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"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n."—John Milton, Paradise Lost
As I approached mile 19 of the Run for the Red Pocono Marathon feeling exhausted, a voice whispered that this race was not meant to be. I was pushing for a 3:30, a time I'd been chasing for five years. The temperature was cool. The Pennsylvania course barreled downhill. Prime personal-best conditions—save for the words in my head. You've done your best, the voice said in a calm, caring tone. I inhaled, pretending, as I had many times before, that I wouldn't listen. But when it said—It's okay to slow down—I conceded, dropping to a shuffle, finishing the race far off my goal time.
For years, I'd clung to the idea that better physical training would propel me through these tough spots. But repeatedly, after solid 16-week training programs filled with long runs and race-pace miles, I succumbed to doubts. After the Poconos race, I finally admitted that I didn't need another 20-miler, I needed to learn to talk back. Science has confirmed that performance at the end of an endurance event has as much to do with psychology as physiology. Thinking is a behavior, and I set out to change mine.
More From Runner's World
Plenty of runners have boosted their mental toughness using visualization and mantras. I experimented with one—Yes, you can!—during a 10-K and felt silly, not motivated. In theory, mental training made perfect sense: Alter your thinking and you improve your results. But how, exactly, does one rewire thoughts?
So when I began training for my next race, the Napa Valley Marathon, I called Dean Hebert, M.Ed., a certified mental-game coach in Arizona and a former 2:36 marathoner who specializes in working with runners. In our test-the-waters call, I told him about my habit of slowing in the final miles. "No one expects endurance to come naturally," he said, "but people think mental toughness does. It's a big myth. You do not need more willpower. You need to train the brain like you train the body." This means practicing mental skills throughout training, not randomly tossing in a mantra midrace. Mental skills, like physical strength, develop over time and with consistency.
Every sports psychologist has his own process. Hebert's mimicked a coach's: initial assessment, followed by a clear, written action plan to use with a training plan, plus biweekly e-mails and phone calls. Completing the intake form was harmless, but his summary of it was hard reading: "confidence is fragile," "fears she is not as tough as she thinks," and "doesn't really believe she can."
In short, I was a classic head case: a negative-thinking, results-oriented runner. Mentally tough athletes are positive thinkers and process-oriented. "If you focus on results, you take yourself out of the now," says Stan Beecham, Ph.D., sports psychologist for two elite running groups, McMillanElite and Zap Fitness. "And it's the now that allows for the results later." He compares it to football: In the pregame huddle, a good coach won't tell his team to go out and win, he'll say, go out and pass well, tackle hard. Those are the steps that lead to scoring, and winning. If runners do the same, the results will come.
Being positive is just as critical. In a recent study, pessimism ranked as runners' top mental roadblock. Negativity, whether it's worry or doubt, often leads to self-defeating behaviors including slowing down, cutting a workout short, or dropping out of a race. "It is the self-fulfilling prophecy," says Cindra S. Kamphoff, Ph.D., director of the Center for Sport and Performance Psychology at Minnesota State University. Mentally strong runners don't go there. They use their thoughts and their training to feed a belief in themselves. This became my goal.
Focal Points
In order for mental training to be effective, it must be individual, so my next task was to set personal process goals and determine a focus tool. Process goals are the specific physical and mental steps that lead to a performance goal, like setting a PR or finishing a race without walking. They should be measurable and address your weaknesses: Practice five minutes of visualization daily (if you struggle seeing yourself succeed); do weekly fast-finish runs (if you slow in the final miles of a race); follow a training program (if you tend to skip workouts).
I already did fast-finish workouts, but I sometimes cut them short or let myself slow—same as I'd done in my marathons. "Yes!" Hebert said. "That's it. Your physical training is your mental training." This is a key tenet in sports psychology. What you do in training, you will do on race day. So sticking to my mileage and pacesbecame a process goal. Hebert added a second: Score my workouts (8 out of 10 for completing eight miles of a 10-mile run). Most sports psychologists employ some form of record keeping. Beecham's athletes mark workouts as wins or losses. The process strips a single workout of power, showing you that you can have a lousy run (a "loss") and still have a strong training week (filled with "wins").
Next was selecting a focus tool—a word, phrase, or action that mutes destructive chatter and keeps you in the moment. "Some people thrive off discomfort, thinking, I'm tough; I can push through this," Hebert says. "Others benefit from competition—visualizing reeling in runners helps them put pain aside. You have to learn what works for you."
This can take time. One of Hebert's runners started listening to her breathing, only to realize the sound of heaving lungs intensified her anxiety. Reflect on what calms, motivates, or engages you and start there, Hebert suggests.
Craving silence, I opted to focus on my footfalls and elbows. The first time I used my tools—during a 10-miler when I felt tired and grumpy—the sluggishness lifted. At the track, I listened to my feet and concentrated on swinging my elbows smoothly when the burn of 800s got to be too much (or I thought it was too much. Semantics are important. It's not splitting hairs, the psychologists say, it's changing what you believe).
Day after day, workout after workout, every time I caught myself dwelling on fatigue or launching into a conversation on why I should turn around, I instead concentrated on my feet and elbows. I held pace. Even blew past a split or two. Here's what surprised me: Hardwiring the mind is as formulaic as anything else. If you take action, results follow. Do speedwork; get faster. Eat less; lose weight. Stop negative thinking; punch through pain.
Unexpected things began to happen. My motivation skyrocketed. I trained better, did drills, more recovery runs, core work. Hebert wasn't surprised. Strong workouts breed confidence, he'd said, and conversely, belief in your ability can produce strong workouts.
I quickly came to love mental training. All the positivity—or at least the lack of negativity—proved seductive and I hungered for it. I started using form cues on every run. Awareness built. One morning while ruminating on all I'd rather do than run, I pictured the golden mountains I'd see on the trail. By the time I was out the door, I felt like running.
Critical Thinking
Still, I couldn't shake my preoccupation with time. Six weeks into my training, I worried that a string of 8:08 miles wouldn't add up to my goal time (I needed to run 8s).
"You don't control if you run 3:30," Hebert said on our check-in call. This statement came as a shock and delivered a bit of panic. "You only control the steps that improve your chances of hitting that time, from how well you train to whether you take in fluids on race day."
"In a race, what do you think when you hit 7:45?" Hebert asked.
"I worry that I will die."
"I doubt I'll reach my goal."
"Notice they're both negative?"
"Why not look at numbers as feedback?" he said. "7:45—oh, I'm on today. I better pull back a bit. 8:15—good. Just a little more."
Reframing is key. When you seek to find the positive, information becomes useful. What did 8:08s tell me? That marathon pace would require more effort. This was good to know.
That night, I went through my log marking each workout a win or loss—Beecham's scoring method. "If you think every workout has to be good or every split exact, you waste energy recovering from the disappointment," he said. "But if you see a few poor workouts or even a bad race as part of the process, you can move on." When I saw the 8:08 run in my log, another sports psychology tenet took root: A strong inner game can come only when you're honest with yourself. The truth was I could have pushed harder, I just hadn't felt like it. I marked the workout a "loss," for lack of effort. Admitting this was liberating.
Head Strong
Eight weeks before race day, I was five miles into a seven-mile tempo run when a lightning rod of pain passed through my chest. Not sure I can hold this. I locked into elbows-feet, and in the quiet that ensued, the voice returned: Yes, you can. The words surprised me. I held on, hitting mile six a bit fast (7:26), then mile seven in a fatigue-bashing 7:12. I called Hebert and told him I'd realized that just because I felt crappy didn't mean I was going to fall apart.
"Write that down," he said, "because that's one of the best revelations you'll ever have. If you understand that you can run well when tired, you change your performance drastically."
In sport, fatigue is highly subjective. The brain processes physical cues (chemical and electrical signals from the muscles) and environmental information (how we expect to feel) and concludes, Hey, we're done here. But years of research shows that the mind can override the body—that fatigue, more often than not, is a product of perception rather than true physiological depletion. "Fatigue is simply a sign that you need to put your mind on something positive," Kamphoff says.
In a 2012 study, researchers pitted cyclists against a computerized competitor during two trials. For one, the cyclists were told the opponent was riding at each cyclist's personal best pace, when, in fact, the rival was going faster. In another test, they were told their competitor was speedier. When the cyclists thought they were facing a faster foe, they couldn't keep up—they doubted they could beat someone quicker. But when they thought they were evenly matched, they rose to the challenge. The fitness must be there, but the mind decides whether you access it.
During the first half of my training, the benefits of mental training had become apparent, but it wasn't until that seven-mile tempo run that I truly believed in them. It was like the magic of speedwork; you know intervals can make you faster, but when they do, it feels like a small miracle. Mental training was no different.
Powered by a sense of confidence, the second half of my training led to some of the best workouts I'd run in 20 years. My inner dialogue became positive. I heard Hebert's voice—refocus, find the good in every run—and experimented with various power words: calm, strong. For the taper, Hebert assigned three tasks: read my training log to see how much work I'd done; visualize punching through pain; finish every run with a half-mile hard effort, no letup, not an inch short.
Still, doubt remained. What if I went out too fast? What if I really couldn't hold pace? What if I just wasn't tough enough? But my mental skills also kept progressing. Two weeks out, during the last few miles of a tune-up 10-K, my self-talk was this: You have more. Make it burn. Me, seeking pain? Like I said, a miracle. "A mentally strong elite doesn't just know she can win," Beecham says, "she knows that winning will be hard."
Pressure Day
At the start of the Napa Valley Marathon, 1,800 of us moved down the misty valley. Mile one: 7:54. Perfect. I fell into an easy rhythm, taking in the green hills, the vineyards, the soothing sound of feet on pavement. But then I started looking for mile markers. I worried I was too focused on the numbers, too eager for the reassurance of a perfect split. Then mile 10 came and went, as did 11, 12, all on pace, yet still the anxiety built. I slipped into feet-elbows, but the calm didn't come.
At mile 15, panic threatened. I needed to know: Would I do this? Mile 16 came in at 8:23. Just as I was leaning over the cliff, the voice spoke: This mile. I smiled, and responded. That's right, all I control is this mile. Mile 17: 7:33. Too much. Just feedback. I arrived at mile 20 13 seconds shy of goal pace. A bit more. 7:51. Hold. But the seconds crept on, 8:06, 8:12. C'mon. I rounded the corner to the finish, passed my husband, who looked at his watch, both of us wondering if I'd made it. I had, by a hair: 3:30:57.
Every runner's mental-toughness journey varies. One of Hebert's athletes refined his ability to focus in training, which led to the revelation that he could catch runners in front of him. One of Beecham's learned to untie her self-worth from her performance. Others have found that simply becoming more aware of their not-going-to-run excuses helped them develop the discipline to get out the door. For me, the process changed the tone of my self-talk, enabling me to tap strength I feared wasn't there.
In our postrace analysis, I asked Hebert about my lack of focus and confidence in the middle miles. "The longer you've thought a certain way, the deeper the mental grooves," he said. "It takes time to change those patterns."
Over the next year, I continued scoring workouts and using focus tools. I smashed my half-marathon personal best and came dangerously close to my 10-K PR, something I hadn't done in nearly a decade. In a recent half-marathon, I ticked off runner after runner in the final miles, cruising to another personal best. The voice and me shouting together—You've got this!—all the way to the finish.


