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'The Worse Things Get': Life Lessons From Neko Case
On her latest album, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, singer Neko Case lays her heart — and her healthy sense of humor — bare. It's a deeply personal record that, among other things, offers intimate, sometimes wry meditations on the recent loss of both of her parents and a grandmother. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and I spoke with Neko Case about the music, and shared questions from listeners, in this interview that we originally webcast live on Aug. 29.
Robin Hilton: We've got about 25 minutes with you here before you have to run and do your World Cafe session and we've got some questions from listeners I want to get to. One of your fans wrote that he remembers during the process of you working on this record you tweeted about it being like "birthing an albatross," and he asks what made cutting this album particularly difficult?
Neko Case: My indecision and option anxiety I think, mostly.
Hilton: Do you find that that's worse with all the digital tweaking you can do now?
Case: No I don't really tweak anything digitally. It's more like, "Should we also do piano on this? Well so and so's here lets also..." Just more options. And "Should we do a second chorus on it or should we...?" You know there's a lot of editing that happens.
Stephen Thompson: So you're not stepping into the studio with a completely predetermined notion of what the song's going to sound like?
Case: No, no not even close. I can't tell you what anything's going to sound like ahead of time. I can say, "Oh my god I want it to sound just like Sparks and Morrissey at the same time. It's going to be great!" And then it won't sound like that, but you know.
Hilton: A number of people did ask in the chatroom and on twitter, just curious about your creative process. You say that you didn't go in with any particular agenda with this record, so maybe just talk about how you came at these songs?
Case: Well, I spent a lot of time writing them. And then when it was time to go into the rehearsal space and work with the band to make them, you know, go from demo to actual song with parts, I didn't recognize a lot of them. And they were all really personal, which they're usually not. So I kind of had to tweak them to make them more fun, for me personally anyways, just cause I've never been interested in making confessional songs, I guess you could say? I'm not that interesting. I like to make up stories about things. That's what imagination is for and I don't think I've had any sort of struggle that has been any better or more poignant than anyone else. So that wasn't the aim. It was just, I want to make them more interesting than just me.
Thompson: So what drove you to make a personal record then? If your life isn't more interesting than other people's why make that shift to more personal or confessional?
Case: Well it's just kind of what I had at the time. I lost a lot of family members in a five-year period or so and I never stopped working, or working really hard or traveling or playing or whatever to just kind of mourn the dead. And so it just caught up with me and punched me in the face. "You will be sad now, and you will enjoy it!"
Thompson: This is a really upbeat conversation we're having.
Case: Well, that's why I never want to talk about it because, you know, it's just not that. Everybody goes through it. Every single person goes through it and there is a lot of really hilarious things about being that depressed. But it's also really scary, too. Maybe it'll just comfort people if they felt that way but there's a lot of pretty hilarious moments. I'm hoping...
Thompson: Where do those personal experiences most come through in this record? Like what, to you, are the most personal or maybe even hard-to-listen-to or hard-to-re-experience songs on this record?
Case: Well, they're not hard to re-experience, now because I feel like myself. But there was a point, and I did a lot of research about this, and I talked to a lot of people. I became really interested in, how come, as a woman who grew up in the United States of America (and partially in Canada), why am I so quick to ask if I'm crazy if I'm feeling really terrible? And I talked to women and men about it. And a lot the men I talked to were in places that were way worse than I was, you know? They said they were considering suicide and things like that. And I said, "Well at what point did you feel crazy?" And all of them said, "I never actually felt crazy, but I can see it from there." And all the women I've talked to have been like, "I was really concerned." And I think we really tell women that we're crazy way too much as a joke or whatever but I was really concerned that it wasn't crazy, it was feelings and depression and grief and you know it will over load you. You gotta look it in the face and you gotta deal with it. But I was really shocked at the amount of people that I've talked to who were women and said, "Yeah, pretty much off the bat I was wondering if I was crazy." And all the men were like, "No, I covered myself in feces and ran down the street but I knew it was temporary. I knew I was going to be okay once I acted out, you know what I mean?"
Hilton: You know, you've clearly got such a fantastic sense of humor and that's got to carry you through a lot of this?
Case: Well, that was actually the thing I missed most, and that's how I knew I really wasn't doing well. I wasn't finding anything funny anymore and I wasn't being funny and my best friend Nate, he goes, "You used to be fun, you used to be hilarious." And he said that in the best way. That sounds terrible, but he was like, he had me by the shoulders and was like, "You need help because you aren't you." And I was like, "You are absolutely right." And you need someone to do that. That was like the greatest thing that ever happened to me.
Thompson: You were talking about the difference between the way men and women are perceived and the way they harness their emotions. We actually have a question here in the chat on the page: "What kind of advice would you offer young women that want to pursue songwriting?"
Case: Well, just start now. Just make it up in your house. Don't look for, I mean you can look for advice in places. But just pretend you're building songwriting out of Lincoln Logs and, like, how would you do it in your house if you had to do it from the ground up? And that's generally how you find the way you want to do it. Because there's no wrong way to do it, and, plus digital technology, and you can sing songs right into your phone. You don't even have to be able to play an instrument. You can just sing a melody, you can do whatever you want. Practicing it's a lot of practicing.
Hilton: It's a lot work.
Case: It is it's a ton of work, but it's rewarding and awesome.
Hilton: Do you consider yourself sot of a craftsperson?
Thompson: I thought you said "crass person."
Case: I am kind of a crass person sometimes, yes.
Hilton: You know, a technician or whatever. Do you feel like you really put in the hours and this is a lot of work, or does it sort of come naturally?
Case: I put in an unhealthy amount of hours, at times. There are times when I way over think it. And I'm sure that's part of the reason that when I hear the record now I know logically that I like it. But I'm like, "I can't really hear it but I know what you mean," you know what I mean? Like, there's singing there. I don't really hear it. It's just because I really was there for every second of everything on the record for two years.
Thompson: Do you keep editing it in your head? Once it's finished are you able to stop and separate out the, "Man I shouldn't have put horns there," or "I should have put more horns there?"
Case: Well that's probably what the blacking out means. It's probably like a self preservation instinct that comes from somewhere right at the front of your fight or flight. That's, like, I won't let you hear this anymore because if you hear a mistake you want to redo the whole thing, then I'm in trouble. The gateway to option anxiety is a really temping portal, but at a certain point you got to go, "No, it's done. Leave it alone."
Hilton: We've got a listener named Inman - you live out in the country now, you live on a farm - Inman writes: "You're surrounding environment has always been apparent in your songwriting and sound. How has that evolved through the years especially now that you're based in your farm on Vermont?" So, maybe first tell us a little bit about the land and then how its become a part of you?
Case: Well I think up until this record I've always been really longing for it and looking for it extra hard in urban settings or on the road or wherever. And, now I'm there. So I get a lot of comfort from that and a lot of, what would I call it? You know, self confidence. It's like a really nice water filter where you know you can have a really crappy week or day and then you can go walk through the forest for a while and, you know, walk the dogs and really get rid of that bad stuff and come in the house again with a whole new attitude, you know? And just feeling really good about yourself as a critter.
Hilton: What kind of critters do you have on the farm? Is it a working farm?
Case: It's working if you're a vegetable. But the animals don't actually do any work. They do a lot of sleeping on the ground upside down and eating things and getting petted, but there's four dogs and two cats and four chickens and a horse.
Hilton: That's a good start.
Case: Yeah I have no desire to raise live stock it's just too much work. But my neighbor's cows also graze on my farm and I love those girls so much. They're the snuggliest critters ever.
Hilton: We've got another question from a listener named Ilina, and she points out a line that I found very curious, and it intrigued me as well. She says she, "Seriously loves the new record and there's one lyric, 'you never held it at the right angle' has me intrigued. Any meaning and thoughts to it you could share?"
Case: It was just meant to intrigue, but if I say what it was it won't intrigue anyone. So, it means what you want it to mean. And yeah, I can't be too specific because I don't always know either. But it repeats in your mind and you go well I guess that's what I'm going to say because I can't stop thinking about it. I don't really think about it too hard sometimes.
Hilton: Do you sort of write lyrics almost stream of consciousness and you realize that, you don't know where you're going when you start, but you come to realize, "Oh I guess I'm writing about this?"
Case: Oh absolutely, yeah. And I collage a lot of things, too. I write all the time and, you know, some days I write an entire song and it'll happen really fast. And some days it's just little snippets and I'll look at them all together and kind of collage them a bit and then that sometimes yields nice end results. And sometimes I just sound like a boob, but it works out in the end.
Thompson: You know, one thing that's been interesting to me about this particular record, I got advance word, "Oh, this record is coming and there's all these amazing collaborators on it. It's got M. Ward and Tucker Martine and Kelly Hogan, of course, and Rachel Flotard." A lot of people you've worked with before. But the collaborators, there's this big long list. But, to me, I listen to this record and it just all sounds entirely like you. Like what...
Case: I'm a powerful demon, just a demon. I just subjugate them to my will! I'm kidding, ha ha that's a terrible thing to say.
Thompson: I don't mean to suggest they don't have a presence. But what is it that you look to get out of those collaborations?
Case: Well, I always ask people that I feel really comfortable with and I already really, really like their work. So, I generally, somebody asked me the other day, "On a scale of one to ten how much direction do you say you give your collaborators?" And I said probably about a two, because they're already doing things I genuinely like. And now and again I'll say things like, "No, no, no, do more of that, do that again. Do that again, that was awesome!" Or, "Could you also do that on the piano as well as the keyboard or something." But I'm not usually standing over them with the baton, "One and two and three and hit it, great!"
Thompson: That's probably how you get to work with them again and again.
Case: "John Convertino, I will show you how to play those drums!" You know, he's already the man. And Kurt Dahle I've been playing with forever. I don't have to worry that they're just going to be amazing because they are.
Hilton: Yeah, you have to be firm sometimes.
Case: Yeah, being really mean is what really gets results.
Thompson: It's what keep 'em coming back.
Hilton: It's what's shot me to the middle.
Case: "I'll make you eat that whole éclair, you get this take right." I never open my teeth when talking to them either, constantly like this!
Hilton: So Konhart writes, you mention Kelly Hogan and we love her too, "Kelly Hogan," he says or she says not sure who wrote this, "Is awesome. I'm happy to see her on the album and I love the album. Is there a rhyme or reason to who makes it in your business and is it frustrating to see folks like Kelly not getting more widespread attention?"
Case: Well I think we exist in a different realm that's one thing about the music industry people don't really know is that there's the big money business and than there's our business which is the blue collar side you know? We work really hard and we work constantly and you know I'm in two full time bands so there's not a lot of time off you know, but the good thing about it is it means you rehearse so much and you play so much that you hopefully get better, as far as Kelly goes she could be making all the records that she wants but she wants to do it at her pace so I don't think Kelly is unhappy with that but I don't doubt Kelly will be remembered for being the great great vocalist that she is, and frankly no one I know wants to be famous on a Britney Spears level, we all know really famous people and that kind of fame makes people genuinely unhappy for the most part has been my experience. We like where we are, we like working hard and we like collaboration and slow growth, they used to call it artist development in the music business back in the day and there aren't that many people who allow for that anymore. Did I answer your question or was that just really weird? Basically I also just don't want to speak for Kelly Hogan because she has her own schedule that she's keeping, do I badger her to make records than constantly. Because I love her
Thompson: More than once every eleven years
Case: Yeah, I do but also I know Kelly has a method and she will do it and it will be awesome
Thompson: There's a question here in the chat from a Linn Olsen (name check) that says 'you're my favorite twitter user', I was like all questions that start with you are great, 'can you tell us more about how twitter has changed how you communicate and share with your fans?'
Case: Well I'm going to have to basically steal what K.d Lang said about twitter, we were talking about it and she said 'you know I knew I was crazy about my audience but I didn't know how much I could love them until I started talking to them one on one via twitter she's like I love them, and now I LOVE them, like it's really nice to just interact with people how you choose and not always have to talk about yourself, you can choose to talk to people in a more friendly way like 'let's talk about broccoli recipes' or just stuff like that is so much fun or talking about movies that we like just getting to know people on kind of a friend level not a you know 'I'm the musician and you're the fan and yes I will take your praise' you know what I mean? That's a strange place to be in but you can talk about things like 'where's a really good vegan restaurant?' or 'where is the best steak house?' and you get to know people in a very sweet way.
Thompson: It's not a very guarded medium
Case: Nah
Thompson: It allows for a lot more candor I guess, for some people that's probably not a good thing.
Hilton: I just never realized how empty my life was until I got on twitter and I had nothing to say that I thought anybody would find remotely interesting, but that's just me.
Thompson: That's the story of poor robin
Case: Oh robin... I'm rocking him back and forth holding him; it's going to be okay robin
