.nz/COVID-19	2,919
This community is about all about sharing, so have a go at writing an article and submit it to us for review! It might be top tips for fundraising, or hacks for making life with invisible disabilities easier, or an article about a new charity project; whatever it is we would love to hear from you! Aim for under 600 words, and don't forget to include an image to catch the eye of our community friends! Feel free to include link to your blog or other sites if you think it will help others too. Thank you for getting in touch! By continuing to use this site, you agree to use of our cookies. This is strictly a forum and information site for general purpose, and in no way does any content or link constitute medical advice.	757
A broker is a person or business that stands between a potential investor and a securities exchange. Individual traders and investors require the services of exchange members since securities exchanges only accept orders from people or companies who are members of that exchange. Brokers offer that service and are paid in a variety of methods, including commissions, fees, or payments from the exchange itself. Owner of the Tradiso Forex Company is the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines-based Tradiso Group LLC. They boldly declared that the FSA regulates them. However, there is a slight issue here. The FSA was quite clear… Sports Understanding the healing benefits of playing poker By admin September 28, 2022 0 Power is one of the most popular online games on the planet right now. Did you know that aside from all the opportunities of making money in poker, there are also some amazing benefits to the same? You may not know, but poker is amazing for maintaining a good mental health if you play it in moderate amounts. Here are the benefits you line your lines and enhancing your math skills. Check out best poker sites. Enhancing your math skills Poker is all about strategy and calculation. Therefore, if you are not very good at maths, there’s less chance that… Cheap home internet option for every household By admin July 19, 2022 0 The best cheap home internet option provides a relatively quick speed as well as additional benefits such as unlimited data and discounted rates on modem rental and installation. The most affordable Wi-Fi plans start at $20 per month, while plans with better service (and fewer hidden charges) start around $50 per fortnight. The First Energy Home’s Affordable Connectivity Program allows millions of qualified families to save money on their monthly internet bills (ACP) and is a cheap home internet option. You might even be able to get free online services. 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The success of the franchising story is a testimony to the massive capacity and guarantee that holds for the franchising industry. Franchising has acquired substantial appeal in various sectors, such as education and learning as well as training, medical care, health, infotech services, and in particular, the retail sector, including food and beverage, style and lifestyle, etc. Nonetheless, franchising of products or services is still in its early stage hence… Business loans Agents In Jaipur And Processes By admin May 24, 2022 0 What is meant by Business Term Loans? Business Term Loansgenerally refers to lump sums of money that are to be paid back as repayments at regular intervals of time within a fixedrate of interest from 7% to 30%. The duration of the whole payment term can range from one year to five years. Most business owners use these types of loans to finance their specific investments required for their small businesses or start-ups. The maximum number of business loan agents in Jaipur amount generally ranges from twenty-five thousand to five hundred thousand dollars. Benefits of taking business term loans Fixed… How to Define Functions in Mathematics? By admin May 23, 2022 0 In mathematics, functions serve as the foundation of calculus. Functions are certain forms of relationships. A function is represented as a rule that produces a unique output for each input x. Mathematically, transformation or mapping is used to describe a function. Letters like f, g, and h are commonly used to represent functions. The domain is described as a collection of all possible input values for the function when it is defined. The range refers to all of the values that the function’s output produces. The collection of values that could be outputs of a function is the co-domain. Let’s… Personalized gifts to celebrate your family day By admin April 23, 2022 0 Family gifts are definite to win overall hearts – from grandparents to tiny tods. Choosing a perfect family gift must be a daunting job. Figuring out the best gift for your loved ones should be concerned about their favorite things. It may be a family movie night altogether or traveling to a serene place. What about a morning coffee session? Add a little more spice to it! A customized set of coffee mugs with everyone’s picture and names on them. Do your grandparents love to cherish memories with all the family members? Think about turning a family tree into a… All you need to know about devSecOps? By admin March 31, 2022 0 The traditional role of a Security Professional has been to prevent or detect security breaches. The traditional role of a Developer is to create new applications and updates. These two roles have not been combined until recently, hence the introduction of DevSecOps. DevSecOps Best Practices is the marriage of two different disciplines into one unified approach to software development with security considerations from design through delivery and deployment practices. The goal of DevSecOps is to improve the security, quality, and reliability of code through the use of automated discovery and remediation techniques. The goal is to enhance developer productivity and… By admin March 29, 2022 0 Decorating a small bedroom is not difficult. You can use sheer curtains to separate the sleeping area from the rest of the room. Also, use different patterns or styles to make the space look more inviting and cozy. If you want to make a feature out of the room, add wallpaper or bold prints. You can even install a bedside sconce. A simple bespoke curtain wall is enough to bring the whole room together. However, if you have a narrow space, you might need to think about different color combinations. One of the best ideas for a small bedroom is to maximize…	6,860
What can we expect from this little blog? It will likely not bring us money, fame or praise–it may make us objects of the world’s derision and alienate our family and friends. We may be denied all of the good things that this abundant earth has to offer us because we set out our convictions in an attempt to sharpen the blade of truth. We test our ideas against others, selling our thoughts in that grandest of marketplaces, in an attempt to persuade–while remaining open to persuasion. If you will not accept our ideas, accept our blog. Our mission is to harvest the wheat and separate the chaff–because we are men and because men must blog. – Comments Steve says: March 13, 2004 at 1:37 am Hear, hear. Plus we got tired of some of the more Nazi voices at the _other_ blog. Steve says: March 13, 2004 at 1:39 am I would also point out that, while yes we are all men currently blogging here, we’d hope to have some female posters as well. March 14, 2004 at 1:42 am I’m glad to see an explicitly liberal Mormon blog. You should also see Orson’s Telescope at http://orsonstelescope.blogspot.com/. He’s a little left-of-center and blogs about Mormon things. Steve says: March 14, 2004 at 2:02 am Brayden: we’re glad to have you here! Based on your compass reading, you should be our King. Logan says: March 14, 2004 at 2:03 am I have a question: how do I know if I qualify as one of the nazis from “the _other_ blog”? Steve says: March 14, 2004 at 2:12 am I think it’s not really about being liberal per se, and more about being to see more than one side to an issue without preestablished political agendas. We’re just looking to explore questions without necessarily predetermining answers for ourselves. Logan says: March 14, 2004 at 2:50 am Sounds fun — count me in. I’ll hang around and particpate as much as I can. Featured Post BCC Press Has a Birthday Present for You Matt W. on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts Tygan on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts A on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts senatorgravett on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts senatorgravett on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts Roger Hansen on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts lehcarjt on The Name of the Church: Some Half Baked Thoughts BCC FB BCC FB Get BCC via Email Enter your email address to follow BCC and receive new posts by email. 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Tanner Call: How the LDS Church gaslights the world and manipulates its members - Salt Lake Tribune David Archuleta reflects on LDS church experience after coming out as gay - Axios An unexpected journey from the Latter-day Saints to Catholicism - Arlington Catholic Herald BYU-Idaho may have fired professors for questioning anti-LGBTQ Mormon beliefs - OnlySky Those 'I'm a Mormon' ads created community and identity. Why throw them away? - Salt Lake Tribune I recently wrote a guest post regarding my nostalgia for the ‘I’m a Mormon’ Campaign. In that post, I argued that the campaign espoused a sort of inclusive Mormonism that we would profit from remembering and embracing. It was not my intention to start a debate on the wisdom of moving away from the Mormon […]	6,315
Michael Khouri has been practicing law in Orange County for over 30 years. He is considered an expert in professional licensing defense and the defense of Medicare/Medi-Cal audits, and has tried in excess of 100 cases. An expert in representing health care providers, Michael has proven his abilities with a number of cases and has spoken at multiple events. He is recognized throughout California and the Country for his integrity and firm resolve to help his clients get the best possible resolution to their licensing or criminal matters. Mr. Khouri started his career as a Deputy District Attorney in Orange County. He routinely practiced before the trial and appellate courts when he was a prosecutor and focused his practice on the legality of police conduct in major narcotics investigations. In this regard, Mr. Khouri argued the case of People v. Bravo (1987) 43 Cal.3d 600 before the California Supreme Court and represented the state wide association of prosecutors. The Bravo case established a new standard for the search of repeat narcotic offenders. For almost 40 years, Michael Khouri has defended all types of criminal cases in federal and state courts across the country. Known for his down to earth style of relating to juries and judges, Mike is equally comfortable defending a murder, sexual assault or other violent crime as he is defending a complicated fraud cases arising out of a healthcare or other business transaction. Mike has successfully defended countless health care providers, officers and directors of corporations, as well as hardcore prison and street gang members. He has tried over one hundred cases from Virginia to California and many places in between. Once in private practice, Mr. Khouri began to develop a specialty representing health care providers (ie doctors, dentists, podiatrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, psychologists etc) in criminal cases such as medical billing fraud, narcotics cases and sexual assault on patients, including rape. He has handled these cases across the country and has lectured nationally in front of state wide medical associations. Mr. Khouri is a member of the indigent defense panel in the U.S. District Court-Northern District of Texas and in that capacity acts as a privately contracted federal public defender. He recently was lead counsel on the Mexican Mafia organized crime case and has represented other major defendants in large drug conspiracy cases, alien smuggling cases, bank robberies and more. Mr. Khouri is AV rated by Martindalle-Hubbell. Prevented indictment of prominent physician caught up in alleged fraudulent charity. Obtained probation for prominent software engineer who caused death of cyclist while driving. Saved license of chiropractor accused by multiple patients of sexual assault. Saved prominent orthopedic group hundreds of thousands of dollars by advising how to structure adjunct physical therapy practice to comply with auditors demands. Obtained dismissal of Indictment of prominent podiatrist by discovering and exposing fraudulent billing company. Representative Clients NCMIC Insurance Co., Podiatry Insurance Co. of America, Professional Solutions Ins. Co., Cooperative of America Physicians, the Dentist Insurance Company, and countless individual health care providers and other professionals consisting of Medical Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Podiatrists, Chiropractors, Pharmacists, DME Companies, Ambulance Companies and Rescue Squads, Home Health Care Agencies, Advanced Prosthetic Device Companies, Skilled Nursing Facilities, Board and Care Homes, all types of Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities, Diagnostic Sleep Centers, Lawyers, Real Estate Salespersons and Brokers, and Accountants. An interview with Michael Khouri on the Business and Technology Report featuring “America’s Best Lawyers” as presented on the Forbes Business Channel produced by Sky Radio Network * Mr. Khouri has lectured before the state podiatric associations of Washington, California, Ohio, Michigan and New York on Medicare issues. Education Indigent defense panel in the U.S. District Court- Northern District of Texas Bar Admissions State Bar of Texas Bar of the United States Supreme Court Bars of U.S. District Courts Southern, Central, Northern, and Eastern Districts of California U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas U.S. District Court, District of Columbia U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee * On various occasions, Mr. Khouri has been admitted to practice in the federal courts of Washington, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, Virginia, & Louisiana Behzad Vahidi is an associate attorney with the firm’s Orange County Office. Behzad works on a wide range of matters such as criminal defense and administrative law and has experience in a multitude of civil matters including personal injury, intellectual property, and business law. He has many years of professional experience working with companies of varying sizes in the mortgage lending industry and the automotive industry. As a formerly licensed Mortgage Loan Originator, both nationally and in the states of California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, and Kentucky, Behzad has an intimate familiarity with federal and state real estate laws. Behzad graduated summa cum laude from Western State College of Law, where he was given the honor of class valedictorian. He was the Executive Publishing Editor of Western State’s Law Review where he was in charge of reviewing and approving all inside and outside articles submitted for publication in Western State’s Law Review Journal. In addition to his Juris Doctor degree, Behzad earned a certificate in business law with an emphasis on civil trial practice, negotiations, and business associations. He was also the recipient of nine Witkin Awards in courses such as Criminal Law, Contracts, Constitutional Law, and Corporate Finance & Accounting to name a few. Behzad graduated cum laude from California State University Long Beach with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Stephan DeSales is one of the most respected criminal defense attorneys in all of Southern California. Backed by over 50 years of experience and more than 250 jury trials, Stephan has defended thousands of clients while working with prosecutors and judges alike. Simply put, he has managed to build a reputation that many lawyers dream of. He is an expert in legal motions and negotiation. He believes there is no substitute for hard work and abides by two rules: “Never lie to your client and work your tail off for them.” His time as an attorney inevitably led him to know many top lawyers and judges within Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Thus, enabling him to successfully navigate the legal system like no other criminal defense attorney. Stephan served as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney before becoming a partner with Lawton-Christenson. In 1978, he formed the DeSales Law Corporation. Currently, Stephan can be found working Of Counsel at Khouri Law Firm, APC. Education The University of Notre Dame, School of Law. J.D. 1967 – 1970 Michael Tran is an associate at the firm’s Orange County Office. Michael represents healthcare providers and licensed professionals in criminal defense, civil litigation, and administrative matters at both the state and federal levels. He has worked on criminal and civil healthcare fraud cases, including state and federal false claims actions, and has obtained favorable outcomes for professionals involved in license disciplinary proceedings. Michael is also engaged in the firm’s appellate practice and has experience drafting appellate briefs in the California and United States courts of appeals. Michael graduated from Notre Dame Law School where he was the Submissions Editor for the Journal of International and Comparative Law. He also participated in the Community Development Clinic where he advised nonprofit organizations and startup companies on corporate governance and transactional matters.	8,500
El Paso Storage Units provides the solution to your storage space needs. Our focus is always on customer satisfaction, which is why we have compiled answers to some of our most frequently asked questions. If you need more assistance or clarity, please reach out to us directly so that one of our team members can help you. We understand that self-storage can seem confusing at first, but rest assured, we have all the answers – from what size unit you need to using your own lock. What should a person know before renting a self-storage unit? Storage units can be a wonderful way to have more room for all of your goods that you can't store at your house, but it's critical to consider all of the expenses and advantages before signing a contract. Choosing the appropriate storage container rental may be the difference between making a good decision and losing money, but it can also be a smart investment if you do some research and ask our storage experts questions. How to Rent from Us? Give us a call or book a unit on our website, and we'll tell you about available units and prices. If you want to rent from us, review and sign our rental agreement. You need to pay the first month's rent and security deposit when you sign the agreement. We'll try our best to accommodate your storage needs and schedule. How long can I store items? Storage units are month-to-month. You can store items in your unit for as long as you want, whether it's a month or several years! The minimum rental period is one month. Storage units are typically rented on a monthly basis, but you can pay upfront for longer periods of time if you wish. Can I bring my own lock? Yes, you may bring your own lock. Alternatively, we provide locks and other moving and storing goods for your convenience at our warehouses. At the time of rental, a lock must be secured on your property. We have locks available for purchase in our office. Are the storage units dry? Yes, we've done everything possible to keep your belongings safe. Each facility is built to divert rainfall and surface water away from the storage units. The storage unit floors at all 12 sites have been specifically created to prevent water from seeping into the containers. What size storage unit do I need? Sizes differ by location. Feel free to look through the "Sizes" list and select a different one. Every unit shown is now live and ready for you to take home! How do I calculate how much storage space to rent? Not sure which storage unit size you need? No problem! Just enter the items you need to store into our size guide calculator, including the quantity of each item. If you have any other questions, reach out to one of our storage experts and we'll be happy to help. Can I change my storage unit size later? Yes, you can change the size of your storage unit. However, this is not often possible if it has already been assigned to someone else and locked in place. Storage units are locked in size, but you can change sizes as long as the unit is available. What not to put in a self-storage unit There are countless objects and belongings that one could put into storage. From toys to furniture, the list is practically endless. What about all the things you should not put into self-storage? El Paso Storage Units has compiled a summary of prohibited items in your storage unit, including: Stolen and illegal goods Weapons and ammunition Is getting storage property insurance worth it? Self-storage insurance can help you protect your belongings. Tenants are responsible for the cost of their own self-storage insurance, but tenants should ensure that they have adequate coverage to protect themselves in the event of a catastrophe or theft. Whether or not to get insurance on a specific item is a personal decision. If you're storing valuables, it's probably a good idea to do so. We have some of the most extensive access hours in the business. On each of our facility's respective location pages, you may discover the current access hours. Can I save time reserving online? You can easily make a reservation online and move in on the same day. With modern online booking, you can reserve a unit up to one month in advance with ease. If there is availability during this time period, though, you will have to pay an additional fee to clear your reservation.You may save a lot of time by making an online reservation. When you make a reservation through the facility manager, he or she will contact you to confirm that everything is OK and that there are no concerns with your booking. Reserve your next storage unit today! We hope this FAQ has been helpful. If you have any further questions, please reach out to us and we'll be happy to help.	4,862
Ischemic stroke risk is linked to traumatic brain injury (TBI), independent of other factors. Lead study author James F. Burke explained, “Both stroke and traumatic brain injury are common, costly, and leading causes of severe disability in adults, and approximately 20 percent of strokes occur in adults under age 65. A large proportion of stroke risk is unexplained, especially in the young, so if we can identify new risk factors, we have the potential to prevent more strokes and improve outcomes.” The researchers looked at records of adults who were admitted into hospital for a brain injury or other traumas that didn’t involve the brain. The study included 435,630 people with traumatic brain injuries and 736,723 without. Over the course of 28 months, 11,229 people experienced ischemic stroke. Of the TBI group, 1.1 percent had a stroke, compared to only 0.9 percent of those with trauma with no brain injury. After adjusting for stroke risk factors, those with brain injuries were 30 percent more likely to experience an ischemic stroke, than those with other traumas but no brain injury. Burke added, “While the stroke risk of one person with TBI is small, the overall link between TBI and stroke was substantial — as large as the link between the strongest stroke risk factor, high blood pressure, and stroke. If further research establishes TBI as a new risk factor for stroke, that would stimulate research to help us understand what causes stroke after TBI and help us learn how to prevent these strokes.” Tips to minimize risk of stroke When it comes to stroke prevention, quitting smoking and avoiding secondhand smoke should be your top priority. This is so important because smoking doubles your risk for having a stroke and substantially increases your risk for fatal heart problems such as coronary heart disease. The good news is, it’s never too late to quit. According to The National Stroke Association, a person’s stroke risk is greatly reduced no matter how old they are when they decide to quit smoking. Please read next: Survey launched to mark International Women's Day Although there is some evidence that moderate alcohol consumption can lower heart disease and stroke risk, any potential benefits are negated when you drink too much. Males should not drink more than three alcoholic beverages per day and females should drink no more than two. Any more than that and you increase your heart attack and stroke risk. Stress can increase blood pressure and cholesterol levels – both of which increase stroke risk. Even more problematic is the fact that stress can make you more prone to developing atherosclerosis (a condition characterized by a narrowing of the arteries), and approximately 80 percent of all strokes are caused by atherosclerosis. Some good ways to reduce stress include sharing your feelings, being more assertive, learning to say no, taking time to laugh, giving yourself some alone time every day, treating yourself to vacations, keeping a journal, taking a bath, meditating, exercising, and doing something that makes you laugh. Exercise is an essential part of the stroke prevention recipe because it helps to reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, to prevent diabetes, and to reduce stress – all of which are risk factors for heart attack and stroke. Perhaps even more important is the fact that exercise helps you to obtain and/or maintain a healthy body weight, which vastly reduces your stroke risk. Consuming a healthy diet is arguably the most important thing you can do when it comes to stroke prevention. A healthy diet reduces the same heart attack and stroke risk factors as exercising, but its effects are even more profound. To reduce your stroke risk, start by eliminating or vastly reducing your intake of refined and packaged foods, and base you diet on whole, unprocessed foods instead. SAFE is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation Links © Copyright SafeStroke 2022. All rights reserved. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Non-necessary Non-necessary Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.	5,465
WASHINGTON – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) congratulates Judge Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke on their nominations to serve in the Department of Justice in the Biden-Harris administration. “NAPABA heartily congratulates these four stellar individuals on their nominations to lead the Department of Justice. These nominees have a long history of public service, including at the Department of Justice,” said A. B. Cruz III, president of NAPABA. “Notably, if confirmed, Vanita Gupta would become the highest ranking Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) to ever serve at DOJ and the first woman of color to serve as Associate Attorney General. We are both proud of and encouraged by the nomination of Vanita and strongly recommend the Biden-Harris administration to continue to draw upon the demonstrated value of AAPI attorneys by actively engaging them to serve in other key leadership roles.” We thank President-elect Biden for nominating Ms. Gupta to the position and fervently urge him to nominate an AAPI for a Cabinet Secretary position. The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) represents the interests of approximately 50,000 legal professionals and nearly 90 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity in government and the judiciary on the local, state, and federal levels, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession. Posted on January 7, 2021 For Immediate Release: Date: January 6, 2021 Contact: Priya Purandare, Executive Director WASHINGTON – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) strenuously condemns the violent actions and defiant breach of both security and safety at the U.S. Capitol by militants. Critical cornerstones of our Constitutional democracy are the peaceful transition of power within our government and the right of citizens to peacefully protest. Neither violence nor the threat of violence is at all acceptable and has no rightful place here. We call on the Administration, all elected officials, public servants, and all Americans to denounce the violence we witnessed today, support efforts needed to quiet the unrest, demand it cease immediately, and cause an immediate return to our foundational principles of a peaceful democracy and the rule of law. The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) represents the interests of approximately 50,000 legal professionals and nearly 90 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations. NAPABA is a leader in addressing civil rights issues confronting Asian Pacific American communities. Through its national network, NAPABA provides a strong voice for increased diversity of the federal and state judiciaries, advocates for equal opportunity in the workplace, works to eliminate hate crimes and anti-immigrant sentiment, and promotes the professional development of people of color in the legal profession. 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The views expressed by the authors of any particular blog entry are those of the authors only and may not reflect the views of AABANY. The inclusion of any link or re-blog of any post does not imply any endorsement of any views expressed in such post. Nothing on this blog should be construed to be legal advice.	6,440
German immigrants brought Marmorkuchen–marble cake–to the United States. Vintage cook books and newspapers show spice-and-yellow cake batters swirled together. Late-nineteenth-century bakers began to swap spice cake for chocolate. Delicious vintage baking! by Kristin Holt \| Aug 5, 2021 \| Articles Victorians took their hair seriously: “Want Good Hair?” asked Godey’s Lady’s Book (1861). Throughout the nineteenth century, much advice circulated in magazines, newspapers, and cook books regarding how to cleanse hair (long before shampoo was invented), use of combs, whether or not to cut kids’ hair and more! by Kristin Holt \| Apr 23, 2021 \| Articles Blanc Mange (blancmange) was a favorite throughout the nineteenth century, in the UK and in the States. Victorians thickened this favorite gelled dessert with a wide variety of articles, old and new. Vintage recipes gathered from era cook books and newspapers, along with newspaper advertisements, show the wide range of blanc manges in Victorian dining.	1,059
This weekend, our culture diminished. Not in a tragic way, as we see in the devastation, death and loss behind events like the recent Washington State mud slide, or in Hurricanes Sandy, Ike and Katrina. This was more a whimper than a bang, a footnote in a newspaper, a local event that a few thousand—not a few hundred thousand—people will recognize and remember. We lost the Century Domes. Movie theaters in San Jose, California that represented optimism for the future—the optimism of Camelot, the Moon Race, and that peculiarly pleasing geometric design that could be found in everything from Bob’s Big Boys to motel signs to animated shows like The Jetsons. In that gung-ho embrace of what the Utopian future was sure to hold, the domed complexes—the first domed movie theaters of a number built in the architecturally-adventuresome West—were even named Century 21, Century 22 and Century 23. Century 21 was the first and most glorious. Built in 1964 as a Cinerama theater, it showcased the really big movies, encompassing everyone under its tent, like a space age camping trip or a Technicolor planetarium show or an adventure in another world. For me, the loss is also personal. I spent a good part of my childhood in San Jose, and seeing movies at the Century was a true event. They were my generation’s movie palaces. I remember watching Funny Lady and Disney’s Robin Hood and even the re-release of Gone With the Wind at Century Theaters when I was eleven or twelve years old. Century Marquee from the 1970s So when I found out on Saturday that they were closing for good … well, it hit me. Perhaps harder than I would have expected, and for reasons again personal: when I lost both my parents to cancer, I also lost my childhood. My history. As an only child, I have no one to fact-check with, no one to share early memories with. Somehow knowing that those theaters were still there, still showing movies, kept part of my own history alive, too. The theaters have always been successful, even now. They were not closed because no one saw movies there, or because people are staying at home watching Netflix. The reasons they will be no more, unless California designates Century 21 a historic landmark (a long shot, for reasons cited below), are simple. Such a loaded word. Not necessarily negative, but in recent years—in San Francisco, in San Jose, in California and the Western United States in general—it has become a word synonymous with diminishment, loss, and even death. See, there is a shopping center across the street from the old theaters, which are, themselves, adjacent to the (in)famous Winchester Mystery House. They don’t call it a shopping center anymore, it’s now “live/work” or “mixed-use retail”—but essentially, it’s a shopping complex and an upscale one. It’s been built out and up to the edges of a box—a density more suitable to Manhattan than the traditional low-rise architecture of California and the Golden West. The shopping center and its progenitor, Federal Realty, has been hungrily eyeing the expanse of parking lot and movie theaters across Winchester Boulevard. And now, thanks to an expiring (and unrenewed) lease and the determination of the land owners—who also own the Winchester Mystery House—to squeeze as much money as possible from their fortuitous landownership (their family bought the parcel in the 1920s), the shopping center is metastasizing. Developers—and is it a coincidence that they share the first syllable with Devil, I wonder?—stand to make another fortune (and another, and another) as the working-class and middle-class spaces of domed movie theaters (or bowling alleys or ice-skating rinks or performance halls) are converted into tawdry odes to the new American past time … for a large part of the diminishment I first mentioned is our conversion from a country that produces to a country that consumes. And consumes, and consumes … And what we are told to consume are “luxury” and “upscale” objects and things, “lifestyle” choices we are meant to embrace and aspire to. Shopping malls like the one across the street from the theaters are symbols of this aspiration, and the “town hall” architecture—which is about as insipid as the consumerism it represents—is the new medium by which we can conveniently do so. Roll out of bed in your luxury condo, pop down to a Starbuck’s below and pick up a few shirts at Abercrombie and Fitch. Then check out the scene in your Google Glasses while you take a small break from your 14-hour a day tech job which is paying you an insane amount of money to forget that you have no life beyond consumption. The former Bob’s Big Boy with the Century Theaters in the background There’s your live/work/condo for you. And that’s what is going to be built on the corpses of the Century Theaters and the former Bob’s Big Boy that is now home to an equally old-fashioned coffee shop. Federal Realty has stated that it has no intention of preserving Century 21 … and I have no intention of ever supporting Federal Realty. I am not anti-building. I am not even anti-development. I’m sure that somewhere in this vast nation is an architect or landowner of some creativity and soul. I’ll even go out on a limb and suggest that there may even be a developer who favors and understands the importance of historic and cultural preservation. But what I protest against, with every fiber of my being, is the notion that a shopping center can and should replace a movie theater. Or a bowling alley. Or a Palladium. Or a Bay Meadows or Hollywood Park. Look, we used to be a society where people came together. Remember the feeling of social unity? Remember how good it feels, even on a micro level, when you share a communal experience? Movie theaters gave us that. So did bowling alleys and dance halls, race tracks and amusement parks and drive-ins and community centers and even the real town hall/Main Street USAs that are being replaced by these grotesque new architectural odes to our not-so-proud role as Number One Global Consumer. We are losing public and community spaces, one by one, city by city, town by town. In their place we build big-box retail and match-box condos and tall, dense and ugly buildings where people never meet. They sleep there (if they can afford it); they shop there (if they can’t). And that’s what we’ve become. And if we don’t start preserving some spaces more dedicated to coming together than pulling out a wallet—and perhaps addressing topics like monolithic corporate monopolies and the growing wealth disparity—well, let’s just say the future is not as bright as it was when the Century Theaters were built. There is still a fight to be fought. The domes will not ever be first run movie theaters again—we can bet on that—but they can still be saved from the wrecking ball. The Preservation Action Council of San Jose has been battling to have the theater(s) named historic landmarks worth saving and simultaneously trying to convince a criminally recalcitrant mayor and city council of the need to architecturally preserve and incorporate (at least) Century 21 into any new development. To their great shame, Mayor Chuck Reed and the City Council actually sent a letter to the state requesting that the theater NOT be designated a historic landmark. If I were writing a noir based on this fact, I’d follow a money trail. And I’d remember, come election day. Because ultimately, preserving Century 21 will not eliminate the obscene profits the developers and landowners and all other interested parties will make from their deal with the devil. New always trumps old when it comes to the money generated by development. But if enough political pressure is applied, perhaps Mr. Reed and the Council will realize that they stand to lose more than whatever has already been calculated to “pencil out.” The rest of us, unfortunately … already have. The battle is not yet over! If you would like to help (the most rewarding kind of community interaction), please sign the petition to save the domes. You can email or call the California Office of Historical Preservation in advance of their April 22nd meeting to decide the fate of Century 21. You can “like” and follow the “Save the Dome” Facebook Page. You can also put financial pressure on Federal Realty and its properties, since money is the only language they understand. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) May 2021 July 2020 June 2020 February 2015 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 April 2012 February 2012 September 2011 August 2011 June 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 September 2010 June 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. 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The first step in adding a speaker to your event is gathering all of your speaker’s information. This includes a brief bio that they have approved being added to the site, a headshot, and their job title along with the company/institution they are associated with. Once you have this information, follow this guide to get your speaker on your event. While creating your event (or editing if you’ve already created it), you’ll notice a Speakers section within the event form. If they are current LeBow faculty, staff, or PhD student, you can type their name and their professional headshot and self-submitted bio will be added to your event. If they are not, you’ll have to create a basic bio. Proceed to step 2. Click the ‘create new one’ link in the text description associated with the Speaker field (make sure you open it in a new tab or you’ll lose any changes you’ve made to your event form). Add your speaker’s name as the Name of the page. Provide a short description about your speaker (please adhere to the 155 characters or less policy). Add your speaker’s job title and current company in the corresponding field. Add your speaker’s approved bio to the Bio section. Upload a headshot – portrait photos are preferred. please note these photos cannot be made larger or smaller in code. If your photo looks too small, upload a larger high quality photo	1,360
For all of Matt’s community at DCF and all of Matt’s community here in Charlottesville at All Souls and Eunoia, we remember this: We do not mourn as those who have no hope. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, death has been refused the final word. Matt’s final hours were spent serving @ The Haven, a homeless shelter where All Souls serves breakfast each Monday. He was always there, smiling and ready to work and love all around him. Death is swallowed up in victory. {the apostle paul} Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are easter people, and hallelujah is our song. {pope john paul} ~You can enjoy Matt’s excelllent photography here. ~Information on the memorial service in Charlottesville is here. ~The funeral will be in Summerville, SC on Saturday @ 11 If you would like to leave a memory or a prayer, feel free. We will collect them and get them to Matt’s parents and brother. 8 Replies to “Matt King” April 20, 2010 at 7:11 pm Winn, Thank you for posting this. I've been searching the internet at irregular intervals since I found out yesterday, finding only places where charlottesville's petty politics seem to be reigning supreme. I'm commenting as a friend of Matt's from the UVA math department. Matt was a cheerful, well liked, and all around wonderful presence in Kerchof. Whether it was by his bright yellow shirts (which occasionally disconcertingly matched his bright yellow moleskins, much to my dismay and his perfect aplomb), his good humored nature, his willingness to play along with the less than stellar jokes of his fellow grad students, or even his long red hair (which one student referred to as lustrous locks, I believe), Matt made kerchof a better place to be. My thoughts are with his family, and I would like to assure that Matt will be missed. Winn says: April 20, 2010 at 9:29 pm Lindsey says: April 21, 2010 at 11:58 am I did not know Matt, but as a mother I am weeping and grieving for his family. As a believer I am rejoicing that he is with his King. Prayers to all who knew and loved Matt. Scott says: April 21, 2010 at 1:10 pm Winn, thanks for your post. While I knew Matt, it was only for a brief time; such is the life in the DCF community, you get to see glimpses of people and then they are gone, to other places and new paths, but one thing that stands out for me is that Matt was a servant. In fact, I had the pleasure of serving with him one Saturday at Clemson Comm Care as we packed food bags to be given out to those in need; I recognize that same smile from your photo, that day; and if I'm not mistaken, he departed Clemson within 2 days after that, so just like the other day, he was serving his neighbors right up until he moved on to a new home! May God give your AllSouls family and Matt's family great peace, comfort and strength. Justin says: April 21, 2010 at 3:08 pm I wrote about Matt here. Feel free to pass that along. April 21, 2010 at 6:12 pm Its so funny how I got to know Matt King, I met him first in Greenville at the Handle Bar 3 years ago where he taught me some awesome swing dance moves. After that summer its like he was everywhere! I discovered he went to DCF where I had just started going the semester before. Then he became involved with The Navigators where I was actively involved. Then I got involved with Church on Riggs and of course there Matt was. So through all these facets of life we began to get to know each other more and more. He was definitely one of the most unique individuals I have ever known and I loved him for that. He was always fun to be around whether we were swing dancing, doing crazy scavenger hunts, on long road trips to new york in back, or just hanging out at Church on Riggs. I am deeply saddened that Matt is gone but his memory will stay with me until I see him in heaven one day. To Matt's family, I just want you to know that you son reached so many people even in the short 23 years he was alive and he will continue to inspire people through those of use who share the stories of his life to those who did not know him. The passage that helped me through the loss of my father, is Psalm 23:4–Even in the deepest darkest places of life, God is still there to comfort us. I pray it will bring you comfort as well and may you find Peace from Christ that surpasses all understanding. Wendy says: April 21, 2010 at 10:49 pm I had the incredible honor of meeting Matt one night when our church (First Baptist of Charlottesville) was serving dinner to the UVA kids at the Baptist Student Center this winter. He walked in that night with a huge smile and I knew immediately, "That kid's got Jesus." I sat across from him at dinner and I remember how interesting of a person I thought he was, brilliant and so talented. And what a smile and incredibly unique red hair. Although I was able to meet Matt only one time, he left a very memorable impression, and I will never forget that particular evening. I remember leaving that night thinking, "What a bright young guy who loves the Lord. His parents must be so proud of him." My deepest sympathies and prayers go out to you and your family during this season of grieving. May you be comforted by our great King in a way no human can do. Trusting that you know there are many, many people praying for you all in Charlottesville. April 25, 2010 at 5:19 pm I am just reading about Matt, who I have never met, & my heart is aching at the loss of such a unique and incredible person – so obviously bursting with life and amazing potential – to the world, and after so short a time! The thought that leaves me with hope is that Matt had obviously given all that amazing life and potential to something he knew was much greater. My prayers are with you all, & especially Matt's family. May God's love surround you and give you peace.	5,994
Maybe not really a “basic” version. But not the macho looking model from the official pictures with black wheels. This is what most of them willlookk like in the flesh. And I still think it is a very nice pleasant design. (much cleaner than it’s Hyundai cousin, the messy looking Palissade) And it is really getting very close to premium brands. Like Volvo. (And better looking than the new Cadillac XT6) It pretty much started a few years ago with the Mazda CX-9. Which really looks and feels premium inside and out. More so than their similarly priced competition. (The CX-5 as well) And now this, from Kia. There is really less and less reasons every year to spend so much more money in expensive brands (usually with questionable reliability) Personally, I really couldn’t care less who makes a car I like. Whether it is a premium brand or not. I think these “premium models from non-premium brands” will be more and more popular. And this is not just looks. Cars like the Mazda CX-5 also drive and feel like a premium car. Conversation 6 comments Anonymous says: September 19, 2022 at 8:20 PM you can really tell how much effort Kia put into this car. It may not be your taste but you can't deny that. Ralph L says: September 19, 2022 at 8:20 PM The Kia might look better a distance. Here it's too blocky. The XT6 looks much better in live photos than the lifeless press release photos. September 19, 2022 at 8:20 PM I am very impressed with the looks of the new Telluride! The exterior is quite attractive as is the interior. Cannot wait to see it in person in May or if I go to the auto show much sooner. September 19, 2022 at 8:20 PM This looks way better than that Caddy CT6. Or whatever they call it. I also like the this design over the Explorer. I September 19, 2022 at 8:20 PM At first I didnt like the headlight treatment change from the Telluride concept. But it's a slap in the face to Cadillac. Kia did it right.	2,003
Our client, a blue chip, international gallery seeks a full-time Assistant to Senior Partner for immediate hire at its London gallery. Responsibilities include but are not limited to: Support Senior Partner with roster of artists: Assist with general management of artists’ studios and estates, with exhibitions, requests, press, image requests, general studio requests, events, appraisals and artist care. Support with artist management, as well as gallery exhibitions globally. Providing broad sales support to Senior Partner: Help create sales offers, coordinate and prepare for client viewings. Conducting post-sale tasks including invoicing and coordination of shipping. Preparing consignment agreements and insurance appraisals. Provide all administrative support including: Daily management of Senior Partner’s calendar, agendas, to-do list and help set daily priorities and goals. Prepare travel arrangements, itineraries, appointments and expenses. Liaise frequently with multiple departments within the gallery including: Research, Client Development, Digital, Marketing and Registration to oversee projects that include creating exhibition and art fair booth models, gallery exhibition checklists, online viewing rooms, sales previews, press packets, among others. The ideal candidate has at least three years of related experience or equivalent. Excellent writing, organizational and communication skills, the ability to time manage, multitask and meet deadlines, and work with multiple teams. Proficiency in other languages is an added value, but not essential. This position will involve contact with artists, their studios, curators and clients, therefore discretion and poise are essential. Position hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Candidate will occasionally need to work additional hours for openings and events.	1,861
Virginia players celebrate after defeating Illinois in an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) Virginia players celebrate after defeating Illinois in an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) Sports No. 16 Virginia beats No. 19 Illinois to cap emotional week by: MARK ANDERSON, Associated Press Posted: Nov 20, 2022 / 04:53 PM CST Updated: Nov 20, 2022 / 04:53 PM CST Virginia players celebrate after defeating Illinois in an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) Virginia players celebrate after defeating Illinois in an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) by: MARK ANDERSON, Associated Press Posted: Nov 20, 2022 / 04:53 PM CST Updated: Nov 20, 2022 / 04:53 PM CST LAS VEGAS (AP) — Reece Beekman and No. 16 Virginia capped an emotional week by going on a late 13-point run to defeat No. 19 Illinois 70-61 on Sunday to win the Continental Tire Main Event. The Cavaliers (4-0) trailed 58-56 with 3 1/2 minutes left when they broke away from Illinois (4-1). Beekman scored 17 points and was the tournament MVP. Kihei Clark and Jayden Gardner each had 12 for Virginia. Jayden Epps had 14 points and Coleman Hawkins 10 for the Illini. The game was played exactly a week after Virginia football players Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry were fatally shot after a field trip to see a play in Washington. Two others were wounded. Former Virginia football player Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. faces three counts of second-degree murder and other charges. Virginia players wore shirts to honor those killed and locked arms in tribute before the game. The team canceled its game Monday against Northern Iowa, but chose to play in Las Vegas. Forward Kadin Shedrick said Friday that being in Las Vegas was therapeutic. The game was close throughout, with neither team pulling away until Virginia’s late run. Both teams’ top scorers from Friday’s games also were largely held in check. Virginia’s Armaan Franklin, who scored 26 points against Baylor, had just nine against Illinois. Illini guard Terrence Shannon Jr. also scored nine points after getting 29 against UCLA in going 8 of 9 from 3-point range. Shannon made just 1 of 5 on Sunday. Virginia became the first team from the Atlantic Coast Conference to win this tournament, which is in its ninth year. The Pac-12 Conference won three of the previous four tournaments — Arizona State in 2018, Colorado in 2019 and Arizona last year. Baylor of the Big 12 Conference in 2020 was the only team from another conference during that stretch, and the Bears’ hopes to become the first two-time winner ended in Friday’s 86-79 loss to Virginia. Both teams take a noticeable step down in competition levels on Friday, with Illinois hosting Lindenwood of the Ohio Valley Conference and Virginia returning home to play Maryland-Eastern Shore of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.	3,380
Monday has rolled around again. Did the cleaning, stocking and ordered supplies for the next 2 weeks all by 9:00 a.m. The day went by pretty fast with nothing of any importance happening. Tuesday Cindy worked for Donna who is enjoying spring training in AZ. Got a call later in the afternoon that Dina was sick. She was supposed to be covering Jays shift, so I came in and worked. It was a long night. Wednesday night was our Karaoke sing off. We had eleven very good singers in the run off. After two ties in the judges scoring, and two sing offs, Martha was declared the winner of the $100.00 and the trophy. Dina and Jay were still sick so I worked again Wednesday night. Thursday is free lunch day. We had sausage sandwiches and soup prepared by Victor. After lunch we played Wham Bam Bingo with Robert as the big winner. Thursday night is our monthly meeting and again everyone was sick, so I covered the night again. Following is the copy of the minutes The Executive Board meeting was opened at 6:13 by Commander Dan Clay. Service Office, Sgt. At Arms, 2nd Vice, Historian and 1st year all absent. The meeting consisted of discussing suggestions regarding internal accounting procedures for the post. No decisions were made. Meeting adjourned at 7:06 Meeting called to order at 7:41 p.m. by Commander Dan Clay. 1st Vice report - Membership is at 248 that is 88.57% Membership checking account is $2,695.49 2nd Vice report - 3/9 Private Party, 3/15 Steak Dinner and a Band after. 3/16 Finger Food and a D.J. for St. Patty's day 3/23 Kid's Easter Party from 1:00 to 3:00p.m. 3/30 prime rib dinner followed by the band, Vintage 7:00 to 11:00p.m. 3rd Vice report - One more community worker on board. Finance Officer report - Current balance $8,000.00 Sweepstakes account is at $1,213.72 Bingo account is at $4.731.45 Savings account $18,228.68 J.A.G. report - None Adjudant report - None Chaplain report - Flowers were purchased for Gerald Bryan Holloman's wife ( Joyce's daughter) Jeri who has passed away February 6, 2013. Bar Manager report - No report The meeting was adjourned at 8:29 by Commander Dan Clay. Friday I sat on a Committee at the State level Executive Board Meeting in Santa Maria trying to figure out how to best approach the over 500 posts in CA in playing Remote Caller Bingo. If we can get this going on a large scale, it will be a great money raiser for all of those that choose to play. Friday's name drawn to try his luck at exposing the Queen, was David Clauson. His guess, envelope #51 revealing the 9 of hearts, no cigar. Next weeks reward $1,200.00. Saturdays celebration of life showed that Louie had a lot of friends. Sundays big winner in our NASCAR pool was Mary for $125.00 and 12 points. Dennis took second for $75.00 dollars and 10 points. John "from San Jose" still leads in points with 23. Don't forget all of the fun things coming up this week. I hope all of you out there that have been sick are getting better. Until next week "HUG " your loved ones, you never know how long you will be able to.	3,094
It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches. Luke 13: 19 (NLT) I have a couple of devotionals that I like to read by Sarah Young. They are short but always seem to hit the mark about whatever is going on in my life. And I’m surprised. How often do go to God with a request or need, usually as a last resort, but really don’t expect an answer? We think we have to “help” God. As I reflect on the process that my kids experienced during this time of transition and moving, trusting God was an act of faith because the outcome was so out of their control. Yet, He ultimately provided a home that is far better than anything we could have imagined. Jesus trudged all over Israel with his disciples. He listened to them complain, watched how they handled problems, noticed their responses to different people. He spent months in their presence and sometimes they got it but sometimes, their didn’t. Remember the little boy with five loaves and two fish? They were ready to head off to town and try and buy food—an impossible task. Jesus was so patient with his followers, as He is with us. As the Son of God, He could have spoken to them in lofty treatises but instead He told them stories…stories they could understand and pass on. He even explained some of the hard parts to them. When life appears tough or grim, all we needed is a tiny bit of faith…one step at a time. Don’t worry about the end result; rather go to Him expecting great things. He won’t fail you. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) Related Subscribe to Flashlight by Email Email Address Recent Posts In Everything Give Thanks Archives Select Month November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 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 January 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 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 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 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 January 2013 December 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006	4,474
Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Ajaypal Randhawa Dec 14, 2021 Updated: Aug 26 Let’s cut to the chase. Selling a home has changed dramatically over the past few months. It’s no longer as simple as signing a couple of documents with your Realtor and getting the space ready for the real estate photographer to grab a few awesome photos. So the question on every seller’s mind that keeps repeating over and over is: “should I sell my house right now?” The answer may surprise you. Now may actually be a great time to sell a residence and here are some of the reasons why you should talk to your realtor. Precautionary Measures in Place Real estate boards and associations across the nation have developed extensive checklists filled with new guidelines for Real Estate Professionals to implement and discuss with the seller. Everything from recommending virtual tours, floor plans, measurements and virtual open houses to written instruction on safety measures aims to avoid your exposure to Covid-19. A great Realtor is up to date on the rules and regulations when it comes to protecting the seller’s interests. A very import reason on why you should talk to your realtor. Ask for and opt-in to signing disclosure forms and request the same for potential buyers entering your house. Forms include questions about recent travel and exposure to the virus as well as the mandatory requirements for sanitizers and facemasks during all showings. You are in charge when it comes to setting healthy boundaries for those entering your home. Trust your Realtor to meet and ensure compliance with a high level of safety protocols. Great Interest Rates! Did you know that mortgage interest rates are at an all-time low? Wow! Borrowing money to purchase a home has become more accessible and that means a whole new demographic of buyers are considering leaving their landlords in favour of owning their residence. Millennials are poised and ready to take the plunge into their first homes. Buyers are surfing the web for low-interest mortgages, visiting the online open house virtual tour options, and are excited to buy. Are you concerned about mortgage appraisers entering your home? Many lenders are now turning to 3D video tours and drive-by assessments to conduct an appraisal helping to reduce physical contact with your property. Ask and Thou Shalt Receive How does your Realtor attract a buyer to your property safely? It starts with communication. An in-depth discussion with your Realtor will help you feel more comfortable selling your home. Don’t be afraid to ask for specifics regarding showings and open houses like how many people are allowed at each viewing or requesting sanitation of doorknobs and keeping other surfaces touch-free. Other things to discuss should include how your Real Estate Professional uses current technology such as virtual tours and 3D tours in their real estate marketing plans. Another reason why you should talk to your realtor. Virtual tours are simply the best way to eliminate a host of on-site visitors to your property before they are pre-qualified. Allowing a buyer to view online floor plans and virtually examine every space means avoiding physical exposure until necessary. Think your home could use some updated furnishings to show it off a little better? Enhancing your space through virtual staging techniques can give that extra pop to highlight specific features and capture the eye of a potential buyer. When Selling Now is the Only Option Unfortunately, there are circumstances when the time to sell your house is now because of a loss of income or change in personal circumstances such as divorce, or illness. Fortunately, there are several things to help get your home sold quickly. Buyer’s looking for a “deal” will be more inclined to offer a higher price when your property is presented well. This means getting your Realtor to take advantage of 3D tours, virtual staging, and accurately measured floor plans when marketing your home. In-person showings and physical open houses continue to be avoided by the consumer. So when you are in a must sell situation your Realtor can make the most out of it by creating an up close and personal feel with virtual tours. Statistics Say Something, But Sometimes the Answer is Muted You keep reading monthly market statistics of how sales and listings are down. But guess what? The market is starting to rebound and that is good news for sellers. What you don’t hear about is the growing number of buyers just waiting for your house to pop up with a virtual tour showcasing exactly what they are looking for. Whether they are beginning their buyer’s journey or have been on the road for a while, buyers are house hunting. Having your Realtor offer up an accurate floor plan and 3D tours along with outstanding photos from the real estate photographer will help get your home added to the sold statistic for next month! You can’t change the past but if selling your home is in the not so distant future, talk to your Realtor about using virtual tours , Real Estate Photography, measurements, floorplans and strategies to limit risks.	5,386
Gumtree is the new Trading Post. Back in my day if you wanted to buy or sell, you’d pickup the Trading Post one week and find a bargain or list your item. Today, it’s all about online, and Gumtree have done some research into Australia’s Second Hand economy and we’ve tracked down some expert tips on making the most of your “trash” and turning it into Cash. According to the Gumtree research, 89% of the population are holding onto unwanted items and they reckon that equates to on average 26 items around the house ready to be sold. Turn that into cash and we’ve got $30 billion worth of “stuff” lying around. So let’s sell! Those bloody Gen Y’s seem to know their stuff, cashing in their unwanted goods for a total of $6,268 across the year, over $1,500 above the national average. But it’s not just the Gen Y’s, people are buying second-hand to save money, with most people estimating they can save almost half the cost of a new item, while two thirds simply prefer buying second-hand to new! On this week’s episode of Your Tech Life (Episode 298), I chatted to Aussie Pickers Lucas Callaghan and Adam McDonald who offered up range of advice on buying and selling second-hand items. These blokes live and breathe the second-hand game – picking random properties for gems, and selling them at both old school auctions, in store and online. From the folks at GumTree, some tips for selling online: Be honest: Dedicate time to research what’s out there and the average price of similar items to make sure you’re setting a fair price. Be descriptive: Describe the product you’re selling, including its features, a brief history and reasons for selling the item. The more information you provide, the more likely you are to make a sale at the price you’re looking for. Upload high quality photos: Gumtree allows up to 5 photos for every listing. Use this to your advantage by uploading high quality images to make sure your listing stands out from the rest. Manage your listing: Ensure you keep on top of incoming ad responses. Communicate quickly and directly with potential buyers through My Messages and download the Gumtree app on your phone so you can manage your ad on the go. Always meet face-to-face: When buying or selling, it’s important to meet in-person to see the item and exchange money. For personal ease and safety, have someone with you if a buyer is coming to your home or workplace. PreviousTesla’s first Supercharger location outside Metro is now open: Goulburn NextNo, Facebook is not adding a Dislike button, but they are adding more options About The Author Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head. He produces and hosts two popular podcasts, EFTM and Two Blokes Talking Tech. He also appears on over 50 radio stations across Australia weekly, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show each day and appears regularly on A Current Affair. Father of three, he is often found down in his Man Cave. 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It’s night time, but I can’t sleep. LoveBug is spending the night at her grandparents’ house since we’re scheduled to be induced tomorrow morning. My body desperately craves sleep, but instead, I find myself laying on the couch feeling Monkey staying awake with me all night long. This has been an easy pregnancy in one sense–my symptoms have been very minimal compared to my pregnancy with LoveBug. It’s been more difficult in the past weeks since I’ve had an increasing number of contractions and low iron. Part of me is very excited to know I’ll be having my baby tomorrow and only three days overdue. The other part of me feels weird to “choose” the day he should be born. I remind myself that the inducing method–Cytotech, will only cause my body to release its own prostaglandin and if my body doesn’t want to continue on into labor, it won’t. My midwife has assured me that nothing will be different from a natural birth with this induction and I can expect the time line to remain the same. We’re guessing about two hours from the first real contraction to my son being born. After all, my daughter’s birth took four hours total. July 3, 2010 Dawn comes, Monkey finally goes to sleep for the day, and I prepare myself to give birth to my first son. It’s a beautiful day. 7:10am Ron and I load the car and stop at McDonald’s for his coffee and a fruit smoothie for me. I mention during the ride that I never fell asleep last night. 8:00am We arrive at the hospital’s birthing suite and I am hooked up to a monitor to check the baby and my uterus’ activity for twenty minutes before my midwife arrives to give me the Cytotech. The machine tells us that I’m having regular contractions every 5 minutes even without the medicine and I let the nurse know that I was contracting regularly all night long. Since these aren’t painful contractions, I didn’t think anything of them. I’m told that my cervix is 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. The staff suggest that I may give birth tomorrow even with the induction and I inform them that I’m only going to be doing this for two hours once things start. They laugh. 9:00am My midwife, Deb, gives me half a pill of Cytotech and I try to sleep while they monitor me for an hour. I never fall asleep since the bed I’m on won’t remain in a sitting position and keeps flattening out—not comfortable for an overly pregnant woman! Ron is watching some show on DIY that involves table saws and hammering, so I resign myself to the fact that this child is coming to a mother who won’t have slept in many, many long hours. My contractions increase in frequency and decrease in intensity, according to the monitor. 10:00am We are released for an hour and so Ron and I decide to walk around outside in the 90+ degree weather. The hospital overlooks a lake and is built into the side of a hill, so we enjoy the view as my husband drags me up and down stairs and seemingly mountainous hills. 10:30am I rock on a birthing ball in an attempt to help things along. I wonder if this is really going to work and am feeling disappointed. 11:00am The hospital staff switch my bed out to one that works, and so I’m able to get comfortable for the next half an hour of monitoring. My mother arrives and we tell Ron’s mom over the phone that she will probably make the birth even though she can’t get here until 3:00pm. My contractions are increasing, but still aren’t painful and I work on falling asleep. 11:30am With the monitoring done, my midwife leaves to get some groceries into her fridge. Ron leaves to find some lunch. To my relief, I start to doze in the peaceful atmosphere. 12:00pm Never having made it to dream land, I hear a “pop! Pop!” that comes from some where in my abdomen. I think to myself that a popping noise within me can not be a good thing, so I lift up my eye mask to tell my mom, but she isn’t in my room. Somewhere in the recess of my mind, I remember hearing that some women audibly experience a “popping” noise when their water breaks. Since my water broke in the tub (or so we assume) with LoveBug, this is a new thing to me. I stand up and there’s the warm fluid. I press the nurse’s button before heading into the bathroom. Within minutes, the first real contraction hits. I know I don’t have much time to go, so we quickly move me from the monitoring room to the birthing suite. The suite is complete with a gorgeous, huge tub, private bathroom, queen sized bed instead of a hospital bed, flat screen TV, rocking and other chairs, and all of the amenities for a baby tucked nicely into an oak armoire. My mom calls Ron and tells him that he might want to hurry up and the nurse calls my midwife. The nurse checks me and says that I’m 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. I manage to change into my birthing attire (swimsuit top and open swim skirt) and get into the tub. My body isn’t pushing yet, but I know it won’t be long. I’m so emotional this time that I want to cry. My son is coming. Ron arrives and tries to verbally reassure me near my head. After a few sentences, I have to nicely ask him to go find a mint. He smells like food and I can’t handle that at the moment. Someone laughs and I want to throw something at her. I just want everyone to be quiet as my body attempts to turn itself inside out. Deb arrives and my body is pushing. I’m emotional and it feels like I’m in transition the whole time. I have no relief between contractions—they just intensify and then decrease but don’t actually go away before the next one hits. I want to bite the tub’s side but remind myself that I also want to leave this experience with my teeth in tact. This is the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced and not having slept doesn’t help matters any. With the contractions not letting up, I can see that Deb is a little concerned. The baby’s heart rate starts to drop as I feel him crowning. Thank God you’re crowning, I think to my son. It’s at this point when things get easier. The contractions ease and I’m able to focus so much better when it’s actually time for the baby to birth. I’m really not wanting to tear, but really wanting this baby out. My body did all of its own pushing with my first child, but Deb suggests that I push between surges this time since his heart rate was going down and I’ve not had relief from contractions. I try this suggestion and it turns out to be the most brilliant idea ever. I am able to control things entirely, and I am able to use my hands to put pressure exactly where I feel it needs to be as his head emerges. I love it when my child’s head emerges. Feeling his head in my hands as it smoothly enters the world. I rub off the slimy stuff, and note the feeling of a tiny nose, chin, and ears. Ears! It is his ears that impact me so greatly. This is my son and I love him. He is my baby. I have to give a good push for his shoulders, but I guide him and lift him out of me easily and without tearing at all. I place him on my chest and realize how gray he looks. He isn’t crying, which isn’t bothersome in itself, but…he’s so dark. Everyone notices and we’re trying to stimulate him, but he still doesn’t cry. He’s already been suctioned. I hear Deb say that he had meconium on the way out. I’m a paramedic. I know that a dropping heart rate, such dark skin, and meconium are very bad–especially if it’s my kid. A nurse places blow by oxygen next to his face. He’s breathing fine on his own, but he doesn’t cry and my son is gray. Deb senses that I’m concerned and reminds me that he’s still getting blood from the umbilical cord. Finally, he cries and starts moving around more. In reality, it was probably only a few seconds. To me, it was an eternity. I hold him extra close to me as they place a hat on his head and a blanket over him even though we’re still in the water. 1:00pm I ask what time it is and realize I only labored for one hour. He is beautiful. Six pounds, 15 ounces, and 20 inches long. I have fallen in love with a new boy. Related August 3, 2010 6 thoughts on “The One Hour Birth of My Son” Cindy says: August 3, 2010 at 2:41 pm Congratulations! He is precious! You done good, mama. August 3, 2010 at 3:26 pm I'm in tears! Great job on a hospital birth….can't wait to have my 2nd in my arms too Dee says: August 3, 2010 at 4:03 pm He's adorable and your story is fantastic. My labor is super short after my water breaks too. August 3, 2010 at 5:22 pm Awesome. You inspire my. It has been my aspiration for a couple months now to catch this baby when she's born. In the past two births, I've lacked the focus, and just been focused on pushing. I'll be honest- I hope my labor is a lot longer than 1 hour. We have a 2-hour drive to the birthing suite. LOL! hugs You're an amazing woman. Anonymous says: August 3, 2010 at 6:15 pm love love love love loved reading this!!! Way to paint a perfect picture of an amazing birth. Love you my friend and am elated for you and your growing family!!	9,223
This antibody needs to be stored at + 4°C in a fridge short term in a concentrated dilution. Freeze thaw will destroy a percentage in every cycle and should be avoided. If you buy Antibodies supplied by genways they should be stored frozen at - 24°C for long term storage and for short term at + 5°C. Immunoglobulin gamma, IgG, mouse monoclonal H&L chain clones or rabbit, goat polyclonal antibodies have 4 parts. There are 2 heavy chains, 2 light chains. The IgG antibody has 2 antigen binding sites. They represent 70% or more of serum antibodies. This antibody can be antigen purified or protein A or G purified. For storage sodium azide is added or you can call us to request azide free antibody preparations. These will need colder storage temperatures.Rabbits are used for polyclonal antibody production by genways. Rabbit antibodies are very stable and can be stored for several days at room temperature. genways adds sodium azide and glycerol to enhance the stability of the rabbit polyclonal antibodies. Anti-human, anti mouse antibodies to highly immunogenic selected peptide sequences are" monoclonal like" since the epitope to which they are directed is less than 35 amino acids long. Mouse or mice from the Mus musculus species are used for production of mouse monoclonal antibodies or mabs and as research model for humans in your lab. Mouse are mature after 40 days for females and 55 days for males. The female mice are pregnant only 20 days and can give birth to 10 litters of 6-8 mice a year. Transgenic, knock-out, congenic and inbread strains are known for C57BL/6, A/J, BALB/c, SCID while the CD-1 is outbred as strain.	1,685
Dear God, You are the most beautiful MOTHER, revealed by your Holy Spirit; our Comforter, Nurturer and Teacher...When we as mom's feel as though we are at our wit's end, YOUR SUPERNATURAL POWER TO NURTURE and TEACH is ever present in our time of need and when we recognize that power; your gifts, our children truly flourish! Happy Mother's Day to YOU LORD! To my earthly Mom, you are a beautiful woman, hilarious to be around and amazing to listen to! Your words coupled with that irresistible accent which flows out of your mouth with passionate wisdom is a blessing! Your way of wanting to surprise us with your presence has become a contagious tradition in which we attempt to find ways to do the same for one another and for our own children! Mom, the way you look at life, your perspective, is many times seen through the passionate love of God! I know many adult children are blessed to call their mother's "mom" and "mum"; but I feel as though I am enormously blessed beyond them all. It is not out of bias, but truly from experience that I write this. God knew He could trust you (and dad) to nurture and parent someone like me. Your prayers of persistent faith in our God over me while I was yet afar off is what saved my life. Even though with your sight you could not see what I was to become, with God's great VISION you were able to hold onto the GREATEST FATHER AND MOTHER OF ALL...ALMIGHTY GOD! Flowers, gifts, a card and a hug are good; but my appreciation for you within my heart squashes even the beauty of those things. Thank you for holding onto HIM while He held onto me! I love you Mom...I love that you are not only my mom, but also my sister in Christ, my Starbucks buddy, my butt pinchin', neck huggin', small but mighty embracin' mom! Happy Mom's Day! [ That's suppose to be a 'replica' of your Asian smiley faces that you placed on every note you wrote to us when we were little girls!!!! Mother's Day Other Apps Comments Elizabeth Mahlou May 13, 2012 at 10:37 AM What a beautiful tribute to your mother! ReplyDelete Replies A multi-dimensional life May 13, 2012 at 10:40 AM What a beautiful tribute to your mom...and to our Lord! Your words express so accurately what I also feel in my heart for the love I have been gifted from my own mother. I miss her so! Enjoy the time you share together, always! Happy mother's day to you and to your mom, my beautiful friend! xo ReplyDelete Replies Thank you for stopping by...please feel free to follow me and post a comment ~ I'd love to return the favor! Popular posts from this blog By Teresa - April 28, 2013 Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who persecute you and pray for those who spitefully use you..." ~ Luke 6:27-38 ~ True story... So how's this one for revealing God's royalty in the midst of a verbal slap? The setting of this story is on a college campus involving one of the girls I get to encourage whose name is Rebecca and another young lady whom she did not know, who had some mean, choice words. "I need to talk to you! Take your sunglasses off because when I talk to you I want to see your eyes." Rebecca shocked, took her sunglasses off, thinking to herself, "I think she has the wrong person." "You're a fake 'B with an ITCH' and I see you walking on campus all the time so happy and I see you're full of sh*%. There's no way someone could be THAT happy all the time". Rebe Read more December 15, 2010, "Connecting Bridge" By Teresa - December 14, 2010 Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established." ~Proverbs 16:3 ~ It was Monday and I was doing the normal thing; driving to the grocery store. I was planning on going to this particular store which I enjoy frequenting. However, this day I was convicted to commit even this 'to do' moment to Him. I prayed to the Lord to guide my steps and as I was driving I was led to go to a different store which I do not like to frequent because of the great lack in customer service. But as I looked back upon that irritation, for me to complain about not having a good customer service experience is truly not suffering. Perspective was put back into its proper place...I was reminded to have options to go anywhere while others experience true suffering was insulting to those who truly suffer; especially for the cause of Christ Jesus. Hence, as I drove to this particular s Read more By Teresa - January 26, 2012 Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell If you have not read the original post titled, "A Glimpse of God's Master plan through a Penny", then please click here . To understand the significance of this story, you'll want to read that story first :) Paused with awe. "What? Another story involving a penny?" I am overwhelmed by the resounding testimonies that have been relayed back to me either by phone, email, text message or in person. "Teresa, I got a 'God Kiss' today as I found a penny." "Teresa, I was at work and on the floor in the bakery department there was a shiny penny." "Look! I found a penny in my jacket pocket." "Teresa, I thought of your mom today. I received a God Kiss as I found a penny." "I'll never look at a penny the same way again! ;)" Sharing some of the text messages and comments from my last post , I am delighte	5,662
