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Another week, another interpretation of this blog title. Personal? Professional? Neither? Both?
Okay, throwing that virtual dart on the wall again I'm gonna go with professional.
The day I pick is the day I learned I was going to have my first romance novel published BY A REAL PUBLISHER!!!!
I was at the 2014 RWA conference in San Antonio – my very first RWA conference.
I'd already gotten the email from Rhonda Penders, publisher of The Wild Rose Press, that she wanted to see my entire manuscript after I'd come in first place in a contest she'd judged for unpublished writers. I'd sent it along about a month previously to an editor, who coincidentally, told me she would be attending the conference and thought it might be nice to put a face to my "email voice." We decided on a date and time to meet.
At the appointed hour I made my way to the registration desk and met with the person whom I'd been corresponding for the past month. She was absolutely lovely. We discussed many things – the conference, the weather in San Antonio – but we skirted around the topic of the book she was reading for me. I thought that was a telling sign: she hated it!
Finally, I had to get to another course so I shook her hand and thanked her for being so kind and gracious in meeting me. Before she let me go she said when I got home I would be receiving an email that might make me happy. In a word, WRP had decided they wanted my book for their list. It took me a second to realize she meant they wanted to publish it. A loooooooooong-ass second. I was so silent, standing there, still holding her hand, I fear she thought I was having a stroke or some kind of medical emergency.
The moment dragged on and I swear I couldn't form a sentence right then if I'd been jolted by lightning.
Suddenly, a group of women walked by, all laughing, and that noise jarred me out of my paralysis. I smiled – or I think I did – squeezed her hand, and thanked her. Again. Like, five times! She laughed, told me I was welcome and encouraged me to get along to my course.
I don't think I did. If memory serves, I went back to my room and cried. For an hour. I cried so much I had to redo all my makeup before that evening's event.
I honestly don't remember much more about that day because all I did was replay what she'd said about publishing my book on a virtual and continual loop in my head.
That was 2014 and I was a naive addition to the publishing community. Three years later and I know a little more about what to expect after signing that contract.
But even today, every time an editor tells me they want my book for their list, I still feel like that naive little publishing-virgin and have my Sally Field moment.
It'll be fun to see what the other writers in this blog hop have decided is their best day. Click on their links to read what they'd written for today.


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All News Releases By Date
Milltown Dam: Diversion of Clark Fork River set for tomorrow
Release Date: 03/27/2008
Contact Information: Diana Hammer, EPA, (406) 457-5040
(Helena, Mont. -- March 20, 2008) The Milltown Dam cleanup is approaching yet another milestone. On Friday, March 21, the inlet of the bypass channel at the Milltown Reservoir Superfund Site will be opened and the Clark Fork River will be diverted into its new, temporary channel. The diversion will not cause any change in the Clark Fork River level but project managers expect to the river to be murkier for several days following the diversion. Earlier this week, the outlet of the bypass channel was opened and the bypass channel filled with water from the Blackfoot River. EPA required construction of the bypass channel to isolate the Clark Fork River from the contaminated sediments in the Milltown Reservoir, thereby reducing sediment scouring during the next reservoir draw down and impacts to downstream ecology and river users.
When the Milltown Dam is breached on March 28 (expected date), the reservoir level will drop another 12-14 feet (Stage 2 draw down) and approximately 300,000 tons of clean material will wash downstream.
The bypass channel represents a major effort to minimize downstream impacts of dam removal. When the dam is breached, having the Clark Fork River flowing through the bypass channel will reduce the amount of material scoured from the reservoir area by 60%. It also means that no sediments with high metals concentrations will be sent downstream. Most of the material that is scoured will come from the Blackfoot River and the from the earthen coffer dam that is washed away as the Milltown Dam is breached.
With the diversion of the Clark Fork River into the bypass channel, the project is another giant step closer to our goals of restoring the local drinking water supply, protecting the fishery, and restoring the Clark Fork River and Blackfoot Rivers to a more natural and free-flowing state.
The Milltown Dam was built in 1905-1908 to supply power to the local lumber mill and the surrounding area. The mill supplied lumber for the mining operations upstream in Butte. In 1908 an enormous flood washed mine waste downstream from the Butte Mining District, depositing the wastes behind the newly constructed Milltown Dam.
Over time, the arsenic in the reservoir sediments made its way into the Milltown aquifer, polluting the local drinking water supply. Copper in the sediments would periodically scour from the reservoir and kill fish downstream of the dam. Due to the public health risks, the site was listed as a federal Superfund Site in 1983.
In 2004, EPA and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced the decision to remove the Milltown Dam and contaminated sediments. Since then, EPA, DEQ and the site trustees have been working with Atlantic Richfield Company, NorthWestern Energy, and Envirocon to carry out the cleanup plan.
For safety reasons, the project area is closed to the public. This includes the area around the Dam, Powerhouse and portions of the Clark Fork (CFR is closed from Turah Bridge Fishing Access Site downstream to the Dam and railroad bridge below the Dam) and Blackfoot Rivers (Closed from Weigh Station downstream to the Dam) near the Superfund Site.
Non-authorized personnel are not allowed on site.
For more information about viewing site activities, please contact Diana Hammer, EPA, (406) 457-5040.
EPA's Milltown Reservoir Sediments Superfund Site website:
Clark Fork River Technical Assistance Committee's Milltown website:
View events as they happen via the Milltown "Dam cam" web cam:
http://www.clarkfork.org/ or http://envirocon.com
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.

subset: commoncrawl


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~~April 22, 2018~~
It seems that a lot of effort has been placed in the celebration of our planet, Mother Earth.
In the United States, the 'Environmental Protection Agency' was created to assure that norms and regulations were put in place to do this country's part in the worldwide effort to protect this planet.
At the time of this writing, it looks like all those efforts are in the process of dismantling by the current EPA top official in association with the Executive branch of the current government.
That cannot be allowed. Grassroot efforts must be undertaken once again to assure that Mother Earth is protected.
In this instance, history MUST repeat itself.
Remember, there is no 'Planet B'!
#HappyEarthDay #EarthDay2018 #MotherEarth #NoPlanetB #DecimatedForests #Pollution #WhatHappensNext #SpeciesExtinction #Brainchild #SenatorGaylordNelson #Wisconsin #StaunchEnvironmentalist #ProvideUnity #GrassrootsEnvironmentalMovement #IncreaseEcologicalAwareness #MotherEarth #NeedsProtection #NarratedJulianLennon
#WeAllAreOne #ItIsWhatItIs #DrRex #HortyRex #hrexachwordpress
"We need the tonic of wildness – to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature."
~Henry David Thoreau~
We ALL are connected through NATURE!!
~~What is Earth Day?~~
~~Published on Jun 21, 2017~~
This is a remake of our earlier Earth Day video.
Reading Through History


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A Message for Fit Moms
I'm reading You're Already Amazing by Holley Gerth (read it and stop by here every Monday to join the conversation) and this paragraph stopped me in my tracks. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time, because a friend of mine was feeling defeated by a workout she has been doing.
Making progress in life is hard work. When we insist on moving forward as quickly as possible, we can wear ourselves out in a hurry. Sometimes when God makes us wait, it's one of the most merciful things he can do. It doesn't inherently mean we've done something wrong. In fact, it can indicate just the opposite – that we're right between some really big things God has for our lives, and we need to rest up.
I shared the paragraph with her and let her know that I can totally relate to wanting to be better/stronger/smaller/more fit/smarter/more experienced/whatever right NOW. It can be difficult, disheartening even, to not make progress at the pace I would prefer. But then God slows me down and I'm able to be grateful for the progress I've already made. I can easily forget that I just had babies, because they're growing so fast. Not to mention what carrying them for 37 weeks did to my body. Our bodies are amazing for enduring what they did to carry and birth children. We (and I'm totally speaking to myself here) need to be patient and loving as we ask our bodies, often force them, to do things that will make them stronger in the long run but hurt right now.
As difficult as it can be, I sometimes
like to have to talk to myself as though I'm talking to my 7 year old. He is every bit the perfectionist that I am, which can lead to frustration and heartache on his part. And lots of nevers. Like "I'll never be good at" this or that. When these words come out of his mouth I call him over to me, pet and cup his face with my hand, look him straight in the eyes and tell him – "Yet. You're not good at it, yet."
So to my fellow fit moms (moms working on their fitness) I say – be grateful for the ability to do what you can. Try not to focus on what you used to do or what you can't do, yet. I've found amazing women to walk alongside on my journey – via Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter – a tribe if you will. When the lie of perfectionism hisses, we speak truth over one another. Do you have a tribe of truth speaking, encouraging accountability partners?


