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It is the beginning of another month and thus time for another installment of the Ohmygod saga (the previous installments: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Five 'B', Part Six, Part Seven or you can check them out in the menu up top). As you will recall, I used to be a cycling tour guide in Europe for several years. Through that job (yes, it is a bit difficult to call it a 'job') I met countless interesting people and have a few compelling stories to tell, but most of them pale to the story of Ohmygod, one of the clients that I had for two weeks. Some may wonder about the moniker, but the name chose itself really; it is what I uttered repeatedly during just about every interaction with him.
In the previous installment, we were at our hotel in Chenonceaux, where we had just finished up a pre-dinner drink and were getting ready to move into the dining room for dinner.
We transitioned over to the hotel's dining room where I am normally a bit apprehensive—the room is set up as a classic dining room: white linen, real china, real silver. Say what you want about the French, but they really know how to do classic dining. One may disagree with its place in "modern" cuisine, but few can argue the influence that France has had. And they have it down pat.
I am always nervous bringing a group of Americans into a room like this since they often treat it like the bar at a TGIF—they ramble in and tend to be rather loud, no subtlety whatsoever.
Tonight was different, however. Ohmygod. No sooner was I contemplating checking on him, than I notice that every head in the place was looking at our group—specifically the tail end. I turned slowly to look at Ohmygod. I imagined that I would see him sprawled out on the floor, having tripped. Or perhaps he had veered off in another direction and had collided with the cheese and/or dessert cart. Maybe he pilfered all or part of somebody's dinner and was eating it en route.
None of the above.
In fact, there was no evidence of Ohmygod having done anything remotely worthy of scorn other than having his perpetual dopey look on his face—one that makes you think that he did not have a single tooth in his head and he recently had a lobotomy. (As far as I could tell, he still had most of his teeth, which was surprising given his aversion to personal hygiene. As for the lobotomy, all bets are off). No, at first glance there was no indication that anything absurd had happened. I looked around the room, actually ready to come to Ohmygod's defense or at least urge the other diners to wait until he started eating to be horrified.
Then I took a second glance.
Perhaps over the last few days I had become anesthetized, not realizing the spectacle that was Ohmygod: He was wearing black lycra cycling shorts and a bright yellow cycling jersey that was two sizes too small (or his gut was two sizes too big), and had what I assumed to be food stains from countless meals down the front. His mostly gray, beyond shoulder length hair was newly washed (my requirement for the evening), which, depending on your perspective, looked either like a bad Elton John wig from the 80's or the result of a mishap with an electrical outlet. His cycling shoes were making an audible "click" as he moseyed across the floor, and I was pretty sure he was humming the Canadian National Anthem (but that could have just been my mind groggily waking up from the anesthesia).
Most citizens of the free world would be horrified.
The rest of the evening was going to be trying—I feel like part of my job is to be a cultural liaison of sorts, bridging the gaps between American and European culture. Most of the work is with the clients, but some is also with the innkeepers and restaurateurs that we come across. Usually these "cultural conversations" end up in a laugh and another glass of wine.
Tonight, with Ohmygod, I decided on a different tack.
Intense prayer.
I also decided to drink many, many glasses of wine. Even if I got sloppy drunk, all the attention would be on Ohmygod, so I basically had a get out of jail free card for the night. Besides, the restaurant has one of the best Loire Valley wine lists I've ever seen, the wines are fantastic, and they are pretty darn cheap.
Even though there were only four of us and there was no real way to escape any contact with Ohmygod at the table, clearly the least desirable position was the seat adjacent to him. The fear was real: Given his inability to keep food off his own clothing, there was a legitimate possibility of ancillary damage. At any point, shrapnel could be heading your way. He also usually reeked like a middle school locker room (although that was hopefully mitigated by his first shower of the fortnight) and perpetually ate with his mouth agape, creating sounds that few have heard away from a farm.
It was clear that my relatively modest "bank" of good karma had long been spent and I was clearly staring at a rather significant negative balance: Right before dinner, the three of us performed a quick game of roshambo to see who got to ride out the meal "shotgun" to Ohmygod.
I lost, much to the delight of Grumpy and Mr. Personality.
My only option was to take the evening in stages since thinking about the entire 2-3 hour ordeal in its entirety would probably cause me to pass out or break down crying. First, I needed to get through the apéritif.
I decided to start with a sparkling wine from Vouvray (just a few kilometers away and a town we would ride through the next day) since everyone likes sparkling wine and I thought I could convince Ohmygod that it was the region's equivalent of beer. I also felt we should toast the last night that the company was to stay at the hotel—I figured there was no way in hell that we were going to be allowed back.
I don't know if I was ever happier to see a bottle of wine in my life. I was done praying and well beyond hoping for the best, it was time to get down to some serious drinking in order to produce a numbing effect as quickly as possible. Granted, nothing yet had happened, but there was a certain "calm before the storm" feeling permeating the environs. I also could feel all of the eyes in the room hopelessly drawn to the train wreck that was seated immediately to my left.
Sophie presented the bottle of one of my favorite producers, the Cave des Producteurs de Vouvray. They are certainly not the best producer in Vouvray, but I have been taking people to their tasting room for years and they always take very good care of me. After she finished pouring the wine, I started to explain to the others a bit about the winery (it's a co-op) and that if they were interested, I could set up a tasting the following day. Both Grumpy and Mr. Personality genuinely seemed interested with what I had to say, but no sooner were the last words out of my mouth and I was reaching for my flute that their attention quickly turned to Ohmygod. In one rather fluid (almost graceful) motion that repudiated (temporarily) his general ethos, he downed the contents of the flute in one gulp while simultaneously reaching for the bottle that was resting peacefully in the ice bucket next to the table (why Sophie placed the wine in a precarious ice bucket stand anywhere near the human catastrophe is mind-blowing).
As the last drop of the fine nectar went tumbling into his cavernous gullet, he quickly returned the glass to the table as if it were a shot of whiskey and he was now ready for a gunfight. Then, now holding the bottle as if it were a live chicken headed to slaughter, he quickly attempted to refill his glass.
Not surprisingly, he did not seem to anticipate either the effects of his brusque treatment of the bottle or the shape and volume of the miniscule flute. As he poured, the wine quickly began to froth and then bubble over. His dumbfounded look told me that he had rarely, if ever, poured even a beer into a glass. After losing most of the remaining contents to the formerly pristine white tablecloth, he snapped out of his trance and just as quickly tried to return the bottle to the ice bucket.
The bottom of the bottle caught the edge of the bucket, and the force of the thrust knocked the pedestal style ice bucket off-balance and slowly falling toward the floor. Once again, Ohmygod just stared, making no attempt to mitigate the damage. Grumpy, however, jumped to action, trying to prevent the bucket from crashing to the floor. Unfortunately, Grumpy is neither very coördinated nor svelte: As he rose, his considerable belly made contact with the table. Frozen for the briefest of moments as he tried to stabilize the table, the bucket spilled all over the floor. Dejected, Grumpy quickly returned to his seat.
Too quickly.
On his way back to the chair, he made contact with the table again, this time with a much greater impact. All four glasses (three of them still full) teetered and then fell. Mine landed in my lap. My khaki pants lap.
Sophie quickly made her way over with three others and they cleared the table and tablecloth, righted the ice bucket, swept up the ice, and reset the table in a matter of seconds. It was very impressive.
I looked over at Ohmygod, attempting to see any signs of remorse.
Instead, he took the bottle, which had never left his hand, held it up to eye level, surveyed the amount of wine that remained, and proceeded to drink it.
From the bottle.