Imagine your cousin Vinny – the one who lives in the mansion on top of the mountain, surrounded by acres of land, a stunning ocean view, cared for by seven maids, a couple of butlers; he also owns a few luxury cars, a chopper, a boat loaded with features; he even owns a James Bond Mercedes Benz replica which can turn into a private submarine, yes that cousin – offered to manage your money. How could you possibly say no to someone so successful? As you began the process of cashing in your Certificate of Deposits (CDs), emptying your retirement fund accounts to entrust the management of all your money to your cousin, you found out by sheer luck that he filed for bankruptcy in the past, not once or twice but seven times. You were no longer so sure about your cousin’s ability to make you rich, like he is. Then again, maybe he could. Sure, he filed bankruptcy but he seems to be doing quite well. Who can argue with his success? You visited him several times, toured the sky on his chopper a few times; you even borrowed one of his luxury cars a couple of times to impress the girl you’ve been asking out for the past ten years. So, you were sold. You definitely trusted your cousin to make your life financially better. One day before you actually turned all your money over to your cousin Vinny, you had lunch with a few co-workers and mentioned in passing that a “financial guru” (withholding the info that the guru is your cousin) would be managing your money and you expected “great things” to happen in the next couple of years. One of the co-workers, unaware of your cousin’ story (he filed for bankruptcy in the past), suggested you took a look at the “guru’s financials, mainly his tax returns” before proceeding. “Many financial gurus”, he said, “get involved in shady deals in order to give appearance of success all the while losing other people’s money; make sure you see his tax returns prior to entrusting your lifesaving. If he doesn’t want to show his tax documents, chances are things are not what they seem.” No big deal, you thought; you’ll just ask your cousin to see his tax documents. When you asked, your cousin had no problem with your request; however, he never could remember to send the documents but never failed to remind you that every day which passed without investing is another missed opportunity. After reminding him several times about the documents, he became angry and questioned the purpose for your request. You explained to him that your benefits’ advisor at work believes successful and reputable money managers would make that information available to anyone who asks for it; besides, unless you see the tax documents you would not turn your money to him, you told your cousin. Vinny turned nasty, insulting and even wished you financial ill. Sound familiar? It should be. Donald Trump lashes at anyone who asks to see his tax return documents but wants you “to simply trust him” that he is a great and successful businessman. Mr. Trump fabricates most everything he says (to his supporters- take a look at the chart above). Since the primaries, he’s relied a great deal on his loud voice to drown out his opponents all the while promoting fibs to a very gullible crowd of supporters. You don’t have to be a genius, actually, you don’t even need a High School diploma to do simple math (like 2 + 2) or draw simple conclusions (like all men are mortal, you are a man, therefore, you are …) Imagine that a man (or a woman) you’ve been dating for several years has rejected time and again the idea for you to visit her at home or even pick her up there. Would you not want to know what she is hiding? Would you simply take her word that nothing is going on? Would you? Under that scenario, would you take the relation to the next level and propose to her? Of course not! At least most rational individuals would want to find out what’s going on before committing to a serious relationship. Well, your lover Donald Trump has been lying to you since the day you’ve met him but he told me to tell you to just trust him. He’s repeated those lies so frequently even he has come to believe they’re true. He’s made billions of dollars because he’s very good in negotiating deals; he’s the billionaire all other billionaires should take a page from; he’s the billionaire, the only one smart enough to negotiate good trade deals for the United States. He knows China like nobody else; he knows Russia like no other politician; as far as Mexico, well, you already know the rest. What Donald left out is his very successful companies had filed several bankruptcies, six to be exact, the latest bankruptcy filing was in 2009. So, what? You might say. You mean, besides the possibility that he may be – again – on the verge of filing another bankruptcy? Absolutely nothing. It is widespread belief that most Trump’ supporters have no clue why someone would have a company filed for bankruptcy. They heard the word before, they have a general idea but they are totally clueless as far as the implication. That is probably one of the reasons it doesn’t bother any of them that Trump filed for bankruptcy six times. That may also be the reason they continue to believe Trump is a great businessman; that is most likely the reason they blindly believe Trump is capable of helping US economy. For those who don’t want to stay ignorant or in the dark, here is a primer. NO company (or individual) files bankruptcy because it’s doing great financially. Trump could be the exception; he is probably the first and only successful businessman who has to file for bankruptcy every so often. His latest filing was in 2009. I was just kidding about successful businessman filing for bankruptcy; maybe I meant, successfully filing for bankruptcy. Let me repeat: no company (or individual) files bankruptcy because it’s doing great financially. I know you already know that, I acknowledged so earlier; you may have a general idea what bankruptcy is. But what you probably didn’t know, something which should puzzle you is why would a successful businessman such as Donald Trump file for bankruptcy six times? I’d bet you never asked that question before. Since Mr. Trump has thus far refused to release his tax returns documents which could provide answers to many questions, we can only provide here general parameters within which Trump operates his business. There are only two ways to explain Trump’s frequent habit of filing for bankruptcy- 1) he is not the successful businessman he portrays himself to be 2) he deliberately screws people over. Neither one of those “qualities” a rational individual would want in a president. Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Lying King in which we explore whether Mr. Trump is a “great businessman who screws people over” regularly or a very bad businessman with shady deals and a lying habit. In the meantime, share this article with your social network. You may also want to take a look at A Case Against Donald Trump For President. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address: Visit blog at http://peoplebranch.org Use: #peoplebranch August 25, 2016 in Politics, Social Issues. Tags: bankruptcy, cunning craft, gullible crowd, Lying King, realDonaldTrump, successful businessman	7,490
Is it possible that more than 20 Republican senators will vote to convict Donald Trump of articles of impeachment? When you hang around Washington you get the sense that it could happen. September 27, 2019 The evidence against Trump is overwhelming. This Ukraine quid pro quo wasn’t just a single reckless phone call. It was a multiprong several-month campaign to use the levers of American power to destroy a political rival. Republican legislators are being bludgeoned with this truth in testimony after testimony. They know in their hearts that Trump is guilty of impeachable offenses. It’s evident in the way they stare glumly at their desks during hearings; the way they flee reporters seeking comment; the way they slag the White House off the record. It’ll be hard for them to vote to acquit if they can’t even come up with a non-ludicrous rationale. And yet when you get outside Washington it’s hard to imagine more than one or two G.O.P. senators voting to convict. In the first place, Democrats have not won widespread public support. Nancy Pelosi always said impeachment works only if there’s a bipartisan groundswell, and so far there is not. Trump’s job approval numbers have been largely unaffected by the impeachment inquiry. Support for impeachment breaks down on conventional pro-Trump/anti-Trump lines. Roughly 90 percent of Republican voters oppose it. Republican senators will never vote to convict in the face of that. August 23, 2018 Second, Democrats have not won over the most important voters — moderates in swing states. A New York Times/Siena College survey of voters in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin found that just 43 percent want to impeach and remove Trump from office, while 53 percent do not. Pushing impeachment makes Democrats vulnerable in precisely the states they cannot afford to lose in 2020. Third, there is little prospect these numbers will turn around, even after a series of high-profile hearings. I’ve been traveling pretty constantly since this impeachment thing got going. I’ve been to a bunch of blue states and a bunch of red states (including Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah). In coastal blue states, impeachment comes up in conversation all the time. In red states, it never comes up; ask people in red states if they’ve been talking about it with their friends, they shrug and reply no, not really. Prof. Paul Sracic of Youngstown State University in Ohio told Ken Stern from Vanity Fair that when he asked his class of 80 students if they’d heard any conversation about impeachment, only two said they had. When he asked if impeachment interested them, all 80 said it did not. Fourth, it’s a lot harder to do impeachment in an age of cynicism, exhaustion and distrust. During Watergate, voters trusted federal institutions and granted the impeachment process a measure of legitimacy. Today’s voters do not share that trust and will not regard an intra-Washington process as legitimate. Many Americans don’t care about impeachment because they take it as a given that this is the kind of corruption that politicians of all stripes have been doing all along. Many don’t care because it looks like the same partisan warfare that’s been going on forever, just with a different name. Fifth, it’s harder to do impeachment when politics is seen as an existential war for the future of the country. Many Republicans know Trump is guilty, but they can’t afford to hand power to Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. March 31, 2017 Progressives, let me ask you a question: If Trump-style Republicans were trying to impeach a President Biden, Warren or Sanders, and there was evidence of guilt, would you vote to convict? Answer honestly. I get that Democrats feel they have to proceed with impeachment to protect the Constitution and the rule of law. But there is little chance they will come close to ousting the president. So I hope they set a Thanksgiving deadline. Play the impeachment card through November, have the House vote and then move on to other things. The Senate can quickly dispose of the matter and Democratic candidates can make their best pitches for denying Trump re-election. Elizabeth Bruenig of The Washington Post put her finger on something important in a recent essay on Trump’s evangelical voters: the assumption of decline. Many Trump voters take it as a matter of course that for the rest of their lives things are going to get worse for them — economically, spiritually, politically and culturally. They are not the only voters who think this way. Many young voters in their OK Boomer T-shirts feel exactly the same, except about climate change, employment prospects and debt. This sense of elite negligence in the face of national decline is the core issue right now. Impeachment is a distraction from that. As quickly as possible, it’s time to move on. (David Brooks, NYTimes) Friday November 1, 2019 November 8, 2019 by Graeme MacKay Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 1, 2019 Can Doug Ford learn from his mistakes? Ontario Premier Doug Ford has ended the longest legislative break in a quarter century and his own political exile. He admits his government has made mistakes and vows to find a new “tone” going forward. May 29, 2019 “Governing is always hard,” says Ford. “We all mature in the role that we’re in and you just try not to make the same mistakes.” Far be it for this page to disagree with Ford on any of that. Or his stated desire to “learn by your mistakes.” His government has been a disaster, and the way Ontario voters cast their ballots in last week’s federal election strongly suggests they also know it. But putting the wrecking ball that has been the hallmark of the Ford government’s first 16 months down to exuberance is far too simplistic. The early autism cuts and cronyism scandal, for example, were mistakes. But much of the chaos in everything from education to social services is not the result of haste or blundering. It flows from purposeful policy decisions to cut costs. October 29, 2019 So as Ford seeks to reset his government the real question is what exactly he thinks are his “mistakes.” That his policies proved to be more unpopular with the people of Ontario than expected, or that they were the wrong direction in the first place? If it’s the former, Ontarians can expect to see a slower pace of change with more effort put into finding support for the government’s cuts. If it’s the latter, and we hope it is, it might mean more than that. Monday’s Question Period, though, didn’t bode well for the idea that the new and improved Ford government is about substance and not just style. Ford welcomed back NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and thanked her for her questions. Then he launched into the same half-truths he’s always peddled. On education, Ford said, the government is investing “more money than any government in the history of Ontario.” But per student funding — the primary means of funding schools — is down; some high school students are struggling to get the classes they need for university; and teachers’ unions, furious about job reductions, are set to take strike votes. May 14, 2019 On Ford’s appalling taxpayer-funded court battle over the federal carbon pricing plan, he continued to claim people “just can’t afford it.” He ignored, as usual, the fact that most people will get back more than they pay because of the rebates that come with it. It’s obvious that Ford needs to reset his government’s agenda. At this point, no one, not even his own Progressive Conservative colleagues, can possibly know even what it is, given all the U-turns and waffles over the last few months. Ford happily blew up Toronto city council mid-election, supposedly to create better and more efficient municipal government and vowed to extend such thinking to other regions. Then, on Friday, after months of consultation and study the government abandoned that idea; instead, it offered municipalities more money to find efficiencies and improve services. May 4, 2019 The province has finally moved to enact legislation passed by the former Liberal government to ban the promotion of vaping products in convenience stores but hasn’t done the same thing on labour reforms needed to protect temporary workers. It has reduced its deep cuts to child care, but not for legal aid. On carbon pricing Ford changed his mind two months ago, only to change it back again last week. How is anyone to know what this government stands for now? At the top of the Ford government’s list of legislative priorities is “restoring trust and accountability in government.” After promising efficiencies but delivering devastating cuts that will be a long road. And if Ford really wants to avoid repeating his mistakes, this legislative session needs to be about more than softer words. (Toronto Star) Wednesday October 31, 2019 November 7, 2019 by Graeme MacKay Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 31, 2019 Scheer faces more criticism as Conservative caucus reminded of new rules that could trigger a leadership review On a day when three prominent conservatives publicly criticized Andrew Scheer’s leadership, a note went out to the Conservative caucus reminding them of new parliamentary rules that could allow a leadership review to be held as early as next week. Peter MacKay, one of the co-founders of the modern Conservative party, told a Washington audience Wednesday that in the face of Justin Trudeau’s stumbles, the Conservative leader’s failure to win the Oct. 21 election was “like having a breakaway on an open net” and missing the chance to put the puck in. Appearing on a panel at the Wilson Centre’s Canada Institute, MacKay — who up to now has said he supports Scheer — nevertheless took his own shots at the Conservative leader and the campaign he ran. “People didn’t want to talk about women’s reproductive rights, or revisiting same-sex marriage,” said MacKay, but it was “thrust onto the agenda” and “hung around Andrew Scheer’s neck like a stinking albatross, quite frankly, and he wasn’t able to deftly deal with those issues when the opportunities arose.” MacKay said it “created a nervousness” among women who might have considered voting Conservative. October 16, 2019 But MacKay, who left politics in 2015, may not be as big an immediate threat to Scheer as those sitting inside Scheer’s Conservative caucus. Le Devoir has reported Quebec Conservative senators Jean-Guy Dagenais, and Josée Verner, a former Conservative cabinet minister who sits in the Senate as an independent, are publicly calling for Scheer to step aside. Dagenais told the paper that Scheer’s social conservative beliefs hurt the party in Quebec, and suggested it might be better for Scheer to bow out. Verner said it was time for the party to “change the recipe.” As the political pressure continued to build Wednesday, the Conservative caucus was reminded of new parliamentary rules that could conceivably enable a vote on Scheer’s leadership as early as next week. In an email sent to all MPs and obtained by the Star on Wednesday, Conservative MP Michael Chong reminded his parliamentary colleagues of the “legal obligations” of each caucus to vote at its first meeting on a number of questions of protocol, including what powers it has for ousting its leader. The first Conservative caucus meeting will be held Nov. 6 in Ottawa. Chong spearheaded parliamentary reforms in 2015 that allow every caucus to, among other things, empower itself to oust the party leader. If Conservatives decide to do so, a leadership review could be triggered if 20 per cent of all Conservative MPs and senators call for it. In other words, should the caucus choose to adopt the new rules and then 30 members vote for a leadership review, a secret ballot vote would be held on whether Scheer can continue as leader. (Toronto Star) Tuesday October 29, 2019 November 6, 2019 by Graeme MacKay October 29, 2019 Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 29, 2019 November 20, 2018 Ontario needs to “step up” and help heal a country fractured after a federal election campaign, Premier Doug Ford says. “I’ve never seen the country this divided,” Ford said in a one-on-one interview Thursday with the Toronto Sun. “I think it’s time that Ontario steps up and unites this country. We’re so much stronger when we’re united.” Ford said he gets along well with several other premiers, including those in Alberta and Quebec, and strongly believes that the provinces should be competing against the world, not each other. Ontario does well in a strong Canada, and Canada does well with a strong Ontario, he said. “I understand their concerns out west; they’re putting $20 billion into the federal government’s pockets and they’re frustrated,” he said. “(Albertans are) upset; they’re really upset, actually.” March 24, 2009 The same is true for folks he spoke to in Saskatchewan, he Ford. One of the issues dividing some provinces and the federal government is carbon taxes. The federal government’s lead voice in favour of carbon taxes, Liberal MP Catherine McKenna, found the windows of her constituency office spray-painted with a vulgar, sexist message Thursday. Ford said he continues to oppose carbon taxes, believes that they put the province at an international economic disadvantage, but called for political points of views to be expressed peacefully. “That’s totally unacceptable what they spray-painted,” he said. “I don’t care what political stripe you are.” His own constituency office was occupied by protesters recently, terrifying his staff, he said. February 1, 2018 Ford and his government head back to the legislature Monday for the first time since June. Many have suggested that Ford was keeping out of the public eye for fear of hurting Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s chances of winning Monday’s federal election. Ford said he told Scheer at the start of the campaign that he hoped the Conservative leader won but he was staying out of it, focusing on pressing provincial matters. Asked if he minded that his name kept popping up in the campaign — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeatedly told Canadians they could expect Ford-like cuts from Scheer — the premier said it didn’t bother him. However, in a phone call with Trudeau the day after the election, he touched on the topic, Ford said. “I told the prime minister that ‘enough of the politicking now, people expect us to work together and make sure that we build on infrastructure and other areas,’” Ford said. (Toronto Sun) https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ontario-will-champion-a-united-canada-premier-doug-ford Friday October 25, 2019 November 1, 2019 by Graeme MacKay Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 25, 2019 Wexit and Brexit Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party was re-elected Monday night and that has some Alberta residents calling for separation. October 23, 2019 The Liberals were elected as a minority government but did not win a single seat in Alberta or Saskatchewan and lost the popular vote 34 to 33 per cent to the Conservative Party. Alberta proved once again to be a Conservative stronghold with all but one of the province’s ridings going blue — NDP candidate Heather McPherson won in Edmonton-Strathcona — and the party capturing 70 per cent of the vote. As it became evident on Monday evening the Liberals would be re-elected, #Wexit and “separation” began trending on Twitter. Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said he expects Alberta’s separation movement to heat up. May 3, 2019 “You have this large cohort of Conservative MPs. How does the government function? How does the Trudeau government function? What is (Alberta Premier Jason) Kenney’s response?” Bratt said. “I think this is a real danger to national unity.” On Oct. 20, the Facebook group VoteWexit.com had just over 2,000 members. By Tuesday evening, the group’s membership had skyrocketed to more than 165,000 members. According to Storyful, the group’s membership grew over 8,000 per cent in a 36-hour period. The group is calling for the separation of western Canada from the rest of the country. “We’re going to be free from the blood-sucking, parasitic relationship we have with eastern Canada right now,” Wexit Alberta founder Peter Downing said. (Global News) Meanwhile, Under normal circumstances, Boris Johnson would be celebrating. But nothing is normal in Brexit Britain. July 24, 2019 Despite not having a parliamentary majority, his brand new legislative agenda has just been approved by the House of Commons. Instead of popping open the champagne and getting ready to crack on with governing, Johnson is gearing up for an early general election. On Thursday afternoon, the Prime Minister said that he would give lawmakers more time to scrutinize his Brexit deal, but only if they agreed to an election on December 12. “If they genuinely want more time to study this excellent deal they can have it — but they have to agree to a general election on December 12,” he said in an interview with the BBC. A formal motion requesting the vote will be placed before Parliament on Monday. It will be Johnson’s third request for an election, and it stands considerably more chance of being granted than the previous two. Much has happened in Brexitland of late. Having failed to get his deal approved by Parliament on Saturday, Johnson was forced to ask the EU for an extension to the Brexit process beyond October 31, to avoid the UK leaving without a formal deal. (CNN) Click on dates to expand This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. 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twitter facebook Visit Homepage Who? April 12, 2018 JennyTrout Posted in Uncategorized March went out like a failure: You’d think that someone who researched the setting of their book and worked for Cirque would have known that. We begin this chapter still in Lani’s omniscient 1/3 POV. That’s what I’m calling it. 1/3. Because it’s first and third but only makes 1/3 a cup of sense. As does the realism of the medical nonsense: After some paperwork and arranging for medical supplies, an ambulance from the hopsital to the airport, and then a ride on a private jet around dawn, the three of us (though I was still unconscious) arrived in Woodbury. In the hours between the end of the show and dawn the next day, a man with no proof of paternity has been able to remove his still-hemorrhaging adult daughter from a hospital against medical advice, secure a transport willing to help him, and convert a private jet into an air ambulance. My mom had brought her SUV to meet us at the airport, which is actually just one runway and a tiny office, She decided that the fewer people involved in getting me to her house, in the state I was in, the better. Oh my god. They just propped her up in the SUV, bleeding. Imagine if they got pulled over and they had to Weekend At Bernie’s her with blood flying everywhere. Zump describes her mom for us, stating that she’s not a soccer mom despite her SUV. Just in case previous descriptions of her mother, the weird-ass tarot reading, spell casting town outcast, conjured the perfect picture of suburbia. They get Lunk put safely away in her room, where she will be ignored for pretty much the entire chapter. Mac looked around at the photos, which were mainly of my mom and me. She looked almost the same in every photo, she barely aged; it was how old I was in each framed picture that gave you any real insight as to how long ago the photo had been taken. I can’t believe I’m sporking two books in a row where we don’t know if the main character is immortal or not. That should be an answered question in literally any book that refers to non-magical humans as “mortals.” After Mom had taken as much care of me as possible, she returned to the guys and wasted no time getting to what she wanted to know. After all, there was no time really for preliminaries, anyway. Please keep that passage in mind. “That I’m her father? He does.” Amid the memories I dug out, I got the feeling that Charles always had a knack for knowing what Dela meant, even though she was the one who could actually read minds. He was pretty sure he knew what she was referrring to when she asked that “he knows?” question, even though there were several other things she could have been talking about. “Editors Note: How does Charles know what she means? She could be asking if Mac knew about magic. Can Charles read minds like Dela can? Need specifics here.” I 100% guarantee that is how we got that paragraph. Charles is apparently only ever nervous around Dela: The thoughts I found in his memories were jumbled, but that anxiety seemed to stem from everything: from how magical and powerful she was, to how madly in love with her he still was, to my condition, and even to just the bold presence my mother possesses. So, Charles is still in love with Dela. So you can be sure that this will be slowly teased out over several chapters with meaningful romantic tension and a satisfying conclusion. Dela says something about Charles finally admitting that Lint is his daughter, and he’s like, well, that’s your fault. This is something Dela would have normally gotten angry about, but she doesn’t. Maybe she realized, as he was standing there––and just seeing how upset he was and how much he cared about me––all the things she robbed us both of by not letting us spend time together. She was aware how hard it was for me to go through childhood without a father and now maybe she was finally seeing that it hadn’t been easy on him, either. As the child of a single mother who blamed her mom for that every day, I recognize how this got in here. I’m sure it was even cathartic to write, in a wish-fulfillment sense. But it’s bullshit. Dela is majihk, sure, but she’s still just a small town psychic. She doesn’t have the money to fight a famous millionaire’s neverending supply of legal representation in a custody battle that could eke out over eighteen years. Charles is a fucking deadbeat. If he wanted to see his daughter, he could have lawyered up and he didn’t. For one small moment, they gazed into each other’s eyes before quickly turning away. Oh, look! There’s that romantic tension I told you about. Get ready for the slow burn! Mac goes in to sit with Zart. So, you’d think this would be the scene where we see Mac come to terms with his feelings for her, and maybe she’ll see all the love he feels for her when she pulls those memories. There you go with your expectations again. Of course, there’s no developing of the romance between Largo and her love interest. Oh no. No, no. She’s far more interested in the scorching erotic heat between her…parents. As she gazed at him, she coudln’t help but notice how handsome he still was regardless of the fact that he was almost twenty years older than he had been the last time she had seen him in person. He had some gray hairs now and a few wrinkles on his face but underneath that was the handsome boy she had met so long ago. His eyes still twinkled despite his current pain and sadness. Is it just me, or is it weird that Linda has mentioned Charles’s twinkling eyes in every scene he’s in and now it’s one of the things her mom finds attractive about him? I’m starting to think this book is all about how Lugnut wants to fuck her dad. Charles tells Dela that basically, she’s the only person who could possibly save Zink: “Hopefully I can. She’s pretty far gone right now, but she seems to be hanging on. That’s a good sign.” My mother tried to sound as hopeful as she possible. It had been a long almost-twenty-four hours for everyone. First of all, Dela, if your daughter is “pretty far gone” and there isn’t “any time for preliminaries,” what is happening with you standing there making conversation with your ex? This is not how you build a sense of urgency. A sense of urgency would have had Dela’s SUV screeching onto the tarmac, her jumping out and throwing the keys at someone, hopping in back with her daughter and starting her magic work right god damn now. At the very least, they should have rushed her into the house and started the ritual immediately. We would have understood that this is serious and Zib’s life is in danger. What the author has forgotten here is that just because the character survives to narrate the story to us, that doesn’t mean the characters within the story know that’s what’s going to happen. Their disregard for any sense of urgency while continually describing the urgency of the situation is classic tell vs. show, and makes it seem like they really don’t care if the main character lives or dies. Like the rest of us. It’s nice to have a time stamp, too. It’s been “almost” twenty-four hours. How long did it take the jet to fly to Tennessee? I’m going to guesstimate this one. To give them the maximum time I can possibly allow for their air ambulance shenanigans, I generously put her accident at 9:00 PM, despite the fact that the show would have really gotten out much later. Then they flew out at dawn. Again, for maximum generosity for the paperwork and ambulance and outfitting the plane, let’s say sunrise was at 8:00 AM. Commercial flights from Las Vegas to Nashville (the closest actual existing airport to Woodbury, where the fictional airport is) seem to be about three hours total time in the air, but a private jet is going to be faster because, well, jets just are faster. Now it’s been almost twenty-four hours. We can only account for about nine hours, total, less than that if we use more realistic estimates for sunrise and show times (and that nine hours had to include imaging, treatment, and probably exploratory surgery to look for the bleed, also incredibly unrealistic). If everything is so urgent…what happened during the other twelve or thirteen hours? But that’s not important. What’s important is that Charles called Dela “Dely,” a nickname he gave her because apparently “Dela” isn’t short enough. And when a new name is introduced, you know what happens: It sounds like “Deli,” as in sandwiches, which I guess Charles would claim was a joke about his two favorite things: my mother and submarine sandwiches. Not Sofia? His long-time, live-in girlfriend and former star of his show? She doesn’t rate above sandwiches? Also, thanks, Lani Sarem, for assuming that your readers are so intellectually beneath you that you need to explain what a fucking deli is. At least I know it’s not a proper noun. Charles and Sandwich have a conversation about how fantastic Lani––sorry, Zade––is, with her fiery, headstrong temper and traffic-stopping beauty, and the conversation is…creepy. “She’s as beautiful as her mother, as well.” Charles couldn’t help but say things like that to my mother. “No, Charlie.” It was a soft no, cushioned by a past filled with affection. GASP! She called him Charlie! Sofia the evil skank isn’t allowed to do that even during intercourse! THIS IS TRUE LOVE. Charles responded quickly. “But, Dely, our daughter has become a beautiful young woman.” But that isn’t what Sandwich is talking about. She tells Charles to stop trying to charm her: “[…] It’s not going to work this time, Charlie.” This scene has John and Marcia Syndrome. The characters constantly say each other’s names, a la the credits sequence from The Parent Trap. If you’ve never seen it, here’s a link to when “John…Marcia” starts. Please also take a moment to appreciate that this is kind of a racy movie for its time. A kid’s movie about divorce in 1961? The implication that the dad is boning a lady on weekend camping trips? But at least the kids in that movie didn’t spontaneously hemorrhage to get their parents back together. Anyway, back to the John and Marcia Syndrome. Writing Tip: The next time you have a conversation with someone, keep track of how often you say each others’ names. Does it sound like this: John: “Hey, Marcia, did you pick up the dry cleaning?” Marcia: “No, I didn’t. They were closed.” John: “Crap. I needed my shirt for Friday. Do you think you can swing by when you get off work?” John: “Hey, Marcia, did you pick up the dry cleaning?” Marcia: “No, John, I didn’t. They were closed.” John: “Crap. I needed my shirt for Friday, Marcia. Do you think you can swing by when you get off work?” There are two people in this conversation. There’s no reason for them to repeatedly establish who is being addressed. My mother is very strong willed and when she says no to something it takes quite a lot to get her to change her mind, if she will change her mind at all. So, Sandwich is not going to get back together with Spavid Chopperfield and that is settled. Settled. “I still love you, Dela.” He had been in the same room with my mom for no more than an hour and Charles was already confessing that he was still in love with her. Uh, yeah. We know. We can read it right there. But again, thanks for assuming we’re all so much dumber than you, Lani. Also, he’s been there for less than an hour? So…twenty-four hours? Are we sticking to that? Because it doesn’t even sound like twelve. So, there’s this other weird thing that happens throughout this section that is, shocker, completely inconsistent with the formatting in the rest of the book. For some reason, even though this is being told from Lancet’s POV, random chunks are italicized: I had seen it when I was growing up, too. She had always been a head turner for sure and beyond that you couldn’t deny she was just one of those woman that men just can’t can’t resist falling for. Beyond the physical she turns their souls, too, I guess. This passage isn’t any different from the bit about her mother being very strong-willed above. It’s not a thought, it’s a part of the narrative. There’s no reason at all for this to be italicized. It happens a few times in the chapter. So, anyway, Sandwich gets upset and goes into the kitchen to cry on the floor, and we get more of Sarem thinking we’re a hundred I.Q. points below her: The moment the swinging door had completely stopped swishing back and forth, my mom became completely overwhelmed and melted into the floor. She stood leaning against the wall for a moment before sliding down to the floor and beginning to cry. “See, when I say melting into the floor, I don’t mean literally. What I’m saying is that she slid down the wall to sit on the floor. I know you wouldn’t get that, so I explained it to you because I think you have the intelligence of a bucket of nails.” The wave of feelings rushed over her like the wave of an ocean would: strong, fierce, and completely engulfing. “I know that you’ve probably never heard of waves before. It’s a thing water does, especially if you’re doing chaos majjjjjik in a Vegas show, which I know all about because I’m an Actual Vegas Performer. Waves happen in the ocean a lot. The ocean is a very large body of water. You know what water is, right?” Charles comes in and sees Sandwich on the floor and comforts her with an embrace: Time means nothing to those who share such a strong bond, it was remarkable to me to see––even through the window of memories––how they actually were in person, and the love that instantly flowed between the two of them despite how long they had been apart. The strong bond that made him abandon his child without a fight and made her forbid that child from ever seeing him, anyway? There better be a real good god damn explanation about why that was necessary. Amongst the tears, in almost a whisper, she returned his hug and softly stated, “I love you, too.” When I was very small, one of my favorite things to do was take my Strawberry Shortcake figures and line them up in rows on the desk in my bedroom. I could do it for hours. But the desk was a little wobbly and positioned right in front of the window, and we had a big dog that liked to jump up and peek in. So, I would have just gotten all of the figures set up in their rows and invariably the dog would pick that moment to jump up and startle me. My knees would hit the underside of the wobbly desk and all the little figures would fall down. Charles and Dela’s entire romantic conflict being resolved a couple pages after it was first introduced is the literary equivalent of lining up your Strawberry Shortcakes and immediately knocking them over by accident. Charles had his own irresistible charm and they both had an undeniable draw to each other. These are your parents. Mac returns and asks them to explain what’s going on with Zark. He asks Dela what she can do that a doctor can’t. “More than you’re capable of imagining, young man.” Her eyes glimmered and a small smile crept out upon her lips. Your daughter is dying, but sure. Draw out the suspense with your cryptic nonsense. So, as Sandwich has insisted over and over, time is of the essence if they’re going to save Leda’s life. “Perhaps I should start by explaining to you exactly how Charles and I met. It will have to be the quick version for now as we have a lot to do here.” Alternately, you could just say, “I know how to do majgikh,” and then, you know. Save your daughter’s life. I guess I’m cool either way. Now, let’s get ready for INSTANT REPLAY, the game where nobody noticed that characters repeat their actions! Dela smiled and offered Mac one of the chairs at the dining set in the kitchen. Mac looked around for a second and then cautiously sat down, […] And then, in the very next paragraph: He pulled out a chair from the table in the kitchen and slid slowly into the seat before scoothing the chair really close to the table, his eyes focused on Dela. And I’m not entirely sure why she thought she had to specify that Mac is sitting in a chair in the kitchen. The scene is taking place in the kitchen. The setting has been established four times already. If she’d just written, “Mac sat,” the reader isn’t going to assume he’s sitting in the living room or the tire store down the street. That would have been where I would have sat, had I been concious, which somehow made me sad. Again, needless italics. If this were an interior thought, it should have looked like: That would have been where I would have sat, had I been conscious. Somehow, that made me sad. The quality of the writing and formatting is declining with each new chapter, which to me signifies that at this point, Sarem got tired of revising or her editors got tired of making suggestions they knew she was going to ignore and just started sticking, “LOVE THIS :D” in randomly to get their paycheck. “Charles and I were both part of a touring show in the ’70s. I was barely eighteen, and Charlie was almost twenty-one. He was working as a magician, and he was so arrogant; I couldn’t stand him.” Again, Sandwich Jr. is dying and time is of the essence. My mother babbled a little, thinking about when Charles was young. The thought of how handsom he had been back then made her crack a smile, until he interrupted. Did I mention that her daughter is dying? And now Sandwich is thinking about how hot the ex she cut her child off from is? “And she was just a silly card reader,” Charles interjected. He grinned devilishly, knowing how much Dela would bristle at those words. They apparently still knew how to get under each other’s skin. I just…you guys. This woman denied this man the right to see his own child, and he apparently didn’t care enough to do anything about it. They can still get under each other’s skin? They should loathe each other. You don’t do shit like that unless there are real, very serious problems. They shouldn’t be acting like old friends. None of this makes sense. The chapter ends with Sandwich saying: “Anyway…as I was saying…” which sets us up for the next chapter, in which Sarem writes out her parents’ love story in flashback to force the title of the chapter to fit the theme. Did you enjoy this post? Trout Nation content is always free, but you can help keep things going by making a small donation via Ko-fi! Or, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Here for the first time because you’re in quarantine and someone on Reddit recommended my Fifty Shades of Grey recaps? Welcome! Consider checking out my own take on the Billionaire BDSM genre, The Boss. Find it on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, iBooks, and Radish! Previous Post True Blood Tuesday S06E01, “Who Are You, Really?” JennyTrout View more posts This book is hot garbage but these recaps give me life. April 12, 2018 \|Reply River ^ Yes, this is so true! Slash all the idiotic stuff Lani gets up to that Jenny shares with us. April 12, 2018 \|Reply River Holy. Mother. Of. Pearl. And am I really the first commenter? April 12, 2018 \|Reply For half a second I thought that Zoid had relinquished center stage and allowed another woman to be beautiful and desirable and “strong” in the “everybody loves Zadey” world of Handbook for Cash Grab…but then I realized that Deli Lunchmeat is also Lani. That’s why she can dump Zee off-screen and have nobody care what’s happening to her. Lani’s inhabited another body…like one of those body-snatching parasites. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove Yeah. They’re identical mother and daughter so it’s really just Thing 1 and Thing 2 before the Cat in the Hat puts them back. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Keeyum And we get to see where Zahn gets her narcissism. Dela’s daughter is literally dying but that’s not as important as the new romantic subplot. I bet Lani was planning on playing this role herself as well October 18, 2021 \|Reply Don’t forget, Dela in this flashback is, “barely eighteen.” So a 36 year old woman is going to be playing a teenager who just became a legal adult. Watch, the next flashback will have a six year old Zade, and Lani will play her as well. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Lani is Bottom the Weaver! speak in a monstrous little voice. ‘Thisne, QUINCE No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby. Well, proceed. QUINCE QUINCE QUINCE Snug, the joiner; you, the lion’s part: and, I hope, here is a play fitted. be, give it me, for I am slow of study. QUINCE You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will do any man’s heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I will make the duke say ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again.’ QUINCE An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that were enough to hang us all. That would hang us, every mother’s son. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any April 13, 2018 \|Reply She is all women, everywhere, we’re all in her…except evil sluts like Sofy, or poor teenage girls with serious face lacerations from flying shards of glass. April 13, 2018 \|Reply I am continually baffled at how much absolutely nothing has happened in this book. Somehow months and months have passed and yet like 2 things of note have happened and nothing came of one of them. … maybe both really, since this whole incident just seems like a pointless run around to introduce this weird parent trap thing. Why isn’t at least Mac like “hey guys wtf stop making goo goo eyes at each other – which is confusing by the way – and save your daughter whom I totally care about lots”? April 12, 2018 \|Reply “I am continually baffled at how much absolutely nothing has happened in this book.” Well, think of the positive: when it comes to plot, you can’t say Lani isn’t consistent! Everything else, yes, completely inconsistent. But when it comes to an plot with actual conflict with the protagonist, there is none!!!! (Lambo Girl doesn’t count, she wasn’t in the story long enough to matter, nor was there any stakes resolved or lost after their conflict.) April 12, 2018 \|Reply That’s why the summary on the book cover basically spoils the entire thing: because nothing bloody happens. Everything that happens between Zade coming to Vegas and getting hurt is just her going on dates. That’s fucking boring. When you have a book that’s about magic, you expect fucking magic, not 350 pages of some child who cannot decide whom she wants to fuck. So the person writing the summary was probably like, “okay, how do I describe this book? Zade, a young witch goes to vegas and… has lots of dates… and more dates…. and buys a dress…. meets carrot top…. and then….! Chaos magick! Huzzah! Summary done.” April 12, 2018 \|Reply I hadn’t read the summary, so your comment prompted me to look it up. It contains this gem of a line: “… her overprotective mother Dela, the local resident spellcaster and fortuneteller.” The summary is as bad as the book. I wonder how many editors looked at it? April 12, 2018 \|Reply Also, she doesn’t know what “infamous” means. Or is Charles murdering people on the side? April 12, 2018 \|Reply April 12, 2018 Good point. What makes Charles so infamous? His drug past? A past that’s never mentioned or hinted at until Lani needed an excuse why Charles wasn’t in Zade’s life? His tendency to fuck ’em and leave ’em attitude towards women? Nah, only women are slut shamed in this book. His…. That’s actually it. There’s nothing else I know about this loser. April 12, 2018 Infamous for abandoning his kids and sleeping with employees, or…[googles David Copperfield scandals] allegedly causing audience members head trauma? April 14, 2018 It says “infamous”. That means “BETTER than famous”. Think of it, we’re being asked to do a personal appearance with probably the biggest star to come out of Mexico! Or where ever Darvles Copplemanfield is from. April 24, 2018 Dove Everything that happens between Zade coming to Vegas and getting hurt is just her going on dates. That’s fucking boring. It could’ve been exciting if we saw her going on dates but we never truly saw that either. I don’t know if you can count her bike ride in the rain, Jackson’s band night, or the dinner and Chekov’s Movie Tickets as true dates since we never get a proper sense of a relationship with either guy at any point. There’s just no chemistry there and it doesn’t lead to anything of any real importance, even the kiss doesn’t lead to her admitting that she’s dating Mac. The only incident that even matters were the tickets setting us up for the faux reveal that makes Mac angry. If Zani hadn’t gone through any of those incidents, nothing would really change. This story would’ve turned out the same if Mac were in the friend-zone, desperately hoping for more, but too shy to say anything. Hell, it would’ve been the same if she was a dog that people kept sneaking into public places. The lead-up to the accident could’ve been Charles putting a collar on her and getting slurped on the face, with Mac thinking that his boss was finally adopting the dog that he considered his companion, and then finding out later that Charles put Mac’s contact number on the tag, he just wanted to give her a parting gift because he felt bad about Sofia’s dog allergies. The discussion in Spellman’s office could’ve been because Charles was gonna have to send her back to Dela the breeder if Mac didn’t step up, now that Jackson was backing down, and he really wanted to keep psychic poochie in the act. It’s disconcerting how easily I can turn her into a dog that doesn’t talk. It also explains her sudden aggression moments as bad training and her being a handful. Er, but I digress. Honestly, everything leading up to the bloodbath could’ve been good if 1) Zani had made some fucking friends (besides Tad LOL) and gave a shit about anyone else, 2) if she had some emotions besides absolute pride and little flickers of lip service doubt, and 3) if she had an actual love life instead of daddy issues the poorly written farce. Even if the blurb is poorly written, it’s better than the novel because it implies something good might happen in a short amount of time, without jerking us around as much. April 12, 2018 \|Reply I would pay American dollars to read your magic dog story. April 12, 2018 \|Reply This chapter is the literary (and I mean that word VERY loosely) equivalent of the “Time is Of the Essence” song from Galavant, except, you know, without self-awareness or self-deprecation. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove Oh! That reminds me, I need to watch more Galavant. I’ve only seen season one but it was excellent. XD April 12, 2018 \|Reply Eeeee, Season 2 is great! This song is from Season 2 Episode 7 – I didn’t post it because spoilers ahoy, but that show was so fantastic. I hope the rumors are true they might make it into a live musical! April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove Ooooh. I normally don’t care about spoilers but I think this is one of the few times I’d rather forgo them. And that’d be awesome if they turned Galavant into a live musical! Although… I’m not sure how they’d condense it down enough. I’m sure it’s possible, but I don’t think it’d be easy? April 12, 2018 \|Reply that is the PERFECT comparison April 12, 2018 \|Reply I can feel it. The editors just giving up at this point. They’re probably as bored as I am. Aside from the way Zani Larem over explains everything, I got nothing. I don’t even have the energy to nitpick cause it’s so boring even though it’s supposed to be the climax April 12, 2018 \|Reply Pretty sure all the editors are dead from some kind of suicide pact after chapter 4… April 12, 2018 \|Reply She over-explains everything, yet explains nothing. What’s the antagonist’s goal? How is Charles David’s stage laid out? What are the magic system’s rules? How much time passes between scenes? Keep guessin’, ’cause Lani Sarem’s too busy gearing up for a 5-paragraph explanation of what a nickname is to tell you. January 15, 2019 \|Reply Ewww I had not seen that footage of Trumpie feeling up Ivanka before… April 12, 2018 \|Reply Trump is so gross. Between that and this book, I want brain bleach. Love the recap. April 12, 2018 \|Reply I think it’s stated or implied that Dela mindcontrolled Charles into never acknowledging Zanandoo as his kid as well as majjjjjikly preventing him from coming to see her/her leaving and seeing him. Which. Makes her th villain? April 12, 2018 \|Reply which makes Jenny’s point even stronger. She mind controlled someone, invaded the most private of private things about them without consent obviously. It’s very abusive thing to do and anyone subjected to it wouldn’t want anything to do with that person. Charles should loathe her even more for that. This book is such bs… April 12, 2018 \|Reply Yeah–I absolutely agree. If it was actually true that Dela enchanted Charles to not only keep a distance away from her and their child (but also made him ‘forget’ about ever coming to contact with Zade)…dude, that would be really despicable. I’m not the most family-oriented person, but even I would’ve been devastated if it turned out that I missed a huge chunk of my child’s life just because someone ‘magicked’ me into (physically, emotionally and psychologically) abandoning my kid. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Unless there was a legit reason to moonblink Chuckie to forget Zahd. For example if he would be a danger to her or vice versa as she was growing up. But if he was an asshat at the birth and Zod needed protection from him, then why would Hoagie even want to see him back in her life?!? Unless, of course, the minute Zizzle was born she had moonblinking powers and used them on her Dad as early as 4 weeks old, so Hoagie got him out of there to protect him. But that would be an interesting story and from the level of this writing I don’t think Lani could possibly have thought of it. . . . . April 12, 2018 \|Reply But a mindcontrol preventing him from acknowledging her wouldn’t make sense as he was able to tell Mac and the doctor about him being her father. April 13, 2018 \|Reply You know what would’ve created a lot more impact, tension, and suspense? If they’d showed up with Zamfir on the verge of death and bleeding out and whatever, and Deli, with a sense of great urgency, herded Charlie and Mac and the pilot and the girl on the bicycle and whoever else is here into her Magic Room or into the woods or into a circle of stones or whatever, and with Mac having no clue what’s going on, started invoking the Powers of Greyskull and calling out to Aslan and Galadrial and Yoda and whatever, and lightning started flashing and winds swirled and forest creatures gathered around and- Ta da! Zyrtec is magically healed, Mac is gobsmacked going “But- how? What?” and then Deli and Charlie can gaze at each other with all the leaves and birds still swirling round, and the force of their lurve would be evident as Za’atar sits up and rubs her eyes wonderingly. Then the clouds part, and the powah of loooooooove is everywhere and… as she was saying…. April 12, 2018 \|Reply That would only happen in an actual good book… never in this dreck. What you’ve written actually makes sense, so has no place in this disaster. April 12, 2018 \|Reply But wouldn’t you rather have nonsensical flirting between parents who should hate each other and pages of pointless, redundant exposition? What sort of tween fanfic would this be without that sort o– Wait, this a novel? Written by an adult woman? Then yes, your thing. That’s better. April 12, 2018 \|Reply This is a rlly srs injury. It calls for a Care Bear Stare. April 24, 2018 \|Reply “Imagine if they got pulled over and they had to Weekend At Bernie’s her with blood flying everywhere” OMG I just choked on my breakfast. Then I visualized blood shooting everywhere during the scenes from How I Met Your Mother where they Weekend at Bernie’s Neal Patrick Harris’ character, and I almost lost it. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Oh, did they depart Vegas at dawn or arrive in Donkey Juice at dawn? I was under the impression it was the latter, which means that for a 3 hour flight time from KLAS to KRNC (there is NO airport at Woodbury, the closest airfield to Centertown with a decent 5000 foot runway for a bizjet is Warren County Memorial about 5 miles to the southeast, vs. Woodbury about 10 miles to the northwest) and two hour time difference, landing at dawn at 05:30 AM Central Time would mean they’d have to be wheels up at KLAS at 00:30 AM Pacific Time at the latest. This is after getting the hospital release “paperwork” and air ambulance conversion completed, as well as prepping the plane (fuel) and rousing the pilots (ensuring proper rest) and mundane ‘paperwork’ like filing IFR flight plans and such while waiting for ATC clearance. Although as I mentioned before, the easiest way to convert the aircraft cabin to ‘air ambulance’ mode with a profusely hemorrhaging patient would be to put her into a body bag and just not zip it up during the flight. When she bleeds, it pools in the body bag, if she dies, they just have to zip it up. Otherwise you’re looking at anywhere from $50k to $100k to replace the upholstery and carpets in the bizjet and yanking off the floorboards to decontaminate the blood out of the fuselage floor and control cables. April 12, 2018 \|Reply I’m no head doctor House, but how does major blood loss react to cabin pressure? I assume that’s not a good thing. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Oxygen transport will degrade as altitude climbs and blood loss increases. (The cabin only decreases to an equivalent 5000 foot to 8000 foot altitude. Not a lot, but still lower) I’m assuming they’d be transfusing her for the entire trip, so that’d make up for the blood loss/lower cabin pressure. So if they’re transfusing, no big deal, if not, she may have O2 loss and possible degraded brain function by the time she arrived (much like the author. Saaaaayyyy! Maybe that explains things!!! ) April 12, 2018 \|Reply … so wait, wouldn’t a doctor still have to go with them to change out the blood bags? April 12, 2018 \|Reply Well, at least a flight nurse could do that. But that’s one more person Spunk-man has to get before they can take off, and these folks are so specialized they may be tough to find on-call at midnight if they’re not already on call for other medivac. So how does one get all these people on the plane (without going over maximum weight with all the people and fuel to get all the way to TN) in time to take off at midnight? April 12, 2018 April 13, 2018 \|Reply Silly goose! There are rules to majj-ecch!!! Oh, right, those were never explained. Hmm, well I guess the only other reason is because the writer wanted Chuckles to fly her to TN as there’s no other way to get Chuckles and Hoagie back together . . . Oh, wait, then again Chuckie could have just flown the jet to TN, picked up Cheesesteak, and flown here back to LAS. Would’ve been a lot easier to bring the majj-eccch gear to Vegas than bringing in a hemorrhaging patient to TN. Seeing as how the actual ritual didn’t take place for another 20 hours after they land at TN (3Am the morning AFTER they get there ) there’d be plenty of time to just shuttle CornedBeef to Vegas with all of her stuff without all the paperwork needed to transfer a critical patient cross-country. But what do I know? B April 14, 2018 \|Reply Dove All that aside, how big is her altar if it won’t fit on a private jet? Is this a huge fucking monolith that fell over at some point? I’m wondering if one of her ancestors got a delivery from Obélix, long long ago, sometime after Leif Erikson arrived. Her backyard must be infested with fairies whenever she forgets to mow the lawn. She probably had to mindwipe all the teenage boys who cut her grass for cheapskate dollars every summer. We know Zade wouldn’t be caught dead sweating while doing the chores and Dela is a barefoot saint. … I’m now much more interested in Donkey Juice Town, the Musical. Incidentally, I got curious and looked it up again on Blandbook because I was fuzzy on the actual description; it’s only vaguely described there but it’s also easy to forget, I’m sure. Anyway, there are fountains involved? I think maybe it’s a whole sanctuary shrine thing in Dela’s backyard, which probably looks pretty, if set-up right, but if LS was so desperate for a faux sacrifice scene, that could’ve been saved for the next book. Especially since a ritual sacrifice is weird as fuck for magically willing people back to life from a broken heart… er, I mean, the diabetus. … This entire novel functions better as a string of short stories. April 14, 2018 \|Reply it was explained during Zade’s audition that she could teleport out from a puddle of water, so what makes teleporting her out of a hospital any different? December 19, 2018 \|Reply Okay, so the hemorrhaging must have stopped somehow, right? Now she’s just randomly unconcious??? Or is she upstairs frothing blood from her mouth and dying from hypovolemic shock 12 hours ago while her parents sit around and reminisce? Like with everything in this book, a medical emergency could have been done so much better….. have her cough up blood and go unconscious, fine… don’t go on and on about how they can’t figure out where she is bleeding from and then ship her across country to her bedroom. I felt bad for Sophia before, and now I really feel bad for her. He’s so hung up on the ex, that he freaks out being called Charlie… he ignores her and doesn’t care when she falls and almost dies… cuts her out of the show cause rando chick shows up without explaining that it’s his daughter…. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Okay, so the hemorrhaging must have stopped somehow, right? Not said if it did or didn’t. Unknown if the ‘head doctor’ gave her Desmopressin or anti-fibrinolytics. Which, geez, I dunno, if someone is hemorrhaging profusely like that why not try hemophelia drugs? Oh, right, I’m not a ‘head doctor.’ . . . April 12, 2018 \|Reply Do we even learn where she is bleeding from? Internal organs that pool blood in the abdomen, open cuts that bleed out on the floor, oozing of blood from capillaries though the skin. They may not know what is causing the bleeding but they certain can tell what part of the body it is coming from. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Well, you’d think the Head Doctor would actually look for things like that, but nothing of the sort was described whatsoever. Hence the same Head Doctor wishing he could consult with the fictional “House” character . . . . But, hey, your guess is as good as mine, as the author never figured it out! April 12, 2018 \|Reply Okay, just making sure I didn’t miss something, LOL. Clearly the three minutes I put thinking about this was more than the author put into it. April 12, 2018 Dove I think her rectum exploded in a mass of blood and shit. Then it just kept bleeding and no one was willing to mention that part of her dainty anatomy. I wonder if the Head Doctor just shoved a tampon up her asshole and told the Head Nurse to change them every hour? They brought Head Nurse on the flight with them because bribery always works. ;D I buy that more easily than her heart seizing up and dumping phantasmic blood everywhere to show how she’d been cut to the quick by Mac’s lack of faith and responsibility! April 12, 2018 \|Reply But considering how much $#1+ Zsa Zsa is full of, even a wafer-thin tampon could cause all hell to break loose…. April 13, 2018 L Wait, what year are we in? How old is Zazzle? “Charles and I were both part of a touring show in the ’70s”….and then you had a kid when, 20 years later? I don’t understand this at all. If this book is taking place in present day or generously, I will say 2010, and generously I will also assume David Copperfield and Della Reese waited until 1980 to procreate (given their eye-banging, is this reasonable? Or perhaps they were friends or something for twenty years before this child tore their relationship apart?), that still makes Zade 30! Thirty??? Trapped in a small town until the age of 30? Starring in this LiveJournal post masquerading as a Young Adult novel at the age of 30?? I feel deranged. Can someone please tell me I am wrong about this? April 12, 2018 \|Reply I cannot tell you you are wrong. I am 24 which I am going to put as the upper limit of her age (she reads like me when I was maybe 15 though), so I was born in 1994. My parents did meet in 1985, and got married in ’90, had my sister in ’91 and then me 3 years later. My sister is turning 27 this year. So if it’s set in 2018, she would have have to have been born probably 20 years after her parents met? Or else, it has to be set I’m gonna say like 15 years ago so early 2000s? But that doesn’t fit with some of the brands she name drops? Although it would maybe explain the Carrot Top reference? April 12, 2018 \|Reply Piffle. Everyone knows after Chuck and Hoagie split up she used her Majjeeccchhhh to remove and freeze the embryo she’d suspended in stasis in her womb. That way she could have postponed the birth for another 10 years. Presto! Zitty is now 25!! April 12, 2018 \|Reply It’s a bizzare timeline. With the mention of touchphones, that implies Zade had to be born in at the 90’s or very late 80’s. Dela and Charles waited ten years to have Zade? That’s not an uncommon thing for couples, but nothing in in their relationship implies they’re the type of people who plan to have kids. Charles and Dela come off as the type of douchecanoes who would sabotage the other’s birth control to get what they want. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Zade and Jackson go to see Deadpool, so it’s definitely 2016. And she describes herself as “almost a quarter of a century old,” which means 23 or 24. So yeah, her parents were born in the late fifties. Meaning that Zade is born in the early 90s. Meaning that they apparently had a relationship for 20 years before having a kid. April 12, 2018 \|Reply I found what I think is a bio of her being a supposed model and it says Lani is 36 (not sure if that’s her current age or the age she was when the bio was written). So she seems to have forgotten to change the years of either the story or when Zippy was born. Self-insert alarm! April 12, 2018 \|Reply I think it’s an error, she meant to say that she and charles were part of a touring show in the 70s when she was 8 and he was 11… And they had to grow up for 20 years before they had a kid. April 12, 2018 \|Reply If Jackson and his band are based on the band that Lani Sarem managed, and Jackson and his band have not yet hit it big, then maybe this all takes place in the 90s. I’ve forgotten and don’t care to look up the name of the band Lani managed, but I am assuming that they may have been playing small clubs and bars (like the one Zade goes to in the book) in the 90s. So if the parents met in the 70s and had Zade in the mid-seventies, and Zade is now 21(?), then the book would be taking place in the mid-late nineties which coincides with when the band would have been playing bars. How old is the author right now. Because this is obviously a self-insert and Lani seems to be so lacking in creativity, that if she were writing about herself at the age of 21, she would OF COURSE have to have the story take place during the year she was ACTUALLY 21. She is so incredibly talentless that she would be entirely unable to extrapolate her 21 year old self and place her, as a character, in some other time period, such as the present. On the other hand, this book has things like texting and references the TV show House. Nothing makes any sense. I’m going with my theory that the book is set in the nineties bc that’s when real Lani was as young as character Zade, and bc real Lani’s parents probably met in the 70s. She took those facts from her own life and inserted them exactly as is into the book. Then she forgot that she had done that and put in a bunch of random references to the 2000s and beyond bc she’s just a sloppy, sloppy writer. April 12, 2018 \|Reply I still can’t get past the fact that all it takes is “some paperwork” to get a comatose adult, who has uncontrolled hemorrhaging caused by unknown reasons, released from the hospital without her consent. That is not how this works. Even if Chuck can whip out a birth certificate then and there showing he is her bio-dad, the Head Doctor (we know he’s a doctor because he’s wearing a white coat) isn’t just going to be like “Whelp, all-righty then, Sir. Just sign here, and here, and here, and then you can make this super medically unsound decision on her behalf.” There would be lawyers, adult protection, review boards. And even if they did finally agree they wouldn’t just be like “Ok, you’re on you’re own.” They’d want to make sure there was some sort of plan on the other end. The second they caught wind that the family just plans to load her up into an SUV and drive her home, the hospital would say “deal’s off folks.” This kind of ish doesn’t just happen after a few swipes of the pen. I’m not even a doctor and I understand that. Because liability. April 12, 2018 \|Reply If John Conner dies, the entire future is dead. If Luke dies, the entire universe is in jeopardy from the dark side of the Force. If Zade dies…. people would be sad. The End. For en epic fantasy, the stakes are not very high. Here’s the thing, I kinda understand what Lani was trying to go for. When you can’t do anything for a person in the other room, what else is there? Just sit and stare at the wall? People talk, people share things. I imagine sitting in the waiting room of a hospital, tired and worried, and the only thing I am capable of doing is getting cheap coffee from the vending machine or having a short conversation with the person besides me. But any tension this scene could have is constantly broken with descriptions of how beautiful and sexy Dela is, how much she’s in love with Charles. There’s literally more descriptions about Dela and Charles eye-fucking than there is of anything else. I just remember in the last chapter, Charles got an ephany and goes, “I think I know what’s wrong with her,” and it’s only then he decides to call Dela. Really dude? You rush your child to the hospital, wait an hour or so for a diagnosis and only THEN you decide to call the mother of your child, the person you apparently are so deeply in love with? I called my siblings faster than that when I realized I had to put down the family DOG. My dog gets more respect than the mother of your child. Good lord. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Except that they took her to TN specifically because her mother is supposed to have a ritual that will save her life. So it’s not a matter of “can’t do anything.” She just isn’t doing it. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove Yeah. The “Hurry Up and Wait” mentality absolutely doesn’t work. It’s a term I stole from the making of the Hobbit that Lindsay is currently doing (spoilers: with Nella), and it grinds everything to a halt here as much as it did in real life. You just can’t evoke tension this way… not good tension anyhow. Because you’re right, the fact they’re so fucking relaxed kills any sense of forced waiting too. It could be different if Dela and Charlie just wanna fuck to release some tension, but since their relationship was stalled for over 20 years they shouldn’t be able to pick up like they just dropped it. Maybe some hate sex would’ve worked? Then Mac could’ve morosely gone through some old photo albums or something and got the skinny after the oldies got all that lust out of their system? Maybe that wouldn’t work either but god damn it just… anything besides this would make more sense. Plus, it would be hilarious for Zippy to backpedal the hell away from a sex scene and we’d find out if she has control over what she watches when given access to stuff she doesn’t want. April 12, 2018 \|Reply The “hurry up and wait” is a term often used in the military. Especially during boot camp where cadets are constantly told to hurry their asses up…. and then stand in line. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Dove Ah, that makes sense! Sorry, I realize my original comment would imply I thought Lindsay came up with this phrase. It’s something one of the actors mentioned in an interview and I just didn’t know if it came from anywhere and I was too lazy to check beforehand. That origin is pretty amusing and fitting, I think. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Another good military term that works for this book is BOHICA. Bend Over, Here it Comes Again. April 16, 2018 When one googles “Lani Sarem Cirque du Soleil,” the only hit you get is this blog. Possibly one of her Tweets might come up. “Imagine if they got pulled over and they had to Weekend At Bernie’s her with blood flying everywhere.” Better story. If Dela can read minds, why did she have to ask that question? Maybe I’m misremembering, but doesn’t she say in the first chapter that she had an audition for the magic show? Would he have actually made her audition? Even if it was just for show and to cover up their relationship, she at least would have been aware of that. I feel like “Charles is Sade’s father” was an afterthought once she’d started writing. “… like they really don’t care if the main character lives or dies.” They would like to free themselves from this awful book. “Commercial flights from Las Vegas to Nashville (the closest actual existing airport to Woodbury, where the fictional airport is) seem to be about three hours total time …” With a direct commercial flight, you can get from Buffalo to Orlando in two hours. And like you said, his jet can probably go faster than that. It feels more and more like Lanis has forgotten that they were an item at all. That italicized section is her talking about when her mother was young. Are the rest similar? Does she confuse making statements about the past with an actual flashback? Never mind. I wasn’t finished reading yet. That theory’s out the window. There is absolutely no set-up to this great and undying love. We have no real attachment to Sandwich or really to Charlie. We’ve barely seen either of them. Why are we supposed to care? Just because it’s how Labor got made? April 12, 2018 \|Reply Maybe she worked on the merchandise stand for Cirque? April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove There is absolutely no set-up to this great and undying love. We have no real attachment to Sandwich or really to Charlie. We’ve barely seen either of them. Why are we supposed to care? Just because it’s how Labor got made? Pretty positive that’s why we get the dumb “fucking her dad” insinuations. Since Dela isn’t there to make-up with Charles in the other 20 goddamn chapters, Zani is a stand-in for her mother. Also, Lani Not-Sarem has a very solid theory that Jackson was created partly out of scenes stolen from Charles and retrofitted for the new love triangle character, which is why we haven’t seen more of Charles through-out the book. It’s lazy, stupid, and makes no sense, but I’m pretty sure that’s what LS went with. It gets her out of trying to imagine a father-daughter bond and all the pain involved with being abandoned (whether he was forced to stay away or not.) Considering LS could barely imply romance in any other chapter and the lust between her parents feels more real than the minimal BS she goes through for Mac and Jackson, it might be for the best, but a lot of us are pretty pissed off about her decision anyway. None of it works. April 12, 2018 \|Reply So what you’re saying is… the original script was definitely a hundred times more incesty? That’s…. I don’t even know what to say…. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove Yeah, in theory, the original script was hinging on the big reveal, that was the only source of any remote conflict after all, so it had to be more incestuous by default. It’s a little uncertain just how many scenes were borrowed from Charles and how many were crafted out of whole cloth for the novel (the most trope-heavy probably), but the editing was so obvious that Lani Not-Sarem was able to successfully cobble together the hilarious in-world theory that Jackson is just a Glamoured Charles. (The most obvious example off the top of my head is the camping trip, where all of Charlie’s scenes were given to Jackson, and how both Jackson and Charles are the only characters with constantly sparkling eyes… which could explain why she’s attracted to Jackson, but since she isn’t written with an attraction to anyone but daddy, well…) Er, but I’m pretty sure you’ve read the Blandbook for Chortles blog, so I’ll stop. XD April 12, 2018 \|Reply “If John Conner dies, the entire future is dead. If Luke dies, the entire universe is in jeopardy from the dark side of the Force. She’s completely passive throughout. Did I miss it, or was there no actual agency from her? Any at all? Is this a first where in this story the main character is neither a protagonist or even a pivotal character? I think I may have figured out where the story idea originated: From the Le Reve (Wynn Las Vegas) Wiki: “ the central theme includes a female lead who see-saws back and forth between her dueling desires for love and passion, mind or body, as she finds herself attracted to two men. Put into a dream world to help her decide between the two suitors, she embarks on a mystical journey. The show concludes with what the production calls “a graceful and inspirational scene.”” I’ve never seen Le Reve because I’m a Cirque fan (Ka was awesome!!!) but with Lani’s conflating Le Rreve with Cirque and claiming to be an ‘olympic’ performer on such a show, it makes total sense this is where she got the idea from. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove She’s completely passive throughout. Did I miss it, or was there no actual agency from her? Any at all? Nah, you’re correct. Zade has no agency whatsoever (with the possible exception of calling her father at the very beginning, but that isn’t confirmed so it’s not really proof other than logical circumstance. Since logic doesn’t work in this book, it’s absolutely no proof at all. Maybe Sofia found the number on his phone and called Zade, who asked to speak to Charles, and then she realized he was her dad via magical BS.) Anyway, Lara Croft from the first Tomb Raider movie had more agency and she was kitted out with mostly fan service. I think that’s what LS was hoping to do with her movie, reel in the guys with her hot toddies, and appeal to all the sinister misogynistic “Not Like Other Girls” tendencies that women get because being womanly is mocked and treated as less than IRL, even in the USA, especially teenage girl tendencies. So Zade was envisioned as some kind of sexy, strong independent woman paper doll first and a character second. Unfortunately, it backfires hugely when it’s depicted in a tame as the Virgin Mary first person POV novel. As hellish as the 1/3rd POV is, it proves better once we start seeing Dela and Charles in a more 3rd person way. Admittedly, some of that is just them WANTING each other, while Zade clearly didn’t want anyone, but it’s just awkward as fuck to write a smoldering sex symbol in the first person and have their only desire be fame and fortune without any lust. I think that’s one of the reasons that scene, where all the guys drooled over Zade, was in there. I’m sure it was in the movie too, that’s how she was originally written, but it stands out as even weirder in literature, especially since Zani clearly has no idea how to write about, well, anything but she’s really bad with descriptions and emotions. Btw, I’ve never seen La Reve either but I know someone else (maybe two people even) mentioned that as a probable inspiration for the stage illusions, so I agree with your assessment there. April 12, 2018 \|Reply I’ve never seen La Reve either, but it’s so disheartening that Lani, despite all her years of experience working with show like La Reve and Cirque, that her stage show in HFM includes…. a closet, a teenage boy, a statue, apples, and a guitar. No backflips, no death defying stunts, no awesome acrobats, dancing, or impressive physcial prowess. All Zade does is an elaborate disappearing act. I’ve seen high school plays that are much more awesome than that. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove All Zade does is an elaborate disappearing act. I’ve seen high school plays that are much more awesome than that. IMHO that’s the problem. LS really wanted to put on a solo stage play but she was determined to keep the magic show theme, even though she clearly changed her mind as soon as she started writing the book, and so she got caught by a catch-22. She can’t go all out with the display because it’s a FUCKING ILLUSION SHOW, not a theatrical event! But she didn’t want to do a ton of research and delve really deeply into stage magic, she wanted epic visuals that would be made with magicks and could maybe pass as illusions, so she picked this ugly shapeless hybrid that serves no one. ;P April 12, 2018 \|Reply I wonder if Lani only kept it like that because she physcially can’t do half of the stuff the cirque crew does. Lani is an athlete of olympian standards, but not every athlete is capable of doing the same physical requirements of every sport. As a result, all the illusion is is pretty lights and fancy handwaving. That’s assuming Lani wants to do her own stunts. April 12, 2018 Dove That’s assuming Lani wants to do her own stunts. I doubt she wants to work-up a sweat so she’d hire a stunt double. I think she chose the middle-ground because she was married to two completely different ideas and never bothered to compromise realistically. That’s how we got a bildungsroman with The Parent Trap ending. She has two completely different plots and is either not experienced enough or not concerned enough (possibly both) to make them work. So she half-assed it. Same for the romance minus any actual romance or lust and nothing but materialism and hero worship. I think LS liked the idea of Zatanna (and ostensibly might’ve worked for Copperfield at some point) but she never gave a damn about stage magic and then she saw La Reve and wanted her movie to be visually epic so she cribbed some of what she saw. And that’s it. I highly doubt her athletic skill was involved or she would’ve found some way to show off a little bit. But that’s just my theory. April 12, 2018 I am still hoping they do a remake of the Parent Trap and finally address the huge fucking elephant in the room: it was pretty fucked up for the parents to seperate their twins, keeping one over the other, and then pretending the other didn’t exist for nearly 15 years. April 13, 2018 I’ve seen high school gymnastics teams that were more impressive than that. And if you’re on your high school gymnastics team, it’s usually because you weren’t good enough for elite competition. April 13, 2018 \|Reply “She’s completely passive throughout. Did I miss it, or was there no actual agency from her? Any at all?” This is also the biggest problem with this Magykkhal Life-Saving Mac-ness… now she doesn’t even have to choose between the guys. The choice is made for her. ZERO agency. And I LOVE Dove’s idea that you could replace her with a dog, and the story wouldn’t change. That’s even better than the Sexy Lamp Test. April 12, 2018 \|Reply The story would change drastically, because dogs are VERY clear about who they like and don’t like. If you started talking to a dog about going shopping, just to soothe the dog after a fight broke out, the dog would glad to be included in the conversation–or in a conversation on string theory or the weather, for that matter. Particularly if you keep scratching the dog behind the ears during the conversation. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Dove The story would change drastically because dogs are VERY clear about who they like and don’t like. It’s not about who Poochie the Psychic Wonderdog likes; she likes everyone at the show, except maybe Sofia but I think Sofia has allergies which isn’t her fault. The issue they’re trying to decide is where the dog will live. Charles is struggling to find a way around Sofia’s problem but eventually has to give up. Jackson doesn’t have a backyard and isn’t responsible enough. In a better novel, Mac would actually be the best choice, but by default, he’s just the only one without excuses, other than he isn’t a dog person but she wins him over in the end. There’s no agency if you can safely change the entire plot to “Who takes care of the dog?” instead of “Who does the heroine fall in love with?” Yes, I’m changing it in various ways, but only to make the dog concept work and it’s better than the novel which is frankly sad. It shouldn’t be this easy to make a parallel universe where Zani is a performing dog who needs a new home. Technically, the dog would still have agency, it isn’t just about being able to communicate easily or the importance of that communication, but if you can replace the heroine or love interest with a pet, that’s a horrible sign for a romance plot. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could turn the heroine of Fifty Shades of Grey into a dog although she probably has more agency than Zani does. Hey, the heroine of the Shape of Water is mute and she has way more agency (plus she has sign language and has better dialog, I’m sure… I still need to see it but it’s a pretty safe bet. Also a fantastic actress.) April 13, 2018 \|Reply A dog wouldn’t string potential humans along for months on end while these decisions were being made. You’d actually have to have a PLOT for this to work. April 13, 2018 Dove A dog wouldn’t string potential humans along for months on end while these decisions were being made. You’d actually have to have a PLOT for this to work. The plot is that Dela sent Poochie the Psychic Wonderdog to Charles but he can’t take her in, because Sofia has allergies. So none of the conversations Zani has happened because they’re not instrumental in anything. Nothing Zani says or does makes any difference. Mac is just debating if he can handle having a dog after his last one disappeared. Jackson loves playing with her but won’t take her for walks. Charles wants to keep her but can’t. Tad would keep Poochie but he knows his wife would flip out if he tried to bring a dog home after he bought a motorcycle without discussing it with her. Sofia tries to talk Mac out of taking Poochie because he’s so hesitant and he’s mad at Sofia for being allergic, which isn’t her fault, but they wouldn’t be in this mess otherwise. The struggle isn’t being strung along. It’s humans being wishy-washy. Also, the plot is probably a lot tighter without the BS of the dog pondering her options because she doesn’t care. She likes all of them. She just wants a permanent home and when Charles tries to ship her back in a crate, Poochie freaks out because he’s dumb as hell and then Mac has a heartfelt conversation about dogs and dog training with the dog breeder Dela. I admit the ending is where it breaks down more, but only because Charles has no reason to go back to his ex-wife, Dela. Zani could remain a dog or his child and that doesn’t change how awkward their re-marriage is. XD April 13, 2018 ‘I just…you guys. This woman denied this man the right to see his own child, and he apparently didn’t care enough to do anything about it. They can still get under each other’s skin? They should loathe each other. You don’t do shit like that unless there are real, very serious problems. They shouldn’t be acting like old friends. None of this makes sense.’ Especially since ZADE has already showed how ‘good’ Dela was in guiding her daughter through childhood and magickickajick. Since Charles knew that Dela (and Zade) have powers that could be used for ill or good–he should’ve been pretty damned worried about Zade growing up in Snydersville where Dela KNEW was the home of some small-minded and intolerant people (even if they weirdly compliment his kid’s hair in a regular basis). We already have seen what adult!Zade’s self-control is like with HER magic–I’m pretty sure there were a LOT of incidents during Zade’s childhood that Charles would’ve wanted to know about (and even BE THERE TO parent). Also: After reading this blog, I was suddenly hit with a question for Ms. Sarem: If Zade’s presence causes mere mortals to lust/hate her uncontrollably…when did THAT start to happen during Zade’s life? When she hit puberty? Because an ultra-conservative and small town with history of ‘witch burnings’ would’ve probably had an interesting reaction if some ultra-young jezebel was causing men to covet her and women to hate her guts. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Dove If Zade’s presence causes mere mortals to lust/hate her uncontrollably…when did THAT start to happen during Zade’s life? When she hit puberty? Because an ultra-conservative and small town with a history of ‘witch burnings’ would’ve probably had an interesting reaction if some ultra-young jezebel was causing men to covet her and women to hate her guts. I’m sure LS would never admit to being into lolis. Pretty positive that power doesn’t kick in until a girl is at least 18, given how snow-driven pure that Zade is. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Yet that still would be a more interesting premise than this. Having a power over people at a young age, how does that affect you, how does that mess with you? But I agree that going down that rabbit hole will be a bit too rapey for this book to handle. April 12, 2018 \|Reply AND you could go for a plotline like Alicia’s in the show Misfits. She got the “power” to make anyone who touched her lust after her uncontrollably and try to have sex with/rape her until contact was broken. And she thought it was cool for about half an episode, until she used it to rape her crush and he freaked out, and then her social worker tried to rape her. After that, she couldn’t have physical contact with anyone because she couldn’t get anyone’s genuine consent, and it really messed up all her relationships. Loop String could have cut out the pointless Jackson angle and just made it about how she genuinely likes Mac (for whatever reason), but she can’t be with him because her magic is forcing his attraction and denying him consent. But that would, of course, be both interesting and challenging. Nope! April 12, 2018 \|Reply Not to mention make Zordon actually look like a decent person. April 13, 2018 “Having a power over people at a young age, how does that affect you, how does that mess with you? ” That would be a very plausible reason why Hoagie wanted to get rid of Chuckles, especially if she saw an infant Zohd moonblink her Dad at a ripe young age of 4 weeks. (I mentioned this above). Pastrami would have to get rid of bio-Dad just to save his life and soul from ZartiBlarfast. That would be a reason for them to want to get back together in this timeframe. But I think we’re over-thinking this as Lani never thought of it. (Is she capable?) Would be a more interesting story, tho. Gads, if she was able to moonblink boys and men of any age when she was two or younger, how does CornedBeef train her to deal with pedophiles? (Does moonblinking them cause them to come on to the child even more? Then what?????? (shivers) But like I said, I doubt Lani has even considered any of this. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Yeah Charles being under Zuchinni’s thrall would definitely explain stuff like him just handing her a job when she just waltzes in and buying her things that are way too expensive. He may not be attracted to her (hopefully) but he is acting very odd. April 13, 2018 Ugh, this ‘memory pull swill’ is just pathetic. I hate Zork. I hope she gets eaten by a grue. April 12, 2018 \|Reply It seems likely. April 12, 2018 \|Reply Ha! The first thing I thought of was “Not bloody likely”. April 14, 2018 \|Reply She gets hurt, she uses her stupid omniscient first person narrator to make it clear that she recovered just fine from this incident, she had the other characters stand around reminiscing and inexplicably flirting while she was ostensibly dying, and now she’s going to have a chapter of flashbacks about how her parents got together? While she’s still ostensibly dying? WHAT DOES THIS WOMAN HAVE AGAINST NARRATIVE TENSION?!?! If she were a lab rat, she’d push that pleasure button until she dies! April 12, 2018 \|Reply Wow. This book……smdh…. The conversation about how the parents met is a conversation that takes place after the patient is stable and resting, not when she’s still hemmoraging. And calling her sandwich is absolutely hilarious (as is the gif of Sophia.) April 12, 2018 \|Reply If these characters were any dumber, you’d have to water them twice daily. Also, is Zooboomafoo still bleeding? How? How much blood does a magiqal person contain?! April 12, 2018 \|Reply April 13, 2018 \|Reply If I were still eating my lunch, I guarantee I would have spit part of it out just now because this may be the best thing I’ve seen all day. April 16, 2018 \|Reply “If these characters were any dumber, you’d have to water them twice daily.” You mean they’d be dumb as plants? Because if so, I find that an offense to plants April 13, 2018 \|Reply Ever so slightly off-topic, but Kate Davidson’s depiction of Zesty’s voice in the audio version of these recaps is the funniest damn thing ever. I hope those continue, but if not, what’s available is already a treat and a half. April 13, 2018 \|Reply At this point, I’m holding out hope that she doesn’t make it and has been narrating the story from the grave the whole time, because it turns out that her real true love was Jackson. Oops! Darn. April 13, 2018 \|Reply If I wanted to be generous to this book, I’d say this chapter was trying to get across that Dela was the only one ever allowed to call Charles “Charlie”. April 13, 2018 \|Reply I can’t be that generous because EVERYONE gets a stupid nickname. That’s not cute; it’s annoying, unnecessary, and makes no sense. Worse, by invoking the “Charlie” nickname, we the audience is harkened back to when the nickname was first said: Sofia fucking Charles. Because yes, that’s the visual I want to get during this moment of tension and worry! A reminder that Charlie has another girlfriend whom he fucked on a regular basis. April 13, 2018 \|Reply So their child is dying in another room: Dela: When we met we were so young and HAWT. And now she’s going to tell a story??? Is she going to put the kettle on? Hang in there, Zani. Or don’t. Whatever. April 13, 2018 \|Reply You would think she might rush into her Madjhick Ritual, THEN tell Chuck-E’s-in-love, “Well, it’ll take a bit before we see if it works, so let’s have a cuppa.” April 13, 2018 \|Reply Oh no, I think the whole “collect some random paperwork, then throw bleeding person over your shoulder” makes perfect sense. As does the “head doctor”. This is, after all, a hopsital (yes, I know, the typo may be Jenny’s, but it still made me giggle) April 13, 2018 \|Reply River So, I’m really confused as to what happens with Zurpaderp. She is critical. She is hemorrhaging from all the places, the Physicians are all “don’t know what to do or what it is” and yet they allow her to be removed and sent on a private jet to no-where-ville. I would contend they’d be calling the CDC and isolating her because they don’t know why she is SPONTANEOUSLY HEMORRHAGING! Could be a new/strange disease process that would be considered contagious till proven otherwise. Which also means the entire show/audience would now be also isolated. Thanks a lot Zingdong. Side bar no physician I’ve worked with would wish they had a fictional doctor to help them and “the head doctor” would not be here, that dude is in bed in his 8000 square foot mansion and there ain’t nobody who’s calling him in late at night for a not-presidential patient. Until at least every test is run besides that each section of the hospital is run by its own specialist chief (ER has it’s own chief physician, the ICU has a different one ect.) So the “head doctor” is most likely more administrative then anything. Caveat if it is a teaching hospital it may have a different structure then what I’m used too. What they WOULD BE DOING is contacting doctors around the US/world and consulting with them. And putting a person on a plane that does not have the equipment to secure said person is…. So much nope! Besides most likely at this point she’d be on a ventilator, be sedated and in need of multiple drips with medications and blood. Medical fix wings do have these items however a private jet… does not. Which means the hospital just agreed to let you take thousands of dollars worth of equipment out of their facility..HA! We can’t even use blankets without them screaming at us. And you have no idea how to run them anyway. They could get a flight medic or RN to go with them except if they aren’t working for their agancy at the time they can’t be practicing medicine. Because they’ll lose their license and get into big nope trouble with the government. Also there is no way that the hospital would release her (as much as they’d love to because Chuck and Zumpy are going to be family/patient from hell) because she is an adult and unresponsive. If she were underage and he could prove relationship maybe, MAYBE they’d release her because at that point the law says the parent decides for the child, however she is not a minor, he cannot make decisions for her. Unless he also has POA but that would be weird and unusual. And would need to be set up prior to the whole unconscious thing. I know she wants a scene where Boyfriend carries her frail body onto a private jet while tenderly cradling her…. But it wouldn’t be easy/look terrible because unresponsive obtunded people are floppy and difficult to move. Trust me. Plus if you don’t have a stretcher to move her onto the airplane you’ll most likely yank out all the cords and wires and IV lines and you’ll not be able to ventilate her so brain cells will die. And she doesn’t have that many to lose. Arrrrrrgggggg. This makes me so angry. April 13, 2018 \|Reply In cases like these, I guess the following quote works best: “Screw the rules, I have money!” (Lani would be so proud of me….) April 13, 2018 \|Reply The whole book reads like “screw the rules, I have green hair!”. August 21, 2020 \|Reply I think she’s dead… they are just hauling her dead body around and the hospital was like.. fine, just take her. No way has she been hemorraghing this whole time and is still alive. I don’t care how much they have transfused her, it just becomes wasted blood at some point and they would stop. What I really think is that this dumb writer wanted to put her character in a coma, but it was fun to visualize her spewing blood all over the theatre, but she was too dumb to add a couple sentances of the Doctor saying-” the bleeding has stopped and all of her vitals are back to normal and she’s breathing on her own, but we don’t know why she’s not waking up…” the mystery coma would make so much more sense! But that’s just too hard for Lunkhead to write. April 13, 2018 \|Reply It’s like the Unknown Soldier in Catch-22. He’s mummified in bandages, and there are jars containing fluids with tubes. One tube goes into the unseen patient, and another goes out. At intervals, the nurses switch the jars. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Charles and Dela’s daughter is actively dying maybe sorta kinda, but they have time to rekindle their extremely strong romantic bond. And despite this incredibly strong bond they had it wasn’t enough for Charles to try to fight it? I feel like in a better story I’ve heard of something similar a la, using magic to keep your loved ones away. But in those stories the one who is being kept away with magic has tried to fight against the magic cuz of THE BOND. Or if it had something to do with altering memories they start noticing something is missing and seeing someone they weren’t supposed to be seeing starts breaking the hold the magic has, or something like that. Maybe this “much needed” flash back will explain it, but I’m not gonna hold my breath over it. But so far it just seems like Delicatessen and Not-pperfield might have just mutually agreed cuz reasons. Also with this most likely restarted romance is Charles gonna like…say something to Sophia? Like hey I met my ex and told her I loved her no big deal or, break up with her or…or something? Excuse my phrasing, but he started treating her like a red headed step child so I’m thinking there’s no positive way to return or close that relationship. Even at best Charles isn’t the greatest person to still be in a relationship with someone else, but instantly see his ex and say “I love you” April 13, 2018 \|Reply This is, once again, Loop Station trying to have it both ways and turning everything to shit instead. She wants Delicatessen to be such a powerful witch that she used her magic to keep Charleston Chew away from Zigarette her whole life. But now she also wants the two to be so in love and have such a strong bond that the moment they’re together the sparks fly. In that case, either Doorknob is purposefully removing the spell so that she can get up on her ex-husband while her daughter is possibly dying, or THE BOND is so powerful that it’s stronger than her spell. But it can’t be that because then surely at some point in the last 20+ years, THE BOND would have overpowered the spell and Chipotle would have fought to be with his soulmate and their daughter, which he never did. So yeah. Longitude wanted a star-crossed witch, but she ended up with a sociopathic mom and a deadbeat dad. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Dove Also with this most likely restarted romance is Charles gonna like…say something to Sophia? Nope. Sofia disappears from the novel after Zade’s little illusion goes wrong. We’re never told if Charles said anything, but the best guess is they broke-up over the phone and Sofia was expecting this for awhile. I like Sofia, so I assume she was already checked out of their relationship and a few months ago she found another job in a different career, maybe singing. She was just serving her last few nights on the show before starting over somewhere else and having a more fulfilling life on her own. April 13, 2018 \|Reply While that’s a very mature response, remember, this HFM. Adults don’t act like adults in this. There is no maturity. Sofia will probably never get a mention again and she’ll face the Chuck Cunningham syndrome, or she becomes the villian in the next book, seeking out black magic to get revenge on the asshats who stole her MAN. April 14, 2018 \|Reply Dove Sofia will probably never get a mention again and she’ll face the Chuck Cunningham syndrome That’s my best guess for the reality of it since it’s the easiest method from the writer’s POV. But hey, at least, Sofia went out on a high note, calling the bitch out for her sins and then singing a Valkyrie song until Poopy Suit collapsed. XD Besides, turning Sofia into a villain would make her more sympathetic and someone to take seriously. It’s a childish response BUT it’s human considering Charles treated her like shit; hell, maybe the trouble only started when Zade showed up and she thinks he was enchanted, so she needs to rescue him from his evil, sociopathic ex. That would seal Zade’s fate as the uber bitch since she was complicit and Sofia would become the best character in the entire series because LS unintentionally writes Sofia with absolute realism if you remove the narrative filter where she’s some slutty mean girl. After that shift in the plotlines, she’d just have the “woman scorned” filter instead. But also, LS uses that idea in the next chapter, so that’d be a lot of doubling down if she used it again and blew up the importance of it in the next book. XD I mean, becoming a witch villain could turn Sofia into the next Voldemort as a matter of laziness, or some shadowy badass overlord who rarely does anything. More likely Sofia would become the Dragon to the actual Overlord. Then again, I don’t think LS is a fan of epic fantasy and that kind of blurs the line, but I would be deeply amused if it happened that way and she accidentally wrote the best villain who eclipses Zade in popularity, if she manages to scrape some fans up off the floor, after she dropped the ball with this novel. If she hires a ghost writer for the rest of the series and pushes things in this direction, then that’d definitely happen. April 14, 2018 \|Reply This chapter confirms to me what I thought last chapter. There’s no legitimate reason for her to insist on invading the personal memories of everyone around her except for her need to be the center of attention. There’s no information she can get from doing this that she couldn’t have gotten from just asking them to tell her what happened, there’s no additional plot related reason to have her first person narrating this, it’s just that Zade HAS to be the center of attention. HAS TO BE. She even talks about how sad it is that she wasn’t in the empty chair. She’s fine from her vantage point. She’s not saying that Mac is thinking about how sad it is that she’s not there, SHE’S thinking about how sad it is that she’s not there. She’s not empathizing with anyone else, not feeling bad for having put them through pain (which they don’t seem to be feeling…) she’s just sad that she wasn’t in the room with them. It’s ridiculous, selfish, egotistical, and pointless. And Sarem doesn’t even realize it. Just like this book in general. April 13, 2018 \|Reply In one of my favorite video games, Psychonauts, a character decides to read his dad’s mind. Dad is reminicing about his wife, thinking about all the good times, and the son is like, “awww…. dad…” Until dad starts thinking about sex with his wife, to which the son gets so disturbed, he leaves home. XD But that’s also another silly thing Lani has overlooked: memories are painful and sometimes you don’t want to think about them. I don’t want to see/feel how distraught my dad was when I was in the hospital; it’ll do nothing for me except make me feel guilty or ashamed about the pain I unwillingly caused. What exactly was she trying to see? What key evidence was she trying to get at. And for someone who just wants a “normal” life, she certainly has no hesitation of dragging Mac down, exposing him to very probing, questionable magic. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Dove In one of my favorite video games, Psychonauts, a character decides to read his dad’s mind. Dad is reminicing about his wife, thinking about all the good times, and the son is like, “awww…. dad…” Until dad starts thinking about sex with his wife, to which the son gets so disturbed, he leaves home. XD Yes! I love that game. So quirky. I forgot all about what happened to Sasha though. Poor guy… it explains a lot though. XD (Btw, they put out a side-plot sort of VR game recently. It’s pretty cute.) But yeah, as everyone is pointing out, it’s such a lame and lazy way to use psychic powers, it serves no purpose other than to keep LS from having to rewrite most of the ending, and there’s nothing emotional that really works. Everything presented here just raises further questions. April 13, 2018 \|Reply I immediately looked that up. It’s been out for a year and I didn’t know about it???? Thanks for the heads up! April 14, 2018 \|Reply Dove NP! I don’t think it got much fanfare but I definitely recommend it if you’ve already got a VR set-up (if you don’t, you’re probably better off finding a Let’s Play. It’s very short and sweet but probably not worth getting new equipment for.) It also wraps up some loose ends from the first game, which is really nice, although now I have no idea what they’ll do with a sequel. At least it opens up all their options? XD April 14, 2018 Has she stopped bleeding yet? April 13, 2018 \|Reply No. I suggest the characters in Handjob for Morons take a clue from Carrie’s mean classmates from gym and yell, “Plug it up! Plug it up!” until she comes out of the coma and tidies things up. April 13, 2018 \|Reply The Vegas Review of Books Much like a scene early in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel ‘The Unconsoled,’ in which the protagonist and a bellhop exchange a half dozen pages of dialogue over the course of a single elevator ride, Chapter Sixteen of Lani Sarem’s epic Bildungsroman deftly manipulates reader expectations, causing us to question the very concept of time itself. In other ways, Dr. Sarem’s* sparkling prose far outstrips that of Mr. Ishiguro. Despite having won the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature, the British novelist’s handling of the love triangle between the protagonist, the bellhop, and a rack of luggage was workmanlike at best, failing to produce even half the steam that rises from ‘Handbook for Mortals’ pages. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Is this affiliated with Hollywood Upstairs Medical School? April 13, 2018 \|Reply I have that girlfriend in a coma song stuck in my head now. I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY. Also the next line of the song is extremely appropriate to my feelings about the MC. April 13, 2018 \|Reply Dove hunts down lyrics That is fantastically appropriate. XD I won’t lie though, I never heard this song before. I just thought of that one episode in Metalocalypse. April 13, 2018 \|Reply April 13, 2018 \|Reply April 13, 2018 \|Reply Dove Which one of us are you referring to? It’s like a sea-lion colony of happy fat dykes up in here! We’re all rollin’ around in the waves and the sand, enjoying life together, just huntin’ tuna and eating out. XD Please be more specific next time, Mr. Whitetail, and say hi to Jane for me. You do have a Jane, right? April 13, 2018 \|Reply OMG next chapter is going to be amazing! Right now we’re in first third-person POV in present past! But with the coming flashback we’ll be first third-person-third-person in present past-past! I am in awe. Literally in awe. To be able to create such a convoluted, ridiculous, and stupid POV concept requires a huge amount of self-agrandazing arrogance the likes I’ve seldom seen before. And I’ve read the House of Night series, which is the hottest garbage to ever contaminate Earth (except maybe 50 Shits). Dela: “Time is of the essence! She has to come immediately!” Also Dela: “Here, sweety, have some coffee and cookies. You want some lemonade? It’s juiced with magikkkkk! There’s no tastier lemonade! Wait, let me get a blanket and some magazines. You want a hot bath? Then we can talk about Charles’ and my love story, okay? As soon as you’re all relaxed and settled and Charles and me are done swooning, we’ll heal Zardipan with my secret gifts, teehee ” smiles passive-aggressively in mysterious ways to show her superiority April 14, 2018 \|Reply Oh, wow, I just realized what conversation is awaiting Sofia. I mean, I’m sure we won’t see it cause she’s the Evil Bitch (TM) and nobody needs to see conflict after true wuv has been achieved between Delabia and Charlatan. But the scene must happen off-screen. So for Sofia it’s Chakra coming back after saving Zebra’s life. She probably thinks he’s fucking her – as we all do because the incest is stronger and more passionate than any interaction Zabadoo had with anyone – so she’s gonna be pissed. And then Chokehold is like “Nah, she’s my daughter” and Sofia like “Say what not? That’s why she got in and got every privilege and present imaginable! She stole my spot! You GAVE her everything because she’s your daughter!” and he’d be like “Totes not, I gave it to her cause she’s fucking amazing and god-like”. And THEN he’d be like “Also, please move out and find a new job, I’m back together with my ex, mother of my daughter, and you can’t stay here and it’d be awkward having my ex on the show. kthxbye!” I hope, that in this moment, Sofia will suckerpunch him in the dick and then sue him into oblivion. But that won’t happen, cause she’s The Bitch, so she’ll “throw a tantrum” and will be “excorted out” and “let go” because she’s so mean and unprofessional, all the while these four douchebags sip champagne on the luxurious balcony, cackling all the way to success and money because this book is shit and Sarem is shit and every character but Sofia is shit. April 14, 2018 \|Reply So much yes on the whole, “throwing a tamtrum” description. When women get angry, upset, or any other emotion that’s not pleasant, she’s written off as on her period Sofia has every right to be upset. She’s been ignored this entire book, even during times when Charles was legally obligated to look after her. Now this might be the result of Zupercalifragilisticexpialidocious’s roofie magic, but let’s face it, that’s probably never going to be brought up ever again, not even in the second book. And if it is, it won’t get the same attention WE have given it. April 14, 2018 \|Reply Just reading the recaps, it’s so infuriating that she keeps telling the reading that Zorp is severely bleeding and needs magjhiks NOW, but people take time to reminisce about their long lost love? AND explaining their history to a third person who doesn’t need to know any of this information?!? This was such an easy fix, too! Have Sandwich perform “the healing magic” or whatever, and then say “now we have to wait and see if this works” or something and while they’re waiting around to see if Zorp wakes up, you’ve got plenty of time to chat about relationship stuff! The way it’s written now, how is the reader supposed to care that she might die? None of the characters do! Also the relationship between Zorp and Charles is super gross. Love these recaps, as always. April 14, 2018 \|Reply I am at this point like 90% convinced Lani in real life wants David Copperfield to be her dad…but she also wants to bone him. And that is how we got this book. April 14, 2018 \|Reply April 14, 2018 \|Reply Dove Or else Harrison Ford. That’s the description she gives him in the beginning. April 14, 2018 \|Reply A threesome between Lani, David Copperfield, and Harrison Ford. There we go. April 14, 2018 \|Reply Please note: I have as much magical powers as Lani Serum. April 14, 2018 \|Reply Or even jump in. If they let me. April 15, 2018 \|Reply MrGBH When I was about 10 years old, I used to fantasise about who my father was. At one point I wished it was Donnie Osmond, which made sense to my young mind because my mother had been to some of his concerts shortly before falling pregnant with me. But now that I’m an adult and have written some fanfiction (And some original fiction, which was popular but I never got around to finishing it), I realise just how immature it would be for me to write a book about a character who just-so-happens to look identical to me, who goes and works for ‘Dannie Osborne’. Also, that would be insane. If I did something like that, to the point of researching every single detail of Donnie Osmond’s life and injecting it into the book, I would expect to be put into an asylum. Or at least be given a whole heaping tonne of meds. And maybe a restraining order. I would not expect to top a bestseller list and have a movie made, instantly shooting me to stardom. Then again, I wouldn’t cheat to get on that bestseller list either. April 14, 2018 \|Reply You know what would have made a lot more sense? If instead of having Zade unconscious and pulling memories and bleeding out everywhere, she just fell into a coma and was having an out of body experience and could see what was going on but not interact with anyone. Then, instead of taking Zade to the hospital everyone freaks out but Charles realizes whatever is wrong with Zade is due to the magic usage, not physical harm, so he calls Dela, explains what happened, and enlists Mac to help get Zade back to Dela when she explains it’s something only she can fix. Or, he takes Zade to his hotel suite or house or whatever and calls Dela and she goes to Vegas and while they’re waiting for her, Charles explains the family history to Mac. OR, Charles doesn’t enlist Mac to help, just carries Zade off as soon as he realizes something is wrong and tells everyone Zade just has the flu. Mac is suspicious, and after a few hours of him experiencing increasing anxiety off screen while Charles gets Dela to Vegas, Mac breaks into wherever Charles has Zade. Introductions are made, backstory filled in while Dela works on a potion or preparing a spell to help Zade, and Mac makes a conscious decision to accept that magic is real and, fully informed, chooses to be with Zade rather than just going with the flow. Also, is there any knife-throwing in the book? Like, why go to all the trouble to rip off an exquisite picture of someone in part of a knife-throwing act, when knife throwing isn’t even in the book??? April 15, 2018 \|Reply As the Talking Heads would say, “Stop Making Sense.” April 15, 2018 \|Reply “…she just fell into a coma and was having an out of body experience and could see what was going on but not interact with anyone.” James Herbert did something a little similar with Nobody True. The main character could astral project, but one day, when he was happily doing that, somebody murdered him and he had to use his powers to find out who. Unsurprisingly, it was a MUCH better book than this one. April 29, 2018 \|Reply Now I’m imagining a scenario where instead of this, Chuck and Sandwich have no idea what’s going on and Zani has to use her out of body coma maaaaahjik to try and explain what’s going on, and while the book still would’ve sucked, it might’ve sucked a little less. April 29, 2018 \|Reply “The main character could astral project, but one day, when he was happily doing that, somebody murdered him and he had to use his powers to find out who. I was thinking this whole book was the Joe Gillis character in “Sunset Blvd.” that happily narrated its own tale not knowing it was dead from the very beginning of the story. . . . . April 30, 2018 \|Reply If anyone is reading this far down, Lani Llama Ding Dong is going to be doing a meet and greet at a park in my neighborhood this weekend. Taking suggestions for questions to ask the author. April 16, 2018 \|Reply “It was established that Zade’s magic makes men attracted to her and women hate her. That makes every kiss Zade has had turned into assault because her partners are under the influence of magic and cannot give consent. This is made worse because Zade is fully aware of this. Is this ever going to be addressed?” OR…. if Lani is selling books and you casually stroll over and if she asks if you would like one, act like you’re ignorant and ask casual questions about it. See what bullshit she tries to sell you. “I’m very big into diversity. Can you tell me if there are any POC or LGBT characters in the book?” (if she says yes, ask her to expand on that) “Is this YA? Is this an appropriate book for my ten year old niece?” “I don’t like certain tropes in YA fiction because it’s been used so often. I would like to avoid slut shaming and unecessary triangle romances. Do any of those play a part in this book?” April 16, 2018 \|Reply She reads this blog, so she’d have time to prepare. Not that she did much preparation when dealing with the media, given some of the answers she’s pulled out of her back pocket, often after gasping in shock. April 16, 2018 \|Reply I bet the only answer she’ll give is, “Shhh! Spoilers!” Asking for a future trigger warning is not too much to ask for. I read a lot of dark stuff but even I have my limits, and having Zade actively and knowingly sexually assault Mac is something I do not want to read. Lani, if you are still reading this, listen to me. If Zade sleeps with Mac, that’s rape. He’s under the influence of magic and cannot give consent. Do not put rape in your YA novel. In this era of #metoo, putting a woman-on-man rape and then branding it as romantic is beyond horrific. Lani is not that mature of a writer to handle such sensitive topics. April 16, 2018 \|Reply “It was established that Zade’s magic makes men attracted to her and women hate her. That makes every kiss Zade has had turned into assault because her partners are under the influence of magic and cannot give consent. ” Going one step further on this line of thinking: if a pedophile is brought into Zade’s magicKorbit and if they then molest a child (or her) as a result of completely losing their ability to control themselves (because of Zade’s influence), does that place the responsibility of the rape on Zade? Is that a message you truly want to portray in this YA book where it’s truly the victim’s (or someone else’s) fault? April 16, 2018 \|Reply Meet and great at a park? Is this park something like Central Park? Or is Lani just that pathetic? April 16, 2018 \|Reply I’m ridiculously excited for you to report back on this event! April 16, 2018 \|Reply Me too! Report back! Report back! April 16, 2018 \|Reply Dove If it isn’t too late, ask her why she’s having her event in a park… Then ask if she plans on knee-capping any cyclists while she’s there. XD April 16, 2018 \|Reply Hahaha, the park is hosting a “Pirate Fest”, which is probably full of her target demo. I saw her little booth at the Vegas Ren Faire last year and there was NO ONE around…almost felt bad, except she’s a horrible con artist. The best part right now is that we had a different pirate faire last weekend at a different park. She has that location listed for her event this* weekend, so who eve knows if she’ll go to the right place? April 17, 2018 \|Reply She’s going to sell her book, a book that takes place in a DESERT, to a festival for pirates??????? Man, she is desperate. And what kind of money does she have that she can keep going to these damn cons and festivals all the time? That is not a cheap job! April 17, 2018 \|Reply Dove The cover has water and a ship’s mast on it. I guess she assumes the artwork will be enough. XD April 18, 2018 Dove The best part right now is that we had a different pirate faire last weekend at a different park. She has that location listed for her event this weekend, so who eve knows if she’ll go to the right place? I’m deeply confused there are two pirate conventions and within the same week. These are definitely her people. April 18, 2018 \|Reply Got an update report for us? Or is the event on Sunday? :3 April 21, 2018 \|Reply I’m going tomorrow! Today’s my anniversary, so I had to do normal human things. April 21, 2018 \|Reply River I’m sure it’s been mentioned already but I can’t help but wonder if Lumper wants to be both Dela and Zanychunk but she couldn’t decide which to be. She is writing with such focus on Dela here it seems like she’s just traded bodies. She is now her Mother getting set to jump her Dad’s bones with her boyfriend watching. What does that even mean? What is happening here? Gag. April 16, 2018 \|Reply If Charles looks like Harrison Ford, who wouldn’t want to jump his bones? But that’s a good point. By playing her own mom, Lani gets to make her cake, have her cake, and eat it too. So she gets to make out with not only Clark Kent, one of the Twilight vampires, and also Han Solo. And young Han Solo. Which, also, gag. The Twilight vampires look like teenagers. At some point you gotta let go of the old crushes. (I don’t think any of my teen crushes were on any other teenagers. I was madly in love with like, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan McGreggor as young Obi Wan… Jared from Labyrinth.) April 16, 2018 \|Reply Dove What does that even mean? What is happening here? Gag. I don’t mind having multiple pairings in a book, which is what I think she was going for, I guess. It only fails because of the forced first-person narration (and the destruction of tension that caused.) I think LS had multiple ideas when she was writing the original story and she didn’t know how to put them together. Or more likely, she started writing one story and got some sudden ideas for backstory that she loved so much that she decided to alter the ending to align with the only true inspiration she’d had at any point. Either she was better off writing multiple short stories (with possibly some side-story porn for mama and papa) or she realized belatedly that she was only hot for Dela/Charles and not Zade/Mac, but had devoted so much to the beginning (and shared it around, there were rumors this started out as fanfiction, plausibly in script format or before it was a proper script I guess) that she didn’t want to scrap it and start over, focusing on the parents instead (also Zade being her initial self-insert eclipsed any chance of that option.) Alternatively, LS initially never intended to do anything with Dela but she got so hot and bothered over Charles while realizing her surprise twist/conceit would make this pairing with Zade impossible, that LS decided to go for broke at the ending and put her parents back together for ultimate wish fulfillment. I’m sure she always wanted to meet her dad, but Charles barely exists as a father figure except in silhouette. I find it hard to believe she planned the remarriage on the outset, even if she’s just really bad at foreshadowing. With so little lead-up, it strikes me as your typical accidental bait-and-switch ending from a fanfic that was originally published online chapter by chapter and then never revised to flow better. Or maybe she always planned this and never realized how it wouldn’t congeal properly, but that only works if it’s more of a side plot? Yet it feels like the whole plot since it’s basically the entire ending. I dunno. April 16, 2018 \|Reply April 30, 2018 \|Reply So, the way Lani describes things like she’s talking to a 2 year old reminds me of a little project I had in middle school We had to type up a listed how-to and the teacher emphasized that she wanted it thorough and well written. I chose to write about making pb&js I wanted it to be absolutely perfect; to make sure I didn’t screw that up, I went into a little /too/ much detail. I got a hundred and was basically called a smart ass, but I was more of a paranoid perfectionist. Lani might just be a smart ass. Or an ass. May 1, 2018 \|Reply Oh no. Zombie describing how awfully and totally in love her parents are in addition to the SI wishfulfillment makes me actually feel sorry for Lani Sarem. So sad. But on the other hand this “book” frustrates me to no end – so much that it causes me physical discomfort. So f this, f that, f everything. Jenny is the warrior queen who took it upon herself to read this entire pile of garbage so we don´t have to. A toast to you, brave woman from overseas! June 27, 2019 \|Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. New on the Radish fiction app! Trout Nation content is always free, but if you'd like, you can get extra recaps in the Jealous Patron's Book Club by signing up for the Trout Nation Patreon! Are you on “The Facebook?” Get it for free on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and iBooks I hardly ever remember to use tags but when I do, these are the ones I use.	107,928
T8N magazine is committed to delivering compelling content about the people, stories and issues that make St. Albert not only a Top10 city to live in but also a dynamic community to belong to. Although our strongest focus is on St. Albert, we also look outward to explore the trends and global issues that capture our readers’ imaginations and shape their perceptions. In creating this publication, we’ve also become a home where writers, photographers and other artists can share ideas, start conversations and build communities. T8N—your city, your magazine. Publisher & President Welcome to T8N magazine. We’ve been waiting for you! My name is Rob Lightfoot, and I’m the publisher and president of T8N Publishing Inc. Having lived in St. Albert all but six years of my life, I feel like our T8N postal code is a part of my identity. It says home to me. And a home is exactly what I hope this magazine will be. A home for ideas, a home for conversations, a place to invite people in—a place for you. When Brenda isn’t chasing the light for the perfect shot, she’s chasing a personal best in the St. Albert Triathlon or Ten Mile Road Race. She’s excited to share her favourite things about living in St. Albert with you and looks forward to making new discoveries about our great city. Throughout her career, Correna has gained valuable design experience working for a full-service publication and design studio, successfully helping build and maintain a leading brand with a national company and creating several successful advertising and marketing projects as a freelance graphic designer. She is looking forward to combining her passion for art and technology to communicate ideas that will continue to inspire and inform the residents of our great city. Gene Kosowan Managing Editor Gene’s no stranger to urban publications, having been the founding managing editor of the now-defunct SEE Magazine and Vue Weekly, as well as a contributor and copy editor for Avenue. He’s also written for the Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun and Georgia Straight, while more recent online venture include contributing to national sites by yp.com and Valnet Interactive. In his spare time, Gene composes electronic music and had releases issued worldwide on a variety of digital labels based in Europe.	2,371
Having just finished up our WOD on the Waves mobile project, we set our vision immediately on creating the next iteration of the Triib mobile app. So many ideas, so many lessons learned from the WOD on the Waves project, so many lessons learned from the previous mobile app… but like all things, so little time to do it in. Four things immediately stuck out to us that we wanted to tackle: Bring video and other media into the app Introduce the idea of social, get gym communities to start conversations I'm especially excited for the underlying goal that drove every screen discussed, designed, and developed… how to make the experience more human. Fitness is a very personal thing; so lets treat it as such through empathy and understanding rather than screens that behaved or looked generic. Representing everyone's brand. Having just finished up our WOD on the Waves mobile project, we set our vision immediately on creating the next iteration of the Triib mobile app. So many ideas, so many lessons learned from the WOD on the Waves project, so many lessons learned from the previous mobile app… but like all things, so little time to do it in. Four things immediately stuck out to us that we wanted to tackle: Bring video and other media into the app Introduce the idea of social, get gym communities to start conversations I'm especially excited for the underlying goal that drove every screen discussed, designed, and developed… how to make the experience more human. Fitness is a very personal thing; so lets treat it as such through empathy and understanding rather than screens that behaved or looked generic. Representing everyone's brand. Having just finished up our WOD on the Waves mobile project, we set our vision immediately on creating the next iteration of the Triib mobile app. So many ideas, so many lessons learned from the WOD on the Waves project, so many lessons learned from the previous mobile app… but like all things, so little time to do it in. Four things immediately stuck out to us that we wanted to tackle: Bring video and other media into the app Introduce the idea of social, get gym communities to start conversations I'm especially excited for the underlying goal that drove every screen discussed, designed, and developed… how to make the experience more human. Fitness is a very personal thing; so lets treat it as such through empathy and understanding rather than screens that behaved or looked generic. Representing everyone's brand. Having just finished up our WOD on the Waves mobile project, we set our vision immediately on creating the next iteration of the Triib mobile app. So many ideas, so many lessons learned from the WOD on the Waves project, so many lessons learned from the previous mobile app… but like all things, so little time to do it in. Four things immediately stuck out to us that we wanted to tackle: Bring video and other media into the app Introduce the idea of social, get gym communities to start conversations I'm especially excited for the underlying goal that drove every screen discussed, designed, and developed… how to make the experience more human. Fitness is a very personal thing; so lets treat it as such through empathy and understanding rather than screens that behaved or looked generic. Representing everyone's brand. Having just finished up our WOD on the Waves mobile project, we set our vision immediately on creating the next iteration of the Triib mobile app. So many ideas, so many lessons learned from the WOD on the Waves project, so many lessons learned from the previous mobile app… but like all things, so little time to do it in. Four things immediately stuck out to us that we wanted to tackle: Bring video and other media into the app Introduce the idea of social, get gym communities to start conversations I'm especially excited for the underlying goal that drove every screen discussed, designed, and developed… how to make the experience more human. Fitness is a very personal thing; so lets treat it as such through empathy and understanding rather than screens that behaved or looked generic. experience My second day with Triib and I was already rebranding them. With all the plans for building out a new platform, we needed a new banner, new messaging, and new core beliefs we could get behind. With this notion of bringing communities together, we leaned in on the usage of 'gaps' in the design to show that Triib bridges that gap. My second day with Triib and I was already rebranding them. "Why" you might ask, with all the plans for building out a new platform, we needed a new banner, new messaging, and new core beliefs we could get behind. We this notion of brining communities together and leaned in on the usage of 'gaps' in the design to show that Triib bridges that gap. My second day with Triib and I was already rebranding them. With all the plans for building out a new platform, we needed a new banner, new messaging, and new core beliefs we could get behind. With this notion of bringing communities together, we leaned in on the usage of 'gaps' in the design to show that Triib bridges that gap. One of the most important things about creating the social feed for me was getting everyone onboard with the idea of removing like counts. This new iteration of the platform we were developing was about creating human connects and fostering encouragement through community. We were comforted by our decision when it was announced eight months later that Facebook/Instagram were testing the idea on their platforms. 🤔 One of the most important things about creating the social feed for me was getting everyone onboard with the idea of removing like counts. This new iteration of the platform we were developing was about creating human connects and fostering encouragement through community. We were comforted by our decision when it was announced eight months later that Facebook/Instagram were testing the idea on their platforms. In revamping the navigation, it was important to be able to get to everything in as few a clicks as possible. It was also equally important to keep learned behaviors to a minimum without forcing users to retrain when a new version with new features came out. Regardless of role (admin, athlete, staff, coach), the click/tap path was always the same. In revamping the navigation, it was important to be able to get to everything in as few a clicks as possible. It was also equally important to keep learned behaviors to a minimum without forcing users to retrain when a new version with new features came out. Regardless of role (admin, athlete, staff, coach), the click/tap path was always the same. Communication comes in many forms and for gyms we wanted them to be unimcombered by the platform; that meant being able to use images, animated GIFs, audio, and video. The previous platform couldn't support video in the mobile app and this was an exciting win for us, for the company, for the users. Communication comes in many forms and for gyms we wanted them to be unimcombered by the platform; that meant being able to use images, animated GIFs, audio, and video. The previous platform couldn't support video in the mobile app and this was an exciting win for us, for the company, for the users. 15 months of a global collaborative effort, over 400+ screens designed and iterated through, animations explored, a branded guide for developing future screens. There are so many things to talk about with this project. 15 months of a global collaborative effort, over 400+ screens designed and iterated through, animations explored, a branded guide for developing future screens. There are so many things to talk about with this project.	8,162
What would beer consumption sound like if it were a professional sport at the Olympics? Would there be a single type of beer as a worldwide standard, or would there be several types of beer? Is the United States the gold medal favourite? You can start thinking about organizing the first Beer Olympic Games ever! In this article, you will find out everything you need to know about the beer Olympics games and how to play them, so stay tuned. What Is the Beer Olympics? It comprises a series of drinking games performed by teams of individuals, with the ultimate winner selected at the end of the tournament. Each participant must bring a full glass of beer and a ball. It is suggested that one individual tries to get their ball into their cup first. A ball is placed in the cup, the player must gulp a beer, and the ball is passed to the next player. Teams that come in the first place are the first-rounders. There are no further regulations than having an equal number of players on each team. There is no maximum number of teams, but there must be at least four. To prevent one team from having an edge, both teams should have the same number of girls. It is suggested that each side have 15-20 cans of beer on hand for each player. For generations, drinking beer has been a common pastime in the United States. In some cases, the quality and content of beer made in other nations dates back hundreds of years. Foreign beers are far superior to American brands, except for American craft brews. The American advantage is that drinking has been promoted as a competition for many young people. Many future American beer Olympians have been baptized by gallons of Bud Light, foam, and embarrassment in their early years, from drinking beer the quickest to exhibiting skill, aim, and calm nerves with quarters and ping-pong balls. There are two groups of two, each with a pint of beer. The command “GO!” has been issued. The first team member sips their pint while holding the empty glass upside down over their heads. They begin drinking as soon as they do, and the next person does the same. We choose the winner based on who finishes all of their beers first. Each of the four Beer Olympics competitions will last one hour. We shall proclaim the winner of the most events as the Beer Olympics champion. If there is a tie, the victor will be determined by playing Beer Pong in a sudden death round. Before the event, You’ll want to stay motivated and prepare for the event three days ahead of time. A few things you should keep in mind: Make sure you get adequate sleep and eat frequently. Make sure you have sufficient oxygen in your lungs before drinking. Take your time. Do not consume any alcohol before the games. Recognize your own limitations. Eat Healthily. Here are the Best Beer Olympics Games : Best Beer Olympics Games It is the most well-known of the beer Olympics games. You need to place 10 cups in the shape of a triangle, half-fill them with beer, and have two teams of two players compete by sinking ping pong balls into each other. The ball must be chugged in whatever cup it lands in. There are a lot of different rules for this game, so select and choose whatever ones you wish to use, but make sure everyone is aware of them! Never have I Ever This is probably a game you remember from childhood. Someone states something you’ve never done before, and you raise your hand if you have. The 21+ edition of this game, on the other hand, requires you to put down a finger. You down a large mouthful of beer for what all you’ve done. Any player who rests all of their fingers on the table is eliminated. This game appears to be simple at first glance, but don’t be fooled. Create a finish line that is a short distance from the beginning site. Upon “go,” everybody aligns perfectly and chugs a whole can of beer before sprinting to the other side and returning, followed by the next teammate in line who chugs their beer and sprints to the finish and back on until everyone has gone. The winner is the squad that finishes the race first! Outdoor Beer Olympics Games Source This is a terrific way to get things started, or it may be used throughout the game! Play “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC and form a circle. When the first word of “thunder” in the song is heard, one person begins to chug and continues to drink until the next mention of “thunder” is heard, at which point it passes to the person on their right. The following person drinks every time the word “thunder” is used. It sounds simple enough, but wait till you’re trapped drinking during a guitar solo! There were 6 players in this game, 3 vs. 3. Each participant has their own set of cups in front of them, and the goal is to get as many ping pongballs into the cups as possible in a quick-fire game to get rid of them. In addition, every time a ball lands in your cup, you must drink it and stop firing until the cup is empty. “Tall Boy Beers” are larger versions of your favorite beers that measure 16 fluid ounces. Gather a variety of brands – enough for each person – and arrange them in unlabeled brown paper bags. Place them on the table and shuffle them about while everyone’s eyes are closed. Then, at random, each person selects a bag and opens it to reveal their decision. Everyone must finish their tallboy beer within the time limit set by the group. Source Fill your toy wiffle ball bat with beer and guzzle it out of the tiny hole on the bottom of the handle. You must spin in a circle, gazing down, with the bat pushed to your forehead, whatever the number of seconds it requires for you to succeed. Then attempt to strike the wiffle ball that is tossed your way! Pour one full beer into a big receptacle (pitcher, bucket, blender, whatever you have on hand!) for each team member. On “go,” each team will attempt to finish a large amount of alcohol without spilling any of it. The winning team is the one who finishes first with no spilling. Two tables are lined up on opposite sides of a table, each with a cup half-filled with an equal amount of beer. At the conclusion, the first two players tap their cups on the table, applaud each other, tap them again on the table, and start chugging. After the beer has been consumed, lay the cup on the table’s edge and try to flip it over so that it rests bottom-up. The next player in line gets to go when the cup lands bottom-up, repeating the procedure. Whichever team flips their cup first with all of their players wins! Indoor Beer Olympics Games Source In groups of two or four, arrange as many full beer cans as participants along both sides of the table. Each participant grabs ping pong balls and attempts to strike the cans. When the can is hit, the player in front of it must open it and guzzle it completely. It is just as it sounds. Each team competes against the other teams to complete a 30-pack case of beers using whatever methods possible. However, no beers should be thrown away! All cans must be consumed. Each person has their cup, and they are placed in a circle with one cup in the center. One player attempts to bounce a ping pong ball into a beer cup, and whoever’s cup the ball falls in must fast guzzle what’s in their cup and refill it. If the ball falls in the center-most cup, everyone must drink their cup while attempting to flip their cups upside down. If the ball falls on the surface and not in any of the cups, it is transferred to the person on their left. Similar to Slap cup, but instead of slapping their cup away from them, you stack your empty cup on top of them as they try to get the ball in. The stack of cups will eventually grow so tall that getting the ball into the cup will become more challenging! This is a card game with rules for each card chosen; play through the entire deck to have fun, and get to know more about the other players. Each team has two minutes to stack empty cans on top of one another; the team that can build the tallest tower without tumbling wins! It may appear simple, but beer cans are flimsy; the challenge is knowing when you are done with the tower without it plummeting. How can I host a better beer Olympics? Yes, you can host your own Beer Olympics with a group of people and have a lot of fun doing so. All you need is a little planning, and by organizing the games mentioned above according, you will have a great time!	8,670
Church Cancels Service to Show Support for Another Congregation Post a Comment » Written on May 6th, 2009 Filed under: News OBERLIN, KS (May 6, 2009) – Members of Herndon Covenant Church decided they did not want to go to their own church two Sundays ago. Instead they cancelled services in order to attend the installation service for co-pastors Sharon and Chris Nelson at the Oberlin Covenant Church. Keith Reuther, pastor of Herndon Covenant, said the timing worked out because he was going to be in Chicago. He asked that members of the church “give generously in the offering to our sister congregation.” About 40 people – sixty percent of the church – attended the installation. “I have never seen anything like that,” says Rick Mylander, associate superintendent of the Midwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Representatives from Lund Covenant Church in Dresden, Kansas, also attended. “It was such an unusual thing, so that felt really special,” says Sharon Nelson. Members of the visiting congregation participated in the services as they prayed for the couple. Having so many people attend also was an inspiration to the Oberlin congregation, says Chris. The church has a regular attendance of about 40. Oberlin is the first full-time pastorate for Chris and Sharon, who say they are excited to start their new ministry. “The thing that really stood out for both Sharon and me was the church’s sense of openness to what God could do,” Chris says. He grew up in Paxton, Illinois, a small town, and expects an easy adjustment to living in the small town located in northwestern Kansas, just south of the Nebraska border. Sharon, however, was born and raised in the area around San Francisco. “It’s a big change,” she says, adding that she is excited about her new community. “We were just really attracted to the people.” The Herndon church has suspended its services before. Last summer, they suspended services 11 of the 14 Sundays so they could lead worship at area nursing homes. Click here to read more about that experience. This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 and is filed under News. Click here to cancel reply. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Δ News stories found here were originally published on CovChurch.org. We apologize for any broken links you may encounter, as the posts have been moved from their original domain. Newswire Archive Select Month December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 December 2004 November 2004 December 2003 November 2003 December 2002 December 2001 December 2000 February 2000 December 1999 December 1998	3,445
From February through June 2018, there will be a series of public talks and one-day workshops on The Feminine and the Seeds of the Future held at St. Ethelburga’s Centre, London, England. While the events are open to all, there will be an additional series of gatherings which follow where a small group of women may explore these themes more deeply. This series of events is sponsored by workingwithoneness.org and is part of an on-going work exploring the vital contribution of feminine wisdom and her principles of interconnection, inclusion, compassion, co-creation and unity. One-day Seminar with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Saturday, 10 June, 2017 at Mercy Center, Burlingame, California The Deepening Mystery of the Divine, a one-day seminar with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, explores how mystical life draws one deeper into the mystery of the divine. Advance registration required. The Mercy Center is located near the San Francisco Airport, and they also offer simple retreat accommodation around the time of the event for a special reduced rate, with advance registration also required for accommodation. A series of events at St Ethelburga’s Centre, London, England From January through May 2017, there will be a series of 5 public talks on different aspects of the feminine held at St. Ethelburga’s Centre, London, England. While the public talks are open to all, there will be an additional series of gatherings which follow, where a small group of women may explore these themes more deeply, through dialogue, group exercises, ritual, and silence. This series of events is sponsored by workingwithoneness.org and is part of an on-going work exploring the vital contribution of feminine wisdom and her principles of interconnection, inclusion, compassion, co-creation and unity.	1,888
Spring is finally here and a friend of mine had a bunch of teens with nothing to do so I was asked to demonstrate my theremin and a few other goodies I had kicking around. The kids are in a band called Spicy and they were participating in a band camp learning Weezer songs. I thought maybe we'd change it up a bit and let them have a go on my Theremini and Atari Punk Console. Fun was had by all! “Hamm is a commanding presence and with his theremin he creates a swirling, ethereal soundtrack of the cosmos.” - Mike Usinger	556
Gul Rahman was a CIA detainee held at a black ops site. He was a detainee that the CIA alleged, like everyone that they captured after 9/11, to be someone with ties to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups; an offence that has never been proven. Detained at a secret site in Afghanistan called the Salt Pit, it was here that in 2002 after only a few weeks in custody that Gul froze to death. However, it was not before he was tortured and had interrogation techniques of the most gruesome nature inflicted upon him by the US military. Gul’s case is just one of the travesties of justice that has recently been brought to the forefront with the release of the CIA declassified documents- a record of about 50 guidelines detailing CIA torture techniques and disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In recent times we have already been awakened to the extent that the CIA is willing to go to in order to prosecute and violate the freedoms of Muslim detainees, such as the 6000 page Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA Torture. What makes this report explosive, however, is the evidence emerging indicating the complicity of medical practitioners in not only vetting such torture techniques, but even going so far as devising them. Precise specifications by The Office of Medical Staff (OMS) detail how to enforce sleep deprivation, limit the caloric intake of food, prolonged stress positions and the correct positions required for waterboarding. OMS advised that the preferred method to forcibly hydrate a detainee was rectally – a procedure that human-rights advocates have equated to sexual assault. “[B]ecause it is less invasive as a medical procedure, the rectal tube is considered by OMS the first line intervention,” the document reads. They also instructed that the CIA could inflict “more stressful shackled positions”, through shackling someone’s arms “above the head (elbows not locked) for roughly two hours without great concern”. “Also I will, according to my ability and judgment, prescribe a regimen for the health of the sick; but I will utterly reject harm and mischief”. A line in the oath taken by every single medical student when they graduate as doctors, the Hippocratic Oath is explicit in its requirements that every new physician uphold specific ethical standards. A medical doctor myself, I am astounded at the level of disregard for the basic principles to the commitment of life and health that these healthcare workers have demonstrated. Dr Vincent Lacopino, medical director at Physicians for Human Rights echoed my sentiments when he remarked: “As Physicians for Human Rights has established, psychologists, doctors, and other health professionals were central to the CIA’s torture program. They designed the methods, medically monitored torture victims, engaged in unethical research and experimentation, and helped the CIA legitimize practices any responsible medical professional would consider beyond the pale. Health personnel involved in torture at every level must be held accountable for their actions.” Dror Ladin, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who helped win the release of these documents, went so far as to call these inhumane torture techniques employed by the US as war crimes. The CIA torture program was an exercise in brutality against people who the CIA didn’t know for sure whether they had information, whether they didn’t have information, and where the only answer was more torture whenever they didn’t get the answers they wanted. These documents are testament to not only the CIA’s failure, but the failure of US democracy as well as all the healthcare practitioners involved in such an abominable act. Written by: Dr Aayesha J Soni Vice Chairperson of the Media Review Network Author Recent Posts Aayesha J Soni is a medical doctor, qualified from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her passion is combatting injustice globally, and her particular focus of challenging the growing trend of Islamophobia is done through her various written and oral critiques. Latest posts by Aayesha Soni (see all) A Tribute to Ibrahim Vawda - January 22, 2021 COVID-19: A Hidden Blessing for Humanity? - April 23, 2020 Sisi’s Dictatorship Ravaging Egypt - February 27, 2019 Author: Aayesha SoniAayesha J Soni is a medical doctor, qualified from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her passion is combatting injustice globally, and her particular focus of challenging the growing trend of Islamophobia is done through her various written and oral critiques.	4,626
At Cowork Frederick you can find professionals from a variety of backgrounds and enterprises. Members are freelancers, small business owners, work from home warriors, policy consultants and lawyers, and much more. Last time we talked to Matt Johnston about his work empowering local artists and musicians. Other members find their focus in the field of marketing and technology, like Derrick Miller who is a founding member of Cowork Frederick, and a burgeoning entrepreneur. Derrick Miller is a Maryland native, growing up in Hagerstown before settling in Frederick. He came of age when the internet was more like the wild west, full of the unknown, but also full of possibility. As a young person, he became fascinated with computer programming and networking. His interest led him to a job at the Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, where he helped create their very first news website. He then worked at various ISPs (Internet Service Providers) before finally striking out on his own. In 2001, Derrick founded Axis 80 Interactive, a full-service web development agency. He recently spun off another brand called Commerce Components. Under this company, he created Faqtastic, an easy-to-use FAQ page app built to improve search engine optimization (SEO) for e-commerce store owners who use the Shopify platform. I sat down with him to learn more about the development of his new app. You’re one of the founding members of Cowork Frederick, what drew you to coworking? I saw an announcement that a coworking facility was going to open up downtown. At the time I had been working from home, had my office set up in the living room, it was kind of taking over the living room and I just would go day in and day out without seeing other people. It was isolating sitting in front of a keyboard and I just needed social contact. I think that’s the whole idea behind Cowork Frederick, so people aren’t isolated working from home. It has absolutely worked out as described, right? Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of your company, Axis 80 Interactive. Can you tell me a little bit more about it? Thank you. Axis 80 Interactive is a web design, development, and digital marketing agency. We started out in Hagerstown Maryland, serving small business clients. We focus on web design, back-end development, e-commerce, and so on. Did you find that you had more e-commerce clients as the pandemic started to roll through? I did see a spike in demand. People were scrambling to move things online and it wasn’t just e-commerce. Just anything that could be moved online people wanted to move it online. There is a huge demand for work, and it hasn’t let up either. This pandemic forced people to realize that they had to change on a dime. They needed to pivot quickly or else they were going to lose a lot of business. Are you seeing more people pivot to creating e-commerce sites? Yes. I had been using Shopify (an e-commerce platform) to develop websites for clients for many years. So I’ve seen its growth. It’s gotten really big. They have this app store which allows third-party developers to offer add-on apps and earn subscription revenue. They handle all the monthly billing and subscription management. It makes it easy on the back end of things. What is the Faqtastic app, and what does it do? This app was built specifically for Shopify. You can use Shopify to put up an online store, so it only works on that type of website. To simplify, this app helps companies build an FAQ page that will improve their customer service, reduce support costs, and boost their SEO. How did you find the process of developing the app? Was there a learning curve or was it fairly easy to figure out? I have a background in SEO, as well as development, so there wasn’t much of a learning curve for me. I already knew what I needed to do to build it. It was just a matter of finding the time to do it because you’re pouring time into this thing and nobody’s paying you to do it, right? I spent about 600 or 700 hours on it. Part of that time involved learning some new programming languages. How did you get the idea to develop the app? In the field of web development, you can either build a product, or you can do client work. I had been doing client work for a long time, and I wanted to try something new. I have seen many other developers find success with building a subscription product. Some subscription apps are used by tens of thousands, or even millions of people. I realized that I’ve never built a product so I was interested in giving that a try. Can you give me some details about the process of developing the app? I spent some time looking at the apps that were available on Shopify and trying to identify a market niche. I wanted to find an under-served market because I felt like it would be a good candidate for an introductory app. You want something that you know retailers are gonna find useful in their store and something that helps with SEO too. What I ended up building is an app that allows store owners to add FAQs to their site – FAQ pages, product FAQs, etc. The FAQs are displayed on the site using something called Structured Data, which is a type of markup that makes the FAQ questions eligible for inclusion in Google’s rich results snippets. That can help make a store more visible in Google’s search results and drive traffic to their site through SEO. Faqtastic application from Commerce Components The main goal is to help businesses streamline their FAQ sections. Can you tell me about the app’s features? Yes. Faqtastic helps e-commerce shop owners on Shopify to create a clean, organized, and easy-to-use FAQ page with collapsible category headings. It’s built for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Faqtastic automatically makes your FAQ questions and answers eligible to be included in Google’s “rich results” snippets that appear above normal search results. How is this different from your work at Axis 80 Interactive? When you’re doing client work, you’re doing what the client asks you to do. They’re making every decision as to how you spend your time. This is a chance for me to make all those decisions and see how it goes. I loved having creative control over the whole project. I can watch it grow and progress in the long term. It’s a slow process but in the end, you really have something. You can view and install Faqtastic here. About the Author: Bethany Good is a prolific poet, creative writer, author, and storyteller. In 2019 she finally found the role she was meant to play, when she became the Founder, CEO, and “Head Wordsmith” of Good Writing Co., which provides copywriting, brand voice consultation, digital marketing, creative storytelling, and other content writing services. She is also a wife and mother of two elementary-aged children. In her limited free time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, and telling neighborhood kids to get off her lawn. Written by Bethany Good · Categorized: Member Spotlights · Tagged: Cowork Frederick, Member Spotlight, SEO, Shopify Hours Open to the public 9a - 5p Mon - Fri (members have additional access) Tips, insights, and event invitations for Frederick's freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small biz owners.	7,349
