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At $199, the price of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet is a tempting purchase for some iPad owners, who are wondering whether the tablets will coexist or compete.
Amazon on Wednesday introduced its first tablet, the Kindle Fire, which is now available for order on Amazon's retail site. The tablet has a 7-inch multitouch LCD display and Google's Android OS, and provides easy access to Amazon's application store and music, video and cloud services.
Kindle Fire joins a tablet market dominated by Apple's iPad, which is projected to have a 73.4% market share by year end, according to research firm Gartner. While some analysts have argued that Kindle Fire could pose a competitive threat to the iPad, others have argued that Amazon's tablet is more of a threat to other Android tablets, which cannot compete with Amazon on services, entertainment and cloud offerings.
The iPad has an established following that's hard to shake, said David Daoud, research director at IDC. But at $199, the Kindle Fire is $300 cheaper than the entry-level iPad 2, and could be an attractive companion device.
Beyond the price, some potential buyers cited Kindle Fire's browser, called Silk, which uses a cloud service to pre-process Web pages to make browsing faster.
Dave Winer, one of the pioneers of RSS and podcasting, and now a visiting scholar at New York University, has already ordered the Kindle Fire. He is appreciative of Amazon's investment in making the Web better and creating a new browser.
"They've really worked well to make the Web work on this device," Winer said.
Winer noted that Apple's lack of Flash support doesn't help browsing on the iPad, which he uses for Web activity and email, among other tasks.
Winer found Kindle Fire's price economical, but he already owns an iPad and is not really sure how the two tablets would compete head-to-head. The Kindle Fire has yet to be tested, so it's hard to set expectations for the device, but he is an active customer of Amazon and also a member of Amazon Prime, which offers unlimited instant movie and TV show streaming as one of the benefits.
"They are offering competition for Apple, and that's good. Maybe users will come out ahead," Winer said.
Combining Silk with Kindle Fire will speed up browsing, said Michael Vorel, CEO of Vastplanet. Vorel already owns an iPad and wants to buy the Kindle Fire tablet.
"I never enjoyed reading on the iPad; I think [Kindle Fire] would fill in as a way to read books, but, number two, I really like the cloud integration," Vorel said. With the iPad, Vorel felt trapped with content on one tablet and having to use iTunes to sync. Amazon has said it will offer free cloud storage for Amazon content, and Vorel said he likes the idea of having content available anytime through the cloud.
But Vorel believes the two tablets can coexist. The iPad is "hands down" great for entertainment, Vorel said, and he would like his daughter to have the iPad on a trip. At the same time, Amazon's Kindle Fire will provide access to Amazon's cloud and video services, which is valuable, Vorel said.
Rick Mathieson, a noted writer and creative strategist, said at $199, the Kindle Fire might be a good purchase as a media consumption device for his family.
But as cool as the Kindle Fire might sound, he loves the iPad, and is keeping that for himself.
"I own an iPad 2 and nothing's going to replace that," Mathieson said.


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When looking at pictures/video of people on drugs and drunk, it is inevitable to not see it as an aberration to what is considered normal for us within human behavior – of course this is more visible with alcohol for example, such as the amount of pictures we got to see today from 'new year's eve bash' wherein there's a literal bashing toward the physical body
Welcome to 2013: Shameful scenes of booze-fuelled New Year's chaos in cities across Britain
and it is still quite shocking to see fellow beings of the same species as myself in such dire conditions. Are these beings in any way self-aware of what they are doing to their physical bodies with the amount of drugs/ alcohol they are ingesting? No – hence, it is a clear indicative of mind-possession that is no different to being demon possessed, since it can only be an energy-experience that which is being sought through the identification of ourselves as energy such as emotions, feelings, thoughts that lead us to do 'whatever it takes' to simply 'get out of ourselves' for a moment. One single question: is it really ourselves as the physical body pleading to 'escape from reality' or is it the mind?
Our physical body is absolutely self-aware and functional without requiring a mind to 'think' for it to breathe, digest food and do all the necessary processes to keep itself alive when having the necessary fuel/ food to exist – then, what is is that makes our self-experience so miserable? The mind, and the mind is not a foreign entity, it is a systematized version of ourselves as all the relationships we've formed toward energy as the identification of 'who we are,' without ever being aware of how energy exists, how it is formed and what is consists of, which is essentially representing our primordial separation from our initial stage of absolute equality and oneness. It's been a long way since then to what we see today as an outflow of mind-possessed people, drug addicts and any other person attempting against their own life while existing only as the thoughts, the self-experience that leads one to just want to kill, consume drugs, escape reality, do anything we can to escape ourselves, our own mind, without realizing we created the whole experience in the first place, we accepted and allowed it and nothing or no one will 'save us from ourselves' other than ourselves.
Desteni presents the material to understand why these mind possessions/ demon-possessions take place, how it functions, why it functions this way, how come we have been veiled from understanding these basic facts about our self existence and equally important: the tools of self support to be able to Stop manifesting further consequence and be able to support oneself to become a living being that is no longer willing to exist as a piece of fuel for the mind to consume, which is no different to how we are consuming the Earth's resources to manifest our current world-system wherein we follow the light and love of the mind-experiences and beLIEve that 'no one gets hurt' from that – well, that is plain ignorance and the material is here for your education (see at the end of the blog the list of interviews/ videos/ website for further support)
220. Drug Culture: Mad Society as a Lifestyle
225. Is Living Life about Getting High?
259.Drug Addiction Prevented by Unconditional Living Support
The question in the back of the head is: why would we do something like this to ourselves? What is driving us to such a physical abuse and self denigration such as the point we take ourselves to with alcohol and drugs? The answer is the mind as a system that represents and stands as the mirror of our beingness/ who we have become in separation of ourselves that feeds off of the energy that is able to be obtained from the physical body itself as a the source of substance that is transformed as a fuel for the mind to exist, which is what energy represents: an abusive relationship that we have externalized as our reality and that we fuel/enhance with the use of drugs/alcohol in various ways and a variety of 'effects' that we believe is somehow leading us to 'escape from ourselves' while in fact, the absolute opposite is happening. This is all explained in the Quantum Mind Self Awareness interviews as well as the Demons in the Afterlife interviews wherein it is quite shocking to get the perspective of how demons would see the mind as this frightening entity existing in the body, and us human beings being literally mind-possessed believing that the entire configuration of 'who we are' as our personality/ ego is ourselves, absolutely unaware of the mind as as an actual merciless leech existing within/as us, simply because we identified with all thoughts, feelings and emotions, all backchat/ internal conversations as who we are.
And this is How we got ourselves to create all forms of discomfort with ourselves as a physical body, as a being in this world: we accepted our Thinking as who we are, we accepted our internal conflict/ discomfort/ tormented thoughts as 'who we are,' we accepted this emotional distress as 'who we are,' we accepted these judgments of emotions and feelings as 'who I am' – this is what we have become: a mind-possessed individual by a system that we accepted and allowed ourselves to be/become, a system that reflects that inherent separation from who we are as physical beings.
