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Saunas Detox Our Bodies To Stop How Chemicals React Adversely

Periodic detoxification is an absolute necessity in a world filled with contaminates, pollutants and chemicals that envelope us. Harmful toxins and chemicals unfortunately exist in the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe and even exist on the clothes on our backs. Slowly but surely, toxins are taking little packets of our lifespan away every single moment of every day. Our longevity as well as quality of life is under a relentless assault. Environmental toxins are suspected of playing a major role in a multitude of different diseases. Toxins have been linked to diseases and conditions such as cancer, arthritis, immune system disorder, autism, fibromyalgia, cardiovascular diseases, bronchitis and Alzheimer’s disease to name a few. Toxins that have invaded our bodies come from a variety of sources, including industrial pollutants, pesticide residue, food additives and heavy metals. The absolute need to cleanse our systems of these unwanted and harmful invaders is critical to our overall health and well being. (more&) detoxification, health benefits of a sauna, sauna, saunas, steam treatment, sweatdetoxification, health benefits of a sauna, sauna, saunas, steam treatment, sweat

The SSS 2008 NCAA Tournament Preview For Non-Psychics: South Region

Waxing poetic about how lovely the NCAA Tournament is seems a bit irrelevant at this point. Certainly "One Shining Moment" will provide a sort of grab-bag of sappiness at the end of the whole thing that will you make you go, "Man, I love March Madness," sigh while looking longingly into the middle distance and then go watch The Hills or something. Now is not the time for such nonsense. March Madness is great! Work sucks! Gus Johnson is so exciting! There, that's done with. What we all want right now is objective, cold-hearted analysis on which teams will prevail and how to win your office pools. I wholeheartedly hope you find something like that. Instead I offer my own brand of regional previews, based solely around enjoying the tournament as much as possible. I'd say "Enjoy" but that goes without saying this time of year.Previously:East RegionWest RegionThis here is the South. I'm gonna do the Midwest this afternoon or for tomorrow morning. I still haven't filled out my "serious" brackets yet, so we'll see.By the way, Awful Announcing has the first round announcers for each game, so check that out for Gus Johnson referential purposes in this preview.1st Round Games1) Memphis vs. 16) Texas-Arlington- John Calipari might be the one coach in America that could convince me to pick his team for the Final Four even if I had no intentions to do so. Every interview I have seen or read with him is either some serious politicking or some serious car salesman shtick. "We made 75 percent of our foul shots in the C-USA tournament." "We would have been the No. 1 overall seed if we made a two-footer against Tennessee." "Before this tournament, my team only used their feet to go from their house to the grocery store."8) Mississippi State vs. 9) Oregon- This is my favorite 8-9 game because I think both teams could give Honest John and his Tigers a scare in Round 2. It's a tough one to pick because you have Oregon's highly efficient, perimeter-oriented, sweet shooting offense against the Bulldogs great defense, anchored by Jarvis Varnado protecting the rim. So let's ask Digger Phelps what he thinks:"When you look at Mississippi State and Oregon, I think you gotta talk about Lamont Gordon. He's got size when you look at the point guard position.... Charles Rhodes..... And, when you look at Oregon.... can this team play well enough to get it done and get to the next round?... Shooting the ball from the three point line, dribble the ball, try to keep the other team from scoring... I think Mississippi State can get it done, Why?... Look for them to scare Memphis in the next round.... Ben Hansbrough."Thanks Digger.5) Michigan State vs. 12) Temple- This is a real interesting game between Temple, which didn't really start playing basketball until the last month and Michigan State, which changes the sport it plays from game to game. Temple, and its two-man scoring attack of Mark Tyndale and Dionte Christmas, can win this game if they don't get killed on the glass. Meanwhile, the Spartans have lost to Penn State, scored 36 in a GAME against Iowa and lost to a D-II school in the preseason. But they also beat Indiana by 30 two weeks ago. Drew Neitzel, the preseason SSS Most Hated White Guy, hasn't been good enough to hate all season long but showed some real signs of punchability in the Big Ten tourney. I just pray he got a barb wire tattoo to reward himself or maybe a spoiler for his Hyundai. Then all will be well.4) Pittsburgh vs. 13) Oral Roberts- For those of you jumping blindly onto the Pitt bandwagon, fear this game. "Oral," as sick, twisted rich white men will undoubtedly call them jokingly ("I picked Pitt but my wife picked Oral! Haha (high fives). Let's go punch some poor people!"), has more size than the Panthers on the front line, and use that size to anchor a strong defense. I know Pitt just beat Georgetown, Louisville and Marquette, but it also was crushed by West Virginia and needed a miracle to beat Syracuse just a week or two earlier. If they don't get that absurd free throw advantage they got in the Big East tourney (and ORU is one of the better teams in the nation at not sending opponents to the line), Bob Knight's senility-induced champion pick could have some trouble.6) Marquette at 11) Kentucky- I'm starting to like this Marquette team and I'm not sure why anyone (read: Digger Phelps) thinks Kentucky can win without Patrick Patterson. The Golden Eagles used to win games by simply forcing opponents to assault the backboard more violently than them (or by just having Dwyane Wade), but this year, they suddenly have multiple scoring options in Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Lazar Heyward, Wes Mathews and Maurice Acker. And on a completely unrelated note, has anyone else noticed that Hubert Davis, once a legitimately interesting and entertaining analyst, has recently adopted Digger's analysis style? Everything is, "When you look at" and "When you talk about" and then he just turns an entire analysis into an incoherent run-on sentence with random non sequiturs of players names and cliched aspects of the game. (I mean, look at this and tell me Hubert hasn't been doing the same thing but with just less Alzheimer's... I've been watching way too much ESPN this week.)3) Stanford at 14) Cornell- Man! These schools are so smart! It's like the Selection Committee did this on purpose! Are they going to decide this game with a spelling bee!? Are the players going to study for finals on the bench?! Are the alumni going to be able to take off from Congress to watch the game?!/sorry7) Miami vs. 10) St. Mary's- The most boring 7-10 match-up of the tourney in an otherwise outstanding region as far as entertaining basketball goes, both teams come into the game in a slump and little chance of advancing to the second weekend. So why even play the game, you ask? Well because Gaels' freshman point Patty Mills is from Australia and CBS needs to use that fancy graphic with the facts about Australia and references to Survivor in more than just the Vanderbilt game. Everyone wins. Sorta.2) Texas vs. 15) Austin Peay- For those of you who like small ball, this is the game for you. Texas' 6-9 Connor Atchley is going to feel like Kenny George in this game with the Governors sporting zero regular rotation players over 6-5. This is one of those weird 5:00 p.m. ET games that occurs in the purgatory between the early games and the primetime games. You know, where people stumble out of the sports bars and wander the streets like zombies looking for something, anything, as exciting as the basketball they just watched. This is where you have people cheering for car crashes or for someone to get mugged in front of them. Then they look down at their bracket and realize they had "Texas." At which point it's time to go home. God I love March Madness.To Watch ForGame You Should Really Want Gus Johnson Announcing- Like I said yesterday, we already know which games Gus is doing, but it's fun to dream, right? Besides the Temple-Michigan State game ("And Christmas has come early for Dionte and the Owls!!! AHHHHHHHH!") and the Pitt-Oral Roberts game ("And the Oral feels so good!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!"... notice the absolutely crucial but simple difference between him and Nantz? It's "AHHHHHH!!!!!") I'd like Gus to do the Texas-Austin Peay game for the chance to hear him scream Austin PEAYYYYYYY in an exuberant manner, just to see what it ends up sounding like.Game You Should Be Thankful Jim Nantz IS NOT Announcing- Again, Nantz is doing the Raleigh games with UNC and Georgetown. But I cannot even fathom the complete and utter lameness with which he would call that Stanford-Cornell game. He'd probably just start talking about sailing and making fun of homeless people out of familiarity of his surroundings. Plus there will be tens of Lopez twin-related puns ("Stanford and the Lopez twins: twice as nice!")Thing That Will Get Stuck In Billy Packer's Craw- I can guarantee Packer is downright furious that St. Mary's got in, but has no problem whatsoever with Kentucky making the field.Most Ironic Commercial- Those completely incoherent IBM consulting commercials will look like a Miller Lite ad to those interested in the Stanford/Cornell game.Talking Points That Will Make Your Brain Want To Die- Memphis' free throw shooting will doom them. Kentucky was once not as successful this season as they presently are. Texas will be playing the regionals in a place considerably closer to campus than others.Second Round Match-Up That Would Give CBS Execs Creamed Jeans- Pittsburgh vs. Michigan State would be a massive collection of sludge to watch, but for some reason CBS loves coaches, especially Tom Izzo. And they would have the guy they once shunned but now love because they need bloggers and Internet writers to tell them what normal people actually like, Gus Johnson, overseeing the Izzo/Dixon lovefest. (Don't let them get you, Gus, please don't.)Second Round Match-Up That Would Give Hoops Fans Creamed Jeans, CBS Execs Flaccidity- I can't recall a team that has been so good recently that has received so little national media attention as Oregon. Less than 5 percent of the population knows that the Ducks were very close to making the Final Four last year and have been to the Elite Eight twice in the past five years. This year, they have one of the most efficient, exciting offenses in the nation and most talking heads were incensed they got in the tournament. Well I want to see them play Memphis really badly because it would be a fast-paced, insanely athletic festival of scoring and because the Ducks shoot the ball so much better than Memphis, could be an upset.Best NBA Prospect- Brook Lopez and Derrick Rose should go No. 2 and No. 3 respectively, behind Michael Beasley, if both enter this year's draft. And it really shouldn't be disputed.Best Taiwan League A Prospect- St. Mary's center Omar Samhan is already being hailed the next "King of Taipei".... but only in closed circles for fear of Communist backlash from China.Most Likely Teabagging Scenario- Derrick Rose hasn't really broken one off yet this year. Nothing like the Mavericks of Texas-Arlington to cure what ails ya.Most Unexpectedly Hot Cheerleaders- Although there might not be any sun up in the Pacific Northwest, it appears there are certainly tanning salons and other reasons for obscenely attractive females to attend school there. For more on the Oregon cheerleaders go to the possibly great, most certainly criminal in some way or another, Pac-10 Poon.Oh, And The Winner Of The Damn Thing- It's going to be tough for Memphis to just get to the regional finals, but I think they will have one of those Ohio State type runs where they look like crap for awhile and then barely avoid upset. In the bottom half, a Texas-Stanford Sweet 16 game would be incredibly awesome. I think Brook Lopez is going to be the breakout star of this tournament. I'll go against the Houston thing and take Stanford to meet Memphis, play a zone with the Lopez twins making any points in the paint impossible, force the Tigers to shoot threes, get Dorsey in foul trouble and the Cardinal will be a surprise Final Four team.

