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Our Faith Journey
Faith is the basic orientation and commitment of our whole being—a matter of heart and soul. Christian faith is grounding our lives in the living God as revealed especially in Jesus Christ. It's both a gift we receive within the Christian community and a choice we make. It's trusting in God and relying on God as the source and destiny of our lives. Faith is believing in God, giving God our devoted loyalty and allegiance. Faith is following Jesus, answering the call to be his disciples in the world. Faith is hoping for God's future, leaning into the coming kingdom that God has promised. Faith-as-belief is active; it involves trusting, believing, following, hoping.
Our Theological Journey
Theology is thinking together about our faith and discipleship. It's reflecting with others in the Christian community about the good news of God's love in Christ. Both laypeople and clergy are needed in "our theological task." The laypeople bring understandings from their ongoing effort to live as Christians in the complexities of a secular world; clergy bring special tools and experience acquired through intensive biblical and theological study. We need one another. But how shall we go about our theological task so that our beliefs are true to the gospel and helpful in our lives? In John Wesley's balanced and rigorous ways for thinking through Christian doctrine, we find four major sources or criteria, each interrelated. These we often call our "theological guidelines": Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. Let's look at each of these.
In thinking about our faith, we put primary reliance on the Bible. It's the unique testimony to God's self-disclosure in the life of Israel; in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ; and in the Spirit's work in the early church. It's our sacred canon and, thus, the decisive source of our Christian witness and the authoritative measure of the truth in our beliefs. In our theological journey we study the Bible within the believing community. Even when we study it alone, we're guided and corrected through dialogue with other Christians. We interpret individual texts in light of their place in the Bible as a whole. We use concordances, commentaries, and other aids prepared by the scholars. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we try to discern both the original intention of the text and its meaning for our own faith and life.
Read more about the authority of Scripture from the Book of Discipline.
Between the New Testament age and our own era stand countless witnesses on whom we rely in our theological journey. Through their words in creed, hymn, discourse, and prayer, through their music and art, through their courageous deeds, we discover Christian insight by which our study of the Bible is illuminated. This living tradition comes from many ages and many cultures. Even today Christians living in far different circumstances from our own—in Africa, in Latin America, in Asia—are helping us discover fresh understanding of the Gospel's power.
Read more about the witness of tradition from the Book of Discipline.
A third source and criterion of our theology is our experience. By experience we mean especially the "new life in Christ," which is ours as a gift of God's grace; such rebirth and personal assurance gives us new eyes to see the living truth in Scripture. But we mean also the broader experience of all the life we live, its joys, its hurts, its yearnings. So we interpret the Bible in light of our cumulative experiences. We interpret our life's experience in light of the biblical message. We do so not only for our experience individually but also for the experience of the whole human family.
Read more about the role of personal experience from the Book of Discipline.
Finally, our own careful use of reason, though not exactly a direct source of Christian belief, is a necessary tool. We use our reason in reading and interpreting the Scripture. We use it in relating the Scripture and tradition to our experience and in organizing our theological witness in a way that's internally coherent. We use our reason in relating our beliefs to the full range of human knowledge and in expressing our faith to others in clear and appealing ways.
Read more about reason from the Book of Discipline.
Excerpted from "United Methodist Member's Handbook, Revised," George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 61, 64-65.
Copyright © 2021 Westside United Methodist Church - All Rights Reserved.
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Raising the Bar
Why don't you slip out of those wet clothes and into a dry martini? — Robert Benchley
"M and H. This must be it," I said, stopping before an unlit gray door on which the peel-and-stick, mailbox-style letters were affixed. There was no handle. David tried pushing, but that didn't work. The street, located at the edge of New York City's Chinatown, was dark and devoid of people; steam rose from imperceptible gaps in the sidewalk; a puff of muggy air carried the stench of wet dishrags and emptied-out grease traps from nearby restaurants. I wrinkled my nose at David. "Karen wasn't kidding when she said this place was understated."
A man emerged from the shadows, reached over my shoulder to point out the small buzzer to the left of the door, and hustled off, our words of thanks falling on his back as he disappeared into the darkness. I pressed the button. A moment later, the door buzzed and we pulled it open to find an attractive young woman poking her head through thick velvet curtains. The woman correctly guessed our names and led us inside.
Despite the darkness outside, it still took a while for my eyes to adjust to the murky interior. The space was roughly the size and shape of a school bus. We cozied into our circular booth, the backs of which rose well over our shoulders, providing plenty of privacy for roaming hands (probably why my friend had told me the bar was a great "closer" for dates).
"What are you in the mood for?" asked the woman.
We'd known in advance that Milk & Honey didn't do menus — part of its "charm." It was safe to assume vodka wasn't an option; bartenders at these Golden Age of Cocktails clubs consider the clear liquor pedestrian at best, inferior at worst. While dining out with my aunts in Brooklyn Heights a few nights earlier, I'd tried and liked a simple classic, the sherry cobbler. I asked for something similar to that; David ordered a "boozy" bourbon drink.
"So? How's it stack up?" I asked, once we were sipping in the dim light of the one small candle on our table.
As a professional artist and amateur chef, it was only natural for David to be drawn to cocktails — the consummate merger of craft and consumption. In San Diego, he favors libations at the Tractor Room and Starlite. In New Orleans, he was on a mission to locate the best Sazerac; when we found ourselves being served by the legendary bartender Chris McMillian, David exhibited the reverence and awe of an aspiring actor meeting Johnny Depp. The last time we trod the streets of New York, David had discovered the Pegu Club — a paragon of mixology where bartenders singe thin strips of orange peel over a small flame, and cocktails are chilled by perfectly square, slow-melting ice cubes. Now that we were back in the city for a few days, David was intent on comparing the skills of Pegu's mixologists with those of its many offshoots.
Milk & Honey is one of the trendy new speakeasy-styled bars (such as Prohibition and Noble Experiment in San Diego), where hard liquor is served in a dark place that's hard to find and even harder to get into.
Harkening back to the days when men wore hats and alcohol was as illicit and exhilarating as a woman in lingerie, most "speakeasies" share a list of rules right out of a Fred Astaire movie. At Milk & Honey, the list was posted in the bathroom: No name-dropping; No hooting, hollering, or even being loud; No fighting, play fighting, or even talking about fighting; "Gentlemen" are to remove their hats; "Gentlemen" are not to introduce themselves to "ladies" (but "ladies" are free to make the first move); and more rules, all along the lines of "don't be a dick," phrased in more genteel words.
"I preferred my bourbon drink at Death & Company," David said, referring to the speakeasy-ish bar in the East Village ("ish" because it wasn't hard to find or get into, but the romantic ambiance, virtuoso bartender, and no-standing policy fit the bill). Choosing to overlook the elaborate menu, David had asked the bartender to make whatever he wanted, using Black Maple Hill bourbon — an uncommon favorite of David's that he had spied on the shelf, nestled behind bottles of better-known brands. "That bourbon drink was way better than this one," David said. "But I do like this booth." His hand wandered around on my thigh.
"Reminds me of our first date," I said. "Only less…you know." I tapped on his hand to remind him how unslutty I had been. Our date had been at Nunu's, the neighborhood bar bordering Hillcrest and Banker's Hill. Nunu's was my stomping ground for a while, back when "strong and cheap" took precedence over "complex and well-crafted."
"My God, I think I ordered a vodka collins, something really sweet and sour," I said with a grimace. David chuckled.
"Do you think people are here for the exclusivity as much as for the drinks?" I asked. David shrugged. "I mean, think about it — we had to know someone who'd already been here to get the unlisted number for this place, and then go through an elaborate dance of text messaging. Don't you think that's part of the appeal? Everyone wants to be an insider."
"We didn't have to know anyone to get into Prohibition," David said, referring to the pseudo-underground bar in the Gaslamp where we'd joined my sisters to listen to live jazz a few months ago.
"Yeah, but we did have to get our name on the list before seven. I like the planned aspect. It means people go there with intent — they don't just end up there," I said.
Our server emerged from the inky ether beyond our booth and set a plate on the table. I had to hold the candle close to make out the bar's trademark strawberries, whipped cream, and honey. I dragged the fruit through the honey and brought it to my lips. "Mmm," I said. "I didn't even know they served food." I used my finger to taste the cream. "This is a straight-up invitation to be naughty, you know."
"I'm liking this place more and more," David said, earning a playful pinch from me.
"You're going to have to learn how to make that sherry cobbler thing when we get home," I said. I licked honey from my finger and looked up at David. In the faint flicker, I could just barely make out his dimples as he smiled. "But don't make it all the time, I don't want to turn into a lush." I felt him nodding, understanding, and accepting my demand.
Intoxicated on a carnal trifecta of alcohol, sugar, and fondling, I craned my neck and smiled invitingly. Forgetting talk of clubs and cocktails, David kissed me in our dark corner.