The reason why Desteni is such an important point to understand within this is because: unless one study how the mind operate within the physical, we will still hold on to the 'nice experiences' that we have defined our emotions and feelings to be, absolutely unaware of the gruesome detail of how energy is formed and resourced from the physical body. Want some proof?
A basic interview of demon–possession and the existence of the interdimensional portal: Journeys into the Afterlife – The Physical Demon – Part 9 and Journeys into the afterlife Seeing mind in the Physical – Part 23 to understand to what extent the truth of all things 'unexplainable' has been revealed already, just not everyone in this world is aware of it.
Unless one understand/get to know how the mind operates in the physical, we'll continue to indulge in our own mind-possessions, and dare I say that even with understanding how this entire process takes place, stopping the energetic addiction to any self-experience requires an extreme amount of self-discipline in order to commit ourselves to stop the actual addiction/dependence that we have created toward our own mind. Just like quitting any drug or alcohol-addiction, stopping participation in our mind is the first step: withdrawing from that constant desire to experience energy is just like telling a vampire to no longer suck blood, we believe we will die without it, but we don't, we don't require emotions, feelings and thoughts to function as a physical body and this is precisely the common sense we explain at Desteni: our entire world system is the externalization of the mind and its workings within the physical body: we are scavenging, using, abusing, raping, murdering, exploiting this physical world to power our individual delusions of grandeur, which is usually seen/ portrayed as 'positive things' like love, happiness, sex, money, success, royalty, fame, fortune, beautiful pictures that evoke a sense of 'peace and joy' while being absolutely unaware of how the mind is precisely creating such experiences within ourselves by the most hideous means that involve the consumption of our own flesh in the name of 'our god' Energy.
This is a basic aspect to understand within the experiences we will see in our reality: people getting more and more lost in the mind and believing 'no one can help them' but the fact is that we require an exorbitant amount of self will to realize one single thing: there is no one or nothing to blame for what we are internally experiencing, this is no 'god cursing' here, this is only the result of an entire existence as humanity of absolute neglect toward life and it is only fair now that we start paying for all the damage we've done.
We live by the tools of self support that Desteni presents and has directly supported every single being that has the absolute life-dedication to become a Living being in the actual definition of what Living implies: stopping existing as this mind-driven organic robot and become self-directive, self aware and as such, stop existing as a mind-possessed bot that seeks for love, light, sex, drugs, alcohol and fun, neglecting the reality of actual suffering, abuse and violence that exists as a counter act for anyone that dares to solace in 'having a great life' – when will we realize that No One in this world will be absolutely 'fine' and 'happy' unless ALL Living beings are Equally Supported as Life?
It is necessary for us to face what is coming ahead, it won't be pretty but we are all certainly responsible. Do not fear as it is only us finally being able to stop placing mirrors in front of ourselves toward the 'outside' to blame and instead, take it back to self and realize what we have become. For this, we have the tools of Self-Forgiveness, Self Honesty, Self Corrective Application in order to finally understand that it is only through Words and Sound that we will be able to stand finally as self directive beings that have programmed ourselves to perpetuate the decay we are all currently participating in as The Mind.
It is only through this possession of who we are as energy that we drive ourselves to the most hideous ways of self abuse wherein drug and alcohol addiction only represent a catalyst to what is Already existent within us: the The Reality of Human Nature is Not Benevolence: Welcome to Reality.
"If you could only See what the Source of Light is, in your Mind: you would NEVER Trust it Again. But you can't – because: the You that's Looking, is not Looking with Physical Eyes, but is Looking with Imagination. And in Imagination: you can make-up Any Illusion to your Heart's Content. That's Why you Shouldn't Trust the Content of your Heart. Because, the Heart Imagined as some 'Higher Force' – is but just another Illusion, to Keep the Mind in Control. While you are Not in Control of the Mind. So Sad." – Bernard Poolman *
— This will continue
For Further support:
Desteni Forum
Desteni Lite Process – Free Online Course of Self Support to get to meet your demons
'Happy New Year'
2013 – The Future of Consciousness
Reptilian Secrets Revealing from 2013 – The Life Portal
2013 – The Future of Consciousness
Energy as Demon Possession
What are Demons – Part 1
Aleister Crowley – Demon Dimension
Journeys into the Afterlife – The First Demon – Part 3
Journeys into the Afterlife – The Chakra-Demon – Part 6
Journeys into the Afterlife – The Physical Demon – Part 9
Journeys into the Afterlife – The Obsession with Detail – Part 25
Journeys into the Afterlife – The Mind as the Reverse of the Physical – Part 26
Demons in the Afterlife
Andrea Rossouw – The Alcohol Demon took over Africa

subset: commoncrawl


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|Datasheet Unblocked Protein A beads kch-503 DATASHEET
Datasheet description
The unblocked protein A beads are agarose beads that have been extensively validated in chromatin immunoprecipitation assays (ChIP). These beads are intended for isolation of immune complexes (chromatin and specific antibody) in ChIP experiments. The beads are suitable for immunoprecipitation of rabbit polyclonal Abs, mouse IgG2a, IgG2b and IgA, guinea pig IgG, dog IgG, pig IgG. The beads should be washed before use.


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The following is a copy of a speech, as prepared for delivery, by Bill Butcher at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, September 5, 2012.
I know what you're thinking, and sorry. I'm not here to give out free beer.
You know, I don't have time to pay much attention to politics because I'm too busy running my business. I think a lot of small-business owners feel the same way. We don't care about the daily back and forth of campaigns. We just want leaders in Washington who believe in us and make it just a little easier for us to succeed. Our president is that kind of leader.
There were moments when my wife Karen and I wondered if we would ever get our business off the ground. I remember what it was like to go to bank after bank after bank hearing "No." We may not have ever gotten to "Yes" if it wasn't for President Obama and the SBA loan program he started.
For these last four years, I've had a president who's on my side. He cut small-business taxes 18 times. He kept middle class taxes low, which meant more customers for my product. He knows that growing the middle class helps businesses create jobs.
And I know that if he gets a second term, entrepreneurs like me will have the best possible chance to succeed.
I hear President Obama has been brewing some beer in the White House recently, and I know you're not supposed to endorse a competitor, but in this case I'm going to make an exception.
Our president has fought for small-business owners, and now it's time to fight for him. Thank you everybody.


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Upgrade A '71-'73 Rearend And Suspension
Step Up To Grab-A-Trak And Quicker Cogs For A Fresh Shot At Respect
For those who dig '71-'73 Mustang performance, here's a couple of handling solutions from Mustangs Plus and Bill Thomas Enterprises. Mustangs Plus gets it right with a selection of cool suspension components. Bill Thomas Enterprises has the talent and goods to build everything from a stock differential to a brute chunk that can take 700 hp. Randy's Ring & Pinion is setting us up with the hard parts necessary to make it happen.