Book Recommendations

I've been meaning to do this sooner, but, wow time flies...Here are some brief comments about books I've read so far this year and would recommend. I think I'll pass on doing negative reviews here at the moment, unless I can make a larger point somehow.Captain's Fury, by Jim ButcherBook four in the Codex Alera series continues pretty much everything that's enjoyable about the series. I particularly like the way Butcher continues to move the story along, as well as how he's resisted the easy way to manage the hero and his lack of fury powers.The Dragons of Babel, by Michael SwanwickSo about fourteen years ago, Swanwick published The Iron Dragon's Daughter, which was, I think, the first prominent example of a crossover between common fantasy icons and dystopian SF icons. If I remember correctly (always a dubious assumption) a lot of people (meaning me) weren't quite sure what to make of the weirdness. I don't think The Iron Dragon's Daughter is a great novel -- it's very episodic, for one thing -- but it is one of the most inventive and memorable novels you'll ever read.The Dragons of Babel is marketed as a sequel, although I don't think there's any particular crossover beyond tone and some place or character names -- I don't remember Iron Dragon's Daughter having much plot to continue. It does however, continue the same tone as the original, a world that freely mixes fantasy elements with ideas from "the real world", and with a certain, say, lack of reverence toward High Fantasy. The title Babel is a city, somewhat loosely based on the biblical and Mesopotamian myth, but populated with all kinds of fey, including ghouls and their corrupt city alderman leader, underground horse keepers, a mysterious throne with an absent king, guns, spells, and con men.It's still fairly episodic, but I think it holds together as a coherent story better than Iron Dragon's Daughter, and it'll certainly mess with your head. In a good way. Mostly.God Save The Fan by Will LeachLeach is the editor and proprietor of Deadspin, which is the pre-eminent sports blog if you are a certain kind of fan -- irreverent? immature? Dunno, but it's one of my favorite sports web sites, serving up sports news and analysis while not stinting on pictures of drunken, partying quarterbacks.The book is essentially Leach's attempt to make the Deadspin worldview explicit. (Although only one piece in the book is taken directly from Deadspin, regular readers will recognize many of the running jokes...) It's a collection of essays with the common goal of recovering sports from the people who take them too seriously. It's kind of hit and miss, but the best pieces are worth your time, and Leach has probably my favorite take on the steroid issue -- which is we're sick of it, please stop moralizing over it.The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian SelznickI think this book is the longest work to ever win the Caldecott Medal for children's book illustration. Most Caldecott winners are your basic short kids picture books. Selznick has written a 500 page novel, about half of which is told through words, and about half through wordless pictures.The story takes place in Paris in the 1930s. Hugo Cabret lives alone in the Paris Metro station, winding the clocks through a series of out of sight tunnels, and repairing a mechanical automaton rescued from a fire by his late father. Eventually, he comes to the attention of an elderly man who runs a mechanical toy shop in the station. The early history of French silent film is involved, along with an image you've surely seen of a rocket ship hitting the man in the moon square in the eye. The pictures carry a lot of the story load, and they are moody and atmospheric without losing clarity -- it's never hard to follow the story, and you can't easily do things like slow zooms in pure text. There's a nice meta twist at the end, too. Definitely track down this unique and interesting book.Lincoln and Douglas by Allen C. GuelzoSomehow The Daily Show and The Colbert Report became my main sources for new non-fiction book recommendations (Stewart has almost completely stopped having actors as guests in favor of non-fiction authors, Colbert never really had many actor guests to begin with...). Guelzo was on The Daily Show, since books on the buildup to the Civil War really pack in the ratings.The book is interesting, if not as dazzling in prose style as your super top-notch non-fiction books. It certainly focused on some areas that were relatively new to me. Notably, how the feud between Douglas and James Buchanan affected the race, and how East Coast Republican leaders didn't really support Lincoln out of the probably-vain hope that Douglas would reveal himself as a Republican. Guelzo also covers the various political pressures that affected Lincoln's message as well.The interesting "what-if" scenario here is what would have happened had Douglas not chosen to debate Lincoln -- he had not much to gain from the debates as the prohibitive favorite. Absent the fame from the debates, there's no way Lincoln is the nominee in 1860. But absent the questions he had to answer in the debates, Douglas is much more likely to have cobbled together the Southern states into a coalition that could have elected him (adding a Southern VP, possibly). Where it goes from there is anybody's guess, especially since Douglas would have died months after taking office (although absent the debates, his health might have been better...)The Mirador, by Sarah MonetteBook three in a series. One of those cases where the author settles character situations at the end of a book, then in order to write the next book in the series, she has to roll back some of the plot and character gains. That's what this book feels like -- the three main characters, acting mostly in harmony at the end of the second book, spend a lot of this book rehashing the arguments and conflicts from the last book.That said, there's a lot in the book that does work. Monette does a nice piece of writers indirection, hiding the identity of an important character for a while. The characters and plot all move forward, maybe reaching new understandings in the end. Still looking forward to the next book.New Amsterdam, by Elizabeth BearI read Bear's first novel (Hammered), thought it was okay, but never went back to the series. Since then, she's jumped her way around several genres, and the description of this one was compelling enough for me to check back in. It's alternate history, the difference point not quite spelled out, but America is still a British colony, and New Amsterdam remained a Dutch colony until the early 19th century when it was given to the British.Our two lead characters are Sebastian de Ulloa, a centuries old vampire (the book favors "wampyr") and Abigail Irene Garret, a forensic sorcerer. Together they fight crime. Really.The book is a series of connected short stories that eventually connect enough to roughly form a novel (some, if not all, of the stories were published separately). The early stories are mostly standalone, and have a certain Agatha Christie meets Bram Stoker kind of feel. Later stories build on each other, as both Sebastian and the British Crown find their positions in America become increasingly untenable.I liked this book for it's atmosphere and for the main characters, I think it would have been even better fully structured as a novel -- I think it might have drawn out the supporting characters a bit more. The mystery elements give the story some texture, but the magical background behind the crimes is a little opaque to the reader... not a problem exactly, just a comment on what kind of mystery story this is. Plus, I'm an easy mark for any novel with the British Crown still ruling America. (If I met Richard Dreyfuss, I'd probably ask him what it was like to work with Harry Turtledove.) I'm hoping for a continuation to this story, and I'll check out some of Bear's other fantasy work in the meantime.T is for Tresspass by Sue GraftonGrafton is one of the few really best-selling authors that I read, and one of the things I like about her recent work is that she's been able to avoid having Kinsey Milhone solve the same case over and over again. In this case, the point of view goes back and forth between Kinsey and a sociopathic predator posing as a home nurse, the better to steal large sums of money from the neighborhood elderly recluse.The mouse in this game sees Kinsey coming from a mile away, and manages to manipulate her into losing her temper and seeming unhinged to any authority figure Kinsey is inclined to consult. That's frustrating for Kinsey, but interesting for me -- I generally like watching the hero have their strengths used against them judo-style. The book is tense, although the actual ending struck me as a bit too easy. It's also kind of interesting to watch Kinsey's stories, which take place a few months after each other and are therefore still in 1988, increasingly become period pieces. I think Grafton is increasingly referencing current events to make it easy for the reader to remember the time frame, and not wonder why Kinsey doesn't use a cell phone or the internet. Coming soon: Matthew Hughes Magestrum series. New Lois McMaster Bujold. The third book in John Varley's Mars series. Jim Butcher's latest Dresden novel...

Giving in to the Hot-n-Fresh

This was our day to bring snacks after the T-ball game. I had mentioned previously how every other parent on our team assigned to snacks this season had brought doughnuts – which I don’t mind my son eating on occasion – but the “good mother” in me thought I had better bring some healthy snacks. I had several people tell me that I should not worry about the team’s 4-0 winning streak, and just bring some fun, healthy snacks. Rick, however, suggested we not mess with a trend. You know, like how after Alabama started winning last fall and we were afraid to wear different shirts than what we wore the previous week for fear our wardrobe would somehow affect the outcome of the game. But this game was different. For one, Coach Todd was busy this Saturday so assistant coaches Craig and Rick had to run the game. This stressed Rick out because he was assigned the lineup, something he put a considerable amount of thought into. He didn’t want Coach Todd to find out his team had lost in his absence. Rick wanted to give each of the kids an opportunity to play different positions. But he also wanted to be sure not to favor our son with a prime position, like pitch or first base. And so Rick woke up early the day of the game to map it all out. I didn’t want to worry Rick with the big snack decision. He had too much on his mind. So once the boys dropped off at the field, I got in the car and drove my arse clear to the next town. (It’s not that far, really. Birmingham is made up of 30-plus municipalities – and it’s kind of like standing on the Four Corners. You hop to the left and you’re in one town, and step to the right and you’re in another.) I drove up to Krispy Kreme and I was obviously not the only person with the doughnut plan. I bought a dozen and a half of “chocolate sprinkles” and off I went I’ll admit T-ball isn’t usually a nail-biter, but by the end of our hour Jonathon’s Mom and I were in knots. The mighty Cards were falling two points behind the Yanks when the ump said there was time for one more inning. I can’t remember the last time I cheered so loudly at a game. In the end, the Cards scored three more runs and the game was called.Our Cards remain the lead team in the league at 5-0. After the usual hand-slaps and hoorays, the kids ran over to me and got their doughnuts. At that moment, after clinching an elusive win, doughnuts seemed more than appropriate. I had enough left over that some kids – including Truman – had two. The team washed their sugary snack down with a soda and then hit the playground. An hour later, as we made our way back to the car, Truman didn’t relish his team’s win. Instead, he mumbled, “I’ve got a tummy ache.” Photos, JWJourney Share and Enjoy: Post from: Blisstree Giving in to the Hot-n-Fresh

Is "Tamil Eelam" a Christian agenda?