Hilton: I love questions like this one that comes from Andrew and Andrew writes 'what question do you ask yourself the most and wish you had an answer to?'
Case: What is wrong with me? That's what I ask myself most of the time? And sometimes I laugh and sometimes I cry, but I ask myself that a lot, what is wrong with you, what are you doing? You just spent an hour poppin seed pods standing in a field what are you doing right now? Where did that hour go? What is wrong with you? You are weird?
Hilton: I thought we determined in the beginning that you figured out that you're not really crazy.
Case: Oh no I'm not crazy, I'm odd but I'm okay with that. Odd, but I'm not mentally ill I'm just odd, an odd bird I guess.
Hilton: I don't know how much you want to talk about some of the specific stories behind these songs because you like to leave them up to at least some interpretation...
Case: I'll take a crack at it
Hilton: Someone who goes by the handle middle feast (name check), middle feast writes 'what's the story behind "Nearly Midnight, Honolulu"'
Case: That's a verbatim conversation I witnessed literally exactly the way it happens in the song. I was in Honolulu, it was nearly midnight and some creepy mom was yelling at her cute little kid who was just singing a little song and it was horrible. That's about it
Hilton: Yeah I think that song has stuck with a lot of people.
Thompson: Yeah that one jumps out, I mean it's interesting in that song you are then, not only are you transcribing that conversation but you were then imparting a message to the little girl.
Case: Yeah it was heartbreaking you know because there's the point where you see the person yelling at their kid and being really mean for no good reason and then you know part of me wanted to tackle that woman and punch the crap out of her which is a not popular stance but given how much America loves violence I'm always like 'what are you talking about?' you know but that was my impulse that I did not act on, hence not crazy. But I watched the little girl handle it and she just went 'hmm whatever' and turned around and went the other way and kept singing her little song but the thing that really hurts about it is that I know how hard the little girl is going to pay for that little. She's going to pay double for that later, it kind of sucks.
Hilton: You hope not.
Case: I've been that kid, she's going to pay for it no question
Hilton: Well I think some people who heard that song hoped it wasn't somehow autobiographical and you play around a lot with point of view and even gender and one listener writes in 'you play around a lot with point of view and even gender' and one listener writes in, this comes from Andrea "I always love the way you play with gender in your songs. What the story behind the song "Man""?
Case: I just, I don't really think of myself specifically as a woman, you know? I'm kind of a critter. I'm an animal. Everyone's an animal. And I find I'm much happier and well-balanced if I think of myself that way because you know, I'm a straight white female or whatever at the gynecologist, but the rest of the time, you know, I feel pretty all over the place. And that's what I was guaranteed as an American citizen, and I really took it to heart, so I'll be whatever I want whenever I want all the time. And I like to watch nature shows a lot, and I know that you know I'm specifically talking about America here. I lived in Canada, too and I think they're very similar in this way and we really enjoy nature shows and science and programs alike. And you would watch a show about lions, say, and if you called the lioness a lion, nobody would correct you. But even the most free thinking liberal people, if you call yourself the guy "like I'm the guy that likes to..' and people would go 'you're a girl!' And I'd say why are you even bothering to correct me? And they would say I have no idea why I'm doing that, it's just a reflex that comes out! And its just kind of interesting you know? And I just think it'd be a lot easier if we just, you know, 'I'm a man sure. If there was a nature show about me I'd be called a man.' And then maybe they'd get to lioness later. I don't know. But as a creature, that's what we are, we get to own it.
Thompson: But you also pick out a lot of characteristics that are often attributed specifically to men that whole line "you'll deal with me directly" this very "I'm a man's man," that seems specifically addressing gender roles.
Case: Right. Well me personally, I'm probably a little imbalanced in that if you were to look at a human creature as kind of a vase or something my glass is a little bit more full of the man stuff, than the woman stuff. So I'm probably a little bit macho, so you know I was just talking about myself but then I'm also talking about everyone, too. I could use a little bit more balance I could probably use a bit more feminine and be a bit happier but the world feminine doesn't really resonate with me in anyway that I would want anything to do with it, not because it's not cool to be feminine, it is, but just based on my initial responses as a kid to media and advertising based on you know gender, which when I was a kid i didn't really have parents but I was raised kind of by TV. So if you were going to pick the frilly pink thing with nobody in it, like the commercials were really segregated girls toys only had girls in the commercial boys toys only had boys in the commercials like the muddy G.I Joe toy just seemed way more fun to me than you know just sitting inside, it really was unappealing to me, it seemed sinister somehow, that's just my personal take on it you know, but you know as a young-in it just didn't resonate with.
Case: As a young critter
Case: As a young critter, as a feral critter, my immediate choice was not the dolls but stuffed animals? Sure. And the G.I Joe was you know a pretty narrow path on both sides, but you know the feminine choice was never the one that was cool. It was never the one I would choose, if they did it in sort of a prince and princess way, do you want to grow up to be the king or would you rather be the dress wearing courtier, I would rather be the king thank you. I can do more than wear dresses, there's a little more choice there, and you know this is my personal take on it. I'm sure I'll get in a lot of trouble for it.
Thompson: With whom?
Case: Oh you know...With people.
Hilton: No good deed goes unpunished. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Case: Yeah there's going to be a lot of beatings but I can take them because I'm very macho and that's very fine with me.
Thompson: You dish out the beatings!
Case: Sometimes!
Hilton: We've only got a couple minutes. There's been some questions about the tour any cities you'll be getting to that you haven't been to before on this tour or any places..
Case: No I've been around, I gotta say I've been around so probably nothing new until next year when we'll do things like hopefully go to places like Alaska and Iceland that we've never been but, in North America, I don't know there's anywhere I haven't been except St. Joseph's Newfoundland but that's probably later too
Thompson: We got a reader here that says 'I actually have a "Maybe Sparrow" tattoo, so I'm glad you joined the ink club. Any more tats coming your way?' You recently just got tattoos on your arms.
Case: Well it's actually been a few years, but there was no reason to do it for when I did except that I'm not going to get a bank job now so it's okay! I've wanted them for twenty years and I went 'you have a job you can do that sure.' Maybe I'll get another one I don't really have anything planned.
Hilton: Get that dagger with a rose wrapped around it that you've had your eye on?
Case: Probably more of a jester springing out of a bong I'm thinking, right up the front of my chest.
Thompson: A wizard holding a glowing orb
Case: right up the front of my chest.
Hilton: you've got my gears turning now.
Case: Yeah, Jack In the Bong, I'm going to get a jack in the bong tattoo. You'll be able to smell it just from looking at it, wow that's bold. That is a bold move. Laughs
Hilton: Neko I'd love to keep you on here but I promised id let you go so you can go do your world cafe session there in Philly at WXPN and thanks to them for helping out for getting us connected here today and thank you so much for this music and thank you for joining us and taking questions from your fans.
Case: It was my pleasure, thank you for having me and thanks to the folks who asked the question I appreciate it!
Hilton: alright, take care!
Case: You too!
Grief can make you feel crazy, she says, but maybe it shouldn't.
"I became really interested in [the question], 'How come as a woman who grew up in the United States of America — and partially in Canada — why am I so quick to ask if I'm crazy if I'm feeling really terrible?' And I talked to women and men about it, and a lot of the men I talked to were in places that were way worse than I was, you know? They said they were considering suicide and things like that. And I said 'well at what point did you feel crazy?' And all of them said 'I never actually felt crazy.' ...
"I think we really tell women that we're crazy way too much, as a joke or whatever, but I was really concerned that it wasn't crazy — it was feelings and depression and grief and you know it will overload you. You gotta look it in the face and you gotta deal with it. But I was really shocked at the amount of people that I've talked to who were women and said, 'Yeah, pretty much off the bat I was wondering if I was crazy.' And all the men were like, 'No, I covered myself in feces and ran down the street, but I knew it was temporary, I knew I was going to be okay once I acted out.' You know what I mean?"
Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she's not a man.
"I just — I don't really think of myself specifically as a woman, you know? I'm kind of a critter. I'm an animal. Everyone's an animal. And I find I'm much happier and well-balanced if I think of myself that way. Because, you know, I'm a straight white female or whatever at the gynecologist, but the rest of the time I feel pretty all over the place. And that's what I was guaranteed as an American citizen, and I really took it to heart, so I'll be whatever I want whenever I want all the time.
"I like to watch nature shows a lot. ... You would watch a show about lions, say, and if you called the lioness a lion, nobody would correct you. But even the most free thinking liberal people, if you call yourself 'The Guy,' like, 'I'm the guy that likes to ...,' and people would go, 'You're a girl!' And I'd say, 'Why are you even bothering to correct me?' And they would say, 'I have no idea why I'm doing that. It's just a reflex that comes out!' And its just kind of interesting you know? And I just think it'd be a lot easier if we just [thought of ourselves as]: 'I'm a man, sure. If there was a nature show about me I'd be called a man.' And then maybe they'd get to lioness later. I don't know. But as a creature, that's what we are, we get to own it."
TV raised her to prefer macho toys.
"Me personally ... if you were to look at a human creature as kind of a vase or something, my glass is a little bit more full of the man stuff than the woman stuff. So I'm probably a little bit macho. ... I was just talking about myself, but then I'm also talking about everyone, too. I could use a little bit more balance. I could probably use a bit more feminine and be a bit happier but the word 'feminine' does't really resonate with me in anyway that I would want anything to do with it, not because it's not cool to be feminine — it is — but just based on my initial responses as a kid to media and advertising based on gender, which — when I was a kid I didn't really have parents but I was raised by TV. ... The commercials were really segregated. Girls' toys only had girls in the commercial; boys' toys only had boys in the commercials. The muddy G.I Joe toy just seemed way more fun to me than just sitting inside. It really was unappealing to me, it seemed sinister somehow, that's just my personal take on it you know, but you know as a young'n it just didn't resonate with [me]."
In her job, it's totally okay to have a tattoo.
"There was no reason to do it for when I did except that I'm not going to get a bank job now so it's okay! I've wanted them for twenty years and I went, 'You have a job [where] you can do that. Sure.' Maybe I'll get another one. I don't really have anything planned.
Robin Hilton: "Get that dagger with a rose wrapped around it that you've had your eye on?"
"Probably more of a jester springing out of a bong, I'm thinking. Right up the front of my chest. ... Jack in the Bong. I'm going to get a Jack in the Bong tattoo. You'll be able to smell it just from looking at it. Wow, that's bold. That is a bold move."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
When Alpa Patel's grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, he seemed healthy: The 64-year-old had been training for a triathlon when doctors found a lemon-size tumor in his brain. He died almost a year to the day from when he was diagnosed.
Patel, only a teenager at the time in Daytona Beach, Fla., said that experience "really got me to thinking what causes most cancer."
She became an epidemiologist and is now the principal investigator — and one of the participants — in the American Cancer Society's third generation study on cancer prevention, which researchers hope will help them solve one of medicine's most perplexing puzzles: why some people never get cancer.
To take part in the study, a person must be 30 to 65 and never have had cancer. Participants fill out comprehensive surveys about their health and habits and give blood samples and waist measurements. Researchers will track participants' progress over the years, sending short follow-up surveys every two years or so that can be filled out at home in about 15 to 20 minutes.
The American Cancer Society has already enrolled 200,000 people and hopes to find 100,000 more people nationwide; enrollment in Chicago's western suburbs began Thursday and runs until April 26. Enrollment will take place in Springfield in May, in Chicago's north suburbs in June and in Chicago in August.
When the cancer society started tracking cancer-free participants in its first study in the 1950s, a cancer diagnosis was "like a death sentence," Patel said. But that study, by following participants over the years, established the link between smoking and lung cancer — a no-brainer today, but groundbreaking research at the time, Patel said.
Findings from the second study, which started in the 1980s, helped link obesity with increased cancer risk.
That's one area upon which researchers are hoping to expand with new data from today's participants, whose health will be tracked for at least the next 20 years, Patel said.
"We haven't really studied people who have been very heavy their entire lives, which wasn't the case in previous generations," said Lauren Teras, an epidemiologist at the cancer society.
Teras, 36, who has enrolled in the study along with several of her cancer-free family members, also intends to focus on what happens to people living in a more sedentary society.
"More people are in their cars, in front of an iPad, at their desk in front of a computer all day," Teras said. She hopes to explore whether increased sitting time has adverse health effects even for people who exercise regularly, Teras said.
That research question wasn't the point of focus in generations past, when Frances Kent's parents took part in the first study in the 1950s. Kent, 62, of the North Shore, said her parents "were always active physically."
Both have since passed away, but Kent's mother never had cancer. She died at 85 simply of "old age, didn't have any particular disease," Kent said. Her father had prostate cancer, but only in his late 70s, and "he was never in the hospital or getting chemo or all that." He died of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia at 86.
"They always watched things that we know now are not so good for us — salt, they didn't eat red meat. They kept their diet simpler, like vegetables, rice, grains and nuts," Kent said.
But Kent's oldest sister passed away at 47 of colon cancer, a motivating factor for Kent, who remains cancer-free and intends on enrolling in this generation's cancer study.
"I think it's so important to participate because it gives (the researchers) patterns," Kent said. "It gives them information to press for a cure."
Twitter @rachael_levy