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Happy (early) birthday to Dave Grohl, who's turning 48 on Saturday. Who doesn't love Dave Grohl? If you hate Dave Grohl, we can't be friends. I'm allowed to marry Dave Grohl, if he'll have me. My hubby agreed to that once. What do you say, Dave??? 😉
I've always had a thing for talented music dudes & Grohl is one of the best. He's consistently made brilliant music with various bands but it's his Foo Fighters stuff that I like the most. I've lost touch with music in the past several years where life has gotten too busy plus I suppose I spend any free time I do get on this blog & on movies instead of music. So I admittedly only know the singles from recent albums. It was fun putting this list together, though, as I hadn't listened to a lot of these songs in a long time. I need to get back to listening to music more often – I don't do it enough these days. I envy people who to get to listen to music all day while they work.
It wasn't easy to decide on the order for this list but the top two are definite and I can't see that ever changing – I adore those songs. As for the rest, they're all so good that I couldn't leave them out so I'll count down from 20. They've never had a bad song, which can't be said of many bands. Here are My Top Ten Foo Fighters Songs:
Honorable Mentions:
20. Walk
19. Walking After You
18. Stacked Actors
17. Next Year
16. I'll Stick Around
15. The One
14. Best Of You
13. This Is A Call
12. These Days
11. Rope
10. TIE: Arlandria & Breakout
9. The Pretender
8. Big Me
7. Times Like These
6. My Hero
5. Learn To Fly
4. All My Life
3. Something From Nothing
2. Everlong
1. Monkey Wrench


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Hi there! Welcome to the October Beauty Awards, a.k.a. Mrs Strawberry Blonde's monthly favourites. 🙂 I've reviewed quite a few awesome products, so let me tell you which products I loved the most this month.
3rd place – Palmolive Aroma Moments Feel Good & So Sweet
These 2 Palmolive shower products are simply amazing. 11 stars!
Runner-Up – SpaScriptions Anti-Aging Spa Treatment Mask With Grapefruit & Collagen
This mask delivers on its anti-aging promise. 11 stars!
WINNER – Alberto Balsam Blends Volume Boost Shampoo & Conditioner With Jericho Rose & Pink Grapefruit
What? These hair care products are better than an anti-aging skin care product that gives instant results? Yes! These Alberto Balsam hair products are 100% awesome! 11 stars!
Now onto the honourable mentions! I really like Superdrug's Chocolate Orange Self-Heating Mask, and the Super Facialist Clay Mask is just as great. And the first Panda Mask I've ever tried turned out to be a hit too!
Have you tried any of these products? Or would you like to try them? Which products did you like best this month? Feel free to comment. And thanks for reading! 🙂


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"Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy"
Hello everyone.
And a very happy Fourth of July to everyone, particularly my American friends.
Independence Day again, and no sign of invading spaceships so I'm assuming its safe to do another number factoid.
And what else could it be today other than 1776, the year America became an independent nation.
Here we go.
And where else to start but with….
American Revolutionary War
- On January 1st, 1776 Gen George Washington hoisted the Continental Union Flag. The same day the town of Norfolk, Virginia, was destroyed by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces.
- On Jan 5th the Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its 1st state constitution.
- On January 10th Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense "written by an Englishman" in Philadelphia arguing for independence from British rule in what were then the Thirteen Colonies.
- On Jan 16th the Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks.
- On February 27th Scottish North Carolina Loyalists charge across Moore's Creek bridge near Wilmington to attack what they mistakenly believed to be a small force of rebels. Several loyalist leaders are killed in the ensuing battle. The patriot victory virtually ended all British authority in the province.
- On March 2nd and 3rd the American Continental Navy and Marines made a successful assault on Nassau, Bahamas, and in the Battle of the Rice Boats, American Patriots resisted the Royal Navy on the Savannah River effectively ending British control over the Province of Georgia.
- On March 4th American Patriots capture Dorchester Heights thereby dominating the port of Boston, Massachusetts. Threatened by the Patriot cannons on Dorchester Heights, the British evacuate Boston on March 17th.
- On April 12th the Royal Colony of North Carolina produced the Halifax Resolves making it the first British colony officially to authorize its Continental Congress delegates to vote for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- On May 4th Rhode Island became the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III of Great Britain.
- On June 7th Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Second Continental Congress (meeting in Philadelphia) that "these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."
- On June 11th the Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence.
- On June 12th the Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason was adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates and three days later on June 15th the Delaware General Assembly voted to suspend government under the British Crown.
- On July 2nd the final (despite minor revisions) U.S. Declaration of Independence was written. The Continental Congress passed the Lee Resolution.
- And as we all know, on July 4th the United States Declared Independence: The Continental Congress ratified the declaration by the United States of its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- On July 8th the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and the following day an angry mob in New York City toppled the equestrian statue of George III of Great Britain in Bowling Green.
- On August 2nd most of the American colonies ratify the Declaration of Independence.
- On August 15th the first Hessian troops land on Staten Island to join British forces.
- On August 27th in the Battle of Long Island, Washington's troops were routed in Brooklyn by British under William Howe.
- On September 1st the Cherokee Nation was invaded by 6,000 patriot troops from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina begins. The troops destroyed thirty-six Cherokee towns.
- On September 7th saw the world's first submarine attack when the American submersible craft Turtle attempted to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.
- On September 11th an abortive peace conference took place between British and Americans on Staten Island.
- On September 15th British troops landed on Manhattan at Kips Bay.
- On September 16th in the Battle of Harlem Heights, the Continental Army under Washington are victorious against the British on Manhattan.
- On September 22nd the British hanged spy Nathan Hale in New York City for espionage.
- The following month, on October 11th on Lake Champlain near Valcour Island, a British fleet led by Sir Guy Carleton defeated 15 American gunboats commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. Although nearly all of Arnold's ships are destroyed, the two day-long battle gave Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of New York City.
- On October 18th in the Battle of Pell's Point, forces of the American Continental Army resisted a British and Hessian force in The Bronx, whilst on October 28 in the Battle of White Plains, British forces attacked and captured Chatterton Hill from the Americans.
- On October 26th Benjamin Franklin departed from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
- The last day of that month, October 31st saw King George III make his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, in which in perhaps the understatement of the year, told the British Parliament that all was not going well for Britain in the war with the United States.
- On November 16th Hessian mercenaries under Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen captured Fort Washington from the American Continentals. The captain of the American navy ship Andrew Doria fired a salute to the Dutch flag on Fort Orange and Johannes de Graaff answers with eleven gun shots.
- On December 7th the Marquis de Lafayette attempted to enter the American military as a major general.
- And on December 21st the Royal Colony of North Carolina reorganizes into the State of North Carolina after adopting its own constitution. Richard Caswell becomes the first governor of the newly formed state.
- On December 23rd Thomas Paine, living with Washington's troops, began publishing The American Crisis, containing the stirring phrase, "These are the times that try men's souls."
- At Christmas 1776, Gen. George Washington ordered the first issue of The Crisis to be read to his troops on Christmas Eve, then at 6 p.m. all 2600 of them march to McKonkey's Ferry, crossed the Delaware River and land on the Jersey bank at 3 a.m.
- And finally December 26th saw the Battle of Trenton, in which Washington's troops surprised and defeated the 1500 Hessian troops under the command of Col. Johann Rall outside Trenton, taking 948 prisoners while suffering only 5 wounded.
In other things and other places in 1776
- The year 1776 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.
- In Roman Numerals 1776 is written as MDCCLXXVI.
- On January 2nd Austria ended interrogation torture
- On February 17th Edward Gibbon published the first volume of his famous work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
- On March 9th Scottish economist Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in London.
- On March 28th Juan Bautista de Anza found the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
- On April 15th the Duchess of Kingston was found guilty of bigamy.
- On May 1st Adam Weishaupt founded the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
- On June 17th Lt. Jose Joaquin Moraga leads a band of colonists from Monterey Presidio, landing on June 29th and constructing the Mission Dolores of the new Presidio of San Francisco.
- On July 12th Captain James Cook sets off from Plymouth, England, in HMS Resolution on his third voyage, to the Pacific Ocean and Arctic, which would turn out to be fatal.
- On July 21st Mozart's Serenade No. 7 (the "Haffner") is first performed in Salzburg, Austria.
- On July 29th Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, and eight other Spaniards set out from Santa Fe on an eighteen-hundred mile trek through the American Southwest. They were the first Europeans to explore the vast region between the Rockies and the Sierras.
- On September 6th a hurricane hit Guadeloupe, killing more than 6000 people.
- On September 24th the first of the now very famous St Leger horse races were held at Doncaster, England.
- On October 7th Crown Prince Paul of Russia married Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
- On October 9th Father Francisco Palou founded the Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.
- On October 18th in a New York bar decorated with a bird tail, a customer orders "cock tail".
- On December 5th the first US fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa (William & Mary College), is formed.
- The Standard Practice for Conditioning and Testing Textiles is Active Standard ASTM D1776
- The Standard Specification for Eye Protective Devices for Paintball Sports is Active Standard ASTM F1776.
- MTE M-1776 is a Surge Protective Device
- P1776 is the code for solenoid stuck in low/reverse which is a fairly common problem and can be prevented most of the time by keeping the fluid clean.
- The 1776 Premier Program offers a venue for highly-committed, elite players to receive professional, year-round coaching and to seek competition at the highest levels of US Youth Soccer.