text:
Climate scientists like preaching to the choir, but right now, perhaps they should consider the possibility that a little outreach would be in order.
In normal times, Climate Audit has a large audience; right now, its audience is far larger than normal and includes journalists as well as the public. Given recent events, I made an extra effort to solicit editorial content that would be supportive of IPCC views and asked Jones' long-time associate, Tom Wigley, to write a contribution for Climate Audit:
Dear Dr Wigley,
Would you be interested in writing a guest post for Climate Audit (see camirror.wordpress.com for recent posts) and responding to comments?
Regardless of how Jones and Mann have portrayed me, I've tried to be conscientious. My interest has been primarily in statistical questions that I found interesting and where I was convinced that I was right. Obviously the reception of these points has been frustrating. I notice in the CRU letters that you occasionally considered the possibility that we had made valid points.
I realize that there's been sort of a community boycott against climate scientists speaking directly to the audience at Climate Audit. Despite this past, I think that it is important that climate scientists now speak directly to this audience (which presently extends far beyond the core audience.) I don't think that it will suffice to merely present through Real Climate in the present circumstances.
You may write whatever editorial you wish without any restrictions on my part and have an author password.
Steve McIntyre
Wigley replied:
No thanks.
I'll try to solicit some other contributions. This situation shall pass. I don't think that it's helpful for people in the field right now to merely congregate at realclimate, though that is obviously more comfortable. I appreciate Judy Curry's editorial and I'll make some other attempts along this line.

subset: commoncrawl


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Anyone can fashion a piece of cardboard to hold their iPhone at home, but who has a pile of old boxes and a spare sharpened implement on a plane? (Not you, hopefully.)
The Boogeyman's Sophie Thatcher Reveals What Draws Her to Dark Characters | io9 Interview
This iPhone/iPod touch mod uses a readily-available airsickness bag to hold your video player hands-free. Amazing, we know, but things only get better from there. As the bag is simply tucked into one's tray table, its height can be adjusted to achieve the optimum viewing angle. Let's see you do that with cardboard, terrorists! [hodenmumps via Random Good Stuff]


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Parents of Boston suspect describe his Russia trip
MAKHACHKALA, Russia - The parents of Tamerlan Tsarnaev insisted Sunday that he came to Dagestan and Chechnya last year to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in the volatile part of Russia, with his father saying he slept a lot of the time.
But the Boston bombing suspect couldn't have been immune to the attacks that savaged the region during his six-month stay.
Investigators are now focusing on the trip that Tsarnaev made to Russia in January 2012 that has raised many questions. His father said his son stayed with him in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where the family lived briefly before moving to the U.S. a decade ago. The father had only recently returned.
"He was here, with me in Makhachkala," Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He slept until 3 p.m., and you know, I would ask him: `Have you come here to sleep?' He used to go visiting, here and there. He would go to eat somewhere. Then he would come back and go to bed."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - both ethnic Chechens - are accused of setting off the two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 that killed three people and wounded more than 180 others. Three days later, Tamerlan died in a shootout with police, while his brother was later captured alive but wounded.
No evidence has emerged since to link Tamerlan Tsarnaev to militant groups in Russia's Caucasus. On Sunday, the Caucasus Emirate, which Russia and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization, denied involvement in the Boston attack.
A woman who works in a small shop opposite Tsarnaev's apartment building said she only saw his son during the course of one month last summer. She described him as a dandy.
"He dressed in a very refined way," Madina Abdullaeva said. "His boots were the same color as his clothes. They were summer boots, light, with little holes punched in the leather."
Anzor Tsarnaev said they also traveled to neighboring Chechnya.
"He went with me twice, to see my uncles and aunts. I have lots of them," the father said.
He said they also visited one of his daughters, who lives in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan with her husband. His son-in-law's brothers all work in the police force under Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, he said.
Moscow has given Kadyrov a free hand to stabilize Chechnya following two wars between federal troops and Chechen separatists beginning in 1994, and his feared police and security forces have been accused of rampant rights abuses.
What began in Chechnya as a fight for independence has morphed into an Islamic insurgency that has spread throughout Russia's Caucasus, with the worst of the violence now in Dagestan.
In February, 2012, shortly after Tamerlan Tsarnaev's arrival in Dagestan, a four-day operation to wipe out several militant bands in Chechnya and Dagestan left 17 police and at least 20 militants dead. In May, two car bombs shook Makhachkala, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 130 more. Other bombings and shootings targeting police and other officials took place nearly daily.
The Caucasus Emirate said Sunday that its mujahedin are not fighting with the U.S.
"We are at war with Russia, which is not only responsible for the occupation of the Caucasus, but also for heinous crimes against Muslims," it said in a statement on the Kavkaz Center website.
The group suggested that Russia's secret services would have had a greater interest in carrying out the attack in Boston.
Despite the violence in Dagestan, Anzor Tsarnaev said Sunday that his son did not want to leave and had thoughts on how he could go into business. But the father said he encouraged him to go back to the U.S. and try to get citizenship. Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned to the U.S. in July.
His mother said that he was questioned upon arrival at New York's airport.
"And he told me on the phone, `Imagine, mama, they were asking me such interesting questions as if I were some strange and scary man: Where did you go? What did you do there?'" Zubeidat Tsarnaeva recalled her son telling her at the time.
When the two ethnic Chechen suspects were identified, the FBI said it reviewed its records and found that in early 2011, a foreign government - which law enforcement officials confirmed was Russia - had asked for information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI said it was told that Tsarnaev was a "follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to travel to this foreign country to join unspecified underground groups.
The FBI said that it responded by interviewing Tsarnaev and family members, but found no terrorism activity.
Both parents insist that the FBI continued to monitor Tamerlan Tsarnaev and that both of their sons were set up.
Their mother went so far on Sunday to claim that the FBI had contacted her elder son after the deadly bombs exploded at the marathon. If true it would be the first indication that the FBI considered him a suspect before Boston descended into violence on Thursday.
At FBI headquarters in Washington, spokesman Michael Kortan stood by the bureau's public statement of Friday in which the bureau described a 2011 FBI interview of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Kortan said the 2011 interview was the only FBI contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI statement said that the FBI did not learn of the identity of Tamerlan and his brother until Friday after the gun battle in which Tamerlan was killed.
The mother's claim could not be independently confirmed, and she has made statements in the past that appeared to show a lack of full understanding of what occurred in Boston.
Investigators released photos and video of the two Tsarnaev brothers on Thursday afternoon, but at that point their identities were not known. By late that night Tamerlan Tsarnaev was dead.
Tsarnaeva said her elder son told her by telephone that the FBI had called to inform him that they considered him a suspect and he should come in for questioning.
She said her son refused. "I told them, what do you suspect me of?" Tsarnaeva quoted her son as saying. "This is your problem and if you need me you should come to where I am."
He then told her he was going to drive his younger brother to the university, she said, speaking by telephone from Chechnya. Tsarnaeva claimed that her son later called his wife to tell her they were being chased and fired upon.