Fourth-generation '71-'73 Mustangs get a lot of criticism for their size and weight, but they aren't much different from '65-'70 Mustangs. Up front, the '71-'73 models employ a Maverick/ Torino/Fairlane unit body structure intended to accommodate big horsepower planned for these cars during the late '60s. Open the hood on a '71-'73 and you'll see big shock towers and a large engine compartment. Insurance rates and government regulations killed the big engines and horsepower that Ford had planned for the Mustang beyond 1971. After the '71 429 Cobra Jet and Boss 351, the horsepower wars came to an end. That doesn't mean you can't get more out of a non-Boss or CJ '71-'73 Mustang. These wide-track models are long on potential and make great road cars.
At the rear, you can ditch the worn-out elliptical four-leaf springs and get into stiffer five-leaf, mideye, down-low performance. Opt for rubber or urethane bushings, depending on the caliber of performance wanted. What's more, choose the right shock absorber for the desired balance of ride and handling. Mustangs Plus offers standard gas shocks, which yield a smooth ride with good handling. KYB gas adjustable shocks from Mustangs Plus offer a stiffer ride with better handling.
When it's time to fit a '71-'73 Mustang with a new rear suspension system, it's wise to consider Ford's heavy-duty 9-inch rearend if you're planning big horsepower and torque gains. The standard 8-inch rearend can stand up to 350 hp, but not continuously without giving up the ghost. For street and weekend strip use, you'll want a four-pinion 9-inch limited-slip for durability and to get as much torque to the ground as possible. Randy's Ring & Pinion offers the 28-spline (PN YDGF-28-SM) or 31-spline (PN YDGF-31-SM) Trac Loc differential for street and strip use. Because it's made from machined billet steel, it's much stronger than a comparable four-pinion Ford unit.
We're fitting a '71 Mustang SportsRoof with stronger underpinnings in front and back. In front, we've already installed a Grab-A-Trak suspension with 620 coils and gas shocks. In back, we're installing five-leaf, mideye springs with gas shocks for an exceptional ride and moderate handling. As we said earlier, shock dampening determines ride. Because a smooth ride was priority, we opted for standard Grab-A-Trak gas shocks instead of stiffer KYBs. The result will be improved handling and a nice ride.
We began our efforts at Bill Thomas Enterprises, building an N-case nodular iron 9-inch Ford differential with 3.55:1 gears from Randy's Ring & Pinion. We've chosen 3.55:1 gears because the owner is going to install an automatic overdrive transmission behind his gutsy 302ci V-8 mill from Trans Am Racing.
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It's after school, and Mom's looking for you.
She probably knows where to find you, though, because wherever there's a pick-up game, that's where you are. Your whole family knows that you live for swishing, shooting, dribbling and dunking. They know you'll jump through hoops to play hoops, which is why you'll love "Crazy about Basketball!" by Loris Lesynski, illustrated by Gerry Rasmussen.
From the top of your head to the tips of your toes, you're just a bunch of body parts that don't even seem to work together very well sometimes. But when they do, you become something awesome: you're a "basketball machine!"
There's so much excitement during a basketball game, and so much going on. No matter where you are, inside or outside, it seems like the best kind of chaos. There's cheering and noise, a thunka-thunk of dribbling, shoes squeaking, and a basketball moving from hand to hand and up in the air. Who won? Either way, "the thrill's immense!"
But basketball hasn't always been the game you know and love.
Ancient Aztec ball players couldn't dribble because their basketballs were solid, heavy, and had no bounce. The playing area of "olden days" was made of cobbly stones or plain dirt, neither of which made a game easy. Early, primitive basketballs were made of pig bladders or not-quite-round soccer balls with thick laces.
Then, in the winter of 1891, Canadian "professor-coach," Dr. James Naismith devised a way for his students to get some indoor exercise. He took some old fruit baskets, hung them "ten feet high" and started to play. The problem was that if a basket was made, someone had to climb up to get the ball. It took fifteen years for someone to realize that nets would work better, and that the game would be more fun if there were holes in the bottom of them.
You know how exciting it is to watch a game, and how thrilling it is to be cheering with a crowd. You also know what it takes to play: practice and training for body, hands, and mind because, as a future pro, you know that it's not all about the shoes…
I have to admit, "Crazy about Basketball!" took me a little aback.
I was expecting a fun, fans-and-players-based kid's book on the game of basketball. I wasn't expecting it to be written almost totally in rhyme. What's most surprising, though, is that it works.
Using verse to speak to young athletes, author Loris Lesynski highlights the excitement of the game and all its facets to kids for can't get enough hoops. I liked the way Lesynski moves between spectator and player POVs here (for kids who are one or the other), and the action-packed cartoon drawings by Gerry Rasmussen just add to the enjoyment.
Though this isn't a stats-and-fact-filled book of seriousness, I think kids who love the game will want this light-hearted book on their shelves nonetheless. Young B-Ballers ages 8 to 13 will find "Crazy about Basketball!" to be a slam-dunk.


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Today's post reenforces my consistent point that what is going on in education 'reforms' at all levels is not about the how and what of getting as many students as possible as knowledgeable and able as possible. What most of us view as the historic role of schools. Even something as fundamental as the new teacher evaluations and measures of what constitutes student 'achievement' or 'growth' are actually bound up in the broader social, economic, and political transformation agenda. And once again the aim is not limited to the US or Canada or the UK or Australia. It truly is global in aim as this short video called 'Purpose' show us. http://www.purpose.com/
Now the first part of the title comes from that circle chart at the 1:21 mark that the way to achieve this comprehensive vision of global transformation is to Change Perception which causes Individual Behaviors to Change, hopefully along the preselected pathways. That in turn allows Changes in the governing Rules (either explicitly or as we saw with Harold Berman through the concept of evolving law that shifts with needs and new contexts). Finally, all of these shifts over a majority of voters results in a Change in the economic, social, and political Systems.
We could also call that chart a Graphic Organizer illustrating how to accomplish Dialectical Materialism in the real world. Now I still find that to be an off-putting phrase and just using the initials might not alert my readers to what I mean. I am also darn sure we are going to keep needing to refer to this Theory with an Infamous Past so I hereby rechristen it DiaMat for short. Why am I so sure this theory will need a nickname to allow for easy use?
Because I believe that the new teacher evaluations and professional development standards, and even the new definition of professional learning that is coming out of Kentucky, are all about getting DiaMat into everyday practice in our schools and classrooms. DiaMat in the teachers' daily instructional practices of course allows that Obuchenie mindset to be developed in the students. Then the new alternative assessments being administered by Pearson, even in states like Texas that are not adopters of the Common Core, get to measure whether the desired changes in perception are occurring.