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Temple Law has always taken great pride in providing an excellent legal education which prepares its graduates for the challenges they will meet in practice. But globalization has significantly changed the nature of these challenges. Advances in telecommunications and transportation have created a demand for lawyers who can practice in a global environment. Multinational corporations have become the rule, rather than the exception, and the practice of law is no longer limited by national borders. Moreover, many of the most rapidly expanding areas of practice including the law of cyberspace, intellectual property and environmental law are inherently transnational. For all of these reasons, Temple's faculty designed the Transnational Law curriculum to ensure that our graduates will have the skills and knowledge to compete successfully in the twenty-first century. Our graduates will be knowledgeable about international legal doctrines, adept at dealing with multiple legal systems, and familiar with other cultures.
This is not a concurrent degree, but J.D. students can earn partial credit towards the LL.M.
Welcome from the Director
Thank you for your interest in Temple's Master of Laws (LL.M.) Degree in Transnational Law. I am confident that you will find the LL.M. in Transnational Law a dynamic and intellectually stimulating program. Let me suggest three reasons why our program is particularly attractive.
First, we have an outstanding faculty. Nearly half of our faculty has either taught or worked overseas, and the faculty has a broad commitment to international and comparative law. Moreover, while we have strengths in a number of traditional substantive areas, Temple has unique strengths in emerging areas like intellectual property, cyberspace and electronic commerce. Members of our faculty are acknowledged leaders in these cutting edge fields. Just as importantly, the faculty is committed to our students. We pride ourselves on our availability to students, and you will find open doors to faculty offices and ample opportunity for interaction with faculty outside of class.
Second, our LL.M. program is structured to require a truly international legal education. To graduate, students must complete a term of study abroad. Temple is the only U.S. law school to offer a semester-long program in Japan as well as a long-standing summer program in Rome. Thus, we offer a tremendously rich range of experiences for those interested in international and comparative law.
Finally, at Temple, you will be joining an intellectually vibrant community of students and faculty interested in international law. Temple Law's new Institute for International Law and Public Policy provides numerous opportunities for Temple students to interact with leading international law practitioners and scholars from around the globe. In addition, several student organizations, including the International Law Society and the Japan America Law Student Alliance, arrange a lively series of speakers and other events. Moreover, with a separate LL.M. program for foreign-trained attorneys and J.D. students from many nations, you will be enriched by a number of talented peers who share your interests. In short, our students find a community where they can develop lasting personal and professional relationships that transcend national boundaries.
I hope that you decide to enroll at Temple. If you have any questions about the LL.M. program, feel free to contact me.
I look forward to seeing you at Temple Law.
Professor Jeffrey Dunoff

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Over Christmas I started riding the Brompton occasionally with both kids on board. At the time, and again now, I noted that this almost certainly voided any manufacturer warranty and was nothing that I could in good conscience officially recommend, etc. etc. I'm not sure how much it matters anyway, as the Brompton is not the cheapest folding bike, plus the IT Chair required to ride with a kid in front, which is awesome, is laughably expensive. We were only comfortable dropping that kind of dosh to celebrate my promotion last year. So this option is not likely to appeal to lots of people.
But it seems I'm not the only person to think about ways to squeeze a couple of kids on a folding bike. At my son's after-school program, one parent is doing it on the cheap. I was awed when I saw this folding bike, which offers a way to haul a rider, two kids, and a fair amount of a cargo in the front basket, with even smaller wheels than the Brompton, and with parts that looked like they could easily be scored secondhand. I wouldn't call the results pretty, but you know what? This bike could be put on a city bus and take up less room than a folded stroller, and I'm guessing the total rig would cost very little even if assembled brand new. Well played, mystery parent. Well played.