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Below is a presentation I gave at the "World of Science". This is a 3-day course for graduate students that aims to provide them the fundamental knowledge and skills needed for scientific research, and to prepare them for their thesis at our hospital, the AMC.
The 3-day program comprises a series of presentations on aspects of medical and biomedical research. These include the position of the pharmaceutical industry, the role of scientific journals, the ethical and legal framework of medical research, and the organization and funding of scientific research in the Netherlands. There is also an introduction to the scientific strategy of the AMC, presented by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.
Furthermore there are group discussions, workshops, and individual assignments.
The course is held outside the AMC. It provides a unique opportunity for a closer and more personal meeting with each other and with leading AMC scientists, to discuss such matters as the choices they made in their careers.
I had 15 minutes (actually 20 minutes) to tell something about the library. (It used to be 30 min. but wasn't received so well). That is too short to explain searching to them. Furthermore that is dealt with in our courses, so why give it all away?
I choose to show them how the library could serve them, in an interactive and loose way.
First I asked them how they saw the library. Many, if not all, used our website. Pfff, that was a relieve!
I spend most time talking about searching, showing examples of searches that failed. Which is the best way to show them they might need some extra education in this respect.
The atmosphere was very good & informal, there were many questions and it was sometimes quite hilarious, not only because of the presentation itself, but because I almost managed to ruin the screen (fell against it) and because I walked away with the microphone.
I had the opportunity to listen to the next speaker too, a young scientist who recently finished his thesis. His talk was great to listen to. He talked about his experience (which was not really representative imho, because it was quite a success story) and he gave the would-be PhD's 10 handy tips. All in a very entertaining way.
But for now, here is my presentation.
Related Articles
- Who Needs a Library Anyway? (longnow.org)
- NIH student research conference marks 10th anniversary (pharmpro.com)
- UW Libraries – Research Commons Grand Opening (lib.washington.edu)
- The Emerging Engineering Scholar (istl.org)
- ALA | More Good Ideas Too Good Not to Share (ala.org)
- Bioinformatics Education Should Start in High School (xconomy.com)
- Scientific Research Data " Synthèse (synthese.wordpress.com)


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Two hundred years in the future, in a fully colonized solar system, police detective Josephus Miller is given the assignment to find a missing young woman, Julie Mao. Joining his task is James Holden, former first officer of an ice freighter who is involved in an incident caused by the tense relationship between Earth, Mars and the Belt. Far from their struggles in space, United Nations executive Chrisjen Avasarala works to prevent war between Earth and Mars. Soon the three find out that the missing woman is connected to a vast conspiracy that threatens all humanity.
Star Trek: Voyager S07E02
Kelly Family Wonderful World
princess connect
Bering Sea Gold 2012 S12E18
Ken Burns Films S2013E01
Archer 2009 S07


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The use of the word tornado was banned from official releases by the U.S. Weather Bureau from 1887 until 1938. After a large tornado hit the Oklahoma Tinker Air Force Base in 1948 Major Fawbush and Captain Miller determined that tornadoes could be forecast. Though many didn't realize it
"…the art of forecasting severe weather had been progressing rapidly. An intense debate between the air force and the U.S. Weather Bureau (later known as the National Weather Service), however, slowed public access to severe weather forecasts. For fear of creating panic, the Weather Bureau refused to make public any tornado forecasts, although Major Fawbush and Captain Miller continued to issue tornado forecasts for the air force. Those forecasts were the forerunners of what we today call tornado watches.
Finally, WKY-TV, the only television station in Oklahoma City, was given access to the air force tornado forecasts. In the spring of 1952, Harry Volkman broadcast the first televised tornado forecast. It was well received; there was no panic." –England, Gary A. Weathering The Storm: Tornadoes, Television and Turmoil, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press. page 17.
Public forecasts have come a long way with social media and cell phones adding huge impacts on that dissemination. Just this week I received a text message as a result of the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which is to alert us where an imminent threat to life or property exists. On May 20, 2013 while I was in downtown Oklahoma City I received warnings on my phone as well as texts from friends and family advising me of immediate and dangerous severe weather. Forecasts alerted us all day of the possibility of tornadoes and as the afternoon approached the alerts grew more serious leaving no doubt in our minds that we had to seek cover if we were in certain areas. Previous generations didn't have warnings like we have today and a few weeks ago my father shared with me his childhood experiences with tornadoes.
The time that my father, Wayne, lived at 1309 SW 36th Street was undoubtedly filled with a mixture of emotions and experiences. In 1951 Wayne was in the 6th grade and his parents were separated. Claude, his father, was a superintendent for Singer Pipe & Supply and lived in the house that was on the grounds of the pipe yard. Wayne and his sister, Claudia, lived with their mother, Ottie, who worked as a clerk at a TG&Y dime store. Their small home, built in 1946, had only one actual bedroom so Claudia and Wayne slept in bunk beds in an area on the north side of the house. Underneath the back porch was a tiny space that was like a basement where Wayne built model airplanes and more.
Wayne was especially proud of the big deer he drew on the top of the card table he used in the basement. This must have been one his first 'Wayne caves' and he has fond memories of that area. While living on 36th Wayne and a friend built objects including a wood army tank and inside their tank they would place their BB guns into the peak holes ready to attack if needed. The rock driveway in front of the rickety, old garage served as the staging area for the friends to construct a boat most likely made from reusing the materials from the tank. Their plan was to launch the boat in a nearby river where they dreamed of having a Tom Sawyer type experience. Though that never panned out, those projects provided great opportunities for exercising their imagination and engineering and helped create the associations in Wayne's mind of events that happened during that time like the night a tornado visited his neighborhood.
Wayne vividly remembers being awakened and jerked out of his bunk bed when his mother grabbed his arm the evening of April 30, 1951. She also got Claudia out of bed and hollered at them to get to the basement immediately. There was little doubt in Wayne's mind that his mother meant for them to hustle to the basement and obey her without question. As he rapidly and obediently moved to the basement he looked out the back north window and saw that the big tree, that was near their driveway and garage, was bent over to the ground. Since there was no time for questions or examination he rushed with his sister and mother to his work space that was under the porch.
Once the tornado was gone they came out and Wayne fully expected their big tree to be gone but it was standing upright. The garage, however, was moved back and over about a foot. Wayne recalls that the tornado touched down in a vacant lot that was less than a block away and went on to destroy a lumber company. The May 1, 1951 article on the front page of the Daily Oklahoman reported the damage and path which clearly identifies it was just north of their home at 1309 SW 36th Street.
We will never know how my Grandmother Ottie Brown knew that a tornado was near her home that evening. While the Brown's got their first television when they lived on 36th street we know that the first televised tornado forecast didn't occur until 1952. As Wayne recently thought of how his mother would have known of the storm he wondered if she observed the lights on the top of the tallest building in Oklahoma City, which were used to inform viewers of the weather forecast. However, after researching the timeline of that 'weather beacon' it was not available until 1958. So, perhaps a local spotter provided information that was broadcast on the radio or maybe the high winds and rain caused Ottie to take notice.
Whatever alerted her, she gathered her children and took cover.
A few years later Wayne experienced another tornado. It was in 1953 or 54 possibly. Cecil Johnson and Wayne were on a little jimmy (a flat bed truck) and had a load of drill and spuddin' bits and were going to a location for Tiger Drilling (Singer). They were south of Enid, Oklahoma going west and were maybe 3 or 4 miles south of Enid when they saw a tornado right over their heads spinning like crazy. Cecil was trying to get to a place where he could turn south but there were only dirt roads. That tornado started going to the ground and as they were coming up over a hill it picked the truck up totally off the ground moved them from the right lane to the left lane as they were going down the hill. Wayne, still a kid, thought that was somewhat fun but Cecil was shaking like a leaf as he made a turn at the bottom of the hill. Fortunately they made their way safely home.
Storm season in Oklahoma requires we keep our eyes to the sky just like our ancestors did but now we get warnings that provide an average of 13 minutes lead time. The Saturday Evening Post, July 28, 1951 issue predicted that "The Fawbush-Miller system will not cut into the big business of selling storm cellars…But the Oklahoma farmer who said he always depended upon flying cornstalks and bed quilts to warn him of an approaching twister will now have ample time to walk—not run– to his 'scarehole'."
Note: The video states that the first broadcast was in 1954 but all official information indicates it was March 1952.
- Colman, Timothy A., et al. "The History (and Future) of Tornado Warning Dissemination in the United States." American Meteorological Society, May 2011: 567-582.
- Grazulis, T. P. The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2003 page 83 discusses the ban of the word 'tornado' in public announcements.
- Tornados 101 NOAA website
- England, Gary A. Weathering the Storm: Tornadoes, Television, and Turmoil. Norman, University of Oklahoma, 1996.
- Information Services Chronology for the Tornado Outbreak of May 20, 2013
- Liberty Bank Weather Beacon newspaper articles