The Sovereignty of Riavan is an hereditary monarchy stretching across dozens of worlds and divided into a confusing mosaic of Principalities, Duchies, Baronies, and more. The capital world, Spire, is known across the galaxy for the stark beauty of its black stone mountains and harsh winters. It is here that the Sovereign Archon rules from the Obsidian Mount, advised by the mysterious Council of Dallaran. The worlds of the rest of the nation are likewise often cold and bleak and only the hierarchical organization of the Sovereignty allows them to thrive. The culture of Riavan is largely shaped by the principles of the Code of Dallaran. The Code exalts the six Virtues of Civilization; Law, Honesty, Mercy, Courage, Honor, and Knowledge. While technically only legally binding on the ruling Nobility, the Code is deeply embedded in the general population and Riavan citizens have a reputation for doing the right thing and for being stubborn in issues of perceived morality. They are also often hesitant to accept new ideas or change in general which has led to a fairly common practice of young adults moving to colony worlds or other Nations for a time to experience more of the universe before they come back home and assist in their family trade. While all religions are permitted, the dominant faith within the Sovereignty is Dai’kos, in which followers do not believe in specific Gods, but rather the general nature of the universe to reward the virtuous and punish the wicked. Dai’kos has little overall structure, with Anchorites tending Monasteries and sharing their insights and meditations in a loose network. The founding species of Riavan is the Vresh, but all species are present to some degree after centuries of contact with other nations. The overall symbol of the Sovereignty is a white quill set against a black field, said to represent the writing of the Code in ancient times. Black and white are therefore common colors in Riavan dress though only the Royal Household is permitted to wear the nation’s symbol directly. If someone is a member of a noble household or trade guild they may be permitted to wear the colors or symbols of those. Riavans tend to dress in classical fantasy medieval garb; peasant shirts, pants, cloaks, surcoats, and the like. Traditional colors: Black and White Founding Species: Vresh The Sovereignty of Riavan was founded by the Vresh species thousands of years ago. It began on their homeworld, Spire, and then spread out among the stars once the monarchy’s sorcerers discovered the secrets of creating Terminus Arcs. In the present day the Sovereignty has spread to dozens of worlds in a network of complex bonds of fealty that funnel up to the ultimate authority; The Sovereign Archon. As the Sovereignty spread there were periods of unrest and difficulty, but time after time the Code of Dallaran kept the nation from splintering into civil war. The Code, according to legend, was written by the great philosopher Dallaran Ekos when he served on the first Council that would come to bear his name. The Code outlined the six Virtues of Civilization and it is the odd, or outcast, Sovereignty citizen who does not at least pay it lip service though most are sincere in their attempts. Riavan is a feudal monarchy with all authority emanating from The Sovereign Archon (Often simply “Archon”). The Archon, in turn, appoints individuals to Nobility to govern areas of the Sovereignty in exchange for those Nobles swearing fealty. Those Nobles, in turn, appoint lesser Nobles, and so on. In theory, this is a relatively simple system of direct lines of authority. In practice, however, millenia of tradition, exceptions, hereditary appointments, and politics have yielded an incredibly confusing series of Principalities, Duchies, Earldoms, Baronies, Counties, and other Fiefs of various sorts. Within their Fiefs, a Noble’s word is the law, subject to those above them in the hierarchy. Outside of their Fief, however, a Noble is not empowered to act with any legal authority. Though politics, special appointments, and old agreements may muddy these waters in individual circumstances. Regardless of their legal authority at any given moment, a Noble must always be treated with respect and honor. Nobles, as a matter of law, are held to the Code of Dallaran and may potentially be sanctioned for failing to abide by it. The Council of Dallaran is the primary body of advisors for the Archon. They weigh in on all matters of import to the Sovereignty and are generally considered to be highly influential on the decisions that are made. Membership in the Council is kept secret to avoid undue influence or corruption. A common topic of discussion at any gathering of Riavan aristocrats is speculation as to who might be on the Council. The one direct power held by the Council is to choose the next Archon when the previous one dies or abdicates. Paladins of Riavan are direct vassals of the Archon with the power to invoke their authority when on assignment. They are most commonly used to investigate possible violations of the Code by other Nobles. If such violations are found then they may convene a Paladin’s Court to place the accused on trial. The culture of Riavan is tied very closely to the Code of Dallaran and the Virtues within it. While Nobles are the only ones legally bound to the Code, all of the people of Riavan are raised to abide by it. A Sovereignty citizen who violates the Code can expect various degrees of shunning, loss of credibility, and a difficult road back to acceptance depending on the exact circumstances. As a result, the people of Riavan are known for their honesty, fairness, and desire to do the right thing. However, they can also tend towards being stubborn, judgmental, and slow to adapt to new views and perspective. This bias against the new creates a situation where younger generations often get bored and rebel which eventually gave rise to a tradition of pilgrimage where youths in their late teens would travel to colony worlds (or other Nations once they were discovered) and spend a few years in some combination of good works, service, and revelry before coming back home to assist in the family trade. There are six Virtues enshrined in the Code; Law, Honesty, Mercy, Courage, Knowledge, and Honor. They are usually straightforward in application to daily life, but there is a body of written interpretations from the Council of Dallaran that covers unusual situations and moments when the Virtues are in conflict. Commoners of Riavan are unlikely to study those writings, but most Nobles will keep an advisor specifically to assist them through these sorts of quandaries. A major part of the identity of any Riavanite is the village, or other community, they live in. The Vresh, original founders of the Sovereignty, rarely give birth to a single child; twins, triplets, or even quadruplets are more common. Over the millenia, this created a sense of community responsibility for the raising of children since there are always so many of them to care for, teach, and also have as help in daily life. A typical Riavan citizen will be proud of their own family, but also the families of the town they grew up in or live in now. The Guardian Families are an outgrowth of this viewpoint. While they are more focused on their own, personal, family, they have risen to their prominence in large part because they are viewed as seeing the entire Sovereignty as one large “village” and acting accordingly. Forming the basis of the aristocracy of Riavan are the Guardian Families. While not all Nobility come from these families and not every member is a Noble, they are all respected as being part of a long tradition of service, power, and wealth within the Sovereignty. Each family is said to be the guardian of one of the Virtues of Civilization, hence the term. While Black and White are the base heraldic colors for all of the Families, each has its own symbol and often a third color used as trim or accent. The Kyver are the Royal Family of Riavan. They are the guardians of Law and their bloodline has ruled the Sovereignty as Archons for time immemorial. Members of the Kyver family often serve as members of the Royal Household, Principality Nobles, and special Envoys. Aside from Noble positions, the family also has an extensive presence in the general bureaucracy of the Nation, has large estate holdings, and is known as a dedicated patron of the arts and skilled craftspeople. The Kyver family symbol is an Owl. Only actual members of the Royal Household may use the Quill heraldry of the Nation. They use Purple as an accent color. The Alithian family are the guardians of Honesty and make up a disproportionate number of Paladins in the Nation. In addition, they are engaged in banking, often chosen to be Magistrates and clerks, and are known for their vast array of vineyards and other delicacies. The Alithian family symbol is a Scepter. They use Blue as an accent color. The Elomeres are guardians of Mercy and are renowned negotiators, diplomats, and mediators. If an Envoy of the Archon is not a Kyvar, it is mostly likely an Elomere. The Elomere family is also the primary patron of the Languis Sanitarium, a place for Blood Witches to learn their craft while tending to the lepers gathered there. The Elomere family symbol is a Bear. They use Red as an accent color. The Windel family are guardians of Courage and have a long tradition of military service and prowess. Windels are often military advisors to Noble courts throughout the Sovereignty as well as generals in the Royal Army. Their leadership is generally well respected thanks largely to the family tradition of first serving in the enlisted ranks before seeking advancement. The current Lady of War, Marshal of the Sovereign Royal Army, is Countess Helena Windel IV. The Windel family symbol is a Lion Rampant. They use Green as an accent color. The Treliopolos family are guardians of Knowledge and often serve as teachers, scribes, and Court Magicians throughout the Sovereignty. In addition, they are heavily involved in golem crafting, staple crop farming, and building mundane roads and bridges. The Treliopolos family symbol is a Tome. They use Gold as an accent color. The Redbrook family are guardians of Honor. They are known for their extensive studies of the Code and often serve as Paladins and court advisors on it. The Redbrooks also have extensive mining holdings throughout the Sovereignty worlds. The Redbrook family symbol is a Mountain Peak. They use Grey as an accent color. Spire is the capital world of the Sovereignty and homeworld of the Vresh. From here, the Archon rules from the Steel Eyrie, a palace of shining metal and glass set on a plateau overlooking the city of Rial. Legend says that Rial is where many Vresh came together to form the Sovereignty under the banner of the First Kyver. The terrain of Spire is quite rugged, with many mountain ranges, harsh steppes, and frequent thunderstorms. Villages can be found at any elevation, including in cliffside dwellings balanced precariously over long drops to the ground below. Vresh do not experience much fear of heights and so find Spire, and similar worlds, more habitable than most. Visitors to Spire are often surprised at just how many people live there. The world of Telaron is very similar to Spire, and many other worlds of the Sovereignty, in the mountainous terrain and windswept cliffs bordering pastoral valleys and deep oceans. High in the Carvelekos Mountains lies the Dae’Kos Monastery where the Anchorite known as The Sedate lives and writes. The Monastery is within the direct holdings of the Sovereign Archon, but contact is minimal and conducted through Envoys only. A more pleasant world than most in the Sovereignty, Miskalopos is known for its abundance of cattle farms and croplands in addition to the extensive iron and copper mines. The world is held entirely as a single Duchy by Duke Thomas Redbrook, Lord of Eskarion. He rules from the Ducal seat of the city of Eskarion. Also nearby is a Monastery of Dae’Kos known for its vast collection of Anchorite writings. Verkk Cold, even for a Sovereignty world, and as rocky and sheer as any other, Verkk is known for the caliber of soldiers that are trained there. Due in part to this reputation, four decades ago the Archon established a Royal Army training academy there. It is nicknamed “The Drop” for the particularly sheer terrain and persistent rumors that recruits must leap from a suspended platform high in the mountains in order to graduate. The Windel family is unsurprisingly well represented on Verkk, but all the Guardian families are present and the world is divided into various holdings as is usual for a Sovereignty fiefdom. Reliskar is a world in existential peril. It is here that the Teras Akir, the invaders from beyond, are currently making their push to claim another Sovereignty world. Twenty-five years ago this was a world on the rise. The Elomeres had settled it a century previous and the colony was thriving with a bustling population of merchants, farmers, artisans, and more. On the cusp of being granted status as a new Sovereignty fief Reliskar was attacked by the Teras Akir. Today, the armies of the Sovereignty engage the enemy across the landscape. Slowly, but with seeming inevitability, the invaders are creeping forward. Half of Reliskar is now there’s and it is only a matter of time until a fourth world joins the Lost. Two hundred years ago on the Sovereignty world of Selkesa, a Baronial military patrol encountered the Teras Akir. Faced with this strange new creature, the sergeant in command attempted to parlay. His overtures of peace were met with savage violence followed by a full scale invasion. Since then, three worlds have been conquered by Teras Akir and are now known simply as the Lost. Riavan mourns and fights on. People of Note Archon Kyvar ascended to the throne of Riavan a short three years ago after the death of her ruling uncle after a long illness. Her appointment was a surprise to all of the aristocracy and she has faced the challenge of proving her mettle despite being only nineteen at her ascension. With the continuing encroachment of the invaders from beyond she can ill afford any wavering in the support of her vassals and people. Sotar Ailithian rules one of only six principalities in the Sovereignty and is one of the most powerful figures in the realm. She is known for her toughness, loyalty to her vassals and retainers, and strict interpretation of the Code of Dallaran. In her youth she is said to have summarily executed a knight in her household upon discovering that he had taken a bribe. When questioned about whether she had forgotten the virtue of Mercy in that moment she famously replied, “The family was spared.” Helena Windel IV is the highest ranking military officer of the entire Sovereignty. She was appointed by the previous Archon and was quickly confirmed in her post by Archon Alessa after coronation. Her reputation is that of an unparalleled military strategist, but little is known of her private life aside from her status as a Tribute of the Lyceum of the Sword. Thomas Redbrook has ruled the Duchy world of Miskalopos for the better part of five decades. Now a distinguished old man in his eighties, Thomas rarely leaves his castle walls except for an annual visit to Teralon. There, as he has done for sixty years, he walks the Pilgrimage of One Thousand Steps to visit with The Sedate and discuss new insights on Dae’Kos. Each time, it is said, his advisors remind him that the Pilgrimage need only be walked once to be permitted to see The Sedate. Each time he tells them that every day he is a new man and must prove himself worthy once more. Lysenthi Ki’Rel arrived at the Royal Court fifteen years ago as an emissary of the Children of Dragons seeking to foster good relations between the Basilica and the Sovereignty. Since that time he has impressed the palace courtiers with his wit, charm, compassion, and competence. A Larelti originally from the Hotanga Alliance, Lysenthi has found a new home in Riavan and two years ago was made an official subject of the Sovereignty and palace advisor. Humans are the most common species in the Sovereignty next to the Vresh. They are a common sight in almost any world, though rarely penetrate to the ranks of the ruling Nobility. This has been a source of ongoing tension for years and has only escalated since the Archon’s coronation. In addition to Humans, members of any species may be found within Riavan. Awakened Golems Golems who Awaken within the Sovereignty are not immediately freed. However, a Golem may earn their freedom through acts of virtue and heroism as determined by their owner or a Noble with authority in the area. Khezeratt of the Sun and Stars Riavan and the Khezeratt have enjoyed a good and productive relationship for many years. Despite their restrictive laws about religion, the Khezeratt has many similarities to the Sovereignty. They understand the role of a monarch in protecting the common people and the stability that faith can bring to a nation. The Hegemony is a strange and often honorless place. They are devoted to their promises, it is true, but can only be trusted to the letter of them and not their greater meaning. It is a nation of little virtue, but can be traded with in a cautious manner. We have not forgotten their attempts to invade in years past, however. The Republic has an odd, and inefficient, government, but they have been allies and friends since before the Fracture struck. Our officers share drinks with theirs, our soldiers sing songs with theirs, and their people are decent, if conceited. They attack, they steal, sometimes they kill. There are many reasons to dislike and distrust them, but they also have some honor in their ways. And when a colony was attacked by Hegemony mercenaries, the Calid Circle Raiders halted their own assault to help defend our villages. They are poorly governed in many ways but they are a good market for our merchants. We have traded with them for many years and it is a beneficial relationship for us both. The military of Riavan is distributed throughout the vassal structure. Each Noble who rules a fief becomes obligated to provide a certain number of soldiers to their liege when called upon. These many patchwork local forces are stitched together into one large army through the use of instructors commissioned by the Sovereign Royal Army to unify training and equipment standards. In addition, when called upon, local units fall under the command of the officers of superior Noble courts, all the way up to the Archon herself. In centuries past the Royal Court’s standing military might was a fraction of what it is today. Vassals carried a far greater share of the burden at the more local level. With the advent of the Teras Akir, however, the ranks of the Archon’s army have steadily increased. Known as the Sovereign Royal Army, it has become both a coordinating layer to harness vassal troops, but also a large military power in its own right. The commanding officer of the Sovereign Royal Army is called a Marshal. Established through the charitable work of the Elomere family, the Languis Sanitarium was established on Spire as a facility where Blood Witches and lepers both live. The former to learn and practice their craft, the latter to seek some measure of comfort and hope. Much of the work of the Sanitarium is palliative as no cure has yet to be discovered. But since much of the rest of the Sovereignty shuns lepers and requires them to be kept apart from the citizenry, the Sanitarium is seen as a place where they might be treated as people again. The Sanitarium has a mixed reputation in the Sovereignty. Some see it as a beacon of Virtue that others should strive to emulate. Others view it as a wretched waste and those who work there as unclean. In either case, few can argue that the Blood Witches who study there are some of the most skilled in the Many Worlds. No subject of the Riavan Crown grows up without seeing the effects of the invasion of the Teras Akir. From stories of their dark and slithering forms to the icy horror at the news of a world becoming Lost, they are harbingers of fear and loathing throughout the Sovereignty. Even now, however, there is precious little known of them. They are shifting alien figures, they are unrelenting, and while the Army can slow them down, their appearance on a world means it is only a matter of time before they claim it as their own.	21,539
This has been quite a year, quite a ride. It has not been a Sunday drive on a prairie road, men in the front and wives in the back, narrow pavement rolling endlessly on to the horizon. This has been the road to Tofino, or one of the ones students tell me about when they get back from the Indian Himalayas. Corners too sharp to see around, steep drops next to the tires, panoramic views you don't dare stop to admire, and no idea what is to come. You may have heard things about me. The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. So are the reports of my retiring, quitting or finally deciding I needed a break. The truth is that as of the end of May 2011, I am losing the opportunity to continue my role at Qwanoes, after nearly 24 years of involvement with that ministry. The why's of this dismissal are not mine to give, and I am not even entirely clear what they are. But I am sad about it, upon the advice of my friend and current pastor, Mark Buchanan. He told me that I need to lament this loss, treat it with the respect it deserves. Not long before this year of Kaleo made its shaky start, a number of people who were watching told me that this would be a Year of Grace. From the beginning that word has shown up again and again, along with the reality it represents. Waves of grace, one after another, washing, smoothing, filling, energizing. "And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1:16)." Grace replacing grace. There is no way we could have made it this far without it; and there is no doubt that the changed hearts and lives we have seen so far are a work of the grace of God. I remember when Justin, one of last year's interns, told his students at our final chapel that because they had been given much grace, they must offer much grace to those around them. Examples of that teaching abound in the gospels: the parable of the unforgiving servant, the sermon on the mountain, Jesus' own example. This is where the rubber hits the road. It is possible by faith in God to receive his grace, but the real evidence of that faith is in the grace we deal out. Faith without works is dead. Is it just me, or is that really hard? I love the grace of God. I told someone recently that grace feels like cheating, or like magic. Things happen that shouldn't really be possible, stuff turns out that wasn't going to, there is energy still pouring out of a jar that by all reasonable estimates should have been empty ages ago. I love feeling forgiven, knowing I am saved, bought with a price that makes me shudder in admiration. But it is hard to give it away. I remember hearing about cases where people who lived in poverty all their lives, having barely enough to survive on, suddenly come upon relative wealth. You would think that after all they have suffered, they would become the most generous people ever with their new-found riches. Not so. Often, they become selfish and proud, with no thought for their former neighbours and friends who are still in poverty. Very often, their paranoid hoarding of resources ruins them. Jesus, don't let me be ruined. Funny thing is, when I do share, it feels good. It really is more blessed to give than receive. I always find it more fun to watch someone open the gift I gave them than to open their gift to me. So why this reluctance to share the grace given to me? Here it is: They don't deserve it. That is the very nature of grace. This is not like giving a Christmas gift to a friend; it's like giving one to that guy who fingered you when you beeped at him for cutting you off, or to a kid on the street who you know is going to sell it for drugs. What's more, it won't be appreciated, and maybe not even understood. And they might ask for more. I can handle giving, but grace sucks! Let me give to people who are worthy of my grace, who know its value! No, it is no good. That is not how grace works. That is not how I received it, and I cannot offer it that way. O God, may I love like you! Not out of my need or their deserving, but out of the abundance and overflow of your grace toward me! May I understand the unending wealth of your grace, and not grasp at it like a child snatching at bubbles, but be a channel of your grace, a riverbed flowing full and free. A short while ago, I watched a Chemainus Theatre production of A Christmas Carol. Well done by all, but the character who moved me the most was Marley's Ghost. The unrepentant in that theatre house must have all been shaken with fear or rage, because Marley preached the Gospel with both barrels. Speaking of the tormented spirits that Scrooge is watching, Marley says, "They seek to interfere, for good, in human matters, and have lost the power for ever." The opportunity to convey the grace given us is very temporary - we can only do it in this lifetime. Not that the grace of God is shut up by our avarice; like a stream that is dammed up by debris, the grace of God will find a way. But we can miss the opportunity to be its means, and will regret it. "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." Jesus, may we follow you. This is going to take much faith, and it is by grace we are saved, through faith. To love and give grace without thought of repayment would be foolish without faith in the One who calls us to it, who holds for us a reward far beyond what we can expect from anyone in this lifetime. It may be a wild ride ahead, and there is no better thing I can do but join Jesus on the back seat of the bus, fast asleep because his Father has the wheel. Posted by Jim Badke at 7:36 pm 7 comments: Mel said... So good to have your words back out here! I've missed them, thank-you, feels like I just had a big drink (spiritually speaking of corse!) Blessings! 18 December 2010 at 23:25 I've been checking your blog often hoping you would share some more of your thoughts. This last post strikes a resounding chord with me. Thanks for the challenge. 19 December 2010 at 17:55 Mary said... And you told me my blogs were long! But yours are very well writtenand more interesting. I hope you are resting well and enjoying the holidays! 20 December 2010 at 10:21 It's wicked good to still hear your words of wisdom even though it's a break right now :) 21 December 2010 at 14:37 You've left me with a lot to think about Jim. I guess not only think about, but do. Thank you Jim. 29 December 2010 at 20:31 May we not only rest deeply as Father drives around the crazy corners of the road but also wake up and dance with Jesus on the roof of the bus!(That's right, DANCE with Jesus!-come on Jimmy!) The best is here and much much more is to come! Hallelujah! 4 January 2011 at 15:57 Sarah said... Despite my belief that God is and will continue to use you for the Kingdom wherever you are, I am sad to hear that you are leaving Qwanoes. You have filled an essential role there for those 24 years; I can testify personally that your insight, wisdom, and compassion have impacted numerous lives in an eternal way. God's blessings as you move forward. Sarah Baitis (formerly Baldwin), CIT 98, LIT 99 6 February 2011 at 13:26 Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Books by Jim Badke The Mummy of Fisher Creek My New Novel: As The Eagle Walks Jim Badke Jim Badke writes from more than 40 years of experience in camp and church ministry. He and his wife Sarah live by the shores of Cowichan Lake on beautiful Vancouver Island.	8,452
A Yellow Rose Project is a large scale collaborative photographic project made by women all across the country conceived by Meg Griffiths and Frances Jakubek. Re/member/construct at Filter Photo by Aline SmithsonSeptember 21st, 2018 Next week, the events for the 2018 Filter Photo Festival get underway, and along with the Portfolio Reviews, lectures, workshops, and artist talks, are a number of Over the next month, I will be sharing the work of photographers who attended Review Santa Fe in June. Archives Select Month December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 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 January 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 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007	2,941
WealthRocket is reader-supported. When you buy through links on the website, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more Top 5 Stocks in a Recession Why you can trust us? The team at WealthRocket.com only recommends products and services that we would use ourselves and that we believe will provide value to our readers. However, we advocate for you to continue to do your own research and make educated decisions. If you’re new to the world of stocks, you might be wondering if you picked up your new hobby at the worst possible time. And while it’s true that the word “recession” seems to be on everyone’s mind these days, we’re here with good news: there are such things as recession-proof stocks. In This Article Of course, nothing in life is certain—especially not the stock market. We’ll always recommend that you tread extra carefully in extra uncertain times. But here’s a list of the industries who have historically proven themselves to be recession-proof, or at least highly recession resistant. Allow us to state the obvious: recession or not, we all rely on utilities on a daily basis. While spending on “extras” tends to decrease when people feel a squeeze on their discretionary income, utilities like water and electricity are usually the last thing to cut from a budget (and something nobody cuts by choice). As a defensive stock, i.e., a stock that remains relatively stable regardless of the economy’s performance, utilities have historically been a safe bet. This neutral nature does also mean that you shouldn’t expect to see massive income gains from a utility stock, but if slow and steady is what you’re looking for, don’t forget to look at stocks in things like gas, electricity, and water companies. You don’t need to be a marketing maven to know that certain items are more recession-proof than others. No matter what the economy is like, people are still going to be buying core food items like grains, dairy, and produce. Don’t forget that this also includes non-edible items like toothpaste, deodorant, and haircare products. And, because everyone has different definitions of which items are “essential”, you could even include beauty products like makeup and self-care items like bubble bath in this. To determine whether or not a stock is a consumer staple, look to the some of the most commonly used household items in your house and think about where these items are sold. Keep in mind that many of these items belong to a parent company. If the items are mostly sold at a grocery store or pharmacy, then chances are that they’re essential and can weather a recession (or a pandemic, or everyone’s favourite “double whammy” of a pandemic and a recession). Speaking of pandemics, if there is anything that these past few years have showed us it’s the importance of healthcare-related products and services. Healthcare industries—even the ones in their infancy—are likely to show resiliency during a recession. No matter what the economy Canada doesn’t have the same level of privitization in its healthcare services as our southern neighbours, but there are still some healthcare-related options if you’re looking for recession-proof stocks in Canada (though you do also have the option of buying US stocks). Try looking for pharmaceuticals or healthcare technology companies, though you might want to avoid trendy healthcare start-ups. Hard times are low-priced retailers shine. While many of us would happily spend a few extra dollars to shop at a store with a better atmosphere, variety, or customer service standards, all of these superficial preferences go right out the window when we’re paying close attention to where our dollars go. It’s this logic that makes financial experts count discount retailers among their list of recession-proof stocks. To determine whether or not a retailer is considered “discount”, think of establishments that offer a “no frills” shopping experience and where the average ticketed item is a few dollars less than competitors. 5. Freight and Transportation We wouldn’t have any of these recession-proof industries if it weren’t for freight and transport. And even with a (very) messy supply chain, many speculate that the freight, transportation, and logistics world is a safer bet than others, if not a recession-proof stock. This is a suggestion with a catch: make sure you do your research before you pull the trigger on a transportation stock. It’s been a rough couple of years for the industry and you don’t want to invest your money in a company that might become insolant in a few years. We can’t predict the future, and if there was anyone left who thought they could, the past few years have definitely proven them wrong. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t rely on cues from our economic past to dictate the moves we make to protect our future. Before you make your next big move on the stock market, ask yourself if your company of choice is essential to the operating of society. If the answer is yes, then there’s a good chance that it’s recession-proof. Frequently Asked Questions Should you buy gold in a recession? Gold is often cited as a reliable way to beat inflation and make it through a recession. But unfortunately for prospective buyers, the cost of gold also has a pattern of increasing in cost by the time a recession hits. Therefore it’s best to buy gold when the thought of a possible recession is looming, although this much foresight might not always be possible. It is then that the price of gold will be lowest. What stocks are hit hardest by recessions? Historically, industries that cater to the “wants” (as opposed to the “needs”) of people will be hurt the hardest in the times of a recession. This includes things related to travel and tourism (like hotels and vacation packages) and restaurants. It may also include things like automobiles and real estate as people are more likely to hold on to what they already have in hard times. Luxury retailers are also hit harder than discount retailers, even if they sell similar items. Should you buy gold in a recession? Gold is often cited as a reliable way to beat inflation and make it through a recession. But unfortunately for prospective buyers, the cost of gold also has a pattern of increasing in cost by the time a recession hits. Therefore it’s best to buy gold when the thought of a possible recession is looming, although this much foresight might not always be possible. It is then that the price of gold will be lowest. What stocks are hit hardest by recessions? Historically, industries that cater to the “wants” (as opposed to the “needs”) of people will be hurt the hardest in the times of a recession. This includes things related to travel and tourism (like hotels and vacation packages) and restaurants. It may also include things like automobiles and real estate as people are more likely to hold on to what they already have in hard times. Luxury retailers are also hit harder than discount retailers, even if they sell similar items.	7,296
This Update looks at the future of the Islamist political movement, especially in Egypt, in the wake of the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-led Morsi government there early this month. It also includes an analysis of the state of Islamist politics in another important nation – drawing conclusions about Turkey’s Erdogan goverment based on its handling of the recent unrest in that country. The first piece comes from American Middle East expert Reuel Marc Gerecht of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. Gerecht predicts that the power of Islamism – the political ideology that sees the key to both power and the “good life” as fully supplied by Islamic religious sources – is largely unshaken and probably still represents the views of the majority of Egyptians. He argues that the new ruling alliance between liberals and the military may win the next election but that it will be viewed as illegitimate by many or most Egyptians and the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups will be preparing – through violence and/or grassroots work – to return to power in the longer run. For his analysis in full, CLICK HERE. Additional informed views on the role of Islam and Islamism among Egyptians come from academic expert Fouad Ajami and Washington Institute specialist Eric Trager. A somewhat different view comes from Israeli strategic analyst Col. Jacque Neriah, who argues that the overthrow of Morsi was a significant blow to Islamist movements throughout the region, sending the message that Islamist triumph is not inevitable and can be subdued by moderate and liberal forces. He notes the significant mistakes made in governance by the Brotherhood, but also argues that the forces in Egypt resistant to Islamist theocracy proved much stronger than most analysts realised. Neriah also goes on to discuss the implications of the crisis for Israel and various future scenarios. For all the details of his analysis, CLICK HERE. More on Israel’s responses to events in Egypt here and here. Finally, this Update contains a look at what we now know about Turkey’s Islamist government – from Swedish expert on Turkey Svante Cornell. Cornell argues that it has been apparent for some time that Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had strongly authoritarian tendencies, but that his reaction to the recent unrest in his country – including the invocation of paranoid and even antisemitic conspiracy theories by Erdoğan and those close to him – has made these very obvious. Cornell calls for Western states, and especially Washington, to now reassess their relations with Erdoğan – to cease legitimizing and elevating a man increasingly divisive even within Turkey – and to look for ways to support and empower “those political forces, whether within or outside the Islamic conservative movement, that are committed to a pluralistic and democratic Turkey.” For Cornell’s analysis in full, CLICK HERE. A video interview with Dr. Cornell on Turkey is here, while American foreign policy pundit Walter Russell Mead has more on the antisemitism in Turkey’s ruling party here. Readers may also be interested in: Stephen Cook looks at past Egyptian army interventions against the Muslim Brotherhood and the lessons they offer for this time around. Michael Totten discusses why so many reporters and analysts got the Muslim Brotherhood so badly wrong. Two examples of antisemitic conspiracy theories that have emerged in Egypt surrounding recent events – here and here. Plus, Egyptians launch a lawsuit against officials who reportedly met with an American Jewish group. Avi Issacharof reports that Egyptian army efforts to clean up the lawless Sinai over recent days appear to be the most serious and concerted ever. The deterioration of the Egyptian economy in charts. Reports that the situation of Egypt’s already persecuted Copts has worsened since the overthrown of the Morsi government. Isi Leibler writes about the problematic divisions within the Israeli government and continues his discussion of the fraud allegations in the Holocaust Claims Conference. Some examples from the many stories and comments now appearing at AIJAC’s daily “Fresh AIR” blog: Jeni Willenzik writes about the latest evidence from Egypt that al-Jazeera is not an independent news agency but essentially an arm of the Qatari monarchy. AIJAC analyst Or Avi-Guy is interviewed about Israel’s approach to events in Egypt on Sky News. Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz discusses racial hatred laws in a piece published in the Australian. The Washington Post, 12th July 2013 How will the Egyptian army’s coup against the elected Muslim Brotherhood government affect Islamism, intellectually and politically the most consequential movement in the Middle East since the 1960s? Do the brethren see their fall as a rejection of their religious beliefs? Should they? Historically, it’s impossible to imagine Islamic militancy without the Brotherhood. Founded in 1928 against British imperialism and a rapidly Westernizing Egypt, the Brotherhood became the flagship for Sunni fundamentalism. Secretive but populist, contemptuous of state-paid clergy, intellectually syncretistic (socialism, fascism and European anti-Semitism blended into their “authentic” faith), the brethren became widely popular in Egypt as the army’s experimentation with radical Arabism and crony capitalism failed. The real strength of the Brotherhood movement, along the Nile and beyond, has always been its public faith and private virtue and its appealing historical narrative for Muslims who see the prophet Muhammad as a paragon — a people’s greatness flows from moral rectitude. The downfall of the general-turned-president Hosni Mubarak two years ago caught the brethren off guard. Thirty years ago, they opted for coexistence with the security state: Abjuring politics, they focused on missionary and social work. They became “neo-fundamentalists” who envisioned the collapse of the Egyptian police state one convert at a time. With the intense democratic debates among Arab intellectuals that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Iraq war, Islamic fundamentalist movements increasingly adopted a democratic lexicon and started, however tepidly, to struggle with the contradictions between popular sovereignty and the Holy Law. The brethren’s embrace of democratic politics always hinged on an old-fashioned Sunni assumption that the majority of Muslims couldn’t be bad Muslims. The recent massive demonstrations in Egypt certainly show that many Egyptians who voted repeatedly for the Brotherhood — in parliamentary elections in 2011 and 2012, in the presidential election last summer and to adopt the new constitution in December — hit the streets against them. This has shocked some of the brethren and provoked Islamists elsewhere to reflect on the intersection of religion and politics. Although religious tyranny secularizes society (see Christendom/the West), the Brotherhood’s “rule” was probably too short, ineffectual (real power remained with Egypt’s army and security services) and morally tepid. Women’s social status when President Mohamed Morsi fell was about the same as when he was elected. Western “bikini tourism” and easy access to alcohol — controversial issues for Islamic fundamentalists — had not been touched. Tied up in the elemental problems of governing with little authority, the Brotherhood hadn’t really formulated, let alone tested, its conception of the “good life.” For the secular opposition, this is a big, and probably lethal, problem. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, religious zeal among the common faithful has been burned out by the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and three decades of corrupt, oppressive clerical rule. Onetime Islamists have become trenchant critics of theocracy. Similarly, the appeal of secularism in Iran was widespread in the 1950s and ’60s but died slowly under the shah, as a Westernizing dictatorship and the economics of a modern centralized state bulldozed traditional society and kindled a politicized religious awakening. The electoral triumph of Turkey’s Islamist-friendly Justice and Development Party was also long in coming, partly because the Turkish military checked the democratic expression of the country’s religious hinterland. It is inconceivable that the corrupt and cruel Egyptian army could stage-manage a better evolution to a non-Islamist democracy than had the Turkish army, which was, comparatively, neither corrupt nor cruel. What the Arab Middle East has not seen since before World War I — when Egypt experienced a brief efflorescence of secular liberalism — is a real competition between Arab liberals and devout Muslims who see politics largely as an extension of their faith. The latter is, unquestionably, still a majority in Egypt. (The Holy Law is the law for most Egyptians, who have been living outside the country’s calcified, ineffectual legal system of imported European codes.) Many young secular Egyptians — and their Western fans — appear not to know this. They imagine having a liberal democracy in which advocates of sharia and the Islamic tradition cannot win an election, write the constitution or otherwise shape society except along secular lines. Westernization has been so successful in Egypt that perhaps a third of the population may no longer share basic cultural mores with the religious majority. Egyptian liberals, and the rest of the intellectually diverse opposition to the Brotherhood, turned to the street and the army — Egypt’s real ruler since 1952 — to compete. It’s an umbilical relationship that is now unlikely to be broken. Morsi, an incompetent, boring and inarticulate demagogue, will not return. But Egypt’s enormous systemic problems remain. The military may try to jury-rig elections in which the brethren could compete but not triumph. Mindful of recent Turkish history, senior officers will not allow vengeful Islamists to compete, win and neuter the army. Egypt’s problems are now the responsibility of the military and Egyptian liberals. The odds are that they will fail abysmally, and in their failure, the Brotherhood and other Islamists will recapture the street. Egypt’s experiment with democracy is probably over. Egyptian secularists may win the next election, but many — probably most — Egyptians will see the vote as illegitimate. Islamism grew strong in Egypt in opposition to unlawful power. Islamists may return to violence — the holy-war arguments advanced by the Brotherhood theologian Sayyid Qutb are more readable now. More likely, the brethren will rally their followers in the streets and return to neo-fundamentalism, biding their time until the Egyptian army cracks. Contrary to what the Facebook liberals proudly boast on Tahrir Square, the game is far from over. Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He served in the CIA’s Clandestine Service from 1985 to 1994, specializing in the Middle East. Back to Top Egypt after Morsi: The Defeat of Political Islam? Jerusalem Issue Briefs, Vol. 13, No. 19 12 July 2013 The Muslim Brotherhood’s 80-year dream to take over Egypt ended in a fiasco, barely one year after one of its own was democratically elected to the office of President of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood lost its power because it did not correctly assess the opposition, because it was eager to dominate all key positions in the state, and because it did not foresee the possible coalition between the liberals and the army. The Brotherhood’s loss is definitely a gain for those struggling against jihadist and Brotherhood-inspired groups in the Arab world, sending a message that political Islam can be subdued by moderate and liberal forces. The situation in Egypt that brought the end of Morsi’s presidency was an unwritten alliance between the army and the mass protest movement. In such an eventuality, regimes stand no chance to survive. Israel allowed the Egyptian army to deploy in Sinai, in violation of the terms and agreements governing the deployment of the Egyptian army under the peace treaty, in order to combat jihadists in Sinai, allowing Egypt greater freedom of movement there in order to preserve the peace treaty. Israel is interested first and foremost in maintaining the status quo relating to the peace treaty, and to contain, if not eradicate, the jihadi presence in Sinai. Having the Egyptian army at the helm today makes it easier for Israel to deal with Egypt. In Egypt on July 3, 2013, for the first time in the modern history of the Middle East, an Islamocracy was ousted from power. The Muslim Brotherhood’s 80-year dream to take over Egypt ended in a fiasco, barely one year after one of its own was democratically elected to the office of President of Egypt. The army, which had been severely beaten a year ago by the same failing president, made its comeback after having warned all year that it would intervene if “Egypt was about to fall into an abyss.” Since this counter-revolution, Egypt is being governed by a coalition of so-called liberals who opposed the Muslim Brotherhood, backed by the army and the defense establishment. Still, it is a divided, destabilized Egypt that might be on the brink of civil strife due to the violent opposition of the Brotherhood which refuses to accept its political defeat. What are the main lessons to be drawn from the Egyptian case, and what are some possible future scenarios? The Defeat of Political Islam Many analysts who follow Egyptian politics have repeatedly stated that the Muslim Brotherhood, a very well-organized political faction that hijacked the revolution in Egypt, would be dominant for years to come due to the weakness of the opposition and liberal forces. To strengthen their argument, these analysts pointed at the Brotherhood’s strong organization, resolve, and political acumen. Moreover, President Morsi’s firing of the top brass of the Egyptian army in August 2012, following an attack by jihadists in Sinai who killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, and the eclipse of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which had ruled de facto since the resignation of President Mubarak, convinced many that the old concept of Egypt being a military society ruled by a junta of officers belonged to the past. It was believed that the army had lost its resolve to fight the Muslim Brotherhood as long as its interests – mainly economic – were protected. Events proved this analysis wrong: The Muslim Brotherhood lost its power because it did not correctly assess the opposition, because it was eager to dominate all key positions in the state, and because it did not foresee the possible coalition between the liberals and the army. The Brotherhood’s loss is definitely a gain for those struggling against jihadist and Brotherhood-inspired groups in the Arab world, sending a message that political Islam can be subdued by moderate and liberal forces. There is a misconception about Egyptian domestic reality that is anchored in superficial knowledge of the forces within the Egyptian body politic. Since there is no real way to take the pulse of the “street,” most information, including polls on domestic opinion in Egypt, comes from biased sources that do not reflect the situation on the ground. As a result, many analysts fell into the trap of the Brotherhood’s propaganda and underestimated the strength of the opposition. They concluded that there was no way the opposition could overcome the Brotherhood’s apparatus. In fact, a look at the results of the presidential elections indicates that 49 percent of the voters opposed the Muslim Brotherhood. Some even claimed that Morsi lost the elections, and that SCAF, manipulated by the U.S., conceded victory to Morsi in order to avoid bloodshed. In any case, since the beginning of his presidency, one could see that the Brotherhood’s efforts to change Egypt into an Islamocracy were met by opposition that became more vociferous and emboldened by the day. Years of Mubarak’s dictatorship were not to be replaced by a Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship. Unwillingly, Morsi had to call on the army to restore law and order, and as events unfolded, especially after January 2013 when cities along the Suez Canal declared a revolt and announced their autonomy, Morsi became more dependent on the same army he had wanted to confine to the barracks. It was Morsi’s mistakes that brought the army and liberal forces together, a development he could not have foreseen. When Morsi realized that the army had sided completely with the opposition, he tried a last-minute maneuver to replace the Defense Minister and Commander of the Egyptian Army, Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. But Gen. Sisi had taken the initiative first, and instead of being sacked like his predecessor, Field Marshall Tantawi, he was the one who announced to Morsi that he was no longer president. This reflected the Brotherhood’s shortcomings in their political analysis of the domestic reality in Egypt. Vulnerability of Regimes Facing Mass Protest Events in Egypt have illustrated once more the strength of mass protests. Most of the regimes in the region cannot withstand the shock of mass protests, and the use of live ammunition against such protests can only worsen the situation. Both in Egypt and Tunisia, regimes fell because of mass protest, and because the army chose not to take part in the protest and open fire. The situation in Egypt that brought the end of Morsi’s presidency was an unwritten alliance between the army and the mass protest movement. In such an eventuality, the regimes stand no chance to survive. Again, the role of the army in politics is primary: It has always been the main factor that will maintain regimes in the Middle East, and it will remain so in the near future. The Questionable U.S. Role No doubt the U.S. is a big loser in Egypt, together with its newly acquired friends in the Muslim Brotherhood. Many in the Arab world raised an eyebrow when President Obama pushed President Mubarak to resign. Many more could not understand the shift in American thinking toward a pro-Muslim Brotherhood policy. The U.S., which was championing democracy in the Middle East (and elsewhere), accepted a policy led by Morsi that was diametrically opposed to its own creed. Moreover, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson made it very clear a few weeks before the July events that she did not believe in any viable alternative to the Morsi regime. It seems that at a certain point, facing the crumbling of regimes following what romantics called “the Arab Spring,” the U.S. assessment was that it should side with moderate Islamist forces in the region in order to maintain a presence, to protect U.S. interests, and to preserve the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. This policy was not welcomed in the Arab Gulf states and Saudi Arabia (except Qatar), which did not see eye to eye with the Morsi regime. In Egypt, it led to mistrust and very quickly transformed into open animosity toward former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Patterson. In fact, besides Israel, over the past two years the U.S. has become the most hated foreign entity in Egypt. Now the U.S. has to go back to the drawing board in order to redesign its policy in the Middle East. The events have proven that old axioms are not time-resistant and one should adapt to new realities. The new reality is that the Middle East is not homogenous and the interests of all the various groups must be considered. Has Israel a Role to Play? It is commonly said in Egypt that Israel was an active partner of the Morsi regime. However, Israel came to terms with Morsi in order to restrain Hamas in Gaza, and was rewarded by the fact that Morsi’s Egypt (unlike his predecessor) accepted responsibility for Hamas. Moreover, Israel allowed the Egyptian army to deploy in Sinai, in violation of the terms and agreements governing the deployment of the Egyptian army under the peace treaty, in order to combat jihadists in Sinai. According to some sources, intelligence relations between the two countries were never as positive as they were in the Morsi era. What transpired in Egypt did not take Israel by surprise. Nor did Israel ignore Egyptian resentment against it. From its actions one can assess that Israel is interested first and foremost in maintaining the status quo relating to the peace treaty, and to contain, if not eradicate, the jihadi presence in Sinai. Having the Egyptian army at the helm today makes it easier for Israel to deal with Egypt. However, the situation remains explosive: a return by Hamas to a policy of armed confrontation with Israel, and/or a terrorist action conducted from Sinai against Israeli targets inside sovereign Israeli territory, could re-ignite a crisis situation between Israel and Egypt. Basically there are four possible scenarios that could unfold in the coming days/weeks: 1. The events will be the start of a liberal democracy, more or less in line with what occurred in the Wafd era in the 1920s and ‘30s. The chances that this scenario will materialize are almost nil. This would require the Muslim Brotherhood to accept its defeat and participate again in the political process, which will probably not happen. It assumes also that the army will quickly retreat to its barracks. Judging from the timetable of the “road map” presented by the new leadership, this option seems problematic, especially in an atmosphere full of violence. 2. The second scenario for Egypt is a harsh crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis by the military, followed by a bloody civil war. This is already happening. It could mean a return to the days of Nasser when thousands of Muslim Brothers were jailed and their leaders hanged. 3. In a third scenario, events could quickly turn sour. The army could lose the street’s sympathy following widespread abuse of human rights. A forced return to the barracks could leave Egypt in chaos. Maintaining power could mean more abuse of human rights. 4. A military takeover – This last scenario could become realistic if the domestic scene does not stabilize. The military might be tempted to declare itself the ultimate ruler, a throwback to the times of the young officers who toppled the monarchy in 1952. To sum up, Egypt will be facing an immense challenge domestically, which means that most of the leadership’s energy will be focused on dealing with domestic politics. This could create a vacuum of power in Sinai, allowing the jihadists to expand their attacks against both Egyptian and Israeli targets. Hamas might be tempted by a return to arms, but unlike the past, its mentor and sponsor will be absent. Facing those developments, Israel will have to maneuver by allowing Egypt greater freedom of movement in Sinai in order to preserve the peace treaty. Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence. Back to Top JINSA, July 12, 2013 In the aftermath of Turkey’s urban uprisings, many have expressed bewilderment at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s outlandish reaction. Whereas the Prime Minister had multiple opportunities to prevent the demonstrations from escalating, he never missed an opportunity to miss those opportunities, lashing out at foreign and domestic enemies for planning a protest movement that was so obviously spontaneous. As Erdoğan and his mouthpieces have blamed everyone from foreign media and airlines to the “interest rate lobby” and “Jewish diaspora,” Erdoğan is rapidly becoming a liability to his foreign friends. President Barack Obama is sure to regret having mentioned Erdoğan as one of the five foreign leaders with which he has the closest “friendship and bonds of trust”. Indeed, Erdoğan’s Turkey has taken on an important role in Obama’s policy toward the Middle East, and according to numerous sources, Erdoğan is among the foreign leaders Obama speaks with most frequently. But Erdoğan’s authoritarianism is not new. Anyone watching Turkey for the past several years has had plenty of opportunity to see Erdoğan’s slide. Did the White House not know or not care? And what should American policy toward Turkey be now? Crises are excellent tests of human character, and the reaction to the urban uprisings have displayed a number of facets of Erdoğan and his closest associates. First, his disdain for dissent: he shocked many by calling the protestors hooligans, and by threatening businessmen and other public figures that sided with the demonstrators. Second, his reliance upon repression: the excessive use of police force, tear gas and rubber bullets against protestors was not coincidental; it was intentional, and there can be no doubt that it was sanctioned by Erdoğan personally. Third, his peculiar, majoritarian understanding of democracy: during the demonstrations Erdoğan repeatedly underscored their illegitimate nature by emphasizing that he received 50 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections. Tellingly, the mass meetings he convened in response were dubbed “respect the national will.” The implication is clear: if you are the other 50 percent, you have no say. Fourth, perhaps most remarkably, Erdoğan showed the extremely conspiratorial mindset that permeates his government. This is worth dwelling on. From very early in the crisis, Erdoğan argued that the protests were not spontaneous at all, but long planned and intended to stop Turkey’s roaring success. In the days and weeks that followed, Erdoğan and his associates rolled out a long list of conspirators. Some, like Lufthansa, were quite unlikely candidates. But a deputy minister told this author, with a very straight face, that the planned mega-airport in Istanbul would be so large that it would rob Frankfurt of its leading position as a European hub, hence the German airline’s supposed wish to generate chaos in Turkey. Sadly, some culprits were entirely predictable. When Erdoğan first mentioned the “interest rate lobby” and “foreign media” as culprits having planned the protests, the implication was not clear to everyone. But by June 15, the main AKP mouthpiece, Yeni Şafak, dispensed with the pretenses: on its cover page, it blamed a Jewish cabal for having planned the demonstrations. The paper claimed that a host of American neo-cons – most of whom are Jewish – had attended a February 2013 seminar at the American Enterprise Institute aimed at turning Taksim into Tahrir square. Not staying at that, the paper claimed that the entire exercise – and AEI itself – were funded by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and that Jewish businessmen had taken out ads in the New York Times to support the protests. As for the concept of an “interest rate lobby,” it is shorthand for a mysterious cabal supposedly led by Jewish financiers, as pro-AKP newspapers reported already in 2012. Erdoğan himself only hinted at this, mentioning that it included “those we said ‘one minute’ to”, referring to his public spat with Israeli president Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in 2009. His Deputy Prime Minister, Besir Atalay, was more direct: on July 2, he told reporters the “Jewish Diaspora” was behind the events. Erdoğan’s references to the “foreign media” complete the picture: during the 2009 Gaza war as well as during his 2011 election campaign, Erdoğan darkly referred to “Jewish-controlled” world media. Thus, while establishment opinion in Washington advanced Erdoğan as a democrat, and suggested his brand of “moderate Islam” be advanced as a model for the Arab upheavals, Erdoğan and his closest circles were openly displaying a worldview increasingly reminiscent of the radical Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, in which the Jews are the source of all their problems. Similarly, his penchant for repression was obvious long before Taksim. His government has spent the past five years jailing hundreds of political opponents on largely trumped-up charges. And while he is currently seeking a negotiated end to the Kurdish conflict, his government has also jailed thousands of Kurdish activists and politicians in the past three years. In fact, Turkey is known to jail more journalists than any other country. During his tenure, Turkey – never a bastion of media freedom – has seen a decline of freedom of expression. Erdoğan has made it a practice of suing critical journalists for libel, and of exposing them publicly, often leading to their firing by nervous editors. In parallel, the government has taken over some media groups and broken up others, ensuring their sale to loyal business groups. As a result, Turkey has fallen like a rock on Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, from 102nd place in 2008 to 154th in 2013 – six spots behind Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And most blatantly, for the past three years, Erdoğan’s main focus has been on changing Turkey’s constitution, to introduce a presidential system of government reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s, in which Erdoğan himself would serve as president until the hundredth anniversary of the Turkish republic in 2023. Importantly, this authoritarian slide is very much about Erdoğan personally: in the process, he has alienated important parts of the Islamic conservative movement, who have distanced themselves from his policies. Where Erdoğan seeks to concentrate power and speaks of Turkey’s “shared values” with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, both President Abdullah Gül and the influential community led by Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gülen are now rhetorically, at least, committed to further democratic reform and the European Union, and oppose Erdoğan’s presidential ambitions. Several cabinet ministers and a good chunk of the AKP parliamentary group feel the same way. All of this raises a first question: has the Obama White House been concerned about Turkey’s course, and if so, has it utilized its close relationship with Erdoğan to state its concerns? Before answering that question, we must contend with the widespread notion that America has little influence on Turkey’s domestic development. Turkey is a rising power, the argument goes, and America’s influence is retreating; in sum, America needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the United States. Yet this notion is mistaken. In fact, Erdoğan and the AKP are acutely aware of how critical American support has been for their position in power. Certainly under the Bush administration, American support for the AKP, and strong opposition to a military intervention, was an important factor in permitting Erdoğan to neutralize the military and secular establishment as a threat to his position. Indeed, this is best illustrated by the anger felt by Turkey’s Kemalists against the United States, which they accuse of supporting the stealth Islamization of the country. This perception is intensified by the conspiratorial mindset prevalent in Turkey. Most Turkish leaders, whether Islamic or secular, sincerely believe that America is capable of creating unrest in most countries of the world at the push of a button in CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Every statement coming out of Washington is scrutinized for clues to American intentions, and the Turkish government is keenly aware that it cannot afford alienating the United States. Consider the turn of U.S.-Turkish relations in 2010. The Gaza Flotilla and Ankara’s increasingly pro-Iranian policies on the nuclear issue combined during the spring of that year to cause a crisis in Turkey’s relations with the United States. Erdoğan and his Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, realized they had gone too far, particularly after President Obama told Erdoğan at the G20 summit in Toronto that he did not appreciate Turkey’s approach to the Iranian issue – the only known dispute between the two men. Within months, Ankara had backtracked, and moreover agreed to the deployment of U.S. missile defense installations on Turkish territory, putting the relationship back on track. Similarly, when Obama urged Erdoğan to accept Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apology for the Turkish deaths in the Gaza flotilla in May 2013, Erdoğan obliged. All this suggests that the United States – and the Obama administration in particular – have immense clout in Turkey, the question being merely whether they are ready to use it. From what is in the public domain, it is clear that the State Department was under no illusions about Turkey’s domestic trajectory. Documents released by wikileaks shows that from 2003 onward, U.S. diplomats in Turkey were reporting in detail about the worrisome developments in Turkey. This included allegations of high-level corruption, the increasingly isolated nature of Erdoğan’s leadership, and the increasingly Islamist character of his government. Yet in public, the Obama administration has been largely silent. The administration has occasionally reacted to Turkey’s rhetoric on Israel, most recently when John Kerry called Erdoğan’s comments equating Zionism with a crime against humanity “objectionable.” But officially the administration has been careful not to interfere in Turkish domestic affairs. That is understandable, given Erdoğan’s notoriously thin-skinned nature, which he displayed on several occasions in 2011 and 2013, hitting back publicly at U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone’s mild criticism of Turkey’s human rights record. Nevertheless, given the personal relationship between Obama and Erdoğan, the U.S. President is in a unique position to have a positive influence on the Turkish leader. Yet in the public domain, there is no inkling of Obama having raised issues relating to Turkey’s domestic record in a meaningful way before the Taksim protests, which forced the Administration to urge restraint, while refraining from condemning the violence against demonstrators. The question is whether this policy of non-interference has reached the end of the road. If America wants a stable, democratic Turkey as a key ally in the Middle East, can it afford not to seek to rein Erdoğan in? Taking a step back, the wisdom of pointing at Turkey as a “model” or inspiration for the Arab upheaval becomes worrisome. For if the Obama administration and western commentators saw in Turkey the compatibility of Islamism with democracy, it is likely that Islamists across the Middle East saw something else: an example of how to achieve and consolidate power through elections. Indeed, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, there has been a tendency since 9/11 to look for “moderate Muslims” with a searchlight, extending the benefit of the doubt to any Islamist political force that rejected violence and pledged allegiance to the democratic system. The AKP was the poster child, but the logic extended to more radical forces as well, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Yet the concept of “trust but verify” appears to have been absent. Indeed, American officials were eager to believe the AKP when, from its creation in 2001, it claimed to have reformed itself, repudiated Islamism, and become a conservative party comparable to the Christian Democratic parties of Europe. Given the speed and top-down nature of that transformation, it would have made sense to support the AKP’s leadership in its stated ambitions, but to monitor its performance accordingly. And whereas the AKP appeared to stick to its moderation during most of its first term in office, authoritarian and Islamist inclinations very clearly appeared to make a comeback around 2008. Yet neither American nor European supporters of Turkey appeared to be monitoring this development or stating their concern when Erdoğan’s authoritarian tendencies were becoming apparent. Instead, western leaders seemed eager to dismiss such criticism and stick to their support of Erdoğan’s democratic credentials. Yet America’s stance on Turkey is important in a broader regional perspective. For if Turkey is a “model”, then America’s stance on Turkey is, too. And Erdoğan’s record is suggestive of the Islamist understanding of democracy: he has made clear on numerous occasions that he represents the silent, conservative Sunni Muslim majority of Turkey. Since he represents the majority, he has the legitimacy to pass any law he considers appropriate, and to interfere in any matter he considers relevant. Minorities, in turn, should adapt to the demands of the majority. This approach is not only Erdoğan’s; indeed, it was adopted wholesale by Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi, who interpreted his 51 percent of the vote as a license to run Egypt as the Brotherhood’s fiefdom. Both Erdoğan and Morsi showed a majoritarian and purely technical understanding of democracy: not as a system of values including the rule of law and the protection of minorities, but simply as the rule of the majority. Where to go from here? Several recommendations are in order. First, the stance taken by the U.S. matters considerably. Erdoğan has been legitimized and elevated by the friendship Obama has bestowed on him. From this point onward, the way Washington treats Erdoğan will be keenly observed by all forces in Turkey, and will be a factor determining Erdoğan’s future. The most obvious question is whether Erdoğan continues to deserve the level of attention and amity he has enjoyed so far. In fact, Erdoğan is increasingly a divisive force that is no longer driving Turkey in a positive direction. Instead, his naked ambition for unlimited power is becoming a danger for the country’s stability and development. While Islamic conservatism is the new dominant political force in Turkey, it is not monolithic. As mentioned, both President Gül and the influential Gülen movement have positioned themselves in opposition to Erdoğan. Simply put, Erdoğan is not the only game in town. In this situation, America’s continued focus on working more or less solely through Erdoğan is both myopic and counter-productive. At a point in which the Prime Minister is alienating core elements of his own Islamic conservative base, and yielding the center, the time has come to de-couple American policy on Turkey from the personality of the Prime Minister. Simply put, the United States no longer needs to focus its attention on Erdoğan. He is Turkey’s Prime Minister, and it would be ridiculous to seek to circumvent him; but the relationship must be focused on institutions and values, not on personalities. It is time for the United States to indicate, by its actions and statements, that it is supportive of the forces in Turkey that are committed to democratic reform and western values. This means paying less attention to Erdoğan and his close circle; and to call them out on their increasingly objectionable policies and rhetoric, whether it be the repression of demonstrators or anti-Semitic conspiracies. And conversely, it means supporting and empowering those political forces, whether within or outside the Islamic conservative movement, that are committed to a pluralistic and democratic Turkey, rather than the rule of the majority. And while trusting these forces, remember to verify. Svante Cornell is a director and co-founder of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy, and Research Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (CACI), a Joint Center affiliated with the ISDP and Johns Hopkins University-School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Back to Top Share on Facebook Share on Reddit Share on Email Share on Print ← Previous article Next article → Nov 22, 2022 \| Update Nov 11, 2022 \| Update After election win, Netanyahu set to be Israeli PM again Nov 4, 2022 \| Update Oct 28, 2022 \| Update Oct 13, 2022 \| Update Insights into Iran’s protest movement Oct 7, 2022 \| Update Fresh AIR Update from AIJAC Email address: Apparent mass amnesia at Brighton Secondary College hearing December 6, 2022 The Russo-Iranian alliance comes to Europe December 1, 2022 November 30, 2022 November 30, 2022 November 29, 2022 Apparent mass amnesia at Brighton Secondary College hearing December 6, 2022 The Russo-Iranian alliance comes to Europe December 1, 2022 November 30, 2022 November 30, 2022 November 29, 2022 ABOUT	42,132
The 4th July is traditionally the day that we reach out to family and friends across ‘the pond’ and wish them a Happy Independence Day. The national holiday, marked by patriotic displays, commemorates the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on July 4, 1776, when the Continental Congress declared that the American colonies were no longer subject to British rule and were now united, free, and independent states. This year however, the celebrations were somewhat curtailed by news that the hacking group REvil carried out the biggest ransomware attack to date has hit U.S. businesses, with some estimates suggesting that as many as 1,500 businesses were affected. The gang targeted Kaseya, an IT and security management services provider, by hijacking the firm’s unified remote monitoring & management desktop tool VSA, to push a malicious update to its customers. REvil launched the attack on 2nd July and demanded $70M for a universal decryptor. In announcing the breach Kaseya stated: “We are in the process of investigating the root cause of the incident with an abundance of caution, but we recommend that you immediately shutdown your VSA server until you receive further notice from us. It’s critical that you do this immediately because one of the first things the attacker does is shutoff administrative access to the VSA.” The breach was so severe that the FBI have worked with Kaseya in supporting those organisations affected. In a brief statement the Bureau said: “The FBI is investigating this situation and working with Kaseya, in coordination with CISA, to conduct outreach to possibly impacted victims. We encourage all who might be affected to employ the recommended mitigations and for users to follow Kaseya’s guidance to shut down VSA servers immediately. As always, we stand ready to assist any impacted entities.” Even President Biden became involved. 10 days after the attack, and 95% of businesses affected are back up and operational thanks to the deployment of a patch. Given the scale and nature of the attack, questions are being asked of Kaseya’s security. An article published by Bloomberg highlights claims made by several Kaseya ex-employees suggesting that the company had been made aware of potential security flaws within VSA on several occasions but did not act. Issues surfaced included outdated code, weak encryption and passwords, and perhaps most damning of all, failure to adhere to basic security practices such as regular patching. It will be some time before the full implications of the attack on Kaseya are known. The company has received some plaudits for the speed in which it alerted customers on discovery of the breach and its subsequent communications but what of the long-term reputational damage? Again, this attack demonstrates organisations must adopt a ‘Prevention first strategy’ when it comes to cyber security. It may be boring, it may be repetitive but its essential. If you’d like to find out more about vXtream’s approach to system and data security, then get in touch now. Update: 26th July 2021 In a statement today Kaseya stated: “Kaseya has maintained our focus on assisting our customers, and when Kaseya obtained the decryptor last week we moved as quickly as possible to safely use the decryptor to help our customers recover their encrypted data. Recent reports have suggested that our continued silence on whether Kaseya paid the ransom may encourage additional ransomware attacks, but nothing could be further from our goal. While each company must make its own decision on whether to pay the ransom, Kaseya decided after consultation with experts to not negotiate with the criminals who perpetrated this attack and we have not wavered from that commitment. As such, we are confirming in no uncertain terms that Kaseya did not pay a ransom – either directly or indirectly through a third party – to obtain the decryptor.” E-Mail Comments are closed.	4,121
Sephiroth is considered one of Final Fantasy’s best villains, but apparently there’s someone new which threatens Sephiroth’s position at the top. It’s the Shadowbringer! The best villain in Final Fantasy can be hard to guess and decide. There are so many good options. FF7 and Remake’s Sephiroth is among the most popular villains and also called a ‘baddie’ by fans. People have started to think that her story after all is not quite impressive after the introduction of Shadowbringer! He possibly can take the crown away from Sephiroth! Final Fantasy has a number of famous villains in the JRPG franchise. Characters such as Kefka and Sephiroth are the top of a lot of bad guys due to their huge power and impact on the memories of gamers. These characters are great but another villain can join them and possibly completely take over them. The one who threatens all their position is obviously, the Shadowbringer. His name is Emet Selch and his fighting skills, power are arguably the best in the series. When talking about a bigger picture, we get to know that Emet is the one who does not have a character of pure evil. It’s rather surprising to see how well evolved the character is turning out to be! Every conflict is brought back to Emet-Selch from the opening scene of the Shadowbringers to the close of the game. The immortal reamer doesn’t worry about waiting for his plans to be fulfilled thousands of years. Selch is a part of the Astians. Which apparently is the rest of the race before the planet was shattered into thirteen separate universes. This group seeks to join the world’s shards with the goal of reviving their god and returning their people to life. To achieve his objective, Emet-Selch takes a very different approach. Rather than facing the Scions, the group that seeks to stop their rejoining, he goes with them to learn what they have the power to do and if they’re worthy of being a successor. Emet-Selch emerges on this journey. The Warrior of Light starts to learn about the unfortunate luck of Ascians. Through several iconic moments in Final Fantasy XIV, the player discovers that Emet-Selch is only committed to starting The Rejoining to meet his dead friends and loved ones. As far as gameplay is concerned, the final fight with Selch is really an eye to look at. Given the Hades mantle, players undergo a multi-stage FFXIV trial that takes them to a dead end. Many mechanical stacking and positioning skills make the fighting mobile, and the climax of the fight ends with a shocking end which we would like you to experience yourself! You may also like How has Brexit affected household bills in the UK? December 2, 2022 House prices could already be falling as mortgage rates increase November 20, 2022 Inflation shows signs of slowing, but heating and food costs continue to rise November 11, 2022 About the author Tom Fiore is a Gamer and an Ex-Celebrity Photographer. He lives in Texas, USA. He loves gaming and photography to his core. With the passion to spread right knowledge and keep himself updated with the industry too, he started ScoopZone24 in 2014. You can see him quite often writing articles about the latest games launched and his exclusive opinions on some of the best tech gadgets he owns.	3,336
AJ Smith was approached by a guitar company to teach ukulele to a space traveler and now is having his first show in Annapolis. Smith says 2021 has been a great year for him. Martin Guitars approached the multifaceted instrumentalist and singer-songwriter to teach civilian astronaut Christopher Sembroski how to play his favorite song, “Colors” by Black Pumas, so he could perform it on the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission that launched Sept. 16. After a few sessions via Zoom, Sembroski, an Air Force veteran, began his journey to space with the ukulele in hand, courtesy of SpaceX. Smith is coming to Rams Head On Stage on Saturday for an all-ages matinee show at 1 p.m. Smith, who grew up in Northern Virginia, visited Annapolis for many summers to see his grandparents, who have lived here all their lives. And with his parents now residing in the city, he spent part of his COVID-19 lockdown time in Annapolis. He talked to The Capital about the upcoming show and being a part of the Netflix series about the all-civilian space mission. How did you keep busy during COVID-19 and the lockdown? I was playing porch shows for my parent’s neighbors and I would livestream it. I lived with my parents for a little during COVID, which was nice. Arts have always got us through things and that is when people get inspired. I couldn’t tour or do the things I wanted, so I had to think outside the box and push myself to write new things. it was a good introspective thing for me. I wanted to make people happy and have a good time while listening to music because everything else was so bleak. The lockdown shifted how I look at my music. I wrote a lot of solo songs. How does it feel being back in Annapolis to perform? The last time I performed in front of a crowd in Annapolis was during those porch shows. Before that, I never played a real show in Annapolis; most have been in the D.C. area. I did some acoustic shows in Annapolis but not a show. I am excited this is my first real show ever in Annapolis. I can’t count the other ones. Both my grandparents will be there, my parents, sister and a lot more family. Local singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist AJ Smith is coming to Rams Head on Stage on Saturday, Oct. 2nd. It’s a matinee show at 1PM (Courtesy The Bloom Effect) How will it feel performing in front of family? It is always the best. My parents were the ones I was performing my songs for growing up. So it is always nice playing in front of them. I have something special for my grandma, I wrote a song for her called, “Grammy.” It will be the first time live performing it and can’t wait to see her reaction. You have a new song coming out on Oct. 8, called “Cooler” can you tell me what it is about? I wrote the song a couple of years ago that’s about my first date with my now-fiance that I got engaged with during COVID. It is about the nerves you have and the insecurities you have when you meet someone new and you want them to like you for who you are. You are wondering if you are saying the right things and am I cool enough? The Annapolis crowd will be able to hear this song before anyone else in the world. You worked with an astronaut from SpaceX how did that collab come about? I have been working with Martin Guitars, and they are supplying me with a guitar to take on tour. They reached out because they were building the ukulele that was going into space with Sembroski. He never played the ukulele; he is a guitarist, well, engineer. He isn’t a professional musician. The guitar was too heavy to take on the spaceship, and they weigh everything by ounces. We set up Zoom lessons for a month and got on a couple of times a week and taught him how to play. He performed for patients at St. Jude’s hospital from space. Great experience. Local singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist AJ Smith is coming to Rams Head on Stage on Saturday, Oct. 2nd. It’s a matinee show at 1PM (Courtesy The Bloom Effect) You have some engineering experience yourself, so how did that come full circle with music and space? I was nerding out. Our lessons would run way over because I would just ask him questions about space. I was always passionate about engineering. My first job/internship was at the [U.S. Naval Research Laboratory]. I got to learn a lot there. I was building infrared sensors. But music was the calling to me, and I had to do it and I don’t regret that at all. I do enjoy it when I get to reconnect with that nerdy side of my brain; it is always fun. It was a glimpse of where my life could have gone. You were technically a part of the Netflix series Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space. How does that feel? It feels pretty cool to be a part of this historic moment, even if it is a super small part. I didn’t help build the rocket, I just helped one of the astronauts feel more comfortable bringing music to space. It was a huge moment with civilians going up there. Eventually, we will have concerts up there. Maybe they will invite me up next time and I could play up in space. That would be awesome. What should the crowd be ready to see on Saturday? They should be ready to see me play six different instruments. My band is awesome. We are going to have a crazy awesome time. We are going to be playing big pop songs. If you like Queen and Bruno Mars, there is a lot of inspiration coming. If you want to see someone sing and play the violin, that is what I’m going to be doing.	5,486