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A chapter in The Seven Challenges Workbook
A Guide to Cooperative Communication Skills for Success at Home and Work
by Dennis Rivers, MA -- 2023 Edition
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SUMMARY (repeated from Introduction) This chapter in the The Seven Challenges Workbook describes the process of starting conversations by declaring your conversational intent and inviting the conscious consent of your prospective conversation partners. The basic idea is that you can help your conversation partners cooperate with you and reduce possible misunderstandings by starting important conversations with a stated invitation to join you in the specific kind of conversation you want to have. The more the conversation is going to mean to you, the more important it is for your conversation partner to understand the big picture. Most conversations express one or another of about thirty basic intentions, which imply different kinds of cooperation from your conversation partners. They can play their role in specific conversations much better if you clarify for yourself, and then identify for them, the role you are asking for, rather than leaving them to guess what you might be wanting.
When you need to have a long, complex, or emotion-laden conversation with someone, it can make a GIANT difference if you briefly explain your conversational intention first and then invite their consent.
Why explain? Some conversations require a lot more time, effort and involvement than others. If you want to have a conversation that will require a significant amount of effort from the other person, it will go better if that person understands what he or she is getting into and consents to participate. Of course, in giving up the varying amounts of coercion and surprise that are at work when we just launch into whatever we want to talk about, we are more vulnerable to being turned down.
But, when people agree to talk with us, they will be more present in the conversation and more able to either meet our needs or explain why they can't (and perhaps suggest alternatives we had not thought of).
Many good communicators do this explaining intent/inviting consent without giving it any thought. They start important conversations by saying things such as:
"Hi, Steve. I need to ask for your help on my project. Got a minute to talk about it?"
"Uh…Maria, do you have a minute? Right now I'd like to talk to you about… Is that OK?"
"Well, sit down for a minute and let me tell you what happened…"
"Hello there, Mr. Sanchez. Say, uh…I'm not completely comfortable about this job. Can we talk about it for a few minutes?"
"Hi, Jerry, this is Mike. How ya doin'? I want to talk to you about Fred. He's in jail again. Is this a good time to talk?"
When we offer such combined explanations-of-intent and invitations-to-consent we can help our conversations along in four important ways:
First, we give our listeners a chance to consent to or decline the offer of a specific conversation. A person who has agreed to participate will participate more fully.
Second, we help our listeners to understand the "big picture," the overall goal of the conversation-to-come. (Many scholars in linguistics and communication studies now agree that understanding a person's overall conversational intention is crucial for understanding that person's message in words and gestures. [11])
Third, we allow our listeners to get ready for what is coming, especially if the topic is emotionally charged. (If we surprise people by launching into emotional conversations, they may respond by avoiding further conversations with us or by being permanently on guard.)
And fourth, we help our listeners understand the role that we want them to play in the conversation: fellow problem solver, employee receiving instructions, giver of emotional support, and so on. These are very different roles to play. Our conversations will go better if we ask people to play only one conversational role at a time.
Getting explicit. Often people conduct this "negotiation about conversation" through body language and tone of voice during the first few seconds of interaction. But since we often have to talk with people whose body language and tone of voice patterns may be quite different from ours, we may need to be more explicit and direct in the way we ask people to have conversations with us. The more important the conversation is to you, the more important it is to have your partner's consent and conscious participation. On the other hand, just saying, "Hi!", or talking about the weather does not require this kind of preparation, because very little is being required of the other person, and people can easily indicate with their tone of voice whether or not they are interested in chatting. To be invited into a conversation is an act of respect. A consciously consenting participant is much more likely to pay attention and cooperate than someone who feels pushed into an undefined conversation by the force of another person's talking. It's not universal, but to assume without asking that a person is available to talk may be interpreted by many people as lack of respect. When we begin a conversation by respecting the wishes of the other person, we start to generate some of the goodwill (trust that their wishes will be considered) needed for creative problem solving. I believe that the empathy we get will be more genuine and the agreements we reach will be more reliable if we give people a choice about talking with us. As you become consciously familiar with various kinds of conversational intentions, you will find it easier to:
- Invite someone to have one of a wide range of conversations, depending on your wants or needs
- Agree to someone's conversational invitation
- Say, "no." Decline or re-negotiate a conversational invitation from someone
- When in doubt, gently prompt a person to clarify what kind of conversation she or he is trying to have with you
- Avoid conversations that are negative, self-defeating or self-destructive
Finding your voice in different situations. In the exercises at the end of this chapter you will find a list of the most common conversational intentions. You can use the Exploratory List of Conversational Intentions to expand the range of the conversations you feel comfortable starting. The exercise pages provide a place for you to make notes as you work with a practice partner and explore how it feels to start each of the conversations on the list. Although few conversations are exactly alike, for the sake of exploration we can group most English conversations into approximately forty overlapping types of intention. I classify about thirty of these intents as fulfilling and about twelve as unfulfilling. The goal here is not to develop rigid logical categories, but instead to suggest many of the "flavors" of conversational intention that can be distinguished in everyday talking and listening (including exits and "time-outs"). The goal of presenting the list of fulfilling intentions is to help you feel empowered to start a wide range of new and more satisfying conversations. As you explore these lists feel free to add your own entries.
Intentions worth avoiding. In order to be realistic about how people actually behave, I have included a second list, at the end of this chapter, that contains what I call conversational intentions that create problems. Here I have included motives such as to coerce, to deceive, to punish, to demean, "stone-wall," etc. In our time, TV, movies, popular music and books continually bombard us with ready-made examples of extraordinary sarcasm, cruelty, and violence. So in the process of developing a positive personal style of interaction, we may have to struggle against what is almost a cultural brainwashing in favor of violence and against cooperation, respect and kindness. There are many moral arguments about these matters and I leave it to you to decide the issues of morality. I would, however, like to point out three of the most serious pragmatic liabilities of these coercive conversational intentions.
It will come back to you. The first is that whatever we do to others, we teach others to do back to us, both in conversation and in life in general. This was brought home to me quite chillingly over a period of years as I observed a stressed-out, single-mother friend of mine use sarcasm as a way of trying to discipline her bright ten-year-old son. Quickly the ten-year-old became a teenager who would speak to his mother with the same withering sarcasm she had used on him.
They will leave. The unfulfilling intentions and actions on the second list may provide some short-term satisfaction as ways of venting feelings of anger or frustration. But the second drawback of these actions is that anyone who can avoid being the target of them will probably not stay around to be coerced or demeaned. And if someone can't leave, no one involved will be happy.
Very bad things can happen. There are a variety of tragedies in recent years that illustrate how catastrophes can be created by coercive conversations: An engineer warned managers at the Challenger rocket site that cold weather would cause parts of the rocket to fail. The managers "stonewalled," the rocket was launched, and the four astronauts on board died when the rocket exploded. An Air Florida airliner crashed on takeoff, killing almost all passengers on board, because the pilot coerced the reluctant copilot into taking off with too much ice on the wings. And it has become a recurring sorrow in the United States that teenagers continually humiliated at school return to murder their classmates and teachers.
Such considerations suggest that it is in our own deep best interest to explore more sustainable conversational intentions.
First exercise for Challenge 2: Explaining the kind of conversation you want to have. With your practice partner, try starting each of the conversations on the list. Note which feel easy to start and which feel more challenging. Begin with: "Right now I'd like to…" or "I'd like to take about 1/5/30 minutes and…"
|…tell you about my experiences/feelings… …that involve no implied requests or complaints toward you OR …so that you will understand the request, offer, complaint, etc., I want to make
|…hear what's happening with you. (More specific: …hear how you are doing with [topic]…)
|…entertain you with a story.
|…explore some possibilities concerning … (requiring your empathy but not your advice or permission)
|…plan a course of action for myself (with your help or with you as listener/witness only)
|…coordinate/plan our actions together concerning…
|…express my affection for you (or appreciation of you concerning…)
|…express support for you as you cope with a difficult situation.
|…complain/make a request about something you have done (or said) (for better resolution of conflicts, translate complaints into requests)
|…confirm my understanding of the experience or position you just shared. (this usually continues with "I hear that you…," "Sounds like you…," "So you're feeling kinda…," or "Let me see if I understand you…")
|…resolve a conflict that I have with you about…
|…negotiate or bargain with you about…
|…work with you to reach a decision about…
|…give you permission or consent to…/…get your permission or consent to…
|…give you some information about …/…get some information from you about…
|…give you some advice about …/…get some advice from you about…
|…give you directions, orders or work assignments… / get directions or orders from you
|…make a request of you (for action, time, information, object, money, promise, etc.)
|…consent to (or refuse) a request you have made to me.
|…make an offer to you (for action, information, object, promise, etc.)
|…accept or decline an offer you have made to me.
|…persuade or motivate you to adopt (a particular) point of view.
|…persuade or motivate you to choose (a particular) course of action.
|…forgive you for… / ask for your forgiveness concerning…
|…make an apology to you about… / request an apology from you about…
|…offer an interpretation of… (what … means to me) / ask for your interpretation of…
|…offer an evaluation of… (how good or bad I think … is) / ask for your evaluation of…
|…change the subject of the conversation and talk about…
|…have some time to think things over.
|…leave/end this conversation so that I can… _______________________________________________
Second exercise for Challenge 2: Exploring conversational intentions that create problems. (to be explored with as much privacy as you need, or with a therapist) To what degree do you find yourself relying on these kinds of conversations to influence the people in your life? What possibilities do you see for change? To what degree are you or were you an unwilling participant in such conversations? What possibilities do you see for change as you become more aware of conversational intentions?
|AN EXPLORATORY LIST OF UN-FULFILLING CONVERSATIONAL INTENTIONS (These conversational intentions and related actions are unfulfilling, at the very least, because we would not like someone to do these things to us . And when we do any of these things, we teach and encourage others to do them to us and/or to avoid contact with us.)
|To lie, deceive or mislead (sometimes partly redeemed by good overall intentions, but usually not)
|To threaten
|To hurt or abuse
|To punish (creates resentment, avoidance and desire for revenge)
|To blame (focuses on past instead of present and future)
|To control or coerce (force, influence someone against their will and consent)
|To manipulate (to influence someone without his or her knowledge and consent)
|To demean, humiliate or shame… …to try to make someone look bad in eyes of others OR …to try to make people doubt themselves or feel bad about themselves
|"Stonewalling:" To deny the existence of a problem in the face of strong evidence and sincere appeals from others
|To hide what is important to me from you (if you are an important person in my life)
|To suppress or invalidate someone's emotional response to a given event or situation (as in "Don't cry!", or the even more coercive "You stop crying or I'll really give you something to cry about!")
|To withdraw from interaction in order to avoid the consequences of something I have done. ________________________________________________
Notes and references:
11. For intensely scholarly reflections on this complex issue, see Adrian Akmajian (et al.), Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication , Cambridge, MIT Press, 1990. Chap.9, and Philip R. Cohen (et al.), Editors, Intentions in Communication , Cambridge, MIT Press, 1990, especially Chap. 2, Michael E. Bratman's essay.
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I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had
My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High
My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High
By Tony Danza
By Tony Danza
By Tony Danza
By Tony Danza
Be Different
Kanye West Owes Me $300
My Freshman Year
Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8
Raising Cubby
January First
Diary of a Mad Diva
Raising a Rare Girl
Not Fade Away
What Teachers Make
"Breezy…Danza is able to shed light on a number of the underreported struggles teachers face."
"In this endearing memoir, Danza defies expectations…[filled with] refreshing honesty…provides insights into a teacher's daily life."
–Publishers Weekly
"A witty, self-deprecating, and charming account of how being a teacher extends far beyond the four walls of a classroom. From sweating through his shirt to harboring adoption fantasies, Tony Danza depicts his brutally and beautifully real experience as a first-year high-school teacher. With humor and honesty, he highlights the emotional toll of teaching and describes how one of the most important careers in America is still one of the most unappreciated."
–Erin Gruwell, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Freedom Writers Diary
"At age 59 Tony Danza inexplicably chose to become a teacher at a tough, inner-city school. The story he tells is moving, eye-opening, and compellingly honest. Love infuses his work, and he cries a lot. Read this book and you will too."
–Joel Klein, former New York City Schools chancellor
"It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of a group of teens and proclaim yourself their teacher. It takes even more to be a good one — someone who sees each student as an individual with a unique life story. Tony Danza put himself forward to teach children and learn from them, knowing that the more he really understood these kids the better teacher he could be for them. We easily forget how truly difficult it is to be a transformational teacher and in these pages you can see that's what he became."
–Rosalind Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of Queen Bees & Wannabees
"Tony Danza is filled with life, joy and the spirit of altruism – which makes him a natural teacher, as well as a perfect witness to the victories and tragedies in today's inner-city classroom. Like teaching itself, this book is an emotional roller-coaster – but it's also a sobering account of the perilous state of schools in our poor communities. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of the nation's children."
–Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO, Harlem Children's Zone
"I highly recommend I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had to everyone who has thought about teaching as an encore career – and anyone who wants to know what life is like for teachers and students in American public school classrooms today. Tony's book will make you laugh, cry, and cheer. It serves as a call to action for every one of us to take a stand and commit to the education of our young people."
–Sherry Lansing, Former CEO of Paramount Pictures and Founder of The Sherry Lansing Foundation
"A great antidote to all those pieces by folks who consider teaching glorified babysitting."
—Library Journal
Table Of Contents
1. You're Fired, Go Teach
Teachers Lounge: Lesson Plans
2. Ignorance Is No Excuse
Teachers Lounge: The Real Deal
3. Do Now
Teachers Lounge: Everybody Cries
4. The Half-Sandwich Club
Teachers Lounge: Bobby G
5. Making the Grade
Teachers Lounge: No Fear Shakespeare
6. Never Smile Before Christmas
Teachers Lounge: Northeast's Got Talent
7. Field Tripping
Teachers Lounge: Gone Bowling
8. Poetic Justice
Teachers Lounge: Happy Hour
9. Our Atticus
Teachers Lounge: Adequate Yearly Progress
10. Spring Fever
Teachers Lounge: Fight Night
11. Finals
Teachers Lounge: The Sons of Happiness
12. If…
Teachers Lounge: Saving Starfish
21 Books You've Been Meaning to Read
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text:
The Corrupted Skullsplitter is a mob you will normally pass on the way to Malkorok's room. Instead of killing it, carefully skip it and clear the rest of the trash on the way there. Once the route is clear, grab the Skullsplitter and pull it into Malk's room. Once there, CC it or offtank it to the side, being careful not to kill it.
When the boss casts Breath of Y'Shaarj, make sure the mob is hit by it. You will know it worked because it will transform into a Corrupted Amalgamation. As soon as this happens, nuke the mob and then kill the boss as normal.