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Posts written, and yet to be written, to help me understand Donald Trump, the new US president:
Donald Trump – my main election post on him, written over a year ago, December 2015.
narcissistic personality disorder – Trump seems to suffer from this to an extreme degree. See also the closely related psychopathic racial personality.
political arguments – are all about framing and, as it turns out, one's upbringing. Facts and reasons confirm one's beliefs or frame, but do not change minds. Trump appeals to those whose parents were more authoritarian than loving.
Trumpspeak – words and phrases Trump and his hangers-on use and what they mean. Some are:
racist dog whistles – words, phrases and messages which do not sound racist on their face, but which are taken in a racist way by racists – like "law and order". Trump "tells it like it is" but sometimes he does use racist dog whistles, which are part of:
The Southern Strategy – which gets Whites to vote against their class interests by appealing to race and religion. This seemed to have run out of demographic steam by 2012, but Trump doubled down on it, to the point of being openly racist, and won. It also accounts for how the pollsters got it so wrong.
George Wallace – governor of Alabama who famously ran for president in 1968. The last open racist to run for president.
Andrew Jackson – the US president who seems most like Trump.
Cleon – an Athenian demagogue.
Putin – the president of Russia whom Trump admires and might try to copy or, worse, be controlled by, as in:
The Trump dossier – offers a model for understanding Trump that might be true.
"Hitler was democratically elected" – the rise of Hitler and how it compares to Trump. It was alike in some ways, unlike in others.
Holodomor – Stalin's man-made famine in Ukraine (1932-33). Topic recommended by Taotesan.
The diseased host model of US society – blames the ills of US society on people of colour. Trump's rhetoric pushes this hard. Thus the need to keep out Mexicans and Muslims.
Breitbart News – going by his tweets, this was one of Trump's main sources of news. Steve Bannon, who made it what it is today, is now a top Trump adviser.
alt-right – what White nationalists and Neo-Nazis are calling themselves these days. Trump's ideas seem to be closer to theirs than to the Republican Party.
Birtherism – something Trump pushed.
"The Art of the Deal" – his first book.
"Yuge" – 30 years of Doonesbury cartoons about Trump.
Robert Mercer – one of Trump's top donors.
Melania Trump – his current wife.
Trump's cabinet – in particular:
- State: Rex Tillerson
- Treasury: Steven Mnuchin
- Defence: James Mattis
- Justice: Jeff Sessions
- Interior: Ryan Zinke
- Environment: Scott Pruitt
Trump voters – in particular:
- White Evangelical Protestants
- White working-class men
Since it seems many Trump voters lied to pollsters, I might have to do a Trump voter update.
If you want to recommend a topic, please tell me in the comments below. Thanks!
– Abagond, 2017.
See also:
- Trump posts:
- Jan 2017: The Trump dossier
- Nov 2016: normalizing Trump
- Nov 2016: The Trump Era
- Nov 2016: How Donald Trump is worse than Hillary Clinton
- Oct 2016: Trump's sex scandal
- Sep 2016: Trump's Black outreach
- Aug 2016: Trump voters
- Aug 2016: Can Trump win?
- Aug 2016: The Trump Effect on children
- Jun 2016: Trump's media blacklist
- Mar 2016: Donald Trump quotes about Black people
- Dec 2015: Donald Trump