If we look at the inner core of that circle chart, we see Perception changes through new Story Telling, which of course is most vividly accomplished by ditching textbooks and making virtual reality Gaming and Cyberlearning the new focus of the classroom (under the motto that it keeps students engaged and thus keeps them from dropping out). Next, at the inner core under Change Behavior we find 'Motivator,' which is precisely what the League of Innovative Schools and the federally promoted Digital Promise hope to use technology in the classroom to determine. Under Change Rules, we find 'Mobilizer,' which I believe is a euphemism for the better known–'community organizer.' Finally, under Change Systems, we find 'Platform Builder.' Like Peter Senge promoting systems thinking or Mark Greenberg pushing positive psychology on schools or Angela Duckworth on Grit and Tenacity as examples in education? Or to take it up a notch, we have Harry Boyte and his concept of the cooperative commonwealth or Gar Alperowitz and his Democracy Collaborative or King's Beloved Community as only being satisfied via economic democracy.
The point of just those few examples is that the world itself and all the individuals in it may not be interdependent, but the idea behind radical ed reform and the transformation visions that accompany it certainly are. My book and this blog are dedicated to trying to sound the alarm of these connections in time. You may not have read Imagine Living in a Socialist USA that came out about two weeks ago from HarperCollins Publishing, but I have. It is a historically and economically illiterate vision with a devastating conclusion of what a Thanksgiving 2077 could be like in the transformed US. In the middle is an essay from Bill Ayers of Weathermen and "Just another guy in the neighborhood" fame laying out the associated ed vision. Ayers calls it "Teach Freedom!" but the Common Core calls it student-centered deep learning of the desired concepts with application to real world problems. DiaMat again.
Remember how we discovered that the omnipresent around the classroom implementation dual phrase "teaching and learning" was an inexact stealth attempt to bring in the Russian psychology and political theory of obuchenie to alter the student's perception? Well, we did not dwell on it then but it is the teacher's perception that is also under active attack. The students are not the only ones to be asked to Ascend from the Abstract to the Concrete based on preassigned concepts to be understood as desired and acted upon. Teachers must shift too. Think of it as forcing everyone to become a change agent or to find a new job or career.
That's what the new classroom observations and teacher evaluations are all about according to the developers of the Common Core standards themselves, Student Achievement Partners. Well, they did not mention obuchenie or Ilyenkov's Ascending theory but they are intimately tied to the new definition of student achievement and how to end educational inequality. You see? This is why radical schemers are so hostile to us having our own personal store of accurate facts about the past. We go beyond the assigned story and interject our own conceptual understandings based on a pertinent solid foundation. Naughty me! Seriously in November 2013 TNTP (yes it is the entity Michelle Rhee started) released an Issue Analysis Report co-developed with Student Achievement Partners called "Fixing Classroom Observations: How Common Core Will Change the Way We Look at Teaching."
That report itself says that "the implementation of improved teacher evaluation systems in a growing number of states and school districts, and the introduction of Common Core State Standards across the country" are "inextricably linked by their shared goal: better instruction for students." Once again so much for the talking point about Common Core NOT being about how to teach the content. It is ALL about how to teach the content and in fact greatly limits what the content may be. Common Core and TNTP together ( they are distinct only to minimize the previous public outcries that supposedly derailed outcomes based education) are all about obuchenie instruction. On the circle graph we talked about above it is a certain type of instruction that changes perception so that behavior itself changes. Then the DiaMat process that should result in transformed systems can begin in earnest.
DiaMat is why the TNTP report stresses the need to teach the "right content." Interpolating again, I believe that means content that will shift perception in politically powerful ways so that "students are learning what they should be learning." Learning remember has been redefined as a change in values, attitudes, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors. That redefinition then fits well within the Purpose Chart for Change. If you really believe that outcomes-based education went away instead of morphing into new names and a different PR strategy, look at page 6 of that TNTP report under "student outcomes" (the italics are in original) about "Rubrics should draw a clear distinction between the outcomes teachers are responsible for producing in a successful lesson and the strategies that can help them achieve those outcomes."
Because I really am trying my best to alert teachers and students and parents in time about what is really going on and where it is all designed to lead, here is one more heads up addressed especially to teachers. It also goes to my certainty that what we are dealing with is in fact obuchenie and DiaMat and that they are integrally interrelated to the actual Common Core implementation and the Competency ultimate fallback. "State Lessons for Transforming Professional Learning" http://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/commoncore/seizing-the-moment.pdf Launched in 2011 from the official CCSSI sponsors and coming from Kentucky, the remainder of the 6 pilot states are Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington. It will be going national though and it is tied to what TNTP is developing as well. It also ties into the history of what it means to be an effective teacher that I laid out in my book Credentialed to Destroy: How and Why Education Became a Weapon.
It is DiaMat that ultimately weaponizes students and teachers and administrators caught up in this tragic vision. They are being credentialed and coerced to be change agents to transform the world. Meanwhile their educations at the K-12, collegiate, and graduate levels are being systematically stripped of anything accurate that might be an obstacle to a willingness to seek transformation–first at the level of perception, then behavior, then reality itself.
While people like me who have studied history and economics and classical lit and science are jumping up and down and screaming like that silly robot in Lost in Space with his "Danger! Danger!"
This has been a week in Atlanta where the dangers perceptible to anyone paying attention were unrecognized, or disregarded, by too many education decision-makers. Expanding the authority of this sector nationally and globally so that it can ignite transformational systems change will create comparable results to what happened Tuesday.
Nowhere to Go. No Way to Get There. Except this time there will be no innate southern kindnesses to keep us and our loved ones and our resources safe.


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An old article now, so many links won't go anywhere any more, but the idea still works.
This article describes how I actually implement the GTD system using my iPaq and Microsoft Outlook, though it could be done just as well with almost any computerised lists. It's my solution to the GTD problem of linking next actions to their project. If you don't know what GTD is, you'd probably best start with my introduction. If you do GTD, but use paper and pen, have a look at MarkTAW's Cascading Next Actions method – similar, but designed for paper users.
GTD is all based on David Allen's excellent books. You'll get far more from reading the books than from any web site.
This article covers how I implement the GTD system – there's quite a few other ways, which you may want to look at before reading this one.
The Problem
There's a few problems that people have with GTD…
Actually Doing Things
GTD is great at organising what you have to do, and keeping you on top of everything, but if you don't actually do any of the things, it's only of limited help. Anyone who knows me could vouch for the fact that I'm probably not the best person to advise on that ;)
If you really want my thoughts on it, see my post on GTD's Dirty Secrets.
Weekly Reviews
A lot of people resist doing the weekly review. It's pretty much vital for GTD that you don't skip weekly reviews, but it's a problem for many people. My system reduces the impact of missing one a little, but only a little. By making the review a bit easier, though, it might make you resist it less. It might not, but it's worth a shot.
Connecting Projects to Actions
Ah. This is the one for the PigPog Method. This we can help with. Read on.
The PigPog Method
I should point out before I start that the PigPog Method was produced through a long discussion between quite a few people on the GtD_Palm Yahoo! Group. It's by no means all my idea, and in fact even the post where I started it all off was just me pulling together a few ideas I'd picked up from the group. Too many people to remember had valuable suggestions that, put together, made this method, but special thanks should go to James Cameron, Gretchen, Ricky Spears, Harold (I think?), and Teri Pitman.