text:
14 de ene. de 2018
It has been a very wonderful course. I love the museum as a cultural space and now I love it more for its commitment to online education and giving us the opportunity to learn in different countries.
7 de jun. de 2020
Really enjoyed this course! Well organized/developed, and even for a museum buff, like me, offered great ideas, and perspectives in 'looking' and 'understanding' art, and particular artist's process.
por Simon C•
24 de jul. de 2016
I have taken many courses on Coursera now, and I've enjoyed and learned a lot from most of them, but I have to admit I was disappointed with this one, despite having a deep interest in modern art and art theory. Here are some of my criticisms:
1. The course is aimed at teachers and art educators, which was not made at all clear on the course info page, apart from a single reference to the 'pedagogical framework'. If I'd understood this, I may well not have enrolled.
2. I found the course very basic, with no consideration of art theory beyond a level appropriate for classroom discussion. This is in contrast to many other Coursera courses, which have been pitched at graduate level or above. I don't really feel like I learned anything on this course.
3. The video lectures are very short and uninformative, but the weekly reading list is very long and much more time consuming that the actual tuition. I would have preferred a better balance between tutorials and reading.
4. The weekly quizzes were very short (six questions, where other courses typically have 20 to 30 questions per module), and and questions focus almost entirely on the pedagogical set texts, with very little attention paid to the art history or the works discussed in the tutorials. If you are not going to be tested on the material, what is the point of all that required reading?
5. The final peer-assessed assignment is lacking in instructions or guidance. For example, you are required to upload images of 3 or 4 artworks and discuss them. It is in fact impossible to upload more than a single image, but there are no instructions on what to do about this. People found various workarounds - uploading pdfs or Word documents, or zipped folders of images, but really, there should be some official guidance on this.
6. Comments made when assessing other students' work are not anonymous - this is unique in my Coursera experience, where anonymous marking is the norm, and knowing how fractious people can get when they are disappointed with their grade, I am not at all happy about having my name made available to them.
Overall, the only reason I persisted with this course is that I wanted to get a certificate with MoMA written on it. Too bad I couldn't have actually learned something as well.
por damien p•
12 de mar. de 2017
What a genuinely refreshing course that really caught me attention. Well done to the team behind this course as I am more interested in modern art after completing this course than ever before.
por Aracely L M•
14 de ene. de 2018
It has been a very wonderful course. I love the museum as a cultural space and now I love it more for its commitment to online education and giving us the opportunity to learn in different countries.
por Amanda J V•
11 de oct. de 2016
I really enjoyed this course and the way art was discussed based on theme rather than chronologically. My only issues with the class were the frustrations with the quizzes being graded incorrectly.
por Milagros P•
25 de feb. de 2019
This course is really amazing, it has opened my eyes to so many new concepts and approaches that I didn't know about. It is also really well structured, and there are lots of complimentary (and reliable) sources to go to for extra learning.
por Park J Y•
1 de nov. de 2018
The whole program was very well organized, and I liked how the themes were not in chronological order. All the narration and artists' talk were interesting and highly informative. Thanks!
por Asha S G•
7 de jul. de 2019
The course has expanded my understanding of art at different levels. There is a lot more to art than capturing beauty. It has increased my scope of expression as it is not restricted to colours and canvas now.
por hamideh b•
27 de mar. de 2020
this course was the most interesting course that I have ever had. I learned lots of special things about the artist and their artworks and it leads me to find my way in my art career. thank you.
por Alfa D•
23 de feb. de 2019
Es un curso excelente con fabulosos contenidos. Todos los estudiantes de Arte, de cualquier área, deberíamos de tomar este curso.
por Tulin•
8 de jun. de 2020
Really enjoyed this course! Well organized/developed, and even for a museum buff, like me, offered great ideas, and perspectives in 'looking' and 'understanding' art, and particular artist's process.
por Mariela B•
14 de abr. de 2020
Para todos aquellos que estan buscando un desafio en el rubro del arte y entender mas sobre ciertas cuestiones me parece que es un buen curso para tomar. En mi caso yo quise seguir aprendiendo ingles y esto fue un desafio ya que ademas de estar aprendiendo sobre el rubro en el cual trabajo ademas le sume la barrera idiomatica.
For all those who are looking for a challenge in the field of art and understand more about certain issues, I think it is a good course to take. In my case, I wanted to continue learning English and this was a challenge since, in addition to learning about the area in which I work, I also added the language barrier.
por Farah F S•
21 de dic. de 2019
This course is like a revelation to me. There is so much thing I did not know about critical thinking especially through art. Very recommended to anyone who ever thought art is a trivial thing.
por nana d•
4 de abr. de 2020
it was such a beautiful experience with MOMA
i learned so much new things i never knew before
more knowlodge about the modern art
have seen new works
i like to make more course with MOMA
por Ксения К•
13 de sep. de 2019
This course was completely great and was so interesting! It was much more than just video lectures and readings, but a full world of art with cool podcasts and YouTube videos!
por Estrella C S•
24 de jun. de 2017
Es un buen curso, para refrescarse en cuanto a cultura moderna del arte. Igualmente los ejercicios de análisis son muy utiles y productivos. Recomendable
por Jatin P•
31 de ene. de 2016
I took the course because I'm an Art enthusiast and a hobby artist. Previously I was disgusted at anything called "Modern Art" because it made no meaning to me, maybe I just encountered the wrong or naive pieces of work, or I think the major reason I had no complete idea what Modern Art stood for. I was a staunch follower of depictive fine arts, but this course has changed my views about the subject and now I see this domain with a fresh and a better perspective. This course was actually fun to take and I'm motivated to watch the videos again and again as they have been made to be very interesting and the readings though lengthy were quite good. It was a great course andI hope MoMA gets more courses like this on Coursera. I would love to take more of these.
Thanks MoMA and Coursera
por Gabriela J•
25 de may. de 2020
Un curso muy bonito y que deja más enseñanzas de las que esperaba. Mi intención al tomar este curso fue hacer mi cuarentena menos aburrida, pero encontre un verdadero curso que me exigía completar tareas y trabajos muy buenos, con mucha información muy valiosa y de muy buenas fuentes. Me llevo una muy buena experiencia, nuevos conocimientos que seguramente utilizaré en mi vida diaria y profesional y seguramente muy pronto me inscribiré a otro curso, muchas gracias MoMA por permitir el acceso a bastante información y a Coursera por hacer una plataforma muy fácil de utilizar. Gracias también a los profesores y compañeros que calificaron el desempeño durante este curso, nos vemos pronto!
por Brenda L R O•
3 de oct. de 2019
Very easy to learn with this system, all the info and themes were so helpful.
por Nahir M G•
24 de feb. de 2020
It is one of the best experiences of online learning I´ve ever had. So complete and attractive, bringing together wonderfully written texts and so well made videos.
To see the work and opinions of other students and the possibility of expressing opinions about people´s works and visions, made the course even more complete.
My enthusiasm grew with every chapter and my love for art and the wish of knowing more about it, as well as my decision of working in and for art, increased too.
Thank you for this wonderful experience!
Nahir Márquez
por Julia S•
30 de sep. de 2019
This course gave me great inspiration for my new paintings and designs! Thank you MoMA and Coursera!
por Franco G A•
11 de jun. de 2019
I loved all the descriptions and information
por Sigurd T•
11 de abr. de 2018
This is the worst and most lazily assembled online course I've ever seen. It is simply a slide-show of select pieces of modern art with some rambling commentary that could mean anything. The quizes are unnecessarily tricky, but to top it all off participants have to write two 500 word peer reviewed essays at the end. Peer reviewed. Like a final "we don't care" from the authors. Can't believe I wasted hours on this.
por Valentina C•
10 de feb. de 2020
I loved the course. Thank you very much for this activity, I enjoyed it very much.
I have a comment about the platform and the videos and the assignments, about the first ones, as in week 4 the text was not loaded, so I could not save my notes and in the assignments, they are a bit confused and the platform does not help. The activity where I was supposed to upload 5 to 10 images, did not load the text so I did everything within one image (text, works, links, title, what kind I was referring to...) The fact is that my evaluation was not good because the evaluators did not see or read my text within the image.
Me encantó el curso. Muchas gracias por esta actividad, la disfruté mucho.
Tengo un comentario con respecto a la plataforma y los videos y las tareas, respecto a los primeros, como a las semana 4 no cargó el texto, con lo cual no pude guardar mis notas y en las asignaciones, están algo confusas y la plataforma no ayuda. La actividad en donde se suponía que debía subir de 5 a 10 imágenes, no me cargaba el texto por lo que todo lo hice dentro de una misma imagen (texto, obras, enlaces, título, a qué clase me refería...) El hecho es que mi evaluación no fue buena porque los evaluadores no vieron o no leyeron mi texto dentro de la imagen.
por Farah S•
7 de feb. de 2017
This has been an amazing course for me. It really enriched my understanding about modern art, and it introduced me to so many pieces of work and artists that I did not previously know about. I absolutely loved the videos and visuals, and the input of people who actually work MoMA. It also made me see abstract and surreal art in a different light. While previously I would have shrugged off abstract and surreal art as being too esoteric for its own good, I was able to understand the concept of surrealism a lot better through this course. I also really appreciated the reading materials for this course, and how precise yet detailed they were. Doing this course has helped me have a multifaceted view of different kinds of art, and I am incredibly grateful for having had this opportunity.
22 de may. de 2018
I absolutely loved this course. It was very well structured and at the right pace. I loved how it pulled in all the strands of different art from painting, to sculpture to installations. I found it both interesting and challenging. The quizzes were great, and you cant wing it - I know cos I tried! The written piece at the end tested me but in a really good way. I was forced to think about what I had learnt and to apply it. This has given me confidence to try another course but has also increased my curiosity for modern art. Highly recommend to anyone and thank you MOMA/Coursera for putting this on.


text:
You may want to program the thermostat in your office down a couple of degrees today, despite the more-than-chilly temperatures outside. A paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism suggests doing so could help you lose weight.
Regular exposure to mildly cold temperatures help people burn more calories, according to the paper's authors, who have been studying this phenomenon for more than a decade.
"Since most of us are exposed to indoor conditions 90% of the time, it is worth exploring health aspects of ambient temperatures," lead author Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt said. "What would it mean if we let our bodies work again to control body temperature?"
Over the last 10 years, Lichtenbelt and his team have discovered several key factors related to this link between fat and temperature.
In 2009, the researchers, and others around the globe, found something called brown adipose tissue — or brown fat — in human adults. Scientists had previously believed that functional brown fat was only found in infants. Brown fat is different than the white fat most of us associate with obesity.
Brown fat is thought to play a role in nonshivering thermogenesis, a form of heat production that happens in your body when you're not shivering — i.e. when the temperature is cool, but not cold. Animal studies have shown that nonshivering thermogenesis activates brown fat cells, which burn calories to create heat.
Lichtenbelt and his team have found that nonshivering thermogenesis is weakened in obese people and in the elderly. And that obese people have less brown adipose tissue than people in the normal weight range.
They've also found that losing weight can help obese people increase their brown fat activity.
More recently, Lichtenbelt and his team showed that a 10-day "cold acclimation period" increased their study subjects' brown adipose tissue and nonshivering thermogenesis.
After spending six hours a day in 59-degree temperatures, the participants shivered less and were more comfortable in the cold. The results suggested to the researchers that "a variable indoor environment with frequent cold exposures might be an acceptable and economic manner to increase energy expenditure."
So what does all that mean for you?
Lichtenbelt suggests varying the temperature in your house and your office by a few degrees over time. Letting the indoor temperature rise and fall will encourage your body to adjust its internal temperature accordingly, he says, increasing your energy expenditure.
"More frequent cold exposure alone is not going to save the world," from obesity, he says, "but is a serious factor to consider for creating a sustainable environment along with a healthy lifestyle."