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A company acquired by Google that develops robots for the U.S. military appears to have greatly reduced its dependence on government funding, suggesting a reluctance on Google's part to align itself too closely with military projects.
When Google acquired Boston Dynamics last December, some questioned whether the firm's military focus conflicted with Google's pledge of "don't be evil" and the virtuous image it nurtures for itself.
"Google search and destroy," quipped the U.K.'s Independent newspaper. "The internet giant (motto: 'Don't be evil') has bought a pioneer of scary robot animals. Can its ethics survive?"
Google said little to address the issue at the time and, perhaps illustrating the sensitivity of the topic, declined several requests this week to discuss Boston Dynamics and its work.
But an analysis of federal procurement records for unclassified projects shows Boston Dynamics has accepted vastly less government money in the eight months since it was acquired by Google.
In 2013, the company received US$31.2 million in grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. That was roughly in line with the $33.2 million it received in 2012 and the $27.8 million in 2011.
But so far in 2014, Boston Dynamics has received just one payment, of $1.1 million, the records show. The money came from DARPA in April and was for participation in the organization's robotics challenge, which aims to stimulate robot research and attracts teams from around the world.
It's unclear why the funding has dropped so sharply, but it suggests a reluctance by Google to pursue military projects and align itself publicly with the U.S. government, especially when suspicion about clandestine government projects is running high.
Two weeks before the April payment, DARPA said that Tokyo-based Schaft, another robotics company acquired by Google last year, had decided to stop accepting military funding and would pay for its own work.
Receiving such government funding, particularly tied to military projects, can be an ethical quandary for scientists and others.
"I know researchers really wrestle with this," said George Lucas, a professor of ethics and public policy at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. "It isn't necessarily evil in all cases to work for the military, but it always raises the question of what exactly DARPA wants you to do."
Part of the concern, he said, comes from the researchers not having control over how their work will be used, or if it will be shared with the wider community.
The robots developed by Boston Dynamics are some of the most complex and agile yet built. They include the LS-3, a four-legged mule designed to follow soldiers into battle carrying heavy gear; Robogator, a river surveillance robot; Cheetah, another four-legged robot that can run fast; and Atlas, a two-legged humanoid robot.
The LS-3's role in battle was highlighted this week when U.S. Marines put the robot through its paces in a variety of terrains as part of the RIMPAC multinational naval exercise in Hawaii.
Scott Strawn, an IDC analyst who follows Google closely, said its "don't be evil" mantra is more a PR statement than a fixed rule for business, but it does reflect an awareness at Google that making money depends on maintaining the trust of its users. That can create tension when areas of its work overlap with government and military goals.
"There are just inherent aspects of their business that are going to be very interesting from a defense perspective," he said.
While Google's robot ambitions are unclear, it may have little interest in becoming a supplier to the military. In December, it said it would "honor existing military contracts," but that it did not plan to become "a military contractor on its own," according to a news report at the time.
Instead, it's believed to be interested in robots for use in factory automation, home help, package delivery and even as explorers on future space missions.
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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I am writing this post for my son. He is only three years-old, but he is growing so fast. Much of what I wrote to my daughter in the 25 Things I want My Daughter to Know post also applies to him. I wish them both the innocence of their childhood, the ability to laugh at themselves, a spiritual connection with God, and the desire to see the world. That being said, here goes:
1. When I look at you I see my heart.
I never imagined I had this much love to give until I had a baby. I never thought I could possibly have any more to give until I had you. You have taught me that my heart and my capacity to love is not fixed, it grows and grows and grows.
2. It's okay to let go of your penis. It's not going anywhere.
Since we finished potty training in our house, I've noticed that you hold your penis constantly. I just want you to know that it will be there forever and you have your whole life ahead of you to play with it.
3. I will be happy to buy you a pink ball, a pink balloon, or a pink toothbrush if you so choose.
I understand that through your eyes the color pink is just that, a color. It really makes no difference to you – and therefore should make no difference to me whether you want to wear a pink superhero cape or wings.
4. Your nose is NOT an appropriate place for the following items: crayons, beads, marbles, cheerios, pasta, peas, carrots, french fries, legos, q-tips, or your finger. Period.
5. Play. Draw. Paint. Create.
Creating art should be a constant in your life. It lends great insight to an ever-moving journey and encourages individuality and expression. If you're doing it right – I expect to see fingerprints on walls, paint on floors, mud on the carpet and even in your hair. Go ahead, experiment!
6. On the other hand, there are rules that need to obeyed when you are in a home. You need to respect others and their possessions. I know boys will be boys, but this is not at all what I have in mind when it comes to creating art or playful fun. In fact, this is a lesson in doing it all WRONG! I would not be happy.
I would be so pissed.
~Although, it's kinda hard not to smile.~
7. Take your time summoning your inner genius.
There is a competitiveness that seems to have taken hold of every elementary school and playground in America. The pressure to learn more – faster, quicker, better than your peers. Never mind that mumbo jumbo. Learning takes time and everyone does it differently.
8. Explore the outdoors.
Get outside as much as possible. Breathe the fresh air. Play tag. Ride bikes. Skip. Hop. Jump. Run. Climb. NOW.
9. Accept others for who they are.
In an age where bullying has taken precedence amongst our youth, I hope I have taught you to see the value in differences. Preps, Emo, Punk, Popular, Nerds, Drama, Jocks – bottom line: It doesn't matter. Power lies in friendship.
10. Always keep moving forward.
There will be times in your life when you feel stuck. It's up to YOU to decide where you'll go. Keep on trekking. Go, go, go kid. You'll move mountains.
Oh the Places You'll Go!
11. You are Superman.
To me – you really do have superhuman strength and speed, the ability to defy the laws of gravity, and immunity to almost all forms of harm. How else would you be able to move the desk into the hallway, climb on top of it, "fly" off it – smack right into the wall and get up and walk away unscathed? Answer: You are Superman. Case closed.
12. Love letters are legacies.
In such a fast-paced world, we often overlook the simplest yet sweetest gestures in regards to love. A love letter written from the heart is a welcome treasure amidst the sea of endless emails and texts that consume us daily. They are refreshing, candid, and romantic. Ask your father to teach you, he's a pro.
13. It's okay to cry.
Crying is a natural emotional response to feelings. We all do it. Men cry. Women cry. Children cry.
14. Always be proud of who YOU are.
You may not be the quarterback of the football team, the homecoming king, or the lead singer in the band – but really now, who cares? As long as you stay true to who you are, everything else will fall into place. Checkmate.
15. No respectable girl wants to see your penis.
Since you will be growing up in the technological age of iPhone and texting, you'll inevitably come to learn the term "sexting." Let me tell you now that sexting is a big, big, BIG mistake. Never ever, ever, ever, ever send a picture of a private body part to anyone. Ever.
16. I hope I teach you well enough from a young age how to properly put on pants. One leg in, then the other, pull 'em up at least to your hips, zip, button, buckle. Done.
17. Think before you ink.
Tattoos are permanent. I can personally name two of your male relatives who wake up every single day with the pink panther and the tasmanian devil following them wherever they go. Little secret – mommy has a damn turtle she can't seem to shake.
18. Be an apprentice.
Before you leave for college, you must acquire some skill at performing the following tasks: laundry (separating, washing, drying, folding), making the beds, dusting, washing the floor, cooking, cleaning the toilets, grocery shopping for the week, vacuuming, emptying the dishwasher, sweeping the floor, cleaning the bedroom, watering the plants, feeding the pet. Your future wife will thank me.
19. Be a responsible traveler.
I have no problem with you hitting the open road and taking the old Volvo on a cross country adventure. In fact, I will applaud your independence and desire to see the country from sea to shining sea – but please don't make me have to book a 3:00am flight to God knows where to visit you in the hospital.
20. Find your passion.
Keep looking and searching. Never stop.
21. You will be my son forever.
There is an old adage that starts, "A son is a son till he takes a wife…" As you grow, I pray our bond stays strong enough to break any truth this saying might hold.
22. Love your Mother Earth.
Recycle, reduce, reuse. Going green isn't just a trend, it's a way of life we should all be adopting. You need to be aware of how you live, shop, and consume. An eco-friendly lifestyle will positively impact your health, your community, and your world. Got that? Now go hug a tree.
23. Be a brother. Be a friend. Be a protector.
24. Take the road less traveled.
May you always try to make the right choices, not the easiest ones. Have the courage to lead, not follow. And to dream bigger than most others think is possible.
25. Wherever you are in life, you can come home. I will be here – always.
♥ mommy
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Click here to read the list for my daughter.
***New*** Check out the wall print of the list here.


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I am very excited to announce that my family has launched a new culinary tour service in Penang—Durian Tour, from May to July, or until the end of this year's durian season.
Other than UNESCO world heritage listing and spectacular hawker/street food, Penang is also blessed with fertile soil and terrain that yeilds some of the best, creamiest, the most exquisite and aromatic durians in Southeast Asia. Penang durian is very famous in the region!
Every year during durian season, many durian connoisseurs—from Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, etc. —flock to Penang for the sole purpose of sampling and savoring the many award-winning durians in Penang.
Penang durians, such as lipan, hor loh, red prawn (ang heh), D-600 are just some of the special code names given to the famous species found in Penang…
Whether or not you are a durian newbie or die-hard fans, our durian eating tour will take you on an adventurous journey into private durian orchards in Balik Pulau.
The tour is both educational and fun, where you get to sample the freshest and most delicious durians that have just fallen off the trees, try out the different species, and learn more about "the KING of fruits."
Our durian tour also covers other exotic tropical fruit orchards such as nutmeg, ampla (ambula), and more. While in Balik Pulau, you will also take in the spectacular and serene nature, vistas, and scenary, with a stop-over to sample famous Penang Assam Laksa.
All in all, you will have a pleasant and enjoyable time with us.
When I was growing up in Penang, durian eating tour was an family annual ritual as my late father would drive us deep into the durian orchards in search of the best durians.
If you are in Penang this May to July, I hope you get to experience this unique experience by joining our durian tour. Send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com to reserve or inquire further.
For other services, please check out our Penang private tour and culinary tour page. Please don't forget to click on the gallery above and view the complete album. Thank you!