ENT Specialists will be collecting diapers for the Annual Lydia House Diaper Drive until December 9th. Click Here to Learn More. Disposable Vs. Rechargeable Hearing Aid Batteries: Which is Right for You? By: admin \| August 26, 2022 Rechargeable batteries are becoming more and more common for hearing aid users as they allow the ability to reduce how many batteries they need to buy over their hearing aids’ lifetime. Technology has evolved in such a way that hearing aids are becoming more technologically advanced, and the introduction of rechargeable batteries is a welcome addition for many hearing aid wearers. However, it is essential to know that not everyone will benefit from rechargeable batteries for their hearing aids. Discussing this with your ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor can help you determine the best battery for you to use to prolong the life of your hearing aid. A disposable hearing aid battery sits on the hearing aid inside a little compartment and is easily removable to allow you to change it when required. Disposable batteries usually last around two weeks, depending on usage and care. Rechargeable Batteries Rechargeable batteries sit inside the hearing aid and are inaccessible. When the power is running low, you simply need to put the hearing aid in the recharging dock or inside it to charge. But what options are best for you when it comes to choosing disposable or rechargeable battery hearing aids? Most hearing aids are designed to fit disposable batteries meaning you get a greater choice of styles and options than choosing rechargeable battery-operated hearing aids. Rechargeable hearing aid batteries are only available for behind the ear, receiver in canal, in the ear and in the canal. Using disposable batteries is simply more convenient for some lifestyles. If you wear your hearing aids for extended periods and are out on the go, you may find the conveniences of disposable batteries perfect. Being able to replace the battery as required and not worrying about needing to plug in your charger can allow you more freedom and flexibility. Plus, if you have been wearing hearing aids for a long time, you will be more accustomed to changing the battery. Most hearing aid wearers store their hearing aid accessories together, meaning spare batteries will often be kept with their other supplies in the same place. A hearing aid charger will need to be placed conveniently to allow for easier charging and access and be safe from damage. Another concern people have with rechargeable hearing aid batteries is the charging unit and wire becoming damaged, meaning you then need to replace the whole unit instead of just the battery. There is no denying that changing over to disposable hearing aids can be tricky. They are small in size, and if you have poor dexterity or limited sight, it can be hard to keep changing the battery over continually. When using a hearing aid with a rechargeable battery, you simply need to ensure it is docked correctly. Safer for Children and Pets Small batteries can be hazardous for small children and pets. There is a risk that small batteries are easily swallowed, causing health concerns for both children and pets. If you are concerned about children being able to access your batteries, swapping over to a rechargeable battery can be a good option as it is safer for everyone at home. Environmentally Friendly Rechargeable hearing aids use one battery per year, depending on the use and the model. Traditional hearing aids using disposable batteries can go through around 100 batteries in the time-space and usage-dependent model. Modern hearing aids come with newer features and capabilities, including being able to stream music, movies and TV shows by using Bluetooth. While there are great additions to hearing aids, they can also drain the battery, making replacing batteries more expensive and opening up your hearing aid to more damage from excessive handling. If you use your hearing aid for either of these features, it can be worth investing in hearing aids with rechargeable batteries. If you plan to use either one often, rechargeable are a better bet. Instead of going through disposables faster, you can simply recharge your hearing aids. If you want to learn more about hearing aid batteries and which is the right one for you, contact your ENT doctor. Here at ENT Specialists, we will help you find the best choice for your hearing aid needs. Call us today at (402) 983-9948.	4,589
Filter blog posts by Christ and Culture Quotes Events Good Word Spiritual Disciplines Uncategorized Missions Ministry Spotlight Ridgeline News Personal Growth Sermon Series Visual Theology The Bible Project Gibson Largent Cherie Leatherman January November August May March February November June April February April March February January December November October September August June November 16, 2018 by Gibson Largent Keep Reading Love for the Letter Writer August 31, 2018 by Cherie Leatherman Keep Reading February 23, 2016 by Gibson Largent A celebration and summary of "A Night to Shine" prom for people with special needs, hosted by Ridgeline and sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation.... Keep Reading The church as a super-natural community January 9, 2016 by Gibson Largent Keep Reading Love for the Letter Writer August 31, 2018 by Cherie Leatherman \| Category: Uncategorized Several years ago I had the wonderful opportunity to head to Florida for 10 days with a friend. I was a homeschool mom with 2 young and energetic (and not all that interested in school) boys, and my husband made it possible for me to have this time away to simply rest. As I was walking out the door, my husband handed me a pack of letters with instructions on the envelope t... Keep Reading December 9, 2015 \| Category: Uncategorized \| Tags: adoption, justification, saved, orphan Miriam Webster defines adoption as "to take by choice into a relationship".Not only did God send His Son to pay the debt we could never pay, but he also adopts us as His own. As we watch the Gregoires bring Trey into their family, we can all catch a glimpse of the beautiful picture Paul paints by using the term adoption. "The word adoption, like the word justification, ... Keep Reading September 23, 2015 by Gibson Largent \| Category: Uncategorized Today's post comes from one of our partner churches outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. Every weekday pastor Craig of First Church of Colleyville, Texas posts a 2 minute video devotional called "Morning Thrive." These videos are a great way to start your work day!! Bitterness and boredom make for a miserable thought life! There aren't many other combinations that produce long te...	2,312
After hearing Sam Quinones on EconTalk, I finally stopped procrastinating and read Dreamland. It only took a few days over which every other activity was a distraction from finishing the book. Dreamland provides a unified story of the opiate epidemic starting in the late 1990s with both the overall social trend and close-ups on the lives of dealers, addicts, doctors, cops, epidemiologists, and mourners. I’ve watched every episode of Justified and read Case and Deaton PNAS 2015, so I was not surprised by the broad argument of the book that a shift in medicine towards prescribing opiates created ubiquitous chemical dependence that was eventually met by black tar heroin, all of which disproportionately affected rust belt white people. What made the book amazing to me even knowing the broad contours of the social facts it describes was how every detail of the book illustrated and illuminated another aspect of sociology. As I remarked on Twitter, my discipline of sociology could very well treat Dreamland the same way political scientists treat History of the Peloponnesian War. In no particular order, here are a few of the themes I noticed. The dealers who come up from Xalisco, Nayarit to live for a few months in spartan conditions working long hours driving around with balloons of dope in their mouths are motivated by relative deprivation. As more and more dealer-migrants return to Xalisco flush with cash this creates a new standard of living in the village and transforms being an impoverished sugar cane farmer from just how life goes to a status that can be rejected. But relative deprivation is too weak to explain Xalisco life, which is better characterized as competitive feasting straight out of Mauss’s The Gift. Xalisco-style potlatch can occur whenever a migrant returns with suitcases full of Levis 501s to disburse to a receiving line of supplicants, but is especially centered on the corn festival, where migrants would compete by sponsoring banda performances (104). Interestingly, while dealers often planned to save enough wages to capitalize a small business, they tended to dissipate their wealth in gifts to family and “the rest on beer, strip clubs, and cocaine, and walked the streets of Xalisco for a week or two the object of other men’s envy” (261). This envy is something Quinones emphasizes repeatedly and the way it is formed by public feasting and is sublimated into a need to reciprocate so as to restore honor, which in turn creates the labor supply for black tar heroin retailing as men seek another bundle of cash through which to engage in such honorable public profligacy. Social capital also plays a strong role in explaining how Xalisco drug crews operated, which was distinct from most drug dealers. Notwithstanding a handful of murders in the book, Xalisco dealers generally eschewed violence and never carry guns. Competing heroin crews had an approach of friendly competition rather than violent turf wars over territory. Quinones attributes this partly to their “pizza delivery” business model as compared to traditional corner slinging, but mostly to the thick interconnected ties based in a small rancho back home where everybody knows everybody. Another distinctive aspect of the Xalisco boys business model is that dealers earn a salary, whereas typically drugs are sold on commission. This would normally present a principle-agent problem, but it was not an issue for Xalisco dealers. Crew bosses did engage in monitoring through calling junkies to confirm that their dealers were prompt, polite, and the heroin was of high quality, but these monitoring costs were feasible because of the high level of trust. Crew bosses basically trusted their dealers because they weren’t junkies (Xalisco boys consider heroin disgusting) and they had thick communal ties from the rancho. This is the positive aspect of social capital, but there is also a negative sense of social capital in that men were pushed into drug dealing and returning to drug dealing by the insatiable demands to support relatives. That’s all supply side, but social capital also characterizes Quinones’s understanding of the demand side, though in a sense closer to Putnam than Portes, in blaming the rise of opiates on the collapse of community. In this aspect of the story Quinones is a staunch communitarian moralist, which didn’t bother me as I’m a communitarian moralist too, but YMMV and blaming opiates on the collapse of community was the only argument in the book that was more tell than show. On the prescription opiates side, Quinones tells the story of how medicine lost its traditional reluctance to prescribe opiates in the pain revolution and particularly the key role played by Porter and Jick NEJM. The article itself is a one paragraph letter noting that in-patients treated with opiates rarely became addicted. The role of this brief letter in the pain revolution is instructive for scientific epistemology. In terms of scientific epistemology it provides a valuable cautionary tale for the problem of generalizing beyond the scope of the data. The finding showed that in-patients receiving very conservative doses of opiates rarely became addicted but this was interpreted as it being completely safe to provide out-patients with liberal supplies of opiates. In Quinones’s telling, the article is something of a Sleeping Beauty citation, taking off after it was cited in a 1986 Pain article by Foley and Portenoy. However a Google Scholar search= shows that the article began getting cited almost immediately (the earliest citation is from 1982 in a nursing journal). Nonetheless the story of how a brief publication summarizing a single database query was interpreted well beyond its original scope conditions to justify risky changes to medical practice can provide grist for the mill of historians and sociologists of science. A key part of the story as to why people cited this tiny publication is because they wanted to believe it as it created a permission structure for prescribing effective but dangerous drugs and pharmaceutical detailing exploited this by promoting Porter and Jick, or even just the black-boxed factoid of “1% addiction rate” to physicians. A few other themes I noticed: . pharmaceutical detailing in opiates, as in all drugs, follows my model of obfuscated transactionalism and Quinones has a lot of material on the history of detailing . the submerged state gives Medicaid rather than cash transfers and a lot of diverted opiates came from pill mills paid for through Medicaid fraud . Xalisco boys engage in statistical discrimination by only selling to white customers who they see as less likely to rob them than black customers . chain migration characterizes some aspects of Xalisco boy migration, but they also are entrepreneurial in relying on junkies as scouts to explore new markets, including ones with no history of Nayarit migrants . doctors prescribed opiates in part to get patients out of their offices quickly and prescribed 30 day packs of pills rather than 3 day packs of pills to avoid return visits. Proper pain management is extremely labor intensive, but hard to get insurance reimbursement. This follows logically from Baumol’s disease in that as high-skilled medical labor grows more expensive, insurance companies will substitute capital (drugs). . reactivity is everywhere. Pain is part of doctor and hospital ratings, but iatrogenic addiction is not so doctors prescribe dope. Sentencing is based on large quantities of dope and carrying a gun so Xalisco boys carry only small quantities of dope and go unarmed. And oh yeah, there’s also some stuff in the book about how this is an enormous social and public health epidemic, killing tens of thousands of Americans a year and stealing the souls of many more — debasing them into the kind of people who steal their children’s Christmas presents to trade for pills. But I’d rather focus on how it provides material for developing theory because I prefer to be fascinated than livid and that attitude is how I made it all the way through the book only breaking down in tears once. Cross-posted at Code & Culture by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: The Enemy of My Enemy is My Myopia Recently on Twitter, Josh Barro said Romney’s Never Trump speech from the primary was better than he remembered and Matt Yglesias replied that “If Mitt had the courage of his convictions and played the Evan McMullin role he could have made a real difference.” This struck me as profoundly uncharitable so I screencapped the tweet along with Yglesias’s infamous “Why I’m More Worried About Marco Rubio Than Donald Trump” post. Yglesias replied to this pointing out that he was wrong to say Rubio was worse and that he had retracted that take a few weeks later which he followed up by a few other tweets saying it was a mistake and other liberals had it right in vociferously opposing Trump from day one. Now as I have previously remarked, the appropriate response to someone who rejects folly for any reason is to embrace them for it. My point in blogging this is not to further sneer at Yglesias but to acknowledge that pretty much everybody has in some way underestimated the threat of Trump and this is what made him possible. Most people underestimated Trump early on in the sense of seeing him as a problem that would solve itself, or perhaps as somebody else’s problem. For much of 2015 it was not absurd to see Trump as a clown seeking publicity who would drop out before certain disclosure-linked filing deadlines (just as he had in three earlier cycles). From this perspective you didn’t need to do anything to stop him as you could wishcast that he would drop out. Likewise, one could appreciate that Trump was a threat but focus on rivals within one’s own lane, which led to a collective action problem in challenging Trump. Hence the Jeb! Campaign and his Right to Rise super PAC squandered $100 million attacking Marco Rubio. Likewise, early in the primary Ted Cruz hugged Trump in the hope that he would sputter out and Cruz could then sweep up his voters. There was also a much more egregious version of underestimating Trump which was to have such contempt for one’s traditional political rivals as to actively prefer Trump to them. This was the mistake that Yglesias (briefly) made in seeing Rubio as worse than Trump and giving as reasons all the standard complaints a center-leftist has against a generic Republican. And of course a center-leftist is entitled to oppose a center-right politician running on a garden variety fusionist platform, but it is absurd for a center-leftist to say fusionism is worse than fascism. Likewise, consider why once Rubio dropped out that the party didn’t rally to Cruz as Romney begged it to do, the standard answer being that every Republican in Washington hates Cruz for his endless showboating and propensity to call everybody else a bunch of RINOs and the K-Street wing was afraid that he would be harder to redirect towards their petty venalities than Trump. Now, I can understand hating Cruz for this. I hated Cruz for his shutdown theatrics and generally being the poster-boy for median voter theorem denialist derp, but I still voted for him in the California primary because it was the best shot at stopping Trump. And yet the party as a whole was so focused on the last six years of Tea Party versus establishment fights that it couldn’t recognize that the party was on the verge of being taken over by a demagogue far nastier than some guy in a three corner hat. If people like this were running things in 1941, we never would have extended Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union and Hitler would have taken Moscow in time to redeploy half the Wehrmacht to the Atlantic Wall. The myopia of seeing Trump as somebody else’s problem, or worse, as less bad than my traditional enemy across or within political parties, is bad, but what makes it downright painful is there is every reason to believe the lesson has gone unlearned and that as a dog returns to its vomit so will we fools return to our folly. There was a preview of this “learned nothing, forgotten nothing” mentality a week ago when it briefly looked like the Republican party would convince Trump to resign and run Pence at the top of the ticket and the immediate response was a bunch of takes arguing Pence was just as bad or worse than Trump. Included amongst these was a piece from Vox, where Yglesias ran his “Rubio is worse than Trump” piece and the retraction a few weeks later. (Vox: The smartest thinkers, the tastiest vomit). We deserve this. All of us. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: we traced the demagoguery, it's coming from inside the house One of my favorite novels is Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. It’s a hard sci-fi novel based on the premise that scientists live in monasteries cloistered off from the rest of society. People outside the monasteries have attitudes and beliefs about them that the science-monks resent and consider ridiculous. Over the course of the novel our protagonist, one of the science-monks gradually comes to learn that the hazy and confused notions people outside the monasteries had about them were grounded in a kernel of truth about the science-monks doing some pretty scary things to reality and memory. This is a bit like being a conservative in 2016. For years we’ve been subject to libsplaining about right-wing authoritarian personalities and dog whistles to racism and our entirely sincere reaction was “that’s ridiculous.” For instance, when the Tea Party was in full swing, it was a really common thing to call it racist. (A Google search for “tea party racist” just gave me 1,070,000 hits). And the conservative response is what are you talking about, this is a small government movement and sure they have an unfortunate penchant for revolutionary war cosplay, PAC scams, and primarying anybody who doesn’t threaten a government shutdown over a bill to repeal the New Deal, but their hearts are in the right place, and have you heard how they clean up trash after their rallies? And then Trump happens. You see a lot of people who liked to wave around pocket Constitutions as they seemed like they were angry about government that was too big to drown in the bathtub are now supporting a man who wants to order the military to commit war crimes and engage in the greatest politicization of the economy since the National Recovery Administration. And you realize, these people weren’t angry about an expansion of the state or problems with the separation of powers, they were just plain angry. For decades fusionist ideology provided a rallying point that usefully sublimated our coalition’s politics into a rational and principled political program. And it was infuriating when liberals said, whatever, we don’t like your coalition and ignored what we were saying. But it turns out they knew something. Just as it is obviously true that the politics of late antiquity weren’t really about adoptionist Christology but this just provided a flag of convenience to separatist movements (and chariot racing hooligans), so it increasingly seems that our politics are epiphenomenal to more atavistic and tribal conflicts. To put it another way, 2016 was the year when Perlstein’s Nixonland showed that Nash’s Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 has a glass jaw. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: What Now After Trump clinched the nomination in Indiana, I see it as a foregone conclusion that we will have four years of Hillary Clinton and she will appoint replacements for Scalia and RBG, and very possibly a third or fourth justice, cementing a progressive majority for a generation. I also prefer this to a Trump administration. So the question is what is best for 2020. Obviously this involves a rethinking of the platform, and this time being sure that the base will agree to the new platform, but in the meantime there is an election and what should us Never Trump types do. I see two options: A. Unite behind a write-in candidate or third party candidate B. Quietly stay home or leave ballots empty (We will not be discussing C, make a Faustian bargain that will be so terrific you’re not gonna believe it, you’ll get tired of how much Mephistopheles will corrupt you) “A” has the appeal of increasing turnout for down ballot races and maintaining some salvage value for the conservative brand. It also gives us something to do other than make SMOD jokes until November. “B” has the appeal of denying the Trumpkins a credible “stabbed in the back” narrative. Suppose for the sake of argument that there are 50 million solid Hillary voters, 30 million solid Trump voters, 10 million voters who would go for Trump in a binary race but would defect to an alternative, and 10 million #NeverTrumps. In the two-person race, there is low turnout on the right and Trump gets beat 40 to 60 — a decisive thumping that would do a lot to kill his influence in 2020. In the three-person race, Trump gets 30%, generic conservative gets 20%, and Hillary gets 50%. That is the kind of outcome that invites a stabbed in the back narrative since, as we all remember from 2000, partisans assume third parties are poaching voters, not increasing turnout (and in 2000 they were right). This kind of stabbed in the back narrative would make it much harder to reconcile and rebuild the party around a modified platform (no more pushes for comprehensive immigration reform, a more Jacksonian foreign policy, and more comfort with tax and transfer). The other appeal of “B” is it avoids the problem that there is no “generic conservative” around whom to rally. Last night Ben Sasse had a thoughtful post declaring his insistence on voting for an independent candidate who is not named Ben Sasse (and I don’t blame him). Our founder and proprietor wants Romney to run again and I would gladly vote for him, but there is a real risk of it seeming like learning nothing, forgetting nothing. And third parties have their own problems. For instance, the Libertarian Party front runner is putting a substantive preference for social liberalism over thin liberalism. This is simply not a position that can get votes from the kind of principled social conservatives who are the core of the Never Trump movement. Moreover (unlike Johnson’s other positions conservatives dislike, like drug legalization) “bake the cake” is not even a libertarian position. RFRA is exactly the kind of compromise that fusionism is meant to encompass in providing potential common ground which allows people with socially liberal substantive preferences and socially conservative substantive preferences to coexist in the same polity and which moreover is based on the essentially libertarian ideological principle and freedom of association, freedom of contract, and voluntary exchange. But LOLjk, it’s really about telling “u mad bro” to the prudes and bigots. I find it very telling that libertarian intellectuals at places like Cato or Reason with strongly held substantive preferences for social liberalism support RFRA out of principle, but the Libertarian Party’s front runner Gary Johnson does not. Perhaps just as 2016 has taught us that Republicans (as compared to conservatives) are much less ideological and much more tribal or moral intuitionist than we thought, it may also in a much smaller way be telling us something similar about Libertarians (as compared to libertarians). by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: This morning Governor Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump for president. There was widespread speculation that this reflected Christie hoping for an appointment as Attorney General in the event of a Trump victory. This was met with widespread disgust from mainstream conservative intellectuals, all of whom despise Trump (and immediately prior to the endorsement were delighting in Rubio having learned to fight Trump at his own insult comic game). Over on Twitter, Josh Barro observed that it is precisely Trump’s outsider nature that makes endorsing him attractive for an ambitious Republican politician. “The incentive to get in with Trump is EVEN STRONGER than with a normal presumptive nominee.” “Most nominees have an entourage already: Senate staff, state house aides, large campaign staff, longtime political allies.” “When you endorse a normal candidate, you’re getting in line behind all those people for jobs. With Trump, you’re at the front of the line.” “Chris Christie has made himself, instantly and by a large margin, Trump’s most important ally. No endorser can do that with Rubio.” This struck me as very astute and reminded me of Gould’s 2002 AJS on The Origins of Status Hierarchies. This model starts with a cumulative advantage model for status. The trick with cumulative advantage models though is to avoid their natural tendency towards absolute inequality and so the models always have some kind of braking mechanism so the histogram ends up as a power-law, not a step function. For instance, Rosen 1981 uses heterogeneity of taste and diminishing marginal returns to avoid what would otherwise be the implication of his model of exactly one celebrity achieving universal acclaim. Anyway, the point is that cumulative advantage models need a brake, and Gould’s brake is reciprocity. Gould observes that attention and resources are finite and so when someone has many followers, they lose the ability to reciprocate with them. To the extent that followers are attentive not only to the status of a patron, but the attention and resources the patron reciprocates, then their high numbers of followers will swamp the ability of high status followers to reciprocate and so inhibit their ability to attract new followers. For instance, a grad student might rationally prefer to work with an associate professor who has only a few advisees and so can spend several hours a week with each of them than with a Nobel Laureate who has so many advisees he doesn’t recognize some of them in the hallway. In this sense, Rubio as the clear favorite of the party establishment has already recruited great masses of political talent. Should Rubio win in November, he will have an embarrassment of riches in terms of followers with whom to fill cabinet positions and other high-ranking political roles. That is to say, Rubio’s ability to reciprocate the support of his followers is swamped by the great number of followers he has acquired. (I’m talking about followers among the sorts of people likely to be appointed to administration positions, I’ll get to voters later). This then makes some potential followers decide to affiliate with a patron who is not too busy for them, and hence Chris Christie is hoping to spend the next eight years building RICO cases against people who use the term “short-fingered vulgarian.” But, there’s a problem with this, which is that status itself provides resources, especially in a system where power is not continuous but winner-take-all. (The discontinuity of is really important, as Schilke and I argued recently). In this sense, it shouldn’t matter that a candidate with few endorsements has the fewest supporters competing for patronage because that candidate would lose and so not have patronage to allocate. That would be true if the political science model nicknamed “the party decides”(which we can generalize as the endogeneity of status competition) were true. But if that model were true, we would be seeing Rubio (who recruited the most intellectuals) or Jeb! (who raised the most money) as the clear front-runner and that is anything but the case since the GOP primary this cycle has been consistently dominated by outsiders (Trump, briefly Carson, and even Cruz, who is a senator but not a notably un-collegial one). This then suggests that we have to recognize that power, including the ability to allocate resources to followers, is not necessarily a function of how many followers one has. In ordinary times it might be, especially in the Republican party which normally follows the party decides model. However in this year it is clear that popularity in opinion polls and primaries/caucuses has no (positive) correlation with establishment support. This may be because Trump, like Lenin, is a figure of such immense charisma that he can defy the models. Or it may be that the base is revolting over a substantive issue like immigration. Or maybe the support of neo-Nazis with a bizarre interest in anime and the Frankfurt school is the secret sauce. Whatever the exact nature of why the party decides model is breaking, the fact is that it is. The Republican primary reminds me of Bourdieu’s model of a field of mass cultural production and a restricted field of production. Rubio is clearly dominating in the restricted field of elite conservative opinion, but that does him very little good considering how effective Trump is at the mass field. If we view the competition for endorsements not as an isolated system, but one that is loosely coupled to an adjacent system of competition for voters, then the status competition for endorsements is no longer entirely endogenous but there is a source of exogenous power shaping it. (In the Gould model this would be subsumed as part of Q_j). Hence Trump’s great popularity with voters despite his great unpopularity with party elites makes him more attractive than he would otherwise be to party elites who will break ranks and affiliate with the demagogue. In Trump’s case, his fame, wit, and shamelessness have gained him the support of voters and this has disrupted the otherwise endogenous system of endorsements, however the model could generalize to any source of power outside of the endogenous process of consensus building within party elites. A very similar model would apply to those political actors who welcome a foreign invader as supporters in domestic disputes they would otherwise lose. Americans take for granted that the opposition party will be a loyal opposition and so we abide by the maxim that “politics ends at the water’s edge,” which is why periods like the Second Red Scare (or from the other perspective, the Popular Front that preceded it) seem so anomalous. However for centuries, machinations to set yourself up as a client-state after relying on imperial powers to depose the current batch of elites is most of what politics was. In such a scenario, a political actor who lacks much power within the internal dynamics of oligarchy could still acquire followers if they seemed to be favored by the forces massing across the border. So we might expect a lot of ambitious mitteleuropean politicians to affiliate with heretofore minor fascist parties c 1938, or with heretofore minor communist parties c 1943. cross-posted at Code&Culture by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: Reihan recently tweeted “A thought: could it be that the problem with the world is people not caring enough about other people’s biscuits?” As I replied at the time, Kacey Musgraves’s “Pageant Material” has the potential to be even more fruitful for conservative thought than was Marilyn Manson’s “Mechanical Animals.” Much as Adam Smith is best known for Wealth of Nations but das Adam Smith Problem emphasizes the difficulty of reconciling his themes there with those in Theory of Moral Sentiments, we can use das Kacey Musgraves Problem to refer to how Musgraves both braces against and embraces gemeinschaft. As Reihan suggested, a central theme in Kacey Musgraves’s oeuvre is a rejection of the constraints of moral judgment. The verses of her current single, “Biscuits,” decry discussion of moral failings as nothing but the envy of lesser beings and the chorus advises to “mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.” Likewise “Follow Your Arrow” on the previous album mostly consists of a list of pairs of social expectations, each of which form a Scylla and Charybdis of prudery and libertinism. The explicit theme being that social acceptability is impossible and so do what thou willst. We thus see a theme of rejecting the slave morality that would constrain an East Texas ubermensch. But in parallel and contradicting this is an embrace of the inescapable necessity of community. We see this most obviously in “This Town,” which describes a town that is too small to be mean. Ironically, the song is immediately preceded by “Biscuits,” even though it has almost exactly opposite themes. Likewise, “Family is Family” expresses the theme that however aggravating they may be, the ties of kinship are uniquely indissoluble. Finally, the value of gemeinschaft is expressed negatively by showing the desperate neediness of isolation in “It Is What It Is,” in which the singer solicits someone to come over for casual sex, but resists the idea of a persistent relationship. Whereas James Poulos derives from Marilyn Manson an ironic but nonetheless unified synthesis of hedonistic authoritarianism that James calls the pink police state, Musgraves is better described as emphasizing the duality of human emotional dependence upon other people and resistance to the moral constraints it demands. If one assumes that sin is inevitable (as does “Biscuits”) or that proper behavior is an impossible catch-22 (as does “Follow Your Arrow”), then by inference, moral judgment itself is nothing more than cruelty. And so Musgraves’s paradoxical relationship to gemeinschaft ultimately stems from a stultified WEIRD moral vocabulary, which Jon Haidt has shown to rely ultimately on harm and liberty, and where sanctity and loyalty are threatening insofar as they are conceived of as offering nothing more than harm and constraints on liberty. That this town is too small mean implies that one should therefore mind one’s own biscuits. Or maybe I’m overthinking this. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: When to Control for X At Vox, Ezra Klein raises an important meta-theoretical point in social science analysis, which is that it is very hard to distinguish mechanisms from controls. If there is a zero-order correlation between X1 and Y, but it drops out when you introduce X2, this in of itself does not tell you if the X1~Y relationship is spurious or if it is mediated. If being shot at is correlated with death, but the effect falls out of significance once you control for exsanguination, one would not say that the probabilistic effect of being shot at on death is spurious. Rather you would say that losing a lot of blood is the mechanism by which being shot at often kills you. I have been attentive to this issue at least since I read Lieberson’s Making it Count in grad school. In practice this sometimes comes out as fighting with peer reviewers who demand that I throw controls in a model, when the controls are closely related to the mechanism I had posited and so my model would predict that some or all of the effect would drop out when the controls/mechanisms are introduced. So I was glad to see Klein take up this issue at Vox. Klein’s particular case was that when you introduce a lot of controls, a lot of of ascriptive inequality effects drop out. He argues, very plausibly, that this is missing the point since this does not mean there is no effect, only that the effect is mediated by causal pathways. There are two issues with this. First, as Klein appreciates, but which I feel may be lost, identifying mechanisms is crucial for crafting a critique and a solution. Or for that matter, deciding whether a solution would be too intrusive and clumsy to be worthwhile. Take the women make 77 cents on the dollar factoid. This is often implicitly or explicitly taken as the boss ashing his cigar, laughing, and saying “A raise? Haven’t you heard? It’s a man’s world.” And this model underlies things like the Ledbetter Act and political mobilization premised on it. But if social science can show us that almost all of the gender gap is really a) a mommy gap and b) occupational sorting, then this is profoundly misleading and all we could expect of the Ledbetter Act is to make a few lawyers rich and maybe at best push the figure from $0.77 to $0.78. Working on the other $0.22 would require stuff like family-friendly workplaces and comparable worth laws, and even that probably would only get you halfway there in the absence of fairly radical changes in gender roles. Personally, I think things like comparable worth laws would be absurdly intrusive manipulations of labor markets that are likely to create innumerable absurdities and distortions, but at least they’d be addressing one of the key mechanisms instead of targeting a caricature of minor contemporary relevance and in practice do little more than give a handout to trial lawyers and an extra bullet point to the Life of Julia slide deck. As more sophisticated critics of ascriptive inequality appreciate, the vast bulk of the action is structural not discretionary, let alone discretionary and volitional. Indeed under some circumstances they will craft theories that argue that even discretionary inequality is ultimately structural insofar as counterfactual structures would have reduced the scope of discretion. And yet when somebody is writing a story on racism the editor goes for a stock photo of a Klan rally, not a heat map of public transit commuting times to geo-tagged entry level retail positions. Second, I expect any day now Vox will update this piece “ Debunking the most pervasive myth about black fatherhood, “ which shows that black men are great dads controlling for whether they live with their kids. The article hilariously acknowledges a few paragraphs in that black men are much less likely to live with their kids than white men, but then hand waves at how this is in turn probably caused by mass incarceration. Curiously, the “myth” piece on how the racial disparity in parenting goes away (and maybe even reverses sign) when you control for living with your kids was written after the piece on how it doesn’t matter that most of the racial disparity in criminal justice goes away when you control for offending rates, allocation of policing resources, etc. because controls are better conceptualized as mechanisms. Maybe Lopez doesn’t read the boss’s copy. How embarrassing. Now it’s tempting to leave it at pundit, voxsplain thyself. However I have a broader point. To paraphrase Schmitt, the intellectual is he who decides on the control variables. Whether we call something a control or a mechanism is not a statistical issue in the sense that there is no R function or Stata postest command that will give you the answer. Rather, distinguishing a control from a mechanism is a theoretical issue. And in practice, theoretical issues are often political issues and so control versus mechanism is yet another instance of our old friend, that depending on how we feel normatively about a factual premise our epistemological standard shifts from “can we believe it” to “must we believe it.” If you find a zero-order association consistent with your worldview, then anything that threatens to explain it away is a mechanism. And if you find a zero-order association inconvenient for your worldview, then anything that promises to explain it away is a control. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: I was reading the house rules of Startup Castle and thought it sounded familiar. And then I realized the reason was because this. is. Sparta. Here’s a comparison of a few Startup Castle house rules (in bold) with parallel passages from Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus (in plain text). Prefer organized systems and common rules Things being in this posture at his return, he applied himself, without loss of time, to a thorough reformation and resolved to change the whole face of the commonwealth; for what could a few particular laws and a partial alteration avail? He must act as wise physicians do, in the case of one who labors under a complication of diseases, by force of medicines reduce and exhaust him, change his whole temperament, and then set him upon a totally new regimen of diet. Watch more than 4 hours of TV/movie/game entertainment per week In the next place, he declared an outlawry of all needless and superfluous arts Exercise at least 15 hours in a normal week Their discipline continued still after they were full-grown men. No one was allowed to live after his own fancy; but the city was a sort of camp, in which every man had his share of provisions and business set out, and looked upon himself not so much born to serve his own ends as the interest of his country. Therefore, if they were commanded nothing else, they went to see the boys perform their exercises, to teach them something useful, or to learn it themselves of those who knew better. we even stock the ‘generosity kitchen’ with basic foods like eggs, milk, cheese, bananas, rice, beans, potatoes, oats, cereal, and anything else that gets contributed. They met by companies of fifteen, more or less, and each of them stood bound to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and some very small sum of money to buy flesh or fish with. Besides this, when any of them made sacrifice to the gods, they always sent a dole to the common hall; and, likewise, when any of them had been a hunting, he sent thither a part of the venison he had killed; for these two occasions were the only excuses allowed for supping at home. The custom of eating together was observed strictly for a great while afterwards; insomuch that king Agis himself, after having vanquished the Athenians, sending for his commons at his return home, because he desired to eat privately with his queen, was refused them by the polemarchs; which refusal when he resented so much as to omit next day the sacrifice due for a war happily ended, they made him pay a fine. Have more than one internet app date per week And so [the bridegroom] continues to do, spending his days, and, indeed, his nights with [his bunkmates], visiting his bride in fear and shame, and with circumspection, when he thought he should not be observed; she, also, on her part, using her wit to help and find favorable opportunities for their meeting, when company was out of the way. In this manner they lived a long time, insomuch that they sometimes had children by their wives before ever they saw their faces by daylight. Drink alcohol more than 3 drinks per week It is confessed, on all hands, that the Spartans dealt with [helots] very hardly; for it was a common thing to force them to drink to excess, and to lead them in that condition into their public halls, that the children might see what a sight a drunken man is; they made them to dance low dances, and sing ridiculous songs, forbidding them expressly to meddle with any of a better kind. Own any clothing, shoes, watches, or handbags costing over $500 After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear any under-garment; they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these human indulgences they were allowed only on some few particular days in the year. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: A few months ago I read TAS alum Alan Jacobs’ book The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography and it was truly fascinating. Probably the most entertaining bit was how early on the English attempted to impose their (high church) liturgy on the Scots and a Scotswoman hurled a chair at a priest, after which the bishop of Brechin “read his first service from the prayer book, he did so with two loaded pistols placed on the desk before him, in plain sight of the restive congregation.” Less entertaining, but ultimately more worthy of reflection is the story of George C. Gorham, a priest who was denied a post by his bishop in a doctrinal dispute over baptism. Gorham then appealed his bishop’s decision to the Judicial Committee on the Privy Council. That is, a so-called “Episcopalian” system saw the decisions of an episkopos reversed by the British equivalent to the Supreme Court. Alan interprets this incident (pp 132-133): The Judicial Committee’s “neutral reading” was, effectively, a plea that everyone just get along, and get along by vowing obedience to the Book of Common Prayer while allowing one another a good deal of freedom to read that book according to theological preference. The members of the committee were not saying that Gorham’s interpretation of the prayer book’s teaching on baptism was superior to the bishop’s, but rather that the bishop was ruling too narrowly and should have made more room for theological variance. They did not believe that every minister should be Latitudinarian, but they did, it seems, believe the boundaries of the Church of England as a whole needed to be set as broadly as possible. In contemporary terms we would say the lay court was standing up for the individual’s right to freedom of conscience. We can go further and say that the court was not endorsing a particular view of baptism, but a diversity of belief about the sacrament. Of course in traditional Christian orthodoxy, bishops are supposed to enforce orthodoxy. (Presbyterianism and Congregationalism are early modern exceptions to this long-standing ecclesiastical rule, which dates at least to late antiquity and has antecedents in the New Testament era). For a secular authority to interfere with the internal doctrinal disputes of a church is traditionally understood to be Caesaropapism, a term that carries the pejorative understanding that it is as a form of tyranny. So we are left with a paradox, when pushes comes to shove whose conscience do we respect? Gorham’s or his bishop’s? Or more broadly when an individual is affiliated with an institution, do we demand that the institution respect the individual’s conscience (and by implication that corporate freedom of conscience does not exist)? Or do we allow the institution to impose its own conscience on those who fall within its dominion (and by implication require that dissenting individuals either exit the institution or suck it up)? The classical liberal notion of freedom of association solves the problem by generally siding with the institution, at least insofar as the individual is free to exit the institution and seek another. (The legal term “public accommodation” is now so expansive that it is hard to identify things that are not public accommodations, but it originally only applied to monopolies and the like). Of course in fairness to Gorham, even if he were free to disaffiliate from the Church of England and seek ordination with a free church, there is a sort of moderate level of coercion insofar as doing so would require forgoing the state support that only the CoE, as the established church, enjoyed. Hence I have more sympathy with Gorham in the British context than I would were he to have pressed a similar case against an Episcopalian bishop in a country like the United States with no established church. Of course as the kind of people who are want to invoke argumentum ad Myhrvold’s Gulch are quick to remind us, the American government does subsidize religion indirectly through tax exemptions and the like, but much like our tacit arts policy (which also mostly consists of tax breaks) and our early tacit media policy (which mostly consisted of things like widespread literacy and favorable postal rates), the indirect nature of American subsidies for religion is consequential in establishing neutrality that promotes both flourishing and diversity of organizations in a way that facilitates dissenters from any particular organization voting with their feet. This case reminded me of a general issue that cuts across many of our recent debates involving a paradox of freedom and diversity. In particular, are institutions free to restrict the freedom of individuals, each in their own way and so we see diversity between institutions as they exert varying degrees and varieties of restrictions on those individuals who sort into them? Or rather, are individuals to be free to act regardless of which institution they are within, with the corollary that institutions are to be coerced into liberating individuals? That is, will we have a program of intolerance for intolerance and an outcome of institutions that are homogeneously diverse? For instance, consider the case of Gordon College, an evangelical college near Boston. (And full disclosure, whose president is a friend of mine from grad school, although we have not discussed these issues). Gordon has instituted a policy all students are required to restrict their sexuality only to heterosexual marriages, but gay students (and for that matter, straight single students) are welcome so long as they abide by the school’s conception of chastity. The Gordon policy restricts the freedom of its students, and let’s be honest, it makes especially strong demands of gay students, who Gordon expects to remain abstinent, whereas straight students are allowed to marry, and this is what makes people upset. Now, I work at a public university, which we can think of as the established church of Our Lady of Credentialism, and in the extremely unlikely event that such a proposal were to be proposed at UCLA, I would adamantly oppose it. This is not only because of my personal preferences, but because I feel a public institution has a special responsibility for inclusion and liberty. But even as Gordon’s policies would be unconscionable for a state college, it is also extremely disturbing that a quasi-public accrediting body is attempting to coerce Gordon into dropping this policy. That is, I think a free society should emphasize individual liberty when it comes to the state (including semi-autonomous arms of the state, like public colleges) but freedom of association, even at the expense of individual liberty, when it comes to private institutions. There are hundreds of liberal arts colleges in America, 28 of them in Massachusetts alone, and a free society can allow some of them to restrict student freedom, so long as students uncomfortable with these restrictions are free to choose other schools. Of course, it’s possible to overdo it. It is troubling to remember that one of the key precedents in the development of the autonomy of the Church from the state was when Ambrose forced Theodosius to reverse an edict demanding restitution from a Christian mob that burned down a synagogue. We moderns think it is just that churches should be subject to the impartial administration of civil and criminal law even as their internal doctrinal matters should be immune to interference. Of course, it’s not always possible to clearly draw the line between internal matters that deserve autonomy and matters of public concern (cough Little Sisters cough), though I’m comfortable with saying Ambrose drew it wrong. I don’t really know whether the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council got it right or wrong, but I do think this is the kind of dilemma that can often be avoided or mitigated by not having an established institution but a plurality of private ones. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: Yesterday somebody asked Governor Walker if he believes in evolution and he ducked the question. As Ramesh argued, this was a mistake, and there was a fair amount of snark directed at this. Then there was a wave of counter-snark, stemming from the same impulse as Cooke’s recent NR cover story about how the NdGT “I love science” fan club is really about mood affiliation, much of it semi-sublimated anti-clericalism, and not really very much about scientific knowledge. I totally understand the impulse to call out the extent to which affirmation of science is 99% mood affiliation and only 1% knowledge, but I actually didn’t enjoy this whole fracas last night on Twitter, especially from Sean Davis of The Federalist (who did some good reporting a few months ago showing how NdGT basically makes stuff up), who barraged Ben White of Politico with pointed quiz questions about the mechanisms of evolution. Meanwhile Davis got many a #sickburn type compliment. I found the whole spectacle lamentable for two reasons for this: 1) Criticizing the gotcha question, and particularly asking, ok smart guy, if you “love science” then how does genetic drift work, etc, sounds very similar to the rhetorical tactics of intelligent design folks and so plays into the idea that the right are a bunch of creationists and the intellectual right are still a bunch of creationists, just ones with a list of talking points that sound like someone ran an EEB textbook through a Markov Chain word salad generator. Note that this is still the impression I get, and I would imagine many other people do, regardless of whether the people issuing the “OK smart guy” snark are actually young Earthers, ID, or totally orthodox EEB. Remember, we live in a world where you still see headlines saying “Man Bites Dog: Pope Francis Believes in Evolution” and it’s only after the jump, if at all, that there’s the caveat “just like the last half dozen or so occupants of the throne of St Peter.” 2) Specifically because I am a conservative, I believe in deference to legitimate authority and the limitations of human reason. One particular manifestation of this is that I think we should embrace scientific orthodoxy even when we don’t personally understand it. To jump on people for demanding affirmation of science but without being able to distinguish allopatric from sympatric speciation makes about as much sense, and for similar reasons, as jumping on people for affirming belief in democracy without being able to explain the Arrow impossibility theorem or the median voter theorem, or for calling themselves Christians but without being able to explain “consubstantiality” (or for that matter, for being excited about just having just learned the word “eschatology” if you recall that recent circle jerk of Christian intellectual snobbery). It’s a good thing when people embrace the consensus of legitimate experts. When people start thinking things through for themselves and bullying those who naively accept orthodoxy this is when you get anti-vaxxers, truthers, religious heresy, etc. (For what it’s worth, I personally have a very solid working understanding of evolutionary biology and so could answer pretty much all of the Jeopardy with your host Sean Davis questions, but I am fairly ignorant of most of the other hard sciences and could not explain, for instance, the Big Bang). Anyway, knock it off guys. Sure, it’s obnoxious that the left and/or journalists confuse mood affiliation with knowledge, but just let it go. Filed under: A long, long time ago I said on Twitter that there is a 50/50 chance that Obamacare will “destroy America.” This has been throwing Twitter maven Richard Yeselson into conniptions for literally months now so I figure some clarification is in order. Obviously I did not mean that Obamacare will cause a destructive meteor shower, or an alien invasion, or the second coming. So, what did I mean? Quite simply this: I think most observers, whatever their political outlook, would agree that there is something unique or at least different to the political economy of the United States. There’s a bit of a “je ne sais quoi” to what Jim Manzi has called “the American system”, but it mainly has to do with a greater comfort with economic risk-taking, creative destruction, entrepreneurial spirit, and so on, than in most, if not all, other countries on the planet. Some might deplore that this is so, but saying that American culture is uniquely friendly to the capitalistic ethos is the most commonplace thing in the world. I also think many people (though not enough) would agree that a political economy is a delicate and intricately complex thing. It depends not just on policy, or law, or levels of taxation, but also on the underlying culture. The rule of law, for example, which is so crucial to economic flourishing, depends not so much on what laws are on the books as in the way that they are applied. I also think that many people (though not enough) would agree that social policy can often have unintended consequences, and that these unintended consequences can ripple out into second, and third-order differences and cause widespread social change. For example, nobody, even the most rabid opponent, would have said in the 1960’s and 1970’s that no-fault divorce laws would lead to a 50% divorce rate, and yet in hindsight that is obvious. Now, where does that leave us with Obamacare? Well, I think that, broadly speaking, the US political economy is in danger of losing that “special je ne sais quoi” I mentioned earlier. The size of government, the size of the tax code, the size of government regulation, occupational licensing, all of them have increased over the past decade and a half. Furthermore, if you count up the number of sectors where government influence is preponderant, they have increased, both in terms of the number of sectors and their relative importance. For example, the entire government contracting industry has ballooned over the past 15 years, meaning that (just with one industry) an increasing % of GDP is government-directed. More importantly, an increasing percentage of people in the workforce are in danger of having a “controlled economy” ethos rather than a “free enterprise” ethos. That is the problem I see in France. When businesses in Sector X have a problem, the instinct is to get together and lobby the government for a fix. That is not the American Way. But it is increasingly the way in a number of sectors (finance is a very striking example). And the problem is that this phenomenon is self-sustaining, and even snowballing. Once the door is open to using lobbying to get an advantage in the marketplace, everybody floods. If your competitor is doing it, you have to do it. With that idea in the backdrop, then, could it be the case that there could be some sort of tipping point? Some sort of point of no return, where so much of the economy’s productive activity is controlled, directly or indirectly, by the government, that the very ethos, or culture that I have been talking about dies? That, there might be a point at which so many people in the US economy are in a “controlled economy” ethos rather than a “free enterprise” ethos that the process becomes self-sustaining, irreversible, and snowballing? That at some point we head inexorably for what I have called the Francification of America? (And what Hayek in his day called the Road to Serfdom.) Now, let us look at the healthcare sector. The first thing to note is that it is an enormous part of the US economy, and growing, and set to keep growing, both in terms of GDP % and (especially) employment. The second thing to note, is that there is a bit of a battle for the soul of the healthcare system going on, which is broader than Obamacare. On the one hand, you have a vision which is friendly to decentralized control, a la David Goldhill and the great right-of-center wonks and a bunch of smart left-of-center wonks right up until the point everybody rallied towards Obamacare. On the other hand, you have the vision of Vulgar Arrowism and central control. The US healthcare system, historically and for a very long time, has been a bizarre, even baroque mix of “free market-ish” and “government control-ish” aspects. The question then arises: does Obamacare “tip the scales” towards the eventual centralization of healthcare in the US (as liberals dream), especially by making anything other than the comprehensive insurance model (which is the devil) unthinkable? And if that happens, might this not in turn, given the size and significance of the healthcare sector, tip the scales for the entire political economy, towards a “Francified” direction? One in which that special “American Way” is irretrievably lost? If so, it would certainly represent, in a real sense, the “destruction of America”—of an enormous part of what makes it both so unique and so prosperous. Is that the most likely outcome? I don’t know. Is it a possible outcome? Is it a more likely outcome than most people think? I very much persist in thinking so. Filed under: Have I Stopped Beating My Wife? Neoconservatives and noninterventionists look at the world from radically opposite perspectives, and unlike the realists in the middle, we have a tendency to view the world through a moralized lens. One very unfortunate tendency of this is that each side has a tendency to impugn the other’s motives, rather than his view of reality. Neoconservatives just want Iraq’s oil, or they are just White Man’s Burden 2.0. Noninterventionists think the US should cut Israel loose because seeing Jews massacred would tickle their jollies. I think noninterventionists are somewhere in the vicinity of insane (that means not insane), but I don’t doubt that people like Daniel Larison wish as ardently as I do for a free and prosperous world—we just disagree on how to get there. I can’t say that I follow my own dictate with perfect precision, but I self-consciously try not to impugn the motives of those who disagree with me on policy, especially in this particular area. Another very annoying feature of public debate in general is psychologization: “You support X because you really feel Y.” Which of course is both unknowable and irrelevant. We don’t have to play this game. Which brings me to TAS Alum (and friend!) Noah Millman, who has responded to my column envisaging a US-led invasion of North Korea. Millman takes seriously my humanitarian concern over North Korea, and self-consciously tries to look at it from the same perspective as I do. He feels that the most practical, envisageable outcome would be a “Finlandization” of the Korean Peninsula, denuclearized, neutralized and without nuclear weapons, in order to obtain Chinese collaboration in removing the North Korean regime. The reason I don’t envisage this outcome, Noah writes, is essentially because I am deluded and corrupt. My solution is “unconscionable”. What’s more, I don’t want to envisage a denuclearized and neutralized Peninsula, because of a psychological motive: that way, the US wouldn’t get to play the savior and “Maybe […] the actual humanitarian outcome is less important than playing the part of the savior.” So in other words I advance under false pretenses. My ostensible humanitarian motive is really straw, and is the mask for American imperialism and onanistic delusions of grandeur. What is the problem with Noah’s thesis? Well, there are many, but I know just the place to start. How about the fact that the outcome he envisages, that he claims my not envisaging so reveals my moral corruption, is the one I explicitly endorse in the column? If the U.S. offers the demilitarization and neutralization of the Korean Peninsula to China in exchange for helping rebuild North Korea, China would actually come out ahead by removing U.S. troops from the Peninsula. I think that China wouldn’t come to see things this way unless it was presented with a fait accompli of a North Korean regime collapse, because status quo bias is so powerful in international affairs. Maybe I’m wrong. But my endgame is a neutral and demilitarized Korean Peninsula. Michael Brendan Dougherty responded to my column by saying that my heart was in the right place but my plan is impossible. That’s fine. I acknowledge that it is far-fetched. Paradoxically, I think noninterventionists should have more sympathy for my wishful thinking, since the number of people who think the world would be improved by an American retreat from its historic role as global security guarantor is about the same as the number of people who think my plan is practical. Both sides see the Washington consensus as hopelessly deluded, and see things as plausible that the consensus most definitely doesn’t. If I had a tendency for psychologizing, I might say that perhaps we so detest each other because we are so alike in this way. But whatever. (P.S. Another very annoying feature of public debate is when people pretend not to be aware of the constraints of the column format when it suits them. I can’t tell you how many times I was described as “blithe” or some such for brushing off objections to my plan. But in any column you need to gloss over complex side-issues of your main point. Of course, everyone knows this. But making an effort to presume that I am of good faith and not a complete idiot and consider that I might have considered obvious objections but might not have given them a full treatment because of length constraints would involve engaging oneself in a disinterested effort to look for truth, which starts with looking for the best arguments on the other side, rather than in a Kulturkampf where all one does is look for weaknesses on the other side to be exploited. I hope I wasn’t psychologizing just then.) by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: I Am Hassle, For We Are Many Starting in the 2012 cycle and in a much more serious way in the 2014 cycle, the Republicans decided that they could square the circle of their conscience clause position on sexual ethics with Democratic #waronwomen attacks through pitching over-the-counter oral contraception. Somewhat surprisingly, the left was not especially enthusiastic about this. The way I’ve been thinking about this is that both liberals and conservatives are addressing hassle. The emerging right-wing position is that the state requiring you to get a doctor’s scrip is unacceptable hassle and some nontrivial number of women have lapses in contraception because they can’t or don’t see their gynecologist, but would have found it easy to visit CVS or Walmart and pay $20 for oral contraception. The emerging left-wing position has two aspects. The more overt aspect is that some people can’t afford $20 for pills. This is one of those arguments too stupid to put forward credibly, but God bless them, they make the effort. The real aspect to this is that they conceive of contraception as health care and so it is symbolically important that it be covered by insurance as this helps frame it as health care (which is covered by insurance) versus a consumer good (which is out-of-pocket). Economic sociologists call this kind of framing “relational work” (a concept associated w Viviana Zelizer). However the real left-wing position that is not just #waronwomen “throw the damn incense at the emperor you atavistic theocrat” symbolism, but actually practical is also an issue of hassle. Increasingly health care runs up against limits not of what physicians can do, but “patient compliance” or how diligent patients are at sticking to their treatment. This is most obvious with things like substance abuse or diabetes, which theoretically don’t require medical treatment at all but only lifestyle changes (stop using, go on a diet, etc). However it’s almost impossible to get people to do this, which is why the preferred treatment for morbid obesity is no longer jogging and ricecakes but cutting out most of your stomach and the most promising therapy for opiate/alcohol addiction is Naltrexone. Similarly, with birth control there is a huge gap between typical use and perfect use. Most forms of birth control, including withdrawal and rhythm, are fairly effective with perfect use, but surprisingly ineffective with typical use because most people are, ahem, boundedly rational. This includes oral contraception, which requires women to take daily pills and which they apparently neglect to do fairly often. Hence the push is to go away from oral contraception and towards more long-term birth control (IUD, NuvaRing, D-P, and sterilization) none of which require people to be especially diligent either during the sex act (like withdrawal or condoms) or on a daily basis (like oral contraception or rhythm). The way you see this in the public debates over Hobby Lobby etc, is distinguishing that they didn’t cover “the most effective forms of birth control” (read: IUD) and which actually are out of reach for out of pocket expense. So basically, both right and left recognize that the obstacle to effective birth control is hassle. The right’s version is that making it OTC would eliminate the hassle of having to visit the gynecologist to get a scrip. The left’s version is that encouraging a switch from oral contraception to IUD would eliminate the hassle of having to take a pill every morning. There is a philosophical microcosm in that both sides are right about hassle being an obstacle to effective usage, but they emphasize those hassles they find illegitimate. For the right there is a negative liberty issue to the state throwing up the roadblock of a doctor’s visit to getting the pills. To the left your own nature is an obstacle to be solved with technocratically-administrated nudges that obviate the need for individual responsibility on a daily basis and to which you have a positive liberty entitlement. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: Suppose that party A habitually engages in actions that party B finds morally offensive. Party B then finds various ways to obstruct this offensive action, but only partially, so the effect is to make the action more dangerous, but not impossible. Party A continues with the (now more dangerous) course of action and predictably problems ensue. Who is morally at fault? Or more to the point, who receives blame and is the ensuing policy push to prohibit A from engaging in the offensive action or instead for B to cease obstructing and switch to accomodation and harm reduction? For instance, if I am morally opposed to clear-cutting an old growth forest and so I spike the trees, but it gets logged anyway and some lumberjack get injured or killed, who is at fault: Me or the loggers? Well, as in so many things, I think who you blame ultimately comes down to confirmation bias and we can see this play out in a few recent incidents. Over the last months there has been a great deal of outrage over botched executions in Oklahoma, Ohio, and Arizona in which the executions did not go as planned and in at least one of the three cases the condemned suffered prolonged excruciating pain. Many stories about these executions explained that states had been experimenting with new formulas because anti-death penalty activists and governments had systematically cut off their supplies of sodium thiopental — the old and much more reliable lethal injection chemical. However this was all in terms of the historical chain of events and I saw basically nobody saying that the anti-death-penalty activists were morally at fault for preventing a well-established and relatively effective means of execution or that the Lockett, McGuire, and Wood executions demonstrate the need to restore access to sodium thiopental. Rather the ubiquitous assumption was that once sodium thiopental was cut off that the states of Oklahoma, Ohio, and Arizona should have said “wow, looks like you got us into a checkmate, guess we’ll just commute every sentence on death row even though our electorates favor capital punishment.” Conversely one of the issues with state-level marijuana decriminalization is that it’s a cash-only business which creates problems like armed robbery. The reason is that while many state governments have decriminalized marijuana, the federal government still opposes marijuana decriminalization and pressures banks not to service marijuana businesses. This means that marijuana businesses are easily identifiable as having large amounts of cash and/or frequent deliveries of cash to safe deposit boxes, all of which makes them inviting targets to armed robbers. The marijuana industry recognizes this, but you won’t be surprised to hear that their interpretation is not that they should stop selling cannabis until they are allowed to process credit cards. Rather Mike Elliot of the Marijuana Industry Group told Vox “If somebody gets killed because of this issue, we’re going to be pointing our finger at Congress saying, ‘This is your fault. You should have acted.’” Probably the most severe current example is the current Gaza war, where Hamas appears to be deliberately placing military targets within or in close proximity to especially sensitive civilian areas. Despite fairly heroic efforts to minimize civilian casualties, Israel is thus in the position of either forgoing its offensive to destroy rockets and tunnels or destroying schools, hospitals, and many noncombatant human beings. Predictably those who see Israel as responding as any state would to an intransigent terrorism campaign see this as Hamas’s fault whereas those who were always inclined to see Israel as a colonialist apartheid regime see it as disproportionate. I’m not trying to make a substantive argument that the obstinate actor A or the heighten-the-contradictions actor B is morally at fault when A continues to act under the circumstances made more dangerous by B. What I am saying is that whether you blame A or B largely depends on whether you sympathized with or opposed A’s action ex ante. Nobody who opposes the death penalty is going to say that the people who prevented state prisons from getting access to sodium thiopental are at fault when states wing it and botch executions badly. Likewise nobody who favors marijuana decriminalization is going to say that shops should cease selling marijuana if the federal government doesn’t let them bank. And nobody who already thinks Israel is a colonialist apartheid regime is going to say that it is justified in attacking military targets commingled with civilians. However, logically these conclusions have a lot in common, even though most people would agree to some but not all of them. And I’m just gonna lay out a marker here that any arguments I get on this will be to the effect that one issue is substantively different from the others, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but it really does prove my broader point that it’s all about whether you sympathized with the person engaging in the action or the person opposing the action in the first place and not about whether we should generally hold responsible actors who heighten the contradictions of an action as part of their attempts to abolish it. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby but among the many things that are not widely understood is that the decision did not actually result in the firm’s employees losing insurance coverage for IUDs. The actual result is that the employees will still have coverage for IUDs, but the insurance processor rather than Hobby Lobby will have to pay for it (at least in theory). That is, Hobby Lobby was seeking to take advantage of the Obama administration’s own proposal for faith-based nonprofits. As Julian Sanchez at Cato observed, the entire case turns on an entirely symbolic issue of whether the Greens explicitly have to pay for IUDs or are allowed to wink at an obfuscation in which their insurance company bears the cost (at least theoretically). I found this interesting not only because it’s a much discussed case but also because it’s a close fit with my article published a few months ago in Sociological Theory. (Here’s an ungated version that lacks the benefit of some really good copy-editing). In the article I talk about situations where a moral objection gets in the way of a transaction but the transaction nonetheless occurs through the expedient of obfuscating that a transaction is occurring at all. I describe three mechanisms for accomplishing this and the nonprofit exemption which now also applies to Hobby Lobby is characterized by two of them, brokerage and bundling. That is, the employer does not buy the IUD for the employee but rather pays a broker (the insurance processor) who in turn provides the IUD. Moreover, the IUD is bundled together with other health coverage. The third model which is not at issue in Hobby Lobby but which I describe in the paper is gift exchange, where explicit quid pro quo is replaced with tacit reciprocity. Of course for an exchange to be morally objectionable or for it to be koshered is entirely subjective. Most obviously in Hobby Lobby there is a range of opinions about the moral acceptability of birth control and abortifacients and where to draw the line between the two. More interesting to me is that opinions vary on what counts as “buying” the contested commodity and whether to seize on obfuscation and denounce it. On this issue the irony is that while the Obama administration itself came up with this obfuscation for nonprofits it opposed extending it to for-profit firms. At a general level, obfuscation doesn’t objectively exist but rather it creates a permission structure that actors can choose to consent to. This becomes clear when we contrast Hobby Lobby to Little Sisters of the Poor. Whereas the owners of Hobby Lobby sued to avail themselves of the obfuscatory accomodation, the Little Sisters of the Poor who (as a nonprofit) already have this obfuscation available to them but are suing to denounce it as mere obfuscation and completely remove themselves from even obfuscated provision of all birth control. Specifically, the Little Sisters are refusing to fill out EBSA Form 700 stating their objection to providing contraceptive coverage since to do so would trigger provision through their insurer and they see this as involving themselves in something morally objectionable. That is, while Hobby Lobby would be delighted to wink and nod (and the Obama administration was reluctant to allow them to do so) the Little Sisters are adamantly opposed to a fig leaf (and the Obama administration would be delighted were they to play along with the face-saving obfuscation). by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: In Sunday’s column, Ross provided three proposals for reducing campus rape. (1. Lower the drinking age, 2. End the party school system, 3. Loco in parentis lite for dorms). For the most part it was well received (including by many people who generally disagree with Ross), but sampling on the derpendent variable reveals no shortage of people saying some version of “how about we just tell men not to rape” which in its more concrete version takes the form of some sort of sexual consent education class as part of orientation. What I find interesting about this is that this answer is essentially to tackle culture, whereas Ross called for tackling structure. I found this ironic since in other contexts (most notably, poverty) the right tends to emphasize cultural explanations and cultural solutions which the left meets with structural explanations and structural solutions. For instance, in explaining why there are such disordered family lives among the poor, the right tends to emphasize a declining interest in marriage (or in more subtle and accurate versions of the argument, the shift from a cornerstone towards a capstone conception) whereas the left meets this with structural arguments about the shortage of marriageable men in low-income communities. And it is worth noting that while the right is probably correct that marriage is causally important and not just an issue of selection, the evidence seems to be on the left’s side that marriage promotion doesn’t work. The general tendency seems to be that if I say culture, you say agency, and vice versa. As in so many other things, I see this switcheroo as not entirely motivated by a cold-eyed analysis and saying, eureka, it looks like the schwerpunkt of rape is culture whereas poverty is better solved by concentrating on structure (or vice versa). Rather the heuristic seems to be avoiding actions we find intrinsically objectionable and a related one of assigning responsibility for reform to the parties we find morally culpable and avoiding placing demands upon sympathetic people. We see the first heuristic operating in the many responses I saw to Ross that were much more enthusiastic about lowering the drinking age than his other two proposals. This is predictable given that all three of Ross’s proposals load on Haidt’s moral foundation of “liberty/oppression,” but one goes one way and the other two the other way. Even if it is in fact the case that increasing liberty in some respects and restricting it in others is the best way to reduce a horrific crime, fewer people think in terms of “does this work” than “is it moral.” The other heuristic is a sort of who/whom logic that (understandably) wants to punish the guilty while holding harmless the victim. This most obviously manifests in the common (morally sympathetic but not terribly prudent) criticism of anything that tacitly “blames the victim” through offering advice on how to avoid victimization. In the reaction to Ross’s piece we see it in the largely sympathetic reaction to his proposal to wage total war on fraternity row compared to his mostly reviled (and frequently distorted) proposal to bring curfew lite to the dorms. The former punishes the aggressors and so is intrinsically worthwhile, but the latter restricts the autonomy of the victims and so is unacceptable. Whether either of them would be effective at reducing the rate of a felony second only to murder is at best a post hoc consideration. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: Miriam Weeks (aka Belle Knox) has an op-ed at Time about rising college tuition, subsidies, and the high implicit marginal tax rates the means-tested subsidy regime implies for students like herself who have relatively high earnings during college. But rather than focus on her (quite reasonable) argument about the abuses of an industry in which I am objectively a member of the exploitative class, let’s change the subject to exegesis of a tangential sentence about another industry: “Demand for education, kind of like demand for porn, is pretty inelastic.” This glib remark strikes me as highly dubious but also typical of libertarians, which I understand to be Ms. Weeks’ political perspective. Just as when liberals say something (say, health care not directly related to communicable diseases) is a “public good” they don’t really mean that it is non-rivalrous and non-excludbale, but only that they think the state ought to pay for it. Likewise when libertarians say something (and in particular a vice) is demand inelastic they don’t actually mean that quantity demanded doesn’t respond to changes in price, but only that they don’t want the state to regulate it. (Conversely, libertarians tend to play up elasticity with regards to taxes that they don’t like). But let’s unpack what it would mean for porn demand to be inelastic. First, we can consider short-run elasticity. Elasticity is largely a function of substitutability and purchasing porn has good substitutes (starting with rewatching previously purchased porn) and so should be elastic. Moreover, demand for vices tends to follow a zero-inflated count distribution which means much of the total demand is concentrated among the heaviest users and which in turn means that you have to worry about income effects imposing a hard constraint as heavy users simply run out of money and therefore their demand is relatively elastic in terms of purchasing power even if their desire is unsatiated. Moreover, we can take a long-run view. In the long-run as people shift to new margins very few things are inelastic. For instance gasoline is famously inelastic in the short run but this isn’t really true in the long run as we saw when the price of gasoline rose in 2006 and 2007 it led to a decrease in demand for exurban housing and SUVs and so the price of gasoline was less inelastic in the long-run than in the short-run. For vices we have the rational addiction model that suggests that even if demand is inelastic in the short-run (ie, addicts gotta get their fix) it is elastic in the long-run as price hikes motivate current users to quit and/or potential new users to refrain from starting. That is, if porn becomes expensive we should expect to see some current consumers learn to rely on their imaginations and new potential users fail to have sufficient exposure to be captured and conversely if porn becomes cheap we should expect to see more people develop the habit of frequently consuming it. And putting aside theory, it’s something of an empirical question since first VHS and then the internet radically reduced the price of pornography (especially if one includes “transport” costs of hassle, shame, etc). I am highly skeptical that this decrease in the total price has led to no more consumption, as we would expect if demand were perfectly inelastic. That is, if demand for porn were perfectly inelastic this would imply no greater consumption today than in 1995 or 1985 or 1975 and this strains credulity. The reason this matters is that if demand for vices is in fact elastic, or even just imperfectly inelastic (like gasoline), then it matters what the total price (including transport) is. This in turn means that decriminalizing vices is not a free lunch of just giving up enforcement costs (and evasion of enforcement) but you’ve also got to face the facts of increased demand. by Matt Feeney Filed under: When the Columbine massacre happened one of the first things I thought of, thanks to Hegel and Nietzsche, was the internet.The internet was just then becoming this participatory thing, for everyone, and I had the Hegel-inspired bad feeling that one effect of this new technology of self-assertion would be a nagging and widespread condition of abstract discontent. In the olden days of Aristotle summoned by Hegel in the Phenomenology, it was only rich guys, who’d proven themselves in battle and owned slaves they’d taken in battle, who had the freedom to make a huge deal about their public reputations, gild those reputations through public performance. Honor-consciousness, the willingness to kill and die for the sake of one’s name, the cultivation of an expansive self to contest with other excellent selves in this zone of assessment and esteem, was a luxury of aristocrats. The long Occidental story Hegel tells is of the sublimation of this abstract, aristocratic self-assertion through progressive immersion in, and growing understanding of, material nature – foreshadowed in this dialectic’s first moments by the (Greek) slave’s practical wherewithal and his (Greek) master’s practical heedlessness and cluelessness. Nietzsche, of course, put his own indelible stamp on this account, calling the impulse at play between the master and slave classes the “will-to-power.” This term has several treatments in his work, but in Beyond Good and Evil he gives it a gloss that has chilling resonance for us today. It’s tempting to think of something called a “will-to-power,” and described as fundamental, as some primal appetite, a deep cause, but here Nietzsche calls it, instead, an “effect.” In this it’s related to another great Nietzschean phrase, “the pathos of distance.” In short, a strong guy, looking around and seeing relative weakness in those around him, feeling the elevation that separates him from them as he looks down, wants to realize this merely latent power difference in action. The will-to-power follows something like hydrologic principles. A subject comprehending his own superiority feels the possibility of domination flowing out of him, via this awareness of downward distance, and from this the desire to realize this possibility formulates itself. The will-to-power, as an urge or motive, is thus effect of what the self can actually do. The larger the zone of envisioned latitude, the greater momentum the subject can see itself building up unopposed, the larger the will’s appetite to expand and realize itself will be. The specter of relative weakness is an invitation, a goad Now, as Hegel described, before Nietzsche applied his dramatic names to the dynamic, even the hungriest subject, embedded in the pressing social and material conditions of work and communal life, will see only small possibilities for its expansion, small margins of self-assertion and recognition to offer as food to its will-to-power. Common life is paltry ground for cultivating existential ambition – and so discontent. For most people throughout historical space and time, the vistas of self were short and narrow. The self, as a projection of the imagination the will-to-power might strive to realize in action, and whose disappointments tend to form in proportion to these ambitions, was small. Its ambitions were small. Its disappointments were small. The phenomenological conditions of self-assertion made delusions of grandeur not just absurd in their content but hard to formulate at all. With the demise of feudalism and the rise of liberal democracy, in the Hegelian story, abstract subjectivity was doled out in modest portions determined by both law and nature (as understood by science), and, in theory, possessed in equal measure by everyone. The internet both apotheosizes this process, of liberally redistributing aristocratic selfhood throughout the demos, and returns it to its first moment, in which an abstract and unbounded and perhaps empty and brittle subjectivity floats free of material life. It’s brought back Aristotle’s model of subjectivity at its most elevated and abstract, the materially free Greek citizen engaged in an ungrounded textual politics of self-assertion, and it’s globalized its setting. Instead of those standing in earshot of a citizen’s voice, the subject of the internet has a theoretical audience of all of humanity. The ambitions he tends for his own recognition can have that as their measure. And the resentments and disappointments he can husband when reality mocks those ambitions can grow to global size as well. On this reading of the history of subjectivity, Elliot Rodger’s expression of his existential and sexual ambitions and the attendant disappointments and the much-discussed meanings he assigned to them, via YouTube videos posted on an easily accessed “web” described as “worldwide,” are not incidental but inherent to their formulation, to the construction of a self from which they flowered into an aristocrat’s grand entitlement, and then into disappointment and killing. Filed under: Yeah, yeah, old news. What can I say, I have a family, so I only get to watch movies once in a while, after they’ve been on on-demand TV for a long time. “Star Trek” has a big place in my life, and I don’t care who knows. I learned English by watching Star Trek. Star Trek, to me, will always be one of our greatest pop cultural sensations, because it is, as best as I can tell, the only space adventure show for a popular audience that takes ideas seriously; and, starting with TNG, characters. The first Star Trek reboot movie made it clear that this was all going down the hatch. It was just a fun action-adventure romp, and very consciously and publicly made no effort at grasping what makes Star Trek great. But boy, is Into Darkness dumb. The plot makes no sense. Whatsoever. The plot holes are big enough to fly the Enterprise through, and I use a cliché phrase like this to honor a movie made up of clichés a bunch of stitched-together clichés. The Klingons are just dumb-ass space thugs. The scrawny, charisma-free British guy they cast as Khan has zero credibility as a genetically-enhanced superwarrior. Starfleet us utterly clueless and ineffective as an organization. And there is that supremely odd anesthetic quality to big-budget Hollywood action scenes where there is so much CG pyrotechnics that it all adds up to something distinctly underwhelming, and you find yourself unable to care because you know that you’re one hour into the movie and so the main characters are in zero danger. I have to write this now because I know tomorrow I’ll have forgotten everything about the movie. by Gabriel Rossman Filed under: Dog carcass in alley this morning. Only I predicted its stomach would burst like a housing bubble. When the storm comes the insufficient aggregate demand of all their austerity will foam up about their waists and all the oligarchs and politicians will look up and shout “save us!” and I’ll look down and whisper “stimulus.” They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed good men like my advisor, or President Roosevelt. Decent men who believed in counter-cyclical spending. Instead they followed the droppings of racists and goldbugs. Slept all day. Awoken at 4:37. Undergrad complaining about a B-. I am sure she cheated on the SAT. Beneath me, the township screams like an eating club full of intoxicated undergrads. New York. Last month I got hired for a figurehead no show job in New York. Somebody knows why. The dusk reeks of foundation money and bad consciences. Meeting with Summers left bad taste in mouth. Possibly Koch-funded? Must remember to investigate further. Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without confirmation bias? Why does it matter where Ronald Reagan gave a speech 35 years ago? Because there is good and there is dog-whistling, and dog-whistling must be punished. Even in the face of austerity I shall not compromise in this. But there are so many deserving of vituperation … and there are only 800 words Mondays and Fridays. Heard joke once. Man goes into doctor. Says he’s confused. Says policy seems full of trade-offs. Doctor says “Treatment is simple. Nobel Laureate economist is in town tonight. Go and see him lecture. That should clear things up.” Man bursts into tears. Says “But Doctor … I am a Nobel Laureate economist.” Good joke, Everybody laughs. He knows nothing about any attempt to discredit Medicaid. He has simply been used. By whom? Kochs seem obvious choice. But the Oregon study was conducted by faculty at Harvard Public Health and MIT econ. Doesn’t fit. Can’t concentrate. On way out of Princeton met Woody Woo dean. Usual complaints Re: coughing “bullshit” at faculty meetings. There were micro-econ publications on her cv. Fresh ones. Out on Prospect inspected Madison Institute. Man and woman, possibly discussing God. Didn’t like it. Makes campus look haunted. Someone tried to kill the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Proves dog whistle theory. Austerity is closing in. Checked comment thread. Thousands of Times readers praising me. Connected, perhaps? Is everyone but me going mad? This relentless recession: there is only one sane response to it. Approached policy debate. An attempted discussion of Piketty. The wingnut turned and there was something rewarding in his derp. Sometimes the blogs are generous to me. Final entry? Left Princeton just before Midnight. Mayer, convinced Koch’s behind everything, is serious about visiting Manhattan. New Jersey Transit capable, apparently, but are we? Kochs. Cannot imagine more dangerous opponent. Prosperity seems unlikely. This last entry. Will shortly push to op-ed page CMS, only people can trust. For my own part, regret nothing. Have lived life, free from compromise…and step into the shadow now without complaint.	92,227
AEW returns to the pay-per-view world this evening with their AEW Full Gear show from Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. We will be providing live play-by-play results of the show from start-to-finish this evening as it happens right here on this page. We hope to see you here tonight! Make sure to remember to refresh this page every couple minutes for the latest AEW Full Gear results and updates from Baltimore. The event kicks off with a special one-hour “Buy-In” pre-show starting at 7pm Eastern Time / 4pm Pacific Time live via the official AEW YouTube channel and other various official social media outlets. Watch the AEW Full Gear “Buy-In” pre-show below. “Buy-In” Pre-Show Is Underway We are several minutes into the pre-show now, which thus far has primarily been footage from the Countdown to AEW Full Gear special that aired earlier this week. Currently we’re looking at the introduction of Santana and Ortiz to AEW via Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle, and their build-up to their match with The Young Bucks on tonight’s PPV. Now things are switching to look at Jon Moxley’s journey to AEW and the story behind his unsanctioned “Lights Out” match against Kenny Omega tonight at AEW Full Gear. With just under 40 minutes remaining in the “Buy-In” pre-show, we are still watching the Countdown to AEW Full Gear special, which has now transitioned to the story leading into tonight’s AEW World’s Heavyweight Championship match, with Chris Jericho defending against Cody. We switch to a live shot inside the arena where the announce team of Goldenboy, Taz and The Excalibur check in and introduce the video package for tonight’s AEW Full Gear “Buy-In” pre-show match. With that said, we see the video package telling the story behind tonight’s pre-show match in the AEW women’s division between Pittsburgh’s own Dr. Britt Baker and Bea Priestley. Now it’s time to head to the squared circle for the first time this evening here inside the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, as it’s time for our lone AEW Full Gear “Buy-In” pre-show match. Dr. Britt Baker and Bea Priestley make their respective ring entrances, the bell sounds and here we go with our first bout of the evening. Every time Baker gets some offense going, Priestley tucks her tail between her legs and runs for cover. She gets caught in Lockjaw submission from Baker briefly but escapes. After a cheap shot, Priestley takes over the offensive control in the match. She snatches Baker up in a submission hold while Baker lays on the ring apron and Priestley yanks away at her neck from the floor. Back in the ring, Priestley continues to dominate the action against the Pittsburgh dentist. Baker is starting to show signs of life, as she hits some hope-spots. The two hit dueling lariats at the same time. Both are slow to get up. Again, Priestley takes over control of the offense until finally Baker fights back and ultimately catches her in her Lockjaw submission finisher. Priestley fights it off at first, but Baker sinks it in again and this time Priestley taps. Your winner by submission in our lone “Buy-In” pre-show match — Dr. Britt Baker. Winner: Dr. Britt Baker After The Match: Once the match ends, Baker celebrates and leaves while Priestley remains in the ring. Unfortunately for her, she was still there when out of nowhere, Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes come out on the stage. The two make their way to the ring and the fans explode inside the Royal Farms Arena. Brandi and Kong enter the ring and they have a knife. No lie. Kong is holding a knife in her hand. She talks to Brandi and then hits a spinning back-fist that levels Priestley. Now Brandi and Kong talk about the knife again, with Kong starting to have a crazy look in her eyes. Brandi kneels down and grabs a handful of Priestley’s hair. Kong reaches down with the knife and slices some of her hair off. She rubs the hair on her face, seeming to enjoy it, and then wraps the hair around her waist like a title belt. Kong and Brandi stand tall as we shoot to another video package. The pre-show wraps up with another video package focusing on what the announce team just informed us will be the opening match on the AEW Full Gear pay-per-view broadcast — The Young Bucks, Nick and Matt Jackson, versus Santana and Ortiz from The Inner Circle, as well as the introduction of Jim Ross to the announce table for the PPV commentary team. The All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view broadcast kicks off with the AEW Full Gear Cold Open Video Package that was released via the official AEW YouTube channel on Saturday afternoon. Check it out below. After the cold open is out of the way we shoot live inside an absolutely decked out, jam-packed Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, complete with a beautiful AEW Full Gear pay-per-view arena design and production set-up. The announce team, including Jim Ross, who was introduced near the end of the AEW Full Gear “Buy-In” pre-show live on the broadcast, formally welcome us to the show and it’s time to go straight to the ring for our first PPV bout of the evening. The Inner Circle duo of Santana and Ortiz make their way down to the ring, as do AEW EVP’s and top tag-team contenders Nick and Matt Jackson — The Young Bucks. Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, are also at ringside for this opening tag-team bout. The bell sounds and here we go as the action immediately gets underway. As the match develops, Nick Jackson is isolated in the ring, with Santana and Ortiz utilizing quick tags to keep fresh guys on Nick. They are focusing much of their attack on the leg / knee of Nick, as well. Finally, Matt Jackson gets the hot tag and he is fired up, taking out any and everything that moves. Matt gets some big spots that lead to some near falls, however after a couple of minutes, The Inner Circle bad boys are once again in complete control of the action. We see a big Street Sweeper spot off the top rope after the ring announcer informs us that 15 minutes has gone by in this contest. The Young Bucks hit a crazy double-team high-spot that garners a “Holy Sht! Holy Sht!” chant from the AEW fans here in Baltimore. Now, Nick Jackson is the legal man. He hits a move or two, all-the-while limping badly, before tagging Matt back in. Matt hoists Santana up for The Meltzer Driver, however when Nick goes to springboard off the ring apron with the ropes, his bad knee gives out and he collapses to the mat. Matt goes over and puts Nick up on the top rope and now he hoists Santana up in the air in a Death Valley Driver position. Santana ends up breaking free and tagging in Ortiz. The fresh Ortiz comes in and talks trash to Nick, who also tags in. Nick spits his gum in Ortiz’s face. Ortiz picks it up and puts it in his mouth. Now he spits it back at The Young Buck. Nick Jackson, bad knee and all, starts fighting off both Santana and Ortiz by himself with super kicks, before selling the leg afterwards. The ring announcer tells us that 10 minutes remains in the allotted time for this opening tag-team contest. As he makes the announcement, Santana and Ortiz hit a big double-team spot on Nick. Santana and Ortiz exchange tag and now they hoist Nick up for the Street Sweeper. They hit it! 1-2-3. It’s over! Santana and Ortiz from The Inner Circle just handed The Young Bucks, Nick and Matt Jackson, yet another loss in the AEW tag-team division. A clean win for Santana and Ortiz here at AEW Full Gear. Highlights of the match are now being shown and analyzed by the AEW Full Gear announce team. Winners: Santana & Ortiz Once the match is over, Sammy Guevara “The Spanish God” of The Inner Circle makes his way down to the ring with a cell phone, as apparently he is video blogging this. Guevara joins fellow members of The Inner Circle, Santana and Ortiz, in the ring as they stand over The Young Bucks. Guevara pulls out a sock filled with baseballs. As the trio gets ready to deliver unnecessary post-match punishment after their victory, The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express hit the ring to make the save. Ricky Morton hits a crazy dive through the ropes and a blockbuster-style cutter on the top-rope on one of The Inner Circle members. The fans in Baltimore absolutely exploded for the big Ricky Morton spots. He’s still one of the best natural baby faces in the pro wrestling game, even in his senior years .. and the All Elite Wrestling fans are letting him know exactly that as they shower the tag-team legend with a “You Still Got It! You Still Got It!” chant to end the segment. The announce team, which is lead by the legendary Jim Ross, breaks down some of the action still to come here tonight at AEW Full Gear. The commentary crew lists the matches that are still to come, noting Moxley-Omega will take place after every match on the show, as they will turn the lights out and let the unsanctioned fight play out. Next up, however, as J.R. and company inform is, is a singles match here at AEW Full Gear… We head back to the ring as “The Bastard PAC” appears across the big screens at the entrance stage and PAC’s theme music hits. Pyro and fireworks explode as “The Bastard PAC” makes his way down to the ring. Now Hangman Page’s awesome music hits the loud speakers inside the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, fireworks and pyro goes off again and the “Hangman” heads to the squared circle for our first singles bout of the evening here at AEW Full Gear. The two slug it out to get things going, with the fans immediately breaking out into loud “Cowboy Sht! Cowboy Sht!” chants as the match starts to develop a bit. PAC is taking over the offensive control in this one. Several minutes have gone by, with PAC hitting a number of high spots and delivering a ton of punishment in what has been a one-sided beat down for a large part of this contest, in favor of “The Bastard.” The announcers point out that PAC is ranked number two and Hangman Page is ranked number three in the new official AEW Rankings, so a win here will be huge for either guy going forward. Meanwhile, Page is finally getting in some offense after a big dive through the ropes onto PAC on the floor. PAC ends up taking back over the offensive control in this one. Things continue like this all the way up until the finish. After escaping a gruesome submission from PAC that looked like somewhat of a Russian Leg-Sweep position, but gnarlier, Hangman Page ends up pulling off the “W” literally out of nowhere with a pin. Winner: Hangman Page The lights in the Royal Farms Arena go off. The arena is pitch black other than cell phone lights now. Some music starts playing and out comes “The Chairman of AEW” Shawn Spears, accompanied by the legendary WWE Hall of Famer of the Four Horsemen faction, Tully Blanchard. Also out to the ring is his opponent for tonight, Joey Janela. The bell sounds and here we go. Early on, Janela gets some shine time, although it isn’t long at all before Spears is using dastardly old-school pro wrestling heel tactics, complete with Tully being quite an active presence at ringside in terms of having an affect on the action in the ring due to his interferences and distractions. Spears punches away at Janela in the corner. He climbs up the ropes and keeps punching him. Now he’s messing with his hair, yanking on it and pulling it. He’s messing with the top turnbuckle, as well. Now Spears goes back to work on Janela. Moments later, Spears catches Janela in a Boston Crab-like submission that looks dangerous for Janela momentarily, however eventually he escapes. Janela is firing up now with punches. Janela is picking up the pace in this one, as he hits a nice dive onto Spears on the floor before returning to the ring and getting in some more spots. Spears cuts his run short with a big shot. Janela rolls Spears up out of nowhere, but Spears kicks out. Spears rolls to the floor and Janela hits another suicide dive onto him through the ropes. The two quickly bring the action back to the ring, where Janela delivers a couple of big punches and a suplex for another near fall. Now Spears fights back. He removes the turnbuckle that he untied earlier. The referee, who is distracted by trying to re-attach the removed turnbuckle, turns his back to deal with that while Spears and Tully Blanchard take advantage of the situation, blasting Janela with a spiked piledriver on the floor. Spears brings Janela back into the ring and nails him with his C4 finisher. 1-2-3. It’s all over. Winner: Shawn Spears After the match we shoot backstage at the Royal Farms Arena, where we have an interview segment with Kip Sabian. Sabian, sporting a nice pair of sunglasses, talks about the need to find people you can rely on and that you have chemistry with. With that said, in walks Penelope Ford, who kisses Sabian. Sabian talks about being bad and bringing some sexyness into AEW. Ford says the interviewer is boring her and says let’s go. They walk off. Private Party vs. The Lucha Bros vs. SCU (C) The AEW World Tag-Team Championships are up for grabs in our next match here at AEW Full Gear, as Private Party — Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy — make their way to the ring after passing through a red velvet rope set up on the ramp. Out next are The Lucha Brothers — Pentagon JR. and Rey Fenix. Finally, the reigning, defending, inaugural AEW World Tag-Team Champions SoCal Uncensored — Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky — make their entrance. After the long, drawn-out formal pre-match ring introductions for this, our first championship contest of the evening, the bell sounds and the action immediately gets underway as J.R. and the announcers discuss the official AEW rankings for the tag-team division and how this match could shake up everything. Meanwhile, the fast-paced action and high spots are starting to unfold in sequence as The Lucha Bros are firing up now. The B-More fans are a pro-Pentagon & Fenix group, complete with “Ole! Ole! Ole!” chants and “Lucha!” chants as the decorated duo continue to take it to Private Party’s Marq Quen. Quen finally blasts Pentagon and tags out to SCU’s Scorpio Sky because his partner Kassidy was still selling a spot from The Lucha Bros previous sequence. A big springboard cross body by Fenix onto Sky nearly gets the three count The Lucha Bros want to capture the AEW Tag-Team Titles from SCU. Sky tags Kazarian and then hoists him up for an assisted DDT off the top-rope to a seated Pentagon for a close near fall that is broken up. Mark Quen tags in, Fenix tags out. Quen hits a wild Pele-style kick to everyone in sight before Kassidy comes in and grabs his foot and launches him twice for big spots on Kazarian, who is now isolated in the ring. A huge Shooting Star Press nearly gets Private Party the 1-2-3 to win the titles, however Kazarian somehow managed to kick out at 2 and 1/2. Private Party sets up Gin ‘N’ Juice, however when one of them runs over for the hurricanrana into the Stone Cold Stunner from the other member, Kazarian, who had the move scouted, saw it coming and avoided it. Sky enters the ring and the two hit a double-team spot on the Private Party member for the pin fall victory. SCU retains the titles with the win. After the match, The Lucha Bros attack SCU from behind, upset that they have twice failed to get their hands raised in competition against them in AEW with the AEW World Tag-Team Championships on the line. As the post-match beatdown begins, another masked man enters the scene and takes out Pentagon and Fenix. He removes the mask to reveal he is none other than Christopher Daniels. Daniels has his face painted black and white with a symbol on it and is crazed after being attacked and taken out by The Lucha Bros during the AEW Tag-Team Title Tournament set-up on AEW Dynamite weeks ago. The AEW Women’s World Championship will be on-the-line in our next match of the evening, the second title bout here at AEW Full Gear. This is being built as the student versus the teacher match, as Riho defends her title against Emi Sakura — next. Sakura is making her ring entrance now, wearing a mustache as the announcers explain she is a big Queen / Freddy Mercury fan. She is holding a microphone and a mic stand as well and the referee attempts to take it from her hand, so she puts it down in the corner. Riho is out next as the fog and lights go off as she makes her way down the ramp towards the ring wearing her championship belt. Riho and Sakura are both in their corners of the ring as the match is officially announced for the AEW Women’s World Championship. The bell rings and the match begins. Both girls take one another’s hands in the Knuckle Lock. Riho demonstrating amazing neck strength, Riho is dropped to the mat by Sakura. Sakura with a boot to the back of Riho, followed by being tossed across the ring by her hair. Riho flips and lands on her feet following being thrown once again. Sakura with a Big Chop to the chest of Riho. Sakura charges at Riho, Riho ducks causing Sakura to flip over the top rope. Sakura lands on her feet on the outside of the ropes, still on the mat. Sakura flips Riho to the ground outside of the ring. Sakura still standing on the outside of the ropes makes her way to the second turnbuckle facing the opposite direction as Riho runs and jumps up on the mat and stops her. Riho hits a Foot Stomp onto the chest of Sakura, accidentally falling as she lands on the outside of the ring. Both women make their way back into the ring. Riho waiting and hits the Double Knee Strike on Sakura. Riho attempts a pin, Sakura kicks out at two. Riho with the Leg Crab on Sakura who is stretching and crawling across the mat, grabbing the rope. The referee makes her let go of the hold. Riho attempts to pick up Sakura with no luck as Sakura stands straight up with a Swinging Flat Liner. The Sakura chant ringing through the arena. Riho holding her head in the corner of the ring. Sakura with a Cross Body into Riho who is still holding her head leaning against the turnbuckle. Sakura wrapping Riho up as she screams with a smile and gets the Surfboard locked in as she rolls around the ring. Riho is screaming, Sakura lets go as Riho is gasping for air. The crowd is not chanting, “Lets go Riho” as Riho is on her knees still trying to get back to her feet. Sakura grabs Riho and lifts her to her feet. Riho trips Sakura who lands with her arms over the second rope, Riho gets a kick into the chest of Sakura followed by the Crossbow on Sakura. Sakura stands up, mocking Riho by pretending to cry with her balled fists rubbing her eyes. A Back Breaker by Sakura onto Riho. Sakura with a reverse Vader Bomb and pin attempt, Riho kicks out at two. Riho is laying on the mat in the corner of the ring as Sakura picks her up and gets her with a power move as Riho counters flipping up off Sakura and landing on her with a Double Foot Stomp on Sakura. Chops back and forth. Riho begins attacking Sakura with strikes, lifting Sakura back to her feet by her hair. Sakura counters with a smack to the mouth followed by another chop. Northern Lights on Sakura by Riho. Riho with yet another Foot Stomp off the ropes onto Sakura who is left laying on the mat. Riho gets onto the top rope and again hits a Foot Stomp on Sakura and a pin attempt. Sakura curls into a “bridge” kicking out of the pin attempt. Riho hammering at Sakura once again who counters with a Back Drop. Sakura with a Double Underhook and slamming her to the mat for the pin. Riho puts her foot up on the rope, stopping the referee’s count. Sakura looks upset and Riho with a Double Knee to the face of Sakura. Fast movements by both women. Riho with a knee to the side of the head of Sakura, followed by a roll up and pin, getting the three count on Sakura for the win, retaining her title in this match up. Sakura helps Riho to her feet and congratulates her for her victory in this one on one match-up, raising Riho’s hand. Riho is holding her championship belt standing side by side. Winner and STILL AEW Women’s World Champion: Riho It’s time for the final SANCTIONED contest here at AEW Full Gear, and it’s for the richest prize that All Elite Wrestling has to offer — the AEW World’s Heavyweight Championship. The AEW ring announcer begins the formal pre-match introductions. He informs us that there are three legends at ringside that will serve as judges for this match — if needed. Those pro wrestling legends, who we are shown sitting at ringside now, are Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson and The Great Muta. The lights dim in the arena, re-lighting up as the pyro and fog go off, showing Cody Rhodes standing at the top of the ramp. Rhodes makes his way down the ramp as he sees his Mom sitting ringside, causing Rhodes to smile before making his way the rest of the way to the ring. Rhodes smiling from the second turnbuckle yelling, “Come on!” as he looks out into the crowd. Rhodes jumps down off the turnbuckle to kiss the mat before jumping out of the ring to run over and hug his Mom. Rhodes re-enters the ring, as the crowd cheers. Next the music changes, sounding for Chris “Le Champion” Jericho as he makes his way out onto the stage raising his hands, facing up to the sky as the pyro and smoke go off around him. Jericho slowly makes his way down the ramp, looking to the left and to the right, not smiling once. Rhodes is glaring from the center of the ring. Jericho enters the ring. Jericho finally with a one sided smirk as he stands in his corner of the ring. The referee stands between the two powerhouses. Justin Roberts officially announces the match, the crowd chants “Cody, Cody, Cody…” as Rhodes is announced first. As Jericho is announced, there is mixed responses from the crowd as he raises his hands in the air. Jericho paces the ring with his championship belt still around his waist. Jericho gives the crowd a double middle finger. Aubrey Edwards holds the belt above her head. “Happy Birthday” chant from the crowd. The bell rings and Jericho exits the ring, whispering to someone ringside that he doesn’t want the distraction. The crowd chants “Cody” as the men lock up, then release. Locking up once again, Rhodes going after the arm of Jericho, attempting a Wristlock. Jericho switches it up momentarily, Rhodes counters. Both men staring each other down, pacing the ring, looking for their moment to strike. Lock up once again, Jericho shoves Rhodes into the corner. Rhodes goes after Jericho, who exits the ring once again, whispering something once again. Jericho is thrown off the ropes, countering with a Shoulder Tackle. Hard chop by Jericho. Rhodes with a Rising Righthand, made famous by his brother Dustin. Jericho exits the ring once again, pointing at Dean Malenko who stands, starring him down. Jericho re-enters the ring once again. Rhodes with a waistlock on Jericho who counters, getting a wristlock of his own. Rhodes with a standing switch, Jericho counters with another wristlock. Rhodes breaks Jericho’s grip. Jericho gets yet another wristlock on Rhodes, back and forth. Rhodes drops to his knees, knocking Jericho out of the ring. Rhodes with a spear through the middle ropes onto Jericho into the barracades. Both men are back in the ring, Rhodes with a pin attempt on Jericho, kick out. Jericho in the corner of the ring, Rhodes working on the arm of Jericho once again before adding multiple chops to the chest of Jericho. Back and forth between the two, Jericho is on the mat. The referee checks on a bright red faced Jericho. Rhodes pulls Jericho back to his feet. Rhodes with a Cover Slam on Jericho for the two count. Rhodes knocks Jericho out of the ring, jumping over the top rope, taking a header landing face first as Jericho moves out of the way. Rhodes bleeding profusely, impairing his vision as his upper right eye is split. The Doctor checks Rhodes injury, but doesn’t stop the match. Jericho raises his own hands in a “victory” walk around the ring, sitting in the chair in the ring. Rhodes makes his way back into the ring. Jericho kicks Rhodes. Jericho throws the chair out of the ring before pulling Rhodes to his knees and some strong right hands to the forehead of Rhodes. Jericho throws Rhodes out of the ring. Rhodes is hit by Hager on the outside of the ring. Rhodes climbs back up on the apron, Jericho slams Rhodes onto the top rope, abdomen first. Rhodes is struggling to his feet, Jericho pulls Rhodes towards him and begins punching Rhodes in the face once again. Rhodes builds momentum and finally retaliates on Jericho, short lived as Jericho counters, knocking Rhodes to the mat once again. Rhodes now in the corner of the ring as Jericho puts his boot on Rhodes neck, shoving him into the turnbuckle even more. A shoulder shove into the abdomen of Rhodes followed by multiple backhands and chops on Rhodes. Rhodes to the top rope for a Moonsault attempt, nobody’s home. Jericho takes this opportunity for a pin attempt, Rhodes kicks out at two. Jericho with a headlock on Rhodes makes his way back to a vertical base. Knee to the solarplex of Rhodes following Rhodes elbow on Jericho. The crowd is clapping and stomping trying to help build momentum for Rhodes who is being stretched by Rhodes. Rhodes with a Hip Toss on Jericho. The crowd is chanting, “Cody, Cody” as his head begins bleeding again. Dropkick by Jericho with another two count pin attempt. Jericho gets his knee between the shoulder blades of Rhodes, trying to lock in a submission. Rhodes makes his way back to his feet, throwing a couple good right hands. Rhodes with a Diamond Cutter and a two count pin attempt on Jericho this time. MJF is looking on from the outside of the ring. Rhodes powering up, feeding off the energy of the crowd. Rhodes with multiple knuckle knot blows on Jericho, who is sent to the outside of the apron. Rhodes with a major kick to the head of Jericho. Once again, the crowd is chanting, “Cody, Cody”. Rhodes makes his way to the outside of the ring, Jericho picks Rhodes up and slams his body into the turn post on the outside. Rhodes laying on the outside of the ring. Jericho points at Rhodes mom who smacks Jericho across the face. Rhodes with a Spear and once again Rhodes mom smacks Jericho. A quick embrace between Rhodes and his mother before Rhodes makes his way back into the ring. Rhodes with a Whale Drop on Jericho and another two count. Jericho is still laying on the mat, Rhodes with a “Woo” before locking in a Figure Four on Jericho. The crowd cheering as Jericho is seen suffering and screaming while waving his hands. Jericho turns Rhodes over to counter the weight. Rhodes flips over as well and grabs the rope. Hager with another hit on Rhodes from the outside. Rhodes throws Jericho into Hager, as Jericho stumbles backwards, Rhodes rolls him up for a pin attempt. Referee Aubrey sends from the match. Jericho grabs the title belt and waits for Rhodes to get back to his feet. Rhodes is hit in the forehead with his own championship belt, Jericho throws it outside of the ring before the referee sees what happened. Jericho crawls across the mat to Rhodes, throwing his arm over the chest of Rhodes. Kick out at two. Rhodes makes his way back to his feet and hits a Crossbow on Jericho for a near fall. Rhodes looks spent with his cheek laying against the mat. Both men laying in the middle of the ring barely moving. The crowd begins chanting, “This is awesome!” over and over and both men struggle to their knees. Right hands being exchanged between the two as both men make their way back to their feet. Rhodes with a little American Dream action. Rhodes with another close call, pinning Jericho who kicked out at two. The crowd is chanting Rhodes name now. Jericho counters a move by Rhodes and gets a two count of his own. Jericho is hanging on the second rope trying to catch his breath. Rhodes doing the same on the mat in the center of the ring. Jericho walks over to Rhodes with a big boot to the back of the head. Jericho back in control, choking Rhodes with his knee onto Rhodes neck into the second rope. Jericho takes off his belt and begins whipping Rhodes who is crawling around the ring. Rhodes is hugging himself in pain in the center of the ring as the referee takes the belt from Jericho. Jericho pulls Rhodes back to his feet as he sits on the top turnbuckle. Rhodes with a big kick on Jericho. Rhodes makes his way up top, Jericho trying to get Walls of Jericho-like submission on Rhodes, who is making the long crawl towards the ropes. The crowd once again chants Rhodes name as he grabs the rope. Jericho is forced to let go. Jericho hammering away at the open wound of Rhodes. The referee tells Jericho to stop, Jericho shoves the ref. Rhodes rolls up Jericho for a 2 count once again. Jericho gets another Walls of Jericho submission move, MJF throws in the towel for Rhodes as he can’t take watching the torture any longer. Jericho grabs the belt and exits the ring. After the match, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, MJF, looks distraught. He approaches Cody and he looks so emotional and upset that he had to throw in the towel. He tries to explain himself to Cody as Cody finally comes to, but he’s in no mood to hear it. With the loss, Cody can no longer challenge for the AEW World’s Heavyweight Championship for the rest of his career. MJF and Cody stand up, while The Inner Circle celebrates, with #ALittleBitOfTheBubbley, with Chris Jericho on the stage. Finally, out of nowhere, it happens. MJF shows his true colors by taking out Cody with a cheap shot. The fans erupt with boos as MJF screams at Cody, yelling at him for being selfish and screaming that it’s “My Time Now!” As MJF heads to the back while fans are still booing, a couple of fans throw full drinks that splash all over MJF while the camera was doing a close-up. The pre-match video package for this one is airing now. Our final “non-match” of the evening here at AEW Full Gear — the unsanctioned “Lights Out” showdown between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega is next. It is announced the lights will go out, when they come back on, AEW is not responsible for what happens during this unsanctioned match-up. Out first is Kenny Omega who is announced as his music chimes in the arena and the pyro goes off at the top of the ramp. Omega makes his way down the ramp and enters the ring. Out next is Moxley, as his music sounds in the arena. Moxley enters through the crowd as he is announced. Moxley quickly enters the ring. Both men are in each other’s faces instantly, the referee separates them and sends them to their corners. Moxley shoves the referee, the bell rings, and the match begins. Omega with a high hook, taking Moxley down early on in the match up. A right hand by Omega. A Blackhole by Moxley, leaving Omega laying on the mat. “Unsanctioned, huh? Let me get some fucking garbage.” Moxley says as he throws a trash can in the ring. Omega regains the offensive advantage on Moxley as they are both now on the outside of the ring. Omega with a Double Foot Kick on Moxley over the barracade. Beer thrown into the eyes of Moxley. Omega with a Double Foot Stomp off the side of the stairs onto the chest of Moxley. Omega dominating Moxley back towards the ring with random power moves, hitting with anything that isn’t nailed down. Omega throws Moxley back into the ring. The crowd is going wild. Omega holding his arm against his stomach in the center of the ring as Moxley looks for a weapon under the apron. Moxley with a bat wrapped in barbed wire. A shot to the back of Omega. Another shot to the back of Omega. Moxley asks Omega if he wants to quit, to which he replies, “no”. Moxley puts the barbed wire bat on the back of Omega and stomps on it. Moxley attempts to wrap that barbed wire bat around the face of Omega. Omega regains speed in this match up, Omega hits Moxley with the trashcan followed by a Pile Driver. Omega back on the outside of the ring, shaking his head “no” at each thing he finds under the apron. Omega looks again, finds a table that he sets up against the baracade on the outside of the ring. Omega once again goes under the apron and grabs a big pipe wrapped with barbed wire. Moxley comes out of nowhere with the trash can, throwing it from inside the ring onto Omega. Omega still holding the pipe covered in barbed wire makes his way into the ring, attacking Moxley with the weapon. The crowd begins to chant, “AEW” over and over. Omega with a pin attempt on Moxley. Omega now on the outside of the ring, looking under the ring for something, finding a trashcan, throwing it into the ring. Moxley still holding the back of his head as Omega is setting something up. A trashcan covering the top turnbuckle as Omega picks Moxley up and moves him closer to the corner. Omega flips off the top rope holding the trash can, landing on Moxley for another pin attempt. Omega pulls out a large board covered in mouse traps ready to snap, Omega pushes it into the ring. Moxley hits Omega. Omega and Moxley thowing elbows back and forth. Omega with a chop and a big knee. Moxley drops Omega with a thunderous Clothesline. Moxley pulls the board covered in mouse traps closer to Omega. Moxley flips Omega onto the the board, mouse traps snapping as Omega jolts around on the board trying to get off. Moxley with a big boot to the face of Omega. Moxley back under the apron. Moxley pulls out multiple AEW gold anchor chains, throwing them into the ring. A kick to the face of Omega. Sidewalk Slam onto the chains for Omega followed by a pin attempt. Omega kicks out at two. Neck Breaker by Moxley, followed by another pin attempt. Omega kicks out again. Moxley absorbing every hit by Omega. Moxley wraps the chain around Omega’s mouth, attempting to break his jaw as promised. Omega hits Moxley with the trashcan lid as Omega is going for the Rearnaked Choke. Moxley slamming Omega onto the mat before exiting the ring once more, looking under the apron, still trying to find something. Moxley returns to the ring with what looks like an ice pick. Omega fights back with the chain wrapped around his hand. Moxley attempts to hit Omega with the ice pick, misses, stabbing the top turnbuckle. Omega counters, but Moxley regains control. Moxley calls for the finish signaling the “cut throat”. Snap Dragon Suplex by Omega onto Moxley. Omega once again with the Snap Dragon Suplex. Then a third. Omega now wraps the chain around the neck of Moxley before throwing him over the top rope, basically choking Moxley out. Luckily the blood on Omega’s hands made him drop the chains, dropping Moxley to the outside of the ring. Omega over the top rope, both men crashing through the table that had been set up earlier against the baracade. Omega gets back to his feet, Moxley still laying on the table. Omega drags Moxley to his feet then throws Moxley back into the ring before looking under the apron himself. Omega finds what he was looking for, it is inside of a black bag, tied up. Omega pulls out a broken piece of glass, seemingly from the table that Moxley broke. Omega attempts to cut the face of Moxley. Moxley grabs the glass in his hand tightly as Omega goes back to the back, crushing the glass in the bag with his boot. Omega dumps all the shards of broken glass in the center of the ring. Moxley backs up. Moxley is slammed onto the broken glass, Omega with a pin attempt, Moxley kicks out. Moxley is shaking while laying on top of the glass. Omega begins to drag Moxley back and forth across the glass. Moxley uses the ropes to pull himself upright. Omega is seen picking up shards of glass as Moxley is rocking back and forth on the mat, grabbing the rope, trying to get back to his feet. Omega smiles holding the glass, Omega is grabbing the jaw of Moxley, trying to shove the glass in his mouth. Moxley counters with a giant Suplex onto the glass. Omega with a counter. Moxley climbs out of the ring and begins to crawl up the entrance ramp. Omega breathing heavily in the ring, grabs the ice pick out of the turnbuckle. Maybe a screwdriver? Omega starts slowly walking up the ramp, close behind Moxley. Omega drags the weapon across the forehead of Moxley in the middle of the ramp. Omega looks out at the crowd, telling the Young Bucks to “bring it”. Adam Page tries to reason with Omega, all the men are saying, “No, it’s too much”. Omega pleads with them as they agree to get whatever it is Omega wants to be brought in. They re-enter the arena with a barbed wire spiderweb of sorts. Omega lifts Moxley onto his shoulders like a child. Moxley breaks free, countering holding Omega in a fireman’s carry. Moxley picks Omega up, Suplexing Omega onto the barbed wire. Both men now stuck in the barbed wire next to the ramp, the wire wrapped around their bodies. Several men come out, basically attempting to dig them out of the wire. Several referees and officials trying to drag both men out, who are covered in bloody marks. Omega is freed first. Moxley so caught in the wire, it takes more effort to break him free. Moxley up to his feet, Omega still struggling to his feet. Moxley assaulting anyone trying to help Omega. Moxley goes for a Suplex, Omega counters hitting Moxley with a big light. Double Foot stomp by Omega onto Moxley. Both men laying inside the big light through the broken plexiglass by the stage next to the ramp. Both men make their way through the crowd. Omega almost chasing Moxley through the crowd. Moxley re-enters the ring, followed by Omega. Moxley gets the PS on Omega for the two count pin attempt. Moxley exits the ring and begins to cut away the ties holding the canvas to the ring, cutting over half the ties, exposing the padding and wood under the canvas. Omega is trying to crawl across the unlifted canvas. Moxley pulls Omega onto the bare wood. Omega counters with a Back Body Drop. Omega looks mad, hitting Moxley with a knee in the back. Omega using Moxley’s finisher in another pin attempt, Moxley kicks out. Omega climbs to the top rope, Moxley rolls out of the way, Omega missing the Phoenix Splash. Omega going face first onto the wood. Moxley with the cover, Omega kicks out. Moxley gets the upperhand now, getting an EPS on Omega followed by the pin for the three count and the win. Winner: Jon Moxley After The Match: Moxley leans in close to the camera and says, “Fck you, that’s how it works.” The match highlights are re-shown as the announcers review big moves in the match. Amazing highlight reel from this match. Moxley trying to catch his breath saying, “Be careful what you wish for… Mothafckers,” as he leans back against the turnbuckle once again trying to catch his breath in the corner of the ring. Omega is being looked over by medics in the center of the ring as the show fades to black. That will do it for AEW Full Gear. Thanks for joining us. Previous Post Next Post ABOUT US WrestlingHeadlines.com is your daily source for pro wrestling news headlines. Our coverage includes WWE, AEW, IMPACT, NJPW, ROH, MLW and more. Formerly Lords of Pain (LOP), we have been publishing WWE news and rumors since 1998! We are an independent news outlet and are not affiliated with any wrestling promotion.	40,876
Things have been really quiet on the White Sox front -- and on this White Sox blog -- when it comes to trade rumors as of late. Things started off with such a flourish during the winter meetings when the rebuild finally began, yet now we sit here less than two weeks from spring training beginning, and we're all still waiting for the next step. Jose Quintana is still here, as is David Robertson. Todd Frazier hasn't gone anywhere, and while it's not even a tiny surprise, Jose Abreu remains as well. So when a trade rumor -- a new one -- finally bubbles to the surface, it's exciting, and on Monday morning Ken Rosenthal gave us all a glimmer of hope in a column about the Washington Nationals. That might change soon; the Nats continue to discuss a trade with the White Sox for closer David Robertson, according to major-league sources. Robertson is owed $12 million this season and $13 million next season, creating an all-too-typical Nats obstacle. The team does not want to absorb Robertson’s entire obligation, and does not want to move additional prospects after parting with three young pitchers for Eaton, sources say. The good news is that the Nats are still interested in Robertson. It's seemed like a logical destination for him all winter. The bad news is I just don't know how well they matchup at this point considering how much the Nats already gave to the White Sox for Adam Eaton. Washington's farm system isn't exactly highly-ranked after that trade, and I have a hard time believing it would want to give up a Victor Robles or Erick Fedde for Robertson. Maybe the Sox could get a Carter Kieboom and a couple of other lower guys -- I still like Pedro Severino. It's just, I still don't really think this is the best time to move Robertson. At this point it makes more sense to head into the 2017 season with him at the back end of your bullpen. I said this before the winter too. With all the high-end relievers that were available over the winter, it was going to be hard to find a true bidding war for Robertson, and that's very much the case right now. Washington may be interested, but who else is? We've heard rumbles about the Blue Jays and maybe the Yankees, but nothing serious seems to have developed there. Which is why it make more sense to hold off on Robertson right now. Come the summer there will be plenty of teams looking for a late-inning reliever. There always are. So if Robertson has a strong first half, and bounces back from the injury he was dealing with last season, his market will improve drastically. There aren't going to be a crop of free agent closers available next winter like there were this year. The only premier name that could be available would be Craig Kimbrel, but barring a disastrous season, I don't see why the Red Sox wouldn't pick up his $13 million option for 2018. Which means that come July the best bullpen arm available could be Robertson. Plus, since is the first year of the rebuild, there's no reason for the Sox to worry about making room by moving Robertson. Even with Zack Burdi and other young arms waiting in the wings, we don't need them to start the season in Chicago. They can just as easily come up in July and August. So even if the Nats are interested, I think the White Sox are better off just waiting on Robertson unless they're completely blown away by an offer before that. Other Apps Comments Jack Wilson February 6, 2017 at 2:14 PM Agreed on the logic of waiting it out, but was wondering if you've considered what would happen if the Sox keep all these pieces and then start out much better than expected. I know two of the top 3 players from last year's team are dealt, but I don't think it's inconceivable that if you keep the current core the team has a season that mirrors last year, where they ride some early luck into a hot start and eventually fade, but not before finding themselves in contention around the trade deadline. Would Hahn still have the green light to sell in that scenario? ReplyDelete Replies Fornelli February 6, 2017 at 2:27 PM I believe no matter what, once you've started this process, you see it through to the end. I don't see them changing course in hopes they can get a wild card berth. Delete Replies Popular posts from this blog December 06, 2016 It happened. I didn't want it to happen, and even as it became clearer that it was going to happen, and the White Sox were going to tear it all down and start over, I just hoped harder that it wouldn't. But it has. Chris Sale has been traded to the Boston Red Sox for Yoan Moncada , Michael Kopech , Luis Basabe and Victor Diaz . What do you need to know about the trade? I'll try to fill you in as best I can as I type these words through the pain. Read more How Would You Like To Invest In Luis Robert's Future? June 20, 2020 Sports betting became legal in the state of Illinois in 2020, and in the last week it became a lot easier to place a bet. Originally, if you wanted to start an account at a local book, you had to open the account in person at the book. Only after doing that would you be able to place bets online or on your phone. Well, you can now open an account online. The pandemic that has robbed us of sports ironically led to making it easier for us to bet on the sports we no longer have. I opened a BetRivers account online earlier this week, and then began doing what I always do: I looked for odds I could exploit. I found them rather easily too. Once sports betting became legal in Illinois I was interested in seeing what kind of lines and value I could find on Chicago-related odds. It's important to remember that while there are professional gamblers out there who treat it no differently than others treat the stock market, the overwhelming majority of sports bettors are doing it for fun Read more December 07, 2016 As I sat down to write a post here this morning, I originally intended to write something about Chris Sale . Something long and sappy, and probably a bit too writer-y, about Sale's time in Chicago. I got about 350 words in before I decided to scrap it. Chris Sale is gone now, and while I'm not happy about it -- I understand it, but that doesn't mean I need to enjoy it -- I don't really feel like wallowing in it, either. I'll let that happen when I see Sale pitching in the postseason for the Red Sox next year after we just finished wading through a 65-win season. 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There is a lot of unwarranted fear about ‘big babies’ getting stuck. The media reflects the usual story – that women are creating a problem that doctors have to fix. The incidence of shoulder dystocia does increase with the size of the baby. However, it is not possible to accurately estimate the size of a baby before they are born. And the complications associated with big babies are not necessarily about the size of the baby. For example, if a care provider suspects a ‘big baby’ the woman is more likely to experience interventions and complications regardless of whether her baby is actually big (Sadeh-Mestechkin et al. 2008; Blackwell et al. 2009). This post will discuss how to avoid a shoulder dystocia (if possible), and deal with the situation if it occurs. What happens during a shoulder dystocia? Basically the baby’s shoulder/s get caught in the pelvis. This movie shows a baby becoming stuck on symphysis pubis (the pubic bone) at the brim of the pelvis. However, a baby can become stuck in any part of the pelvis (more info about the pelvic brim, cavity and outlet in this previous post). Unfortunately variations of shoulder dystocia are generally ignored in emergency training, and instead the focus is on the symphysis pubis scenario. This misunderstanding can result in problems with resolving a shoulder dystocia as particular actions are ineffective for particular types of shoulder dystocia. A lot of midwifery and obstetric learning resources focus on how to manage complications or problems, rather than on how to prevent them happening. Although in some cases shoulder dystocia is unavoidable, there are a number of ways to reduce the chance of it occuring: When women are able to birth instinctively without direction or intervention they are capable of intuitively fixing problems themselves. I have seen some bizarre birth positions and movements that made perfect sense once the baby emerged. And, in the case of a stuck shoulder, instinctive pelvic movements can release the baby without drama. The first step in risk management is to promote and support instinct and physiology. (see this post) The baby needs time to get into the best position to move through their mother’s pelvis. When we try to hurry birth, the baby may be unable to make these adjustments. Directed pushing can force the baby into the pelvis without allowing time for subtle adjustments to happen. Syntocinon (pitocin) induced contractions can do the same. And I am also convinced (but have no research to back me up) that pulling babies out can wedge their shoulders against the pelvis. Waiting for a contraction when the head is out can feel like forever (could be 5+ minutes), and it is tempting to tell the mother to push or pull the baby’s head. But, the baby may be using this time to make the adjustments necessary for the shoulders to birth. As long as there is some change with each contraction, and the baby is well, you can wait – bite your tongue and sit on your hands if you have to. Usually the shoulders will be born with the next contraction following the head, but not always. The next contraction may rotate the baby, then the next contraction birth the shoulders. Watch and see. I have noticed that many babies do not follow the textbook description of the ‘mechanism of birth’ and instead emerge with their shoulders lateral or oblique to the pelvis rather than anterior-posterior. It is probably best not to force a ‘mechanism’ on an individual baby/situation. An epidural will completely alter the physiology of birth and the instinctive behaviour of the mother. Once an epidural is inserted ‘active birth’ often goes out the window. In my opinion ‘active birth’ is not necessary when a woman is undisturbed – she will instinctively get into positions that work for her without prompting. However, active birth becomes essential for a woman who has an epidural. Looking after a woman with an epidural should be hard work. As a care provider you now have to help the baby through the pelvis by prompting and assisting maternal movement and position. This is where the ‘creating space’ tricks‘ become important. Birthing in a semi-recumbant position increases the chance of shoulder dystocia because the pelvis is unable to open ie. sacrum move back and coccyx uncurl. This is often the default position for women with epidurals. However, most women are able to get into an alternative position with assistance, and most hospital beds are adjustable. It is possible to get into a squat using a bar attachment to hold, and women can kneel up and lean over the back of the bed despite a lack of feeling in their legs. A lying lateral position is always available if movement is really difficult. Lots of position changes during pushing may be difficult but can make a huge difference to the outcome. Despite anything and everything mothers and care providers do – some babies will still get stuck. Even though shoulder dystocia is relatively uncommon (1:200), knowing what to do is useful. Firstly, it is important not to make a bad situation worse, therefore: Do not pull the baby as this will impact the shoulder further. Initially diagnostic traction may help you know if the baby really is stuck ie. gentle firm traction – if the baby is stuck on tissue rather than bone they will move… if not stop. Pulling is the most common mistake people make because they panic. Excess traction can result in brachial plexus injury to the baby. Unfortunately the care provider can then find themselves facing litigation. An article by Johnson outlines the medico-legal perspective ‘…for many years it has been accepted that OBPP [obstetric brachial plexus palsy] is an injury caused by excessive traction on the head when the anterior shoulder is impacted above the symphysis pubis.’ Do not cut the umbilical cord if it is around the baby’s neck. While the cord is intact there is still a chance that the baby is receiving oxygen which gives you more time, and assists with resuscitation afterwards. Communicate with the mother. You always have time to explain what is happening and why you are doing what you are doing. Here is a video illustrating why pulling babies out is bad practice: We all learn and retain information differently. As a lecturer I teach two types of approaches – ‘standardised/general’ and ‘situational’. These structured approaches are good for those who find it easier to remember systematic step-by-step information and prefer to systematically work through set techniques. This is the standard approach taught within the hospital system to doctors and midwives. I have a strong aversion to mnemonics. I get particularly frustrated by mnemonics that don’t fit the letters to actions = actions being crow-barred into the word, or another letter being added so it is no longer an actual word. In the case of HELPERR the first E is for ‘evaluate for episiotomy’ – which I am yet to see anyone seriously do in real life. Firstly, you would have to be very brave to attempt putting scissors in such a tight space next to a baby’s head/face. Secondly, if you really need to get your hands in – you will, and a tear will be the least of your worries in that moment. I have recently heard that ‘E’ is now used for ‘explain’, which is much better. Another problem with HELPERR is that it assumes the woman is on her back – which I guess she usually is if the baby is stuck. The first two manouvres ‘McRoberts’ and ‘suprapubic pressure’ are only effective when the shoulder is stuck on the symphysis pubis. Otherwise they are a waste of precious time. OK, rant over. I know that some people find mnemonics assist them to remember sequences, and that hospital staff are expected to follow them. I can see the place of this approach within a hospital setting where a range of practitioners with a range of skill and experience may be dealing with an emergency. At least everyone knows what comes next and I have seen it work well for a ‘group’ approach to the problem. In addition, for legal purposes (see above article) it looks good if you have documented evidence of working through the HELPERR sequence. Because HELPERR is the standard approach I will not list ‘how to’ here – you can watch this youtube explaining the medical approach to shoulder dystocia. However the limitations of the HELPERR approach become apparent when assumptions about position (reclining/on back) and environment (on a hospital bed) are removed. If a shoulder dystocia occurs in a small toilet cubical with an upright woman – how do you perform McRoberts? Or, if the baby’s shoulders are stuck mid pelvis, or on the ‘sit bones’, the first techniques in HELPERR will be ineffective. This is another standardised/general approach that works well with a mobile un-epiduralised woman. There are less steps in this to remember and it makes more sense from a physiological perspective because it allows you to make the most of the space in the back of the pelvis. You can find information, about this method here. A situational approach Considering the range of positions, environments and situations birth takes place in; and the variety of places shoulders can get stuck, another approach is to think and act beyond a mnemonic. We also need to keep it simple and quick. When a shoulder dystocia occurs one or both of 2 things need to happen to release the shoulders: 1. Change the size and position of the pelvis (mother) This can be done by encouraging the mother to move and change position. The best option will depend on the position she is already in. Often just the movement of getting into a position will release the baby. You can ask or assist a mother to change her pelvis by: Lifting a leg up and/or outwards eg. onto the side of the birth pool or chair. This can be accompanied by a rocking back and forward of the pelvis (thrusts). McRoberts is easy if the mother is already reclining. If on all fours, flipping over onto her back might be possible and the baby may release during the movement. German approach – this focuses on moving the mother rather than the baby. Pictures and a translation can be found here. Adducting the shoulder/s will make the diameter of the shoulders smaller. Rotating the shoulders into the oblique diameter of the pelvis will make use of the extra space available (see pelvis info in previous post). Explanations of the following manoeuvres are provided in the movie link above in the HELPERR section. Suprapubic pressure (sometimes called Rubin’s I) Rubin’s manoeuvre (sometimes called Rubin’s II because it is attempting to do the same as the above manoeuvre only internally) Axillary traction (not included in HELPERR) There is no particular order in which you can try the above positions and actions. It will depend on how well the mother can move; the position she is in; and the access you have into her pelvis ie. how and where you can get your fingers in (if needed). For example, Rubins (II) will be easier to do than suprapubic pressure on a forward leaning mother. Bascially there is more room in the back of the pelvis… and this room is best accessed when a woman is forward leaning. It really doesn’t matter what the manoevres are called, or where exactly you place your fingers. Or even where the baby is stuck – if you don’t know. Essentially, put your hand in, find the baby (shoulder, back, chest) and push him/her round and out. Ideally you will be applying pressure to the back of the shoulder, but if not the baby is still likely to rotate… the shoulders/chest are all connected and will move together. The important thing is to get the baby out and getting caught up in exacts can create more stress and delay. A situational approach assesses the holistic situation and uses the appropriate movement or action at the time. I have created a list that combines manouvres and when they are appropriate. I use this when teaching workshops and demonstrating the manouvres. So, unless you attend one of my workshops you will have to do without the visuals! You can watch a movie of a shoulder dystocia occurring during a home waterbirth here Reddit View all posts by MidwifeThinking → This entry was posted in birth, intervention, midwifery practice and tagged birth, complication, intervention, positions, risk, shoulder dystocia. Bookmark the permalink. Supporting women’s instinctive pushing behaviour during birth → Pingback: Pushing – leave it to the experts \| Midwife Thinking's Blog December 3, 2010 at 4:43 pm Great post as always Rachel! I find that talking with the woman about what is happening is a real must as well. Women move heaven and earth (and their babies) when they realise what is happening and that the baby’s shoulder needs to move off the pubic bone and down. If there has been a concern raised, or the woman has a past history of shoulder dystocia, I have found that preemptive discussion and practice of different movements in late pregnancy to work through what would need to be done is valuable in helping women be relaxed and in charge with any ‘threat’ of shoulder dystocia for the current birth. midwifethinking says: December 3, 2010 at 4:52 pm You are so right Carolyn. I’ve added a sentence in response to your comment. It is amazing how strong women can be when the time comes. Thanks! December 3, 2010 at 5:12 pm When ever I explain to medical professionals about my third baby’s birth they always tell me a shoulder dystocia is NOT a “normal vaginal birth.” I’ll disagree with them forever. My two beautiful midwives made the whole process feel normal. I’m so grateful to both of them, they allowed me to have an unrushed, peaceful and joyful birth experience – and knew exactly what to do to give my baby boy the extra help he needed to come into the world. My memory of that moment is so precious and empowering. I’m glad my midwives were my helpers and I didn’t have any HELPERRs. That chart sounds nothing less than terrifying! April 2, 2012 at 6:16 pm I had exactly the same experience. April 1, 2014 at 8:54 pm I’m glad your memory of your shoulder dystocias was pleasant. My homebirth shoulder dystocia was not… moments of absolute chaos when nothing helped to release him (even at home! gasp), baby needing worked on then oxygen, a lifelong injury to him (severe brachial plexus injury), a broken tailbone for me, tearing all the way to anus… shoulder dystocias are NOT rare, but they are not normal. They are deadly. August 5, 2014 at 9:50 am So sorry to hear your experience. Can I suggest that you take your child and yourself along to a McTimoney Chiropractor to see if they can help. February 2, 2016 at 9:32 am Can you think for a minute how incredibly insensitive this suggestion is? Tracy says: December 3, 2010 at 9:30 pm Another great article for us student Midwives. I recently came across a fascinating paper from New Zealand by Ansell (Irving) about the use of axillary traction. It makes so much sense and makes SD slightly less scary…. I have the paper and PowerPoint slides which are great if anyone would like to read them. an Obstetric Emergency August 2009 midwifethinking says: December 4, 2010 at 10:10 am Thanks Tracy! December 4, 2010 at 12:10 am A 2.5 minute shoulder dystocia with my son was one of the scariest moments of my life. There is nothing like being punched from above, folded in half, and having two adult hands in there to kept that next contraction from coming. Pushing went from being the most natural thing in the world to being nearly impossible. Thankfully, my son is perfect. Now that I am a trained doula I often question whether that situation ever had to happen, running through the choices i made and those my midwives made for me ( like induction at 39w 5d for GD). December 4, 2010 at 2:07 am love this post! i gave birth to my 3rd child about 45 minutes after arriving at a US military hospital overseas. unfortunately, the doctor available was extremely active management. as i pushed in an upright kneeling position, he was completely uncomfortable and urged me to ‘lay down on my back’ over and over again. thankfully, he kept his distance because he was so terrified by the situation and my daughter slid out into the hands of her father instead. the ob tried to restrain his comments, but did give me a harsh, “what if there had been a shoulder dystocia?” in reference to my ‘problematic’ choice of birth position. it seemed absurd to me, but i didn’t have much of a response at the time. since then, i have gone over a hypothetical conversation in my mind of my “come back”. thanks for adding to the dialogue. delighted to pass this along . . . DoulaR says: February 9, 2011 at 10:26 am I was just at a birth where mom pushed in that position, and there was a shoulder dystocia. “What if?” Well, they handled it. They tried first to resolve it in that position, and when it didn’t work, they flipped mom into McRoberts and got baby out. The minute of anxiety getting the baby out was still better than Valsalva pushing… Now re-reading this after having read it only a couple of weeks ago, and replaying what happened at this birth, I’m wondering what the actual cause of the dystocia was and thinking the doc may have caused it. K says: December 4, 2010 at 7:05 am My wife just went through a birth that we believe was induced unnecessarily, knocking us out of the natural birth program that we so wanted. She was high risk for GBS and when her waters broke (the day before she was due) and wasn’t in labour the hospital gave us no option but to take the induction + antibiotics or leave and risk our baby’s life alone. There was no option to stay and get antibiotics but not the induction. So what was supposed to be a beautiful, calm, natural birth turned into a 13 hour nightmare. The contractions came hard and fast, the registrar was entirely uninterested in our approach (wanted to give a cervical exam before the antibiotics were in effect, even tho the membranes had ruptured and she was high-risk GBS – we strongly declined that one) and my wife was in terrible pain throughout. Tho she still did it drug free…. so proud of her. But at the last my little boy had shoulder dystocia. My wife had been intact physically even after the head crowned, but the dystocia and their seven minute window for birth meant that both the registar (a much better one by this time, thankfully) and the midwife had their hands all the way up to his shoulder to pull him out, causing 3rd degree tearing. The hospital did a shocking job of repair, 12 weeks later it’s not healed very well. It causes my wife a great deal of distress. We feel that we wouldn’t have been in this position if we’d been left to get into labour naturally. She was already having inconsistent contractions – they would’ve been the right duration and interval to be considered active labour, except any distraction could delay them. It wouldn’t have taken much longer to get into active labour. We don’t question the need for antibiotics – GBS is a serious, serious thing with terrible consequences for infected babies. But the hospital was willing to just let us go home unless we took their all-in-one approach which I’ll always feel led directly to my wife’s terribly hard labour. We may never be able to have another vaginal birth – even if we can, our birth centre won’t let us come back because a history of shoulder dystocia is one of the conditions which prevents them from being able to take you on. midwifethinking says: December 4, 2010 at 10:16 am I am so sorry about your wife’s and your experience. It is so often the case that one intervention (GBS screening which is not evidence based) sets everyone on a path they never wanted to take. You wife will be able to have another vaginal birth. A third degree tear and a shoulder dystocia caused by intervention are no reason to opt of a c-section. Perhaps a homebirth with lots of support and de-briefing for you both is an option? It will take work to heal the physical and emotional scars you both have. April 1, 2014 at 8:59 pm You are horrible! Recommending a homebirth after a shoulder dystocia??? Knowing that they are at an increased risk of having another shoulder dystocia???? Wow. I had a homebirth shoulder dystocia, K, with worse tearing and a broken tailbone. My son is forever damaged by it. You need to be in a hospital for your next baby. A shoulder dystocia is no “variation of normal”. It’s upto you on deciding if you want your wife to have another vaginal birth. For me, seeing my son dead and brought back and now suffer from a lifelong birth injury and knowing my risk was around 7x more for future babies, was enough to steer me to c-sections…. beautiful c-sections with even bigger babies than my first. They are healthy, I healed better after them than my tearing (which took 3 years to recover from and my tailbone never healed). Vicky. says: July 15, 2014 at 10:34 pm It sounds like you had a truly terrible experience – not one to be wished on anyone and you have my deep and utmost sympathy. But even so, that’s your personal experience, no one else’s, and it’s unfair to call someone trained in birth, who manages shoulder dystocia horrible for suggesting an alternative to what you would choose. It’s understandable why you made the decisions you did with your later births. Many, many people would probably choose the same in your shoes, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. My second daughter died while I laboured, I had chosen a home birth and stuck to that decision even after I PROMed 24hrs before contractions started because all the research I’d read suggested that the infection risk between the wait-and-see approach and induction was, statistically, not much different. Towards the end of labour I chose to transfer to hospital even though there was no indication of a problem (foetal heartrate fine, maternal temperature fine) – my daughter was born with no heartbeat (and I really needed to spread my legs because she was 9lb 8 and slightly sticky though not a proper SD). It’s a heartbreaking thing but that’s my story and my experience and in no way does that give me the right to be angry at other people who might recommend a homebirth or others who want to also choose a homebirth. IMO our pain is our own and everyone needs to make their own birth decisions without the influence of other people’s fear. xx Hope says: June 4, 2015 at 3:09 pm I had a homebirth shoulder dystocia, too. My baby’s cord broke because of it, and he was then infected with GBS (the trauma of the cord breaking made him suspectible to infection), almost died twice in his first week. (1st time because of the birth, 2nd time, a NICU’s mistake). He was in the NICU for 13 days. My midwife refused to talk to me about it. She lied. And didn’t offer any support. I put the pieces together (I still am, years later) with a cranial sacral therapist, and a couple of homeopaths. In my case, this was my last birth/baby. My other kids were hospital births with no complications. Stressful, but nothing like the homebirth ended up being. midwifethinking says: June 5, 2015 at 9:29 am I am sorry that you experienced such unsupportive care for your first birth. It really highlights that it is not about the place of birth, but about who you have caring for you. I hope you and your son make a full recovery. Chris says: January 19, 2016 at 3:02 pm Hope, I had a similar situation. I was in a birthing centre “2 minutes” away from the hospital. After 72hrs, my son was shoulder dystocia (his left arm was broken during the birth)and was facing the wrong direction causing awful back pain and slow dilation. I also had a 3 degree tear that they never sutured. I requested a doctor several times.a reflexoligist came…A doctor was called later into the 2nd day by the midwife and he authorized oxtocin via phone and did not give any time management nor did he check me..it was over 11 hrs after the oxytocin was given that I finally had him…not breathing (very low apgars), oxygen tank exploded, they resustated incorrectly causing brushing to his chest, I was left in the room on the floor unattended after his delivery, the ambulance never came cause the centre never notified them my son was transported in a private car…the whole experience was awful and our nightmare continues. We have the “centre” in court and these people have no malpractice insurance they have also harmed other families…..it irritates me when people don’t acknowledge when they have done wrong ….at least in our case. A horror movie that won’t stop. Today my son is 11 has cerebral palsy and is being medicated for seizures. I can get very cross and passionate about “natural birth”. It’s not for everyone and a balance in the birthing system needs to be found between the natural process and the medical process…this extream mindset on either side in my opinion is a dangerous game…it only ends up a price that innocent families are paying. The other worrying subject I am hearing is midwives that aren’t medically trained. I think this is a crazy and unsafe practice . The midwife that deliverd me was a RN and she still couldn’t get her crap together…. midwifethinking says: January 19, 2016 at 7:32 pm I am sorry that you had such awful care. No way should you have been having an intervention such as syntocinon in any setting other than a hospital with emergency facilities and staff. You should have been transferred at that point. I agree that there needs to be a balance – ‘natural birth’ is not necessarily the optimal birth for that woman and baby. That is why I don’t use the term ‘natural’… nature can be cruel and unpredictable. A midwife should be trained in understanding/supporting physiological birth, detecting when