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Be honest: Have you ever taken the last piece of pumpkin pie just because it was there? Or finished off a dish of candied yams even though they were cold and soggy? Most of us have committed these diet sins, and there's a reason: At almost every meal, there are triggers that cause us to overindulge, even when we're no longer hungry.
As the director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab and author of the new book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, I've discovered in my research that the smallest things can lure you into impulse eating: the size of a popcorn bucket at the movie theater, the level of light in your dining room, or the number of people at your Thanksgiving dinner. And over time, that extra bite (or three, or five) at each sitting will really pack on the pounds.
You can't count on your body to send you signals like a stomachache to stop you from overeating. When you consume only 200 or 300 extra calories a day, your body doesn't get upset — it just gets bigger. The good news is that you can curb your impulses when you eat, even during these festive holiday months. If you outsmart the traps that keep you nibbling, you could lose up to 10 pounds a year, without any dieting or exercising.
Diet Pitfalls — and Their Solutions
TRAP: Friends and Family
That's right — your loved ones can be lethal to your waistline. A study conducted by Sam Houston State University professor John de Castro, Ph.D., which tracked about 500 participants , showed that if you dine with even one other person, you'll eat about 44 percent more, on average, than you would if you were alone. Sit with a group of 12, and you'll put away a whopping 76 percent more.
More From Good Housekeeping
Why? When you're with other people, it's easy to lose track of how much you're eating. Absorbed in conversation, you may forget whether you had two rolls or three. If you're sitting next to a speed-eater, you may clean your plate faster — and end up consuming too much. (It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to send an "I'm full" signal to your brain — so when you gobble down dinner, you finish the meal hungry and still have room for more.) Free-flowing alcohol at holiday feasts can do double damage: It packs on calories and erodes your self-control, so you wind up eating more.
Good manners can be dangerous too. Most people wait until everyone has finished before they push away from the table, which makes it more likely that they'll take another piece of garlic bread or opt for dessert — even if they're already full.
FIX: You don't have to eat alone to watch your weight. When you show up at a holiday dinner, snack on some healthy veggies immediately, so you won't be ravenous when the meal starts. Portion-control trick: Instead of waiting to accept the humongous piles of food your great-aunt dishes out, offer to serve everyone at the table. That way, you choose how much ends up on your plate (and you get brownie points for being helpful). Then move all the food — including the bread baskets — away from your end of the table to keep yourself from grazing. Skip alcohol altogether. If you can't resist having a drink, go with a low-calorie wine spritzer or make sure you drink at least one glass of water or club soda for every glass of wine. If possible, sit next to a slow eater so you can pace yourself. And always leave something on your plate. That might keep Mom from urging you to "have seconds, honey!"
Read about more .
Diet Pitfalls — and Their Solutions, continued
TRAP: Big Containers and Plates
Buying large jars of your favorite foods at the supermarket or king-size candy bars at the movies is money-wise but diet-deadly. In a study I conducted at a Chicago movie theater, the 77 people who were given big popcorn buckets ate an average of 53 percent more than the 74 who were given medium buckets. Another one of my studies tracked 62 participants and showed that people who made pasta from a large box ended up preparing an average of 20 to 25 percent more.
You should also be choosy about your china: As the size of your plate or bowl increases, so will the amount of food you dish out and consume. A recent experiment conducted by my research team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign confirmed just that: Of the 85 participants, those who were given 34-ounce bowls scooped out a third more ice cream than those given 17-ounce bowls.
FIX: When you dine out, the portions are often supersize, so choose a healthy appetizer and split an entrée with your spouse. You can also ask for a half order of a main course (most restaurants will do this, particularly if it's pasta). If the waiter won't scale back the size, ask the kitchen to put half the order in a takeout box before bringing out the dish.
If you're eating at home, serve dinner on large salad plates (seven to nine inches in diameter) instead of traditional 12-inch dinner plates. And if you're cooking with ingredients from a bulk-size box, measure them carefully — no improvising allowed!
TRAP: Low Lighting, Fast Music
Even the atmosphere of a room can trip you up. University of California Irvine researchers found that the 400 dieters they tracked were more likely to binge when there was less light. Dim lighting can loosen your inhibitions, making you more relaxed about how much you consume. It can also encourage you to linger at the table — and the longer you sit there, the more you'll nibble. (Some restaurants rely on this trick, hoping that candlelight will inspire you to order dessert or another glass of wine.)
Snappy tunes can also cause trouble. When a fast-food restaurant, for example, wants you to eat quickly and leave, it plays music with 120 to 130 beats per minute. The reason: Speedier tunes tend to make you eat faster (and more).
FIX: Whether you're hosting Christmas dinner or sitting down to a family meal, be sure to turn up the lights and pop in a relaxing CD.
TRAP: Television
The more time you spend in front of the tube, the more likely you'll be to gain weight. Worst of all is watching your favorite show: When you're really distracted by, say, Lost, you completely lose track of how much food you've put in your mouth. What's more, a study I conducted with 73 participants revealed that people who ate while they watched TV for an hour downed 28 percent more than those who watched for a half hour.
FIX: If you're spending lots of time in the TV room over the holiday break, keep healthy snacks on hand — celery, carrots, fruit, or unbuttered popcorn. And sit down with only a small portion in front of you. Eating straight from a box, bag, or serving bowl is a recipe for regret.


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Feeding Northampton
Lilly Lombard and Angie Gregory of Grow Food Northampton stop by to update us on the city's efforts to buy the Bean and Allard farms, why they want to do that, and how you can help.
Also, we check in with our man in the White House, Bill Scher, who breaks down the State of the Union address for us. He also gives us a preview of The Progressive Breakfast while he waits for his blogger roundtable to begin.
Plus, Bill and Jaz discuss Oscar nominations and a winter weather letdown.
Download the show! | Open Player in New Window
Also, here's an explanation of the clever use of music in Inception.
Wednesday 26 January 2011
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----- Original Message -----From: Mercy For AnimalsSent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 8:40 AMSubject: New Investigation: Dairy Farm Workers Caught Stabbing, Beating, and Punching Cows & Calves
Chilling undercover footage recorded during a new Mercy For Animals investigation exposes dairy farm workers sadistically abusing cows and young calves.
Captured on hidden camera, the shocking scenes of abuse reveal a culture of cruelty at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio (WARNING: disturbing content).
During a four-week investigation between April and May, MFA's investigator documented farm workers:
- Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears
- Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach
- Kicking "downed" cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck - abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm's owner
- Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars - some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head
- Twisting cows' tails until the bones snapped
- Punching cows' udders
- Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death
After viewing the footage, Dr. Bernard Rollin, distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University, stated: "This is probably the most gratuitous, sustained, sadistic animal abuse I have ever seen. The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty, based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless."
Immediately upon completion of the investigation, Mercy For Animals contacted the City Prosecutor's Office of Marysville regarding the ongoing pattern of abuse at Conklin Dairy Farms. MFA is pushing for employees of the facility to be criminally prosecuted for violating Ohio's animal cruelty laws.
The deplorable conditions uncovered at Conklin Dairy Farms highlight the reality that animal agriculture is incapable of self-regulation and that meaningful federal and state laws must be implemented and strengthened to prevent egregious cruelty to farmed animals.
Although many of the abuses documented at Conklin Dairy Farms are sadistic in nature, numerous MFA undercover investigations at dairy farms, pig farms, egg farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses have revealed that violence and abuse to farmed animals - whether malicious or institutionalized - runs rampant nationwide.
Compassionate consumers can end their direct financial support of farmed animal abuse by rejecting dairy, and other animal products, and adopting a vegan diet.
Visit MFA's site to support their work.


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Biggest Loser Winner: "Maybe I Was a Little Too Enthusiastic in My Training"
The Biggest Loser winner Rachel Frederickson is speaking out for the first time about the firestorm surrounding her drastic weight loss.
"Maybe I was a little too enthusiastic in my training to get to the finale," she tells People. Frederickson, 24, revealed her new size 0-2 figure on last week's finale to the visible shock of the show's trainers, as well as viewers at home. The 5'4" voice actress now weighs just 105 pounds, which puts her below the normal Body Mass Index. However, Frederickson denied that she has an eating disorder when asked point blank. "I am very, very healthy," she says.
More dramatic celebrity weight loss
Although series trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels refused to comment on Frederickson's new physique, her trainer, Dolvett Quince, says he was "shocked" by her physical transformation. "The first thing that went through my mind was, 'That's just too much,'" he tells the magazine.
However, Biggest Loser producers also insist that they carefully monitored Frederickson, who was at a starting weight of 260 pounds, throughout the seven-and-a-half month process. "Rachel passed all the required medical tests ensuring she was healthy," executive producer Dave Broome says.
What do you think of Frederickson's comments?
View original Biggest Loser Winner: "Maybe I Was a Little Too Enthusiastic in My Training" at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken the extremely rare step of issuing a stay on the sale of Chrysler to Fiat, after three Indiana state pension and construction funds petitioned for the delay pending an appeal of a lower court decision. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the sale is "stayed pending further order." The Obama administration had urged the court to reject the request.
This is a reasonable delay to protect fundamental rights.
- Time for consideration: Though the Court's action to temporarily delay the sale of Chrysler to a government-funded shell corporation does not address the merits of the case, it does give the judicial process something it has not had up to this point: time to consider the case. At every step of the way until now, the courts have hastily passed on this case involving fundamental rights to give the government license to push through a sale that strains the seams of constitutionality and legality. That rush, in the face of serious legal issues, is unseemly, contrary to due process, and unbefitting "a nation of laws, not men." This temporary delay is the first step toward any court actually considering the merits of the stay and the case.
- Time to address the rule of law: Under the Second Circuit's ruling, the government is free to seize private property to further its agenda. In effect, it left no limits to the federal government's power under the TARP statute, because no party would have the ability to challenge any action that the government claims was related to the TARP. If the Supreme Court allows that ruling to stand, it will have a major impact on the economy and, in particular, on companies big enough to be bailed out by the government. Like so many of the Bush and Obama Administration's economic interventions, this bailout could backfire by unsettling investors and raising the cost of capital to all businesses.
- Reason for hope? But there is reason for optimism this afternoon. The stay issued by Justice Ginsburg is temporary, giving the Justices another day or two to consider whether to allow the case to go forward. Stays of this kind are rare, especially in non-capital cases. It indicates, at the least, that one or more justices are inclined to grant a longer stay. At this point, all bets are off; the Court could issue an order at any time either granting the stay or authorizing the sale of Chrysler.
- The Constitution matters: Too often, the Supreme Court defers to the government on economic policy rather than enforce the Constitution's limits on government powers. This is because only four Justices on the Court today adhere to the Constitution as it was originally written. The rest allow their personal preferences to influence their decisions, leading to an ever-larger and more powerful federal government. That's why it is crucially important the President nominate judges who follow the law as it was written, not as they think it should be. Otherwise, there is no hope that the federal government will continue to respect the rights of its citizens and the limits of its own power.
Click here for more on Bailouts, Abusive Bankruptcies, And the Rule of Law by Andrew M. Grossman