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Bellydance set
- Item #: Bellydance skirt set
- Condition: New
Christmas Sale Zumba Belly Dance Sale are great for Belly Dancing, Zumba and Retail chain stores. Each belly dance skirt and coin top come with sequin design and silver coins that jingle and are lightweight to wear. Look beautiful in shows, parties, events and more. One size fits all. Waist is stretable and coin top can be tied in the back.
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Backstory: Enlisting churches to help soldiers
A military chaplain in Minnesota encourages clergy to act as counselors to National Guard troops returning from Iraq.
John Morris, a military chaplain, stands at the front of a crowded conference room dressed in desert fatigues and tan combat boots, commanding his audience's attention with a tone barely above a whisper. Addressing some 30 Minnesota church leaders, Major Morris opens with a story about his time in Anbar Province, an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq.
"When the insurgents found out a new unit was there, they would walk a child in front of our convoys," he recalls. "What does a good Minnesota person do? Stop. You only do that one time, because you get ambushed and someone gets maimed or killed."
It's a chilling story, which Morris heard from numerous soldiers in combat, meant to convey the reality of war – and the kind of psychological stress soldiers go through in the field and when they come home.
Morris is on a mission. Since returning from the Middle East, the deputy state chaplain of the Minnesota Army National Guard has labored to convince members of Minnesota's religious community – many of whom oppose the war – to support the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. More than that, he wants them to be frontline counselors and comforters.
"Sociologists or psychologists – they're great, they're helpful," Morris tells the audience. "But when I get to this issue, I have to always tell them, 'I'm sorry but there are people better qualified than you to handle this: religious leaders.' You're the healers. You bring reconciliation."
Morris is tall, with close-cropped brown hair and smooth features. He projects a calm, commanding presence that comes from experience hard earned. In April 2004, he was deployed with the US troops who surrounded Fallujah in response to four American contractors being killed and mutilated. While the battle for Fallujah raged, Morris circled the area in an armored Humvee offering Protestant Easter sunrise services to the support troops. The brutality of the conflict tested even his Christianity.
"That's probably the closest I've ever come to hate," says Morris."I came so close to the mentality: 'Kill them all and God is on our side.' Spiritual discipline held me back from that abyss."
Morris's spiritual discipline was still being tested two months after he returned home to Roseville, Minn. He was experiencing violent mood swings. His anger erupted at the slightest provocation, as when someone cut in front of him in a line at the airport. Morris wondered what combat soldiers must face after coming home.
"I'm a chaplain and I didn't pull a trigger and didn't take a human life, and I'm this mad," he says.
The horrors of war do shadow American soldiers. According to a 2004 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 17 percent of combat veterans arrive home with mental health issues, ranging from depression to posttraumatic stress disorder.
National Guard soldiers face their own peculiar problems. They experience a rapid change from military to civilian life. In less than two weeks, once their tours in Iraq or Afghanistan are up, they can go from dodging roadside bombs and insurgent ambushes, to picking up Starbucks and rushing to a business meeting. Moreover, not since World War II have so many Guard soldiers served in combat and had to reintegrate into civilian life.
The Pentagon has learned – often the hard way – that returning soldiers need long-term support with the transition. "We didn't do it for the Vietnam vets, and in a sense we're paying for that now," says David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland.
Guard soldiers are entitled to the same counseling and support services offered to members of other branches of the military. But they often live hundreds of miles from the nearest military post, which can make counseling difficult.
Minnesota's program is unusual because – in addition to offering spiritual counseling – it requires Guard soldiers to report back to their barracks 30, 60, and 90 days after they're home. This is actually in violation of Pentagon policy, which insists that Guard members are "on leave" and cannot be called back. But Morris calls this time the "golden, hour," and feels it's critical to keep members connected and supported.
"I'm proud to tell you that, in Minnesota, we are in open violation of that Department of Defense policy," he says.
In the last year, he's had two soldiers tell him that they planned to kill themselves after they reported back to their barracks. Morris says he got those soldiers counseling, which they may not have received otherwise.
Another soldier Morris helped was Sgt. Ron Huff, an 18-year veteran of the Army National Guard. Sergeant Huff recently spent a year in Iraq clearing improvised explosive devises from the highway between Tikrit and Kirkuk. In his first month home, he couldn't switch out of his Iraq driving style and was ticketed four times for speeding by the same sheriff's deputy. Later, he experienced flashbacks, turned to alcohol, and totaled his motorcycle.
In Iraq, Huff commanded 35 soldiers – who affectionately called him "Huff Daddy" – but back home he didn't know where, or how, to ask for help. That's when Morris walked into his office. As Huff recalls it, Morris made him realize that "I'm not the only one who feels crazy." Huff and Morris now work together. "He's the smart guy and I'm the common sense guy," Huff says.
In the year sinc Morris started his church outreach programcalled "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," Minnesota hasn't lost a Guard to suicide. The idea is to ask churches with soldiers in their congregations to become "military friendly." Morris encourages them to take care of the service members and their families – bringing them meals, providing marital counseling, or just listening.
Pastors, he says, can publicly welcome soldiers home and acknowledge their service. They can also watch for signs of reckless behavior.
The program "is a step in the right direction," says Prof. Segal, the military sociologist. "I think it will make the transition easier."
Yet not everyone is enamored of Morris's program. Gary Kohls, a lay member of Every Church a Peace Church, a national group that encourages churches to preach pacifism, says Christians shouldn't engage in combat, even if they're soldiers. "We take the stance that [combat trauma] could be prevented totally, by refusing to engage in homicidal violence," says Dr. Kohls, the leader of a worship community in Duluth, Minn. "I'm very disappointed when churches are either silent or vocally in support of killing."
It took until late July for Minnesota's religious leaders to accept an invitation to hear Morris address the problems faced by returning Guard soldiers. When the chaplain finished his presentation and the applause died down, he made a heartfelt request. "Please, do not repeat what we did to Vietnam veterans," he said.
One pastor who listened that morning – and won't – was Don Britt. His church, the United Church of Christ, has opposed the war in Iraq. "I hate war and I hate this war in particular," says Mr. Britt. "But I have a son there."
Britt says listening to Morris will help him raise his congregation's awareness of his son, Dan, and other soldiers' experience. "Hopefully, a lot more people will make the distinction between the politicians making the decisions to send these guys to war and our soldiers," he says.


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Today's News: Our Take - CBS Pulls The Job After Two Episodes
CBS is letting The Job go.
The reality series, from Survivor's Mark Burnett and Michael Davies (Watch What Happens Live), has been pulled off the network's schedule after just two episodes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Reality series Undercover Boss will reclaim its Friday at 8/7c timeslot beginning Feb. 22. The move comes after The Job grabbed 3.4 million viewers and a 0.7 rating in the adults ages 18-49 demographic Friday night. The week prior, the series premiered to 4.1 million and a 0.9 rating.
Fall 2013 TV Scorecard: Which shows are returning? Which aren't?
Hosted by Lisa Ling, the series chronicled different groups of contestants fighting for the chance to land their dream job. The Palm and Cosmopolitan were the first two companies highlighted on the program.
It is unclear when, or if, CBS will air The Job's remaining six episodes. Although the network pulled Made in Jersey, another freshman Friday show, after just two episode, the network eventually burned off its remaining episodes on Saturdays in December.
Will you miss The Job?
View original CBS Pulls The Job After Two Episodes at TVGuide.com
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Fla. woman doused in gas, set on fire at 7-Eleven
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A woman was severely burned Monday after being doused in gasoline and lit on fire outside a 7-Eleven store in South Florida in a dispute with the father of her child, police said.
The 34-year-old woman was waiting in her silver Mercedes at the store shortly before 3 a.m., Boynton Beach Police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said. She was meeting her ex to pick up her 4-year-old son for whom they share custody.
Roosevelt Mondesir, 52, arrived in his white Jaguar without the boy and began throwing gasoline on the unidentified woman's car and body, according to a police affidavit. She tried to run away, but police said the man chased her with a knife and then ignited her.
In graphic surveillance video, a man can be seen threatening a woman with a large knife, struggling in the doorway of the store. "Get away from me!" she can be heard shouting.
They disappear from view until she returns in a massive fireball, screaming and running around the parking lot.
Officers searched by foot, with a police dog, and by helicopter before finding Mondesir several hours later in bushes near the 7-Eleven. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder and was being treated for burns at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach before being transferred to jail.
It was not known if he had yet obtained an attorney.
The victim was not identified, but she is expected to survive. She was being treated at Delray Medical Center.
Police haven't said what led to the attack.


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Food for thought… I had a diagnosis "Scoliosis " and "Ehlers Danlos syndrome" since infancy. One pediatrician even told mom "you can just look at her and see she isn't normal." In reference to me.. a baby. An innocent little baby. Now my parents had 2 choices in raising me:
-Either prove society wrong and that my life had worth, treat me like they would like my older brother (who is "normal") and raise me to be independent and self sufficient to the best of my abilities…
– and I've seen this with some families(not all)..give them a "pass", no expectations of them, no discipline or correcting them. "Oh they have this diagnosis, they don't understand "…blah blah blah excuse after excuse. "..no boo, they can understand "right and wrong," but you just don't wanna go through the "headache " and time of teaching them. Or worse, you pity them and feel sorry for them;which will "cripple " and "handicaps" them more. The world is rough and tough, it will not pity them, they need to be prepared.
My parents were tough but fair. I may not got namebrand clothes or expensive shoes, I didn't get toys or candy every Time I went into store (unless I had my own allowance or money I saved or special occasion/holidays), I didn't get cell phone till high school (16),I had some chores to do(whatever I could), I was held accountable for my grades and misbehavior. On the flipside, I never did without food, shelter, clothes, I had toys, I was taken on vacations,but there was lots of love and plenty of memories made. That's wayyy important.
Life isn't easy for anyone. But it's up to that person to decide "do I wanna live like this? (Poverty, struggles, victim mentality "poor me,") or do I pick myself up by my bootstraps and make better for myself." Its all about perspectives, confidence, determination,and willpower.
Am I saying there aren't obstacles in life that cause delays and blocks on your life road? No. Absolutely not. Never would I say that. And I'm not saying not to vent or fight for change. But it's better to lead by example to be the change you wanna see. Be the spark for change; Be a Leader.
Turn to God's light and goodness and he will bless you. God bless everyone.


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The New Era of Creative Storytelling (Part 2 of 2)
In the Modern Age bigger isn't better, but effectiveness is. And we have the means to measure effectiveness down to the penny. We need to stop trying to "go viral" or somehow duplicate the Super Bowl Oreo tweet and spend that time creating content aimed at cultivating specific, high-quality audiences instead.