subset: commoncrawl


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Blind mole rats live in underground burrows that can be quite hypoxic, with oxygen levels getting as low as 7.2 percent. (The air we breathe is 21 percent oxygen). A team of researchers in Israel and Germany have determined that Spalax have evolved to tolerate this environment by expressing more of their oxygen-carrying globins than other rats, which help them survive at low ambient oxygen levels.
The globin family is comprised of proteins responsible for the delivery and storage of oxygen throughout the body. Hemoglobin (Hb), in red blood cells, transports oxygen from the lungs through the blood to the inner organs. Myoglobin (Mb) is expressed in striated and cardiac muscles; it acts as localized oxygen storage, and helps disperse the oxygen as needed throughout the relatively large muscle cells.
Ten years ago, two unique mammalian globins were discovered. Neuroglobin (Ngb) is found in neurons of both the central and peripheral nervous systems, and in endocrine organs. Ngb is also expressed in astrocytes in mammals tolerant of hypoxia—like these mole rats and the deep diving hooded seal—but not in those sensitive to hypoxia, like mice and rats. Ngb is highly colocalized with mitochondria, and thus active oxidative metabolism, but its function is not yet clear; it may act in the brain like Mb acts in muscle, to supply oxygen to the mitochondrial respiratory chain, or it may scavenge reactive oxygen species. Cytoglobin (Cygb) is found in fibroblasts, and its role is even more obscure than Ngb's.
Spalax are known to have increased levels of Hb, and their Hb has a high affinity for oxygen. In recent work, the researchers compared the sequences and expression levels of the other globin genes among the different Spalax species with those of the hypoxia sensitive rat, under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.
They had access to 4 different allospecies of the blind mole rat Spalax from Israel. These animals cope with hypoxia to varying degrees depending on the different climates in the regions where they live. Spalax galili live in the Galilee, the Northern part of the country, which is cool and moist; they have the most efficient hypoxic adaptation. Spalax judaei live in the Judean desert to the south, which is warm and dry.
These proteins are highly conserved among the Spalax species, so a difference in function did not seem to account for their different abilities to tolerate hypoxia. Spalax expressed 2-3 fold more Ngb RNA and protein than rats under normal conditions. Upon short term severe hypoxic stress, however—five hours at six percent oxygen—normal rats and S. judaei downregulated their Ngb mRNA by almost twofold but S. galili did not. Twenty-two hours of ten percent oxygen were required to bring their Ngb mRNA levels down. Even after hypoxia reduced Ngb mRNA, Ngb protein levels stayed constant in the mole rats, but not the other rats.
Spalax expressed two- to three-fold more Cygb mRNA and protein than normal rats under normoxia as well, but only in the brain, not in the heart or liver (muscle tissues). When the animals were placed under hypoxic conditions, Cygb mRNA stayed constant in rat brains but increased two fold in mole rat brains. And it increased two fold in rat hearts, but twelve fold in mole rat hearts.
The mole rats also expressed more Mb than normal rats. In neck muscle, which the mole rats use for digging, S. judaei had 27 fold and S. galili had 44 fold Mb mRNA than other rats. Short term severe hypoxia did nothing to Spalax Mb mRNA levels, but rat Mb mRNA levels increased threefold.
When humans are deprived of oxygen, we lose consciousness within minutes. Subterranean mole rats, in contrast, just continue digging their tunnels. Their higher levels of Hb, Mb, Ngb and Cygb protein help them to survive with chronic hypoxia. Perhaps we can exploit this system to help human cells survive hypoxic stresses, such as those precipitated by a heart attack or stroke.
PNAS, 2010. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1015379107 (About DOIs).
Listing image by NSF


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Let's (Vegan Food) Party!
Bay Area Vegetarians are having a party for vegans. It will be a community event, rather like a potluck.
Where: Pacifica
When: Sun. 2/28 @ 12noon
Location: Sharp Park Library, 104 Hilton Way at Palmetto, Pacifica (15 minutes south of SF)
Parking: Free Lot and Ample Free street parking.
Cost: A vegan dish to share. (a real dish not just a bag of chips)
RSVP Requested: RSVP, contact the event host by clicking on their name to send an email to them.
See the site for more information and guidelines.
Welcome to BAVeg


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Welcome to the Workshop
At the turn of the 21st century, the enormous progress in the fields of photonics, materials sciences, and nanofabrication resulted in the emergence of a new class of unique optical media - metamaterials. "Meta" in Greek means "beyond." Indeed, these new man-made optical structures pioneered by Sir John Pendry and Victor Veselago already transformed modern optics and are likely to enable revolutionary applications.
The workshop will bring together a group of world-class specialists and young researchers specializing in such diverse areas of optical physics as advanced materials, ultrafast optical phenomena, singular optics and quantum computing in order to map new directions and build new diversified collaborative efforts.
Some of the main goals of this workshop are:
- Capturing the state-of-the-art and novel ideas in the fields of novel materials, phenomena, and emerging applications and developing a roadmap for future breakthrough in the Science of Light.
- Initiating and establishing new collaborative projects with other leading national and international research institutions, national laboratories, and industrial researchers.
- Building a foundation for submission of large research proposals such as Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives (MURI).
Specific themes to be discussed at the workshop include:
- Advanced metamaterials, plasmonics, and transformation optics
- New material platforms for integrated electronic and photonic circuitry
- Coherent metamaterials
- Ultrafast phenomena and pulse shaping in new materials
- Chaos and Anderson localization of photons in new optical materials
- Singular Optics
- Phase-changing optical materials
- New solitons in metamaterials
- Nonlinear Optoelectronics
- Quantum metamaterials and Quantum Information Technology
- Novel Applications


text: Item# W09-00268 ref# (5705) Black, Flexible Vinyl Tubing, 8242-4440, 58 psig (0.375 in x 0.625 in), 0.125 in, General Purpose, FLEX™ GP70B $106.13 / each Quantity: Sub-Total: $106.13 Volume pricing may be available for this item Call or Get a Quote. Add to Cart Item Details Specification Length 100 ft Inside Diameter 0.375 in Outside Diameter 0.625 in Brand FLEX™ GP70B Op pressure 58 psig Wall 0.125 in Grade General Purpose California residents see Prop 65 WARNINGS Warning Close Curbell Plastics, Inc. sells certain products that can expose you to chemicals listed on the Proposition 65 Chemical List that can be found at www.p65warnings.ca.gov/chemicals, which are known to the state of California to cause cancer and/or reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov. If you need information regarding Proposition 65 for a specific product, please indicate so on your order form.


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The first part of this project is something you must buy, but it is an investment! I am so SO addicted to my new rechargeable FLICKERING flame-less candles.
Mine are similar to this
I bought 2 boxes of them at Tuesday Morning for, I think $14.99 a box (for a box of 4). They say they last for at least 15 hours, but mine last almost 20! I turn them on in the morning, let them go all day and night, and the next morning they are dimly flickering still! The best part is that they recharge on a strip that you just set them on. It's easier than striking a match. I use them everywhere and all the time. I knew I'd love them but I didn't know I'd LOVE them.
The great thing about flame-less is that they can go where ordinary candles cannot. For these I simply rolled old sheet music into tubes to make candle pillars. The little candles are just sitting inside, flickering beautifully. They look like old sheet music real candles! And no batteries to buy and dink with-BONUS!


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Manning a unanimous All-Pro choice
NEW YORK – Peyton Manning has responded to a lost season the way he reacted to all of his great seasons: by having more great seasons.
Manning was the only unanimous choice for the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team Friday. It was his seventh time as a first-teamer, tying Hall of Famer Otto Graham for the most by a quarterback.
The Denver star set NFL records this season with 55 touchdown passes and 5,477 yards through the air.
He was chosen on all 50 ballots from media members who regularly cover the NFL.
Manning also was an All-Pro for Indianapolis in 2003, '04, '05, '08 and '09 and last season made it as a Bronco. He's been on the All-Pro team in both seasons since missing 2011 after several neck surgeries.
"I think it's well documented that this is the second chapter of my career, and (I) didn't know what to expect off that injury and new team, new players and new physical state after an injury," said Manning, a four-time league MVP who never missed a pro start before 2011. "So ... I've put a lot of time and a lot of hard work in to it.
"But I've received a lot of help along the way from coaches and trainers and strength coaches and teammates. So I'm very grateful."
Manning still has a way to go to set the record for most All-Pro appearances at any position. Among the players ahead of him is Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice with 10.
New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham and Indianapolis outside linebacker Robert Mathis each drew 49 votes for the 2013 team. Eagles running back LeSean McCoy and Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman had 48.
Minnesota kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson was the only rookie on the squad.
Eighteen NFC players and nine from the AFC made the team. Carolina and Philadelphia each had three: linebacker Luke Kuechly, center Ryan Kalil and fullback Mike Tolbert for the Panthers; NFL rushing leader McCoy, guard Evan Mathis and tackle Jason Peters for coach Chip Kelly's Eagles.
"Just when Chip came here, we knew we were going to run the ball," McCoy said. "The linemen, they've all been healthy this whole year. They've been blocking so well for me, and without those guys, it's not possible."
Only two members of the top teams in each conference made the All-Pro team. Joining Manning from the Broncos (13-3) was guard Louis Vasquez. Joining Sherman from the Seahawks (13-3) was safety Earl Thomas.
"It is very special, especially in a special season," Sherman said. "If you're having a special season and your team has four wins or five wins, I'm sure it doesn't feel as good. But when your team is winning, your defense is No. 1 in every category and you're just contributing, you're not even trying to do anything special individually, you're just contributing to the entire group. It really feels special. And with the chance to do what we have a chance to do this year, it would be fantastic."
Rounding out the offense are receivers Calvin Johnson of Detroit and Josh Gordon of Cleveland; running back Jamaal Charles of Kansas City; and tackle Joe Thomas of Cleveland.
Other All-Pros on defense are ends J.J. Watt of Houston and Robert Quinn of St. Louis; tackles Gerald McCoy of Tampa Bay and Ndamukong Suh of Detroit; outside linebacker Lavonte David of Tampa Bay; inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman of San Francisco; cornerback Patrick Peterson of Arizona; and safety Eric Berry of Kansas City.
The special-teamers were Patterson, kicker Justin Tucker of Baltimore and punter Johnny Hekker of St. Louis.