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The following post was written by John Stodder, The Dolan Company National Affairs Correspondent. Dolan is the parent company of Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
The spectacle of protesters descending on New York's capitol to pressure Gov. Andrew Cuomo to support a ban on fracking earlier this week has prompted various interested parties to revisit the question of what lies ahead for the controversial natural gas drilling technique.
The stakes are high. If fracking – the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to fracture deep deposits of shale, allowing trapped gases to be released and drilled – is an acceptable way to extract natural gas, then the U.S. and much of the world will have a bounty of fuel for generating electricity, heating and perhaps transportation, for generations.
But environmentalists fear that precious groundwater aquifers could be destroyed by fracking fluids and collateral releases of methane. In response, industry leaders say such fears are based on misinformation.
New York Times environmental blogger Andrew Revkin sees the "quieter corners" of what the environmental community is seeking. Instead of a ban on fracking, they say they are looking for regulations that will "give the greatest social and economic benefits with the least risk of environmental regrets." However, rhetoric at the rally suggests that people at the grassroots don't want compromise.
Fracking has significance far beyond the borders of New YorkState. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are 5,760 trillion cubic feet of "technically recoverable" shale gas resources in 32 foreign countries, about 15 percent of which is in the U.S. There are immense deposits in a Northeastern belt running fromOhio throughPennsylvania to upstateNew York, inTexas,Oklahoma,Arkansas andLouisiana, inMichigan and in theRocky Mountains.
The reason many environmental organizations stop short of calling for a fracking ban is the nature of the end product, natural gas. Per BTU, the Environmental Protection Agency says natural gas has just over half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal, which it is increasingly displacing to produce electricity. With the stubbornly high costs of renewable power, some environmental leaders embrace natural gas as a transitional fuel to reduce CO2 emissions and slow the effects on climate.
But such concessions tend to be abandoned in the immediate vicinity of proposed fracking projects, as demonstrated by Monday's rally, during which New York State Sen. Tony Avella, author of the fracking ban, shouted "Shame on you!" to environment groups that didn't support him on the issue.
In the U.S., there are temporary fracking bans in New Jerseyand New York, but no permanent prohibitions. Bulgariahas voted to ban fracking and revoked a fracking permit it had granted to Chevron.France has also banned fracking despite its wealth of shale gas deposits.
In his account of a recent Duke University workshop on fracking, "the Green Grok," a.k.a. Bill Chameides, dean of Duke'sNicholasSchool of the Environment, posed the key question for environmentalists: "Does fracking undermine drinking water?" His answer: "This is a huge question with only a tiny bit of data – enough to raise some questions, but not enough to provide definitive answers."
Meanwhile, the EPA began a study of the impact of fracking on drinking water in 2010. That study is still underway. The agency's final word won't necessarily be definitive and certainly won't persuade everyone, but the matter will likely remain in a holding pattern until the study is finished.


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Justin Maller
James White of Signalnoise
Fabio Sasso of Abduzeedo
Five Hours of Power was a live broadcast event this past week. The broadcast featured Justin Maller a freelance illustrator and art director, Nick Campbell a motion designer & photographer), James White a visual artist & designer, Fabio Sasso a graphic & web designer, and last but not least Erin Loechner of Designchat. Only three of the broadcasts were recorded, but there is still a wealth of advice and information to be taken from each.
I hadn't heard Justin Maller speak before so it was very refreshing to hear him answer a lot of questions about freelancing and business. In fact besides mentioning "explorimenting" his whole broadcast was about the business side of things. If you're interested, I believe Justin has a live broadcast Thursdays at 4PM EST.
James White of Signalnoise (we aren't related) always has something interesting say. The questions were all over the map but there were some particularly great ones about where he finds inspiration and about about growing as a designer. Check out his weekly broadcasts on Thursdays at 3PM EST. I recently have been tuning into them and find them to be inspiring.
One of my favorite of these talks was Fabio Sasso Abduzeedo. This was his first broadcast and Prior to it hadn't been a close follower of the site. That has completely changed now. Fabio seems to have a lot of great information to share, especially about blogging and doing what you love. He seems to have this way of talking that makes it really easy to listen to.
Thanks go out to the speakers for putting this together and to Fabio for including Wanken on a few of the daily inspiration posts.


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Dragi Bay Wrangel Island
We were heading to Dragi Bay, where a camp from the expedition was setup. After this presentation we went on a Zodiac excursion of Dragi Bay to investigate the impressive bird cliffs, before continuing along the coast where a few more Polar Bears were spotted. After a cautious approach we succeeded in getting close to one that was resting on the upper part of the beach. We also made a short landing near the new Karluk memorial erected on the coast. Another Polar Bear was spotted on the coast plateau as we cruised by in the Zodiacs. It stood watching us for a few minutes and we made the most of the opportunity to get some great photos. On the way back to the ship we met a few Bearded Seals.Read More


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Ballpark Figures Fantasy Panic: Perez, Wright, Darvish, Axford
Twitter: @RobShawSports and @BloombergSports
Bloomberg Sports Anchor Rob Shaw discusses fantasy players on the decline.
Chris Perez, RP, Indians
He has allowed nine runs, five of which were earned, seven hits, and three walks in 1.1 innings in his past two games, leading to back-to-back blown saves. Indians set-up man Vinnie Pestano has not surrendered a run in the past 19 innings pitched, giving him a 1.29 ERA and .94 WHIP on the season. He could be the next closer for the team.
David Wright, 3B, Mets
After hitting .351 in the first half of the season, he has batted .231 since the All-Star break. He had 47 strikeouts in the first half, but already has 29 in the 24 games since the break. His fantasy value is getting lower, but still could bat .300 on the season.
Yu Darvish, SP, Rangers
In his last seven starts, he is 2-4 with a 6.75 ERA. He has 58 strikeouts in 45.1 IP during that stretch, but also has issued 25 walks. The hot Texas summer may be affecting his play in the second half.
John Axford, RP, Brewers
Since June 7, Axford has a 7.03 ERA in 25 games. Prior to this, he had a 3.22 ERA. He is not only giving up walks, but is also getting hit hard. Axford picked up the save on Monday, but it was Jim Henderson who got the save Tuesday night. Henderson throws heat, and has dominated as a closer in the minors this year. Look to him to be a possible new closing option for the Brewers.
For more fantasy insight, visit BloombergSports.com.


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Sunday, February 6, 2011
Mon Ami Bound and Finished
7 comments:
It is just gorgeous... love all the quilting you have done as well xxxReplyDelete
Oh Leah this is just gorgeous, I love it.ReplyDelete
It looks great!ReplyDelete
Your quilting on Mon Ami is beautiful! It's such a stunning little quilt!ReplyDelete
I'm drooling. This is beautiful! You are so talented. It looks like a quilt that belongs in a family painting or photograph.ReplyDelete
This IS gorgeous! Just beautiful! Love the blue and yellow! Great job! Is this your own pattern, or what is the source?ReplyDelete
Hey Mary Jo, I was going to respond to your question through email, but your comment came as "no-reply blogger" which means I can't respond via email. So I will post the answer here hoping you will see it.ReplyDelete
The pattern comes from a Schnibbles pattern by the same name. I didn't buy the pattern though. It is really just a variation of some Friendship Star blocks put together with some half square triangles for an inside border. Some patterns that use traditional blocks I can figure out for myself on how to put them together without having to buy the pattern and this pattern was one of those. Plus the pattern called for a more scrappy charm pack, but I don't have any of those and since I am on a fabric diet, I used what I already had on hand and went for a more controlled scrappy color scheme. My exact measurements of the finished quilt may be off from the pattern since I made my blocks slightly bigger, so I suggest if you want to make it the exact same size and color as the pattern, then go ahead and purchase the pattern.
I really love this quilt, it is one of my favorite quilts right now.