B R Haran29 Apr 2009 The White Christian Church has the unique characteristic of gaining entry into non-White, non-Semitic civilizations, by slow infiltration of important establishments to influence them and create unrest by dividing the local populace along communal or linguistic lines, with the sole objective of Christianising those countries.Several instances in history confirm this. The Church has been partially successful in India, as evidenced by the Christianisation of north-eastern states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc., and a few pockets in other States. While interior states have been able to withstand the Christian onslaught, the southern coastal states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been vulnerable to the evil designs of the Church. This was made possible only because of the help provided by self-serving political leaders in the guise of secularism. Influencing politics in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka The Dravidian Movement of Tamil Nadu comprised only such leaders, who even went to the extent of requesting the British to continue their hegemony over Tamil Nadu. Since then, the unholy ‘Christian-Dravidian’ nexus has worked consistently for the cause of ‘Tamil Nation,’ extending it to the north-east of Sri Lanka as well.Just as it divided the Tamil people through the bogus ‘Aryan (Brahmin) – Dravidian (Non-Brahmin) Theory,’ to alienate non-Brahmins from the ‘Hindu’ fold along linguistic lines (Aryan Sanskrit – Dravidian Tamil), the Church similarly divided the Sri Lankan people along linguistic (Sinhala-Tamil) lines. On the one hand, it backed the LTTE fully against the government, and on the other, it successfully infiltrated the Sri Lankan establishment and influenced the government through Sinhala Christian leadership. When Sri Lankan Prime Minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike introduced the “Sinhala only Act” in 1956, the Island’s first anti-Tamil riots took place. Prior to Solomon Bandaranaike, the Sri Lankan government was headed by leaders like Don Stephen Senanayake and John Kotelawala, and his successors were Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake, Junius Richard Jayewardene, Premadasa, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge (married a Christian), Percy Mahinda Rajapakse, who were all either Christians, or Buddhist converts, or married to Christian spouses. The first Sri Lankan Tamil leader who started the demand for separatism was a Christian - Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam; he also called for a “Greater Dravida Nadu” on both sides of the Palk Straits.It can be said that LTTE just followed his footsteps, backed by the Church and missionaries. Ever since ethnic riots took place in 1983, Anton Balasingham, a Roman Catholic, assumed the mantle of LTTE’s political leadership and was second only to Prabhakaran, also a Christian.Ironically, the 85% Hindu majority of Sri Lankan Tamils came totally under the control of a Christian minority leadership, thanks to the Machiavellian machinations of the Church and missionaries. It is difficult to swallow this bitter truth, especially when recalling the glorious past of Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus under the leadership of great Shaivite scholars like Arumuga Navalar, great men like Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Ponnambalam Arunachalam, and intellectuals like the Coomaraswamys. All were widely respected by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Ponnambalam Ramanathan was the one who pushed for “Wesak” or “Buddha Purnima” to be a public holiday in colonial Sri Lanka. As for Tamil Nadu, though the Church suffered a slight setback when M.G. Ramachandran left DMK and founded the AIADMK, deviating from “Atheism” to “Theism” (moving closer to Hindu religion), and his successor Jayalalithaa followed his footsteps (at least for a while), it seemed to have cleverly moved its coins to influence AIADMK too. Now we have a host of Dravidian parties changing alliances at the drop of a hat and even at each others’ throats, but remaining perennially close to the Church.So, whichever party is in power, the Church is able to have its say and continue with its agenda of de-Hinduising the state. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, the Church has been able to influence the leadership of both LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, while causing the death of thousands of Hindus and Buddhists in the decades-long conflict. The Church has also been indulging in blatant conversion activities in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Influencing Jayalalithaa for the greatest assault on Hinduism At one point, the Church found it difficult in Tamil Nadu, due to the enormous influence of Melmaravathur Adiparasakthi Movement and Sabarimala Pilgrimage on Scheduled Caste Hindus, and the various activities undertaken by Kanchi Mutt to reach out to them, besides the enactment of the anti-conversion law by the Jayalalithaa regime.But the Church finally succeeded in influencing Jayalalithaa after her party’s rout in the 2004 parliament elections, resulting in two telling actions. First, she repealed the anti-conversion law, enacted by her own government, to appease the Christian community; secondly, she went to the extent of denigrating and destroying the sanctity of a 2500-year-old institution established by Adi Sankara and flawlessly maintained by his order of disciples as ‘Jagath Gurus’ for millions of Hindus.Not surprisingly, in October 2004, she received the ‘Golden Star for Dignity and Honour’ (Thanga Tharakai) award from a Ukraine-based Christian organisation named International Human Rights Defence Committee, controlled by America and funded by ‘US Agency for International Development’ (USAID).The Indian representative for IHRDC was Mallavarappu Prakash, Bishop of Vijayawada and later Chairman of Tamil Nadu Minorities Welfare Commission! In February 2005, the ‘India International Society’, USA, proposed a tribute for her together with 'Barath Jyothi' award, after which evangelist K.A. Paul came to Tamil Nadu in a private jet to give thousands of crores of rupees for Tsunami relief. Jaya pursuing Christian agenda Since then, Jayalalithaa has clearly sided with the Christian clergy. Last year, while terming the spontaneous ‘retaliatory’ attacks on Christians in Kandhamal, Orissa, as a “disgrace” to the nation, she conveniently ignored the dastardly murder of Swami Laxmanananda and his disciples, and the distribution of blasphemous literature and pamphlets denigrating Hindu Gods and Goddesses, by his opponents. When the Rama Sethu Protection Movement was at its peak, she spoke against the Sethusamudram Project, not with true faith in Sri Rama, but with an eye on the votebank. And while protesting against the Sethu Project, she exhibited her 'secular' credentials by pointing out that ‘Adams Bridge’ (Ramar Sethu) was significant to Muslims and Christians as well, a myth which no Christian or Muslim scholar has so far endorsed!Even the present election manifesto of her party makes only a passing mention of Rama Sethu! Yet it gives exclusive commitments for Christians, such as Reservation for Dalit Christians (unconstitutional), subsidy for Jerusalem pilgrimage, ‘All Souls Day’ to be made a holiday, hostels with all facilities at nominal charges in towns of minority religious significance, and addressing the ‘security’ concerns of minorities. But she gave no commitments regarding repeal of the DMK government’s ordinance on Tamil New Year or returning the Chidambaram Temple administration to the Dikshidars, or any issue concerning Hindus. As if to confirm allegiance to the Christian agenda, she deviated from her original stand on the Sri Lankan ethnic issue and sat on a day-long fast on 9 March 2009, condemning the Indian government’s alleged inaction on the issue and addressed the LTTE as “fighters” instead of her usual remark of “terrorists”. Now she has openly supported the Christian agenda of creation of a separate Tamil Eelam, which amounts to supporting the LTTE and nothing else. After all, the Church-backed LTTE leadership is also fighting for the same cause! Sabotaging the legislation on conversion in Sri Lanka In 2003, Sri Lankan Buddhist and Hindu leaders joined hands to draft a legislation, at the request of Hindu Affairs Minister T. Maheswaran, to legally stop conversion activities by the Church. Despite the pressure applied by this joint committee which worked for six months to draft the new act for parliament, the Church-influenced Sri Lankan government has been reluctant to enact the law.As the Church foresaw that Buddhist-Hindu unity - unity between majority (Buddhists) and the largest minority (Tamil Hindus) - could lead to permanent peace in the war-struck Island, it sabotaged the process of legislation by favouring the creation of an inter-religious council to hammer out a solution. This so-called inter-religious council is a typical Christian strategy (much like the Church-backed inter-faith dialogues in non-Christian countries) to thwart all attempts to ban conversions by an act of parliament; the same has been adopted by the Vatican to stop such legislations in India as well. Though organizations such as ‘All Ceylon Hindu Congress’ (though pro-LTTE), ‘Hindu Council of Sri Lanka’ and ‘National Council of Buddhist Clergy’ are dead against conversion activities, the Church has been able to influence the political leadership across the spectrum to sabotage the legislation of the anti-conversion law (http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20884 ). In this context, it must be noted that the former Hindu Affairs Minister in Ranil Wickramasinge’s cabinet T. Maheswaran escaped an assassination attempt in 2004, but was finally assassinated on 1 January 2008 while worshipping in a Shiva Temple. Till date, the government has not completed investigations in to the murder, though it has been blamed for allegedly reducing his security level and for continuing minister Douglas Devananda, widely alleged to be involved in the assassination. The government put the blame squarely on LTTE and Douglas Devananda also denied the allegation of involvement. The BBC Sinhala.com reported, “The DNA samples taken from the murder suspect of a Tamil legislator matched with the blood samples taken from the gun used for the killing, Sri Lankan judiciary said. The legislator’s security guard managed to shoot the suspect, identified as Johnson Collin Wasanthan Valentine(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Maheswaran andhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/02/080201_maheswaran_dna.shtml ). Importance of Hindu-Buddhist relationship As early as June 1998, ‘Tamilnet’ reported that an International conference on Hinduism condemned attacks on Hindus and the destruction of Hindu places of worship by Sri Lankan security forces, and urged Colombo to halt such attacks. The report said that, the ‘First International Conference on Hindu Solidarity’ was held in Paris on 27-28 June at the UNESCO auditorium and attended by delegates from several countries, including functionaries from BJP and VHP (http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=1691).Though this seems like a conflict between Buddhist and Hindu communities, it must be understood that the security forces are controlled by a political leadership owing allegiance to the Church. The centuries-old cultural relationship and largely peaceful existence of both the Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus can be ascertained from two facts.First, their coming together to draft a legislation against conversion activities of the Church and missionaries, and second, the statement from the Hindu Council of Sri Lanka that the long-standing cordial relationship between the two religious communities in the Island Nation would go a long way in solving the present crisis and creating peace and harmony.It is pertinent to note that Buddhists worship Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hindus worship Buddha as an Avatar of Maha Vishnu, and both communities follow the same calendar and celebrate the same day as New Year. While condemning the politicisation of the ethnic conflict by self-serving politicians of Tamil Nadu, the Hindu Council felt that areas of common interests must be identified and along with religious commonality and cordiality, local capacities built for peace. It opined that furthering political interests and fanning Tamil chauvinism must be discouraged as it would complicate the situation and inhibit the capacity of the Indian government to help find a lasting solution by bringing both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils to the negotiating table. BJP-led NDA government’s proactive role in the peace process Journalist M.R. Narayan Swamy (IANS) reported that the Vajpayee government played a secret but vital proactive role in the peace process between Sri Lanka and LTTE, brokered by Norway: “Overseen by New Delhi, a truce document began to be drafted. Norway was deeply involved in the exercise, roping in some of its veteran diplomats. Eventually, this translated into CFA. India also told Norwegian diplomats to let the LTTE know about the Indian involvement in the entire effort. On Feb 21, 2002, LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran signed the CFA. Wickramasinghe put his signature a day later.”By sheer coincidence, both Ranil Wickramasinghe and A.B. Vajpayee lost power almost at the same time (April-May 2004) and J.N. Dixit, appointed NSA by Sonia-led UPA regime, passed away within a few months of his appointment, with all the details about India’s role in bringing the CFA, which he learnt from Ranil Wickramasinghe, when the later visited India after demitting office. It is natural for a Hindu nationalist party to be deeply concerned about the well-being of a country who’s Buddhist and Hindu people are both tied to Hindu India by an umbilical cord; hence it is no surprise that it tried to bring peace in the interests of both countries. Why did the CFA fail and whether the Sonia-led government pursued the policy of the Vajpayee government with regard to Sri Lanka remain unknown?(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=24710 ). The present scenario At present, all Dravidian parties are wreaking havoc in the run-up to the general elections, using the inflammatory Eelam issue as an election talking point. Each party is trying to whip up emotions in Tamil Nadu to bring about a ceasefire in Lanka and thereby save Prabhakaran and the LTTE.When the Father Jagat Gasper Raj-Kanimozhi combine floated the “Chennai Sangamam” cultural extravaganza in 2007, Jaya TV went to town with investigative reports on the LTTE connections of Gasper Raj; Jayalalithaa wasted no time condemning the government’s association with the project. But last year, both Jayalalithaa and her TV channel kept a conspicuous silence during the Chennai Sangamam festival.During the last week alone, Father Gasper Raj has been promoted by mainstream electronic media as a representative of Sri Lankan Tamils! Participating in debates on electronic news channels, he blatantly supports LTTE in the guise of voicing human rights concerns, criticizes the Indian government, and in one debate on Times Now Channel had the audacity to call Dr. Subramanian Swamy a “paid agent of Rajapakse”! Yet it is unclear if he is a Sri Lankan refugee or an Indian citizen. His antecedents and present activities in India/Tamil Nadu need thorough investigation. AIADMK leader Jayalaithaa, who condemned Karunanidhi for saying Prabhakaran was not a terrorist, has not reacted to her ally PMK leader Ramadoss’ identical statement! Why does Jayalalithaa, who questioned Sonia’s silence on Karuna’s statement, remain silent on Ramadoss’ statement? And what has the Italian-Christian-led UPA done for Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus in the last five years? Why didn’t the Sonia-led regime follow the NDA policy with regard to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue? Why was her government silent when the Geneva round of talks failed despite the presence of a live CFA? Sad irony, and civilisational opportunity Actually, the West and the Church want to Christianise Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and form a larger Tamil Christian State. Hence a Sinhala-Tamil divide has been created with the help of the Tamil-Christian leadership of the LTTE and the Sinhala-Christian leadership of Sri Lanka.Caught in between are the Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil Hindu civil populace. To keep the issue alive without any solution, the Christian leadership of India and the Dravidian, irreligious leadership of Tamil Nadu have been used, just as this diabolic group is using Dravidian politicians and Christian NGOs who have been harvesting souls in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. It is a sad irony that the interests of hapless Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka, who have been persecuted for long by both the Christian leadership of LTTE and the Christian leadership of Sri Lankan government, have been represented by the unholy Christian-Dravidian nexus in Tamil Nadu. As things stand in Sri Lanka, it looks as though the West might be able to save the LTTE leadership. It will try to send missionaries and NGOs to help the rehabilitation process, so it can clandestinely achieve its evangelical agenda also.It is said that President Rajapakse instructed setting up of a chapel in the ‘welfare villages’ to look into the spiritual needs of the internally displaced persons and refugees, who number up to 200,000. Sensing the danger of evangelization, the Hindu Council, the Hindu Women’s Society (Saiva Mangaiyar Kazhagam), the Sai Samithi, along with other organizations, swung into action to provide medicines, clothes, soaps, detergents and sanitary napkins and other articles of basic necessity, to augment the shelter, food and water provided by the government. The Hindu Council has also organized singing of Tamil devotional hymns (Thevaram and Thiruvasagam); the Sai Samithi has organized bhajans. These organizations are likely to take care of orphaned children by sending them to orphanages run by the Sri Ramakrishna Mission.The present situation must be seen as an opportunity to revive Hindu-Buddhist unity and Hindu religious heads from India, especially from Tamil Nadu, would do well to establish contact and communication channels with Buddhist leaders of Sri Lanka. This will go a long way in bringing peace and harmony to the Island Nation. For this to happen, we need a strong “Hindu” political leadership in India. Let us hope it gets ‘elected’ now.The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai

wales, finally!

save the planet go vegan" carved into a gate somewhere in PembrokeshireI'm finally getting around to blogging about our journey to Wales! I'd never been there before, but always knew that I wanted to, in addition to the country's beauty and all the good things I've heard about it, it also happens to be the place where my parents went on their honeymoon. As you can see from the above photo, Wales is an incredibly veg-friendly country, as we found out in towns, in peoples' homes, and in restaurants and pubs. Would you expect any less from a country whose official vegetable is the leek?Our first night, we stayed in Cardiff. The couple we were staying with took us to dinner at Pearl of the Orient, a Chinese restaurant in Cardiff Bay with plenty of veg options. Seriously- it took up over a page on their menu! I finally decided to go with spicy Szeschuan tofu- blocks of luxuriously silky marinated tofu in a spicy chili mixture of veggies. It had such a fresh and unique flavor. Daiku, who ordered a meat dish and also tried all of our companions' omni dishes, declared that my tofu was the star of the evening! We also shared an order of veggie fried rice (hold the egg) which complemented the tofu nicely. This restaurant seriously knows how to season its dishes- I'm still craving that tofu now, a week later!The next day we traveled farther west, eventually ending up in Pembrokeshire, in the town of Newport. The family we were staying with were very vegan-friendly! The mom was vegan, and the dad cooked us a very delicious vegan version of a traditional Welsh meal. There was a hearty cawl, normally a lamb stew made with tvp chunks, and some mashed potatoes (made with soy milk instead of dairy) to go with it. After a long day of driving and exploring in cold rain, this meal was so welcome!After dinner, it was time for pudding. We got a delicious warm fruit crumble, complete with homemade vegan custard for the topping! The fruit crumble was good, and the fruit mixture included bananas- I'd never thought to put bananas in such a dish before, but now it makes perfect sense. I'll be sure to repeat that tasty experiment in the future. Amid all the cold and sleet, lo and behold, more blackberries! I feel so spoiled that even now in October, the plentiful blackberry bushes all around the U.K. still have sweet fruit to pick as you're walking along!The best thing about a cold and rainy hike? The hot cup of coffee......or tea (with some soy milk that I snuck into the tea house!) to warm back up.Look what we came across in the woods- a dragon in a tree!I have to highlight all the non-food coolness in Wales- such as these ruins of a medieval castle that we got to walk around.This megalith (a giant stone structure like Stonehenge) served as a burial ground thousands years ago.Here's a moody coast in the fog.And my favorite- animals everywhere, and I mean EVERYwhere. You can't drive for more than a few minutes in the Welsh countryside without seeing some cows.Enough that they warrant their own road signs!And sheep! There are happily grazing sheep dotting the landscape everywhere you go.Finally, weekend car rental, £45. Getting to say you drove on the "wrong" side of the car and the road? Priceless.For more of our Wales photos, have a look at my set on flickr.