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Over the next few months, I will be publishing an ongoing series, which includes and continues from much of what I started in my book, "Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging".
I've been blogging since 1994, though it barely had a name back then, online journaling is what it soon became. Along the way, I've changed domain names twice, moved through four different web hosts on that first site/blog, started many other blogs, closed many blogs, and endured the evolution from website to blog. I've watched mailing lists become forums become chats and blogs. I've watched search directories become search engines become world domination communication platforms, and also watch them cave into censors as they took their products globally. I've endured the scoff and scorn personal blogs developed, and battled comment spammers, sploggers, scammers, and content thieves in increasing numbers every year.
I've been bragged about, exclaimed, flamed, humiliated, taken to task, had my words abused and used against me, whether any of these were true or deserving, it matters not. It happens to all of us at one time or another in this new phenomenon known today as web publishing.
I've traveled the world and spoke to fellow writers, web network owners and administrators, forum managers and moderators, website hosts, site owners, users, and bloggers. We've learned from each other, passing tips back and forth, and grown up through the adolescence of the World Wide Web.
Along the way, I think I learned a few things. I know I have the bruises, callouses, and scars to prove that at least I survived, so I must have learned something along the way.
Blog Struggles – The Series
The series is called "Blog Struggles" and will cover how to find and write content, editing blog content, blog writing tips, finding your blogging voice, when to publish – and when not to, how to encourage comments or spurn them, comment spam, trolls and mean folks, splogs and content abusers, reader perceptions, creating an online and/or blogger persona, writing a personal or technical blog, creating a blog working environment, changing your blog topic and concept, getting found, social networking, explaining what blogging is to friends and family, finding time to blog, panning your blog, linking, blog structure, maintaining your blog, blog evolution, web traffic mythology, closing your blog, finding inspiration and motivation to keep blogging, blog branding, blog development, fitting blogging into your life in spite of your life, and the trends, fads, and blog clutter I've seen come and go, and then come back to our blogs.
Much of these things I already have covered on this blog, but I want to put them all together in a body of work. I might even add a category, if this continues forward with a popular response.
When I sat down to jot a few ideas onto paper about what I wanted you, my fellow blogger, to know about blogging, the things that aren't discussed openly but common to all of us, I ran out of paper. I covered pages and pages with tips, ideas, techniques, and resources you need to know to improve your blogging, and strengthen your blogging spirit and energy. I was stunned at how many things you know or need to know about blogging and how to keep blogging, that I wanted to share with you.
This isn't a series for beginners. It isn't a series for advanced users or the in between. It is a series for all bloggers, no matter where you are on your blogging path. As I looked through my notes for this series, I realized how much I had learned that I hadn't put down in words or even understood. Hopefully now, we can openly discuss all these topics and learn and grow together.
Got a Life Plan – Get a Blog Plan
I've been teaching sexual assault prevention education to women for many years. I always ask my students if they have health insurance. Life insurance? Auto insurance? Homeowners or renter's insurance? What about a living will or general will if something happens to you? If you have all these things in order, it means you have sat down and made a plan for your life, just in case you need these things. So why don't we consider making a plan for being attacked, mugged, robbed, sexually assaulted, harassed, or raped? These should be treated no differently than the other "plans" for "what if" in our lives.
The same goes for blogging. We start out enthused and energized, sometimes thinking that this is the coolest thing on the planet we've ever done, but without thinking it through and having some kind of plan, we can flounder, losing interest and enthusiasm, as well as blogging energy.
There is a lot of joy in sharing your knowledge and experiences with others. Unfortunately, you are also making those things public, which means they are open to acclaim, criticism, celebration, and bashing. With your writing and images easily accessible to the public, your content is going to be stolen, ripped off, abused, and used to generate profits for others, not you. You will get comment spam, nasty ugly comments created by machines and humans that have nothing to do with you, but plague your blog.
You will go through great writing spurts, down time, have personal problems interfere with your blogging, get bored, burned out, and just worn out. You will get accused, abused, and battered for what you say, how you say it, why you said it, and when you said it. It happens. It happens to all of us.
We all experience these things so why not be prepared and know what to do and how to react when the "what if" happens on your blog?
My goals in doing this ongoing series on Blog Struggles is to:
- Share lessons learned to help you prevent my mistakes on your blog.
- Share lessons learned you may not have considered or anticipated.
- Open the conversation up to topics rarely covered on the good, bad, and ugly aspects of blogging.
- Let you know you are not alone. We all go through these at different stages in our blogging life, so let's go through them together and learn together.
As always, if you have questions or would like me to cover a specific concern or topic that is plaguing your blogging spirit or activities, let me know. We're all in this blogging boat together.
Blog Struggles Series
- Blog Struggles: The Search for Blog Content: We put so much energy into "finding" blog content that we often forget the best source for good blog content: from within us. I offer tips and techniques for pulling content from your head.
- Blog Struggles: Ideas and Drafts: We come up with such great ideas and then what? We jot them down, make lists, start post drafts, and they sit there staring at us, as we procrastinate over what to do with all these ideas and how to keep them in check. I offer tips on how to best keep track of your ideas and drafts.
- Blog Struggles: The Blog Focus: As part one in a sub-series of posts on Blog Struggles, I look at the issue of the blog focus, your blog's ability to turn you from a blogger into an expert.
- Blog Struggles: Why Should Your Blog Have a Focus: Your blog doesn't have to have a focus, but if it does, these are the reasons, and benefits, of why it should.
- Blog Struggles: Finding Your Blog Focus: Continues the Blog Focus theme and offers tips for finding your blog's focus and direction.
- Blog Struggles: Changing Your Blog's Focus: Once you find your blog focus, how do you change your blog? Or should you start a new blog? I cover the tips you need to know to redirect your blog.
- Blog Struggles: When Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation Interferes With Your Blogging looks at the issues around the impact of poor writing habits and skills and whether or not they impact the success and reading of your blog.
- In Blog Struggles: When Are Too Many Comments Too Many Comments?, I share a struggle I faced not long ago about an over-enthusiastic commenter who left a ton of comments on my blog within a few hours, making me very suspicious. We are often faced with suspicious comments, so what do we do? How should we handle them?
- Blog Struggles: Taking The Moral High Blogging Ground addresses the issue of deciding which ethical and moral road to take on your blog.
- Blog Struggles: Blogger's Depression looks at the rarely discussed by normal aspect of blogging: depression. When the enthusiasm for the effort is lost and apathy sets in, and how to overcome it.
- Blog Struggles: It's The Rituals That Help Us Focus: I share some of the rituals I use to get me "in the blogging mood" and ask you to share yours.
- Blog Struggles: When An Old Post is New Again takes a look at some of the struggles I've had when a past post suddenly gets picked up and sensationalized. I discuss the methods I use for keeping my old posts up to date, especially when fame comes knocking.
- Blog Struggles: Recovering From a Traffic Spike really touched a lot of people as they related to the addiction that traffic spikes bring, as well as the hassles.
- Blog Struggles: Surviving the When Blogging Goes Bad Blues look at how to keep on writing when life gets in the way.
- Blog Struggles: How Do You Know When to Stop Writing a Blog Post? looks at blog writing basics of post length and guidelines for when to know it's time to stop writing and hit publish.
Site Search Tags: article series, blog struggles, blogging struggles, how to blog, blogging tips, blogging techniques, blog help, blogging help, blog wriiting, blog publishing, blog maintenance, blog development
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.