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Jameel asked me to blog while he is preparing for the big day. I didn't know what to post about, but came across an article that I felt was right up the Muqata's alley.
Here is an article from Rabbi Zev M. Shandalov, Rabbi of KJBS in Chicago about making Aliyah that I saw on Arutz 7
Why We Chose to Make Aliyah
10 Tammuz 5767, 26 June 07 10:42
by Rabbi Zev M. Shandalov
(IsraelNN.com) About one week ago, we let the rest of the world in on a little secret that our family had known for well over two years. We finally could share with everyone our good news: we were going to make Aliyah.
As the Rabbi of a synagogue in Chicago, and being very involved in the community, I was concerned that the reaction would be a very mixed one. On the one hand, I hoped that people would be happy for us, but on the other hand, I expected some negative feedback. I was pleasantly surprised when the "positive" comments were 99% of the reaction. However, I must say that one comment caught me a little off guard.
One man approached me shortly after the conclusion of the Shabbat on which I "announced" and, after verifying that he had heard correctly, that indeed we were making Aliyah, he posed a one word question: "Why?"
For a moment, I hesitated in my reply. I thought he was asking why we chose to live in Maaleh Adumim. "No," he said, he was curious why we were making Aliyah altogether. I told him that, rather than give him a brief, dismissive answer on the spot, I wanted to put my thoughts into writing and share them with others. That is the genesis of this article.
The reasons are manifold, but I will try to coalesce them down into just a few thoughts that should encapsulate all that I and my family feel is the reason we are making Aliyah.
First, though, I should address the reasons we should not make Aliyah. My wife and I were born and raised in Chicago. Almost all of our family is in Chicago. We have most of our close friends in the city. I am a rabbi in the community, with involvement in many people's lives and in many organizations. We have, thank G-d, a very nice, modest home, and we have been very happy with the education our daughters have received and continue to receive. Our roots are here and our lives are here. So, how do we even think of making Aliyah?
The truth is that there is one major flaw in the preceding paragraph. While our physical roots are in Chicago, our historic and spiritual roots are in the Land of Israel. That being the case, our decision to make Aliyah is, simply put, returning home.
"Home" - it has such a warm and comforting sound. From the historical and spiritual perspectives, it is the land that HaShem promised our forefathers and gave to them as an inheritance for all of their children. As a descendant of the Patriarchs, we are entitled, nay, obligated, to accept this gift from HaShem and to settle in the land that He chose for us.
Imagine for a moment that a human king came to your home and brought you a most beautiful present. The wrapping was magnificent and the box was very heavy. Then, imagine leaving that present in your garage for years and occasionally looking at it. People come over and see the gift of the king and marvel at the beauty from afar and even encourage you to open it. But, alas, you have not been moved to open the gift. Occasionally, you unwrap a little of the outer paper, but quickly, after a few days, re-wrap it, only to leave it covered for a few more years.
In my mind, this is how I see our relationship with the Land of Israel. HaShem gave us this magnificent gift. He told us that, in that land, we can do more mitzvot than anywhere else on Earth. He told us that we will have a special reward for living there, and He told us that He too will "live" there with us.
After many years of "leaving His gift in the garage," and after many years of "unwrapping" this gift only to re-wrap it and leave it behind, we have decided to "open the gift."
Perhaps the best way I can explain why we want to live in Israel is to quote from a piece I wrote a few years ago:
I want to live in a country...
- where the seventh day of the week is Shabbat, and not Saturday;
- where your elected officials live on your block and pray in your synagogue;
- where Torah is taken so seriously;
- where people do not spend a year's salary on an SUV;
- where a person's home is not a measure of his success;
- where my forefathers walked;
- where the street names are from the Bible or names of Torah sages;
- where the guy delivering water can tell me where the closest minyan may be found;
- where the land itself has kedushah;
- where the land itself is a gift from HaShem;
- where the spoken language is the language G-d used to create the world;
- where even secular Jews invoke the name of HaShem;
- that has the mountain upon which the Temple will be built;
- that we pray for three times a day;
- where you don't have to explain to your employer why you need to leave early on Friday;
- where you can eat chametz on the "eighth day" of Passover;
- where the majority of events in Bible took place;
- where many of its soldiers pray;
- where people are passionate about politics;
- where you can feel Shabbat is coming;
- where you can feel that it is Shabbat;
- where it is not "Saturday night," but it is Motzaei Shabbat;
- where Sunday is not "Shabbat Sheni shel Galuyot";
- where Jews have died protecting the land;
- where one can be proud to be a Jew;
- where Shalom is not the name of a cemetery, but it is the fervent hope of every resident.
So, when I am asked, "Why are you making Aliyah," the answer is that these are merely some of the reasons that we have made this decision.
Movie quote is from The Blues Brothers (1980)
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael


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Online criminals have evolved their tactics to harden their botnets against takedown using a variety of tactics, including fast-flux networks and Conficker-like dynamic domain generation. Yet, such tactics can also pinpoint when such networks are being created by bot operators, according to research from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The research found that dynamically detecting changes in the domain name system (DNS) can lead to the early detection of botnets. When bot masters create the infrastructure for a botnet, the reputation of the domain names can tip off defenders. In two papers, one released last year (PDF) and one to be published in September, GATech researchers found that they can detect anomalies in the domain name system indicative of botnets and have documented recognition rates greater than 98 percent.
Also see "The botnet hunters"
Monday, network security firm Damballa announced a service based on the research to provide intelligence on botnet-infected systems. Called FirstAlert, the service can detect the characteristic DNS queries indicative of botnet infections inside a customer's network.
"If you can detect the domain abuse early enough in the infection lifecycle, then you can get ahead of the threat," says David Holmes, vice president of marketing for Damballa. "If we see a domain lookup in a customer environment we haven't seen before, we can say, that's interesting."
The two papers describe two systems. One, Notos, dynamically determines the reputation of a domain-name/IP-address pairs. The system collects DNS query data from registrars and analyzes the domain structure, focusing on the network and zone characteristics.
Also see: "What a botnet looks like"
"It builds models of known legitimate domains and malicious domains, and uses these models to compute a reputation score for a new domain indicative of whether the domain is malicious or legitimate," writes Manos Antonakakis, a researcher at GATech and co-author of the paper.
The other, Kopis, can detect changes across the DNS infrastructure of a company, Internet service provider or the global Internet, that is characteristic of malicious networks. The systems require about 5 days of training to begin to detect botnets, Holmes says.
"Kopis is a machine learning technology," he says. "It has been trained or can be trained to understand lookup patterns and periodicity and profiles ... based on the diversity of the lookups."
The systems used together have been able to detect botnets, such as the IMDDOS and those built on SpyEye. Many times, it can detect botnets weeks before they actually go active and start sending out malware, Holmes says.
The technology is not meant to be used as a standalone service, but in conjunction with other expert systems such as spam engines. Notos, for example, will penalize legitimate Web sites that are hosted with a provider that also hosts malicious domain names.


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No matter how close a health care center comes to resembling a spa, or how well a hospital room imitates a hotel suite, its primary job is to heal, not pamper. With the scarcity of health care dollars already preventing people from receiving access to basic care, it's easy to look on hospitals' pouring of money into design as unconscionable excess.
But while indulgence surely occurs for indulgence's sake, numerous studies have established that the environment – its colors, sounds, and other design characteristics aside from its cleanliness — may have a direct influence on health and healing. Elements like artificial light and unwanted sounds have been linked to physical effects similar to those caused by stress, such as raised blood pressure, along with symptoms of depression. Natural light has been shown to have mood-elevating and pain-easing qualities; the presence of trees and nature appear to impact human health in subtle but measurable ways as well. Easing anxiety and creating a positive atmosphere for healing, it is argued, can lead to tangible outcomes.
"A revolution in the science of design is already under way," according an article in last week's New York Times' Sunday Review. This is certainly the case in health care: the emerging field of "evidence-based design" aims to introduce elements of construction and atmosphere proven to promote healing.
The tactic is purely logical from a basic science perspective. Rugs, for instance, may be a bad choice for a space simply because carpeting houses more bacteria than bare floors.
But a poorly chosen pattern for a rug can have negative effects, too. In the Times article, Lance Hosey notes that people are motivated by the color green, drawn to "golden rectangles," and experience stress relief when faced with the "irregular, self-similar geometry" that often appears in nature. We could add that they do not, as a controlled experiment confirmed last year, respond well to static, repeating patterns. The authors had participants look at a black and white rug with such an aesthetic; after five minutes, "even neurologically normal individuals" were left with physical symptoms of motion sickness.
That's more than enough evidence that this specific rug would not be the best carpeting choice for, say, a patient waiting room. Just as designers of Vegas casinos seek out disorienting floor patterns to keep patrons' eyes on the slot machines, designers of hospitals and other health centers at the very least try to intuit choices that will lead to calming and relaxing effects.
But there is also a movement underway to draw upon cognitive and emotional processes, using a holistic approach to promote healing and recovery through the elements of a space. "It should come as no surprise that good design, often in very subtle ways, can have such dramatic effects," Hosey continues. "If every designer understood more about the mathematics of attraction, the mechanics of affection, all design — from houses to cellphones to offices and cars — could both look good and be good for you."
Hospitals, he leaves out, seem obvious places to try out such design tactics. Those that can afford to, like Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, are implementing such changes in droves.
Their cancer treatment center, for example, has the daunting challenge of being located underground. In its original inception, its designers just went with that theme, making the most of hard edges and industrial surfaces. In their thinking, it "reflected a 'desconstructivist' strategy aimed at providing comfort and confidence to patients by acknowledging the realities of fighting cancer." In patients' minds, however, it more closely resembled descending into a tomb. It wasn't quite the "reality" anyone battling cancer wanted to reflect on during long sessions of chemotherapy.
The new incarnation of the center, completed in 2008, was the result of five years of patient input and careful attention to detail. Its designers tried to figure out how to use lighting and colors to make it "vibrant, energetic, comforting, and collarborative," explained Dr. Robert Figlin, the center's deputy director. They made up for the lack of natural sunlight with close approximations that patients are able to adjust, installed individual thermostats, and included an aquarium and nature-inspired artwork.
"We believe these elements of light, nature, warm, welcoming interiors, privacy, art, all contribute to the healing process," said Zeke Triana, the Director of Facilities, Planning, Design and Construction for the health center's campus, currently in the process of being redesigned as well. "I think those are basic human needs."
The center reports high patient and staff satisfaction scores, but, as with the original design, the environment's healing effects are more inferred than objectively measured. That may not be enough to justify the spending of health care dollars.
Design decisions that increase safety and reduce infection, of course, will save money. In cases where holistic advantages have been shown to complement measurable health outcomes, such efforts are easier to rationalize. For example, it was first noted in 1920, in the Journal of the American Medical Association,that keeping patients in private rooms helps keep infection from spreading. It also makes it easier for doctors and nurses to do their jobs. Most importantly, private rooms end up being more cost-efficient. But they also accommodate a patient's social support network, and allow sensitive conversations to occur in privacy. And by reducing noise and traffic, they're believed to ease a patient's stress. While such outcomes might be a hard sell as the primary justification for using private rooms, studies have supported all of these theories.
In 2006, the American Institute of Architects developed structural guidelines for hospitals that focuses on the effect of elements of the environment — like poor lighting or inadequate space — on patient safety. They too, stress the importance of backing any and all innovations in scientific evidence. When a design's ambitions become loftier, suggesting, perhaps, that images of nature induce states of meditation that allow patients to somehow transcend their illness, its effectiveness is much more difficult to establish, as should perhaps be thought of more as an added bonus than an integral component of health care. But if we're going to be moving toward more scientific design, as Hosey argues we should be, hospitals would be a great place to start.