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by Pete Mazzaccaro
If you've been reading Local columnist Hugh Gilmore for the last five years, you know something about the long and arduous process of writing and publishing a novel. Well, the final product is finally available, and at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, Gilmore will appear at the Musehouse, 7924 Germantown Ave., to read from his new novel, "Malcolm's Wine."
Gilmore has published the book through Amazon.com, where it can be purchased in paperback for $14.95 or as a Kindle edition for $5.99. (It's worth noting, too, that the paperback is Prime eligible, so Prime subscribers can have it shipped and delivered in two days for free.)
I sat down with Hugh last week to discuss the book, the writing process and what comes next.
Q: What's it like to write a novel and be reporting on it while you're writing it?
A: First, the major reason I did it is that if I declare something publicly then I feel that I need to follow through. I was afraid I might make the commitment to writing this and peter out, lose my verve, nerve and initiative. I had to keep going.
I was afraid people might say, "So what?" I tried to write my column with enough humility about how incompetent I felt about writing and publishing the novel. I found that I've become a kind of Walter Mitty character. A lot of people who have writing aspirations are really curious about what happens to me next. I'm kind of like the guinea pig or test pilot to their own hopes and dreams.
Do you think there are a lot of aspiring writers in Chestnut Hill?
Absolutely. Every fifth house you go to at random, you'll find someone who has published a book. The other four want to be writers.
How'd you get into writing a mystery? Did you have aspirations to write something – people might say – serious? Is it a serious book?
In 2000 I decided it was now or never. I started writing on a daily basis. Started on my birthday.
I had already written three novels and a memoir, all of which were serious. I felt I had to tackle very important life issues. Then this Walter Mosley book came along – "This Year You Will Write Your Novel." Every writer thinks he has a romp, detective story in him. I thought, "OK I'll take a shot at it."
I found once I started I couldn't do just a detective story.
I don't read many books that are mere entertainment. Once I got going, I found that I had to put in all my own hopes and dreams – it's serious about life and people. I think everything in it is credible. There's nothing bravado about it. The people are genuine. The criminals are cheap mean people who lack clear motives you read about in the newspaper.
Did you have any models, writers that were inspirational or tried to emulate….
I think when novelists borrow from other novelists they mostly borrow technique. You can't borrow someone else's view of life. All the insights in this book are mine.
I did pay attention to Elmore Leonard. Even though he's writing in a cotton-candy genre, he's the acknowledged master of, in a page and a half of dialogue, doing so much exposition – you'll know so much about the people by their grammar. He's the master of the economical novel.
Are any experiences or characters based on the real thing?
When I was looking for the crime [on which to base the book's plot], I was thinking about a lot of things. This bottle of wine in my basement kept getting to me.
When my son (Colin) was born, I bought a bottle of port wine. He died when he was 18.
Here it is more than a dozen years later and I see the bottle and I wonder what am I going to do with it. It's now 25 or 30 years old. It had come to symbolize all that might have been.
I had thought about taking it and smashing it against a tree. I thought about burying it in the backyard. I thought about giving it to a street bum and watching him enjoy it.
I thought, "What would happen if someone came in and stole that? How would I feel?" I would feel robbed of the right to determine the wine's fate. That became the point of departure for the book. This guy's going to try and get his wine back.
How would you measure success for this book? Do you see opportunities for some of your other books to be published in this way?
At first I thought success is having it read by at least one other person.
When the book came out it was tough not to give it to people. I wanted to give copies to everyone I was friends with. I asked people to please buy the book so my Amazon score goes up. I would make it up by buying them a bottle of wine or something. I'm hoping those numbers on Amazon will get high enough so that some greedy, vulturous agent will say, "Hey this is making money, I want 15 percent of that."
My other dream is to have it stocked on bookstore shelves.
How about other books? What's next?
I don't know whether to revive the ones I've already done or go forward with the one I started last year – the one about bull fighting.
Writing this book, though, was tough. It's like running five marathons. To keep what's happening with these pages in mind when you're writing these other pages, it's like writing a symphony. I'm thinking about becoming a short-story writer.
What do you think about the book industry? How do you feel about doing this while books are in such decline?
The answer is already in. Books as a means of providing you the information from a nonfiction work or the story of a fiction work are outmoded. Maybe they're not to people like you and me, but the economics are against print.
Because of this, I published as a Kindle first. I put it on Amazon, decided my commission, 70 percent. A lot of publishers are publishing their books for $2.99. Some are sure they're going to sell a lot of copies so they price their book at 99 cents. I think a lot of my readership is not young, they grew up in a book culture and aren't' ready to give it up. Back in October, I had to put together a paperback. Now it feels more like I've done it. There's still enough demand for it.
The publishing industry may be dying or facing challenges, but reading has not diminished. People still read a tremendous amount. Reading has not died and it's not going to
What happened to the bottle?
In real life, in my basement, the day I sent my manuscript off, I went downstairs to get a bottle of wine. I see scattered all over the table there these little specs of something – turns out the bottle of port had exploded. Damn if the day I hadn't sent the manuscript off to the agent, there it was. It was lying on its side. Half of it had flowed out. I think the cork had just rotted and got shot out. The plastic had exploded into hundreds of pieces. Half the bottle was still lying there. I panicked because I wasn't ready to deal with it. I called my wife, Janet. I went up to my kitchen sink and poured the rest down the drain.
What might have been. It's the closing line of the book. It's like when you lose a child. Every day you wonder what might have been.


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Joseph T. Salerno
Joseph T. Salerno received his PhD in economics from Rutgers University. He is professor emeritus of economics in the Finance and Graduate Economics Department in the Lubin School of Business of Pace University in New York City. He is the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and the Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute where he serves on the Board of Directors. Professor Salerno also held the inaugural Peterson-Luddy Chair in Austrian Economics, and holds the John V. Denson II Endowed Professorship in the economics department at Auburn University.
Professor Salerno is a research associate of the Foundations of the Market Economy in the economics department at New York University and is on the Board of Editors of five academic journals. Salerno has published over 50 articles and essays in refereed journals and scholarly books. His latest book is The Fed at One Hundred: A Critical View on the Federal Reserve System, coedited with David Howden (Springer 2014). He is the author of Money: Sound and Unsound (Mises Institute 2010). He recently published "Currency Depreciation and the Monetary Adjustment Process: Reconsidering Lord King's Contributions" (with Carmen Elena Dorobat) in the Oxford Economic Papers in 2017.
He has testified before US Congress several times and published numerous op eds online at mises.org, forbes.com, Christian Science Monitor.com, Wall Street Oasis.com, and Economic Policy Journal.com.
Salerno lectures frequently throughout the US and internationally, and more than fifty of his lectures are available online. He has also been interviewed on broadcast and online radio and TV shows including Bloomberg radio, CSPAN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, New York Lawline, and RTtelevision.
He blogs at http://mises.org/Blog.


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As we're wrapping up what may be the worst year in recent global memory, especially geopolitically, let's take a moment to review some more positive things that came up at Lawnchair in 2016.
Headed home
Alternate subtitle: Go West
This was a quiet year on the blog, with only 18 posts compared with the roughly thirty per year in 2014-2015. The major reason for the silence was that I moved from Kazakhstan back to the US to join the Anthropology Department at Vassar College in New York. With all the movement there was less time to blog. Much of the second half of 2016 was spent setting up the Biological Anthropology Lab at Vassar, which will focus on "virtual" anthropology, including 3D surface scanning…
… and 3D printing.
This first semester stateside I reworked my 'Intro to Bio Anthro' and 'Race' courses, which I think went pretty well being presented to an American audience for the first time. The latter class examines human biological variation, situating empirical observations in modern and historical social contexts. This is an especially important class today as 2016 saw a rise in nationalist and racist movements across the globe. Just yesterday Sarah Zhang published an essay in The Atlantic titled, "Will the Alt-right peddle a new kind of racist genetics?" It's a great read, and I'm pleased to say that in the Race class this semester, we addressed all of the various social and scientific issues that came up in that piece. Admittedly though, I'm dismayed that this scary question has to be raised at this point in time, but it's important for scholars to address and publicize given our society's tragically short and selective memory.
So the first semester went well, and next semester I'll be teaching a seminar focused on Homo naledi and a mid-level course on the prehistory of Central Asia. The Homo naledi class will be lots of fun, as we'll used 3D printouts of H. naledi and other hominin species to address questions in human evolution. The Central Asia class will be good prep for when I return to Kazakhstan next summer to continue the hunt for human fossils in the country.
Osteology is still everywhere
A recurring segment over the years has been "Osteology Everywhere," in which I recount how something I've seen out and about reminds me of a certain bone or fossil. Five of the blog 18 posts this year were OAs, and four of these were fossiliferous: I saw …
Anatomy terminology hidden in 3D block letters,
Hominin canines in Kazakhstani baursaki cakes,
The Ardipithecus ramidus ilium in Almaty,
A Homo naledi juvenile femur head in nutmeg,
And a Homo erectus cranium on a Bangkok sidewalk. As I'm teaching a fossil-focused seminar next semester, OA will probably become increasingly about fossils, and I'll probably get my students involved in the fun as well.
New discoveries and enduring questions
The most-read post on the blog this year was about the recovery of the oldest human Nuclear DNA, from the 450,000 year old Sima de los Huesos fossils. My 2013 prediction that nuclear DNA would conflict with mtDNA by showing these hominins to be closer to Neandertals than Denisovans was shown to be correct.
These results are significant in part because they demonstrate one way that new insights can be gained from fossils that have been known for years. But more intriguingly, the ability of researchers to extract DNA from exceedingly old fossils suggests that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
The other major discoveries I covered this year were the capuchin monkeys who made stone tools and the possibility that living humans and extinct Neandertals share a common pattern of brain development.
The comparison between monkey-made and anthropogenic stone tools drives home the now dated fact that humans aren't the only rock-modifiers. But the significance for the evolution of human tool use is less clear cut – what are the parallels (if any) in the motivation and modification of rocks between hominins and capuchins, who haven't shared a common ancestor for tens of millions of years? I'm sure we'll hear more on that in the coming years.
In the case of whether Neandertal brain development is like that of humans, I pointed out that new study's results differ from previous research probably because of differences samples and methods. The only way to reconcile this issue is for the two teams of researchers, one based in Zurich and the other in Leipzig, to come together or for a third party to try their hand at the analysis. Maybe we'll see this in 2017, maybe not.
There were other cool things in 2016 that I just didn't get around to writing about, such as the publication of new Laetoli footprints with accompanying free 3D scans, new papers on Homo naledi that are in press in the Journal of Human Evolution, and new analysis of old Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) fossils suggesting that she spent a lifetime climbing trees but may have sucked at it. But here's hoping that 2017 tops 2016, on the blog, in the fossil record, and basically on Earth in general.