The Basic Setup
Personally, I implement this using Outlook Tasks, but you should be able to apply the PigPog Method with almost any setup. It wouldn't be a convenient system with paper, though, it really needs a computer of some sort. I've used the same system in the past with Palm PDAs and an iPaq hx4700. Both worked well.
For the most part, my lists are pretty close to the standard ones David Allen recommends. I keep any non-action stuff in the Memos / Notes, rather than Tasks, so Someday/Maybe goes there. My @Action lists are…
- @Anywhere
- @Home
- @Internet
- @Other
- @Waiting For
- @Work
There's also 'Agendas' at the bottom of the list, for things I need to speak to somebody about.
What? Where's the Projects List?
David Allen says we need a Projects list to keep track of all of those things we need to do that will take more than one action to be complete. That way, when we have ticked off the first action on that project, we won't forget about it altogether. However, these things will only get picked up once a week at the weekly review. There is the risk that you'll end up forgetting about something for up to a week, that really needed doing before. Also, I always found the 'projects' part of the weekly review to be annoyingly difficult and time consuming. For every project on the list, and it can be quite a few (David reckons 40-70 is common), you have to search for a matching action on one of the six (in my case – however many you have) @Action lists. If you don't find one, does that mean you just didn't look carefully enough, or is there really no action in your lists for this one? How do you know it when you see it? It's not so bad if you look at the project and can remember what the next action was – then you will probably know where to look for it, and can make sure it's there pretty quickly. If you can't remember what the next action was, though, you could have a tricky time trying to find one.
In the PigPog Method, we get rid of the Projects list entirely. In a computerised system, it's just not needed any more, and keeping track of it is a big waste of time. Using the example we used when forming the method on the GtD_Palm group, if your project was 'Conquer Albania', and the first action was 'Place Army Wanted Ad', the item on your tasks list would be Place Army Wanted Ad {Conquer Albania}. Your project and its associated next action are there together on the one line. This item goes in whatever @Action context list it belongs in. If you are going to place the ad on eBay, it would go in your @Internet list. Once you've placed the ad, you just edit the item to Responses to Ad {Conquer Albania}, and move it to your @Waiting For list.
Planning and Keeping History
If you like to plan your projects a bit further, you can put planned future actions in the notes for the task, and just copy and paste them into the subject line when you're ready. I use a template that I inserted using Pop! (costs a little) on the Palm. You can also use TeikeiDA (free) if you know enough about Palm DAs (Desk Accessories) to be able to deal with the Japanese documentation (or if you can read Japanese), or use Shortkeys Lite (free) for Windows. Anyway, the template…
Outcome is a statement of the desired outcome – how we'll know when the project is complete. I'm actually completely hopeless about filling this in. Plans is for any actions planned in the future. History is for actions that have been completed, or notes of things that happened that were connected with this project – I timestamp these using another Pop! (or Shortkeys Lite) shortcut. I keep less history now than I used to – it wasn't something I used often enough to need it, but you may be different – if so, remember to copy the information to somewhere else if you purge your completed tasks. Notes is for any other information. In the case of things like these blog entries, the notes will contain the actual article as I'm working on it. This is being typed into the Notes section of an Outlook task entitled Write {Blog: GTD: PigPog Method} right now. That way, all my work in progress is always with me in my Palm, ready to be worked on anywhere.
The biggest advantage for me is that I never have to worry about projects not having a next action. I'm forced to think about what I'm going to do next with a project before I can update the system to the fact that I've just done something. That helps to keep things moving. I'm slightly encouraged to do more than one thing, as that saves changing the item as many times. The Weekly Review is less daunting, because the hardest part of it is automatically taken care of. There's one less list to look at. When I find the item that says that I should write a blog entry about something, the notes from when I brainstormed about it are right there in the task item. When I come to review and proofread one I already wrote, the written article is right there ready.
There's only really one major disadvantage to this method – there can only be one next action. If you often have the sort of projects where you could do several different things next, depending on where you are when you have the time and inclination, this may be a problem. There's nothing to actually stop you from sometimes making a separate action that isn't physically attached to the project, but if you have to do that a lot, the PigPog Method may not work well for you. When you're new to the PigPog Method, there is also the danger that you could tick off a whole Project on 'auto-pilot', when you only intended to tick off the action. To work around this, you can keep completed tasks visible, and purge at the end of each week, so everything gets an extra check before it's actually gone. This also gives you a second chance to copy any history you want to keep to the calendar where it won't get purged.
I find the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages, but then again, if I didn't, I wouldn't be writing this at all, would I? It takes away a lot of what I found unpleasant and difficult with GTD, and makes it all feel much more fluid. I'm a born fiddler, and I do keep trying different methods, but the simplicity of the PigPog Method has lured me back every time.
So far.
Other Resources
GTD Wannabe has made some macros especially for doing the PigPog method with Outlook – I'm honoured…
- Outlook Macro for Starting a PigPog Task
- Outlook Macro to Duplicate Tasks – I actually did this manually for a while – duplicating the task so I could check one off and keep better history – but it didn't seem worth the effort in the long run. With a macro to do the work for you, though, it could be a good way of working.
Other Stuff
This isn't my usual sort of post – I mainly post sets of photos from shoots with models, events and other things. If that sort of thing interests you, have a look at some of these recent posts while you're here.


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June 17, 2023
Kings Island
SKILLET recently made headlines when their last album, Awake, became one of just three rock albums to be certified platinum in 2012, forming an improbable triumvirate with the Black Keys' El Camino and Mumford & Sons' Babel. The news that Skillet had sold more than a million albums in the U.S. came as a shock to all but the band's […]
SKILLET recently made headlines when their last album, Awake, became one of just three rock albums to be certified platinum in 2012, forming an improbable triumvirate with the Black Keys' El Camino and Mumford & Sons' Babel.
The news that Skillet had sold more than a million albums in the U.S. came as a shock to all but the band's wildly diverse horde of fans, male and female, young and old—known as Panheads—whose still-swelling ranks now officially number in the seven-digit range. This remarkable achievement was announced just as Skillet was putting the finishing touches on their eagerly awaited follow-up album, Rise (Atlantic/Word).
Unwilling to stand pat or rest on their laurels, the band—lead vocalist/bassist John Cooper, guitarist/keyboardist Korey Cooper (John's wife), drummer/duet partner Jen Ledger and lead guitarist Seth Morrison, making his first appearance on record with Skillet—continue to explore new terrain on Rise, expertly produced by Howard Benson, who previously helmed the mega-successful Awake.
Eager for new challenges, Cooper threw himself into collaborative songwriting to a far greater degree than ever before, co-writing the uplifting title song and the lacerating first single "Sick of it" with Scott Stevens, founder/leader of the L.A.-based Exies, while teaming with Nashville songsmiths Tom Douglas and Zac Maloy on the timely and anthemic "American Noise," which Cooper considers to be the strongest song Skillet has yet recorded.