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Sunday, November 19, 2006
A peek into our (freezer)Pantry II...
We had quite a busy day today and I'm pretty tired, but I did manage to bake something today at Jeff's request. He mentioned that it had been awile since I have made an apple pie and he was correct! I prepared the crust early this morning before we left to do errands and after we arrived back home and started getting the rest of the ingredients together, I noticed I forgot to pick up more apples at the market! I did have a few, but not quite as many as I would have liked so the pie is lacking in the height department!
I never really measure my ingredients here, but it is much like any basic apple pie recipe - the only thing I do different is use arrowroot powder as a thickener and add a couple dashes of ginger to the filling. I also like to sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar for a sweet crunch. The crust recipe I use is one from King Arthur - using mostly butter for flavor, but I do like to swap out a few tablespoons to use some spectrum organic shortening as to not loose out on the flakiness.
I posted a peek into our pantry a few weeks ago... I'm coming back with Part II - The deep freeze!
I've always got a couple bags of King Arthur Flour now in the freezer - Whole Wheat, White Whole Wheat and All Purpose. I keep around 4-6 cups worth in some containers upstairs for easy access - I just find it stays fresher this way. I like to keep a small tupperware dish of instant yeast in the refrigerator, but you will usually find a vacuum sealed package in the freezer too.
Since we've been playing more with whole grains lately, I also keep Whole Cornmeal, Rye flour, Spelt flour and Barley flour in ziploc bags in the chest freezer in the garage.
I love to have options... I'll use that as my excuse on why we have so many different kinds of nuts and seeds in the freezer.
Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds, Hazelnuts and Peanuts (I make our own fresh nut butters often)
Sunflower Seeds, Pepitas and Pine Nuts
Pistachios, Cashews and Soy Nuts
I'm also crazy about blueberries - I have at least a cup a day mixed with some yogurt or in a smoothie. I've got quite a few pounds of these tiny wild blueberries stocked to get me well through the winter season!
How can we forget about butter? Since we started buying the big packs at Costco, I've started storing most of it in the freezer.
I'm scared to find out how much we will use this baking season... remember how much we used last year? *heartattack...*
5 comments:
- Anonymous11/19/2006 08:38:00 PM
You consistently amaze me at how much you churn out of you kitchen! I made the Lasagna Soup tonight and it was definitely a wow recipe! Mmmm, can't wait for leftover.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous11/20/2006 04:04:00 AM
how do you make fresh nut butter?ReplyDelete
- Anonymous11/20/2006 12:37:00 PM
Grr, my Costco only carries salted butter.ReplyDelete
Hey Joe, I tried the recipes for the Chocolate and Peanut Butter Blondies and Cheesecake bars- they turned out fabulous! Great work on the blog, always looking forward to reading your posts!ReplyDelete
Robyn - Oh sure... mention the soup when I can't make it! I loved it too!ReplyDelete
Sher - I make mine with cashews, almonds or peanuts - I just whiz them in the food processor until they turn creamy. Sometimes you may need to add a couple teaspoons of canola or peanut oil to get it going - the heat generated from the blades usually does a good job though!
Erin - Wow really? Have you asked them to see if they would carry unsalted?
Kidd05 - Glad to hear you liked the recipes!


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I am still basking in the glow of my ALIA Institute experience last week (my 5th one, by the way) and this morning find myself pondering concepts offered by Adam Kahane from his new book Power and Love.
Kahane said, power properly understood is nothing but the strength to bring about purpose and love is the drive to unite the separated. Both power and love have generative and degenerative sides. What makes power degenerative rather than generative is the absence of love and what makes love degenerative rather than generative is the absence of power.
The idea of this continuum for both power and love makes absolute sense to me. The idea of experimenting with the blending of power and love with greater awareness has me on the edge of my seat.
I was particularly struck by the expression: immoral power and powerless morality. We have come to believe that power corrupts, is held in the hands of a few and is the source of much that is bad in the world. We believe that people who sit in the place of love are ineffectual and weak – other than a few prominent examples like Mother Teresa or Ghandi whom most of us have trouble identifying ourselves with.
While we may believe the antidote to power is love, when we swing too far in that direction it often becomes inaction and ineffectual. How many of us have avoided stepping into our power out of fear and the belief that power is bad? How many of us have self-righteously sat in the place of love waiting for it to right all the wrongs of the world – or have just given our power away?
Kahane says it is not a choice but a paradox. We can't choose just one. We need both. We just need to find the balance between power and love. In any given situation, what is needed of me? If there is too much power, act with love. If there is too much love, act with power. When we work with this consciously and intentionally, then power and love gradually overlap and we find our place of greatest effectiveness and greatest movement for any given situation.
"Shape shifting, shape shifting,in a soulful way, leaning in, claiming it back, leaning in, growing open, shape shifting, shape shifting in a soulful way" – some of my "blues band" lyrics that just spilled over onto this page as I consider the journey of power and love I have been traveling the last 5 years.


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During a chat last week with Kotaku about his upcoming PlayStation 3 game, developer Fumito Ueda discussed two key, but uncertain, developments regarding his much-loved PlayStation 2 work.
Ueda indicated that he will play some role in the creation of the April-announced Shadow of the Colossus movie. The project would turn into a movie the Ueda-directed 2005 PS2 adventure that featured a boy wandering the plains, hunting quiet lumbering beasts. "It won't be that I'm completely not involved," he said of the film.
The developer shied away from providing details about the planned movie.
The spring announcement of the Hollywood project was received skeptically among gamers scorched by a film industry that has failed to make good movies about games half as subtle and respected as Shadow of the Colossus. Ueda's apparent involvement in the film, if significant enough, could calm some of that concern.
Ueda also provided us a minor update on the future of both Shadow of the Colossus and its predecessor, Ico, on modern video game systems. Both games are considered modern classics and are at least thematically linked to Ueda and Team Ico's next project, The Last Guardian. (Read Ueda talk more about The Last Guardian.) The recent announcement of a slightly-enhanced port of the PS2 God of War games to the PS3 has compelled gamers to buzz about their hope for a similar compilation port of the PS2's Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. The developer wants it to happen too.
"I do have an interest in that," Ueda said during our Friday chat. "Next week, I'll have a meeting [about the possibility] ... But it might not be so easy, because, with both titles we really stretched the limits of the PS2. It's complex. So it's not such an easy transfer to the PS3. But I want to discuss it."
The work of Ueda's team lives on in many discussions about the best video games of the past decade. At TGS, Ueda gave signs that that work may also have a good future on the big screen and on the PS3 as well.


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So as many of you know, I have a bit of an Internet addiction. I spend hours a day either on my phone, tablet, or computer scrolling through nonsense. I've written about this here and here. Sad to say, the only progress I have made since then is getting off Reddit. I did this by simply becoming so disgusted with myself that I deleted the app. I am happy to report I have no interest in returning, even when I see it in Google search results.
Unfortunately, I haven't reached the critical level of disgust yet needed to kick my scrolling habit. I think it was easier with Reddit because it was one specific habit, as opposed to a more general one. Goals must always be specific and measurable. I suppose I could measure out the time I spend online, but I make all kinds of excuses as to why it was necessary to go over the allotted time.
What I refer to simply as "scrolling" is my incessant need to look through articles on anything and go down the rabbit hole of reading one after another. The worst ones are the recommended articles because they're invariably stupid, but I read a lot of news, opinion, and analysis under the guise of being "informed."
One time I tried a technique of playing Candy Crush whenever I had the urge to scroll. My theory was that I knew I would quickly get bored of Candy Crush, so I thought that once I got bored, I'd shift to a more constructive hobby such as reading something substantive. Believe it or not, this worked for a time, but then I went right back to my old habit with a vengeance.
I realized today that part of my addiction stems from my need for constant agitation. I was a political science and philosophy major in college, and I throve on controversy and argumentation. I gave up my interest in those things as subjects, for various reasons, but my thirst for controversy remains.
What I further realized is that this manifests itself in the desire to scroll through comment sections. I will often eschew an intriguing article if I see it doesn't have comments. If I see hundreds, I can't wait to click and dig in. I don't belong to any website where I could join in (I know that would be the death of me), but that doesn't stop me from living vicariously through the commenters. I like to read the comments I agree with to see if people have the same line of thinking that I do, and I like to read opposing comments just to get myself mad.
I don't think that's healthy to be mad all the time, is it? It's really quite stupid when you think about it. I am becoming bitter, and I think it's affecting how I perceive people because I often wonder what they would say on a given topic if they secretly wrote comments online. In my defense, I don't think this need to read comments necessarily stems from a bad place. I do like to know what other people think. It's important to know all the different angles of an issue so you can explain your own position and know how it looks from their side of the table. But when it becomes poisonous, it's time to step back and reevaluate things. And when other people's thoughts take the place of your own (as they have begun to do in my case), your creativity and charity suffer.
It's also not only mentally unhealthy, but physically, too. I stay up too late and look like hell when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes, though, it's just simple avoidance of going to sleep because I dread waking up and going to work (you know why). But so far, numbing my brain and ruining my skin hasn't improved the work or happiness situation.
Anyway, this is my insight into my problem. I can't think of a specific way to tackle this at the moment except to resist the temptation to read comments. I want to know what's going on in the world, but I must keep myself honest and not use that as a pretext for scrolling. There are plenty of more productive things I could be doing.
And in any event, there is so much crap going on that I need a real detox from the world before I become even more bitter than I am right now. Why give myself an ulcer?