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You can count on me. Please have snow and mistletoe and presents on the tree. I'll be home for Christmas!
So the reason for my being MIA is due to my being at college. (In case you didn't know due to my forgetfulness to mention things or you are new and visiting the blog for the first time.) For some reason, I thought my first semester was going to be so chill and easy and…while it was easier than I had initially thought I've been so busy on a daily basis it's not even close to funny. Penpals haven't received responses (but they have not been forgotten), Bookstagram hasn't had very much TLC, My blog has been abandoned and while I have been able to keep up with a bit of reading (textbooks aside) I still haven't had much time for downtime.
Experiencing now, my first ever semester of college, I can look upon the semester with some stress, confusion, and frustration, I'm also really proud of myself. And no, not in the 'oh wow I'm so amazing and better than everyone else!' proud but just proud of my accomplishments and that I even made it this far. Because if you had asked me last year if I was going to college I may have said I was going to try as I was upgrading high school classes at the time but it's still quite surreal that I'm even here right now and a week and a half away from going home for Christmas break! Being here at Bible College has been such an eye-opener for me and an amazing experience…well, amazing as long as we ignore and forget the caf food here is the worst. Caf food aside this college has been a huge experience for me with so many learning curves and trying new things to help me grow not only academically, but spiritually. One of those things was in my Spiritual Theology class where we had to spend 24hours fasting and in complete solitude. While it was something I'm not sure I'm too keen on doing on a regular basis it was still an amazing time and wonderful experience to be able to connect with God in a new way. And now I actually know from experience what it is like to be in prayer and fasting for 24 hours and spend one on one time with God in such an interesting and intimate way. ( I am hoping to write up a post or two over Christmas break about my classes and what I learned and more about what I'm planning to do here at school.) I'm actually quite sad my last day of that Spiritual Theology class is ending but I know that its time to move on to other classes and get other things done and just keep learning!
Within the next week and a half before heading home I have 3 final exams to complete and while I'm slightly nervous I know I can and will put my best work into studying and prep for these exams and make sure I'm ready to take them on and pass them. Despite that, these last few weeks the words from the Christmas song, 'I'll be home for Christmas' has been stuck in my head. This year especially has had that song as my #1 favorite because it's true! I'll be home for Christmas! Last year I spent Christmas in my apartment 6 hours away from my family. While I spend Christmas day with some relatives in the area I still missed my parents and siblings and grandparents. The homesickness was even worse when I got a phone call from my dad later in the morning on Christmas Day saying my Papa was rushed to the hospital due to having a stroke. It made Christmas so hard for me because I was scared I was going to lose my Papa. One of my best friends for these short 20 years of my life. I thank God every day, especially as Christmas nears, that my Papa has fully recovered and is still here with our family. But that makes me all the more anxious to be home this time for Christmas. To see my family and spend time with them, hug them a little longer, lose sleep staying up late to spend time with them, and just being home with the people who love me most even though I'm not home right now.
Merry (Early) Christmas Everyone! ❤


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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort along the shore of Skagit Bay in La Conner, Washington. I've been here a number of times over the past years and always enjoy it here. It's my favorite resort in the entire Thousand Trails system. My departure date is August 7th.
Mary is dealing with her over-flowing to-do list plate which can only be handled by herself. The construction of Mary's rental continues along…slowly. She now is hoping to rejoin me by early September. 😦
I get a lot of nice comments about my photography. I shoot what I call…honest photography. In other words, I refuse to use any radical image altering programs like Photoshop. All I'll admit to (and the truth) is minor cropping and perhaps a little color enhancement. Essentially, what you see is what I saw. Photography schools teach the best time of day to photograph is the hour just after sunrise or the hour just before sunset. The theory being dramatic side lighting is more enjoyable than midday overhead strong sunlight. It's true…however most of my photography occurs between 10 AM and 2 PM…when it's most convenient for me. I started photography in 1974 and was fortunate in my early years to have got some good photography schooling.
Today's photos are a good example…shot in mid-afternoon. I walked along the beach of Skagit Bay shooting what I could find in the mid-afternoon lighting. Here are the last of the photos I took that day…
As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…
Yesterday was a cloudy/sunny and 75 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 79 degrees.
Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!
The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…
Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!
"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving"…Albert Einstein
On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That's me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y'all!
Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos
There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver
If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man's Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/
For more information about my books, click this link:
All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2015


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ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Detroit Lions tight end Dorin Dickerson is the latest NFL player to stay in a game with a concussion.
He joined a list that is likely long.
Buffalo Bills safety Jim Leonhard and Tennessee Titans safety George Wilson both acknowledged this week they have played with concussions in the past.
San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle said, 'of course it happens,' because players don't want to come out of games for fear of losing their jobs or roles.
Dickerson didn't tell the Lions' medical staff immediately about his concussion, which he recalled getting on a kickoff during the second half. He later dropped a pass and was called for holding in overtime of Sunday's 23-20 loss to the New York Giants.
'I just got knocked out,' Dickerson told reporters after the game. 'I just got a little concussion. I should have reported it. I thought I could get through it.'
Four days later, the 25-year-old journeyman was put on injured reserve.
Dickerson, who has caught 11 passes in 23 games over three years with three NFL teams, may have simply been trying to make the most of his opportunity to play even if he was putting his health at risk.
For players and the league, there's a lot at stake.
Millions can be made by men who can thrive and survive in what Lions receiver Nate Burleson called 'a gladiator sport,' by shaking off hits that are so hard brains collide with skulls. And, hundreds of millions of dollars – perhaps billions in the future – can be lost by the league.
The NFL agreed a week before this season started to pay $765 million to settle lawsuits from thousands of former players who developed dementia or other concussion-related health problems they claimed were caused by the same on-field violence that boosted the game's popularity and profit.
Former Lions and Washington Redskins athletic trainer Al Bellamy, who worked for NFL teams from 1988-2012, said there's only so much medical professionals can do to protect players from themselves.
'I don't think there's anything you can do if a player isn't being forthright about his health,' said Bellamy, now the director of athletic training at Temple. 'Athletic trainers and team doctors are trying to see what they can from the sideline and the NFL puts an athletic trainer in the press box to point out possible concerns.
'Ultimately, though, it's up to the players to be forthcoming about their health when there's any doubt.'
Sometimes, that simply doesn't happen.
Dr. Stanley A. Herring, a Seattle Seahawks team physician for 20-plus years and chairman of the NFL head, neck and spine committee subcommittee, said a key component of diagnosing concussions is a good relationship with players.
'The clinical diagnosis is aided if you know what the player is like – how he thought, acted and talked – before he was injured,' Herring said in a telephone interview Thursday night. 'You can't understand if a player is acting differently if you don't know him very well.'
Leonhard said he continued playing 'an important' game for the New York Jets three or four years ago with a concussion. Looking back, he said it was a 'terrible decision' because of what he has learned about head injuries.
'But sometimes it's hard – you're a competitor,' he said.
In a series of interviews in 2011 about head injuries with The Associated Press, 23 of 44 NFL players said they would try to conceal a possible concussion rather than pull themselves out of a game.
Wilson said it's just the nature of the game to stay on the field even with a head injury.
'I think any football player who's played an extensive amount of time playing football has played at one time or another with a concussion,' he said.
Weddle, meanwhile, wasn't as willing to talk about whether he has hidden a concussion to stay in a game.
'When I'm done playing I'll reveal all that stuff,' he said.
Generally speaking?
'Of course it happens,' Weddle said.
To explain why it does, Weddle mentioned what happened to Alex Smith in San Francisco. Smith was the 49ers' starting quarterback last season until he had a concussion. When Smith was cleared to play, he didn't get his job back because Colin Kaepernick kept it.
'We're always thinking about that kind of stuff,' Weddle said. 'That's all our worst fears.'