text:
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text:
2000 AD, Action Lab, Afterlife With Archie, Archie Comics, B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, BOOM!, Brass Sun, Brian Wood, Dan Abnett, Dan Slott, Daredevil, Dark Horse, Dave Stewart, Dry Spell, Dynamite, Eric Shanower, Francesco Francavilla, Gabriel Rodriguez, Greg Rucka, Guiu Vilanova, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D., I.N.J. Culbard, Ian Edginton, IDW, Image, Innie Awards, J. Michael Straczynski, Jordie Bellaire, Ken Krekeler, Laura Allred, Lazarus, Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland, Matt Kindt, Matt Wilson, Michael Lark, Mike Allred, Mind MGMT, Moon Knight, Nelson Daniel, Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, Silver Surfer, The Massive, The Twilight Zone, The Wicked & The Divine, Wild Blue Yonder, Wild's End, zero
The Harvey Award nominations have been announced! The Eisners are in the books! And now we offer our annual corrective: THE INNIE AWARDS!
What does 'Innies' stand for? Well, other than an attempt at shameless self-branding, it stands for 'independence'! Being 'in' the know! Part of the 'in' crowd! And possessing the non-freaky type of belly button.
Since we don't have the big-time budget of the fancy-pants Eisners or Harveys, we've limited ourselves to five categories. (Sorry Best Translation of Foreign Material for Tweens!)
Keep in mind that these are for comics that were published in 2014.
If the Eisners are the Oscars, and the Harveys are the Golden Globes, then the Innies are the Independent Spirits–or at least the People's Choice Awards!
The Nominations:
Best Limited Series:
- Brass Sun by Ian Edginton and I.N.J Culbard (2000AD)
- Dry Spell by Ken Krekeler (Action Lab/Danger Zone)
- Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland by Eric Shanower and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
- The Twilight Zone by J. Michael Straczynski and Guiu Vilanova (Dynamite Entertainment)
- Wild's End by Dan Abnett and I.N.J Culbard (BOOM! Studios)
Best Ongoing Series:
- Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla (Archie Horror)
- Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (Image)
- The Massive by Brian Wood and various (Dark Horse)
- Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt (Dark Horse)
- Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Mike Allred (Marvel)
Best Writer:
- Matt Kindt, Mind MGMT (Dark Horse)
- Ken Krekeler, Dry Spell (Action Lab/Danger Zone)
- Greg Rucka, Lazarus (Image)
- Dan Slott, Silver Surfer (Marvel)
- Brian Wood, The Massive (Dark Horse), Moon Knight (Marvel)
Best Artist:
- Mike Allred, Silver Surfer (Marvel)
- I.N.J. Culbard, Wild's End (BOOM! Studios), Brass Sun (2000AD)
- Francesco Francavilla, Afterlife with Archie (Archie Horror)
- Matt Kindt, Mind MGMT (Dark Horse)
- Gabriel Rodriguez, Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland (IDW)
Best Colorist:
- Laura Allred, Silver Surfer (Marvel)
- Jordie Bellaire, The Massive (Dark Horse), Moon Knight (Marvel), Zero (Image)
- Nelson Daniel, Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland (IDW), Wild Blue Yonder (IDW)
- Dave Stewart B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth (Dark Horse), Hellboy & the B.P.R.D.: 1952 (Dark Horse)
- Matthew Wilson The Wicked + The Divine (Image), Daredevil (Marvel)
Now it's your turn. Did we miss anyone or anything?
Let the internet shouting begin!
Turning pages,
Derek & Scott