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Perhaps you think you've seen it, heard it all before. Hunger in the Horn of Africa. Famine once again spreading in Somalia. It is an old headline, I suppose, it certainly has happened before, but that doesn't lessen the horror of it: the sickening stench of a hospital room filled with dying children; the shock of seeing row after row of tiny, freshly dug graves.
It is hard to know what to say. There are statistics of course. An estimated 29,000 children under the age of five dead in the last three months. 3.2 million people in Somalia in need of immediate, life saving assistance. Well over two million Somalis have had to flee their homes to the capital Mogadishu or to neighboring countries. The numbers are numbing.
I am in Dadaab in Kenya, near the border of Somalia. There's a network of refugee settlements here, in fact it's now the largest refugee camp in the world. It was built twenty years ago to hold ninety thousand people, but there are now more than 400,000 here, and tens of thousands more camping in makeshift huts on the outskirts. What's infuriating is that there is a camp that was built in 2010 that can house 80,000 more refugees, but the Kenyan government won't allow it to open.
They are concerned about a whole generation of Somali refugees settling here. "The only solution is peace in Somalia," one young refugee said to me, but the chances of that are remote. In fact the crisis taking place here is not just a result of the drought which is the worst one in sixty years, and high food prices, it's also a result of the conflict which has made Somalia one of the most dangerous places on the planet. A terrorist group of Islamic extremists called the Al Shabaab has for the last several years been fighting for control of the country. In areas under Al Shabaab's control they've instituted strict sharia law, and outlawed vaccinations for kids claiming they were a plot by the West to kill children. They've also kidnapped and killed aid workers, and prevented them from distributing food. Al Shabaab control much of southern Somalia. And that is where the drought has hit hardest.
I was in Somalia nineteen years ago this month reporting on the famine then. Some 300,000 thousand people died and thought the US/UN intervention saved many more lives by insuring food was delivered to those in need, more than 40 US troops were killed during Operation Restore Hope. Nineteen years later, it is depressing to be back. This famine was preventable. Warnings had been issued for a long time. The drought is not a sudden surprise. In parts of Kenya and Ethiopia, agricultural programs backed by US aid have improved agricultural output and helped those nations lessen the impact of the drought on some of their people, but in Somalia it is hard to create positive change when there is no real functioning government and Al Shabaab have proven the only thing they can do is destroy and kill. We will be broadcasting from here tonight, and inside Somalia tomorrow. I hope you tune in. I know some of it will be hard to watch, but turning away does nothing to alleviate their pain. So many here have already died unnecessary deaths, they've died on the side of the road, away from their homes, trying to get help. They've died in silence, and nothing remains to show that they ever existed at all.
There are still people in this world that has love in their hearts maybe some of those billionaires have it in their hearts and give some of those millions to those starving people. But who will get rid of Al Shabaab? 19 years it seems no change! Is it too big for all government to solve? By: Lucia A. W.
It is very sad that poor people have to suffer the way the do when we have so many rich people who can help where is the compassion?where is the Love?Jesus is going to fix it all one day for those who can help I pray that you won't starve to death.
We can't really be mad at the Kenyan government for not wanting to house all those refugees. While most people with a pulse can empathize with the plight of the displaced, we have to understand it is a big financial strain to support thousands of refugees. Every country is not America and should not be expected to borrow from China to appear diplomatic. They are doing the right thing for their country by saying "we do not have the resources to support all these people." We should take a page from their book. Just imagine how much we could knock off our debt now had we as a nation decided we can't afford multi-million dollar payouts to failing nation-states.
First of all, helping people live should never be a choice. It is the right thing to do. These people aren't worried about paying more taxes,or their declining property values, or their country's credit rating being lowered. They are worried about where they are going to get water to drink and what scraps they can find to eat on a daily basis, things that you no doubt take for granted every day. Don't make the mistake of thinking you are better simply because you were born into a better situation. You are no better. We are all 100 percent Homo Sapian. Its time people realize this and move forward. And if we have to do it next year and the year after that and the year after that, we should. Stop looking at people's lives like a business decision and the world would be a better place. Peace Love and Unity
Famine and other social-economic issue will continue in Somalia until they are ready to help themselves. Although, there are a handful of individuals as well as a few countries with the power to put help them, it would not be fair to ask them to do so when that help would only be a bandaid.
This is heart breaking and then America is worried about the market and the economy at least we are not going threw a drought and we have plenty to eat America needs to put there priorities in order and help those most in need and stop policing the world abroad all for power and greed if we learn to live in a monarchy where we have one king and every body is treated equally then we can resolve our issues at home somila would have had help
from us but all those failed efforts that cost us the tax payers billions of dollars put us in dept but god bless American
I am a citizen of the world and these innocent people need our help and attention.
We cannot simply turn away and lament ourselves later.
In a world of flash mobs and looting let us use technology and disposable wealth to make this world fair and safe for all the creatures of this earth.
Thank you for not letting their plight fade into obscurity.
You know what I think it's outrageous that people like Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez make 23 million dollars just for setting in a chair and making comments on American Idol and yet these poor people are fighting just to stay alive.Or how about all the rappers and stars on Mtv cribs with their mansions...how is this world fair??I agree the rich have too much disproportionate money.They need to help out.Also how about teaching Somalia about birth control?
Yes, Mr. Cooper, it is depressing, mainly because it never stops! 40 years ago when I was a kid in my homeland of Sweden, it was the Starving Children of Biafra who needed help! Every year since then some poor starving nation, mostly on the African continent, needs assistance for their starving, dying refugees, who are placed in the middle of some military uprising! How are the kids in Biafra, or most recently, the refugees of Darfur!? Until the disenfranchised peoples of the disadvantaged nations, that are easy pickings for criminal groups, rise up in their own defense, there is not much the world can do but shore up the crumbling center & hope for the best! I understand the frustration, but we can't really expect one poor African nation with barely enough food to feed their own, to be willing to take on over 400,000 more starving people! Even opening the second camp can only help 170,000 refugees & Kenya is basically over-run by starving Somalis! This is the world at its ugliest, what can we do??
If the government can pay 2 take terrorist family members from Iraq 2 the US 2 have life saving/altering surgeries on the American dime. Why can't we step in and aid these people who are actually dying? 29,000 children have died already, its not their fault they were born into poverty, so why should they have to die because we are to ashamed 2 say we can't help them because we spent all our money fightin a war that wasn't ours 2 begin with! Shaking my head at the US government!
I was there in Somalia in 1992-93 for operation restore hope. i saw the starving and dying children. those visions are permanently in my mind today. i would like to know who Cooper is refering to when he says it was "preventable". those people are not going to sit down with anyone and have a logical discussion as to why things need to be a certain way. they would just as soon cut your head off. when we got bloodied up in 1993 why did Clinton pull us out. that could have possibly save this mess now. the only ones that could prevent what is going on there is islamic radicals. we tried once and had a commander in chief with no back bone so we choose to fail...sort of like what is going on now!
Only when Islamic extreamisim is erradicated will the aid become available. I agree that this is a country that should not be, however, it dose exist and the people need help. With all the childerans aid groups out there there must be hope...because other then hunger that's all they have.
What do you mean we have our own problems? we live in the richestsafest abundant nation on earth and you dont wanna help? i believe that all this is from the "monetary system" and the greed of the bankers of this government. Thos people deserve all the help they can get and i am ashamed to eat sometimes because i know their are people out there that live off of 1 dollar a day and eat as many calories in 1 week that we eat in one meal. we need to show compassion and pray for those people. God bless all the people who truly wanna help the Somalians and the Somalians as well. they will hopefully beng in paradise and thispoverty will never go awa. only God know an why all this must happen and it is for his perfect will. atese people will be in m.
IT disturbs ne that in Africa that there are numerous billionaires there in Africa. Why can each of them contribute a couple of millions or even a billion to help out with food and medicines.
less talking more doing that is all !
This is rediculous. ina totally undeveloped country- u cant ask people to stop having childen – we are all eachothers keeper- life is a gift- the only people with the mone in this country is the government – but the way the us is also headed- they keep it all and favor the corporations instead of the people. the people need to be tought skills- they are already here- it is cruel to let them die- of course- it is cruel to not hold their governments accountable. of course – it is probably not profitable tous
I just dont understand why cant the mega oil rich arab nations ever step up and help out? China where are you?
I cannot believe what I have read. That there are people commenting that are against helping these people is sad. Where did you folks leave your humanity? Anyone who has seen pictures of those suffering in the camps and isn't moved need to look closely at their souls. You all just make me sad.
29,000 innocent children of GOD, should not be dying before they really know how to live. Teach them how to feed themselves and have a governnment leader who cares. My heart just feels so broken that our world must be so... cruel. God bless the children and the people who try to help.
boy u think your life is bad. then u hear about this. then realize how greatful u really r. pray for those poor people over there they really need it. may GOD help us all.
Im sadden to hear about the people in somalia its a shame that the terrorist mistreat the people of that country i wish that they would show some compassion for the innonocent people of the country and leave them alone and educate each other on agriculture techniques to prevent famine from ever returning to there country
We suppose to love our brother as ourselves. We can all pray for this nation of people that are going thru desperate times. God will of a certianty bring a solution to the dying and hunger and other crises. Thanks Mr. Anderson, for reporting this may God, keep you and everyone involved safe.
The tortuous deaths of tens of thousands of children by starvation is a gut-wrenching tragedy. Our problems pale by comparison! How can we help to bring relief to these desperate people?
Dear Anderson,
Thank you for focusing on these African refugees who are dying, starving and naked.
Why do you think the world focuses so much money and attention to Palestinian "refugees", who all have apartments, electricity, jeans and sneakers, health care, food, televisions, and plumbing in their "refugee camps", while African refugees are naked, starving, homeless, live in the dirt, and get only a fraction per capita of palestinian refugees in aid money, food, clothing and shelter and media coverage?
While Africans get pennies, bread and water, Palestinians get billions of aid dollars, apartments, toothpaste and pasta and cheese- why the difference?
Put a side by side photo of a Palestinian "refugee" next to a Somalian refugee- and you will question why world leaders have ignored the African poverty for so long.
In both Sudan and Somalia, the Islamist insurgents have caused severe humanitarian crises. Thank you for reporting on this human misery and disaster of epic proportions.
It is sad to hear about such suffering. We all need to pray and help
Yes it is preventable no country should suffer this way, and a child should never. Its doesn't matter what race the child is of where they are from. Any one like John B. who can even think of looking in to a childs eyes and tell them they are poor they dont deserve to eat is cruel. Yes, our country has our problems but with us being one of the wealthest countries in the world, not THE wealthest, but one of, we should be able to put a stop to ours problems as well. So this is not just a problem for Africa, but for everyone in every country around the world. For them to sit by and not help in some way is not only wrong but cruel.
how sad is it to hear people continue to say "its not our problem, its there fault there children are dying for continuing to breed" or "let them die there are to many of them". we as humanity are failing, the people who make these comments, i hope you will experience there pain.
Sad to see and hear that people that have nothing to eat or drink are just waiting to die but if u gather all the homeless in America we might not be to far behind and "yes" America is to be called on again to help we are the worlds aide to any country so we should lead in helping world hunger and to the terrorist what ever they wanna call themselfs were coming so be ready to die for a leader that has "no merit" again there is a reason why wars are fought in other countries other than ours this what Americans need to understand...!
they didn't ask to die, why the people who has money not helping? all the famous people that spend money in buying fancy weardrobe for dogs and building many buildings aren't helping the people that are unfortunate to have it. shame to the celebrities that don't help the poors and that they show up with their$20 or $30 or dress and jewls on the red carpet and thalk about it when there are people dying couse the can't get food to save their life. I wish I was rich I would have change the world.
The way to correct and prevent this human catastrophe is to change the entire socio-economic policy of the region. As soon as industry is brought in and people are allowed to work and own property, their lives will change. Continuously begging the world for handouts will never solve or prevent the devastation. This is what happens when communist/socialist despotism rules.
It would be better to spend your money on Africa in providing cash incentives for the poorest of the population to receive cash for sterilization. The cash sum would go far in the third world for positive environmental impact and the population would benefit in 20 years.
The children are paying in such a cruel way for what the adults worldwide are not able to address and fix. This should be the Number One issue WorldWide for all to solve and to put everything else on hold until the children in Somalia are healthy again. It is a humanitarian shame that life is going on for all except the ones who are slowly dying. Anderson, thank you for what you are doing. To add, I think it is time to bring in the CEOs, multi billionaires, presidents and put them all on the spot for what they will pledge now to immediate help. And ask everyone else to pay what they can, even if $1.
Where can I go to find information about how to help?
yes it was why cant the world see our suffering? the international community ignored and turned a blind eye on Somalia. they intervene everywhere why not Somalia? a whole genaration of young Somalis are in a risk ox extinction, Somalia needs a foreign intervention deseprately and it has a chance now the militants have left the capital the amisom which back the intrim government need to be dubbled and and aid agencies must set a foot ground in Somalia. please share this or recommend. thank you
Its makes one wonder what kind of world we live in where upon hearing the death of thirty thousand babies under the age from starvation, some are so callous to focus on birth rates and factors rather then what can we do. Countless woman and chidlren have died and will continue to die walking endless miles, crossing international borders in hostile land for water. Call me crazy but I think its heartless to ponder at this stage about factors.
Anderson I cant imagine seeing this firsthand. famine in the world today is inexcuseable..if you were there 19 yeares ago that means the babes that survived are now starving teenagers..it makes me sick!!!!!what do we do? Iam just sick over this!!!!
i think in this day and time with as much as we as a people have going on its easy to forget about the little people i think outa site outa mind but i NO its only the bible fulfilling itself
No compassion for human life is going to damn the wealthy to eternal damnation and I am not a very religious person at all....
if islam is so right,why dont they help there own?
Thank u so much to bringing though sad, a reflective piece of news- this should be a pointer to our government that division as no bearings on growth & development of a nation.
Again, thank u for taking us into real journalism-away from 15min celebrities, priviledge but non productive "spotlight stealers" wink Kadashians etc
This was hard to watch. As we know, today we have problems everywhere – US, Europe, Middle East, Japan, Africa..., but the simple truth is that no one should die because of starvation. How is even possible to have Famine in 21st century? Many things don't make any sense in today's world.
Yes, it was "preventable" and yes, by anyone who cares human life. Thanks Cooper, the images were unpardonable.
these people need all the help they can get .Whether or not it was predicted is not the issue Help from the US or UN or agovernment that should be in place for them Help is needed That you for the messege
This is a complete travesty. It seems to me that the nation is only eager to interfere when and if interference bestows benefits.
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I'm starting us off on a bad foot by starting a day late, but hopefully the first two hotties are so hot that you'll forgive me. (Also, you'll understand that I bought a house and did a lot of packing and moving today.)
We Ladies… are long-time fans of U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte, but his title as hottest summer Olympian was seriously in jeopardy this summer when we got a load of Nathan Adrian.
He's got the killer body and ups the ante with an amazing smile – there are like five total pictures on Google where he's not grinning from ear to ear. He graduated with honors from Berkeley. And did we mention those abs.
Where Lochte is gimmicky and a bit blase, Adrian was fresh-faced and looked to be enjoying every minute. I found just one picture of him in a suit and there are few pics of him not in the pool. He seems goofy and fun and genuine. Here's hoping we have a few more summers of hoping we can one day have a beer or two with Nathan Adrian.
"I'm the first entry in the Ladies… Advent Calendar of Hotness? YES!"
Just in case you thought he was only bringing the abs…
A gorgeous grin and the crinkly eyes? Adorbs!
Sweet mother of god, this is gorgeous.