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Some people used to get suckered periodically by headlines in The Onion, before most people figured out it was a publication full of parodies.
But the along came The Courant; not everyone got that one yet.
Then there's National Report. Even fewer have it figured out.
So, there was uproar on Facebook, on Twitter, and probably on your e-mail, earlier this evening when this story
leaked out gushed all over unwitting computer-screen gazers.
Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month
Posted about 10 hours ago | 167 comments
Washington, DC — President Barack Obama held a press conference to announce that he is declaring the month of November 'National Muslim Appreciation Month'.
"The Muslim community deserves our full acceptance and respect," Obama told reporters. "We have killed millions of Muslims overseas since the September 11th attacks. They are not all bad. In fact most of them are good. So from now on, November will be a month to celebrate the Muslim community, the Sunnah and the Quran."
Khaled Matei who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party told CNN he is pleased with Obama and his actions. "I spoke with President Obama by telephone yesterday and personally thanked him for what he is doing for the Muslim community," Matei said. "This is definitely a step in the right direction I explained to him. Praise Allah."
Obama informed reporters about his future plans for helping Muslims around the world. "I will be working with Congress in making it easier for Muslims to earn a Green Card and achieve American citizenship," Obama said. "Currently as it stands, obtaining a Visa or Green Card for a Muslim is very difficult. There are too many background checks in place and I plan to fix that." Obama continued, "Muslims are hardworking people who are just looking to live the American Dream like the rest of us. Mr. Matei of the Muslim Brotherhood assured me they want to come to this country to help us, not harm us."
Obama finished the press conference by explaining to reporters how happy he is with America. "Folks, there is no way we could have had a 'National Muslim Appreciation Month' 20 years ago. That really says a lot about the growth and progress of this great country."
'National Muslim Appreciation Month' begins November 1st and will end at midnight on November 30th. For any questions or comments please contact the 24-hour National Muslim Appreciation Hotline at (785) 273-0325.
– See more at: http://nationalreport.net/obama-declares-november-national-muslim-appreciation-month/#sthash.2s1EkTVA.YklaQWOX.dpuf
And, just to make sure you know this journal has trustworthy reporters, they post the bio at the bottom of each story.
Paul Horner
Mr. Horner has won numerous awards for journalism including a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize. He was recently in the media for his heroics in stopping a robbery by quoting Pulp Fiction.
View all posts by Paul Horner →
– See more at: http://nationalreport.net/obama-declares-november-national-muslim-appreciation-month/#sthash.2s1EkTVA.YklaQWOX.dpuf
Must be true, no?
Look, if your Hemingway Brand™ solid gold Sh** Detector didn't start clanging at the headline, you need new batteries — maybe better get the thing calibrated, too.
Should we count the ways it's a hoax?
- Would any president commending any group start out by noting the U.S. has killed millions of that group recently? Do you think the White House estimates deaths that high?
- Did you see any reports of the President talking with any Egyptian reporters? No. Did you wonder who in the heck Khaled Matei is? (Yeah, if you're not going to be as wise as a cub reporter, maybe you should leave the reporting to the guys with the mainstream media.)
- You've seen how well Congress received their own members' proposals for immigration reform that is sorely needed — when the Obama in the story pledges to work with Congress to increase immigration for Muslims, by relaxing background checks, didn't your eye at least twitch?
- Did you notice the phone number listed for "The National Muslim Appreciation Hotline?" First, when was the last time you saw any White House advertise a hotline other than a government service? But second, didn't you get the least bit curious about that number? Hmmm. (785) 273-0325. I don't even recognize the area code. Google it . . . voila! It's the number for Westboro Baptist Church.
- The reporter has a Peabody and a Pulitzer? He stopped a robbery by quoting Pulp Fiction? Maybe you need to replace your Hemingway completely.
- Over at the White House website, they list and record almost every word that comes out of Obama's entire operation. Check it. There's no Muslim Appreciation Month.
- Maybe you have to have staffed Congress to notice this, but most Presidential Proclamations of National Pickle Week or National Ski Patrol Month are accompanied by a resolution from one or both houses of Congress asking the president to make the proclamation. See any such bill for this? I don't see one.
I got suckered by a story in National Report a couple of months ago. When you name your blog after one of the most famous hoaxes in history, you really need to be careful. So I was suspicious from the start.
But it got picked up by GOP – The Daily Dose? That's legitimate sounding enough to gullible Obama H8ers that I suspect they didn't even pause. Cleverly, Daily Dose listed the story as "via NRO," the acronym for National Review Online — but of course, that's not correct.
Then the Dominoes of Gullibility started to fall; among those suckered:
- Tea Party Command Center
- The Tree of Liberty
- Nathan Fields on Facebook
- US Constitutional Freepress smelled a rat, but ran with the story anyway
- Patriots Billboard
- Free Republic had a thread — then pulled the whole thing when it was exposed
- Update, September 30 – (For Conservative Refocus, see below.)
- Update, October 2 – Lone Star Tea Party got punked, but recovered
Wow. How many people got suckered by that hoax? Were you among them?
- Religious Freedom Day proclamation (January 16, 2013 White House)
- Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month (tomohalloran.com)
- Re: Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month (forum.prisonplanet.com)
- Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month…by Paul Horner (jericho777.wordpress.com)
- Conservative Refocus News (Author Barry Secrest said he debunked it from the start; anybody got any way to confirm?) (Okay, I'm convinced I may have misread this site; though Secrest expresses disbelief that it's a hoax, apparently he looked at sources before reporting it as something that he wishes were true so he could continue in the Obama H8er role. Give him points for accuracy, no matter how reluctant he was — in this case. Do not assume anything else there is accurate.)


text: hi there.. is it possible to have a diskless clients in the beowulf cluster? I happend to found it some where.. if so , is it practical? then , how can it be implimented in scyld beowulf??? i ,ve some fstab pbms... the client hard disk is not mounting to the server. i partitioned the client as per the document after setting the fstab. but it is not working . i have to complete this with in next week.. i just want to connect a single node first to show it is working... help me ... THANX, pramod. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/


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Sitter, Willem de
Sitter, Willem de vĭl´əm də sĭt´ər [key], 1872–1934, Dutch astronomer and mathematician. He was professor from 1908 at the Univ. of Leiden and in 1919 became director of its observatory. His early work on the motions of Jupiter and its satellites contributed to the downfall of the pre-Einstein celestial mechanics. Using Einstein's formulation of relativity, he theorized that space cannot be in a stable equilibrium, and he concluded that the universe is expanding. He suggested a dynamic universe in which there is motion but no matter, in contrast to Einstein's static universe containing matter but no motion. In the combined Einstein–de Sitter model, the universe is expanding at a decreasing rate that approaches zero. De Sitter's works in English include Kosmos (1932) and The Astronomical Aspect of the Theory of Relativity (1933).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Astronomy: Biographies


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Hi there, I hope you're having a great day!
It's finally STAMPtember® and Simon Says Stamp is celebrating today with a party! If you've found your way here, welcome! If you want to go back to the beginning, visit the Simon Says Stamp blog. There are special gift codes sprinkled through the party so be sure to visit as many as you can for inspiration and gift-with-purchase codes!
For my card today I used the new Spooky Silhouette cling stamp and a sentiment from the Autumn Greetings stamp set. I started by inking up the grass and house silhouettes, and also the silhouettes of the bats that were "inside" the moon with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. Then I stamped onto a piece of Canson XL Watercolor paper.
Using a round die from the Hero Arts Nested Circles set, I die cut a piece of masking paper and used the negative cut to mask everything on the card but the moon. Then I used Orange and Gambose Brusho (a pigment powder similar to Color Bursts) to watercolor the moon.
When the moon was dry, I removed the mask, and then used the circle mask to mask off the moon. Using a blending tool, I ink blended Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, and Black Soot Distress inks to create a dark sky. Then I removed the mask and used a black marker to draw right side of the bat silhouettes that cross over the border of the moon and the sky (because I hadn't inked up those areas when I originally stamped.
I added a bit of gray shading to the windows with W1, W3, and W5 Copic Markers.
To finish, I stamped the sentiment in the same black ink and then adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.
Thank you so much for visiting and please don't forget to visit some of the other Simon Says Stamp design family members for more inspiration!


text: On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 2:40 PM, Vincent Diepeveen <diep at xs4all.nl> wrote: > > On Nov 13, 2012, at 9:17 PM, Greg Keller wrote: > > >> From: Joe Landman <landman at scalableinformatics.**com<landman at scalableinformatics.com>> >> That's not the issue with glusterfs. It's distributed metadata >> architecture is a double edged sword. Very good for distributed data, very >> very bad for metadata heavy ops. >> >> That and the xfs attributes haven't been slow in years though some folks >> like bringing up the old behavior pre 2.6.26 as examples of why you >> shouldn't use it. Dave Chinner has a great presentation on the topic from >> 15 months ago or so. Puts down real numbers. Situation is rather >> different than implied. >> >> >> We've recently seen XFS kill a pretty important server after an abrupt >> power off. It appears someone decided they needed to force it to be >> "POSIX" compliant by default, and as a result XFS doesn't sync/flush to >> disk unless told to or some rather long timeout (30 seconds can be verrry >> long ). >> > > You sure this is just XFS problem? > > Linux also has this behaviour towards floppy disk over here and that > floppy disk doesn't have XFS. > > Maybe it's a kernel feature that assumes most people have a cheap WD disk? > > In fact to save the new generation harddisks from for example WD that > could be interesting feature. > > I've read some reports that the cheap versions of them quite quickly go to > power savings mode, though not sure how long it takes > to reach that idle mode. Then it would spin up again when there is disk > activity. Yet this flip between power saving and spinning active > if i see some users report it, that can be done only a limited amount of > time, which would normally spoken give the disk because of > that an average lifetime of no more than a year or so in case your machine > is writing regurarly something to disk. > > Maybe this feature of XFS helps a tad there? Or should it wait for 30 > minutes then to write to disk? > No, I was told this was a conscious decision to follow the POSIX spec exactly. Maybe it helps not spin up drives and saves $0.07 cents per year... but I think that's collateral savings. To Mr. Becker's Point, we used XFS for large filesystems for years with absolutely no trouble, on 100's of TB of storage. It was years ahead of EXT4 in making big volumes simple too EXT# types. Whatever was changed recently (not sure when), I would use XFS, but only once I really understood the tuning/flushing and did some sudden power off and kernel crash testing. If you're running a version from before the change it will probably work just like you think it should. Cheers! Greg -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://www.beowulf.org/pipermail/beowulf/attachments/20121113/14b059ed/attachment.html>