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Venice lagoon's popular islands: If you only have a short time in Venice and want to explore the islands of its lagoon, the most popular ones are Murano, Burano and Torcello. These three can be covered in the one outing and can be reached by the public vaporetti. The vaporetto ride on Venice's … [Read more...]
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SWAMP (Douglas Easterly and Matt Kenyon) Work from Notepad. "Notepad" is an act of protest and commemoration disguised as a stack of ordinary yellow legal pads. Each ruled line, when magnified, is revealed to be microprinted text enumerating the full names, dates, and locations of each Iraqi civilian death on record over the first three […]
Archives for posts tagged 'anti-war'
SWAMP (Douglas Easterly and Matt Kenyon)
Saturday, 17 September 2011


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• Nonstick cooking spray
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. white vinegar
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 cup 10X confectioners' sugar
• 2 tsp. finely chopped fresh, edible lavender flowers
Preheat the oven to 200°F. Use an 8-inch plate or ring to trace circles onto 3 pieces of parchment paper. Spray the corners of 3 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray, and place the papers, ink-side down, on top.
Combine the egg whites, vinegar, and cornstarch in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat at medium-low speed just until the whites are foamy. Increase speed to medium high, and gradually add the sugar and lavender flowers, beating until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes.
Very gently spoon the meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a medium star or round tip. Using the circles as your guide, pipe the meringue into a disc of star, or kiss, shapes about ¼- to ?-inch high on the prepared baking sheets (or use an offset spatula to evenly spread the meringue to the edges of the circle). Bake for about 1 to 1½ hours, switching the positions of the baking sheets every 30 minutes. If the meringue begins to color, lower the temperature to 175°F and continue to bake until the meringues are dry and crisp. Turn off the heat, and leave the meringues in the oven to dry for 1 to 2 hours. Let cool on a wire rack. (The meringues can be prepared one day in advance; store in an airtight container in a dry, cool place.)
• Nonstick cooking spray or softened unsalted butter
• 1 lb. apricots, quartered and pitted
• 4 T lavender honey (or less if apricots are very sweet)
• Seeds scraped from ¼ vanilla bean
• Splash of rum
• Freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon
• 1 T extra-virgin olive oil
Center a rack in the oven, and preheat it to 350°F. Lightly spray or butter the inside of an 8-inch square baking pan.
For the apricot compote: Toss half the apricots into a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons lavender honey, the vanilla-bean seeds, rum, and ¼ cup water; transfer to the baking pan. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and bake until the apricots are tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool to room temperature in the covered pan. Stir in the lemon juice.
For the sautéed apricots: Heat the olive oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining apricots and lavender honey, and cook until light golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes. The apricots should still hold their shape. Set aside to cool.
To Assemble
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ¾ cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1–2 T lavender honey
• 1 tsp. fresh, edible lavender flowers, finely chopped
Put the cream into a chilled bowl, and whisk until medium peaks form. Stir in the yogurt.
Gently remove the meringues from the parchment paper. Place one on a serving plate. Spoon half of the whipped cream, apricot compote, and sautéed apricots on top. Drizzle with half the honey, and sprinkle with half the lavender flowers. Add the second meringue, and spoon on the remaining whipped cream, apricot compote, sautéed apricots, honey, and lavender flowers. Top with the third meringue. Cut with an electric knife, and serve immediately. Makes 6 to 8 servings.