Counterfeiting 24/365

The Meaning of Quantitative Easing by Michael S. Rozeff I begin by describing quantitative easing in technical terms. I go on to describe what it means when a central bank and its government engage in quantitative easing. What is quantitative easing? It is a central bank’s purchase of government securities (bills, notes, bonds) directly from the government. The term purchase does not capture the essence of the actual transaction. The government issues a Treasury bill, say. This is a liability of the government. The central bank takes this bill and holds it as its asset. It provides the government with its own official and legal State money or notes (or a checking account for such). The central bank accounts for this note issue as its liability. It is an IOU transferred to the government (or State). In the usual setup, these notes cannot be redeemed for anything. That is, if the government brought these notes to the central bank, it would get nothing in return for them. Hence, the money issue is not really a liability of the central bank. The government accounts for the receipt of these central bank notes as an asset. The net result of the transaction is that the government succeeds in transforming a liability (its issue of Treasury bills) into a new asset (its holding of central bank notes). If a person issues a debt and receives an asset from someone else in return, there is no new asset involved. If a baker issues an IOU and gets an oven in return, the oven is not an increment to the stock of ovens in the world. But when the government issues its IOU (the Treasury bill), it gets an entirely new asset, the central bank money. In the U.S., the government pays interest to the FED that holds the bill, but the FED returns this interest to the Treasury. Hence, the Treasury bill held by the FED is really no liability to the government. The net result of the transaction is that the government has a new asset that it can spend, namely, the FED’s Federal Reserve notes. There will be further effects on the banking system and the economy when the government circulates the notes. These occur through the fractional-reserve banking system, but it is not my aim here to discuss these as plenty of other sources have done this already. The main technical point is that the government has a new asset that is made an asset by coercion, since the money has, by the power of law, been made legal tender. If we had t-accounts for the government and FED and the government issued $1,000 in t-bills, we’d see the following: The government debits its asset: $1,000, Federal Reserve notes. The government credits its liability: $1,000, Treasury bill outstanding. The central bank debits its asset: $1,000, Treasury bill. The central bank credits its liability: $1,000, Federal Reserve notes. When we consolidate the accounts, we end up with the Treasury bill disappearing. The combined entity has Federal Reserve notes (money) as an asset and as a liability. Since it is a phantom liability that can be exchanged for nothing, the government has a new asset with no real liability connected to it. This completes the technical description of quantitative easing. The term quantitative easing has propaganda value. The implied proposition is that something is being eased that is currently tight or restricted. This makes it sound as if something positive and good is being accomplished. What is actually going on, however, is a form of seizure or taxation. It is also called inflation, when the focus is on the additional means of spending that has been created. The Congress lifts the debt limit of the government. Suppose the government then gets money via quantitative easing. All currency in the U.S. and other states is typically forced currency that is made to pass as means of payment by law. Since this currency is imposed by force on the society, the government spending that uses these notes is tantamount to using force to extract goods and services from society. Hence, quantitative easing is seizure and taxation. It is not direct seizure from citizens using soldiers and weapons, nor is it direct taxation by means of tax rates and payments made by citizens. Instead the government takes what it wants by spending its new asset – the newly-manufactured money. This reduces what is available for everyone else to spend on. The reduction in available goods in the private sector is the tax. One result is that society finds that the prices it pays for everything else rise (albeit unevenly). The government’s absorption of goods and services measures the seizure. Whoever participates in the consumption or receipt of those goods and services is the beneficiary of the seizure. If the government gives money to some farmers, they benefit. If it gives the money to Blackwater, it benefits. If it pays off Afghan warlords or Sunni soldiers, they benefit. The government rationales for its seizure and taxation by quantitative easing are all false. They vary according to the situation and what appeal sounds most appealing to a population that does not understand what is actually going on. There are usually some simple slogans that have a marked appeal, because of their simplicity and superficiality. Disposing of them takes more argument than the public is ordinarily used to or wants to hear. For example, the rationale may be that government spending is needed to get the economy moving. This is a total deception, since all that is happening is that goods and services are being shifted from one set of hands to another. When there is excess capacity, such as in the automobile industry at present, the government can buy new autos and stimulate auto demand for a time. But since the private society has already shown that it does not want these autos, a collective purchase by the government adds less to social welfare than it subtracts by the seizure of the goods and services that is necessary to build the autos. Discussing all this in depth is also beyond my limited purpose here. The main point to be made is that when a government resorts to quantitative easing, it shows that it has run out of other means to finance its endeavors. It has reached the end of the line. A government finances itself by taxes. Borrowing is a hidden form of taxation; it defers the taxes to the future. Taxes are more or less visible to the population. They are voted on by Congress or a similar body. They are coercive, but they have at least the partially redeeming feature of being somewhat in the open and somewhat controllable by the citizens who vote for their representatives. Inflationary seizure or coercion via quantitative easing means that the government wants to spend more than it can raise by taxation and borrowing. Its ambition exceeds its grasp. Ordinary coercive means of finance no longer suffice. The government resorts to the printing press. Quantitative easing is a resort to the money printing press. It means seizure and coercion of goods and services from the inhabitants of a country. But it also means either a government that is spending beyond its means, or one whose economy is not strong enough to generate financing by the usual means, or both. Suppose that a company could no longer issue debt to finance its purchases of assets. The capital market (investors) would be vetoing any further corporate expansion. This happens when a company is badly run or has problems that must be addressed or has run out of good investment projects. The governments that resort to quantitative easing are analogous to such companies, except that they can force the society to finance their spending. The term quantitative easing is a relatively new term. It is one of those modern euphemisms that disguises the use of brute force. Even the term inflation, which is what quantitative easing is, fails to capture the human impact of such government acts that invade life, liberty, and property. All such money manipulations, which, of course, are accepted widely by economists as the norm, are the antithesis of a free market. The results cannot be good if society sets up a body with power to inject purchasing power if, when, and as it pleases and to whom it pleases. This is too much power without control over the consequences. This power simply augments government, giving it an uncontrollable option to seize the society’s goods and services. This cannot be a good idea. The supposed benefits of central banking are all illusory and impossible. Standing beside those imagined good effects are the inevitable bad consequences for many, many people, such as the now millions of unemployed whose trades and occupations are now found to be not in demand and who will now be years making the adjustments to find new work and incomes. May 11, 2009 LewRockwell.com

Productivity Killed by its Own Worshippers

The perversion of productivity, intuition, and 27 thoughts on blogging for the artist, don't miss this one. None of this is brain-surgery. In fact, nothing is brain-surgery except -- brain-surgery. Are you lifehacking too much? Productivity is dead! Long live living! The other side of productivity: Coincidences, synchronicity, and serendipity. Intuition. The problem with infinitely optimized and worshipped productivity is that it's all too easy to cover up coincidences, synchronicity, and serendipity out of fear of becoming less than serious. In the same spirit of bringing things back in perspective, consider these 27 thoughts on blogging for the artist -- If you're the real thing, you'll be around in 30 years, still working. Most of these services and sites you now admire will not. You do not need a signed letter from The American Academy of Arts and Letters to begin. Blogging is easy. Art is not. Exactly. Each and every one of them. Read them all. Now, go out and please don't let things happen to you but instead, make sure that you happen to things. Related Items Integrate Life, The Renaissance Way Free ebook Peer pressure, vanity and behavior, motivation tricks and hacks, success and pain, and how to excel, Celebrate Your Beauty.

Olden train

Experts Warn Against Long-Term Use of Common Pain Pills

From NYTimes.com: Aspirin and ibuprofen are staples in just about every medicine chest and first aid kit. They’re sold over the counter, and they’re not expensive. Most people don’t think twice about taking them. But they should — especially if they’re elderly. Last week, an expert panel of American Geriatrics Society pretty much bumped all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, off the list of medicines recommended for adults ages 75 and older with chronic, persistent pain. Long-term use of drugs like ibuprofen, naproxen and high-dose aspirin is so dangerous, the panelists said, that elderly people who can’t get relief from alternatives like acetaminophen may be better off taking opiates, like codeine or even morphine. All this despite the fact that NSAIDs are known to be effective for chronic pain conditions that often plague older adults — and despite the fact that opiates can be addictive. “We’ve come out a little strong at this point in time about the risks of NSAIDs in older people,” said Dr. Bruce Ferrell, chair of the panel that made the recommendations and a professor of geriatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater — they do work for some people — but it is fairly high risk when these drugs are given in moderate to high doses, especially if given over time.” “It looks like patients would be safer on these opioids than on high doses of NSAIDs for long periods of time,” he said, adding that for most elderly, the risk of addiction appears to be low. “You don’t see people in this age group stealing a car to get their next dose.” The risks from chronic use of NSAIDs are myriad. They can cause life-threatening ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding, a side effect that occurs more frequently and with greater severity as people age. Some NSAIDs may increase the risk for heart attacks or strokes, and they don’t interact well with drugs used to treat heart failure. They can make high blood pressure worse, even uncontrollable, and impair kidney function. And the list of potentially hazardous interactions with other drugs is a long one, experts say. “Physiological changes in the elderly affect the way drugs are absorbed and secreted and how the body responds to them,” said Dr. Keela Herr, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing in Iowa City who researches pain management in the elderly and was involved in drafting the new guidelines. “Younger people can use this class of medicine with limited risks. In older persons, it’s a different story. Physical changes make them more sensitive.” The geriatrics society’s new guidelines say NSAIDs should be considered “rarely” in the population of frail elderly people, and used “with extreme caution” and then only in “highly selected individuals.” For those patients with moderate to severe pain that diminishes the quality of life, opiates may be considered, the guidelines suggest, after both the patient and caregiver are screened for prior substance abuse. It is the third revision of the guidelines, originally created in 1998 and updated in 2002. In this latest version, acetaminophen remains the top choice for chronic pain. But acetaminophen is a fairly weak analgesic, experts say. “Opioids are, everyone agrees, probably the strongest pain medication you have,” said Dr. Roger Chou, a pain expert who was not involved in writing the new guidelines and believes decisions about opioid therapy must be made on a case-by-case basis. “The down side is the potential for abuse, and we’re seeing huge increases nationwide of reports about the misuse and diversion of prescription drugs and related deaths. . . .The concerns about opioids are very real.” He argued that opioids must be prescribed very carefully, no matter what the age of the patient. Patients with chronic persistent pain will be on the drugs for a long time, because the pain usually does not go away, and they will also be at risk of developing other problems related to the medication, such as constipation, nausea and fatigue. The guidelines are not meant to discourage the treatment of pain. On the contrary, chronic pain is rampant among the elderly, affecting an estimated 25 to 50 percent of elderly people living in the community and up to 85 percent of nursing home residents. Often caused by degenerative spine conditions, arthritis and cancer or cancer treatment, chronic pain takes a powerful toll on quality of life. Untreated, chronic pain can disrupt sleep and affect mood, restrict mobility and lead to depression, anxiety and isolation, experts say. It can also contribute to falls, which lead to further complications and often death. Although non-drug treatments like physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and other educational interventions are often helpful, adding drugs to the mix usually enhances treatment, experts say. “There really continues to be a significant amount of unrecognized and untreated pain in older people, and it’s a huge problem,” Dr. Herr said. “A lot of people think that just because they’re getting older they’re going to have pain and just have to learn to live with it. That’s not the case.” Pain cannot always be entirely eliminated, she added. “You can get to the point where it’s in the mild category — where it’s annoying but not causing such impairment that you can’t function and interact and do the things that are important.”