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Yesterday I wrote a guest post over at Harry Potter for Writers here:
In the comments people mentioned that I *might* be the kind of gal who speaks her mind—and that's true. I like to climb the tallest mountain and shout from its snow covered peak about things that I believe in. There is no shame there, I never claim to have all the answers but I will always know what I feel is right. No amount of naysayers or industry experts can take that away from me, or away from you.
Lately I have been reading a lot of about the importance of author platforms. Previously I ignored these types of informational posts, author platforms are for nonfiction writers, right?
Yes. But no.
If you are a politician, and you campaign on health care reform, that is called your platform. If you are a nonfiction writer you would need something that would make you an expert in your field, or qualified to write about your subject. Do you have a cooking blog that reaches 100k? That would be your platform. Are you a show dog judge with years of having your name out there? That would be your platform.
So how does any of this relate to the fiction writer?
It's not like Amanda Hocking is qualified to write young adult vampire novels because she is a young adult vampire. I mean she could be, but I don't know her business.
The more information I see on platforms for fiction writers, the more I realize they are using platform in the place of something else. A combination of audience, fan base, and followers. I see some people ask "What is your platform?" But what I hear is, "Who is going to buy your book?" Who, not what is the important part.
A million years ago Writer's Digest had an article of platforms and it can be found here:
I think it's more accurate than a lot of the platform blogs I see out there recently. I'd say the first section is the best, after that it gets into the same thought process that platform= some kind of angle. Which again is more true for nonfiction writers.
You don't need an angle, you need a captive audience. People could argue my platform is writing, but it's every other writer's too. Other people would be compelled to say my book is my platform, or my genre is my platform but none of those are quite right either.
I have come to the conclusion, I don't need to define a platform. The soap box of my blog is just fine. What I need is to sell a number of books, that no one can define but enough to be called a success, and then no one will care about a few planks of wood.
So when people tell you that you need a platform, take a second to think about what they are really saying.


text: DEADSHOT RETURNS — Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Diggle (David Ramsey) learn that Deadshot (guest star Michael Rowe) is still alive and his next target is Malcom (John Barrowman). Malcom invites Tommy (Colin Donnell) to attend a benefit honoring Malcom for his work with Starling City but Tommy refuses to attend. Oliver encourages his friend to mend his relationship with his father while he can. Meanwhile, Oliver struggles to balance his new relationship with McKenna [Janina Gavankar] and his duties as Arrow. Katie Cassidy, Paul Blackthorne and Susanna Thompson also star. Glen Winter directed the episode written by Geoff Johns (##116). "Dead to Rights" will air February 27, 2013.


text: My company, Comcast Technology Solutions, made the local Seattle bike blog news! Good stuff – it's heartening to encourage folks to get out on a bike even after Seattle's record breaking rain this year (45 inches since October). I'm proud to work for a company that encourages folks to ride, and not worry too much about coming in wet, late, messy. We have happy folks who ride!


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Editor's Note: Do you have a weight-loss success story to share? Tell us how you did it and you could be featured in our weekly weight-loss story on CNN.com.
Story highlights
Brian Flemming weighed 625 pounds
A new friend inspired him to stop drinking
Within two years, he dropped nearly 400 pounds
"She saved my life," he said
Inspiration can come from unlikely places. Brian Flemming found the will to change his life in a drawing game.
Flemming was addicted to alcohol, severely morbidly obese and full of self-pity when he met Jackie Eastham through a random match on Draw Something, the Pictionary-like mobile game. It was the spring of 2012. Most nights Flemming drank around a fifth of vodka mixed with a liter of soda while he zoned out in front of the TV.
The last time he had been weighed, on a special scale at the hospital, he was 625 pounds.
Eastham lived in England and was 20 years Flemming's senior. At first, the players shared casual banter between rounds. Their friendship eventually moved to Facebook, where they began to confide in each other.
Flemming was at a low point. Besides being an alcoholic and morbidly obese, he was pre-diabetic and had a recurring cellulitis infection.
Eastham was the first person he was totally honest with – no one in his life knew about the drinking. He expected sympathy.
But she wasn't having it.
"She said there were people struggling for their lives and then there's you – you have all these opportunities and you're throwing it all away," said Flemming, 32, now a business relations representative and part-time music teacher in Canton, Michigan.
It was personal for Eastham, who lives with myotonic dystrophy, an inherited type of muscular dystrophy that causes progressive muscle weakness and can affect various systems and organs. Her symptoms have been relatively mild so far, but she never takes her health for granted.
"I just thought bloody hell, you're a guy who's 30 … and you're wasting your life," she said, remembering how she felt as the recipient of his drunken, maudlin messages. "My future is a lot gloomier. I'm trying to make the brightest future I can, and … you're dragging yourself down."
It was the wake-up call Flemming needed. He'd show her he could change. That day – October 13, 2012 – he vowed to quit drinking cold turkey.
That was the first step toward what would become a remarkable transformation. Less than two years later, Flemming has lost more than 380 pounds from his 6 foot 2 frame. He went from a size 60 waist to a size 38.
The days after he gave up alcohol were grueling, he said. He had cold sweats, shaky hands and couldn't sleep. He kept busy to distract himself and found comfort in daily chats with Eastham.
They progressed from Facebook to Skype video chats, where Eastham said she was initially shocked by his size.
The weight began to fall off. Without the extra calories from alcohol, Flemming lost 100 pounds in a couple months. That was motivation enough to make other changes. He had been consuming upwards of 7,000 calories a day, according to an app he used to record his meals. He stopped eating fast food and cut out sugar and red meat.
Now, a typical day for Flemming starts with a few ounces of low or no-sodium turkey breast, a serving of dry cereal, a bowl of non-fat Greek yogurt with artificial sweetener and a glass of low-sodium vegetable juice.
For lunch and dinner, he often eats chicken and vegetables with rice. And every Friday night, he treats himself to a scoop of ice cream. Now that he's doing more exercise, he's not as strict about his diet.
Adding in physical activity was a gradual process. Flemming says he began by walking in place in his parents' basement for five minutes a day every morning, adding minutes as he felt ready. When he was finally comfortable to exercise outside, he only went when it was dark and the neighbors couldn't see him. Eastham kept him company on Skype sometimes while he walked.
"She was a huge motivation. She'd try to push me to walk a little further each time," he said.
In July 2013, he walked his first half-marathon. Shortly after that he took up cycling, and then running, completing his third 5-kilometer run on his birthday a few weeks ago. He used running and calorie tracker apps to stay accountable and started seeing a psychotherapist to manage his depression and make sure he was approaching his weight loss in a healthy way.
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Eastham said she encouraged it, not wanting him to be dependent on their friendship to stay sober and motivated.
Flemming is now down to 234 pounds, with about 30 pounds of excess skin around his waist. He's trying to save the money for surgery to have it removed.
This past December, he went to Europe and finally met Eastham in person, where he was able to climb the Eiffel Tower after barely being able to walk up a flight of stairs less than two years earlier. They continue to talk every day – and are still playing Draw Something.
Flemming now hopes to go back to school to become a therapist specializing in weight loss, depression and anxiety.
"Jackie is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I feel that she saved my life, even though she would never take credit," Flemming wrote in a blog post.
"Brian is so inspiring," Eastham said. "I hope he gets what he wants out of life."
Visit Brian Flemming's Facebook group to follow his journey. He invites readers to share their own stories about weight loss, addiction and eating disorders there.