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St. Margaret Clitherow
Feast: March 25
Margaret Clitherow, born in Yorkshire, England, was the wife of John Clitherow, whose family was Catholic, although he had taken on the state religion of England long before he married. Two or three years after her marriage, Margaret became a Catholic. Her home became a stopping-off place for priests, and Mass was offered secretly there.
Her husband went along with her interests, even when she sent their oldest son to Douai, in France, to be educated. Not only was she devout, she was also a zealous promoter of the faith, converting others and bringing back backsliders to the practice of their religion. Meanwhile, the laws against the Catholic faith became more harsh, and the. government was determined that Catholicism should be stamped out in Yorkshire where it was especially strong.
Everyone loved St. Margaret Clitherow, and even her servants knew that she hid fugitive priests, but no one betrayed her. She was a good housewife, capable in business, dearly loved by her husband, whose only regret was that she would not attend church with him. Her husband was summoned by the authorities to explain why his oldest son had gone abroad, and the Clitherow house was searched. A Flemish boy, from fear, revealed the hiding place of the priests where chalices and vestments were kept. Margaret was arrested along with a neighboring housewife who had attended Mass at the Clitherow home. Margaret's only concern was that her family was safe.
She was brought to trial and would not plead, her only statement being, "Having made no offense, I need no trial." If she had been tried, her family would have been called as witnesses against her, and she was determined that this would not happen. Reluctantly, the judge sentenced her to be "pressed to death," a bizarre death sentence in which the condemned was placed under a door (or similar object) and rocks piled on the door until the person was crushed to death.
Margaret died on March 25, 1586, her last words being, "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, have mercy on me!" She was only thirty years old and was canonized in 1970.
Thought for the Day: Through everyday fidelity we are given the strength to face the great crisis. St. Margaret Clitherow did not expect to die a martyr, but she was faithful in the everyday practice of her religion. When the great crisis came, she was ready.
From 'The Catholic One Year Bible': "A tree from good stock doesn't produce scrub fruit nor do trees from poor stock produce choice fruit.... A good man produces good deeds from a good heart. And an evil man produces evil deeds from his hidden wickedness."Luke 6:43-45
Taken from "The One Year Book of Saints" by Rev. Clifford Stevens published by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, IN 46750.


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Why I will be hanging out in front of my fridge for the next week
If Magnetic Poetry and your kindergartener's refrigerator art work has lost its charm, perhaps it's time to invest in something that will put that geeky smile back on your face: Frigits Deluxe. Equipped with all sorts of magnetic funnels, tunnels and catapults, as well as a few marbles, the toy effectively turns your fridge into a whizzing, whirring Rube Goldberg machine. And while the toy will inevitably lead to bad jokes from "friends" about how you've lost your marbles, those sort of comments are tolerable when considering the hours of procrastinatory fun you're about to have. Link via OhGizmo.


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Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time), by using the blue link-up button below.
Historic Old Homes in Downtown Montréal
Here are a few of my favourite shots from a recent doorscursion on a few of the residential side streets in the area of downtown Montreal known as the Golden Square Mile.
There are some beautiful well-maintained old homes in this part of the city and the more I wandered around the more wonderful doors I discovered.
Let me know which one you like best from this batch:
Note: For most of the next few days I'll be offline celebrating our spring long weekend – the Victoria Day Holiday. I'll be back to catch up with everyone late in the day on Monday. In the meantime you kids play nice and don't break anything while I'm gone 😉
Please don't forget to click on this blue button to add the link to your own Thursday Doors post to this week's list – Hint remember to link to your actual post NOT the homepage to your blog:
If you share your posts on Twitter and Instagram remember to use the #ThursdayDoors hashtag and please do take a few minutes to visit the Thursday Door posts shared by others.
I thank you for looking 🙂


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One of the niftiest features of Google Home is now available for owners of the smart speaker after support for 'Broadcast' rolled out.
The new addition allows you to push messages or reminders across a network of Home devices to mimic an in-home intercom system.
So rather than calling up to kids that dinner is about to be served, or getting them to wake up for school, Google Home can pass the message on. To activate it, simply say "Ok Google, broadcast…" and then add the desired message. (For a dinner time reminder, the device will a ring a bell on connected Homes.)
It's cute in theory but, if your kids are anything like mine (and me when I was younger, for that matter), the broadcast will likely only serve as a warning that an adult is about coming up to nag unless you get out of bed, or come down for dinner right now. Still, that's something to advance a first-world problem.
First announced at Google's October 4 Pixel event, Broadcast is rolling out this week in English to Google Home speakers and phones in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K.. Other expansions will come later, Google said.


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I didn't know Aaron Swartz personally. We never spoke, not in person nor by email.
Yet, his suicide today has left a big hole in the world for me. I found my own sadness baffling. I didn't know the guy. Why did I, deep down, feel such a void in the world? The reason was: I felt a rare connection to Aaron because of his thoughts and actions. An invisible connection that only existed at the intellectual level, not a social one, through his writing, technology, politics, and his willingness to show humanness.
Aaron Swartz's tragic death didn't only affect those who knew him personal, but also all of us familiar with his activist efforts and work at large. Mark Bao explores his own reaction to Swartz's untimely departure.
His writing and thoughts connected with me, especially his Raw Nerve series on how to become better at being human. His writing showed me that other people were thinking about the same things I was, in terms of the "backstory" of being human, the inner. I felt like I was on the same wavelength with another human that was thinking and devoting time to these inner pursuits.
His code and contributions to software were inspiring, in Python, RSS, and elsewhere. Relentlessly making progress and thinking about the macro game of software and technology. Same wavelength.
His JSTOR incident? Not exactly the same wavelength. But fighting for progressive policies in government, liberating information in science and law, using the closer-to-democracy tool of the Internet to do that? Absolutely.
His writings on depression showed that, like all of us, he was human, and, like all of us, he suffered. But few of us show vulnerability and humanity. Many of us hide behind facades of "how are you?" "great!", smiling photos, and upbeat Facebook statuses, preferring not to talk about what really goes on inside our heads.
Here's a guy who I felt a deep connection to, because we were on the same wavelength – through openly showing humanity, a devotion to improving oneself, using technology for change, and changing the macro political environment. There aren't a lot of people that I feel a multi-faceted intellectual connection with, but Aaron was one of them.
And despite not knowing him at all, his death left me feeling a void in the world. Because the world lost a brilliant person, but also because the world lost someone whose ideas I believed so much in, whose ability to put those thoughts into action was admirable, whose willingness to show vulnerability and humanness was something I feel like the world desperately needs more of.
But good often comes from bad. And the good, in this case, is the realization that we should aim to connect with more people, on a deeper wavelength. We should all be working relentlessly to put our feelings into words and into action, and not be afraid to show that, yes, we are actually human, and yes, we do have things we really believe in but haven't yet acted upon, and we do have moments where we feel on top of the world and also the moments where we feel absolutely hopeless.
And we should all be working to make the most of our time in the world, to make sure we don't squander our most limited resource, and instead maximize it, to connect to and affect more lives in this world.
We might not all be socially connected, but the work that we do connects us as a community. And our collective work makes history.
Thanks, Aaron.
Image by Peretz Partensky/Flickr
If you struggle with suicidal thoughts please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255.
Mark Bao is a 20-year-old startup founder, currently traveling the world and working on software that helps people build habits. He writes about life, behavioral science, philosophy, design, and other topics pertaining to technology, the brain, and humanity on his blog.