The Clarence Thomas - Leah Ward Sears Friendship

I have previously noted that Leah Ward Sears is a serious contender for Justice Souter's Supreme Court seat. According to the Washington Post, Justice Sears may need to worry that her friendship with Justice Thomas could undermine her bid to join the Supreme Court. According to the story, Thomas reached out to Sears during the early 1990's when she was facing political attacks in Georgia. Sears, who terms herself a moderate with a progressive streak, was apparently touched buy Thomas' interest - and became friends with Thomas. According to the WaPo: It affected her that he would take the time to comfort her in that situation," said Bernard Taylor, an Atlanta lawyer and longtime friend of Sears, now chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and a potential nominee to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. "They're still friends." I wonder how the two might interact on the Court. We know that they have very different views on some hot-button topics. I assume that liberals worry that Thomas could sway Sears, moving his junior colleague to the right. But it seems equally conceivable that the opposite could happen - Thomas might open his mind to certain perspectives when argued by a person who he respects. And the highest odds of all are that the two of them will retain their personal views, and maintain a friendship. Scalia and Ginsburg don't seem to have had a problem with this.

satisfying veggie eats in Stockholm

as you walk through Stockholm, there are a lot of food stands, many selling grilled items like hot dogs, burgers, and falafel. many also have veggie dogs and veggie burgers- woo! just make sure to ask them to leave the creamy sauce off the veggie burger, and the yogurt sauce off the felafel, and you have a quick and tasty vegan snack as you're walking around.my uncle had scouted this wonderful veggie restaurant for us, the Légumes Vegetariskt Matcafé on Hornsgatan, in his neighborhood of Södermalm. This casual restaurant allows you to pick from among a lot of options, to assemble a plate to your taste. Out of about 20 different dishes, only 2 were vegetarian, all the rest were vegan. On my plate above, you see brown rice, a stew made with potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes, and peppers, some soy beef in a spicy sauce, a couple of stuffed grape leaves, and some salad. This was so satisfying! Unfortunately, I was stuffed after the first plate- I say unfortunately, because you can go back and get refills if you want. Daiku and my uncle both took advantage of that option!More Swedish foods to come!

i have much farther to go

I need a favor.My blog is moving. Officially. I can't magically import all my old posts into iWeb, and I want to have a "top 10" posts archive. Any of you have a post of mine that is especially memorable?I am committing to the move. Officially. Comments are disabled for now - but it's like that on the server in general since the switch to MobileMe. I know it sucks for now, but I love the way it looks, and I know it will get better. And it's not done yet. I haven't moved my daily reads yet and some other things need done - but my dad will have the upgrade for me next week, so I'm kinda waiting for that before I do anything crazy - like themes and backgrounds and stuff. Yay pretties!So I am here now.The one thing I ask is for you those of you that have me in your blog roll to change the address tohttp://web.mac.com/questionsfordessertI am keeping this blogger blog up because I don't feel like cutting and pasting all my old entries (no easy way to do so) and I also like the idea of starting over at a new blog.I may randomly post here to direct people to my iMac blog, and feel free to keep commenting here. I get them by email, so I will see them.Oh, and Kim, I'm still working on your cd! I've got too many songs to fit on 1 but not enough to fit on 2, so I'm struggling a little. It is in progress though.What? You want a prize too? Change my link in your blogroll (or put me there!) and post a comment (on this blog, obviously). First 5 will receive mix cds!And visit me!

Otto Spengler (18?? – 19??) Benjamin’s first transgendered patient.

Otto was born and raised in Germany. His father died when he was four, and from then he slept with his mother in her bed. He was girlish in appearance and his dressmaker sister used him as a dress model. Although little attracted to women, he did marry at age 26 and they had three children. He wore female clothing at all opportunities and wore female underwear under his male clothing at other times. He corresponded for many years with Dr Mary Walker and attempted to secure her collection of pictures and letters. He was known to Magnus Hirschfeld when the latter was writing Die Transvestiten. Later , after emigrating to New York, his biography was the first of a transvestite to be presented in the US, and presented to the New York Society of Medical Jurisprudence in December 1913, and published the next year in the New York Medical Journal. Spengler himself quoted this article in a letter to the New York Evening Post in 1933. He became a regular medical patient of Harry Benjamin in the 1920s, and only in 1938, while treating him for arthritis, did Benjamin realize that he was a transvestite. At Spengler’s request he prescribes estrogenic hormone and x-ray sterilization of the testicles. This was Benjamin’s first transgendered case. Spengler is given the pseudonym Rudolph von H. in George Henry’s book. *Not the German political philosopher. Bernard Simon Talmey. "Transvestism. A contribution to the study of the psychology of sex", New York Medical Journal, 21 Feb 1914, pp.362-368. Otto Spengler. Letter to the Editor. New York Evening Post, February 15 1933. George W. Henry. Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. New York: P.B. Hoeber 1948: 495. Leah Cahan Schaefer & Connie Christine Wheeler. “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases (1938-1953): a clinical historical note”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 24:1 Feb 1995: 3. Online at www.helen-hill.com/pdf/hbfirst10cases.pdf. Joanne Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, Ma, London: Harvard University Press. 363 pp 2002: 46, 298n105.

Shoes

What a bailout

The ONE is beating up hedge fund managers, bondholders and widows as greedy capitalist pigs.
Shame on them! They won’t part with their secured holdings at pittances between $0.15 and 0.29 on the dollar. Obama wants to give this booty to the unions as a reward for campaign donations.
In return, Mussolini Motors er Fiat will build cars that Obama says you WILL buy!
Government Motors, after it restructures, by grabbing every widow’s mite will build their cars everywhere but in the US.
Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas
The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company’s new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.
According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double.
The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production.
As a result, the long-simmering argument over U.S. manufacturers expanding production overseas — normally arising between unions and private companies — is about to engage the Obama administration.
Essentially in control of the company, the president’s autos task force faces an awkward choice: It can either require General Motors to keep more jobs at home, potentially raising labor costs at a company already beset with financial woes, or it can risk political fury by allowing the automaker to expand operations at lower-cost manufacturing locations.
“It’s an almost impossible dilemma,” said former labor secretary Robert B. Reich, now a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. “GM is a global company — so for that matter is AIG and the biggest Wall Street banks. That means that bailing them out doesn’t necessarily redound to the benefit of the U.S. or American workers.
“More significantly, it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?” [snip]
Force them into bankruptcy court, where Obama cannot play around. The courts will deal fairly, correctly according to established law and cut Obama’s bully tactics out of the equation, the unions too.
The more Obama loses, the more America wins.

From Bugs to Rockets [Photo Synthesis]

As the sun sets on a wonderful set of insect photos from the Wild... I thought I should start with a transition photo, on a photosynthetic bug bed, to a new photo theme - rockets: Many insects have served as brave cosmonauts - flying as a somewhat unwilling payload in Estes rockets. The National Association of Rocketry has rules against living payloads, but they make an exception for invertebrates. (I think the intent of the rule was to prevent kids from flying their sister's pet, but to allow for some curious exploration.) The Quark is the smallest rocket I have built, with rear-swept fins to avoid nose weight and light enough to tumble back without parachute. It takes half-A-size motors. If you have participated in some of the 500 million Estes rocket launches that have taken place over the years, you may recall that each letter grade of a motor is a rough doubling of total impulse (B is 2xA, C is 2xB and so on). So, on the other end of the spectrum, the home brew Q-motor in Wedge's Nike is about 2^17 larger than the Quark ½-A motor. That's over 100,000 Quarks going at once. 4x the impulse of a cruise missile booster. It's a powerful subwoofer roar to witness... as 437 lbs roars off the pad going supersonic: So blog topics can include extreme rocket launches, on-board video, night launches, tips on photographing supersonic shreds overhead, how to get started, and the joy of rocket science. What would interest you? Read the comments on this post...

Have you ever made a 'mark' on somebody elses life?? How? Why??

I was lying down when I thought of the idea does everybody have that innate thing on themselves to have 'marked' somebody elses life with something they have done out of helping or you just wanted to give away things or encourage somebody on something. I have seen my parents help out friends not because they need to but they want to. And so I grew up with a heart of helping friends out whether it was financial concerns or not. I do not want anything return but to see them better, happy and enjoying the life that they should be. How about you..What did you do that made you 'mark' something on somebody elses life and why did you do it. Is it out of the goodness of your heart or you were forced to do it.

Julie Bowen Welcomes Twin Sons!

Julie Bowen of Boston Legal and her husband, Scott Phillips, welcomed twin boys this past Friday morning her rep confirmed with PEOPLE! The little ones are named, Gus and John. The couple are already parents to Oliver who is now 2 years old. Scott is a real estate investor and the couple was married in 2004. Recently Julie has played attorney Denise Bauer on Boston Legal and has also made appearances on Weeds and Lost.Congratulations to Julie and Scott!Source

Julie Bowen Welcomes Twin Sons!

Julie Bowen of Boston Legal and her husband, Scott Phillips, welcomed twin boys this past Friday morning her rep confirmed with PEOPLE! The little ones are named, Gus and John. The couple are already parents to Oliver who is now 2 years old. Scott is a real estate investor and the couple was married in 2004. Recently Julie has played attorney Denise Bauer on Boston Legal and has also made appearances on Weeds and Lost.Congratulations to Julie and Scott!Source