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Saturday morning, or, Prelude to Anisong World Matsuri
Having only hydrated during dinner yesterday and otherwise only having alcohol and a subway sandwich in my system from yesterday, on top of copious amounts of talking and walking around in the LA heat, my throat was destroyed and my voice hoarser than death herself. Good way to start the morning.
I dont quite remember when we got up or went to the venue, but we did that at roughly 11am. I had bought Petri and I3usters
Friday, or, the Real AX Souls Starts Here
Picking up where I left off, at approximately 6am I took a place in the LLLs couch beside Nico and joined the Love Live viewing for roughly two hours. Around 8am I got up and asked mAc if hed give me a lift to our apt so I could shower and change, since I had kind of slept on a bathroom floor and felt a bit gross. mAc took pity on my soul and gave me a lift.
I spent about 15 minutes taking a cold shower in the room, interestingly
Updated July 15th, 2016 at 08:26 PM by Spinach
SpinSpins Bizarre Vacation: Drought Daredevil Derby
Many are aware of the sizable BL meetup at Anime Expo in LA at the start of July. Many are also aware that a select portion of the initial gathering decided to stay an extra week after AX to be tourists and get shitfaced niipah together. Here will be laid out a modestly accurate recollection of those two weeks. Be advised, gaps in my memory may exist for reasons that will be explained in due time. Also be advised, some of the users


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#contests #nature
Winners & Honorable Mentions of the 2012 National Geographic Photography Competition
Grand Prize / Photo and caption by Ashley Vincent/National Geographic Photo Contest. The subject's name is Busaba, a well cared for Indochinese Tigress whose home is at Khao Kheow Open Zoo, Thailand. I had taken many portraits of Busaba previously and it was becoming more and more difficult to come up with an image that appeared any different to the others. Which is why I took to observing her more carefully during my visits in the hope of capturing something of a behavioural shot. The opportunity finally presented itself while watching Busaba enjoying her private pool then shaking herself dry. In all humility I have to say that Mother Nature smiled favourably on me that day!
First Place for People / Photo and caption by Micah Albert/National Geographic Photo Contest. At the end of the day women are allowed to pick through the dumpsite.
First Place for Places / Photo and caption by Nenad Saljic/National Geographic Photo Contest. The Matterhorn 4478m at full moon.
Honorable Mention / Photo and caption by关嘉城/National Geographic Photo Contest. Dragon boating is a chinese traditional entertainment. As an acquatic sport to memorise qu yuan, a patriotic poet in ancient china, it is usually held in festivals, which can be traced back to two thousands years ago.
Honorable Mention / Photo and caption by Eric Guth/National Geographic Photo Contest. Glacial ice washes ashore after calving off the Breiamerkurjˆkull glacier on Iceland's eastern coast. During the waning light of summer this image was created over the course of a 4 minute exposure while the photographer backlit the grounded glacial ice with a headlamp for 2 of those 4 minutes.
Viewers' Choice for People / Photo and caption by Kai-Otto Melau/National Geographic Photo Contest. A race that follows in the path of the famous explorer Roald Amundsen brings the contestants to the Hardangervidda Mountainplateu, Norway. 100km across the plateau, the exact same route Amundsen used to prepare for his South Pole expedition in 1911 is still used by explorers today. Amundsen did not manage to cross the plateau and had to turn back because of bad weather. He allegedly said that the attempt to cross Hardangervidda was just as dangerous and hard as the conquering of the South Pole. The group in the picture used the race as preparations for an attempt to cross Greenland.
Honorable Mention / Photo and caption by Micheal Eastman/National Geographic Photo Contest. With his exceptional hearing a red fox has targeted a mouse hidden under 2 feet of crusted snow. Springing high in the air he breaks through the crusted spring snow with his nose and his body is completely vertical as he grabs the mouse under the snow.
Honorable Mention / Photo and caption by ulrich lambert/National Geographic Photo Contest. Stilt fishing is a typical fishing technique only seen in Sri Lanka. The fishermen sit on a cross bar called a petta tied to a vertical pole planted into the coral reef. This long exposure shot shows how unstable their position is.
Viewers' Choice / Photo and caption by Sanjeev Bhor/National Geographic Photo Contest. Everyday in mara starts with something new and different and day ends with memorable experiences with spectacular photographs. I was very lucky of sighting and photographing Malaika the name of female Cheetah and her cub. She is well known for its habit to jump on vehicles. She learned that from her mother Kike, and Kike from her mother Amber. Like her mother she is teaching lessons to her cub. Teaching lessons means addition of another moment for tourist. This is one of the tender moment between Malaika and her cub. I was very lucky to capture that moment.
Honrable Mention / Photo and caption by Fransisca Harlijanto/National Geographic Photo Contest. I was surrounded by thousands of fish that moved in synchrony because of the predation that was happening. It was an incredible experience.
The winners have been announced for the 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest which saw over 22,000 entries from 150 countries this year. The winners were selected by a panel of experts comprised of natural history photographer Christian Ziegler and documentary photographers Gerd Ludwig and Debbie Fleming Caffery. Three additional Viewers Choice awards were also given. Above are some of my favorites but you can see additional Honorable Mentions over on National Geographic. In a kind gesture National Geographic made all the winning photographs available as downloadable desktop images, as a fan of large numbers I'm personally going with Predation for a few weeks.
#contests #nature
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My young nephews short story
Posted byGlennis Browne (Annie Browne)Posted inCreative Historical Social Fiction
Published by Glennis Browne (Annie Browne)
New Zealand author, blogging and researcheing family trees. I write fiction ally about historical families, focusing on the challenges, social issues and indiscretions that caused major disruptions in ancestors lives. My aim is to create realistic reality by bringing greater understanding to our generation. Follow The Journeys of the Fortune Seekers Series of novels written by Annie Browne. Book 4 underway. I also write as Glennis Browne. View more posts