On "American Noise" and the joyous "Good to Be Alive," the band explores new stylistic territory, bringing an element of heartland rock into their aggressive, theatrical approach. The band expanded their musical palette, integrating natural, acoustic instruments like accordion, mandolin, dulcimer, harp, tympani and bells to their trademark slashing electric guitars, strings, churning synths and pummeling drums.
It isn't just the songs themselves that make Rise so gripping, it's also the song sequences—like the radical contrast between the almost unbearable tension of "Sick of It" suddenly giving way to the ecstatic release of "Good to Be Alive," or the way the closing three-song progression of "My Religion," "Hard to Find" and "What I Believe" builds to a thrilling musical, thematic and emotional crescendo.
Clearly, these songs and the album as a whole are embedded with an impassioned overarching message. This message courses with a tidal pull through Skillet's entire body of work, but on Rise, it's artfully woven into a gripping coming-of-age narrative. This sprawling work stands as the band's first concept album—though it wasn't premeditated.
"The narrative idea happened after we had 10 or 11 of the songs chosen," Cooper reveals. "As we were recording them, we started to realize that there's something going on here—this album is really telling a story. Realizing that, I knew we needed to make it as powerful as we could." The result is a wildly ambitious work as heady as it is visceral.
"Rise is the story of a typical American teen coming into adulthood and facing the massive world problems," says Cooper, who is deeply concerned about the erosion of belief in young people today, as well as their deeply felt desire to belong. "Facing world problems as an adult is different from when you're growing up and under someone else's care.
All of a sudden, you realize that the world is a dangerous place. It's dark and scary, there's acts of God happening, there's war, there are all these terrible things, and you thinking, 'How can I have hope in this place?' But at the same time, you also think, 'Even moving all those huge problems aside, I look at my own life and I'm not even comfortable with the things I can change.
I'm fighting with my parents, my parents have split up, I'm here in this home getting yelled at all the time that I'm never gonna be good enough, and I'm starting to believe that I'm never gonna be good enough. I constantly fail myself, and I just want to have a reason to live. I want to matter, and I want to know that my life counts for something.'
"So the story is basically about rising up out of your downtrodden life, rising up from that place where you feel like a failure, rising up to be comfortable being yourself, to stand up for what you believe in," Cooper continues. "It's not about pleasing your friends, it's not about doing what's cool; it's about being who you are and being comfortable with that.
And lastly, in the grand scheme of it all is, if I can be somebody I am comfortable being, maybe I can even rise up and help change the world. Can one person make a difference? Can one person actually matter?"
But there's another key distinction between Rise and the band's previous albums. "We've written songs about issues, but the reason this record stands out so much to me is that this is the first time that we're singing songs that use the word 'we' rather than 'me, '" Cooper points out. "It' s not just my feelings, these are our feelings.
We can do this. Even the title track is not about me rising, it's about us rising. So this record feels inclusive of all kinds of people, and that's unique for us. It's a rallying cry."
On Rise, then, the message is both spiritual and social, as Skillet reaches out anew to its ever-growing, ever-changing following. "I think music should be bringing people together and bringing them hope. That's certainly what it does for me," Cooper says, continuing to say that "we believe there is hope and there is love and there is a God that will be there for you; if you reach out to Him, He will reach back out to you.
That message is in all of our records and most of our songs. It certainly is the message of this record."
June 17, 2023
Kings Island
June 25, 2023
Island Grove Regional Park
July 8, 2023
Magic Springs Theme Park
July 15, 2023
Life Amphitheatre
July 22, 2023
Spyglass Ridge Winery
July 23, 2023
Elkhart County Fair
July 26, 2023
Six Flags Darien Lake Theme Park
July 29, 2023
Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds
August 3, 2023
Bayfront Festival Park
August 5, 2023
HFE Valdosta dba Wild Adventures Theme Park
August 6, 2023
Orlando, FL
Nautilus Theater
August 13, 2023
Indiana State Fair
September 16, 2023


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Live stream your day's activities straight to your Facebook wall with the Looxcie HD camera.
BARCELONA, Spain--If you live an extraordinarily fascinating life and believe that everyone should be able to witness every glorious second of it as it happens, the Looxcie HD may well be the gadget for you. It's a video camera that's small enough to attach anywhere on your person that, thanks to its built in Wi-Fi, allows you to live stream everything to your Facebook wall.
Like the ever-popular GoPro Hero range of video cameras, the Looxcie HD is designed to be as small and inconspicuous as possible. It's small enough to sit comfortably in the palm of your hand and light enough not to be awkward when strapped to your helmet, baseball cap, or bike handlebars.
It connects to your iPhone or Android phone using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, using your mobile data to stream the video. You'll need to grab the free Looxcie app from whichever app store you use, which you'll then be able to connect to Facebook. Interestingly, Facebook doesn't natively allow for live-streaming, but Looxcie explained it's performed some kind of wizardry -- which, it assures me, is totally allowed -- to get the streams to play.
Once you're up and running, your friends will be able to head over to your Facebook wall to check out what you're doing exactly as you're doing it. Want to show off your band's live acoustic set? No worries. Want to show your friends exactly how you like to search for coins in your couch? I don't think they'll care, but sure. If your buddies couldn't make the live show, a video will automatically be created for them to watch at their leisure.
There are caveats, of course. Firstly, the "HD" in its name only applies to the videos stored on the microSD. The live-streaming is only done in 480p, which is a little disappointing, but streaming HD video over your data connection would eat up the data like there's no tomorrow. Even so, you'll really have to keep an eye on how much you're using it, especially if you don't have unlimited data with your plan.
You'll also run into problems with the stream if you have a poor connection. The minimum you'll need for a decent stream is a 3G connection. If you're in a 4G area with a superspeedy connection, then you'll be fine, but those of you in poor signal areas on 2G data will be out of luck. Streaming your snowboard run down those back-country mountain spots might not be possible.
I haven't been able to get a proper look at the quality of the video yet so I'll have to wait for the full review to give a proper judgement. It might hog all of my monthly data allowance, but if I can show the world live my favorite ways to pet my cat then it might be worth it.
The Looxcie HD is available now from Amazon or from Looxcie's Web site for $330.


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Welcome to the second Sunday in the season of Advent! Today's Gospel lesson brings us the story of John the Baptist, baptizing believers as they confessed their sins, shouting accusations at the Pharisees and Sadducees, and prophesying the coming of the Messiah. With whom do you relate most closely this week – John, Jesus, Pharisees and Sadducees, or those confessing their sins? With whom can your people most closely relate? There are so many angles to take when addressing John's ministry – preparing the way of the Lord, baptism for repentance, accusation of the authorities, prediction of judgment to come. Which perspective will you take this Sunday?