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Even if the "do nothing Congress" lives up to its reputation and doesn't come up with a deal, President Obama could still soften the economic blow of the fiscal cliff.
That might seem surprising for all the dire warnings being issued by lawmakers about the pending devastation from the combined $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts that are scheduled to hit at the start of 2013.
"Even if you went over the cliff for one month and then corrected it, you would still have a loss of GDP," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declared in an interview broadcast Sunday by ABC News' "This Week."
But budget experts say the White House has several tools for delaying the potential pain, should talks between Obama and congressional leaders about how to avoid the cliff spill into next year. Negotiations could stretch into February with minimal economic suffering, they say.
However, the five potential steps outlined below to blunt the impact of the fiscal cliff are a mixed proposition for Obama—they buy some additional time to reach a deal, but they also remove many of the economic pressures that would force a compromise.
Barry Anderson, deputy director of the National Governors Association, has been flying across the country to brief incoming state governments about the different options. "The question everyone asks is, 'Isn't this a risky game?'" Anderson told The Fiscal Times. "You bet it's a risky game."
Treasury Doesn't Collect More Taxes—Should we cross the fiscal cliff, income tax rates that were initially lowered by George W. Bush would reset to levels not seen since 2001. A family with a household income of $72,000 would owe a top marginal rate of 28 percent instead of the current 15 percent.
Most Americans pay their taxes by having a pre-determined sum withheld from their paychecks. This is the loophole the administration could exploit to shield families from the tax hike. "Just because the tax rates change, that doesn't mean the secretary of the Treasury has to change the withholding amounts," Anderson said.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner could decline to publish new tables indicating how much income should be withheld. Companies would continue to withhold taxes at the current levels, temporarily sparing families from a rate hike that would total more than $200 billion over the entire course of 2013.
Obama won re-election by promising to continue the existing rates for Americans earning less than $250,000 a year. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, began discussions by pushing to extend the current rates across-the-board for everyone, saying a tax increase would sideswipe economic growth.
But avoiding any increase through the use of withholding tables cannot last indefinitely, since the government would eventually have to increase the amounts collected. If Obama deploys this strategy, it would suggest his confidence that he's on the cusp of a deal with congressional leaders, Anderson said.
Spend Now, Cut Later—Congress approves agency budgets, but the White House often decides how to "apportion" money over the course of the year.
The White House Office of Management and Budget does not have to instantly demand that agencies meet the combined $109 billion worth of cuts to Defense and domestic programs next year. Obama could fund some agencies at their current levels, while planning for later cuts that—if a deal is reached—might never be needed.
An April GAO report on sequestration noted that the "execution and impact of any spending reductions will depend on legal interpretations and actions taken by OMB." But it's also a gray zone in the law. The Comptroller General ruled way back in 1957 that such an approach could not cause a "drastic curtailment" of expenditures at the end of the fiscal year.
The OMB also has a limited ability to parcel out funding, since the continuing resolution to finance the government runs through March 27.
"You would not see the same impact on all parts of the federal government," said Patrick Lester, director of federal fiscal policy for the budget transparency organization OMB Watch. "We could get through most of the month of January without most of the federal agencies being put in a terrible jam."
Agencies Have Multi-Year Funding – Many agencies receive multi-year funding that could be tapped if funding is squeezed, according to a recent analysis by OMB Watch. If those leftover balances are not obligated for any specific program, they can easily ensure a steady revenue stream since they're not subject to the $54 billion in sequestration cuts that are scheduled next year for non-Defense programs.
Agencies Can Shuffle Their Budgets – Federal agencies do not need congressional approval to shift money within their appropriations. By "reprogramming" their appropriations, agencies have the "substantial ability to redirect cuts away from sensitive areas of spending to other areas that may be less sensitive in the first few weeks of the year," the OMB Watch analysis noted.
Soldiers Follow Orders, and the Pentagon Hasn't Gotten Them Yet – It's not like 2013 starts and the Defense budget is instantly dragged in front of a firing squad. The government can delay the impact of sequestration just by taking some time to pinpoint possible cuts, said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
First, the White House OMB sends the Pentagon a memo ordering the 10 percent reduction. That would happen around Jan. 2. Then the military's accountants toy with their spreadsheets to decide where to trim. This exercise should take long enough that any actual cuts couldn't be implemented until February or early March.
"It really won't be until the second-half of the fiscal year [April] that we see the real impact of this, because DoD hasn't done detailed planning yet, and they can't do it any faster," Harrison said. "Don't expect the apocalypse that has been predicted. You will be disappointed."