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It's a snappy quote to say you can beat UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre in the way he's beaten most of his opponents in the past six years: wrestling.
Welterweight Matt Brown knows this. The thing is, he still believes it, and he's never been one that's afraid to say what's on his mind. It's just that until now, he hasn't had the big stage to say it from.
"I know where my wrestling stands," Brown told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "It's simply a matter of executing those abilities in the ring with 'GSP.' I can outwrestle him. I'm calling it right now.
"It sounds f—ing ridiculous, and everybody is going to laugh at me, and I know the forums, everybody's going to talk about how I'm delusional and this and that. … I know where I'm at."
Brown (18-11 MMA, 11-5 UFC) is ready to hear the critics, though they might be in short supply at the moment. At this past Saturday's UFC Fight Night 26, he knocked out Mike Pyle (25-9-1 MMA, 8-4 UFC) in 29 seconds to notch his sixth straight UFC win.
Afterward, Brown departed from earlier victory speeches by calling out St-Pierre, who's next scheduled to fight Hendricks at UFC 167 in November.
At the post-fight press conference for UFC Fight Night 26, which took place at Boston's TD Garden, "The Immortal" said he was in the fight business for one reason alone – "to beat GSP's ass."
Although he might be one or perhaps two fights away from a title shot, Brown is certain that he won't be like other fighters who favor striking and spend 25 minutes on their back with the welterweight champ.
"I don't think [St-Pierre has] ever fought anybody that can put the kind of pressure that I put on him, and I think I can stop his takedowns," Brown said. "His best chance is to get a takedown. People haven't seen my wrestling. I'm training with the best wrestlers in the world right now, and I'm getting pretty damn good at it."
By now, fans are used to hearing welterweights declare themselves different from the pack. Brown said if the fans don't believe him (and let's face it, they probably won't), they should ask his training partners at the Ohio State wrestling team and the Ohio Regional Training Center, which hosts Olympic hopefuls and World Team members.
"I haven't really been able to show it much lately, just because of the matchups," he said. "But I'm going to shock some people, man. My wrestling is coming up to a very high level."
Before he again hits the mats, though, he'll take time off to recover from nagging injuries he's sustained in his past two fights. Prior to a bout with Jordan Mein at UFC on FOX 7, which he won via second-round TKO, he injured himself in training camp and discovered during preparation for Pyle that he had a cracked sternum that was almost healed.
Brown has plans to get checked out by a doctor to make sure he's fully healed. Then, he'll take time off with his family so he can "make sure I'm good and healthy so I can do another camp and get hurt again."
In the cage, he's been the one doing most of the hurting. Once on the brink of a pink slip and contemplating retirement after going 1-4 between 2010 and 2011, he's stopped five of his past six opponents via TKO or KO. He first became known to fans on "The Ultimate Fighter 7," where he was the show's resident tough guy despite losing the reality-show competition.
Now, he's trying to leverage his current success into the ultimate opportunity – a shot at St-Pierre.
"This was the dream when I set out to start this," Brown said. "I've actually surpassed my own expectations. I've lost some fights, and a little bit of that was a mental block, thinking I couldn't be where I'm at now. It feels pretty good to prove myself wrong."
For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 26, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.
MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino's Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by "Gorgeous" George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian "Goze" Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.


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Using what they are calling "mechanical agitation," researchers out of the Georgia Institute of Technology say they've developed arrays that can sense touch with the same level of sensitivity as the human fingertip, which could result in better bots and prosthetics.
The transparent and flexible arrays use about 8,000 taxels, which are touch-sensitive transistors that can generate piezoelectric signals independently -- meaning they emit electricity when mechanically agitated. As the researchers report this week in the journal Science, each of those thousands of transistors comprises a bundle of some 1,500 zinc oxide nanowires, which connect to electrodes via a thin layer of gold, enabling the arrays to pick up on changes in pressure as low as 10 kilopascals -- which is what human skin can detect.
"Any mechanical motion, such as the movement of arms or the fingers of a robot, could be translated to control signals," lead author Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Tech's School of Materials Science and Engineering said in a news release. "This could make artificial skin smarter and more like the human skin. It would allow the skin to feel activity on the surface."
Mimicking the sense of touch electronically has long been the dream of many a researcher, and has been accomplished by measuring changes in resistance. But the team at Georgia Tech experimented with a different approach, measuring tiny polarization changes when piezoelectric materials such as zinc oxide (in which current can accumulate) are placed under mechanical stress. In these transistors, then, piezoelectric charges control the flow of current through the nanowires."This is a fundamentally new technology that allows us to control electronic devices directly using mechanical agitation," Prof Wang said. "This could be used in a broad range of areas, including robotics, MEMS, human-computer interfaces, and other areas that involve mechanical deformation."
Time will tell whether this tech will find its way into military uses; the work is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.


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World's Ballsiest Magazine Puts a Gay Muhammed on Its Cover
Last week, the editorial offices of French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo were firebombed after the release of an issue "guest edited" by Muhammed. ("100 lashes if you don't die of laughter!" said the cartoon Muhammed on the cover.)
The magazine's website was taken over shortly after that by a Turkish hackers group, who left a threatening message reading, "You keep abusing Islam's almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech...Be God's Curse On You! We Will be Your Curse on Cyber World!" Politicians and the media came out in support of the magazine's right to free speech, while French Muslim groups decried racism. Amidst it all and against all odds, the newly homeless Hebdo got its next issue out on schedule. Yup! There it is, the new cover, right above us. This is not going to end well.
As you can see with your own, God-fearing eyes, it features a cartoon likeness of the magazine's editor engaged in a sloppy, drool-y, open-mouthed kiss with — well, you know. We don't really need to say his name, do we? Fine — with Muhammed.* Above the two reads the headline: "Love is stronger than hate." Which is very true! But hate typically makes for more spectacular acts of retribution. We'll just wait this one out way over here, completing a word jumble in a perfectly uncontroversial issue of Highlights magazine.
*Several of you have pointed out that the headwear/shorter beard/slight tweaks to the angle and scale of the hooknose might suggest that the figure involved in a passionate, man-on-frog liplock is in fact just a devout Muslim, and not Muhammed himself. It's a perfectly plausible theory, and we certainly didn't mean to fan the flames of controversy any further by misrepresenting it as such. Adjust your Holy War Fantasy League pools accordingly. [Business Insider, Image via Charlie Hebdo]


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Is there a way to define a macro that does not start with
\? for example, I'd like to have
-> expand to
\rightarrow since I like reading raw LaTeX and
$\eps -> 0$ reads much nicer (to me...) than
$\eps\rightarrow0$ or even (the solution I have now)
I guess one could define
- as an escape character and then use it to read the next character, if it is a
> expand the whole shebang to
\rightarrow and if not expand the
- to a
- and let the next character to its thing...I have no idea if what I just wrote makes any sense, nor how one would do it nor the possible pitfalls and reasons to avoid such behavior....
Ideas? Comments?


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WASHINGTON -- The Oxford English Dictionary dates the word "pogrom" from 1905, the year hundreds of Russian Jews were massacred in Odessa. In 1908, there was a pogrom of sorts in Illinois. It occurred in Springfield 100 years ago this week. So, consider the phenomenon of progress, which at the moment seems more contingent than it did just a decade ago.
On the night of Aug. 13, Mabel Hallam, a pretty young white woman whose husband Earl was working the night shift as a streetcar conductor, retired early. Around 11:30 p.m. she was awakened by a man's weight on her. "Why, Earl," she said, "what is wrong with you?" The man, who was not Earl and was black, said, "I am drunk." He raped her and fled. So she said.
"Negro's Heinous Crime" and "Dragged From Her Bed and Outraged by Negro" were the next day's headlines. As Jim Rasenberger reconstructs events in his fine book "America 1908," police plucked black men from the streets of Hallam's neighborhood until she identified one, George Richardson, as her assailant. By 5 p.m. the jail was surrounded by a mob of at least 4,000 baying for blood. Eighty-nine blacks would be lynched in America in 1908.
Springfield's sheriff enlisted a leading citizen -- owner of the city's largest restaurant, and of a fast automobile -- to spirit Richardson and another black man also accused of rape out of town. This further inflamed the mob, which destroyed the restaurant -- a white patron was killed by a stray bullet -- piled its furnishings on the owner's overturned automobile, and burned the pile.
For the next six hours the rioters, fueled by liquor looted from the restaurant, sacked two black neighborhoods, setting fires and blocking fire wagons and cutting their hoses. Forty black homes were destroyed, as were 21 black and several Jewish businesses. Thousands of Springfield's blacks fled into the countryside; some never returned.
After beating an elderly black man and a paralyzed black man, at 2 a.m. the mob seized a 56-year-old black barber from his home, beat him unconscious, hanged him from a tree and mutilated his body. Souvenir hunters carved away bits of the tree, which was entirely gone by the end of the day.
The next night a mob of 500 brought a rope and proceeded to the home of a prominent and wealthy 84-year-old black man who, standing in front of his house, inquired, "Good evening, gentlemen. What can I do for you?" He was beaten, slashed with a razor, hanged from a tree too supple to bear his weight. He was alive when troops from the state militia reached him. He died that night.
The next day's New York Times headline read:
Mobs in Springfield, Ill., Defying 3,000 Soldiers,
String Up Old and Innocent Victim"
One hundred seventeen rioters were indicted. One was fined $25 for petty larceny; another, a teenager, was sent to a reformatory. Mrs. Hallam later admitted that she invented the attack to explain to her husband some bruises inflicted by her boyfriend.
Now, fast forward to 10 years ago, when Americans were intoxicated by fumes from myriad triumphs. The Cold War had been won, the Gulf War had been a cakewalk, Russia was democratizing, China was locked in the logic of the Starbucks Postulate (give people a choice of coffees and a choice of political parties will soon follow) and everyone was becoming rich with technology stocks. The exhaustion of various fighting faiths -- fascism, communism, socialism -- meant there was no remaining ideological rival to the American model for organizing a modern society. Few Americans anticipated aggression from people who despise modernity.
Today, Russia's government is despotism leavened by assassination, China will achieve universal emphysema before meaningful universal suffrage, and Americans, in a slough of despond about economic difficulties that have not yet even reached a recession, gloomily embrace an inversion of the Whig Theory of History, which holds, or once did, that progress -- steadily enlarged and ennobled liberty -- is the essence of the human story.
So, remember Springfield. The siege of the jail, the rioting, the lynching and mutilating all occurred within walking distance of where, in 2007, Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy. Whatever you think of his apotheosis, it illustrates history's essential promise, which is not serenity -- that progress is inevitable -- but possibility, which is enough: Things have not always been as they are.