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'Farm-to-fork experience' shines light on wheat in D.C.
Three days shy of getting next year's crop in the ground, Chris Tallman took off for Washington, D.C. to see something he sees every day — and doesn't see every day.
"It's not every day you get to stand in a wheat field in the middle of The (National) Mall in Washington, D.C.," the Brandon, Colo., farmer said by cell phone as he arrived in Washington.
Wheat growers from around the country converged in the nation's capital on Thursday and Friday to assemble and operate a portable urban wheat field –– a massive display that included wheat at all stages of growth, along with a full-size combine and demonstration flour mills.
"We're calling it a farm-to-fork experience," said Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, who was also one of roughly 60 wheat representatives arriving from 15 states.
For two days, industry leaders prepared cookies and cinnamon rolls in a mobile bakery, demonstrated the milling process and visited with consumers and legislators about what's involved in getting wheat from the field to the table. Against the backdrop of a mock grocery store aisle, registered dietitians offered lessons in wheat nutrition, which included how to read nutrition labels, identify whole grain foods and determine proper serving sizes.
"This is a great opportunity for the wheat industry to enlighten and delight consumers and influencers with our story in a unique, attention-grabbing way," said David Moore, who produces wheat in Dumas, Texas, and is chairman of the Denver-based Wheat Foods Council. "We're congregating everything from the farm to the grocery store and placing it in a central location."
Many growers feel like D.C. is the perfect venue for shining light on the importance of U.S. wheat production.
"We're going to combine it into a lobbying trip and talk to our legislators about issues like (the conservation reserve program) and the farm bill," Tallman explained. "I think it will be a very worthwhile trip."
The first "urban wheat field" was held two years ago in New York City. Photos and YouTube videos are available on the Wheat Foods Council website at www.WheatFoods.org. The council offers a similar interactive farm-to-fork experience online at www.HowWheatWorks.com.