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Mass Effect 3 "Citadel" DLC
Xbox 360, PC*, PS3
- Release Date: March 5, 2013
- MSRP: $14.99 (PC, PS3) 1200 Microsoft points (Xbox 360)
* = platform reviewed
(We'll keep the spoilers to a minimum in this report, both for Mass Effect 3 in general and the "Citadel" DLC specifically, but the YouTube videos I link to do contain complete scenes from the DLC. Expect spoilers if you click through.)
Mass Effect 3 has had several downloadable content packages released which expand on some aspects of the single-player game, including most recently the "Omega" package, but this week Bioware let loose rather a different single-player pack: the "Citadel" DLC. What makes it different isn't just that it includes participation from every major Mass Effect crew character and voice actor—though that's a welcome change from some past Mass Effect DLC packs—but that the focus of the package isn't really on tossing Shepard and crew into another combat arena. Instead, the DLC quite literally lets the crew of the Normandy get boozed up and partied out...and it's great.
It's all about the journey
When Mass Effect 3 was released a bit over a year ago, the reviews were mixed. It drew praise for its strong story and powerful emotional beats, but at the same time there was the issue of that ending—it was an amazing 30-hour-plus journey capped off with what many felt was 15 minutes of hand-waving and three bad (and essentially identical) choices.
Bioware padded things out a bit with the "Extended Cut" DLC in June, adding more details to the ending, including a fourth dialog option that explicitly rejected the original three endgame choices, a response to many fans' claims that their Shepard would have told the ending's deus ex machina to go get stuffed. What I found to be the most important part of the "Extended Cut" DLC, though, was the extra battlefield scene just before the final showdown, wherein Shepard is given one last moment to say goodbye to whichever crewperson he or she had formed a romantic relationship with.
The first game in the Mass Effect series was very much a formulaic, cookie-cutter Bioware game, complete with the requisite Tower of Hanoi puzzle. But over the series' three games I've come to care deeply about Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. The friendships and romances formed are a significant part of the attraction, far more so than the combat, which has never really been my favorite. The role-playing aspect has been the reason I've stuck with Shepard and company. The moments in Mass Effect 3 that were the most powerful and beautiful weren't the huge set-piece explosion-fests, but the bits of character interaction between missions—the kind of things that people often write fan fiction about. What do the characters do when they're off-duty?
Hanging out with my space bros
In Mass Effect 3, players didn't have to write fan fiction to get a peek into the crew's rec time. Archeologist Liara T'Soni builds a time capsule. Stoic teammate Garrus Vakarian (my Shepard's space brother from another mother) takes Shepard target shooting and ends up with one of the greatest lines of dialogue in the entire series. Sure, the moments were obvious fan service, but after years of following the series, these palate-cleansing bits of fun were refreshing—more than refreshing, in fact. They were humanizing.
But what if there were more than a few isolated moments of fun to be had? What if there were a DLC containing a couple hours of pure, unadulterated silliness?
The "Citadel" DLC contains an interesting mission as its base, but its true purpose is to provide Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew with a giant apartment on the Citadel in which to throw the mother of all parties (I am not being metaphorical here). The DLC is a big, wet, sloppy three-hour fan-service kiss... and as everyone's favorite Turian once said, "I'm OK with that."
The DLC's tone is light throughout, and every single main crew member from all three Mass Effect games gets at least a few minutes in the spotlight. Even the main plot mission, involving the theft of the Normandy by an unexpectedly familiar evil-doer, is carried off with tongue firmly in cheek. Characters offer up quips more often here and every scene feels like it's done with a nod and a wink to the fans.
It may be too silly for some fans, however. Mass Effect 3 is generally a pretty serious game, dealing with a galactic-level extinction event and the destruction of all known life. Shepard's team is on the clock for the whole game, trying to rally support for their war against world-destroying enemies, and the player is constantly reminded that even as the crew is relatively safe flying around in space, Earth is under siege. The rare bits of relaxation in the game feel like genuinely stolen moments, and there's always a bit of guilt that you're not trying harder to save Earth.
"Citadel" upends that. Shepard and the crew are on shore leave—dropping the Normandy off at dock and gettin' crunk in Admiral Anderson's enormous Citadel apartment. Without dropping spoilers, the DLC is timed to take place after the midpoint in the game. If it were inserted at that point into my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3, the interlude would seem ridiculous and out-of-place, releasing the game's tension like a balloon rapidly deflating. "Sure, the galaxy is at stake," it seems to say, "but let's all party and ham it up for the camera for a bit!"
But for most of the players interested in this particular DLC, it's not really taking place midgame. For those who have played through the game already, the DLC functions as Bioware clearly meant it to function: it's one last big, beautiful goodbye.
Once more, with feeling
Every important crewmember from each game gets a moment alone with Shepard. Some scenes, like those devoted to assassin and potential love interest Thane Krios, are heartbreaking; others, like bailing young Krogan teammate Grunt out from an encounter with Citadel Security, will make you smile so hard that your face will be in danger of cracking. Even love interests given short shrift in Mass Effect 3 (like Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor) are allowed one last extended scene with Shepard.
"Citadel" is just that—a series of "one last times," stuffed full of treasure for those who love the series and its characters. The folks at Bioware have absolutely outdone themselves, cramming in an almost overwhelming number of inside jokes and giggles. The DLC even offers a direct response to one of the most infamous bits of Mass Effect fan-generated insanity to ever pop up on the Internet: a creepy-weird bit of armchair chemistry theorizing about what ship engineer Tali's sweat would smell like.
For players like me who are emotionally invested in the series, "Citadel" is excellent. It's like a gift from Bioware, a perfect bit of fanwankery made canonical. Whether or not it fits in with the larger tone of Mass Effect 3 is questionable, but it gives us all one last chance to see Shepard and his crew happy. This can sometimes be a bit too much, like eating your entire haul after trick-or-treating, but who doesn't want to overdose on candy every once in a while?


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John Lennon, Johnny Cash are our modern 'saints,' researcher says
Many people today identify with dead celebrities, whose images and ideals are mass-marketed
A researcher at the University of Waterloo, Ont. is suggesting that dead celebrities have, in some ways, become the "saints" of today's consumer culture.
PhD candidate Kathleen Riddell says that just as people in the Middle Ages identified with the saints of the Catholic Church, many people today identify with dead celebrities, whose images and ideals are frequently mass-marketed.
Riddell is presenting a paper on dead celebrity fandom at the 2014 Congress of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Brock University in St Catharines, Ont.
We wrap our values into them, our ideals and our struggles.- Researcher Kathleen Riddell
Her thesis focuses on the impact of three late great musicians: John Lennon, Johnny Cash, and Jimi Hendrix.
Riddell says that much like saints, dead celebs can create communities around the ideals they were associated with while they were alive — Lennon's peace activism being a notable example.
She says that of the three celebrities she's studying, Lennon and Cash seem to have the most devout followers.
Riddell quotes one fan as saying that "Everyone has their own personal Johnny, like everyone has their own personal Jesus."
She is also quick to point out, however, that she isn't suggesting the cult of dead celebrities will replace traditional religion, as fans are often members of traditional religious communities.
"It's not a replacement for traditional religion. It's more about ideals. We wrap our values into them, our ideals and our struggles," she said.
"They are presentable because they are in a neat attractive package, a cultural product."


text: Tornadoes in Connecticut: Consistently Inconsistent iStockphoto Recently, the National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down in Coventry on Wednesday, July 10, part of a powerful storm that knocked down trees and power lines, damaged a few homes but fortunately resulted in no major injuries. It is the fouth tornado to strike the state this year since July 1. To some, four tornadoes in such a short stretch may seem like a lot, especially for a state like Connecticut, which is not anywhere near the Midwest's Tornado Alley and has not been known historically as a place conducive to producing a high number of tornadoes in any given season. In short, Connecticut is not a mecca for storm chasers. Still, the state has had its share of tornadoes, and there doesn't seem to be any particular pattern to the frequency at which they occur. According to the Tornado Project, there were none last year and only one in 2011; 2010, however, was a busy year, including an EF-1 that touched down in Bridgeport in June that did extensive damage (including $15 million in harm to the Barnum Museum) and the four small tornadoes that hit on July 21 in Bristol, Litchfield, Thomaston and Terryville, all a result of a severe storm cell passing through the region. Looking further back over the long haul, that inconsistency seems to be consistent\u2014stretches of years with no tornadoes mixed in with spates of high activity. One of the years with the highest activity was 1973, which saw at least six different tornadoes. In general, most of the tornadoes that do strike here are not particularly powerful or sustained, unlike those which seem to plague the Midwest; in fact, there have only been four documented deaths due to tornandoes in Connecticut since 1950. Most of the tornadoes here seem to possess enough strength to damage trees, power lines and roofs, but not obliterate towns. Of course, there has been some particularly memorable and destructive storms, including the F4 tornado that struck Hamden in July 1989, which packed winds in excess of 200 mph that cut a five-mile swath of devastation and injured 40 people. Others may recall the freak F4 tornado that struck Windsor Locks in October 1979 which killed three, essentially flattened Bradley Airport and caused over $200 million in damage. Fortunately, those kinds of events seem to be few and far between. Finally, the good news is that although we've experienced numerous tornadoes, Connecticut has yet to be struck by a SharkNado. So there's that. (This article was originally published on a different platform. Some formatting changes may have occurred.)