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You gotta like Jarvis Jones' brusqueness:
Q: You guys were so dominant in the first half against LSU, not even allowing a first down, then the dam kind of broke in the second half. Was there any lesson to be learned in that game?
A: "Lesson? We didn't even watch the film of it…"
I know just how he feels.


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If you have the latest MacBook Air and run Chrome as your primary browser, you may have been the victim of numerous kernel panics that require a reboot. Google has now confirmed that a resource leak related to GPU acceleration is triggering the kernel panics, and an update released Thursday afternoon temporarily disables some acceleration features until a full fix is ready.
The problem seems to have first been discovered early last week, according to reports in Apple's support discussion forums. The common thread among users experiencing crashes was the use of Chrome, which seemed to cause a kernel panic related to the drivers for Intel's HD4000 integrated graphics.
It turns out that Chrome's use of GPU acceleration for plug-ins—in particular, Flash—leaked resources. A side effect of that leak, however, is that the drivers for the HD4000 cause a kernel panic, requiring a hard restart to recover.
Google says it has filed a bug report with Apple concerning the driver issue, "since it should not be possible for an application to trigger such behavior," the company told Gizmodo. Chrome developers continue to work on a fix for the resource leak, but in the interim, Google has pushed out an update to Chrome that disables GPU acceleration on Macs with HD4000 graphics until the issue is resolved.


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At the hearings yesterday, after being stonewalled by Muir Russell about Muir Russell's refusal to investigate Jones' delete-all-email request, Stringer turned his attention to Acton, who claimed that he had carried out his own investigation, the results of which were on the UEA website. Here is a rough transcript:
Stringer – … Prof Acton, are you satisfied that these questions weren't asked? That people in your university were sending out emails suggesting that emails be deleted and that it hasn't been investigated.
Acton – It has been investigated. I've asked them and they've assured me that they've never knowingly deleted emails subject to [inaudible]
Stringer – Did you ask them under caution?
Acton – My relationship is rather different. It is part of my duty to address that kind of spirit and make sure that I drive it out and establish the fact. Can those emails be produced? Yes, they can. Did those might have deleted them say they deleted them? No, they say that they did not.
Stringer – and you've recorded those meeting with Prof Jones
Acton – – if you examine our website
The relevant location at the UEA website appears to be a July 26, 2010 statement by Jones as follows:
Phil Jones comments on questions concerning deletion of emails
Mon, 26 Jul 2010
"As I have said on a number of occasions I do delete emails from time to time – this is usually as part of a regular clear out but sometimes as I go along".
"Most people seem to do the same to keep their email account manageable and because we are regularly reminded when storage space on our email system is nearly full".
"There is also an environmental and economic cost to storing emails so it seems to me that it is not good practice just to keep everything"
"It would be very difficult to guess what might be asked for in future so I don't go around deleting emails just because they might be asked for at some point."
"I have previously confirmed that I have never knowingly deleted an email that was the subject of an active Freedom of Information request and neither have I deleted data".
Watch the pea very carefully. Acton is on the thimble.
The emails in most controversy were the surreptitious 2006 emails between Eugene Wahl and Keith Briffa, described by Fred Pearce as a "subversion" of IPCC policies. In these emails, Eugene Wahl substituted his self-serving assessment of the impact of the MM2005 critique of MBH for the assessment that had been distributed to external reviewers in the Second Draft. Although Jones was often and perhaps even usually copied on Briffa emails, Jones wasn't copied on these furtive emails between Wahl and Briffa.
Let's look at the narrowest possible construction of Jones' statement as it pertains to the delete-all-emails incident. At the time of Jones' delete-all-emails request, it's possible that the only copies of the furtive Wahl-Briffa exchange were held by Wahl and Briffa, both of whom were asked by Jones to delete the exchange.
Jones' carefully crafted statement says only that he hadn't personally deleted the Wahl-Briffa emails. It is silent on whether Briffa and/or Wahl acted on Jones' request to delete the email record of their surreptitious IPCC correspondence.
Nor does the East Anglia statement explain Jones' email to University officials that Briffa should (untruthfully) deny the existence of the Wahl-Briffa correspondence, an important part of this incident that Muir Russell didn't investigate.
The University of East Anglia promised an "independent investigation" into the emails. Yesterday, Muir Russell confirmed what everyone knew – the he didn't actually carry out an investigation. The only person who claimed to "investigate" was Acton – neither "independent" nor an "investigation".


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To celebrate, I'm giving away ANOTHER BLOG CANDY, and this time: A STAMP SET! A STAMP SET THAT NONE OF YOU HAVE SEEN YET** MINE! woo hoo!! Here's what you do: leave a comment on my blog, ONE PER DAY (because you're coming back anyway to check out the munchies, right??) until Sunday 3/9. You may also leave one extra comment for linking THIS POST on your blog (for this comment, just say "LINKING!" (and you have to do it! I can check!)) (You don't have to have a blog to be eligible to win, just to be able to leave an extra comment) One comment will randomly be chosen, and I will reveal the winner on the day of the release! This means that person will be one of the first people to receive it! ( And I will announce it BEFORE the stamps go "live" so you can plan your Gina K purchases if you did or didn't win the set!)
I will also be throwing in a couple accessories to compliment the set to make a prize pack you will flip for if you are the lucky person to receive it! Good luck! (I will add a pic as soon as I am able to without revealing too much!)Oh, and since my new stamps are still a secret, I thought today I would share a project that has NO stamps, just CS and DP this little tote I made up above(which has absolutely NOTHING to do with my new release OR the blog candy, just so you know!), isn't it cute??! I will be posting a step by step tutorial for this bag/treat holder this week, as well as how to modify it if you just want it to be a plain"card". For those of you who don't want to follow every step to make it, I will make a TEMPLATE available in the Gina K forum ('cause I still can't add a word doc here) during the release party on Monday the 10th between 7 and 9PM CST), so come check that out!


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Bradley wants cell phones on in case of emergency
Cell phones have typically been a classroom no-no, but Bradley University is asking its faculty and staff members to keep them turned on in class to ensure student safety.
In an e-mail sent Tuesday to employees and students, Bradley President Joanne Glasser said a new change in policy requires all faculty and staff members to keep their cell phones on while in class or designate a student to keep a cell phone active.
That way they can receive emergency text messages from the university in case of danger, whether it's a natural disaster or a man-made one.
"This policy is being instituted so that every classroom in every building will have access to the university text messaging system whenever a class is in session," Glasser said in the e-mail. "With the tragic experiences at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois (University), we all know that such incidents can happen anywhere, at any time."
The messaging system was started last year at Bradley and allows the school to send an emergency text to the cell phones of people who voluntarily sign up for them.
Class was back in session Wednesday on Bradley's campus.
Spokeswoman Kath Conver said the system has been tested several times but has been used only once for an actual message when heavy snow cancelled classes in February.
"It's another platform to keep the university community informed when there's an emergency," said spokesman Shelley Epstein.
Since its implementation, 6,587 people have signed up for the emergency text messages, he added.
The school also has increased its security in other areas, including indoor and outdoor public address systems, additional lighting, a call-in telephone information line and e-mails.
"There's several different things we've done in case something unforeseen happens," Epstein said.
The idea to change school policy and require faculty and staff members to keep a phone active came from a recent meeting between Glasser and several deans.
The school's text messaging system wouldn't be able to warn students in class if all phones were shut off, so the policy was set up to avoid that problem.
"They need to be protected, too," Epstein said. "The deans were in full agreement of the importance of this."
Kevin Sampier can be reached at (309 346-5300 or email@example.com.