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Continuing right along with our unofficial exploration of all things simultaneously insane, horrific, and Disney-related comes "Toybox Series #3: Picture Book 1936,″ a 1934 Japanese propaganda cartoon by Komatsuzawa Hajime.
Like American propaganda of the era (1, 2), this animation also channeled Walt's happy cartoon creations. Unlike those cartoons, this short featured Mickey Mouse as the evil ringleader of an army of vampire bats representing American influence in the Pacific. As Kinema explains, this short stars Momotaro, a folklore figure who you may remember from the acid-drop Taiwanese action flick Magic of Spell:
[In the 1930s] one very popular cartoon character was Momotaro, the "Peach boy," who appeared in a number of cartoons designed not just for domestic consumption within Japan, but for propaganda use in occupied countries as well. For example, Picture Book 1936 (Momotaro vs. Mickey Mouse) resented fanged Mickey Mouse look-alikes riding giant bats, attacking peaceful Pacific islanders (represented by cats and dolls, for some reason); the hero Momotaro jumps out of a picture book, repels the American mice, and cherry trees blossom throughout the island as the grateful natives sing "Tokyo Chorus."
Other characters in this short include the super-strong boy Kintarō and Urashima Tarō, a Rip Van Winkle style character who uses a magic box to transform the marauding mouse into a withered old rat. For more weirdo propaganda from World War II, see these examples both supernatural and pornographic.
SEE ALSO: Nimbus libéré, a deranged 1944 cartoon about Mickey, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Popeye bombing France under the Vichy regime. Thanks for the tip, HypnoSifl!
Via Pink Tentacle. Hat tip to Morris!


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BRYN MAWR, Pa. (AP) — Rip Scott regrets his 2008 presidential vote for Barack Obama. The 60-year-old real estate company owner is going home to his Republican Party this year. Here in Philadelphia's suburbs where Pennsylvania political fights can be won or lost, Scott's reversal is the evidence Mitt Romney is looking for to merit his sudden, eleventh-hour sortie into the state.
"I just kind of bought into the whole thing," Scott said remorsefully as he headed for a haircut along Philadelphia's affluent Main Line. He said he feels demonized by Democrats as a successful business owner and wonders why Obama considers him one of the wealthy who needs to contribute more in taxes. "I don't feel wealthy," he said.
In the campaign's final days, Romney is making a concerted push into Pennsylvania, aided by outside political groups spending millions in last-minute ads to help erode Obama's support in 2008, when he won it by more than 10 percentage points. Polling shows Obama holding on to a 4 or 5 percentage point lead over Romney, but Romney has been gaining ground.
The incursion raises the question: Can Pennsylvania help Romney win the election, or is the state once again teasing a Republican presidential candidate only to see him fail??
For Romney, still flush with campaign money, a foray into Pennsylvania is not folly. He has spent massive amounts of time and money in neighboring Ohio only to see Obama maintain a slight and stubborn polling lead. Without Ohio, Romney needs Pennsylvania in his column.
Unlike states with early voting, 95 percent of the Pennsylvania votes are expected to be cast on Election Day, justifying a late attempt to sway the outcome. Romney aides argue that Obama is doing worse in the voter-rich Philadelphia suburbs than he did in 2008 and that Romney is doing better than recent Republicans have, and that he can build on the growing GOP strength in the western part of the state.
What's more, Pennsylvania has not been saturated with political advertising, giving Romney and his supporting groups an opportunity to sway last-minute voters with a barrage of ads. Obama is not ignoring the state, and now is buying commercial time in the state as well. He's also sending his most formidable weapon, former President Bill Clinton, to the state Monday to campaign in Pittsburgh, Scranton and in the Philadelphia area.
"Why not?" says Franklin & Marshall College political scientist Terry Madonna, summing up Romney's reasoning for taking a chance with Pennsylvania.
"When they look across the border and see Pennsylvania, which was a 7-, 8- , 9-point state for Obama before the first debate, is now a 4-, 5-point Obama state," he said. "All things being equal, why not hedge their bets?"
Still, the state has been elusive for the GOP. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 4-3 in the state. Despite trying, no Republican presidential candidate has won the state since 1988. The closest was in 2004, when President George W. Bush came up 2.5 percentage points short of John Kerry. For Romney to win, Obama would have to do worse than Kerry and Romney would have to do better than Bush.
"Every four years we go through this with Republicans saying that they're going to play in Pennsylvania," Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said. "It's a sign that he can't quite figure out his path to 270 electoral votes, so he's sending out lifelines."
Romney's entry into Pennsylvania comes in the immediate aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated neighboring New Jersey. The state's southeast has a special relationship with New Jersey, where many of its residents vacation and where New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is as well-known as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, if not better known.
Obama's tour with Christie to survey the storm's damage this week and Christie's compliments for Obama's response are bound to be noticed in some parts of the state.
"The president performs, he's on the ground, he's getting praise by one of the nation's leading Republicans and early supporters of Gov. Romney," Madonna said. "It's certainly helpful. We don't know how helpful."
Romney political director Rich Beeson said Romney will gain in Republican regions where he will push issues of jobs and energy, particularly gas exploration in the northeastern part of the state and coal in the southwest corner. But much of the attention by the two campaigns is in the ring of counties around Democratic-heavy Philadelphia. Romney will campaign in those suburbs this weekend.
With 1 in 5 of Pennsylvania's registered voters living there, the heavily populated, moderate suburbs of Chester, Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery counties are a reliable predictor of who will win the state. Voters there are highly educated and accustomed to splitting their tickets; they tend to lean liberal on environmental and social issues but conservative on fiscal matters.
"The types of voters in places like Bucks County or any of the suburban counties in Philadelphia are not a bad fit for Mitt Romney, especially the moderate Mitt that he's pitched himself as this fall," said Christopher Borick, a pollster and political scientist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.
"These aren't individuals who are going to say 'Oh, I can't relate at all to a wealthy businessman,'" Borick said, "because in that part of the state a wealthy businessman is not exotic."
Indeed, Beeson sees inroads in those Philadelphia suburbs where Romney could gain from a primary contest when he was labeled a "Massachusetts moderate" by conservative opponents.
It's no wonder that a Romney radio ad playing in Mrs. Marty's Deli stressed his time as Massachusetts governor, working with a Democratic legislature, and his willingness to work across partisan divides as president.
Perry Gresh, 50, a Republican who owns an oil exploration company, said he voted for Ron Paul in the primary but will support Romney as the party's nominee in hopes of seeing a more stable tax structure.
Jonathan Marsh, a 21-year-old software engineer and registered Democrat, said he would vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson if it were not, in essence, a wasted vote. Instead, he will vote for Obama because he finds Romney to be untrustworthy and unreliable.
About 45 minutes away, in Newtown, Warren May, 67, a registered independent, said he will be voting for Romney after supporting Obama in 2008. May said he doesn't regret voting for Obama and struggled to pinpoint exactly why he's switching.
"I don't know what (Obama's) agenda is," May said as he left a drugstore. "He definitely has the smarts to be a great leader, but he didn't show himself to be a great leader."