birth becomes pathological, referring to a medical practitioner when needed and be able to manage an emergency eg. SD or PPH. That is the case here in Australia. I am not sure where you are from – ?US. I hope you get an acknowledgement of your ordeal from the birth centre. March 26, 2016 at 3:32 pm You lost all credibility at the mention of craniosacral therapy and homeopathy. KM says: December 4, 2010 at 11:27 am Hello, I had a shoulder dystocia with midwife assistance to pull my son’s arm and body out, and a second degree tear. I went on to have another son vaginally without complications. It does get better, I promise! December 4, 2010 at 1:14 pm Your story is a complex one–both for and for your wife. Finding someone unbiased, compassionate and effective to help you both come to terms with what happened could be very helpful. I recommend Pam England (who wrote “Birthing From Within), who does long-distance support for women (and their partners) who had difficult or upsetting births. Her website: http://www.bfwnewmexico.com Best wishes for coming to terms with your experience — it can be a long hard road recovering (physically and emotionally) from birth. December 4, 2010 at 6:27 pm I’m so sorry about what you went through. Although I did not receive any disrespectful treatment during my daughter’s birth in hospital, I know that just processing a physically traumatic birth experience is a long process of ups-and-downs. It’s especially difficult when the history then prevents you from having the birth you want in a subsequent pregnancy -I sometimes wonder whether it would have been better to just have had a c-section, because at least I would be able to VBAC at home. Your wife is very lucky to have you as a support person and as an advocate. Our experience created a lot of friction between my husband and me because he simply did not experience our daughter’s birth as traumatic and thought I was overreacting a bit to what happened. It’s been hard work for us as a couple to even be able to discuss this in detail. If you don’t mind, I’d like to offer some tips from the trenches (in no particular order), so to speak: if you possibly can, limit the amount of contact you have with people who like to play the “all that matters is a healthy baby” card. These people are clueless and often cannot be clued in. please watch out for signs of postnatal depression and/or PTSD in both your wife and yourself. PTSD from birth trauma often gets misdiagnosed as PND, but they are not the same and require different treatment. Two organization that provide wonderful support for both women and their partners affected by traumatic births are http://www.solaceformothers.org (based in the US) and http://birthtalk.org (in Australia) as much support as you may be giving your wife, make sure you have some support for yourself. Both of you went through a traumatic experience, and the supporter needs support as well. know that the grieving process can take a while. I did not start to feel any real improvement until after my daughter’s first birthday, with her actual birthday being a very hard day for me emotionally. For what it’s worth, I had to have a revision surgery on my episiotomy scar that had healed wonky when my daughter was 9 months old, and I was surprised to find it a relatively liberating experience, both emotionally and physically, since it resolved the daily pain I was feeling (and thus reminder of the birth) and healed well and quickly, given that the tissue wasn’t already traumatized by the birth process. Best wishes to you and your wife. December 4, 2010 at 4:21 pm So glad for this post, Carolyn. Nice to see someone talking about SD without thinking of the woman in lithotomy or medicated. A couple of things I would add: 1. beware the temptation to “tidy things up” by telling the woman to grunt the chin out between sensations. Keep that little chin inside as long as it wants to be in there because that gives more space for the correct rotation of the shoulders, too. 2. remember that the thing that will really get the baby out is a strongly contracting fundus pistoning down on the bum. We forget in this dramatic scenario that the woman is the best asset. Often she is “done” or “wilted” at this point in the birth. I find that urging her to quickly drink down a glass of juice at this point in the birth works magic. (I think of it like a droopy house plant with leaves hanging down and you give it water and it perks right up). We work in such a ‘practitioner heroic’ field that sometimes we lose sight of who really births that baby. midwifethinking says: December 4, 2010 at 5:28 pm enjoybirth says: December 7, 2010 at 3:02 am I have always wondered about this as a doula: 1. beware the temptation to “tidy things up” by telling the woman to grunt the chin out between sensations. Keep that little chin inside as long as it wants to be in there because that gives more space for the correct rotation of the shoulders, too. I see OBs in such a hurry to get the head out. Mom is pushing and baby is crowning and suddenly they want the head out. Even if mom has been pushing well and her contraction is ending, they urge her to keep on pushing. Then the head is out and they start worrying. The few times I have seen “sticky shoulders” (never seen SD, but quite a few sticky shoulders) this has been the case – where they force mom to get the head out before her body really wants to. I can’t help but wonder if mom was allowed a break and then to push the rest of the head out with the NEXT contraction if that would have prevented that. midwifethinking says: December 7, 2010 at 9:02 am Obs (and midwives) are taught that the head should deliver with one contraction and the shoulders with the next. This is rubbish and leads to lots of unnecessary instructions, fiddling and sometimes panic. I expect to see a change with every contraction ie. something happen. Sometimes it takes a number of contractions to birth the head – eyebrows, nose, mouth, then chin. I’m sure Gloria would agree that as long as baby looks OK everyone can just be patient. enjoybirth says: December 7, 2010 at 10:07 am Ahh, that explains their (OB’s and nurses) feeling of urgency. I wish I could somehow change this phase of birthing for moms, but as a doula there isn’t much I can do, except tell moms to follow their body and that they are doing great. When everyone else is yelling at them to “PUSH, PUSH, you can do one more push.” Me whispering in their ears is hard to compete against that. This is why I try so hard to emphasize to my students and doula clients – Choose your care provider CAREFULLY! midwifethinking says: December 7, 2010 at 10:15 am You are doing all you can do. Women need to choose care providers who will support the birth they want. Unfortunately most care providers have never actually seen a physiological birth and actually believe their interference helps. Their intention is good but misguided. October 19, 2016 at 11:17 am It can be traumatic to have a true shoulder dystocia. I really think therapy is needed to clear the mind before attending another birth. For the traumatized attendant, it can be helpful to have a friendly assistant to remind you that things are normal for a few births. Someone to point out, for example, “this is her third vaginal birth”, “baby’s color is good”, “it’s only been 2 minutes that the head has been out”, etc. etc. That way, we don’t start seeing SD where it doesn’t exist and end up “doing deliveries” instead of “attending births”. December 4, 2010 at 6:10 pm This is a very timely post, as my daughter suffered a serious SD during her forceps delivery (plus heavy epidural -I couldn’t move) that resulted in an APGAR of 3, one of her lungs collapsing and a stay in the NICU. I’m newly pregnant with #2, and trying to find a midwife here in NZ that will not be freaked out too much by this history. I understand that there is a sizable risk of recurrence (although it doesn’t look like the research controls for iatrogenic factors when looking at recurrence rates for SD), and have thus given up on my dream of a home birth (we transferred to the hospital last time) in order to have advanced resuscitation equipment available if it is needed, even though research shows that the risk of a lasting injury from a SD is pretty small (0.1%). Other than that, however, my desire is to attempt to have a physiological birth in the hospital, if such a thing is possible. Unfortunately, my wonderful midwife from last time has retired, so I met with a new MW this week. After reviewing my history with me, she said it would be fine to aim for a ‘natural’ birth, but that I would a) have to have IV access (I’m ok with that), b) wouldn’t be allowed to birth in the pool, and c) had to have active management of the third stage b/c I suffered a PPH of 800ml the last time. When I made a face showing my displeasure at the last 2 ‘requirements’, she said “well, of course in the end it’s up to you what you do” but it created some doubt in me whether this MW would be able to support and enable my choices when push comes to shove (no pun intended). My thinking is that being in water will allow me much greater flexibility/mobility as well as the chance to stay away from an epidural. I also know that the most recent research shows that active management of third stage can increase the risk of PPH, and that in any case, PPH is more common after SD (so if there isn’t another SD, it’s not a given I’ll hemorrhage again). I guess I’d like to get a sense of what other birth professionals think about is. Would you consider a water birth and/or a physiological third stage under these circumstances? Why or why not? PS: My daughter was 4.2kg, so not small, but I had no sign of GD during the pregnancy, and she didn’t look like a GD baby. Nonetheless, I aim to eat a low-carb diet and monitor my blood sugars regularly this time to see if I can grow this one just a tad smaller. midwifethinking says: December 4, 2010 at 6:38 pm Thanks for sharing your story. As a birth professionals we all have our own fears and boundaries. At the end of the day it about you deciding what is best for you and then finding someone who can support you in your choices. It looks like you are getting yourself well informed and have a good idea what you would like. Your previous experience was most likely a result of the situation. If the situation is different there is no reason it will happen again. I hope you find the support you deserve. Carrie says: December 5, 2010 at 2:28 am Both my kids had shoulder dystocia. The first was at home. Labor had come-on naturally and was mellow but only 6 hours long. He was “sunny side up” and 8 lbs, and when my midwife realized he was stuck, she had me get into the McRoberts position and then had my husband and her assistant push on my belly after she reached in and turned him a little. Then he just popped-out. It was a very quiet and serene delivery, even with the need for emergency techniques. I had some tearing, but not bad, and he was uninjured. The second labor I had started with artificial rupture of the membranes (ARM) due to severe pain from a pregnancy-related injury in my ribcage. I just couldn’t take it any longer. Labor was too intense, I felt the need to push at 4cm, and transferred to the hospital from our planned home birth to get an epidural so I could stop pushing. She was also “sunny side up”, but 10.5 lbs, and when my doctor realized she was stuck, she had me get into the McRoberts position and then pulled as hard as she could, with the help of 2 nurses, on my daughter’s head. She also had hit the panic button, so in a matter of seconds, my room was filled with around 12 nurses. As she pulled on her head, she had her foot on the bed and was actually pushing with her foot as she pulled. It was insane, and I think my mom will always have nitemares from having seen that. My daughter had a birth injury of course. It was just like the video showed. And resulted in Erbs Palsy (she could not move her right arm). After a month of physical therapy, she regained full function of that arm, and her ped could not tell which arm had been injured. I regret not waiting for labor to begin naturally. For 2 weeks prior, I had taken herbs and done acupuncture to get labor started early. And I attribute those interventions, along with the ARM, to the unusual contractions and premature need to push. If I had been able to stay at home, I am confident that my midwife could have delivered her as gently as she did my son. I am so grateful that her injury wasn’t permanent. January 28, 2011 at 7:41 am cathi Cogle says: February 9, 2012 at 2:31 pm I am so glad everything turned out OK with your daughter- what a nightmare! I have heard of babies being decapitated with that method…yikes. I have seen 2 clients have SD, but both were resolvable, thru position change and Woods Manuever(and Gaskins is always first if mom isn’t already there…) both babies were over 11 lbs, and both had apgars of 9+9, afterwards, and mom was fine as well… Hope you are able to still have homebirths, I find it’s the easiest way to AVOID shoulder distocia…since mom can move around freely! I would also recommend learning about posterior positioning of the baby, and helping baby move to anterior before labor starts…www.spinningbabies.com Kate Joy says: November 10, 2014 at 11:36 am I found your advice very helpful. My midwife panicked, called another team, nobody was saying anything to me. My son was pulled out, revived, mercifully uninjured. Sadly my pelvis and lower spine were badly injured and despite major surgery I ended up disabled for life. The air of mystery due to litigation worries, overlooked I was now in a body that is vastly changed. I now have a great GP practice. We deal with incomplete paralysis as it deteriorates. Midwives, talk to the mother and please don’t act on panic, think (quickly). April 1, 2014 at 9:03 pm Having 1 shoulder dystocia puts you at higher risk of having another. Many women have multiple shoulder dystocias and then go on to choose c-sections. My homebirth baby was a shoulder dystocia. His brachial plexus injury did not resolve and he’ll be limited for his life (even with surgeries, therapies, work). My babies got bigger and bigger and I chose c-sections because I couldn’t risk another lifeless baby needing brought back and another child going through a lifetime of pain and work. December 5, 2010 at 5:42 am RACHEL, what a senior moment! I linked to the article from a “Tweet” by Carolyn Hastie so I had gratitude to her on the brain at that moment for directing me to a great article. Feel free to edit me above, ha ha. Love Gloria midwifethinking says: December 5, 2010 at 9:24 am Ha ha – we are all entitled to a ‘senior moment’ every now and then. I call them ‘brain clouds’ and I have them frequently. Rx sarah says: December 5, 2010 at 10:22 pm I made up my own mnemonic while I was in midwifery school, PRAY. Arm Extraction – I suppose axillary traction could fit here too. Yoniotomy – so it’s a made up word, but if you’ve gotten this far it might be time for it. The assistant should be doing suprapubic pressure throughout the various attempts. Also, how telling is it of the surgical training of obstetricians that getting out the knife is first thing on their list! midwifethinking says: December 6, 2010 at 4:54 pm I like it! Robin says: December 6, 2010 at 11:01 pm Thanks Sarah, I much prefer your mnemonic, and ‘Yoniotomy’ is BRILLIANT! I am going to adopt that term permanently! May 23, 2013 at 12:54 am Neat! This is very similar to the one we use in Canada (where I live): ALARMER. Ask for Assistance, Lift the Legs (McRoberts), Anterior shoulder disimpaction, Rotate the posterior shoulder forward, Manually remove the posterior arm, Episiotomy, Roll the mother over onto all fours. From what I was told, McRoberts by itself will solve 70% of SD’s. Pingback: Curiousity is not just for cats \| welcomingtree April says: December 11, 2010 at 3:43 pm It’s so refreshing hearing about situations such as these that can most of the time be best dealt with naturally. Although I do find it sad that the average woman knows nothing about “complications” such as shoulder dystocia except for what they hear from the Doctors who are naturally pushing for the easier and faster C-section. It would be great if all Mommas could be told that their body and their baby have a wisdom all their own and when left to birth in their own time and in their own way kinks often work themselves out. Do you do any educating your clients on potential complications and what the best way is for them to deal with them or is that an area that maybe should be adopted by natural childbirth educators and taught in classes? midwifethinking says: December 11, 2010 at 5:47 pm Hi April I don’t discuss managing a shoulder dystocia with clients (unless they ask). I do talk about communication in labour and that if I feel there is a problem I will let them know and act. The problem is if you cover every emergency it can feed fear and emergency is very rare. I need to be prepared for complications more than they do – that’s why I am there. Antenatally I focus on helping the woman to build her self trust and tune into her intuition and expertise. That way emergencies are less likely to happen, and if they do she might be able to manage it instinctively without me diving in. I recently watched a mother release her baby’s shoulders with instinctive movement. However, if I’d told her beforehand all about stuck babies she may have become fearful and looked to me rather than just moving in a way that felt ‘right’. AP says: December 17, 2010 at 3:56 pm I enjoyed reading this article. Well written with a lot of common sense and a few suggestions I had not thought of before. Shoulder dystocia is one of the scariest situations a care provider in obstetrics can be in, and anything that is helpful to successfully assist the mother to birth their child with as little complications to the baby as possible should be encouraged. This is a situation where you want the most experienced midwives and obstetricians involved. Well done and thanks. midwifethinking says: December 18, 2010 at 12:43 pm Thanks AP. Shoulder dystocia is extremely scary for all involved. The only poor outcome ie. death I have been involved in was in hospital with Cons, senior reg, paed and very experienced midwives present (ventouse delivery). Sometimes it doesn’t matter who is there, or what is done the baby won’t survive. Luckily the problem is usually resolved quickly using the techniques described. AP says: December 28, 2010 at 9:16 pm The other point to say is there are degrees of SD as you know. I have had a few mild SD which required mcroberts \- suprapubic pressure. These are a little tense, but manageable. However I have also been involved in a very severe case of SD. This was horrendous. The baby did eventually come out with removal of the post arm but two registrars tried unsuccessfully before the consultant came and needed a lot of force to get the baby out. Outcome was good thankfully for both mother and baby because of the expertise of the experienced staff on hand. February 20, 2011 at 3:10 pm I’m late to the discussion but wanted to chime in. My 1st baby was a severe SD. It took 2 experienced midwives, the Gaskin and Woodscrew manuvers, and (according to my chart) all “four hands on baby” to resolve. The killer? I have. Hypermobile joints (Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility) that everyone (3 obgyns, 1 family practice doc, 1 high risk ob, and my midwife) assured would make baby getting stuck “the last thing I needed to worry about”. with how loose my joints are everyone thought, if baby needed more room, i’d separate my pelvic arch or dislocate a hip or my tailbone. (I have bad hips so SD did come up on my list of things to discuss prenatally) yet, there I was, out of the tub on the livingroom floor with no understanding of why they were yelling at me to push or why it felt like baby was being pulled, pushed, and twisted. They didn’t have time to explain because the birth of the head and subsequent SD discovery coinsided with the loss of his heartbeat. My 2nd birth, however, baby was out in 3 pushes after a labor less tha 4 hours start to finish. I think chiropractic care made a huge difference in making sure all my joints were (more or less) correctly aligned for the birth and is the one thing I would urge moms worried about SD to check out. Making sure all those interdependant joints are moving freely and in correct position in late pregnancy can make a world of difference. midwifethinking says: February 20, 2011 at 4:52 pm Thanks for joining the discussion and sharing your story. I wonder if because your pelvis is hypermobile it can easily get itself into un-helpful positions/alignment too? I don’t know – just thinking out loud. Sounds like you found the solution for your 2nd birth! June 5, 2014 at 11:09 am I also have ehlers danlos hypermobility type.I have two children.7 year old girl,4 year old boy.I experienced SD with both of my children! my labors were both 36 hours! I checked out this site to see if anybody else with EDS has had Issues with SD.I’m wondering how many others have had issues with it? I may bring this up at my next EDS support group meeting! I saw a physical therapist with my second pregnancy..(for my lower back and hip issues),it didn’t make a difference for my labor however.lol midwifethinking says: June 8, 2014 at 4:23 pm November 11, 2014 at 4:03 am Hi there I am a McTimoney Chiropractor and I think the relevant thing here is “Is the pelvis in alignment?” independent of whether you have HJS or EDS. If the pelvis is in alignment then the baby should be able to pass through easily, whereas if it is not, then problems like SD will occur. Was your physical therapist actually realinging your pelvis I wonder? My experience of most PTs is that they are not. In my 17 years of treating pregnant women I have not had a single episode of SD or a breech presentation. Coincidence? I think not. Joy December 18, 2020 at 7:08 am I just got on here to see the same. I know your comment is old, but I had two SD’s. My 1st and 5th. Have classical-like (TXNB) and Vascular. Thanks for posting. J Clark says: April 18, 2011 at 12:19 am One of my patients had a non-working epidural and was desirous & capable of moving into hands/knees. . . the MD came in an yelled at us to get her on her back . . . because (drumroll) . . . “We’re afraid she’s at risk for a shoulder dystocia and we need to be able to intervene if necessary.” WTF? Tried to explain H&K and Gaskin Manuveer later in the nurse’s station. . . . unteachable, unbelievable midwifethinking says: April 18, 2011 at 9:31 am Obs training is so regimented and confining they can find it hard to open their minds to ‘other’ ways. It is sad. Brandy says: June 3, 2011 at 8:35 am clap clap clap… as a mom who experienced shoulder distocia purely because of of the list above (OB and ignorance of youth) and it was a horrible nightmare i don’t want to relive but thankfully the student that came on shift had experience with midwives and tried to get my son out with the McRoberts procedure above before trying with forceps and McRoberts combination which was successful… (my doctor was there but unable to practice because of some mysterious reason and was not my doctor after that day).. however I was able to delivery without a c-section, no tears, no episiotomies, nothing and my son had no lasting effects. BUT the point is if the birth had been treated right it may have never happened. Yes he was larger 9lb 4oz but I was able to birth him but had I been allowed to change positions I likely could have been able to do it on my own etc… So long story short- thank you …. keep doing what you do and I am thankful … June 3, 2011 at 11:39 am It is interesting that in both the photo linked to this blog post on FB and in the video that you have embedded that the posterior shoulder seems to have entered the pelvis first and seems to have a lot of room. Where did we get the idea that the anterior shoulder always comes out first? If the posterior shoulder entered first and we try to always deliver the anterior first aren’t we going to cause SD by creating a much wider shoulder diamter than would usually be present? midwifethinking says: June 3, 2011 at 2:12 pm A very good point! The assumption that the anterior shoulder ‘delivers’ first is based on observing women on their backs = the first shoulder you see is the anterior. Especially when you are pulling the baby’s head in a downward direction. When women birth in upright/forward leaning positions the posterior often births first. Unfortunately practitioners learn about birth from text books that are based on information gathered by observing women birth in the most un-physiological ways. June 3, 2011 at 12:59 pm Great blog! I don’t comment, but I read often. Any chance you can provide the correct URL for the information leaflet from midirs? Thanks! midwifethinking says: June 3, 2011 at 2:16 pm August 4, 2011 at 6:29 am Wow, another amazing informative post. I have learnt so much from your posts since I found your blog. Thank you for passing on such interesting information. August 6, 2011 at 12:25 am Great post. My sixth baby had shoulder dystocia. Had an active birth without any pain meds at home and I was on all fours. Only position I could cope in. Pushed the head out fairly easily, I say fairly, lol, because she had a huge head and then she just wouldn’t budge. When the mws realised they made me turn over, pushed legs up round my ears (how dignified) but with the next contraction out she popped, all 11lbs 12 oz of her! She was a bit shocked and bruised, but otherwise fine and I didn’t even graze. Incidentally she was also born in the caul. August 6, 2011 at 12:26 am Oh dear, placenta brain, she was my seventh, not my sixth!! Forgive me, 39 weeks pregnant with baby number nine, who is expected to be her size, so my brain is gone completely August 6, 2011 at 5:44 pm I had SD with my second baby who was thankfully birthed after mcrobert’s and the consultant practically climbing on in to pull her out. Amazingly I suffered no tears or damage. What upset me the most was that after this very intense birth with 10+ people in the room, baby emerging with apgars of 3, they all just abandoned me as soon as 3rd stage was over and they had given her back to me. I was left sat in blood, with drips still attached, which made breastfeeding incredibly difficult. I didn’t even know what had gone on until I read the details in my notes! It was an IoL at 38w, because 36w scan indicated baby was already 10lbs, which I could confirm as I felt significantly heavier and more uncomfortable than my first (10lb @40w). She was larger at birth 11lb1, but I believe if we had just waited my body would have gone into spontaneous labour, and not allowed me to grow a baby I couldn’t birth. I had a long discussion with my consultant when we were looking at the way forward. I wanted a home birth, but felt I would have been taking too much of a chance to do this. As a compromise I was happy to go into hospital after going into labour spontaneously. He explained worst case scenario was SD, and the bigger the baby the more likely it was. I countered this with saying that IoL probably meant an epidural, non-active labour also meant SD was more likely. After much guilt-tripping, and to avoid the worst thing in my mind;a c-section, I surrendered to the IoL @ 38wks. I was coping well with no drugs, really in the zone for my contractions, and having strong regular 4-in-10 contractions, until they HAVE to increase the drip every hour, as the manual tells them. Every time they turned that damn drip up I would begin having unmanageable back to back contractions, and they would turn it down for a bit to ‘give me a breather’ and then whack it back up again. Inevitably this led to an epidural as I was physically exhausted, vomiting with the pain and completely out of control. (A bad reaction to pethidine in a previous labour ruled this out for me, and entinox was also horrendous!) I really don’t understand why they couldn’t have invested that little bit more time in me, to let me labour at my own pace, which I’m sure would have meant no epidural, and a much better birth. September 14, 2011 at 7:14 am You are the absolute best! Was looking for research for a friend and this is just what I need! November 9, 2011 at 11:57 pm I would like to give another view from Gail Tully, CPM; The Spinning Babies Lady. She also made a DVD on Resolving Shoulder Dystocia, which is the best I have ever seen. She is very intuitive and trusting in the womens ability and the baby’s involvement as well. We would all be able to address shoulder dystocia with her approach. I believe you can get the DVD on her website; http://www.spinningbabies.com and maybe even on Amazon. midwifethinking says: November 17, 2011 at 2:30 pm I’ve added the information and link into the post… and ordered the DVD. midwifethinking says: January 12, 2012 at 6:14 pm For anyone following this comment thread – I’ve added a link to a movie at the bottom of the post January 22, 2012 at 7:07 pm I had a severe shoulder dystocia birth with my 3rd child. I can relate to alot of what others have written here. I agree with you that the mid-wife’s should explain what is happening. Nothing was explained to me during it was all happening. And to be honest it was never explained very well afterwards. My labour was not progressing well (at 5cm for 4 hrs) so with my permission the mid-wife broke my waters. If I could turn back time I wouldn’t have allowed this. But I guess you take the advice of your mid-wife after who else can you trust? After my waters were broken the contractions came hard and fast. I was in extreme pain and this labour didn’t feel ‘right’…I couldn’t move to get up for the toilet. I was told to lay on my side to open my pelvis and push at 8-9cm as baby’s head was not descending. Anyway, babies head finally came to crown after about 1hr of pushing. I was turning over to my back , a sitting position. And evaluated for a episiotomy and this was carried out and extended twice. I was pushing with my legs up to my chest and chin tucked down. This was proving my most difficult labour. Finally baby’s head was born…I felt so relief. I pushed through the next 2-3 contractions but nothing happened. My baby’s face had turned from pink to dark blue by now and my mum was really panicking. The mid-wife asked the student mid-wife to push the emergency buzzer, I was told not to panic. The room filled very quickly. The bed was lay flat and I was put into the McRoberts position. Supra pubic pressure was carried out. A failed woodscrew. An ob took over and did another woodscrew (maybe a reverse) and got him out. My baby was born white and flat. A 35min resuscitation followed and then my baby was taken to special care on a ventilator. He had to transferred to another hospital where he made a quick recovery and spent 7 days there. He suffered an Erb’s palsy injury and is doing really well with this…he has full range of movement and just a little muscle weakness. Now he is almost 3years old (in 4 months time). He has mild cerebral palsy, sensory processing disorder and very possibly is on the Autism spectrum (being assessed). As a result of my experiences I set up a Facebook support group for those who have suffered a Shoulder dystocia birth, we welcome members from all over the world. midwifethinking says: January 23, 2012 at 7:34 am Thanks Emma. Shoulder dystocia can be an extremely traumatic experience. I have known women who felt unable to attempt another vaginal birth with subsequent pregnancies, and opted for an elective c-section instead. It is great that you have set up a support group February 1, 2012 at 10:36 pm my baby was born with shoulder dystortia which caused me to have a 3rd degree tare, I got examined at 4pm no pains I was 2cm then at 4.20 I wet straight to 10cm by 8pm I was still pushing with no pain relief, and the midwife asked for help the doctors were all v busy eventually when she pressed the alarm I got an episiotomy and the room filled with people, I got taken off to theatre as my baby was being rescusitated , she was 10lb this was a Saturday the previous Tuesday I had been crying at hosp to my doctor as I knew baby was huge he did a sweep and said she was average size not to worry . midwifethinking says: February 2, 2012 at 8:51 am I am sorry that you had such an awful experience and that you weren’t listened to re. your concerns about baby’s size. I am surprised your midwife managed to give you an episiotomy with the baby’s head out… also an episiotomy increases the chance of a 3rd degree tear. I hope you recover well from this. February 9, 2012 at 3:42 am Maybe this is why, with my second child, I had two almost-15-minute breaks between contractions after her head was crowning. Everything was fine–if there was shoulder dystocia, it was resolved on its own! My midwife was very hands-off. She was a fairly large baby, 9 lb 3 oz, and I am fairly small, 5 ft 2in. Yay for natural birth!! February 9, 2012 at 9:15 am Thank you for posting this info about shoulder dystocia… Both of my babies were born this way & both times I was on my back… In both instances the attendants panicked & I ended up with a lot of, what I now feel, unnecessary damage. It may be uncommon, but more awareness needs to brought to how to react to this situation in a calm and productive manner. Gillian C says: March 21, 2013 at 7:18 pm Sherry says: February 13, 2012 at 5:13 am Love how you laid it out…from ‘do nothing’ all the way through ‘break and enter’….this is the only way that protocol that should ever be developed for anything health or birth related (in my humble opinion be laid out like this)! It is so intuitive and logical. All women would be satisfied with their births knowing that everything was done in the realm of prevention and ‘following their bodies’ before using any invasive techniques. When it doesn’t occur this way, woman are left rightfully confused, disappointed and even resentful when they discover that their care providers skipped straight to forceful and painful protocols and left out all the steps in between (and they have every right to be). Guggie Daly says: February 13, 2012 at 10:24 am Thank you for mentioning that not all SD cases are with macrosmic babies or GD babies. I’ve birthed two 11 pounders and a 10 pound baby and they all birthed quickly without any sticky issues. I do not have GD either. It makes me angry to think of the many women I know who were scared into unnecessary interventions to somehow “prevent” a big baby or SD…meanwhile those very interventions ended up harming the mama and/or baby. Diane says: February 13, 2012 at 2:41 pm Recently attended a birth where contx were 7-9 min apart throughout. Baby’s head was out for 9 minutes before the shoulders came. No dystocia, baby was pink so I just waited. No problems! March 6, 2012 at 9:36 am Great article! I was reviewing your “creating Spaces” list (awesome) and don’t know ‘chugging’. Can you define that action. Thanks! March 6, 2012 at 9:38 am midwifethinking says: March 6, 2012 at 4:05 pm Ohh this is going to be hard without a visual. Basically it is ‘vibrating’ the soft tissue. So, you can hold a woman’s thigh (someone else do the same to the other thigh) and basically jiggle the tissue. You can do the same with the heel of your hand on their buttocks. It helps women to relax the area… I have seen it work really well and it feels good to. If you can get to one of my Capers Retreats we will be practising this. March 7, 2012 at 10:13 pm a little off-topic, i know, but i just wanted to say that i discovered ‘chunging’ completely spontaneously during my 2nd son’s birth. it seemed an obvious way to deal with contractions when i was probably about 6cm dilated. i felt compelled to stand at the end of my bed as a contraction began, lean forwards, widen my stride, rock a little, then rise up onto my toes and jiggle about so the flesh on my thighs and bottom vibrated. every time the contraction receded, i thought how strange it must look, how glad i was that no one was looking, and how helpful it was! (baby was born in 4 hours in the pool – no chunging there! – with apgars of 10). midwifethinking says: March 13, 2012 at 1:02 pm Yes – bottom/thigh vibrating is great – loosens all the soft tissue in and around the pelvis. Enjoy birth/baby number 3 shellie says: June 26, 2012 at 6:51 pm my daughter had sd..she was stuck for 6mins.. it was the worst 6mins of my life.. her little body came out pink and her head was blue from having no oxygen..she weighed 9lb 3oz..i am on the smaller side myself..i was told by the docter who delivered her i was not able to have another natural birth..which has totally put me off having anymore children. midwifethinking says: June 28, 2012 at 5:56 pm I am sorry you had such a frightening experience. I am also sorry that the doctor told you that you would not be able to have another natural birth. Plenty of women go on to have normal births after a shoulder dystocia. The chance of you NOT having a reoccurrence is over %80. I hope you have both healed well. shellie says: June 26, 2012 at 6:58 pm i was also told she wasnt going to be a bg baby.. her agpars were only 3/10 October 11, 2012 at 4:34 am What are the complications of shoulder dystocia? midwifethinking says: October 14, 2012 at 2:12 pm At the beginning of the post I direct readers to resources which provide this information: Resources: You can download an information leaflet from midirs, and CETL learning have a slide presentation available online. Both of these resources give a comprehensive overview of the incidence, risk factors and the standard approach to SD. In addition references are provided for those who want/need them. This post focuses on management… otherwise it would be huge October 23, 2012 at 6:49 am Wow! Great article and explanation on how things work. Thank you for sharing it. Soon2bmomof2 says: November 14, 2012 at 12:34 pm wow im so happy i came across this!! big babies run in the family, im measuring very big so the dr brought up suprapubic pressure at my last appt…found out my brother had SD 11lbs3oz, drs wanted to dislocate his shoulder, my mom wouldnt consent so they cut into her small bowel to get him out…still going to stay positive but i am definitely adding details to my birth plan in case we come across this… midwifethinking says: November 14, 2012 at 2:08 pm External measurements/palpation/ultrasound are very inaccurate methods of predicting birth weight. Suprapubic pressure only works if the baby’s shoulders are stuck in the pelvic brim. Any lower and it is pointless. It also requires you to be on your back which makes your pelvis smaller. To reduced your chance of a SD you could remain mobile in labour (without an epidural) and birth in an upright, forward leaning positions spontaneously pushing (i.e. not coached) Smoore says: November 23, 2012 at 2:49 pm Hi, I recently found out that I am expecting my second child and I must say that I am very scared. With my first child the pregnancy was near perfect, but the labor was very different. After my water broke at home I went to the hospital and within a few hours I was pushing. Before I got to that stage the nurses wanted me to lay down and I refused. I continued to walk until I reached 10cm and then I layed on my back to begin pushing. After pushing for an hour, SD happened and my doctor yelled at me to get on all fours and push. My daughter was born shortly after with no injuries. I on the other hand had third-degree tearing. I applaud my doctor for her quick thinking, but I wonder if something could have been done differently to make the process less traumatic. I think the walking before delivery/pushing of the baby begins is a great idea, and keeps your mind off the pain. But using different birthing positions sounds like the way to go. In retrospect giving birth on your back sounds really dumb. By the way my daughter was 7lb 15oz and I delivered 2 days shy of my due date, I gained 30lbs and had no complications during pregnancy. I am concerned that SD will occur in this pregnancy. What should I talk to my new doc about concerning a less traumatic experience? midwifethinking says: November 24, 2012 at 4:22 pm I am sorry you had a traumatic experience. You have around an 80% change of a SD NOT happening with your next birth – so you are unlikely to have a repeat SD. It might be helpful to debrief and explore the experience with someone (doula, midwife, friend) and work out what it was in particular that was traumatic about your SD. Then work out how that particular ‘thing’ could be done differently next time. For example, if the trauma was due to the environment, people panicking, new people entering the room, lights being put on, etc. this may be what you need to talk about avoiding with your new doc. Or, it might have been something completely different. I have attended SDs that were not traumatic for the woman at all. It is not necessarily the event, but how it is dealt with that creates trauma. However, it is difficult to help without further exploration of your individual situation and experience. February 15, 2013 at 12:03 pm I am 38wks5days into my 3rd pregnancy. I have had 2 previous, vaginal, medicated hospital births. With my last birth, I went in for labor augmentation at 38+ wks. After 1-1/2 hrs of pushing, I delivered the head. SD was immediately apparent. Gentle downward traction in the McRoberts did not facilitate delivery, nor did suprapubic pressure. Finally, they reached in, delivered the posterior shoulder and applied gentle downward traction for delivery of the anterior shoulder. Besides having third degree tears and sustaining emotional trauma, both the baby and myself recovered with no lasting injuries. She was 9lbs13oz. SD has played a huge role in my birth plan, this time around. After much soul searching, I decided on a natural, non-medicated, vaginal hospital delivery. I read the books, found a doula, and an OB that was supportive of my birth plan. At 37wks4days, my OB sent me to get an ultrasound because I had measured 42cm at my 37 wk appt. Ultrasound showed a healthy, 9lbs13oz baby with normal amounts of fluid. At my 38 week apt, my OB asked me to re-evaluate my birth plan. Basically, she is concerned about the size and the past history of SD. She has not fully suggested a C-section, but has stated that most OB’s would have already scheduled me for one. She wants to support whatever decision I make, but has stated that if there is complications with a vaginal birth, she will medically speaking, have no grounds to stand on. Since this last apt, I have found myself conflicted for the first time. I have been researching like crazy. I just don’t know if I am making the right choice anymore. I feel like I may be in the small percentage of women that have a medical reason for opting for a C-section. I really don’t want surgery, but I feel like I may be putting the health of my baby at risk. I would greatly appreciate any feedback! midwifethinking says: February 16, 2013 at 7:09 am This is your decision and you have to do what feels best for you. The doctors comment of having no grounds to stand on if complications occur is untrue. She has informed you of the risks (from her perspective) and will manage any complications arising as best she can = that is her job. It is not her job to perform surgery without consent. It seems that you were on your back and possibly being directed to push with your previous birth? These can increase the risk of SD. Perhaps different circumstances that allow our pelvis to open and baby to make his/her own journey through will result in a different outcome. As for estimating weight via ultrasound… not very accurate. However, you generally make slightly bigger babies with subsequent pregnancies. The research does not support the use of c-section or induction to prevent SD. Good luck with your decision making – it can be really hard when you are in the middle of very different perspective… ultimately it has to be what you are most comfortable with. There are risks either way – choose which ones you want. November 10, 2013 at 6:56 pm Hi I am in a similar position to you but i also have Gestational Diabetes. My 38 weeks scan showed baby measuring 4,610g. My consultant has said he won’t support an inductiona and i should have a c section. I’m booked in for the induction still tomorrow and a c section the day after. I have to make the decision to either go against the consultant and be induced or have thr c section. I also have ployhydramniosis. My midwife doesn’t think i am carrying a big baby through feeling my stomach just that i have lots and lots of fluid. Can i ask whether you had a natural birth or whether you opted for the c section? November 10, 2013 at 10:54 pm Tell your provider to get you off your back or butt! I’ve helped moms give birth to 12 pounders by either hands and knees( Gaskin maneuver)or side lying. Oh, these births were at home….but get off your back, and there is room for the coccyx to move out of the way…no section necessary. August 20, 2014 at 4:15 am I know that this post is older, but I felt like maybe someone else reading it with the same questions might benefit from what I had to add (granted it’s anecdotal, not research-based). My mother (5’1″) was told that I was a very large baby due to her measurements. I was born barely 6 lbs, and the rest was polyhydramnios (never diagnosed, but she assured me she had a lot of fluid — PROM). My great aunt, about 5’2”-5’3,” gave birth to her second child at home, unassisted and unmedicated, and this child was 13 lbs. So it’s possible for measurements to be wrong (your midwife may be right that you have a normal baby and too much fluid), and depending on your pelvis — your body, really — even a large baby might not be an issue. I’m saying this not as a professional, but just as someone who could offer some other examples. Whatever you ended up deciding on, I hope you weren’t afraid and had a positive experience and healthy baby. February 18, 2013 at 8:00 pm I actually had a son in 1991, and it has always bugged me the way that they delivered my son. The doctor or nurse whom ever was helping him had taken his elbow and shoved it into my stomache to push the baby down. I totally lost my breath , like the wind was knocked out of me. Later i found out that my son had a broken collar bone. Being 19 years old you really don’t have a clue as to what is going on. Sadly my mom admits today that she has never seen anything like that before. I kinda still suffer from that happening and not being told what was going on . Sally P says: March 4, 2013 at 3:47 pm I’ve had 1 SD and 3 “sticky shoulders” in all of my 5 home births with only 1 of them being caught by me I have had uninterrupted births for all… the only birth that wasn’t “stuck” had such an explosive Ferguson’s Reflex I just knew that baby would come out just fine. Interestingly that baby was the smallest at just under 9lbs, and narrowest shoulders, all the rest at 9lbs, with broad shoulders, and the true SD @ 10lbs8oz No tearing, completely intact perineum with all my births March 29, 2013 at 6:20 am I had a water birth in Jan of 2011 and they had to use the McRoberts when baby got a little stuck. Baby came out easily with it, and I actually never realized there was an issue until I googled what a McRoberts was almost a year after the birth. I did tear, but not too bad. Now I am due any moment, and just got a call today from my midwifery group telling me they feel strongly that I should not have another water birth. Honestly, I wish I could have know this sooner, since for months I have been preparing for a similar birth in the water. Maybe they forgot about my situation until I brought it up at my last appointment and they had some time to think about it? So – my question – is it bad that I still want a water birth? Should I be more worried of a repeat with possible bad consequences since I already had one baby who got stuck? Would you recommend giving up the idea of a water birth if I were your patient? Thanks for reading. Still processing this new, and disappointing, information. Of course I want baby to be safe, so I am looking for advice/a second opinion. Thanks! midwifethinking says: March 29, 2013 at 11:35 am I think you need to discuss this with your midwives. A waterbirth will not increase the chance of you having a shoulder dystocia but I am guessing your midwives are worried about managing it in the water – it is more difficult to access you and your baby. Perhaps if you have some agreements about getting out if your baby appears to be stuck (you can get out a pool with a baby’s head out if needed) it may help everyone to feel more relaxed about a water birth. Not sure… this is something you need to work out with your birth attendants March 29, 2013 at 11:48 am Might be a good idea to explore other birth attendants. The chances of another SD are pretty small, and I don’t think being in water would make it worse. What I would do (from a midwife’s perspective) is watch mom during labor/pushing, let her be in the water, and if baby’s head is born and turtles, then get mom out of the water, or get her to change position. Mom could adopt a semi kneeling position, or hands and knees, and if that didn’t help there are other positions that might work better. But if the attendants panic, that makes it worse. Pelvises are not made of concrete, and babies heads mold, and most of the time someone calm and reassuring can get the baby rotated better so it can be born with no damage to itself or mom. I’ve helped moms birth 12 lbers at home successfully…and plenty of other midwives have done the same. Amanda says: May 25, 2013 at 5:22 am my 3rd pregnancy resulted in a shoulder dystocia. It was a suprise to all as we were expecting a 8lb baby and i ened up having a 10ln 2oz baby. I am short myself and only gained 14lbs with the pregnancy. my ob said my weight was great. also no GB. anyway my son was “stuck” for about 2 min. after birth they watch his arm and shoulder and he moved it fine so we moved on. well as time went on I started to noticed things at 4 weeks he would not turn his head toward the shoulder that was stuck his pt said it was because of the shoulder dystocia. well we did pt for 2 months and it resolved he can move his head both ways. Now he is 6 months old and he has his arms both of them in a backwards postion. His arms are kinda behind his back. THey are tight i have to manully rotate them foward. he can only roll over one way. when hes on his tummy his arms are in a “superman” pose straight out to his sides. the pt is also concerned that his ankles are slight tight as well and he likes to bounce on top of his feet. his toes are in a pointed position one way more then the other so we are back in pt but everyone say it could be from the shoulder dystocia but typical if its an injury from that it is only one arm. well its both with my baby. I have tried to find info on this and come up with nothing. I wish i had answers would love to hear if anyone has gone though this or something similar with there child midwifethinking says: May 25, 2013 at 12:15 pm I am no expert in this area… injury can be caused by SD – but it is usually the impacted shoulder/side only. The fact that your son seems to have problems with both arms and possibly his ankles suggest that this may be something else. Sorry, I’m not sure. Hopefully a reader will pop up and share their experience. I hope you find your answer Jen says: February 2, 2014 at 12:44 am Hi! Did you ever receive a diagnoses? Your little one and birth experience sounds similar to mine. We are in the process of getting a diagnosis, and I just wondered what your outcome was. Thanks! April 1, 2014 at 9:11 pm There are “global” brachial plexus injuries. Those affect both groups of brachial plexus nerves resulting in both arms being injured. I hope you have gotten your little one into see a Brachial Plexus Center. July 29, 2013 at 8:44 pm my first was a long ‘labour’ i was left in room with no info or knowledge! after going in at 7am and eventually delivering at 3pm the following day, i didn’t even realise i has gone through shoulder dystocia. all i remember is a fair few doctors and midwife all screaming at me to get her out or she would die! they literary had both my legs wrapped round my ears.the cord then broke whilst trying to pull and after much arguing they sent me for a general for manual removal as they initially wanted me to have epidural which i refused. due to this my three others have all been delivered in hospital ( a different one i add) all 4 are healthy but i have ‘inside’ problems! i have since read complications and feel incredibly lucky November 10, 2013 at 1:54 pm “As long as there is some change with each contraction, and the baby is well, you can wait – bite your tongue and sit on your hands if you have to.” The instance of iatrogenic SD I recently saw had a NRCTG. A few prolonged decels in 2nd stage. Mum was flipped onto her back to check for full dilatation (why with a multi, seriously!?!) Then of course she stayed there, was given an epis to expedite the delivery, and immediate downward traction by the Reg, despite the in charge MW asking to wait for restitution. There was no movement of the mother at all, only SPP applied, traction on the baby and telling the mother to push. I (student) asked if we shoud do McR, but as her knees were already at her chest (since before the head was born) I was told no, this IS McR. (??) I believe birth occurred after some kind of internal manoeuvre (rubins 2?) So, my question is: due to NRCTG, you do need to expedite the birth, I imagine some maternal movement would have been the best way to manage/encourage this? midwifethinking says: November 11, 2013 at 9:50 am This is difficult to comment on as there are a number of questions… why was the woman on a CTG? – presumably because there were concerns about the baby? Otherwise this is not evidence based. Was the woman being coached to push? – if yes then that may explain why there were prolonged decals and why the baby became stuck. An upright position will expedite a birth quicker than an episiotomy with a multi. Yes… when a baby is compromised you might not wait, and may encourage the mother to get the baby out quicker or assist her to. But firstly – don’t compromise a baby by coaching pushing or putting the woman on her back. And a baby would need to be very compromised to attempt to pull it out without waiting for another contraction… not just a few prolonged decels. Just my thoughts without the benefit of being there. November 13, 2013 at 3:20 pm Thank you Rachel or your reply. She met criteria for CTG because of an APH. She was on H&K entering 2nd stage when there was a prolonged decel (after early decels with previous ctx). I feel that if she had not been put on her back (for the VE), and encouraged to push with her body (as was already starting to happen), the baby would have been born soon after and her position would have facilitated an easier birth of the shoulders. Until I am an experienced practitioner though, its hard to go wth your instincts! I feel like I have to just try to reflect on other’s practice to enrich my own! midwifethinking says: November 13, 2013 at 3:56 pm That makes more sense. This was possibly not a physiological birth… she had an APH. The baby was potentially at risk hence monitoring and action to expedite the birth. And, yes I think your reflection re. position is probably correct. Your instincts will develop as you gain experience and continue to reflect and ask questions November 18, 2013 at 7:06 am Great post. I’m a fan of waiting for the next contraction because many SDs just are just babies that have not completed internal rotations and the contraction helps that. I also believe that moms with free mobility often know instinctively how to move “just so” and resolve many problems. I’m a big fan of the situational approach. Instead of randomly applying various maneuvers, figure out what is causing the SD, and then apply the maneuver that is most appropriate. Less time will be wasted, and less harm should occur if the maneuver is targeted to the specific presentation. Of course, it’s not always apparent what is causing a SD, or the space may be so tight that you can’t figure out what’s going on….in those cases, you have to make a logical guess based on the circumstances and proceed from there. But if you can do the best internal assessment possible and THEN proceed, that probably leads to better outcomes (though of course we have no research to confirm that). I had a SD with baby #4 who had one arm behind her back. As I pushed, I felt a “knocking” in my pelvis;.I think it was her trying to move her arm to the front. After the SD did not resolve, my MW reached in and assessed her position, found the arm behind the back, and moved it to the front and out. Baby came quickly at that point. All this took place in the tub with no problems. 24 minutes of pushing, including 6 minutes of SD. Baby was pink and had good heart tones throughout, which gave us flexibility in our approach. The arm behind the back is a rare form of SD but a tricky one because most of the other maneuvers would not help. I was VERY thankful to have a MW who assessed before she just randomly started applying maneuvers, and who never panicked or pulled. Baby was fine, needed no resuscitation, and I had no tears. We did get her some chiropractic and craniosacral therapy as a precaution, but she’s never had any problems. midwifethinking says: November 18, 2013 at 9:02 am Thank you for sharing your story and demonstrating that SD can be dealt with in a holistic way February 8, 2014 at 4:15 pm I’m starting to wonder: what information, if any, is there on the effects on a mothers body of turning her over while delivering? If a mother is delivering on all fours and she is forced to turn over, can she end up with injuries, for example to the tailbone or hips? midwifethinking says: February 8, 2014 at 6:12 pm Yes – in theory… forcing a woman into any position could result in harm or injury. February 18, 2014 at 1:31 pm that is interesting. i had previously had a bad hip since my son in nov 2006, but ive had to go to a lot of PT after my daughter this summer, and have had a lot of tailbone pain! im so frustrated that i had her HEAD OUT and they wanted me to turn over for their own comfort. it happened fast so she delivered her own head basically, before the doctor got back in the room hahaha ;P wish i had just let her go hahaha my doula/friend would have been just fine catching oh well. sigh. it comes and goes, but this is really annoying. is there any research or study out there about this? midwifethinking says: February 19, 2014 at 1:27 pm No research that I know of… but I know anecdotally that some women experience tailbone pain after birth. The tail bone (coccyx) uncurls to create space for the baby. Sometimes it does not go back to where it started. I know one woman who had problems until she had another baby and during that birth her coccyx moved back into place. Trevor says: February 27, 2014 at 1:35 pm I find it interesting that you say the following in your article: “Induction, augmentation of labour and instrumental delivery increase the chance of a shoulder dystocia happening (Gherman 2002)”. I clicked on the article you cited and I actually read it. They specifically state that in a peer reviewed clinical study, moms were randomized into an induction of labor group and a natural labor group…. “There were no statistically significant differences in the number of shoulder dystocia cases in either group” If you are going to make a statement to scare expectant mothers, at least try to make somewhat of an intelligent argument. midwifethinking says: February 27, 2014 at 5:58 pm Thanks for pointing out this oversight Trevor – I appreciate readers challenging and contributing to my work – and often change it in response (none of us are perfect and I learn from being open to other opinions). I’ve just been on a searching expedition and could not get access to the entire Gherman article again. I have taken out this statement along with the statements about augmentation and instrumental delivery (although I found references for the later). I took them out because the association between augmentation and instrumental delivery and SD could be misinterpreted… babies who are going to get stuck are probably more likely to require augmentation and instrumental delivery to get them through the pelvis – so those factors are not necessarily causal. In addition this research does not really support my (hopefully somewhat intelligent) argument that hurrying birth can cause problems. My aim is not to scare expectant mothers only to share information and discussion. This post in particular is aimed a practitioners and I would be interested to know your thoughts on the rest of the post re. a situational approach to management of SD. Jadda says: March 18, 2014 at 9:16 am Im completely brand new to this. I recently gave birth and my son suffered from.shoulder dystocia and now his arm doesn’t move as much as it should. Im worried sick and the doctors are no help. They want to wait a couple of months before taking any action. I don’t know if it’s because his nerves are damaged nor do I know the rates at which he could come out of this just fine. Are there are support groups or any place I can get more information to help me understand exactly what’s going on and the right questions to ask my doctor? midwifethinking says: March 18, 2014 at 1:16 pm I am sorry your son sustained a birth injury – it sounds like ‘erbs palsy'(nerve damage). The doctors are waiting because usually the nerves repair themselves… my friend’s baby was effected and it took 2 years for complete recovery. The condition usually resolves itself but may need physiotherapy and rarely surgery. This is a worrying and fairly common complication and there are support groups for parents: I hope you can find the support and information you need. July 29, 2016 at 12:14 am Actually it is anectdotal that “usually the nerves repair themselves” our support group ( Erb’s Palsy group) can tell you that we have over 2000 registered members whose nerves did not repair themselves, There are tried and tested methods of determining which babies will make a full recovery without surgery and those who won’t – and this should be established at TWELVE weeks of age -when the babies should be assessed by a brachial plexus specialist – anyone waiting two years could well miss the window of opportunity for surgical repair as primary nerve surgery is only effective up to 8 months of age. midwifethinking says: July 29, 2016 at 8:25 am Thanks for sharing this important information Whilst my friends baby took 2 years to recover – I was not suggesting that there was no assessment during this process (there was regular monitoring of the recovery). April 1, 2014 at 9:14 pm Have you looked up a Brachial Plexus Center near you? They are usually associated with Children’s Hospitals. Your son needs seen by specialists. Depending on the severity of the injury, he may need surgeries, OT/PT, and so on. My son has a brachial plexus also (homebirth shoulder dystocia). The first 3 months before his nerve surgery, we worked on Range of Motion exercises. March 28, 2014 at 9:13 am I searched for your article today to help inform a client who’d suffered a shoulder dystocia with her previous birth and was wanting to know how to reduce the risks this time. I did not have details of her previous births but guessed pretty accurately that she’d given birth flat on her back with an epidural insitu. She’d birthed big babies, but no gestational diabetes on testing, so I assumed this was what I call a bed dystocia. I went straight to your website as your views are usually in line with my own, but you’ve put it all down clearly for clients to access. I believe a lot of shoulder dystocias can be prevented by not forcing the labour or birth – including absolutely no traction on the baby’s head. I reviewed all the links for suitability for a previously traumatised pregnant woman, not wanting to re-traumatise her. I got to the video link at the end and realised it was a birth I had attended several years ago as a newly independent homebirth midwife. I was the second midwife and was so glad to be working with such a calm, experienced colleague, as this was the first dystocia I had encountered (I had been a qualified midwife about 5 years by then, and had mainly worked in a hospital birth centre seeing predominantly normal birth). I am pleased to report his little baby is now a healthy young girl. I have not seen a shoulder dystocia since in a couple of hundred births as an Independent homebirth midwife. The reasons being all the reasons you’ve highlighted. No induction, no augmentation, freedom of maternal movement, undisturbed birth, no rushing and definately no trying to “deliver” babies by pulling on their heads. Thank you for presenting this information so clearly. midwifethinking says: April 1, 2014 at 7:48 am How lovely to have a comment from the midwife in the movie! I just love the English accents – they remind me of home… and the calm but firm ‘directions’ to get out of the pool This movie is also a good example of how to resus with the placenta attached. I’m pleased you have not encountered another SD. May 7, 2014 at 5:33 pm I am currently 34 weeks pregnant with my first baby. I had a growth scan at 30 weeks where baby was measuring on the 85th percentile. Yesterday my midwife measured fundal height (38.5cm) and told me to forget about giving birth in the Midwife Led Birth Unit (I live in London) because “this baby is going to be large and we don’t accept large babies there”. I tried to question this but was told to “go home and read about shoulder dystocia”. I was in tears for the rest of the day. I had faith in my body’s ability to give birth to my baby which is now being shattered with the image of baby stuck in my pelvis… Whats more, I still believe that Birth Unit would be the best place for me to have this baby as it would allow me to stay active (I have been doing pregnancy yoga and was very keen to “get off the bed” which BC facilitates) and reduce the chance of interventions.which could then lead to SD. Also, from everything I’ve read, it looks like no one can actually predict shoulder dystocia so why should I be prevented from giving birth in my preferred placed based of slightly augmented risk of SD? I am not obese, I don’t have diabetes and for all I know this baby might just be tall! (I’m 5.9 myself). Moreover, the Birth Center is in the same building as the Labor Unit so transfer is not an problem, I simply cannot understand this.. midwifethinking says: May 8, 2014 at 7:16 pm I cannot understand it either. I’d expect you to have a larger than ‘average’ baby given your height/genetics. Anyhow, the estimation of size is very inaccurate whether by measurement or scan. I am sorry that you are faced with this. Can you insist on birthing in the unit and ask to sign a waiver to cover them if anything does happen? A birth centre midwife… or a homebirth midwife for that matter should be able to manage a SD because it is a emergency that can happen without warning ie. is unpredictable. May 16, 2014 at 4:06 am With my first son I had a successful, yet difficult delivery that I later found out was shoulder dystocia. My son weighed only 7lbs 7oz . I had an epidural with my son at about 7 cm dilation, as I felt the contractions were exhausting me. I am now 32 weeks pregnant with our second child and my doctor has mentioned to me the choice of an elective c-section based on my last moderate dystocia. I was completely unprepared for this and would really prefer to have a vaginal delivery. I have been practicing the hypnobirthing method and hope to go without an epidural this time. Has anyone had a small baby dystocia and then an uncomplicated second delivery? I still remember the nurse telling us that my son had his arm up by his head…could that have caused the dystocia? I do not want to endanger our baby but I feel like an elective c section is extreme. Thanks for the advice! midwifethinking says: May 16, 2014 at 3:49 pm When a baby has their arm up they their head or around their neck they can get a little stuck as they leave the pelvis. I’m very surprised that your doctor has recommended a c-section and this is not an evidence based approach. If you are upright and mobile allowing your pelvis the space to move… and your baby does not have his/her hand up by their head you are unlikely to have any problems birthing your baby. Of course you need to consider whether your care provider will support a physiological birth… and it seems that your’s does not feel comfortable with this option. A-M says: July 22, 2014 at 11:32 pm I love how you explain these things. It’s great to read about how to prevent SD by encouraging an unmanaged and free labour, as despite trawling the NHS website for information on SD this was news to me. I’ve not yet had children (but plan to start soon) and while I am generally pretty confident in women’s ability to birth, SD truly worries me. I was born with SD but thankfully suffered no lasting consequences. My mother is 4’10” and I was over 9lbs, which probably contributed towards it. Since I am also short (5’2″) and my husband is tall (5’11”) does this increase my risk? I do at least feel empowered that by insisting on as unmanaged and mother-led labour as possible, I can hopefully reduce my risk. Thank you for this information, I also loved the post on not judging during labour (I feel I’ll be a screamer!). September 17, 2014 at 4:19 am Hi there, I am 38w4d with my second baby. My first was born 7lb 5oz, and I had insulin-controlled GDM, and induction at 39w7d. I was able to deliver vaginally without pain meds, which I’m very thankful for, but it was a very stressful and overwhelming experience. This time I also have GDM, but have had excellent glucose control with diet and exercise. We are with an insurance company that uses only their own providers, so our options for care have been very limited, and the doctors and midwives are very procedure-driven. An ultrasound a week and a half ago suggested a large baby (projected slightly over 10lbs) with normal fluid levels. I have been doing my research, and feel that since my sugar levels have been well-controlled, my risks for shoulder dystocia are not significantly higher than any other woman with a large baby, and I believe that my body can do this! I am a tall woman (6ft) and my husband is tall as well (6ft 3in), so having a large baby does not seem strange to me. I am concerned that if we were to encounter shoulder dystocia, that my health care providers would respond in unhelpful ways that could exacerbate the situation instead of calmly resolving it. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know what their methods would be, since I would be giving birth at the insurance-based medical center with a large rotations of OBs and midwives. I met with an OB yesterday for a consultation about delivery options, and was very upset by her attitude and method of presenting the “facts” about the risks ahead. Of course, C-section was her first suggestion, followed by induction at 39 weeks. She did, however, admit that there isn’t enough evidence either way, and that the decision is ultimately up to me. Her descriptions of all the things that could go wrong were clearly geared to scare me into accepting the C-section. I understand that she has to explain the risks, but felt that it was very cold and clinical and disrespectful, almost insinuating that choosing a vaginal birth was selfish and that I don’t have the best interest of the baby in mind. Anyway, all that to say, what are your thoughts? This morning I’ve been considering looking for a local midwife who is well-experienced with shoulder dystocia and large babies, just in case, and seeing if it’s too late for a home birth (which we would have to pay for out of pocket, and money is very tight). Would that be worth considering, in your opinion? I’m becoming more and more concerned that even with my doula that if an emergency situation arose it would be handled in a negative way. Thanks for any advice you can give, and for this really helpful article! September 17, 2014 at 4:20 am Sorry, that should read induction at 39w6d. midwifethinking says: September 17, 2014 at 10:11 am I can make recommendations or give you an opinion on what I think you should do. However, there are some things you might like to consider/research further: “I was able to deliver vaginally without pain meds, which I’m very thankful for, but it was a very stressful and overwhelming experience.” – this is great… if you had an uncomplicated vaginal birth with your first baby you have a very high chance of the same occurring. “An ultrasound a week and a half ago suggested a large baby (projected slightly over 10lbs) with normal fluid levels.” – there is no way to accurately estimate the current size or the future growth rate of an individual baby. “I have been doing my research, and feel that since my sugar levels have been well-controlled, my risks for shoulder dystocia are not significantly higher than any other woman with a large baby, and I believe that my body can do this!” – Yes, and you do not necessarily have a large baby. The rationale for induction of labour for GDM is due to the increased chance of stillbirth 17.1 in 10,000 for GDM between 36-42 weeks vs 12.7 in 10,000 for non GDM (very small numbers). The risk to the baby is uncontrolled blood sugars. There is no evidence to support induction or c-section for suspected large babies. “I understand that she has to explain the risks, but felt that it was very cold and clinical and disrespectful, almost insinuating that choosing a vaginal birth was selfish and that I don’t have the best interest of the baby in mind.” – she has to share information with you about the risks of all options and the research evidence supporting those options. Instead she seems to be recommending a standard institutional policy which maximises profits and is not aligned with evidence. Did she inform you of the risks associated with c-section or induction for the baby? The biggest cause of fetal hypoxia is pitocin. See http://midwifethinking.com/2010/09/16/induction-of-labour-balancing-risks/ (focus is on postdates but discusses induction)… and this http://midwifethinking.com/2011/07/17/induction-a-step-by-step-guide/ I think it is very sad and frustrating that insurance companies get to dictate women’s choices about their care provider and birth. You need to do what feels right for you. You are the one with your baby’s best interests at heart. Come back and let us know what happens June 21, 2015 at 1:58 pm Well, better late than never, but wanted to come back and thank you for the encouragement and information you offered me during a very stressful and difficult time. Thank you. After doing lots of research (and prayer!) we decided to decline the scheduled C-section and early induction. On the recommendation of our midwife, we did choose to use herbal tinctures to stimulate labor when my daughter was a few days overdue. She was born 3 days after her due date at 9lb 13oz (she wasn’t “fat” at all, as doctors say is common with GDM, just long and big – my huband’s 6’3″ and I’m 5’11”) after only 15 minutes of pushing with no complications. She is beautiful and healthy, and we’re very thankful! I’m glad I did my research and then trusted my instincts in feeling that my body is capable of birthing a larger baby. I’m not suggesting that our decision is the one everyone should make; we all need to weigh all the factors in decisions like these and make the decision that is right for our own situation. I appreciate the resources and support you offered me at such a vulnerable time. Thank you. midwifethinking says: June 21, 2015 at 7:17 pm Congratulations! And thank you for coming back and letting us know how your birth went. Enjoy your beautiful baby Louise says: October 9, 2014 at 2:47 am My son suffered shoulder dystocia apart from cuts and bruises eventually he was fine despite having an agpar of 1. I suffered third and fourth degree tears. I lost over 1500 ml of blood, stayed in a week and had two blood transfusions. I cannot have any more children and I am devastated. I have frequent nightmares and cannot understand why it has caused me so much damage. Desperately need some support midwifethinking says: October 10, 2014 at 9:32 am Please seek some counselling or support. You have been through a traumatic experience – I am pleased your baby was fine, but a healthy baby (and mother) are not the only important outcomes from birth. You need to process what happened with someone who can support you. I’m not sure which country you are in – there are a number of organisations eg. BirthTalk http://birthtalk.org who can help. Margaret fletcher says: October 31, 2014 at 9:11 am I have a baby shoulder dystocia birth when by daughter was born 15 years ago. I suffered from hip pain and a hip flexor problem afterwards. I managed it with Physio and it stabilised for several years, though I had tightness in the SI region. I strained the hip flexor three years ago. It won’t heal and I hVe had subsequent problems with impingement, ITB pain, adductor, as well as hip flexor issues. Could all this be the result of the birth? Are there any UK specialists who can help. I am in sever pain quite frequently and do stretching exercises every day. Thanks. midwifethinking says: October 31, 2014 at 4:10 pm Hi Margaret – I am not a physio or other physical therapist/practitioner, but it would make sense that if you suffered physical trauma during birth you could have a long term weakness in that area. I hope one of my readers can offer you suggestions for therapists in the UK. firstbreathmidwife says: January 6, 2015 at 3:41 am IS there a way to print the information in this article without including the 20 plus pages of comments? midwifethinking says: January 7, 2015 at 4:17 pm Can you set your printer to only print pages 1 to whatever? I can do this with my printer software… not sure what you are using. Melissa Vaezi says: February 12, 2015 at 5:29 pm Hello. Great article. Can you provide a source for this statement: “The reality is that almost half of shoulder dystocias occur with babies who are not ‘big’”. My first baby weighed 4.3Kg and my doctor said that he is concerned that I will have another ‘big’ or ‘bigger’ baby this time and that this is a risk because shoulder dystocia is more likely with a big baby. I didn’t have gestational diabetes last time and didn’t have any problems getting him out, but it’s not nice to hear that just because I had a bigger than average baby, I’m somehow now more at risk! midwifethinking says: February 12, 2015 at 7:55 pm What needs to be considered is that more babies are born weighing less than 4kg… therefore more babies under 4kg have SD. However, if you look at the proportion of SD occurrence you get a better picture. 