The Revised Common Lectionary also offers Isaiah 11:1-10 – a shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse, righteousness will be around his waist, the lion and lamb shall live together and a little child will lead them. Beautiful imagery. How can it be applied to the world today? Perhaps each one of us could take on the role of the shoot from Jesse's tree, guided by the values of righteousness and equity. Psalm 72 follows the same theme with a king who judges in righteousness.
Romans 15 encourages us to live in harmony with one another, and to welcome one another, including (or especially) the Gentiles. Most of us are preaching to congregations filled with Gentiles. As those who have been warmly welcomed in to our faith tradition by others, what is our obligation to people who are on the margins of society today?
Additional discussion on the RCL readings can be found on this page. You might also check out Karolyn Lewis' reflection on the place of John's prophesy on Working Preacher, or the call to prophetic preaching at ON Scripture.
In the Narrative Lectionary, the prophet Joel calls us to return to the Lord, to rend your hearts and not your clothing, so that God's spirit might be poured out upon all people. Traditionally reserved for Pentecost, this passage can bring new meaning to the season of Advent. How do you interpret Mary's song, knowing that God's spirit may be poured out upon her? Does the meaning of the incarnation change if you consider the possibility of God's presence within all people? Additional NL discussion can be found here.
During Advent, some churches are working on a Christmas program with the Sunday School kids, or following a topical preaching series. Your worship order may have changed to accommodate the lighting of the Advent wreath or a new Communion liturgy. Following an idea that I stole from an online colleague last year, my congregation will be collecting baby items throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons, to be blessed on Epiphany and then donated to the local domestic violence shelter. What is important in your community at this time of year?
Wherever you are in your preparation, welcome to the party! Pull up a chair, settle in for some writing, and share the virtual snacks. Blessings in your worship preparations!
canoeistpastor is Katya Ouchakof, co-pastor at Lake Edge Lutheran Church in Madison, WI. She is a certified canoeing instructor, occasional hospital chaplain, aunt to the best kids in the world, and a devout Star Wars fan. Katya is a contributor to There's a Woman in the Pulpit, and blogs periodically at Provocative Proclamation.
RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.


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A Navy-funded effort to harness nuclear fusion power reports that its unconventional plasma device is operating as designed and generating "positive results" more than halfway through the project.
The latest quarterly update from EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. comes amid other signs that seemingly oddball approaches to fusion research may not be all that oddball after all. Just last week, General Fusion announced that Amazon.com's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, was part of a $19.5 million investment round to further the company's plan to take advantage of a technology called magnetized target fusion. Another billionaire, Paul Allen, is an investor in Tri Alpha Energy, which is working on its own hush-hush fusion project (and occasionally publishing its research).
EMC2 Fusion doesn't have tens of millions of venture capital to play with — but it does have a $7.9 million Navy contract to test a plasma technology known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, also known as Polywell fusion. The idea is to accelerate positively charged ions in an electrical cage to such an extent that they occasionally spark a fusion reaction, releasing energy and neutrons. The concept was pioneered by the late physicist Robert Bussard, and carried forward by the EMC2 Fusion team in Santa Fe, N.M.
Some of the leading team members went on leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory to work on EMC2. Rick Nebel, the Los Alamos engineer who led the company since Bussard's death in 2007, retired from the company last November. Taking his place as acting chief executive officer is Jaeyoung Park. The 41-year-old physicist says he's given up his position at Los Alamos to focus fully on EMC2.
"We had a lot of milestones to meet in the last six months or so," Park told me today. "It's been pretty hectic."
Working on a Wiffle Ball
The company currently employs eight or nine full-time technical staff members, and relies on about two dozen external consultants, Park said. The ultimate objective is to build a 100-megawatt demonstration fusion reactor, and Park hopes that the current small-scale experiment will show EMC2's scientists and their "customers" in the Navy whether this is realistic.
"If this machine works as we hope it will work, it will probably establish a firm technical foundation," he said. "People may say, 'It's a big jump and you shouldn't be doing this.' But every year that the energy problem doesn't get solved ... costs tens of billions of dollars. Sometimes waiting too long is not a good thing. If you look at the solutions, you might say, 'Can we afford to wait?'"
So how far along is EMC2? The current experiment is known as WB-8, which follows up on WB-5, 6 and 7. "WB" stands for "Wiffle Ball," which describes the spherical swiss-cheese look of the plasma containment cage. The $7.9 million contract covers work to see whether Bussard's fusion concept can be scaled up to a size capable of putting out more power than it consumes.
Although fusion is the process behind the power of the sun and an exploding H-bomb, physicists have never been able to achieve a net energy gain in a controlled fusion reaction. But based on the experiments so far, Park thinks there's a chance that it could be done in a sufficiently large Wiffleball reactor, costing on the order of $100 million to $200 million. That sounds like a pretty good deal, especially in comparison with the $3.5 billion that's been spent so far on fusion research at the National Ignition Facility and the $20 billion expected to be spent on the international ITER fusion project.
Driving the fusion Ferrari
WB-8 didn't cost anywhere near that much. Park estimated that the parts alone cost on the order of $2 million, which he compared to the cost of a vintage Ferrari. "I'll take this machine any day over a Ferrari," he joked.
"It's a very nice machine," he said. "I like what we have so far. It's quite well-built, relatively flexible to actually explore a lot of areas and find what's best. Achieving the plasma for fusion is obviously a tall order. ... You don't just push the pedal on a Ferrari and drive the car. Like an F-18 or a stealth bomber, you have to learn how to operate it properly."
Park said that the WB-8 experiment was about 60 percent complete, which roughly matches how much of the $7.9 million has been spent so far. He acknowledged that EMC2 was originally aiming to finish the experiment by this time, but said the realities of government funding — including continuing resolutions, shutdown threats and other budgetary snags — have dictated a slower pace.
"We decided at some point that it's not a good idea to follow the timeline directly, because if you follow the timeline and not the moneyline, you've got a big problem," he told me. "The reality is that we have to follow the timeline given by the funding profile rather than the timeline given by the date."
The last little experiment?
Park figures that the money provided under the WB-8 contract should last until the end of the year, depending on how efficiently the EMC2 team is able to stretch the money out. By then, the engineers in New Mexico and their backers in the Navy should know whether it's worth going ahead with the next step, perhaps even with the big demonstration reactor. Park hopes that WB-8 will be the last small-scale experimental machine EMC2 will have to build.
"This machine should be able to generate 1,000 times more nuclear activity than WB-7, with about eight times more magnetic field," said Park, quoting the publicly available information about WB-8. "We'll call that a good success. That means we're on track with the scaling law."
Don't expect weekly updates about EMC2's progress. "Currently all our funding comes from the Navy," Park said. "That's our customer. Our customer desired that we keep most of our progress confidential. ... They're somewhat concerned about making too much hype without delivering an actual product."
But if WB-8 and the follow-up studies are successful, the Navy won't stand in EMC2's way.