SharePoint Conference 2008 Recap and Session PPTX Downloads

We've been preparing for this conference since since the fall and oh, was it worth it. I had a blast! Not only with the sessions, parties, but simply hanging out with 3900+ incredibly cool people (with 500 on the waiting list) and taking about our passion.... SharePoint! The Keynotes by Bill Gates, Jeff Teper, and Kurt Delbene included some Awesome stats... (Numbers added to simplify for non U.S. math and term confusion.) 1 Billion (yeah with a B! $1,000,000,000 USD) in revenue 100 Million CALs (100,000,000) by end of fical year June 30 (this is estimated to be 10% of all PCs, not just business PCs) 500 Million Licensed Office PCs (1/5th of that total licensed for SharePoint, but that number includes consumer PCs... makes you wonder if it's more like 40-50% of business PCs.) 3/4 of the Fortune 100 that's 75% of Fortune 100 companies Fastest growing server product in Microsoft History (maybe in any company ever?) 2250+ SharePoint ISVs (integrated solutions vendor) (Photo courtesy Chandima SharePoint MVP) The Solution Accelerators demo'ed very well. Tom did an excellent job, even if he did over sell them :) just kidding. He did a great job. If you have followed my previous posts you'd see I've worked closely on all of them. I'll provide more info on the extranet or external collab one in a future post. I'm trying to get them to decouple the workflow provisioning and approval site collection piece from the user management and ADAM with FBA piece. SharePoint Capacity Planning ToolPerformance models for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 that use the analysis and simulation features of Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2007 to help you plan your SharePoint topology. SharePoint Monitoring ToolkitHelps you monitor and manage Microsoft SharePoint environments by providing a set of management packs for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (including SP1). These management packs are supported by both System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials. SharePoint Cross-site ConfiguratorThis tool contains sample code that you can use to automate the deployment of configuration changes across SharePoint site collections as broadly as entire web applications or even entire farms. External Collaboration ToolkitIt consists of software and guidance that will help you to deploy a customizable solution built on Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that teams can use to collaborate securely with partners outside the firewall. The toolkit’s familiar SharePoint interface makes the solution easy for project team members to understand and use. The SharePoint Online beta (register now) announcement was well received. I think heard a few customers wheels spinning on that one. The best way to understand this amongst the other SharePoint hosted offerings is to look at the various offerings. Office Live (this one is released)- Small Business Site Collection Hosting (Consider this the site collection hosting) SharePoint Online Standard beta - SharePoint (in the Cloud) hosting (I'd consider this the multi tenant hosting solution) (up to 5000 users) SharePoint Online Dedicated Hosting beta - Dedicated SharePoint Farms in MS data centers with 99.9% SLAs and integration with AD resource forest, Exchange and OCS. (This internally use to be called MMS (Microsoft Managed Services) now the team is BOSG (Business Online Services Group)) (5000 users and up). I worked with Mike Watson and Kimberly Malone amongst others to design the SharePoint hosting for the pilot with Energizer. Good times :).. A couple of my sessions were top rated. Let me thank those of you who went to my Upgrade session and my Governance session. I really appreciate all the 9's and nice comments. I do read them and really appreciate them. Thanks to Shane and Brian who co-spoke with me on those. Bob Fox's presentation with me... well ok. It was fun to present. The comment I got from the users that they thought we were both drunk wasn't very nice, and wasn't accurate. I was drinking lemonade the night before, so it couldn't have been me. Bob did a great job for his first time and I'm sure he gained some new fans as a result. He has a lot of knowledge and he had a lot of pressure leading up to this. Under the circumstances he did well. I'll leave it to your comment to set the story straight. I enjoyed the session even if it wasn't one of the top rated. I got feedback from more than a couple people in the crowd who thoroughly enjoyed it. My Session Downloads (may require SPC login): Governance: From Chaos to Success in 10 Steps - Joel Oleson and Brian Cook What's New in Windows Server 2008 and SQL 2008 for SharePoint Admins - Joel Oleson and Bob Fox Upgrading from SPS 2003 to MOSS 2007 - Joel Oleson and Shane Young Advanced Administrative Architecture, Deployment and Operations - Joel Oleson and Shane Young Commentary: "Proactive Planning Crucial to Avoiding SharePoint Chaos" - By Margie Semilof, Senior News Director, 05 Mar 2008 SearchWinIT.com One other thing to add to your favorites and dig into is the new adoption, planning content, engineering, release and adopt to GEAR UP! Also, be sure to check out Microsoft Search Server Express 2008 general availability announced during the keynote! Developers and more will want to look at the SharePoint Silverlight Blueprint which definitely promises to make the UI much more exciting and rich. Relevant Partner Announcements you shouldn't miss as an IT Pro: AvePoint Announces the Release of a Revolutionary Product for Global Control and Administration of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (.doc file, 863 KB) Barracuda, LLC, Announces DeliverPoint: PERMISSIONS for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (.doc file, 28 KB) echoTechnology Announces echo for SharePoint 2007 (.doc file, 32 KB) Nintex Announces Nintex Reporting 2008 for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (.doc file, 35 KB) NSE Announces Release of eSENSE Bridge V3 to Manage, Monitor and Protect Entire Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Environments (.doc file, 38 KB) Syntergy Announces Replicator Add-On, Presentation Publisher, for Further Enhancing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (.doc file, 34 KB) (Full list @ http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/sharepointconference/partners.mspx) Miss a party? Go behind the scenes and see the social side of the SharePoint

' The High Cost of Racial Hype '

As we find ourselves in the final days of the political season, one in which a particular candidate has been fixed on Black this and Black that - seeing American life mostly in terms of race or class as did Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky, here's a couple of excerpts by the great Thomas Sowell on the wasted energy expended for navel-gazing over things like "identity": [...] on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, was a picture of a black teenager whose mother was fixing his bow tie as he was getting dressed in a tuxedo, in preparation for a cotillion. I never had the problem of wearing a tuxedo to a cotillion, so it was hard for me to empathize with their angst. When I was that kid's age, I had real problems that taught me real lessons to remember when times got better, not navel-gazing problems that can distract you from reality for a lifetime. Apparently there are middle-class blacks who spend a lot of time and energy worrying about losing their roots and losing touch with their black brothers back in the 'hood. In one sense, it is good that there are people who think about others less fortunate than themselves. That's fine but, like most good things, it can be carried to the point where it is both ridiculous and counterproductive for all concerned. In a world where an absolute majority of black children are born and raised in fatherless homes, where most black kids never finish high school and where the murder rate among blacks is several times the national average, surely there must be more urgent priorities than preserving a lifestyle and an identity. [...] Blind tribalism means letting the lowest common denominator determine the norms and the fate of the whole group. There was a time when most blacks, like most of the Irish or the Jews, understood this common sense. But that was before the romanticizing of identity took over ... [...] The unanswered question is why an approach with a proven track record, not only in American society but in various other countries around the world, has been superseded by a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance. Part of the problem is the "multicultural" ideology that says all cultures are equally valid. It is hard even to know what that means, much less take it seriously as a guide to living in the real world. Will time and energy spent on rap music and wearing low-riding baggy pants like guys in prison -- as badges of identity -- provide as good a future for young people as learning math, computer skills, and the English language? Romantic self-indulgence and self-deception are things that some people can afford when they reach the point where they can afford identity angst. But millions of other people will remain mired in poverty if they believe such notions.Do take the time to read all of Sowell's "The High Cost of Racial Hype." For me, Sowell's take home message is his unanswered question, "Why an approach with a proven track record, not only in American society but in various other countries around the world, has been superseded by a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance?". A commenter at Townhall.com offered that it's the same attitude that insists that Capitalism is inferior to Socialism and Communism in spite of the self evident reality. In the frame of today's political world, it seems that today's Democratic Party remains in existence by feeding a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance insisting that Capitalism is inferior to Socialism and Communism in spite of the self evident reality to the contrary.

Pork Scratchings, A Version Of

What do you do with leftover pig skin? I recently decided to make my own lardo, salt-cured fatback, using a large piece of pig that my friend Bonnie got for me. Misremembering the details of lardo, I asked for a piece of fat with the skin on. Bad idea. You want only the fat for lardo, and so I spent hours cutting the creamy white fat away from the pink, leathery skin: I understand now why they used to make footballs from this stuff. With the fat tucked away under weights in the refrigerator, I turned my attention to the square foot or so of skin I had left. By chance, I had been flipping through Fergus Henderson’s Beyond Nose to Tail. (Also by chance, shuna had been, too.) If you have not yet discovered Henderson, run to the nearest independent bookstore to fix this gap. It’s not just that he writes recipes for offal, the “off cuts” of an animal: He writes those recipes in a warm, humorous, thoughtful voice that is as charming as it is knowledgeable. Of the snails you need for a nettle and snail soup, he writes, “24 fresh English snails, picked by your fair hands (you will need to put them in a bucket and let them poo all their poo out for a few days before cooking …); or there is Tony the Snail Man, who breeds snails.” One of the first recipes in Beyond Nose to Tail is “Pork Scratchings, A Version Of,” which Henderson describes as “A most steadying nibble.” I describe it as pig skin confit. Pluck stray hairs from the skin; salt it; let it sit for five days; soak overnight in cold water; cook, covered, in duck fat for 2½ hours; and store in duck fat until you need it. No one considers me shy about serving odd food to guests, but even I might hesitate before serving pig skin confit on toast to most diners. Fortunately, David Lebovitz was in town, and a few food bloggers gathered in San Francisco to pay homage to the master of chocolate and ice cream. Most food bloggers will put anything edible into their mouths. And sure enough, the guests reached out without hesitation for my crostini, which held reheated, crisped, and chopped pig skin — a gummy, gluey texture — along with an apple-onion marmalade. I watched tentatively as the bloggers’ teeth sank in: I was prepared for disaster. Instead, I heard mmmms and saw eyes rolling back. The pig skin confit was a hit. I still had some left a week later when I decided to make a variant of the classic French salad of frisée, lardons, and poached egg. Instead of lardons, I reheated the pig skin and chopped it into bits. Instead of frisée, I used Little Gems lettuce tossed in a bacon grease/red wine vinegar vinaigrette. The pig skin bits ranged in texture from teeth-shattering crunchy to teeth-gluing chewy. But they were still delicious. My one regret was that the chunks, even when chopped, glommed together: I wanted them to spread through the salad more.

The Social Side of Social Media

Recognize a few of the maniacs in this picture? At one table, within an outdated old steak house in Metrowest Boston, you’ve got (clockwise from top-right):
Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield)
John Wall (@themshow)
David Meerman Scott (@dmscott)
Todd Defren (@TDefren)
Scott Monty (@ScottMonty)
C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)
Christopher S. Penn (@cspenn)
Photo taken by Dmitri Gunn.
That’s a whole lotta Social Media brainpower at one table, right? Wanna know what we talked about? I’ll give you one hint: we barely talked shop at all. Sure, Social Media-related topics crept into the conversations: we’re all passionate marketers; it happens. But we mostly cracked jokes, talked about our kids, vacations, cars, the economy, etc.
It was FUN. Don’t forget about fun. Fun is important.

Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 5.4.2009 - 5.10.2009

[Dinner With Cannibals] Monday, May 4 Orange Tulip Conspiracy @ Hi-Dive Sevendust @ Gothic Theatre We Shot The Moon @ Marquis Theater Tuesday, May 5 The Faint @ Ogden Theater Kreator @ Bluebird Theater Paper Route @ Marquis Theater Ponytail @ Hi-Dive Skeletonbreath @ Larimer Lounge Wednesday, May 6 Babona @ Larimer Lounge Black Label Society @ Ogden Theater Seventh Void @ Marquis Theater Soulive @ Fox Theatre Thao Nguyen And The Get Down Stay Down @ Hi-Dive Thursday, May 7 BoomSnake @ Hi-Dive The Dead @ Pepsi Center Delby L @ Larimer Lounge Filthy Children @ Bluebird Theater The Motet: A Tribute To Herbie Hancock @ Fox Theatre The Skyline Surrender @ Marquis Theater Friday, May 8 Bob Log III @ Bluebird Theater Cr0oKkid @ Gothic Theatre Dance Gavin Dance @ Marquis Theater Dinner With Cannibals @ Larimer Lounge Elvis Perkins In Dearland @ Hi-Dive Grouch & Eligh @ Fox Theatre The Pilot Light @ Walnut Room Pretty Lights @ Ogden Theater Saturday, May 9 Gene Ween @ Walnut Room Grouch & Eligh @ Bluebird Theater Jackopierce @ Soiled Dove Napalm Death @ Marquis Theater Opeth @ Fox Theatre Red Stinger @ Gothic Theatre Spring Creek @ Boulder Theater The Whore Moans @ Larimer Lounge Youth Group @ Hi-Dive Sunday, May 10 Ben Lee @ Marquis Theater Cowboy Mouth @ Bluebird Theater Fleetwood Mac @ Pepsi Center Living With Lions @ Larimer Lounge Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos @ Hi-Dive Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.