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Reading Time: 6 minutes
Written by John Piper, desiringGog.org
One of the sweet advantages of insisting that there is no such thing as same-sex "marriage" is that there is therefore also no such thing as same-sex "divorce." In the days ahead, this will be very good news for many who repent.
In the years to come, God will be merciful on thousands of those who have been damaged by the present moral madness of our culture. He will exalt Christ in the conversion of many who have lived in same-sex relationships. More complexities than we can imagine will be presented to us in the church.
One of the more difficult scenarios will be what the church should do when, say, two women, who have lived in a so-called married state for some years, are converted to Christ, repent of their sin, and want to join the church. And what if they have children?
In this uncharted territory, here is a map with some of the biblical guideposts I foresee. It is not exhaustive. I invite every pastor to pray that God would grant him the great privilege of leading new believers through this process.
1. Rejoice. We should join all heaven in the joy that our Father and the angels feel over this repentance.
"There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." (Luke 15:7)
2. Pray. This is going to be complex and difficult. We need humble wisdom beyond the merely human.
The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. (James 3:17)
3. Listen. We must not assume we know all we need to know about the situation. Disentangling the relational threads (both sinful and natural) will require significant knowledge of the situation present and past.
If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. (Proverbs 18:13)
"Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" (John 7:51)
4. Instruct. Based on what we have learned from listening, we will share what the Bible says first about the gospel, and second about the sin of sexual relations outside biblical marriage.
Christ died for our sins. (1 Corinthians 15:3)
All sins will be forgiven the children of man. (Mark 3:28)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. (1 John 1:9)
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Put off your old self [and] be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and . . . put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22–24)
Flee from sexual immorality. (1 Corinthians 6:18)
5. Clarify that same-sex attraction is a brokenness that is part of humanity's fallen condition, along with other emotional/psychological/physical desires, dispositions, and infirmities. Explain that willful expressions of this brokenness through prohibited behaviors is what the Bible has in mind when it says,
Neither those who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:10)
6. Help them see, therefore, that what the state has called a "marriage" between them is not marriage. There is no such thing as "same-sex marriage" in God's eyes. Therefore, they are not married in the sight of God, regardless of how the state defines their relationship. Do not embrace the state's prostitution of language by calling the former state "marriage" or the ending of it "divorce."
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)
"From the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife." (Mark 10:6–7)
7. Make plain that, therefore, since there is no such thing as "same-sex marriage," there is no such thing as "same-sex divorce" in the sight of God. The biblical condemnations of divorce do not apply to non-existent "marriages." What God has not joined together, man cannot separate.
"Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery." (Luke 16:18)
"What God has joined together, let not man separate." (Mark 10:9)
8. Patiently help them think and pray through the many painful and complex issues involved in ending this romantic, sexual relationship.
Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
Love is patient and kind. (1 Corinthians 13:4)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. (Colossians 3:16)
9. Be ready to surround them with loving and generous brothers and sisters who can help provide for all the practical necessities that will be involved: from housing to childcare to counseling to legal assistance to transportation to financial counsel. Fold them into a nurturing web of new caring relationships.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Romans 12:13)
If one of you says to a brother or a sister, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? (James 2:16)
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18)
There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands (Mark 10:29–30)
10. Assist them in the legal processes and expenses of undoing what the state called "marriage." That the state will call this process "divorce" is not decisive in what it really is: the removal of a sinful fiction.
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21)
Let us decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. (Romans 14:13)
11. Help them see that in all likelihood an ongoing cohabitation without romantic or sexual involvement will be unrealistic relationally, and misleading as a witness to the world. A new way of living in community will be needed. And perhaps, painful as it may be, some distance between them may be necessary for a significant season.
Abstain from every form (or appearance) of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:22)
"Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8)
12. Help them pray and think through what may be the most painful issue of all, the custody of the children. If the children are old enough to have some sense of what is happening, provide the most sensitive counsel and instruction so that they can understand that God is doing something really good, even if at the time it may feel painfully disruptive. Pray that God would create in all the adults involved a heart of sacrifice and love that puts the good of the children above immediate desires. And hold out the possibility with pressure that God is able to work the wonder of providing a father for these children.
Children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. (2 Corinthians 12:14)
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. (James 1:27)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. . . . Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1–4)
"With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
13. Don't leave these women and children on their own once a new life has been established. There will be many ongoing temptations and challenges for years to come. Seek to fold them into gospel-rich churches with seriously supportive relationships.
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:26–27)
We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. . . . Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. (Romans 12:4–10)
This post was inspired by Sunday night's panel discussion at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis on the implications of Minnesota's recent legalizing of so-called same-sex marriage. Available now are both audio and video.
More from John Piper on homosexuality:
"Let Marriage Be Held in Honor": Thinking Biblically About So-Called Same-Sex Marriage(sermon)
Discerning the Will of God Concerning Homosexuality and Marriage (sermon)
"My Eyes Shed Streams of Tears": Thoughts on the New Calamity (article)
John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of DesiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.


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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
As Texas Governor Rick Perry and his legal team ask a judge to throw out a felony indictment alleging he abused his power, CNN is digging deeper into the charges against him - and finding a web of partisan politics, old grudges and a drunken driving arrest. CNN's Drew Griffin investigates.
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The project:
ARGE Koralmtunnel, Paierdorf, Austria
Executing companies:
Max Bögl Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG
Swietelsky Baugesellschaft m.b.H.
The Koralmtunnel in Austria represents a key structure of the new high-performance railway between the provincial capitals of Klagenfurt and Graz. The exploratory tunnel in Mitterpichling is around 2,6km long and runs from the future west portal of the Koralm Tunnel upwards. This should be completed by the end of 2006.
The second tunnel towards Koralpe is planned to take around 1,5 years and break through to the exploratory tunnel that has now been started in Paierdorf.
The exploratory shaft in Paierdorf, which is the first exploratory section, has a final depth of 125 metres and has already been completed. Since July 2005, tunnelling of the approximately six km long exploratory tunnel in Paierdorf has been making progress. Work on the approximately 2,2 kilometre long exploratory tunnel in Leibenfeld in Styria has been taking place since mid-May 2005. The total cost for the continuing exploratory projects totals around EUR 145 million and should be completed by 2009.
The problem:
Pumping out abrasive groundwater that accumulates by using submersible pumps in a storage tank. The groundwater is pumped to the surface through a 120 m high vertical shaft by way of two risers, each with three pumps that are switched one over another.
Our solution:
Use of twelve KTZ411 and five KTZ32.2 for the complete drainage of the tunnel. The pumps were switched one over another with distances of 40 metres using a cascading control system. The pumps are equipped with a pressure release valve so that the collecting pressure cannot destroy the mechanical seal.


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Hey Juggledad,
If you see this, no I was not able to respond to the post that you moved for me. So I don't know what the problem is.
I could really use some help with two different things. See if you can find out why I do not have access to the section where we can post to give or get help.


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It might have been easier to photograph the baseball and smoke separately and then merge them in Photoshop, but… eh. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Crash Davis: "Relax, all right? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls… it's more democratic."
– Kevin Costner – Bull Durham
About this image: digital photograph (Canon 600D) lightly modified in Adobe Photoshop


text: AUGUSTA, Ga. >> The Masters began Thursday with three shots right down the middle of the fairway. Just not terribly far. Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus hit the ceremonial tee shots with fans already lining both sides of the first fairway on a brisk, sunny morning. Still competitive even after all these years, Nicklaus went last and hit a drive that went about a yard past Player\u0092s shot. \u0093But it\u0092s not bad when you think he used to outdrive me by 50,\u0094 Player quipped. The \u0093Big Three\u0094 combined to win 13 green jackets, including seven in a row at the start of the 1960s. This Masters is far less predictable. Without Tiger Woods or a dominant figure, it\u0092s seen as the most wide-open Masters in years. A bunch of brash Augusta rookies are eager to fill Woods\u0092 shoes, and the last two dozen majors have been divvied up among 21 winners. Early Thursday, Webb Simpson birdied the first three holes and Sweden\u0092s Jonas Blixt also was at 3-under par, shooting 33 on the front side. Stewart Cink, Kevin Stadler, Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker were at 1 under. Ryan Moore, who won the Par 3 contest Wednesday, thinks it might be time to break the curse of that winner never winning the tournament. \u0093You never know,\u0094 he said. \u0093Someone has got to break that (Par 3) curse at some point in time, so hopefully it\u0092s me. Who knows? I might go shoot 8 under or something, make a couple of hole-in-ones.\u0094 As unlikely as that sounds, pretty much everything else is up for grabs at this Masters. Recovering from back surgery, Woods is sitting out the opening major of the year for the first time since turning pro. Even as his dominance waned in recent years, he was always the clear-cut favorite coming into Augusta, where he has won four times. Now, as Moore said, who knows? Jason Day, Sergio Garcia and former Masters champion Zach Johnson are the only players from the top 10 who have won anywhere in the world this year. Only one of the past seven winners on the PGA Tour was ranked in the top 75. \u0093I think if you\u0092re outside the top 50 in the world this week, you\u0092ve got a great chance,\u0094 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose said with a laugh. Woods is out of golf until the summer, but the show goes on at a tournament that rarely fails to deliver plenty of drama. \u0093It\u0092s a huge loss,\u0094 defending Masters champion Adam Scott said. \u0093But, as every year here, this event produces something special no matter what. It just has a way of doing it. It\u0092s not going to involve Tiger this year, but it will involve someone else and it will be a memorable event anyway.\u0094 It could be Scott, trying to take over as the world\u0092s No. 1 player and join Woods, Nicklaus and Nick Faldo as the only back-to-back winners. Or it could be Phil Mickelson, who last year won the British Open at age 42 and now has a chance to join Woods and Palmer with a fourth green jacket. While Woods last won the Masters in 2005, he had finished out of the top six only once since then. That\u0092s what made him such a compelling figure at Augusta. He always seemed to be there. Rose falls on the side of experience \u0097 knowing where to miss, knowing where you can\u0092t afford to miss, where the hole locations tend to be on the contoured greens and using the slope to get the ball close. \u0093Always you can have the unknowns,\u0094 Rose said. \u0093But I would say 15 guys are pretty strong favorites.\u0094 Fuzzy Zoeller was the last Augusta rookie to claim the green jacket in 1979, and the only other ones to do it were the first two: Horton Smith and Gene Sarazen. Then again, there are 24 first-timers in the 98-player field, a record (except for the first tournament), and none of them will concede an insurmountable learning curve. Besides, no one is dominating golf at the moment. Walker has the most PGA Tour wins (three) this season, but this is his first Masters. Scott had a chance to go to No. 1 three weeks ago at Bay Hill, but he lost a three-shot lead in the final round to Matt Every, who had never won in his career. \u0093Doesn\u0092t matter if you\u0092ve played here once or if you\u0092ve played here 50 times,\u0094 said Patrick Reed, who has won three times in the past eight months. \u0093When it comes down to it, it\u0092s just going to be that whoever is playing the best is going to walk away with the trophy.\u0094