"Our understanding is they want us to be successful," Park said. "They want us to provide something for our sponsors. They also want us to do well commercially as well, as long as we remain US-owned and control the technology."
And if WB-8 fails?
"Sometimes breakthroughs happen, and sometimes you can never solve it, and then maybe it's time to give up — at least for me," Park said. "But I can positively say I tried everything."
More on the fusion quest:
- From March 2010: Fusion's ups and downs
- Talk-Polywell.org: Discussion forum for IEC fusion
- IEC Fusion Technology: M. Simon's Weblog on the subject
- Next Big Future: Look for the IEC fusion tags
- Fusor.net: Open Source Fusor Research Consortium
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," Alan's book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.


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Several weeks ago I posted about the growth of Instagram and how it surpassed Twitter in number of users. It appears that people prefer images over words.
After meeting with a group of junior high students, Tim Elmore found that trend is showing up in how teens communicate with each other. Text messaging is being replaced by apps that allow teens to share images.
Here's a small portion of what he posted on May 6th about the growth of images over words.
Snapchat — an app that allows users to send photos to one another that disappear after a few seconds—has taken over many teen's portable devices. So has Instagram. It may well be the future of phone interaction. Just like Facebook, once parents and teachers began to figure out how to use text messaging, students were bound to find new ways to communicate.
It wasn't that long ago I reported to readers that teens today send about 3,000 texts a month, or about a hundred a day. That's changing now. And not just for teens but for all ages. As a whole, people are texting less now than we used to. According to Chetan Sharma Consulting, "The average U.S. cell phone user sends about 628 text messages per quarter, down 8 percent from a year ago."
Technology and communication are ever-changing. We've gone from land line to cell phone to email to MySpace to Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat and other forms of staying connected. For those who work with students, it's interesting to see where the trends go.
What do you see students using to communicate with each other?


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On June 24, 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed he saw gleaming aircraft he later described as "saucerlike objects." He had no photos to bolster the first and most famous report of a flying saucer. In Fate magazine, Arnold wrote: "I would have given almost anything that day to have had a movie camera."
His vision of saucer-shaped craft was quickly embraced by popular culture, showing up in comics, movies, even children's toys. Astronomer Carl Sagan noted that depictions of UFOs in entertainment often have a strong influence on how observers perceive phenomena in the sky. Sure enough, over the next few years UFO sightings increasingly mentioned silvery, saucer-shaped objects. Such UFO iconography is reinforced by a cultural feedback loop: a report offers intriguing new details; the entertainment industry amplifies those images; and future sightings "confirm" their existence. Hoaxes--pie-plate photos, crop circles, Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) on the Fox network--abet the process, no matter how conclusively debunked. Just as the ancients were inclined to see gods and flaming chariots in the skies, modern humans became primed to see saucers and aliens whenever something strange appeared overhead.
UFO sightings evolve with the culture. By the `60s, classic saucer images had started to fade. Instead, people began reporting more direct contact with aliens (who often resembled the big-eyed creatures seen in the TV movie The UFO Incident). But a darker strain emerged, when tales of gray aliens performing experiments on human abductees flourished. UFO stories sometimes took on spiritual dimensions: Aliens were godlike creatures coming to save our planet--or transport us to a better one.
More From Popular Mechanics
In recent years, most UFO reports have grown far less sensational; many sightings these days simply describe lights in the sky.
Arnold regretted not having a camera at hand during his sighting. Today camera phones and video cameras are ubiquitous. And yet clear, detailed images have all but disappeared from the photographic record. Even the clearest recent images are little more than glowing dots and squiggles.
Marine Corps officer and aviation enthusiast Donald Keyhoe's first book contends that the Air Force is covering up evidence of UFOs. While it may not have lived up to its tagline as "the greatest shock film of all time," this sci-fi B-movie classic features Ray Harryhausen's special-effects magic as animated flying saucers with now-standard shapes obliterate practically every international landmark.
Teenage brothers Dan and Grant Jaroslaw claim to snap sensational Polaroids of a UFO over Lake St. Clair, near Detroit. The images make front-page news and survive initial expert scrutiny, but the boys later admit it's a hoax.
Nearly two years before Star Wars, James Earl Jones stars in this re-enactment of Betty and Barney Hill's alleged alien abduction outside Groveton, N.H., in 1961.
UFOs evolve from sleek saucers to clusters of lights in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The film brings religious overtones to the topic, implying that belief in aliens is a matter of faith, not science. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) echoes that theme. Together, the films gross over $1 billion.
More than 300 people in the Hudson Valley report seeing V- and boomerang-shaped lights in March 1983. It's a hoax by pilots flying out of Stormville, N.Y., who rig their planes with extra lights before formation flights.
Horror novelist Whitley Strieber describes his abduction by "the visitors." A 1989 movie based on the book stars Christopher Walken; in 1999, the National UFO Conference names Strieber "UFOlogist of the Year."
Ed Walters takes photos of a purported spacecraft over the Florida panhandle--but accidentally leaves the model (made of Styrofoam plates and bowls) in his house when he moves, and new owners find it.
On March 14, 2008, residents of Wesley Chapel, Fla., are spooked by a hovering, rotating triangle of blue lights and a blinking red light. The sheriff's office confirms it's a hoax--a homemade balloon with lights.


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Posted by Editoress on 12/20/04
Fund for Murray Drew
From Keith Bruneau
On Wednesday about 6PM Murray Drew was turning left on to Haultain off of Foul Bay road, it was dark and wet out. A car driver did not see him (obviously) and hit him from behind. Murray was air lifted from the Jubilee Hospital that evening to Vancouver. Bottom line is he broke his C3 vertebrae in three places and is a quadriplegic at this point. The CT's and other scans showed no brain damage and no internal bleeding. But I'm afraid you can not get much worse than a C3 being broken.
I have decided to organise a by donation fund to help the family with travel expenses for the next year or how ever long Murray will be living away from home. At this point "The System" is taking care of Murray, I think we need to help out those often forgotten in situations like this, and that is of course his family. We all know that by helping the family out, it would please Murray a great deal.
Karl at Oak Bay Bicycles 1968 Oak Bay Ave, V8R 1E2 has agreed to be the focal point to receive all donations. At this point (Sat night) I understand that Karl will be working with Murray's son Jeff to open a bank account for this purpose. It may be best to consult the Masters Web page (see below) before you make out the cheque. For those of you unable to do this I am sure that if make it out to Oak Bay Bicycles Karl will deal with the money transfer. Just ensure you put "Murray Drew" in the memo section of the cheque. But please check the web site for the correct addressee of the cheque to save Karl the work. THANK you Karl, for being the focal point in this.
There has been so many phone calls and emails sent to me. I am happy to say that thanks to the Masters Association, ALL information about Murray's condition will be focused on their web page located here www.bcmasterscycling.net. So if/when your wanting to know how he is doing this will be the best place to go.
PLEASE forward this info to any and all people who know Murray, be it cycling, personal or business associates.
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