Make Room For Spongebob

The latest Small Bites survey asked visitors if they supported the use of popular cartoon characters to advertise fruit and vegetable products like "baby carrots" and frozen spinach to children.Sixty-three percent of respondents supported that form of advertising, eight percent did not, and the remaining twenty-seven percent did not have a strong opinion either way.I strongly favor that sort of advertising.Many nutrition advocates do not, claiming it confuses children to see Spongebob on baby carrots as well as a box of sugary fruit snacks.My main concern with that argument is that it attempts to view the world through the eyes of a child who has the marketing awareness of an adult.Six-year-olds are not aware of nutrition. They don't understand the difference in nutrients between a fruit snack and a real fruit. Seeing their favorite cartoon character on different products doesn't confuse them -- it simply draws their eyes and attention to them!In my opinion, too many nutrition advocates make the crucial mistake of forgetting that they, too, can implement the same tactics used by food companies. Getting children interested in eating healthier food by simply branding it with cartoon characters is certainly far from utopian, but it's a significant step forward we need to pursue.

@ light

Hit it!

Problems with Barco Graphics 801

Hi!
I have a Barco Graphics 801 which has been stored away for a few years, but now I decided to give it another try to repair it.
From the beginning the projector was set to ceiling mount. I'm not sure whether it had any problems, and I think it wasn't used much. Possibly it hadn't been used for years when we got it. If I remember correctly the stand-by counter was something like 18000 hours, but probably it was not actually on most of the time. The tubes look really fresh.
After switching the projector from ceiling mount to table mount (by changing the 4 switches, while the power was completely off) the projector was working for about 2 hours, and then R138 (4.7 ohms high power resistor) on the H-shift board (the one most to the left if you are behind the projector) burnt, literally; we could see smoke.
R138 is for the red channel. There are two more resistors of the same type (R128 and R118) for blue and green.

After replacing R138 the projector was working again. I only let the projector run for a couple of minutes, and then I shut it off to check the resistors. R138 was burning hot, while R128 and R118 were cool.
<20>
I switched the projector to ceiling mount to see what would happen. When I started the projector scan fail was blinking (maybe around 2-3 blinks per second) for a few seconds during start-up, and there was some "scary" crackle sounds (the kind of sound you don't want to hear from electronics, because you think it's going to burn). After the initial seconds, the projector seemed to work fine, for about a minute. Then there was scan fail (and HTHD went out, as it should, to protect the tubes) and "scary" sounds. After a few seconds of constant scan fail I cut the power. To my surprise, R138 was quite cool this time. (R128 and R118 were also fine.)
<24>
I tried to start the projector, which was still set to ceiling mount. Scan fail was blinking and there was "scary" sounds during start-up, just like the previous day. After the start-up I got picture, but now and then there was a scan fail (and "scary" sound), and the picture went blank for a second or so each time. After about a minute I cut the power. The three resistors were cool.
I switched the projector back to table mount (which is what I will probably use, if I get it to work). Now everything seemed to work just fine. There were no scan fails at all, neither during start-up nor later, and no "scary" sounds. All three tubes were on (I activated adjust mode). I shut the projector off after about a minute. R138 was hot, while R128 and R118 were quite cool. I guess R138 would burn within a couple of hours, if it would even last that long, which is what happened a few years ago with the original R138.
Any ideas about what could be wrong?
To summarize, I think the most important points are:with ceiling mount R138 is cool, but with table mount R138 gets burning hot, while R128 and R118 are still cool.
with ceiling mount there are scan fails, and "scary" sounds.
with table mount, the projector appears to be working fine (except for R138). No scan fails. The LEDs for each voltage are lit, as they should be.
That R138 gets burning hot must be a symptom of something else, not that there would be something wrong with the resistor, but what could it be? And why does it only happen at table mount?
Which components are used / stressed differently at table and ceiling mount respectively?
Are there any components that are used only for table or ceiling mount respectively?
Maybe I should mention that I'm very familiar with electronics, but except for this BG801 I have no experience in repairing projectors. Replacing components, soldering and metering is no problem for me, though I would prefer to not meter while the projector is running, and I don't have a raiser-board(?).
The problem is that I'm not sure what I should look for. Because of R138 I assume that the problem is something H-related on the red channel. At the same time I don't want to rule out that something else could be wrong as well, since the projector was acting in different ways depending on whether it was set to table mount or ceiling mount.
I'm very grateful for any suggestions about how I should proceed.

Gifts

K, O, M tonight on the deck after dinnerLately I've been thinking about gifts. All sorts of gifts. Big gifts, little gifts, simple gifts, complex gifts, 'good' gifts, and gifts of challenge. The boys' birthday is coming up (something that looms large around here; something that Kyle and Owen-- Kyle especially-- remind us of many times each day). They'll receive lots of gifts from lots of people. As is our tradition, Braydon and I will give them each one gift. They've asked for remote control airplanes. They have been ordered. They will wake up on their birthday to open that special gift. They will get what they've wanted.For a long time now I have thought of Kyle and Owen as a gift. A gift to me in my life; a very special gift. Adopting them was the best thing I've ever done in my life. Adopting them is by far the best way I've ever used my life. They are such a gift in so many ways, ways that range from the most simple to the most complex. They've filled my life with such intense richness; they are everything --and more-- that I hoped for and longed for and wished for and asked for. But sometimes we receive gifts that we don't ask for. We didn't ask for Meera. And yet every single night, as I put her to bed, I rock her in the stillness of her bedroom and I think -- sometimes even whisper outloud -- "My God, what a gift this baby is." She is a pure joy; a sweet indulgence; an angel baby that makes me feel on top of the world. I wonder, 'how could I be so lucky? What a gift!' If I could have known to ask for her, I would have: she is the gift I never even knew I wanted.And sometimes gifts are received that we'd never ask for. Gifts can be questions that push us in new directions, experiences that deepen our souls, challenges that we'd never ever seek or that we actively try to avoid. A few days ago I found out that one of my students from a few years back killed himself. He did it in a gruesome way that turns my stomach to think about. This was a kid that I was very close with; a student I worked hard with; someone I put a lot into. On Thursday I'll teach my last class of this semester. And like every semester, I'll end that class telling my students what I always do: "Once a student of mine, always a student of mine." It is sincere for me, I really mean it. I am not a stereotypical professor, and I get very close with my students. This particular student of mine graduated in 2005 but I'd been in touch with him off and on since then. He was a beautiful, brilliant, complicated young black man with rippling muscles and glaring eyes and a rough, rough history. He was tough. He challenged me. And he will now, forever, challenge me in some of the most profound ways imaginable. This is a gift. A gift I would never ask for. And yet a gift still the same.I'm reeling from finding out that this student of mine took his life. And I still feel nauseous if I think about it too much (it does not help that this is now the second person in my life who, in the past six months, has committed suicide). But last night, sitting in the rocking chair with baby Meera, it suddenly was so clear to me: yes, what a gift she is. Right now, she's a simple, pure, joyful gift -- a gift of almost intoxicating sweetness. I am grateful for this gift that she is in my life. But I am grateful too, for the more challenging gifts that I have had the honor of receiving. The wild and crazy boys who we had to work so hard for to adopt, who push my buttons daily, and keep me on my toes and never let me rest and always make me question every single one of my parenting strategies. I would not want it any other way. The gift of Kyle and Owen is the truest miracle I've ever experienced. And as I near the end of the school year and begin to wrap up another year of being a Professor who actually cares... well... I am reminded that I wouldn't want every one of my students to be the stellar-make-the-Professor-proud-shiny-happy-straight-A-go-on-to-graduate-school-always-striving-to-please ones. Those ones are gifts, for sure (I've had the pleasure and privilege of calling many students like that my own). But there are other gits too. The students who push me and compel me to question everything I'm doing... those students are gifts. It is not a compare and contrast. It just is what it is. And Howard Ward, as hard as it is to see, is a gift to me.He is no longer on this earth but I can remember him well. I remember hugging his rigid body and working hard to look him right straight in his glaring eyes. I bought a painting of his-- the first piece of artwork he ever sold-- and it has had a home in our house ever since, and always will. I watched him on the football field many times as he aggressively slammed his hard body into the players of the other team. And more than once I watched him cry sitting on the couch in my office. I remember when he came to me to tell me that his girlfriend was pregnant and keeping the baby. And I remember when he emailed me to tell me that his first "real" art gallery show had been a huge success. I remember when he stood up and did a 'rap' once during a class discussion (and every other word was the 'f' word). What a gift all of those things have been. He never was one of the 'easy' ones; he always had a way of making me feel a bit uneasy, a bit unsure. But I am sure that is a good thing for me. To me, he was a student who pushed me to question and challenged me to rise to the occasion. He was tough. And still is. And what a gift.Gifts given, gifts received.So as the gift of spring is blooming all around me right now -- making me feel as if I'm living in some sort of fantasy land with blooming trees and birds of bright colors flying all around us (literally! it is that beautiful here!)... and as the school year is winding down again-- making me feel as if I'm being pushed to the max for this final crunch, yet again... and as we prepare to celebrate two boys turning five and one girl turning one and as I remember being pregnant a year ago and getting our adoption referral five years ago and as I watch my students get ready to graduate and remember the ones that have graduated in years past... and as I think about gifts given and gifts received... as I reel and spin in the vastness of it all... I am grounded by the gifts. And I take solace in the three in the photo above.