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I've only met Quinton Nelson twice. But since each time I spent a good 15 hours on his boat, the beautiful ex-RNLI boat, the Guy And Clare Hunter, I guess that counts for something.
I've been (mostly) fortunate enough over the past six years to have met quite a few pilots. Some of them belong to the largest marathon swimming organisations such the CS&PF or the CSA. Others were unaffiliated guides of swimmers on pioneering routes outside the ambit of existing organisations (those type of swims for which the Global Rules of Marathon Swimming were specifically written by The Marathon Swimmers Federation). Regardless of the waters, or their own personality, the country or the number of swimmers they've piloted, most share some recognisably similar characteristics.
They harbour (hah) a deep respect for the sea and knowledge of their local waters, a jaundiced view of land-lubber crews and the defining idiocy of swimmers who choose to get into the bloody cold wet brine when they could stay dry on deck. They are often taciturn and always practical and always possessed of strong opinions. Many such as Paul Foreman, Reg Brickell and Des O'Connell I've liked and respected immensely for their knowledge and deep commitment to what they do and how they do it.
Like those, Quinton Nelson is a swimmer's pilot, even a pilot's pilot. A lifetime in the North Channel piloting for decades before returning to swim-pilot the forbidding stretch, no-one knows the water like he does. He's a world expert on the restoration of ex-RNLI like the aforementioned Guy And Clare Hunter, and I am likely to get a stern email within 24 hours of this post being published, either due to some gaff I've made of which he will disapprove or simply due to the existence of this introduction! That's Quinton.
He is the pilot who opened up and transformed swimming the North Channel for the swimming world, and arguably has had more effect therefore on Channel swimming than any other pilot worldwide. As a pilot to whom I'd trust mine or any other's care, he ranks amongst the very best in the world. Enough of my ráiméis, over to Quinton himself.
(By the way, Quinton provided some photos. Typically he himself only appeared in the distance in one, used further down. Luckily, I had my own of him!)
THE NORTH CHANNEL SWIM, A pilot's view
The North Channel, sometimes called the Irish Channel has, over the years accumulated a fearsome reputation for chewing up and spitting out swimmers. Many have tried to conquer it, if conquer is the right word, the majority have been beaten back by the combination of cold water, adverse currents, unpredictable weather and not least, the lions main jellyfish.
Local knowledge is the key to understanding the North Channel, I live right on its shores, see it in all its moods day by day, have worked commercially on it for a lifetime and while its power should not be under estimated, when judged correctly, crossing in the right conditions is a joy.
Swimming was first tried here from the 1920's by the famous Mercedes Gleitz, the first successful swim was by Tom Blower in 1947 (Ed: account on LoneSwimmer.com), but it is really in recent years with the advent of Ocean's 7 that the North Channel, considered by many to be the toughest of the seven, has seen the upsurge in swim attempts.
No doubt many more will try, not all will succeed. There is no shame in not making it.
The swim season is very short and in reality can be confined to July and August with the possibility of some days in early September and in recent years, some dates in late June as the waters warm up…I have been a pilot among other commitments on the North Channel for more years than I care to admit.
My first success was with Margaret Kydd from Scotland way back in August 1988 when she was and still is, the youngest swimmer to accomplish the challenge and only missing by a day, being the first female swimmer ever to cross the North Channel. 1989 saw the legendary Kevin Murphy complete the Scotland to Ireland swim.
Commercial commitments took me away from the swimming for some years but recently I have been "called back".
Over the past three years I have piloted swimmers whose times have slashed long standing records: Fastest relay team record, "The Machine Men" 3 man team from New York, Ireland to Scotland 10 hrs 16min, August 2012. Fastest female record, Michelle Macy, USA, Ireland to Scotland 9hrs 34 min, fastest overall and 2nd female to complete Oceans 7, July 2013. Fastest male record Milko van Gool, Netherlands, Ireland to Scotland 10hrs 34 min. August 2013. Other equally fantastic successes include Fergal Somerville Ireland, June 2013 in under 11º C water, Sabrina Weidmer of Switzerland, Finbarr Hedderman, Ireland (Ed: account on LoneSwimmer.com), Adam Walker of the UK and Kimberley Chambers, New Zealand, all in 2014.
No doubt in the future these record times will be surpassed again and again.
The Swim
The swim has been commented on recently as "becoming easier", possibly due partially to the upsurge in the successes we have had. It is not easy, swimmers will know better than me the effort that is required, to accomplish any open water swim, the pain to be endured only overcome by the elation on a success. Being involved with so varied a group of swimmers in recent years has proved to me that 49% of the effort needed to have a success is down to training and stamina.
Training in cold water for this swim is vital, its not rocket science, it doesn't particularly require anything special, OTHER than this one thing that is necessary to bring any chance of success, swimming for hours in as cold water as you can bear for as often and as long as possible, right up to the days before your attempt.
I would advise all aspiring swimmers to get here as early as possible and acclimatise in the local waters. The average sea temperatures a swimmer can expect on the North Channel over the summer vary between 11c and 15c, however in 2014 we had late July and early August temperatures of up to 18c, positively tropical.
Stamina. Before accepting a swimmer I will ask questions on performance. All will be expected to maintain a minimum speed for up to 12 hours on average, which can complete the swim. I am convinced the balance of 51% of the effort needed to complete the swim is in the mind of the swimmer.
We have had swimmers with excellent swim credentials come and try the North Channel, we have given them excellent starts with full offshore tidal advantage, superb hot summer days with glass calm sea, negligible jellyfish interference and yet perhaps only a few hours into the swim, some could not go on.
I say again, there is no shame in not making it.
The Lion's Mane jellyfish
The scourge of the North Channel, it is most prolific in late summer mostly August through September.
They generally frequent the surface layers of water and drift around on the currents with trailing tentacles usually lower than the main body so swimming above them is relatively harmless. The stings are likened to nettle stings or bug bites, on their own again relatively harmless but I would urge every swim aspirant to know their limitations on toxin resistance as multiple stings are not uncommon.
The Currents
There is no substitute for experience on the North Channel, tides and currents vary every day in the normal scheme of things, winds from days before, or storms brewing hundreds of miles away, in the days to come can have adverse affects on the swim day and its only experience and the local "gut feeling" for what will happen over the day, that has brought about the successes of recent years, all added to by the superb strength of the modern open water swimmer.
The Fickle Weather
The North Channel is renowned for its fickle weather patterns if it can be called a pattern at all. It can be flat calm onshore on either or both coasts and be blowing a storm down the middle or vise versa. Planning a swim depends on judging the weather correctly, plain and simple. I will not go if I think there is a risk of the weather blowing up.with Fergal Somerville
The Scottish coastline is sheer, barnacle encrusted jagged cliffs with a few inlets and just one very small sand beach so the swimmer has to be prepared to touch the rock and return to the boat, hence the reason why good weather is vital. It takes very little onshore wind to make the coastline uninviting.
I can think of nothing more soul destroying that starting off and making it across only to be deterred from a landing by rough waves breaking against the rocky shore. This is where the experience and knowledge of years on the North Channel pays off.
Ireland to Scotland is the preferred route and has been completed in 9hrs 34 min. The general average is between 10 and 13 hours.
The route we use while not new, is simply a variation on the old seafarer route between this part of Ireland and Scotland when fishermen used sails and oars combined with the power of the tides to get across in the shortest time.
The route I have pioneered has been copied by others with modest success as the modern GPS tracker shows the world every move, I hope my record shows how to "tweak" the route hour by hour to full advantage. Good weather is vital, again I stress, I will not start a swim if the weather forecast is not as ideal as it can possibly be.
The Scotland to Ireland route is the more difficult second choice route and takes on average around 17 hours with a very very limited chance of landing, again, against a rugged shoreline, due to continuous contrary tides on the Irish coast. I had one of the first successes on this route with Kevin Murphy and even for such a strong swimmer, the hours took their toll.
This Oceans 7 swim is becoming more sought after as the years progress, there is only one other professional pilot with a track record (Ed- Brian Maharg, Bangor Boats). I have a boat and crew dedicated to the swims and can take every available tide window, to allow as many swimmers as possible in each season.
No doubt there will be other pilots in the future, at the moment there are no others with a proven track record or the all too important local knowledge and experience necessary to gain that record.
I can only urge all aspiring swimmers who are contemplating the North Channel in the immediate years ahead to make contact with me in the first instance as soon as possible, if they want me as their pilot, to plan their attempt. Swim slots year by year are very limited.
I will advise you what is expected of you, I will tell you what I can do for you and between us we can decide on the slot available, best suited, to make your dream a reality and add your name to the North Channel Roll of Honour.
For those who have read this article and are thinking, he hasn't mentioned a two way swim. I have been asked repeatedly about the possibility of a solo 2 way attempt. Personally, I think its nigh on impossible, for a number of reasons, mainly the contrary tides, the water temperatures and having seen the effects of a one way on the strongest of swimmers taking up to 12 hours, I consider a return attempt that could take a further 24 hours for a weakened swimmer, could be extreme punishment.
Having said that, someone is going to insist on trying it.!!
I am happy to talk to all aspiring swimmers about the North Channel.
All the swimmers I have piloted, those who have been successful and those yet to be, are well known in swim circles and will also be happy to recount their experiences and share any advice they can.
Quinton Nelson
(Unrelated note: I'm still receiving congratulations for taking over the Editor in Chief position on DNOWS. While I appreciate the many kind sentiments folks, that was the fifth consecutive April Fools joke on LoneSwimmer.com. Some of you guys should just stay off the Internet on April the First !!)