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(Jeans – Exact, Jacket – Exact, T-Shirt – Exact, Bag – Similar, Wellies – Exact & Exact)
Rain, rain and more rain, is all it still keeps doing! I think this has been one of the craziest winters that I have ever experienced in my 25 years actually. It's not really all that cold, which is very unusual for England too! Anyway, in my attempt to brighten up a rainy day, I went for a jewel tone colour scheme!
I wore my James Jeans Couture Skinny Jeans which I tucked into my Hunter Dark Ruby Gloss Short Wellies. I find these shorter wellies are more practical for wearing around town as they aren't so big, plus I do adore the colour. I matched them with my H&M t-shirt which is a similar shade and then wore my French Connection Athena Faux Leather Biker Jacket in Black over the top. Just to add some more colour to the mix, I then wore my Mulberry Mini Taylor in Sycamore as I think yellow really livens the combination of burgundy and black up. I usually like to have a bright and colourful umbrella too, like the one in my banner, but I decided on a clear one for this outfit as the other colours wouldn't really match too well!
On a different note, I have something very exciting to share with you next week that I can't wait to say! I know you will love it too! If you follow me on Instagram though (@LornaRaindrops) then you might already have had a clue as to what it might be! Any guesses? What do you think of the outfit though, do you like it? How are you all managing to stay dry in the constant rain? Comment and let me know!


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Toshiba Portégé R600-11B
Average of 2 scores (from 2 reviews)
Reviews for the Toshiba Portégé R600-11B
Source: SFT - 4/10
Comparison, , Length Unknown, Date: 03/01/2010
Rating: Total score: 97%
Source: PC Praxis - 3/2010
Comparison, , Length Unknown, Date: 02/01/2010
Rating: Total score: 88% price: 60%
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD: Onboard (shared Memory) GPU built in the GM45, GE45 and GS45 chipset (Montevina). Because of two more shaders and a higher core clock, much faster than the old GMA X3100. Still not advisable for gamers (DirectX 10 games not playable or only with very low settings). The integrated video processor is able to help decode HD videos (AVC/VC-2/MPEG2) , e.g., for a fluent Blu-Ray playback with slow CPUs.
Only some 3D games with very low demands are playable with these cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Core 2 Duo: This is the Core Duo and Core Solo successor with a longer pipeline and 5-20% more speed without more power consumption. As an addition to the Core Duo design there exists a fourth decoder, an amplified SSE-unit and an additional arithmetical logical unit (ALU).
The Core 2 Duo for laptops is identical to the desktop Core 2 Duo processors but the notebook-processors work with lower voltages (0.95 to 1188 Volt) and a lower Frontside bus clock (1066 vs 667 MHz). The performance of equally clocked notebooks is 20-25% lower than Desktop PCs because of the lower Frontside bus clock and the slower hard disks.
Power efficient low voltage processor based on the Penryn 3M core that features all Penryn functions like Virtualization and Trusted Execution.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
This screen diagoal is quite large for tablets but small for subnotebooks. Some convertibles are also represented with that size.
Large display-sizes allow higher resolutions. So, details like letters are bigger. On the other hand, the power consumption is lower with small screen diagonals and the devices are smaller, more lightweight and cheaper.» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.
1.1 kg:
In former time,s this weight was typical for big tablets, small subnotebooks, ultrabooks and convertibles with a 10-11 inch display-diagonal. Nowadays, often 15 inch laptops weigh as much.
Toshiba: Toshiba Corporation is a multinational conglomerate manufacturing company, headquartered in Japan. The company's main business is in Infrastructure, Consumer Products, and Electronic devices and components. Toshiba-made Semiconductors are among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Toshiba is one of the biggest international notebook-manufacturer. There exist many reviews for Toshiba models.
Toshiba is not present in the smartphone sector. As laptop manufacturer, Toshiba still had 6.6% of world market share in 2014. However it fell to only 1.6% in 2016, making only for the 8th place.
92.5%: Indeed, this rating is very goodl There do not exist many notebook models, which are rated better.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.


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Get an overview of all the shows The Fleet has to offer.
View All Showtimes
Permanent Exhibitions
The Fleet has multiple exhibitions on permanent display.
Want more Reuben H. Fleet Science Center trivia? Well, we've got your quiz fix right here. Try these challenging questions and find out how much you know about the Fleet.
1. What is the name of the "living experiment" currently featured at the Fleet that explores the how life on Earth may have been started?
A. Bubbling Liquids and Zapping Electricity
B. The Miller and Urey Exhibit
C. Science Through Art
D. Origins of Life


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Your personal city guide for Saint John.
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Team USA celebrates winning the women's water polo gold medal over Spain on Aug. 9
LONDON -- The United States won its first gold medal in women's water polo, getting five goals from Maggie Steffens and a sterling performance from goalkeeper Betsey Armstrong to cruise to an 8-5 win over Spain on Thursday.
The Americans overpowered a young Spanish team at both ends of the pool to lead 5-2 by halftime, and they never looked back.
"I am speechless. It still hasn't sunk in," U.S. captain Brenda Villa said. "I can't describe it. It's the end of a journey, and I got my fairy-tale ending."
The U.S. has long been a power in women's water polo, but the Americans had never translated their success at other major competitions to the Olympics, taking bronze in 2004 and silver in 2000 and 2008.
Villa and Heather Petri played on all three of those Olympic teams. They came back this year, along with five other veterans from 2008, and were joined by a talented batch of new players, chief among them the 19-year-old Steffens, who led all scorers in London with 21 goals.
Her five-goal effort in the final came as a bookend to her stunning seven-goal Olympic debut to open the games.
Steffens was unstoppable against Spain, scoring with long-distance shots, outmuscling Spanish defenders in front of goal to score from close range and even slotting home a penalty shot.
For Steffens, who was in the stands with her family to watch her sister Jessica lose the 2008 final, it was particularly sweet this year to give Villa and Petri a win to end their careers.
"I've looked up to Brenda and Peti, and I was at the 2008 games and I felt that passion of the loss," she said. "I wanted this for Brenda and Peti -- to be able to retire and go out with the happiness of having gold, and for the '08 girls, to fill that void, to get the gold medal."


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The diagnostic criteria for a substance use disorder were previously reviewed. These criteria apply to cannabis use disorder.
The more commonly used word for cannabis is marijuana. Other names are pot, hash, weed, Buddha grass, dope, ganga, herb, and reefer. Cannabis is a plant that contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. This ingredient makes marijuana an addictive substance. The dried marijuana leaves are smoked. The THC rapidly enters the bloodstream from the lungs producing an immediate "high."
Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal substance. When young adults experiment with drugs, alcohol is usually the first drug they try. Marijuana is a close second.
Therapists are Standing By to Treat Your Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Health Needs
In the United States, approximately 5% of people age 12 and older meet the criteria for a cannabis use disorder. Cannabis use disorders are more common in males than females. Marijuana interferes with the ability to carry out daily routines. Regular cannabis use is associated with amotivational syndrome (AS). The AS describes a lack of ambition or desire to accomplish anything.
Cannabis addiction develops gradually. The pattern begins with infrequent, occasional use. Gradually this increases to more regular and frequent use. Because marijuana intoxication does not produce many readily observable symptoms, people often smoke marijuana throughout the day. Cannabis use disorder among adults typically involves daily use despite harmful problems. Frequent users of marijuana often use other drugs as well. The most common are nicotine, alcohol, and cocaine.
Marijuana can alleviate the symptoms of some medical disorders. For example, marijuana has reduced side-effects of chemotherapy; weight loss that accompanies AIDS; and chronic pain. However, the medical use of marijuana remains controversial. Public misperception and legal controversies have impeded research progress (Onaivi, 2005).
Cannabis (Marijuana): Withdrawal
If cannabis use is discontinued after prolonged (daily or almost daily) use, over a period of several months, withdrawal may occur. Symptoms include irritability, anxiety, depressed mood, sleep disturbance, and restlessness. At least one physical symptom is required for diagnosis such as fever, chills, tremors, sweating, and abdominal pain.
Effects of Marijuana: Cannabis intoxication
Cannabis (marijuana) intoxication develops rapidly. It usually begins with a feeling of euphoria (a "high"). It then leads to anxiety; a lack of coordination; reduced judgment; memory problems; decreased alertness; and difficulty engaging in social interactions. Because people intoxicated on cannabis have impaired memory, they tend to lose their own train of thought. They cannot follow a conversation very well. Thus, their attempts at conversation can be disjointed and sometimes nonsensical. Cannabis intoxication may also lead to increased appetite (the "munchies"); dry mouth ("cottonmouth"); persistent cough; reduced heart rate; and red, blood-shot eyes.
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