0.6-1.4% of babies with a birth weights between 2.5kg and 4kg = SD. 5-9% of babies with a birth weight over 4kg = SD. (Sokoi, RJ, & Blackwell, SC 2003, ‘American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Practice Bulletin no. 40: shoulder dystocia’, International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol. 80, pp. 87-92.) So, a bigger baby is statistically more likely to get stuck. HOWEVER, plenty of women give birth to big babies with no problem… over 90% of women with big babies do not have a SD. And you have already demonstrated your ability to birth a big baby. Lesley says: February 23, 2015 at 3:56 am I am a homebirth midwife and just had the hardest shoulder dystocia I’ve ever encountered. First baby, long labor but normal, and an average 2nd stage. Mama pushed on toilet then hearttones dropped so we got her onto the bed, semi-sitting-ish (it was a squishy bed) and hearttones returned to normal. Baby crowned and all was well with the birth of her head and I was prepared to wait for the next ctx. She did not rotate and sure enough her pink head turned blue and then purple. I tried some gentle traction – nothing, then tried to reach anterior shoulder, but there was absolutely no room and baby started to rotate to posterior. The mother flipped quickly over to hands and knees (it’s amazing how fast mama’s can move when it’s urgent – I have read to not try different positions because it “will waste precious time” but with an undrugged, fully conscious mother this is baloney!) and we (I and my partner midwife) had her put her right leg up, foot flat on bed and push with all her might as I tried to wriggle baby – to move the anterior shoulder to oblique – but gave up on that as I simply could not reach it, it was so far away, and went for posterior shoulder and arm. We worked and worked, mama pushed so hard and I pulled harder than I ever had on any baby. I hooked my finger under her armpit (it was the only thing I could get a hold of) and I was sure I was going to break something – how could that little arm withstand such force? But Nothing. Was. Happening. This baby was so, so, so stuck! Then I felt baby try to breathe – her chest moved and my heart sank: I knew she was truly in secondary apnea and we just needed to get her out no matter what. I had the mother put her right leg down and put her left leg up (kinda like a kneeling runner’s position, but wider) and worked on that posterior arm some more pulling the shoulder and trying to push it up and out by the humorous and suddenly we could see baby’s hand by her head. Thank you God! I grasped that slippery little hand and pulled the posterior arm out and the rest of her came – floppy, white body, black head. Milked the cord, mouth to mouth and some resuscitation and she came around 4 minutes later – slow, but steady. Once she was out, I knew she was going to be okay – even though it was the longest resuscitation I’d ever done as well. Something about her told me she was going to be just fine. But I will tell you when she was stuck I seriously thought I might not be able to get her out. And I have never thought that about any SD I have managed before (probably 5-6). I truly believe the rule of thumb is to believe in your abilities as a trained midwife and to not give up! These urgent situations are why I am there – I have the skills, I know what to do if someone needs help. She weighed 7# 14 oz. The mama is average size and her pelvis was roomy and nice. There were NO birth injuries and mama only had a tiny labial tear and was elated! From the time the head was out until birth was 6 minutes. midwifethinking says: February 23, 2015 at 6:07 pm What a scary situation for everyone! Thank you for sharing the midwife’s perspective of a severe SD. The anterior shoulder is usually impossible to reach in a SD as the symphysis pubis / front of the pelvis does not have the additional space for a hand. The back of the pelvis has far more room, and if needed you can get your hand in (with woman on all fours). Hooking a finger in the baby’s armpit is a technique Ansell (link in the post) found experienced midwives reported using. In my travels/teaching it seems many experienced midwives manage SD effectively by accessing the back of the pelvis and grasping the posterior arm or shoulder. I am so pleased all ended well for the mother and baby – women, babies (and midwives) are pretty resilient wondermumnz says: March 10, 2015 at 1:04 pm April 21, 2015 at 12:31 pm I really enjoy reading your articles Rachel, again and again I always find a lot of information to use in my practice. I would like to know also about the times in a shoulder dystocia. I’ve been reading and asking midwives and there’s a difference in the times they use. How much time do we have in a shoulder dystocia to get that baby out? I haven’t found information on that specifically! I would appreciate your response! Thank you! midwifethinking says: April 21, 2015 at 1:10 pm There is no absolute answer. In theory a healthy well baby can ‘cope’ without oxygen for 7 minutes (not sure how they worked that out). In a SD there will be a reduction or a cessation of circulating oxygen depending on where the cord is, how occluded it is, how compromised the circulation is to the head, etc. Basically as soon as you know it is a SD you work 100% to release the baby. Sorry I can’t give you a specific answer April 25, 2015 at 5:25 am Thank you for that Rachel, last year I attended a birth with shoulder dystocia and now is like my theme. I try to look for more and more information and what you post is amazing (as always)! June 8, 2015 at 6:48 am hi there. I’m 35 weeks pregnant with my second child and trying to figure out the best plan for this birth, before facing the consultant and mw. Previous birth was induced due to ob. cholestasis at 38 weeks. All went great and quite quickly (3hrs first stage, 30ins second stage). I was on gas and air and all fours with a hands off mw throughout until the head came out. The mw told me that the baby is stuck, pressed the alarm button and made me turn to do McRoberts while the room was filled with people. Eventually she managed to get his posterior arm out successfully. I had a second degree tear and he was assessed and cried after a bit, and we were not too traumatised by the experience as everybody was calm and professional. My son was an average baby weighting less than 3.500kg. This time around I diagnosed with cholestasis at 32 weeks and am now facing a very likely induction at 37-38 weeks. I’m scared that the situation is starting to resemble too much last time and given that I feel my previous dystocia could have been caused by the speedy delivery and/or some issues with my pelvis, or a combination of both, would like to make an informed decision. For now I have decided that I would not be comfortable with allowing further help with induction if pessary is unsuccessful and would not agree to forceps/ventouse under any circumstances, as I read it increases further the risks of sd. I enjoyed giving birth naturally, but feel that enduring a string of consecutive procedures that could spiral out of control is more risky than going for a c-section at the first alarming bells. What is your view on this? midwifethinking says: June 9, 2015 at 5:51 pm I can understand why you are anxious about your birth. Although it is unlikely to happen again, no one can guarantee that it won’t. If the SD was due to a quick descent of the baby through your pelvis then having a c-section at the first alarm bells will be too late… you won’t get any bells until it is happening. Perhaps talk to your care providers about being in a position that will help to slow down the birth without also making your pelvis smaller. For example, lying on your side will take away the gravity of an upright position but also allow the back of your pelvis to open and make room for the baby. A waterbirth also removes gravity but this is an unlikely option if you are having your labour induced. June 9, 2015 at 10:56 pm Many thanks for your quick reply and great advice! It’s so empowering to know that not everything is out of my control and how I can influence a better outcome. I’ve been told that I could still opt for a hospital water birth previously, but that was before the need of an early induction arose, so will double check if this is still an option when I discuss my birth plan next. midwifethinking says: June 10, 2015 at 5:41 pm Good luck. If you get a chance once your baby is here, let us know what happens June 18, 2015 at 4:28 am Thank you. In the end we were been offered and accepted a planned c-section. It was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make, but at least now I can think forward to meeting our baby rather than worry myself sleepless. Many thanks for your support and advice! midwifethinking says: June 18, 2015 at 8:12 pm Thanks for giving us an update. Good luck with the c-section and enjoy meeting your baby September 3, 2015 at 10:10 am Very informative! Luckily my son was only stuck for a very short time since the midwives knew exactly what the problem was and what to do. Not sure where the obese mother thing comes into play. I was like 170 pounds lol and he was my biggest baby at 9 pounds! Just found out I am pregnant again and boy am I nervous to know how big he or she will be! October 4, 2015 at 6:18 pm I am expecting my fourth baby in about 5 weeks. My midwife spoke with my 3rd son’s midwife to get a clearer picture of my home birth which was beautiful. However, I had a big baby, 10.6. So I remember getting on my back and really having to push, head, shoulder, another shoulder, body and then legs. I was never informed I had a 3 minute dystosia. Until that is my midwife called this morning declining care for my current pregnancy and suggesting a hospital birth. My experience of dystosia was hard work, but still a easy comfortable birth and no tearing. I didn’t even know there was anything special going on other than birthing a large baby. I am very disappointed to be referred to a hospital birth based on fear I may have another big baby, especially this late into the game. I meet with a new midwife this coming week who is comfortable with delivering big babies and understands and is confident in birth positioning to help or avoid dystosia. I have never been concerned about this subject until now that is. I wonder if I had “sticky” shoulders and not full blown dystosia? midwifethinking says: October 5, 2015 at 4:57 pm I’m not sure. If your midwife needed to intervene ie. get you to change position and/or manually assist then it would be classified as a shoulder dystocia. I’m not sure where you are from… but here in Australia midwives are held accountable or women choosing to homebirth outside of recommendations ie. after a previous SD. If there is a poor outcome the midwife is blamed for the woman’s decision. This has led to lots of midwives avoiding any situation that is outside of recommendations (which is a lot) – to protect themselves against reports to the registration board/coronial inquiries/legal action. I am pleased you managed to find another midwife to support you. October 6, 2015 at 4:28 am Ah. That makes sense.It’s a liability thing. I just wish she would have come to this conclusion in the beginning, not a month before my birth. I of course want to make the safest choice for my baby. I have been researching since Saturday. I have come to the conclusion that I am at higher risk because of a previous dystosia, but at the same time I was at a increased risk with my 3rd son because I was close to 20 pounds over weight when I get pregnant. I weighed a healthy weight and was in great shape before this one. And I am having a baby with my new husband. I have been reading studies that the baby’s size has a lot to do with the father. My previous husband was a tall man. My current husband is only 5’9. Also I read a study that drinking milk and consuming a lot of dairy in the third trimester increases baby’s size. Which I think I will avoid this last month and get my protein & calcium elsewhere. According to my ultrasound (which I know are not 100% accurate) my baby should be between 8 & 9 pounds. Also, I have read that once you have had dystosia it’s a 1 in 200 chance it’ll happen again. I meet with my new midwife Friday, however any opinions on this subject is welcomed, because I do want to make the best choice for my baby. I feel confident that in my birthing body and that my body has created the perfect size baby for me. I would prefer to be at home when I deliver. But if I should seriously consider changing my birth plan, I will. Especially if the research & info I get from experienced professionals point to a hospital birth. I am in the USA by the way. Thanks for your response! Lil says: October 10, 2015 at 5:08 am I gave birth to my boy last December and was such a horrific experience , my son was stuck for 17 minutes and they had to put me under local anaesthetic to finally get him out!!! He was resuscitated for 15 minutes before they found a heart beat and before this tried to push his head back in so they could preform an emergency c-section, he now has erbs palsy and cerebaly palsy but he’s so strong willed, February 22, 2016 at 8:33 pm Rachel…thank you so much for writing this. After a weekend of running things round and round my mind, I have clarity after reading this. Thank you so so very much. If you happen to be coming to Yorkshire any time soon, we’d love to have you speak at our uni! Kate – Bradford, Yorkshire, UK. midwifethinking says: February 26, 2016 at 2:00 pm Thanks Kate – I might get back to the UK one day Kayla says: April 15, 2016 at 2:47 am This was quite some time ago. However I had an internal tear and a broken tailbone and a baby with undetected shoulder dystocia! Are the three linked? midwifethinking says: April 15, 2016 at 4:26 pm Yes – this type of trauma is linked with a shoulder dystocia Happy thoughts says: April 15, 2016 at 10:05 am Having read through your experiences I realise how lucky I was. I have 3 children & my last was a home birth, with shoulder distocia. I am a very intuitional person & have used hypno birthing. Each birth I asked my babies what was happening. My 1st boy was a result of induction, no pain relief & hypnosis with baby’s heartbeat stayed calm throughout. The midwives cried after the birth, saying how moved they were. My 2nd baby was a water birth & he told me he would be on his way in the next 10 minutes, one minute later I started to have the pushing drive. Again the midwife was moved & tearful by the connection she witnessed. My 3rd baby I wanted at home as I was sick of being told by midwives that I wasn’t in labour when I clearly knew I was even after telling the midwives this would happen for me quickly. With my 3rd, I knew something was wrong as the pain was off the charts! Bearing in mind I’d been induced with no pain relief before & this was my 3rd birth? So I asked my baby what was wrong. He seemed upset & said mummy I’m stuck. I will come but after much more pain. I’m sorry. I relaid this to my midwives. Who really were very cross. They said you cannot control this. This is labour. You have to just sit back, Gas & air & go with the flow. My husband knows better than to ignore my intuition. He started to check there was enough gas & air left & insisted there was more brought to the house as we were close to running out. You say distocia occurs at birth but I knew he was stuck long before & the pain was just unmanageable. After the head crowned, they were coaching me to push the baby out. If I could he would have been out 30 seconds after, just like the others. I just couldn’t get him out. I was whipped out of the birthing pool onto the floor. I was fine but the midwives faces said it all! They pushed my legs over my head, turned the baby & I pushed with every ounce of strength I had till there was like a popping sensation when he finally moved. At that last moment, I completely went floppy & relaxed, just like I had with the others. I had no tears, no damage, much to the shock of the midwives, who checked me 3 times in complete panick. They came back the next day to check him again & confirmed a broken collarbone. I just wish women would listen to themselves. I wish midwives had the confidence to listen to women in birth too. We’ve lost touch with crucial instincts. I am pro the right of women, ie to make an educated decision on how & where they birth. Thank god we have hospitals who save lives & great midwives who let us birth at home. Happy thoughts to you all midwifethinking says: April 15, 2016 at 4:29 pm Thanks for sharing your story. Although SD occurs at birth… signs that the baby is struggling to fit can be much earlier. Often women know their baby is ‘stuck’ long before the SD happens just as you did. Lu says: November 28, 2016 at 1:11 pm I had shoulder dystocia with my first one, I didn’t have any risk: no diabetes, no overweight, no big baby, I was without pain relief, So, now I am pregnant again and again I don’t have any risk factor less I had one in the pass, so Two OB told me that the more secure for me it is a C-section. But each time I hear the word I start crying. Because I really want a natural no medicate birth, but doctors told me that even without warning signals the fact to had one before made me be at high risk and the consequences of me being stubborn are going to be dangerous for me and my baby. I don’t know what to do. midwifethinking says: November 30, 2016 at 4:36 pm There is a slightly increased chance that you will have another SD – statistically it is between 10-17% chance (compared to around 1-3%). However, there is 80-90% chance that you will NOT have another SD. This is your ‘risk’ to take. Not your OB’s. You determine what is ‘high risk’ for you. There are also risks of a c-section for both you and baby that you need to consider when making your decision. Good luck. December 14, 2016 at 5:14 am I had a free birth 16 months ago with 10 minutes sd before my 10 lb 6 oz son was born with his fist tucked under his chin. I was laying on side with my upper leg resting on the edge of my couch. It didn’t feel like an emergency although I could feel his shoulder tucked up under my pelvic bone. I wiggled back and forth quite a bit trying to get him to shift towards the back. Eventually, my perinium bulging with a contraction caused my husband to push against it and babes fist shot out, followed quickly by his back shoulder. I have watched the video dozens of times and I still find it fascinating. I was horrified when I read how aggressively it is responded to by most providers. I am currently expecting my 4th and find myself debating whether I was lucky that everything went well in spite of birthing unassisted or lucky that I did not have freaked out providers who would have injured both my son and I trying to help. Erin says: February 8, 2017 at 8:46 am Hi, thank you for this post. I am currently 32weeks with my second pregnancy, first being born at 36weeks with an unmediated, labor starting with natural ROM at home. My labor was 13 hours from the time my water broke to delivery. My daughter was 7lbs 6oz and 18inches long, and had SD. I am unsure of the severity (although to me it was very traumatic due to the heightened fear that escalated in the room immediately after my first push). Turtle sign was noted after the first push which delivered the head and then when I stopped pushing, her head retracted. Immediately Midwife started barking orders at the nurses to get the head of the bed down and pull my legs up as high as they could. I was then told to “push as though my baby’s life depended on it”. My mom, who was there as my “doula” although untrained- had attended 10 births and 4 of her own at this point has to excuse herself as the midwife reached in and I think pulled while I pushed. I’m not sure of the interventions done, but my daughter was born blue and not breathing and had to be ambu bagged. She then had tachypnia and I couldn’t hold her for 24 hours. I was too scared to get pregnant for 7 years due to this, but facing my 35th birthday last year we decided to trust God and go for it. We got pregnant immediately. My pregnancy has been nearly picture perfect as it was the first time (first time I was overweight already and still gained 55lbs, not GD; this time I have gained 10 so far and am still overweight prior to getting pregnant, but also no GD this time.). They’ve found I have a genetic clotting disorder for which I’ll have to have heparin Therapy for 6 weeks postnatal, but otherwise am having the perfect pregnancy again. My care providers (6 midwife practice and my ongoing specialist seeing me for the clotting issue) are all saying I need to have an epidural this time. They are also saying if the baby measures 8lbs or more they’ll recommend a csection. I don’t know what to do. I have had 2 back surgeries due to ruptured disks and so do not want an epidural. I also had a wonderful labor prior to the SD, and would much rather have a vaginal delivery if possible. I know you can’t tell me what to do, but can you advise me on what questions to ask my midwives at my 33week appt in 2 days!? I’m sorry for the late notice, but I’ve just found your site! midwifethinking says: February 10, 2017 at 11:42 am Perhaps you can ask about the rationale for the epidural as this will increase your chance of a SD. Also ask about the effects of heparin and epidural… often anaesthetists are reluctant to put an epidural into women with low platelets due to increased risk of bleeding at the site. Ask them to explain the rationale re u/s and weight. Ultimately this is your decision. You need to ask the questions you need the answers to in order to gain the information you need to choose. They cannot do anything to you without your consent. Good luck Erin says: February 10, 2017 at 12:54 pm I spoke to my midwife today and this one (it a team of midwives) agreed with me about the epidural being counterproductive. I will ask about the epidural and heparin at my next appt with my specialist next week! Lea says: February 10, 2017 at 12:42 pm Hi I thought I would leave a comment as I can imagine how scared you are, firstly due to disc damage and then SD. Too many factors for the brain to cope with I’m sure. I had a serious back injury, 3 prolapsed discs which went undiagnosed until one disc exploded onto my spinal column leaving me paralysed waist down. Emergency discectomy & corda equina op left me with a 2 year nerve recovery program. So whilst I waited for all my nerves to come back I started a family. I could not have an epidural, firstly as the scar tissue would mean the flow would unlikely lead to the correct area & secondly they decided psychologically it would not be good for me not to feel my limbs again. Still on crutches one year later, when giving birth to my 1st child, I thought I would brake in 2 but I was enduced, no pain relief & used Hypnobirthing birthing. My 2nd boy was bigger & I had a water birth. Due to issues at the hospital both previous births with no available beds, I decided to give birth to my last boy at home, although I was 40 & looking really big. During the labour the midwives would not believe me when I said he was stuck. After a lot of SD pain (it should have been easier?) we realised he wasn’t coming. After the baby’s head had crowned they had me out of the water pool on the floor. Luckily the midwives were more worried than me. The midwife moved the baby inside me& I gave the push of my life which resulted in my son being born with broken collar bone. I was fine, much to their shock, without even a tear. I have a trick. At the last minute I allow my body to relax completely and to go floppy. I switch off from the pain. I hope my story doesn’t horrify you. It’s meant to inspire. As my age, home birth, bad back, no meds, and SD would dictate a terrible ordeal. But it wasn’t. I just have beautiful memories. Believe in yourself, trust your instincts. Get some good advise but above all listen to the advise then make your decision. Xx precious says: September 12, 2018 at 11:28 pm ooh thanks Dr Reed for this. im a student midwife who joined after my mum lost her beautiful baby due to shoulder dystocia. when the baby got stuck, the nurses joined hands in panic and started pulling the head, in the process they caused a trauma on the cervix; she got a tear. Now, the baby’s shoulders were still trapped and maternal severe bleeding, so terrible. We almost lost both, but atleast my mum survived narrowly. But it was painfull moment because i had surely waited for that baby, i cant forget how beautiful she was. That moment of burying her is stil stuck in my mind, thats why im so cautious in my practice as a midwife, every baby deserves to live. midwifethinking says: September 23, 2018 at 5:41 pm I am sorry for your loss x December 30, 2018 at 5:43 am After trauma in the hospital and with a midwife I decide to free birth my third child. My first child was born with an emergency C-section, my second with forceps assistance. I have never felt an urge to push and as a result I preferred that my third child descend slowly… After several progressive contractions, my husband said baby wasn’t making any further progress. Our baby’s eyes and nose have emerged and the amniotic fluid was running into his nose. I remembered reading your article and changed my position from upright on my knees onto my back with my pelvis tilting from the bed, I started thrusting up and down while pushing with the next contraction. Baby shot out of my body into his father’s hands. Baby weighed 3.6 kg and I had no tears with my petite ‘size 4 shoe frame’. I do not know whether we ever had a real emergency, but I believe this situation would have been handled much differently and traumatically in the presence of medical professionals. The information in this article has been of real value to me. I further believe there is a real need for unbiased research to enable women to make informed decisions. A laboring women is not a passive something. Medical assistance is really valuable and needed but to me, not at the cost of abusive like behavior. midwifethinking says: January 1, 2019 at 8:02 am Thank you for sharing your experience Riya says: January 26, 2019 at 10:24 am A very good article about shoulder dystocia. I want to discuss my case with you and need your advice.I had shoulder dystocia for 3 minutes in my 1st normal delivery.Now I am again pregnant.Dr said to go for scheduled C section as chances of shoulder dystocia happening again is high.Is she right?Or should I change the doctor. I m petite lady 4.10inch tall and my first baby was 7 lb6 oz which according to my OB is not large baby.So she said chances of dystocia happening again is high so don’t take chance. Please advice. midwifethinking says: January 26, 2019 at 4:55 pm In general the reoccurrence rate for SD is 9.8-16.7%… so much more chance that it will not happen again than that it will. You also need to consider when making YOUR decision the circumstances of the first SD. If there were other risk factors involved that will not be involved this time – the chance would likely be less. For example, if your first birth was augmented, with an epidural and a semi supine position these factors can be changed next time. If you were upright and undisturbed, no direction with pushing or pulling of baby… and you still had a SD then you know that even in optimal conditions you had difficulty. You also need to consider the risks of c-section for you and baby when deciding what you want to do. I hope you and your baby were well after your SD… your experience and outcome will also influence your individual decision. Riya says: January 27, 2019 at 12:25 pm Thank you for replying.During my first baby I took epidural and was induced.Thanx to almighty me and baby we’re fine. My pain tolerance level is really low and I don’t think I can do without epidural this time also.So I am confused whether to take risk for normal delivery or go for C section? midwifethinking says: February 1, 2019 at 12:56 pm There is also significant pain with a c-section due to having major abdominal surgery. The pain is afterwards and healing can take a long time. May 30, 2021 at 4:15 am Thanks for all the info, what are the side effects of a c-section? And why not have an elective c section? I am 35 weeks with no 3, and deciding what to do. No 2 baby was born at 39+6, completely natural spontaneous labour, no intervention, I was very active during labour, had abit of gas during transation stage that’s all, started to have baby in the bath, pushed head out became apparent shoulder dystocia as nothing else would budge, emergency button pushed, I had to get out of the bath! Still dont know how! And climbed/assisted onto bed, cant remember baby being born or how he got out but he was a whopping 10lb very unexpected as I measured small right thru pregnancy, no diabetes, was very active & fit, ate healthy. Great care from midwives, docs, specialists etc, baby was under pediatrician for first little while. Now healthy 10 year old. I actually cant remember much but husband was quite upset thought baby had died. Medical didnt talk about it after, I never really know what happened or how he got out as I cant remember anything and only medical records state is “shoulder dystocia” Having no 3 and very anxious as to SD happening again, I’m 10 years older, still active & healthy just older! Baby looks big on all scans but they tell me scans not accurate (,why do then!) Have been tested 2 x for GD and blood sugars perfect, midwife saying I dont think you having a big baby, but I know will be based off :my history & knowing my body (diff midwife to 1st 2 babies) Been told my options are 1. V birth in hospital, when labour happens naturally. 2. Induced early to reduce risk of big baby. Quite worried about SD happening again and risks to baby, would rather have c section & safe baby than risk anything. Decision seems to be up to us how to have baby. Looking for any advice please! MidwifeThinking says: June 2, 2021 at 1:45 pm The decision should always be up to the person who will birth the baby ie. you. Only you can assess your own individual risks and needs. There is no risk free way to birth a baby. You have to choose the risks you are most comfortable with. C-section has a particular set of risks. I cover this in my book ‘why induction matters’ when considering VBAC. You can also find the risks of c-section online. I can’t give individual advice online (and neither should any health care professional as it breaches ethics and law). Good luck with your decision Tia says: July 24, 2021 at 6:26 am Really interesting! I’ve been wondering for a while if perineal muscle strengh comes into it? We know that shoulders ‘clear’ the symthesis pubis and other tissues by rotating. If the muscle performing the rotation isn’t as strong as first though could that potentially contribute to shoulder dystocia? I’m wondering if for some women the pelvis floor strengh + position results in shoulder dystocia? Potentially, if this is the case, then would specific pelvic floor exercises and normal excercice (i.e walking and light movement) for the most ‘at risk’ potentiallly reduce the likelihood of shoulder dystocia? This has mostly come from me thinking about that for centuries wonmen have been giving birth but now shoulder dystocia seems to be slighly more prevelent. Anyway food for through, I might be looking too far into it MidwifeThinking says: July 24, 2021 at 6:00 pm Epidurals reduce pelvic tone too = the pelvic floor is not as effective at rotating the baby. Leave a Reply to KM 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.	145,257
Thank you Joe Dracobly for supporting our mission to bring an adult learning center to North Texas. Joe has agreed to answer questions you may have about Applied Behavior Analysis and how it can help special needs adults continue to learn after high school. Please reach out to him at joe.dracobly@unt.edu. Have you ever wondered why there are not any adult Day Habilitations that offer ABA for adults? Most Dayhabs offer a 10:1 ratio with very minimal goal setting that is measured through data analysis. Through the Clouds Adult Behavior Learning Center (TTC-ABLC) will measure post secondary goals from high school/transition programs to further their skillset to function at a higher level in a Day Habilitation setting. These goals will help the learner gain a higher level of independence utilizing Applied Behavior Analysis to help modify behavior to achieve goals. The center will look at each learners capabilities and focus on areas of growth in communication, independent living skills, social skills, vocational abilities, and help modify behaviors that keep the learner from reaching their full potential. Student ratio will be 3:1 and the learners data will be tracked and reviewed often at the center for measurable trends. TTC-ABLC, will be serving special adult learners with moderate cognitive disabilities between the ages of 16-30 years old. Board Members Chairman of the Board-James Gilliland Chairman of the Board-James Gilliland What a blessing to be part of a mission that wants to help bring much needed services to the adult special needs population in DFW, TX. Watching the vision of TTC become a reality has all been by the Grace of God. When our son aged out of special services at 22, it was astonishing the lack of day programs in the area that continue teaching valuable life skills. Our son needed to continue on the journey of learning much needed skills in communication, independent living, social and vocational. Tracking and measuring data on these skill sets is crucial to teach appropriate goals. It has been an incredible journey raising a special needs son and overseeing his home ABA program and training staff for the last 15 years. As President, Angela will oversee TTC growth and report to the Board of Directors. Angela's full time job is with ATI Physical Therapy for the last five years and currently serves as the Manager of Sales for TX/NM. She has been in Rehabilitation Services for the last 15 years. She is excited to help grow this mission since it is near and dear to her heart. Chairman of the Board-James Gilliland Chairman of the Board-James Gilliland Chairman of the Board-James Gilliland James Gilliland serves as the Chairman of the Board on TTC. James is the Current CEO of medical device developer Vinden Medical Consultants. James has spent the last 30 years in the medical device industry. James has served in corporate positions and upper management for several Orthopedic companies. He also serves as a consultant for a few medical companies. When his middle child was born and diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, after 4 years of not seeing strong cognitive growth, He picked up his family from Lubbock and they moved to DFW in order for their son to receive much needed ABA services from the Child Study Center (now Jane Justin Center), under direction of Duy Le, BCBA, there was much progression noted. That is where the ABA journey began. James served on the Parent Board in the hunt for a new director for the Child Study Center. James has attended several training sessions on ABA and implements techniques in his own business dealings. James brings vison and insight into the details of TTC growth. Mr. Guinn currently serves as President of Sammons Infrastructure, which is a diversified holding company with operating and non-operating investments which include a range of renewable energy assets, conservation banking, traditional energy assets and energy storage technology companies. Prior to joining Sammons Mr. Guinn served as the Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Zion Oil and Gas, which is an oil and gas exploration company focused on onshore exploration in Israel. Mr. Guinn served in this capacity from 2016-2019. Prior to joining Zion, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Viking Services from 2011-2016. Mr. Guinn’s primary responsibilities included operational and strategic management focusing on the growth, deployment and profitability of assets in the United States, Turkey, Northern Iraq, Oman, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and other strategic countries within the Middle East, North Africa, as well as Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Guinn graduated with honors, from New Mexico State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance, during which point and time he competed in both track and field and football (Three Year Starter at Tight End) and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from West Texas A&M In Shannon's own words, her job at IBC "ensuring that individuals with cognitive, physical, emotional and behavioral differences have opportunities to learn about and grow in relationship with the God who created them and loves them just as they are". Beautiful. Shannon is married to Corbin and has a Frenchie/pugm("frug") who loves to snuggle named Jojo. (She would like a sloth, but sadly does not quite have the money for a permit or habitat.) Powered by GoDaddy Website Builder Terms and Conditions TTC is proud of our learners artwork! We would be honored to have your support this year for our end of year fundraiser. Click here to see our learners artwork and support our mission.	5,913
Agapé is a boys home designed to help struggling boys turn their lives around. Most other boys homes don’t have a therapeutic element to their program. So, parents from Montgomery, Illinois and all over the U.S. have trusted Agapé for over two decades. Agapé’s professional staff and counselors work closely with each individual boy to steer him to become a respectful, responsible young man. Parents might consider several reasons to look further than Montgomery, Illinois for a boys home to help their son. Agapé is known as “A School with a Heart” in the heart of the country, specifically designed for troubled, distracted, misbehaving or underachieving boys. It teaches discipline and responsibility and helps turn around at-risk boys. On top of a great therapeutic program full of discipline, Agapé focuses on demonstrating and relying on the love of God to touch hearts and transform lives. Agapé’s caring staff assists each teenage boy individually in order to meet his needs academically, mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally. Parents in Montgomery, Illinois have sent their sons to the Agapé boys home and watched them obtain a new start along with a promising future. Make a comparison of Agapé Boys Home to other homes for troubled teen boys, and you will see that we have an advanced program and excellent facilities at a lower rate. We excel at helping boys who lack motivation at home or in school, those struggling with defiance or disregard for authority, and teenagers diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, RAD, ODD or depression. Always using a loving approach, Agapé offers mentoring and character development together with quality accredited education and competitive athletic programs and team sports. Agape’s beautiful campus for its boys home deserves a closer look. Agapé Boarding School offers a superior residential program experience for teen boys from Montgomery, Illinois with a surprisingly low cost. Please look into it even if you are looking for other boys homes that may be closer to Montgomery, Illinois. Situated on 200 acres of ranch land in the Missouri heartland, we have extensive recreational facilities, athletic fields, plus an amazing number of exotic animals throughout the campus. Unlike military boarding schools, boys experience a rich variety of activities and learning experiences while they stay healthy and have fun during their stay. The one-of-a-kind setting of this extraordinary campus and our low cost draws families from Montgomery, Illinois and beyond. Our outstanding school helps struggling boys graduate and get ready for the future. Through our accredited educational program, boys work on their junior high and high school classes at their own speed, while also assisted by tutors and certified teachers. A good amount of individualized attention means that boys at every capability succeed at their coursework. Most students realize that they quickly catch up lost time and gain new confidence in their academic abilities. Our college-prep program assists students with college entrance testing and applications. Boys finish Agapé well-prepared for their entrance to the workplace or going to the college classroom. While Agapé is not in Montgomery, Illinois, a new location far away from peers can offer your son a fresh perspective for a fresh start in life. Even though you are searching for boys homes in Montgomery, Illinois, many boys tell us that a move across the country was the perfect way for them to get a new beginning. With familiar friends and hangouts left far behind, old habits can more easily fade away. A fresh location eliminates distractions for boys who need to reevaluate their choices. Additionally, the rich outdoor surroundings as well as the rhythms of ranch life on our beautiful Missouri campus speak strongly to the hearts of young men. Agapé Boarding School is a boys home that serves struggling teenage boys from Montgomery, Illinois, and from other cities like Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Los Angeles and San Diego in Southern California. In the event we can’t meet your son’s needs or fit your budget, we can put you in touch with loan options or other boys homes near Montgomery, Illinois that do. Either way, there is absolutely no risk for considering Agapé, a home for boys. We invite you to read the information on our website, and inquire online or give us a call directly. More about boys homes near Montgomery, Illinois: Montgomery is a village in Kane and Kendall County, Illinois. The population was 5,471 at the 2000 census, and was 14,407 in a 2006 special census. The 2010 census lists Montgomery’s population at 18,438, which is a 237 percent increase from 2000. Excerpt about homes for boys near Montgomery, Illinois, used with permission from Wikipedia. “Boys Home” definition: a facility where boys who are unable to be cared for in a home environment, or who have gotten themselves into trouble and need a time away from peers, are housed, cared for and educated by non-family members for a period of time. Most boys homes do not take boys who are hardened criminals, who are drug addicts, or who have severe mental problems or a violent past. Please check with Agapé Boys’ Home to see if your teenage boy qualifies. This school is authorized under Federal law to enroll nonimmigrant alien students. Academics Copyright ©2022 Agapé Boarding School. All Rights Reserved. Photos may not be used without written permission. Should you need help finding home for troubled youth, Christian boys homes, teen challenge schools, emotional growth schools, therapeutic ranches, ,rehab centers for teenagers, therapeutic boarding schools, behavioral boarding schools, schools for troubled teens, or boys ranches, please let us know.	5,986
II. The second evidence of the faith of God’s elect The second way whereby true faith does evidence itself in the souls and consciences of believers, unto their supportment and comfort under all their conflicts with sin, in all their trials and temptations, is by a constant approbation of the revelation of the will of God in the Scripture concerning our holiness, and the obedience unto himself which he requires of us. This faith will never forego, whatever trials it may undergo, whatever darkness the mind may fall into; this it will abide by in all extremities. And that it may appear to be a peculiar effect or work of saving faith, some things are to be premised and considered:— 1. There is in all men by nature a light enabling them to judge of the difference that is between what is morally good and what is evil, especially in things of more than ordinary importance. This light is not attained or acquired by us; we are not taught it, we do not learn it: it is born with us, and inseparable from us; it prevents [exists previously to] consideration and reflection, working naturally, and in a sort necessarily, in the first acting of our souls. And the discerning power of this light, as to the moral nature of men’s actions, is accompanied inseparably with a judgment that they make concerning themselves as unto what they do of the one kind or other, and that with respect unto the superior judgment of God about the same things. This the apostle expressly ascribes unto the Gentiles, who had not the law, Rom. ii. 14, 15: “The Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” This is a most exact description of a natural conscience, in both the powers of it; it discerns that good and evil which is commanded and forbidden in the law, and it passes an acquitting or condemning judgment and sentence, according to what men have done. Wherefore, this approbation of duties in things moral is common unto all men. The light whereby it is guided may be variously improved, as it was in some of the Gentiles; and it may be stifled in some, until it seem to be quite extinguished, until they become like the beasts that perish. And where the discerning power of this light 423remains, yet, through a continual practice of sin and obduracy therein, the judging power of it as unto all its efficacy may be lost: so the apostle declares concerning them who are judicially hardened and given up unto sin, Rom. i. 32, “These, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” They still discern what is evil and sinful, and know what is the judgment of God conceding such things; but yet the love of sin and custom in sinning do so far prevail in them, as to contemn both their own light and God’s judgment, so as to delight in what is contrary unto them. These the apostle describes, Eph. iv. 19, “Being past feeling” (all sense of convictions), “they have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness;” such as the world is filled withal at this day. This is not that approbation of obedience which we inquire after; it is, in some measure, in the worst of men, nor has it any likeness unto that duty of faith which we treat of, as will immediately appear. 2. There is a farther knowledge of good and evil by the law, and this is also accompanied with a judgment acquitting or condemning; for the law has the same judging power and authority over men that their own consciences have, — namely, the authority of God himself. The law is to sinners as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, — it opens their eyes to see the nature of what they have done; for “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” Rom. iii. 20: and so is the knowledge of duty also; for it is the adequate rule of all duty. There is, I say, a knowledge and conviction of duty and sin communicated unto men by the law, and those far more clear and distinct than what is or can be found in men from the mere light of nature; for it extends to more instances, that being generally lost where it is alone, as unto many important duties and sins; and it declares the nature of every sin and duty far more clearly than natural light of itself can do. And this knowledge of good and evil by the law may be so improved in the minds of men as to press them unto a performance of all known duties, and an abstinence from all known sins, with a judgment on them all. But yet herein does not consist that approbation of holiness and obedience which faith will produce; for, — (1.) As unto approbation or condemnation of good or evil: that which is by the law is particular, or has respect unto particular duties and sins, according as occasion does present them; and extends not unto the whole law absolutely, and all that is required in it. I do not say it is always partial; there is a legal sincerity that may have respect unto all known duties and sins, though it be very rare. Hardly shall we find a person merely under the power of the law, 424who does not evidence an indulgence unto some sin, and a neglect of some duties: but such a thing there may be; it was in Paul, in his pharisaism, — he was, “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,” Phil. iii. 6. He allowed not himself in any known sin, nor in the neglect of any known duty; nor could others charge him with any defect therein, — he was blameless. But where this is, still this approbation or condemnation is particular, — that is, they do respect particular duties and sins as they do occur; there is not a respect in them unto the whole righteousness and holiness of the law, as we shall see. Wherefore, a man may approve of every duty in its season as it is offered unto him, or when at any time he thinks of it by an act of his fixed judgment; and so, on the contrary, as unto sin; and yet come short of that approbation of holiness and righteousness which we inquire after. (2.) It is not accompanied with a love of the things themselves that are good, as they are so, and a hatred of the contrary; for the persons in whom it is do not, cannot, “delight in the law of God after the inward man,” as Rom. vii. 22, so as to approve of it, and all that is contained in it, cleaving to them with love and delight. They may have a love for this or that duty, and a hatred of the contrary, but it is on various considerations, suited unto their convictions and circumstances; but it is not on the account of its formal nature, as good or evil. Wherefore, — (3.) No man, without the light of saving faith, can constantly and universally approve of the revelation of the will of God, as unto our holiness and obedience. To make this evident, which is the foundation of our present discovery of the acting of saving faith, we must consider, — [1.] What it is that is to be approved. [2.] What this approbation is, or wherein it does consist:— [1.] That which is to be approved is the holiness and obedience which God requires in us, our natures, and actions, and accepts from us, or accepts in us. It is not particular duties as they occur unto us, taken alone and by themselves, but the universal correspondence of our natures and actions unto the will of God. The Scripture gives us various descriptions of it, because of the variety of graces and gracious operations which concur therein. We may here mention some of its principal concerns, having handled the nature of it at large elsewhere; for it may he considered, — 1st. As unto its foundation, spring, and causes: and this is the universal renovation of our natures into the image of God, Eph. iv. 24; or the change of our whole souls, in all their faculties and powers, into his likeness, whereby we become new creatures, or the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 2 Cor. v. 17, Eph. ii. 10; wherein we 425are originally and formally sanctified throughout, in our “whole spirit, and soul, and body,” 1 Thess. v. 23. It is the whole law of God written in our hearts, transforming them into the image of the divine holiness, represented therein. And this, next unto the blood of Christ and his righteousness, is the principal spring of peace, rest, and complacency, in and unto the souls of believers: it is their joy and satisfaction to find themselves restored unto a likeness and conformity unto God, as we shall see farther immediately. And where there is not some gracious sense and experience hereof, there is nothing but disorder and confusion in the soul; nothing can give it a sweet composure, a satisfaction in itself, a complacency with what it is, but a spiritual sense of this renovation of the image of God in it. 2dly. It may be considered as unto its permanent principle in the mind and affections; and this, because of its near relation unto Christ, its conjunction with him, and derivation from him, is sometimes said to be Christ himself. Hence we live, yet not so much we as Christ lives in us, Gal. ii. 20; for “without him we can do nothing,” John xv. 5; for “he is our life,” Col. iii. 4. As it resides in believers, it is a permanent principle of spiritual life, light, love, and power, acting in the whole soul and all the faculties of the mind, enabling them to cleave unto God with purpose of heart, and to live unto him in all the acts and duties of spiritual life: this is that whereby the Holy Ghost is “in them a well of water, springing up into everlasting life,” John iv. 14. It is the spirit that is born of the Spirit; it is the divine nature, whereof we are made partakers by the promises; it is a principle of victorious faith and love, with all graces any way requisite unto duties of holy obedience; as to the matter or manner of their performance, enabling the soul unto all the acts of the life of God, with delight, joy, and complacency. This it is in its nature. However, as unto degrees of its operation and manifestation, it may be very low and weak in some true believers, at least for a season; but there are none who are really so, but there is in them a spiritually vital principle of obedience, or of living unto God, that is participant of the nature of that which we have described; and if it be attended unto, it will evidence itself in its power and operations unto the gracious refreshment and satisfaction of the soul wherein it is. And there are few who are so destitute of those evidences but that they are able to say, “Whereas I was blind, now I see, though I know not how my eyes were opened; whereas I was dead, I find motions of a new life in me, in breathing after grace, in hungering and thirsting after righteousness, though I know not how I was quickened.” 3dly. It may be considered as unto its disposition, inclinations, and motions. These are the 426first actings of a vital principle; as the first actings of sin are called “the motions of sin” working in our members, Rom. vii. 5. Such motions and inclinations unto obedience do work in the minds of believers, from this principle of holiness; it produces in them a constant, invariable disposition unto all duties of the life of God. It is a new nature, and a nature cannot be without suitable inclinations and motions; and this new spiritual disposition consists in a constant complacency of mind in that which is good and according to the will of God, in an adherence by love unto it, in a readiness and fixedness of mind with respect unto particular duties. In brief, it is that which David describes in the 119th Psalm throughout, and that which is figuratively foretold concerning the efficacy of the grace of the gospel in changing the natures and dispositions of those that are partakers of it, Isa. xi. 6–8. This every believer may ordinarily find in himself; for although this disposition may be variously weakened, opposed, interrupted by indwelling sin, and the power of temptation; though it may be impaired by a neglect of the stirring up and exercise of the principle of spiritual life, in all requisite graces, on all occasions; yet it will still be working in them, and will fill the mind with a constant displicency with itself, when it is not observed, followed, improved. No believer shall ever have peace in his own mind, who has not some experience of a universal disposition unto all holiness and godliness in his mind and soul: herein consists that love of the law, of which it is said those in whom it is have “great peace, and nothing shall offend them,” Ps. cxix. 165; it is that wherein their souls find much complacency. 4thly. It may be considered with respect unto all the acts, duties, and works, internal and external, wherein our actual obedience does consist. Being, on the principles mentioned, made free from sin, and becoming the servants of God, believers herein have their “fruit unto holiness,” whereof “the end is everlasting life,” Rom. vi. 22. This I need not stay to describe. Sincerity in every duty, and universality with respect unto all duties, are the properties of it. “This is the will of God, even your sanctification,” 1 Thess. iv. 3; that “holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord,” Heb. xii. 14; “that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” which we are to approve, Rom. xii. 2. [2.] Our next inquiry is, what is that approbation of this way of holiness which we place as an evidence of saving faith? And I say, it is such as arises from experience, and is accompanied with choice, delight, and acquiescence; it is the acting of the soul in a delightful adherence unto the whole will of God; it is a resolved judgment of the beauty and excellency of that holiness and obedience which the gospel reveals and requires, and that on the grounds which shall 427be immediately declared, and the nature thereof therein more fully opened. This approbation cannot be in any unregenerate person, who is not under the conduct of saving faith, who is destitute of the light of it. So the apostle assures us, Rom. viii. 7, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Whatever work it may have wrought in it, or upon it, yet, whilst it is carnal or unrenewed, it has a radical enmity unto the law of God; which is the frame of heart which stands in direct opposition unto this approbation. It may think well of this or that duty, from its convictions and other considerations, and so attend unto their performance; but the law itself, in the universal holiness which it requires, it does utterly dislike: those in whom it is are “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,” Eph. iv. 18. This life of God is that holiness and obedience which he requires of us in their principles and duties; and to be alienated from it is to dislike and disapprove of it: and such is the frame of mind in all unregenerate persons. Having thus prepared the way, I return unto the declaration and confirmation of the assertion, namely, — That true and saving faith, in all storms and temptations, in all darknesses and distresses, will evidence itself unto the comfort and supportment of them in whom it is, by a constant, universal approbation of the whole will of God, concerning our holiness and obedience, both in general and in every particular instance of it. 1. Faith will not suffer the mind, on any occasion or temptation, to entertain the least dislike of this way of holiness, or of any thing that belongs unto it. The mind may sometimes, through temptations, fall under apprehensions that one shall be eternally ruined for want of a due compliance with it; this makes it displeased with itself, but not with the obedience required. Rom. vii. 10, 12, “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death; but the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” “However it be with me, whatever becomes of me, though I die and perish, yet the law is holy, just, and good.” It dislikes nothing in the will of God, though it cannot attain unto a compliance with it. Sometimes the conscience is under perplexities and rebukes for sin; sometimes the mind is burdened by the tergiversation of the flesh unto duties that are cross unto its inclinations and interests; sometimes the world threatens the utmost dangers unto the performance of some duties of religion: but none of these are able to provoke the soul that is under the conduct of faith to dislike, to think hard of, any of those ways and duties whence these difficulties arise. And, — 4282. As it will not dislike any thing in this way of holiness, so it will not desire on any occasion that there should be any alteration in it, or any abatement of it, or of any thing required in it. Naaman the Syrian liked well of the worship of the true God in general; but he would have an abatement of duty as to one instance, in compliance with his earthly interest, which discovered his hypocrisy. Such imaginations may befall the minds of men, that if they might be excused, in this or that instance, unto duties that are dangerous and troublesome (like profession in the times of persecution), or might be indulged in this or that sin, which either their inclinations are very prone unto, or their secular interest do call for, they should do well enough with all other things. Accordingly, the practice of many does answer their inclination and desire. They will profess religion and obedience unto God, but will keep back part of the price; — will hide a wedge in their tents, through indulgence unto some corruption, or dislike of some duties in their circumstances: they would give unto themselves the measure of their obedience. And according as men’s practice is, so do they desire that things indeed should be, — that that practice should please God which pleased them. This faith abhors; the soul that is under the conduct of it is not capable of any one desire that any thing were otherwise than it is in the will of God concerning our holiness and obedience, no more than it can desire that God should not be what he is. No; though any imagination should arise in it, that by some change and abatement in some instances it might be saved, which now is uncertain whether that be so or no, it will admit of no such composition, but will choose to stand or fall unto the entire will of God. We shall therefore, in the next place, proceed to inquire on what grounds it is that faith does thus approve of the whole will of God, as unto our holiness and obedience; as also, how it evidences itself so to do. And these grounds are two:— the one respecting God; the other, our own souls. First, Faith looks on the holiness required of us as that which is suited unto the holiness of God himself, — as that which it is meet for him to require, on the account of his own nature, and the infinite perfections thereof. The rule is, “Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy;” — “I require that of you which becomes and answers my own holiness; because I am holy, it is necessary that you should be so; if you are mine in a peculiar manner, your holiness is that which becomes my holiness to require.” We have before declared what this gospel holiness is, wherein it does consist, and what is required thereunto; — and they may be all considered either as they are in us, inherent in us, and performed by us; or as they are in themselves, in their own nature, and in the will 429of God. In the first way, I acknowledge that, by reason of our weaknesses, imperfections, and partial renovation only, as to degrees, in this life, with our manifold defects and sins, they make not a clear representation of the holiness of God; however, they are the best image of it, even as in the meanest of believers, that this world can afford. But in themselves, and their own nature, as it lies in the will of God, they make up the most glorious representation of himself that God ever did or will grant in this world; especially if we comprise therein the exemplification of it in the human nature of Christ himself: for the holiness that is in believers is of the same nature and kind with that which was and is in Jesus Christ, though his exceed theirs inconceivably in degrees of perfection. Wherefore we are required to be holy, as the Lord our God is holy; and perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect: which we could not be, but that in our holiness and perfection there is a resemblance and answerableness unto the holiness and perfection of God. And if a due sense hereof were continually upon our hearts, it would influence us unto greater care and diligence in all instances of duty and sin than, for the most part, we do attain unto and preserve. If we did on all occasions sincerely and severely call ourselves to an account whether our frames, ways, and actions bear a due resemblance unto the holiness and perfections of God, it would be a spiritual preservative on all occasions. Faith, I say, then, discerns the likeness of God in this holiness, and every part of it, — sees it as that which becomes him to require; and thereon approves of it, reverencing God in it all: and it does so in all the parts of it, in all that belongs unto it. 1. It does so principally in the inward form of it, which we before described, — in the new creature, the new nature, the reparation of the image of God that is in it: in the beauty hereof it continually beholds the likeness and glory of God. For it is created κατὰ Θεόν, — according unto God, after him, or in his image, — “in righteousness and true holiness,” Eph. iv. 24. “The new man is renewed after the image of him that created him,” Col. iii. 10. When God first created all things, the heavens and the earth, with all that is contained in them, he left such footsteps and impressions of his infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, on them, that they might signify and declare his perfection, — his eternal power and Godhead; yet did he not, he is not said to have created them in his own image. And this was because they were only a passive representation of him in the light of others, and not in themselves; nor did they represent at all that wherein God will be principally glorified among his creatures, — namely, the universal rectitude of his nature in righteousness and holiness. But of man it is said, peculiarly and only, that he was 430made in the image and likeness of God: and this was because, in the rectitude of his nature, he represented the holiness and righteousness of God; which is the only use of an image. This was lost by sin. Man in his fallen condition does no more represent God; there is nothing in him that has any thing of the likeness or image of God in it; all is dead, dark, perverse, and confused. This new nature, whereof we speak, is created of God for this very end, that it may be a blessed image and representation of the holiness and righteousness of God. Hence it is called the “divine nature,” whereof we are partakers, 2 Pet. i. 4. And he that cannot see a representation of God in it, has not the light of faith and life in him. Hereon, I say, faith does approve of the form and principle of this holiness, as the renovation of the image of God in us; it looks upon it as that which becomes God to bestow and require, and therefore that which has an incomparable excellency and desirableness in it. Yea, when the soul is ready to faint under an apprehension that it is not partaker of this holy nature, because of the power of sin in it and temptations on it, it knows not whether itself be born of God or no (as is the case with many); — yet where this faith is, it will discern the beauty and glory of the new creation in some measure, as that which bears the image of God; and thereon does it preserve in the soul a longing after it, or a farther participation of it. By this work or act of it does faith discover its sincerity; which is that which we inquire after. Whilst it has an eye open to behold the glory of God in the new creature, whilst it looks on it as that wherein there is a representation made of the holiness of God himself, as that which becomes him to require in us, and thereon approves of it as excellent and desirable, it will be an anchor unto the soul in its greatest storms; for this is a work beyond what a mere enlightened conscience can arise unto. That can approve or disapprove of all the acts and effects of obedience and disobedience, as unto their consequents; but to discern the spiritual nature of the new creature, as representing the holiness of God himself, and thereon constantly to approve of it, is the work [of faith] alone. 2. It does the same with respect unto the internal acts and effects of this new creature, or principle of new obedience. The first thing it produces in us is a frame of mind spiritual and heavenly; they that are after the Spirit are “spiritually-minded,” Rom. viii. 5, 6. It looks on the opposite frame, namely, of being carnally-minded, as vile and loathsome; it consisting in a readiness and disposition of mind to actuate the lusts of the flesh. But this spiritual frame of mind, in a just constellation of all the graces of the Spirit, influencing, disposing, and making ready the soul for the exercise of them on all occasions, and in all duties of obedience, — this is the inward glory of 431the “King’s daughter,” which faith sees and approves of, as that which becomes God to require in us; whatever is contrary hereunto, as a sensual, carnal, worldly frame of mind, it looks on as vile and base, unworthy of God, or of those who design the enjoyment of him. 3. It does the same with respect unto all particular duties, internal and external, when they are enlivened and filled up with grace. In them consists our “walking worthy of God,” Col. i. 10; 1 Thess. ii. 12, — such a walk as is meet for God to accept; that whereby and wherein he is glorified. The contrary hereunto, in the neglect of the duties of holiness, or the performance of them without the due exercise of grace, faith looks on as unworthy of God, unworthy of our high and holy calling, unworthy of our profession, and therefore does constantly condemn and abhor. All this, as we observed before, faith will continue to do constantly, under temptations and desertions. There are seasons wherein the soul may be very weak, as unto the powers, effects, and duties of this spiritual life; such the psalmist oftentimes complains of in his own case, and it is evident in the experience of most. Few there are who have not found, at one time or another, great weakness, decays, and much deadness in their spiritual condition. And sometimes true believers may be at a loss as unto any refreshing experience of it in its operations. They may not be able to determine in the contest whether sin or grace have the dominion in them. Yet even in all these seasons faith will keep up the soul unto a constant high approbation of this way of holiness and obedience, in its root and fruits, in its principle and effects, in its nature, disposition, and duties. For when they cannot see the beauty of these things in themselves, they can see it in the promises of the covenant, in the truth of the gospel, wherein it is declared, and in the effects of it in others. And great advantage is to be obtained by the due exercise of faith herein. For, — (1.) It will never suffer the heart to be at rest in any sinful way, or under any such spiritual decays as shall estrange it from the pursuit of this holiness. The sight, the conviction of its excellency, the approbation of it, as that which in us and our measure answers the holiness of God, will keep up the mind unto endeavours after it, will rebuke the soul in all its neglects of it; nor will it allow any quiet or peace within, without an endeavour after a comfortable assurance of it. That soul is desperately sick which has lost an abiding sense of the excellency of this holiness, in its answerableness unto the holiness and will of God. Fears and checks of conscience are the whole of its security against the worst of sins; and they are a guard not to be trusted unto in the room of the peace of God. This is one great difference between believers and those that have not faith. Fear of 432the consequents of sin, with an apprehension of some advantages which are to be obtained by a sober life and the profession of religion, do steer and regulate the minds of unbelievers, in all they do towards God or for eternity; but the minds of believers are influenced by a view of the glory of the image and likeness of God in that holiness, and all the parts of it, which they are called unto. This gives them love unto it, delight and complacency in it, enabling them to look upon it as its own reward. And without these affections none will ever abide in the ways of obedience unto the end. (2.) Where faith is in this exercise, it will evidence itself, unto the relief of the soul, in all its darkness and temptations. The mind can never conclude that it wholly is without God and his grace, whilst it constantly approves of the holiness required of us. This is not of ourselves; by nature we are ignorant of it. This “life is hid with Christ in God,” Col. iii. 3, where we can see nothing of it; hereon we are alienated from it, and do dislike it: “Alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us,” Eph. iv. 18. And most men live all their days in a contempt of the principal evidences and duties of this life of God, and of the principle of it, which they look on as a fable. Wherefore, the mind may have great satisfaction in a sight of the beauty and approbation of this holiness, as that which nothing can produce but sincere and saving faith. Secondly, Faith approves of this way of holiness and obedience, as that which gives that rectitude and perfection unto our nature whereof it is capable in this world. It is the only rule and measure of them; and whatever is contrary thereunto is perverse, crooked, vile, and base. Some men think that their nature is capable of no other perfection but what consists in the satisfaction of their lusts; they know no other blessedness, nothing that is suitable to their desires, but the swing of nature, in the pursuit of its corrupt lusts and pleasures. So are they described by the apostle, Eph. iv. 19. The business of their lives is to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil it in the lusts thereof; they walk in the lusts of the flesh, “fulfilling” (so far as they are able) “the desires of the flesh and of the mind,” Eph. ii. 3. They neither know nor understand what a hell of confusion, disorder, and base degeneracy from the original constitution, their minds are filled withal. This perfection is nothing but the next disposition unto hell; and it does manifest its own vileness unto every one who has the least ray of spiritual light. Some among the heathen placed the rectitude of nature in moral virtues and operations, according unto them; and this was the utmost that natural light could ever rise up unto: but the uncertainty and weakness hereof are discovered by the light of the gospel. It is faith alone that discovers what is good for us, in us, and unto 433us, whilst we are in this world. It is in the renovation of the image of God in us, — in the change and transformation of our nature into his likeness, — in acting from a gracious principle of a divine life, — in duties and operations suited thereunto, — in the participation of the divine nature by the promises, — that the good, the perfection, the order, the present blessedness of our nature do consist. Hereby are the faculties of our souls exalted, elevated, and enabled to act primigenial powers, with respect unto God and our enjoyment of him; which is our utmost end and blessedness. Hereby are our affections placed on their proper objects (such as they were created meet for, and in closing wherewith their satisfaction, order, and rest do consist), — namely, God and his goodness, or God as revealed in Jesus Christ by the gospel. Hereby all the powers of our souls are brought into a blessed frame and harmony in all their operations, — whatever is dark, perverse, unquiet, vile, and base, being cast out of them. But these things must be a little more distinctly explained. 1. There is in this gospel holiness, as the spring and principle of it, a spiritual, saving light, enabling the mind and understanding to know God in Christ, and to discern spiritual things in a spiritual, saving manner; for herein “God shines into our hearts, to give us the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ,” 2 Cor. iv. 6. Without this, in some degree, whatever pretence there may be or appearance of holiness in any, there is nothing in them of what is really so, and thereon accepted with God. Blind devotion, — that is, an inclination of mind unto religious duties, destitute of this light, — will put men on a multiplication of duties, especially such as are of their own invention, in “a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body,” as the apostle speaks, Col. ii. 23; wherein there is nothing of gospel holiness. “The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him,” Col. iii. 10. That this saving light and knowledge is the spring and principle of all real evangelical holiness and obedience, the apostle declares in that description which he gives us of the whole of it, both in its beginning and progress, Col. i. 9–11, “We desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness.” It is a blessed account that is here given us of that gospel holiness which we inquire after, in its nature, original, spring, progress, fruits, and effects; and a serious consideration of it as here proposed, — a view of it in the light of faith, — will evidence how distant and different it is from those schemes of moral 434virtues which some would substitute in its room. It has a glory in it which no unenlightened mind can behold or comprehend; the foundation of it is laid in the knowledge of the will of God, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is that spiritual, saving light whereof we speak; the increase hereof is prayed for in believers by the apostle, Eph. i. 17, 18, even “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints;” which here is called “increasing in the knowledge of God,” verse 10. The singular glory of this saving light, in its original, its causes, use, and effects, is most illustriously here declared: and this light is in every true believer, and is the only immediate spring of all gospel holiness and obedience; for “the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him,” Col. iii. 10. This light, this wisdom, this spiritual understanding, thus communicated unto believers, is the rectitude and perfection of their minds in this world. It is that which gives them order, and peace, and power, enabling them to act all their faculties in a due manner, with respect unto their being and end. It is that which gives beauty and glory to the inward man, and which constitutes a believer an inhabitant of the kingdom of light, — whereby we are “delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love,” Col. i. 13; or “out of darkness into his marvellous light,” 1 Pet. ii. 9. That which is contrary hereunto, is that ignorance, darkness, blindness, and vanity, which the Scripture declares to be in the minds of all unregenerate persons; and they are really so, where they are not cured by the glorious working of the power and grace of God before mentioned. Now, faith discerns these things, as the spiritual man discerns all things, 1 Cor. ii. 15. It sees the beauty of this heavenly light, and judges that it is that which gives order and rectitude unto the mind; as also, that that which is contrary unto it is vile, base, horrid, and to be ashamed of. As for those who “love darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil,” — it knows them to be strangers unto Christ and his gospel. 2. Again: there is required unto this holiness, a principle of spiritual life and love unto God. This guides, acts, and rules in the soul, in all its obedience; and it gives the soul its proper order in all its operations: that which is contrary hereunto is death, and enmity against God. Faith judges between these two principles and their 435operations: the former in all its actings it approves of as lovely, beautiful, desirable, as that which is the rectitude and perfection of the will: and the other it looks on as deformed, froward, and perverse. 3. The like may be said of its nature and operations in the affections, as also of all those duties of obedience which proceed from it, as it is described in the place before mentioned. It remains only that we show by what acts, ways, and means, faith does evidence this its approbation of gospel holiness, as that which is lovely and desirable in itself, and which gives all that rectitude and perfection unto our minds which they are capable of in this world. And it does so, — 1. By that self-displicency and abasement which it works in the mind on all instances and occasions where it comes short of this holiness. This is the chief principle and cause of that holy shame which befalls believers on every sin and miscarriage, wherein they come short of what is required in it: Rom. vi. 21, “Those things whereof ye are now ashamed.” Now when, by the light of faith, you see how vile it is, and unworthy of you, what a debasement of your souls there is in it, you are ashamed of it. It is true, the principal cause of this holy shame is a sense of the unsuitableness that is in sin unto the holiness of God, and the horrible ingratitude and disingenuity that there is in sinning against him; but it is greatly promoted by this consideration, that it is a thing unworthy of us, and that wherein our natures are exceedingly debased. So it is said of provoking sinners, that they “debase themselves even unto hell,” Isa. lvii. 9; or make themselves as vile as hell itself, by ways unworthy the nature of men. And this is one ground of all those severe self-reflections which accompany godly sorrow for sin, 2 Cor. vii. 11. And hereby does faith evidence itself and its own sincerity, whilst a man is ashamed of, and abased in, himself for every sin, for every thing of sin, wherein it comes short of the holiness required of us, as that which is base and unworthy of our nature, in its present constitution and renovation; though it be that which no eye sees but God’s and his own, he has that in him which will grow on no root but sincere believing. Wherefore, whatever may be the disquieting conflicts of sin in and against our souls, whatever decays we may fall into, — which be the two principles of darkness and fears in believers, — whilst this inward holy shame and self-abasement, on account of the vileness of sin, is preserved, faith leaves not itself without an evidence in us. 2. It does the same by a spiritual satisfaction, which it gives the soul in every experience of the transforming power of this holiness, rendering it more and more like unto God. There is a secret joy and spiritual refreshment rising in the soul from a sense of its renovation 436into the image of God; and all the actings and increases of the life of God in it augment this joy. Herein consists its gradual return unto its primitive order and rectitude, with a blessed addition of supernatural light and grace by Christ Jesus; it finds itself herein coming home to God from its old apostasy, in the way of approaching to eternal rest and blessedness: and there is no satisfaction like unto that which it receives therein. This is the second way wherein faith will abide firm and constant, and does evidence itself in the soul of every believer. However low and mean its attainments be in this spiritual life and the fruits of it, though it be overwhelmed with darkness and a sense of the guilt of sin, though it be surprised and perplexed with the deceit and violence thereof, yet faith will continue here firm and unshaken. It sees that glory and excellency in the holiness and obedience that God requires of us, — as it is a representation of his own glorious excellencies, the renovation of his image, and the perfection of our natures thereby, — as that it constantly approves of it, even in the deepest trials which the soul can be exercised withal; and whilst this anchor holds firm and stable we are safe.	41,700
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Officials and the public called for action Tuesday following the release of a report that provided increased evidence that water from cooling canals for Florida Power & Light Co.’s Turkey Point nuclear plant is polluting the Biscayne Aquifer and Biscayne National Park. Increased levels of radioactive materials in Biscayne Bay, incredibly high salinity levels and harmful algae bloom caused by other chemicals and heightened temperature levels pose a serious threat to the fragile coastal ecosystem in the area and the freshwater drinking supply that serves more than 3 million people in the greater Miami area, according to the latest findings of the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resource Management. At their regular meeting Tuesday, county commissioners and county Mayor Carlos Gimenez requested meetings and more detailed progress reports on the issue and said they are committed to securing a long-term solution, as they discussed the latest report and also reviewed and adopted another they had commissioned from the University of Miami. “The reality is that water is a no-touch subject in our county,” Commissioner Rebeca Sosa said. “We as a county have to protect the most important treasure that we have.” Gimenez said the cooling canal system is one that would not be approved today or for two new reactors FPL has gained state approval to build, and said it is time to move forward with a long-term solution and “enter the 21st century.” Public speakers — representing environmental groups, interested businesses and the general public — urged the county to issue a notice of violation to the utility to compel steps to halt and remediate the damage, which the studies trace to FPL being allowed to modify equipment starting in 2012 that “uprated” Turkey Point to increase production by 15 percent. “This study confirms that FPL miscalculated the impact uprating Turkey Point’s reactors to generate more power would cause. So this self-inflicted emergency has caused uncontrollable temperatures and an algal bloom and very high salinities,” Laura Reynolds of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said in statement that closely echoed her comments to the commission. “And FPL’s self-prescribed remedy for this emergency, sanctioned by the [Florida] Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management, has now moved that plume into the surface waters of a national park further violating the law.” State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, issued a statement saying it is time for federal intervention, calling upon the Environmental Protection Agency to take emergency remedial action in light of the county’s finding that levels of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen being used as a tracer to track the cooling canal water, is present in Biscayne Bay at 215 times the levels typically found in the ocean. “Enough is enough,” Rodriguez said. “For years our state regulators have failed to take seriously the threat to our public safety, to our drinking water and to our environment posed by FP&L’s actions at Turkey Point. Evidence revealed this week of radioactive material in Biscayne Bay is the last straw, and I join those calling on the U.S. EPA to step in and do what our state regulators have so far refused to do — protect the public.” FPL has been working with county environmental officials since October under a consent agreement reached after the county issued a notice of violation regarding pollution outside of the power plant’s property. Answering questions from Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who had requested the county report in December, DERM Assistant Director Lee Hefty said preliminary tests have been completed on the first of a planned series of extraction pumps intended to pull the hypersalinated water from the Biscayne Aquifer to be disposed of via deep well injection. FPL estimates that Turkey Point spews out 600,000 pounds of salt a day, while the South Florida Water Management District said it may be closer to 3 million pounds. Further enforcement action appears likely, Hefty told the commissioners, and another consent agreement could be reached if FPL again expresses willingness to cooperate. At Tuesday’s meeting, FPL environmental services director Matt Raffenberg said the utility is truly behind the consent agreement and has worked hard to already reduce the salinity and algae in the cooling canals to 2015 levels. “As a company, we have been very focused on this as far back as 2010 to collect the data so we could make informed decisions about how to improve the water quality in the canals and the groundwater,” he told the commissioners. View the original article here. Share on reddit Share on email Stay Updated Stay Updated Español Political advertisement paid for and approved by Daniella Levine Cava for Miami-Dade County Mayor, Non-Partisan	5,078

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