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This documentary shows how a canoe is built the old way. César Newashish, a 67-year-old Atikamekw of the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Indigenous peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is without commentary but text frames appear on the screen in Cree, French and English.
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César's Bark Canoe, Bernard Gosselin, offert par l'Office national du film du Canada
Merci. A lovely homely outdoor environment. The filming makes it possible to see most of the steps and details involved. César certainly knows his stuff as it's clear that he knows every sizing by rooted insight. A big thanks to those who participated in the production.owpeterj, 17 Fév 2017
I love this film a lot... what a knowledge & incredible workmanship .. just wooowehajdu70, 10 Sep 2016
ily m8 hopu u have a great dayzestyiestofthemall, 19 Nov 2015
GG i love this film so much it truley represent the beutiful things in nature in stuff i think 10 out of 10 GGzestyiestofthemall, 19 Nov 2015
A totally engrossing film that shows the exquisite craftsmanship of Cesar building an open Canadian canoe using traditional resources and skills. And what a beautiful and functional canoe! Awesome!MCC, 2 Aoû 2015
I wonder what he did with the rest of the tree.sixam, 1 Jul 2015
This is one of my favourite film. There is no narration, and very little dialogue, which feels like a revelation. Especially for a documentary created in 1971 about an Aboriginal person and traditional knowledge. I think the lack of interpretation and the simplicity of this film inspires viewers to be more present. Rather than being caught up in description, we can participate through witnessing César's engagement with the contours and rhythms of the materials and the way life weaves in and out of the entire process.lindsaydobbin, 11 Mar 2015
Genius.old_dame, 20 Jui 2013
fmarcoux mentioned that his son Louis is caring on his father's tradition of building these beautiful canoes. Does anyone have any idea how to contact Louis? I am trying to show the Native youngsters on the Oneida Settlement near London, Ontario how to build one and I could think of no would more I would like to learn from than his son so I may pass it on. If you have any info you can pass it on to our site at Paddling Back to Traditional Culture on Facebook Thank YouDarby, 3 Jui 2013
I stumbled across this beautiful video accidentally and got hooked and watched it to the very end. I am absolutely gobsmacked by the old man's craftsmanship. I wish I was that skilled. I have only just discovered canoeing as my new hobby. I have not yet got my own canoe yet and was thinking of building my own canoe with the stich & glue method. But it will be no means be as beautiful as this one. When he started out on his maiden voyage with his daughter, it made my eyes water. This video is so so beautiful!CanoeDad, 6 Sep 2012
This beautiful film represents an important part of Canada's historical heritage that will not be forgotten thanks to this film. We rarely see the man's face while he works consistently and quietly.Dmytro, 28 Avr 2012
Coventry. Absolute wonderful silent absorption for the children.Coventry, 22 Fév 2012
Beautiful amazing skills.carlosporto, 30 Jan 2011
All I can say is WOW!!!...true craftsman...beautifulnativeatheart, 9 Déc 2010
His son Louis is carrying on the tradition in Manouane Québecfmarcoux, 24 Nov 2010
What a beautiful little film, are there any craftsmen like him left? I would imagine the woman in the film is his daughter, it's obvious she is very proud of him, especially at the end when she goes for a boat ride to check the fish nets, I hope someone in his family still has that boat or others that he made, any museum would be proud to own it . These are the skills that have gotten lost, an easier lifestyle has taken over for the next generation, and the promise of a better life, but is it? Thank the NFB for preserving this artisan and the magic in his hands, and all of the other films that contain a historical significance.bush bunny, 17 Mar 2010


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On some campuses, commencement speakers not welcome
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education calls it "disinvitation season" – the annual spring standoff between college commencement speakers and the graduating seniors (and others) who will be in the audience.
Former U.S. secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won't be speaking at Rutgers University Sunday. Students and faculty objected to her role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde won't be appearing at Smith College's commencement exercises Sunday. An online petition at the women's college had called for her ouster, saying she represents a "corrupt system" that oppresses and abuses women in developing countries.
Robert Birgeneau, former chancellor at the University of California-Berkeley, says he won't apologize for his decision in 2011 to allow campus police to use force against participants in the Occupy movement. Nor will he speak at commencement exercises Sunday at Haverford College.
Technically, the speakers were not "disinvited;" each withdrew as protests grew louder. But the outcome is the same, says Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which monitors campus free-speech policies.
"It's about this idea that students are expecting only to hear from people who share their viewpoints," he says. "They want to drive off campus anyone they disagree with."
The phenomenon is not new, he says, but seems to have "snowballed" in recent years, helped along by social media.
With each new example comes the question of what, exactly, is expected of a commencement speaker.
Brandeis University last month rescinded a decision to award an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a campaigner for women's rights and a critic of Islam, saying, "We cannot overlook that certain of her past statements are inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values."
Smith College president Kathleen McCartney said in a campus announcement that she remains "committed to leading a college where different views can be heard and debated with respect." Lagarde, in announcing her withdrawal at Smith, said she didn't want to be a distraction at what should be a celebratory occasion.
Even less polarizing figures have the potential to generate debate. Cornell University's commencement speaker this year, actor Ed Helms, "seems almost boringly safe," graduating senior James Rainis says. "A commencement speech should not just be a pat on the back for graduating but a send-off that reminds students that no matter their education, there's still more for them to learn and consider."
Contributing: Anushka Mehrotra


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Exclusive: Amazon and Whole Foods clash over products like Coca-Cola
Six months after acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon (AMZN) is working on reorganizing Whole Foods shelves by first adding Amazon private label products and, soon, it may add popular consumer packaged goods like Coca-Cola. Behind the scenes, this is causing internal debate and disagreements, Yahoo Finance has learned.
When asked if Whole Foods will add "consumer packaged goods like Coca-Cola," Whole Foods spokesperson Brooke Buchanan said, "As you know, we have really high-quality standards, and those products that you just mentioned don't meet those quality standards. If there were new products that actually do meet our quality standards, then there's always that consideration." Amazon declined to comment.
In June, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey called the marriage with Amazon, "love at first sight." And the two appear to be in a happy union, with one big announcement after another: price cuts on staples; Amazon Echo devices debuting in stores; and recent free delivery on Whole Foods products for Prime members.
But the honeymoon may be over as Amazon and Whole Foods butt heads over what to stock store shelves with. Would adding Coke sacrifice the healthy, organic image Whole Foods has long held dear?
Adding Coke would signal greater changes
Whole Foods has been known for its strict rules on sourcing products, requiring foods "free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats," according to its website. That rules out Coca-Cola, the household product with artificial preservatives in the secret recipe, and even its healthier diet version.
Amazon's plan to change Whole Foods' shelves is a key effort of the e-commerce giant's initiative to make Whole Foods profitable. Whole Foods same-store sales had been falling for eight consecutive quarters before being bought by Amazon. After Amazon's takeover, Whole Foods reported a 4.4% increase in sales for the quarter ending Sept. 24, 2017 from a year earlier — the biggest in two years.
While Whole Foods gained an almost cult-like following, it has also been criticized for its limited store offerings, even as retailers like Walmart and Costco have started to sell more organic produce. Whole Foods owns just a 4% share in the total U.S. grocery market, a far cry from Walmart's 25% and Kroger's 10%, according to a Susquehanna analyst note last June.
Then Amazon came. As a consumer-centric company, Amazon is leveraging Whole Foods to satisfy customer needs. That has become more urgent after Amazon provides free delivery of Whole Foods groceries for Prime members, who have a large appetite for packaged goods like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo snacks.
"Whole Foods has proved a specialty retailer focusing only on organic food can't scale and be profitable," says Brittain Ladd, a retail and supply chain consultant. "Amazon doesn't want to maintain the status quo. They can't see people go elsewhere simply because these highly-popular products are not available in Whole Foods."
Whole Foods resistance
Amazon could add private label products as soon as March, but the plan of bringing in consumer-packaged goods still faces obstacles from Whole Foods, according to sources familiar with the matter.
"If that does ever happen, it will upset a lot of team members and customers," a longtime Whole Foods store employee in Austin told Yahoo Finance. "That's what makes Whole Foods Market different from our competitors."
But food makers have already started providing healthy alternatives of its products for the Whole Foods. Last year, Bloomberg reported PepsiCo's Frito-Lay developed organic Doritos marketed under the name "Simply," which meet all the criteria needed to be sold in Whole Foods. Industry experts said Whole Foods will eventually benefit from larger store selections, since many packaged goods have higher margins and a strong customer base.
"It's painful, but Whole Foods needs to be put out of the comfort zone," Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail told Yahoo Finance. "There are retailers that can provide high-quality organic food while offer packaged goods, and Amazon is helping Whole Foods in that direction."
Do you think Whole Foods should carry more consumer packaged goods? Write to Krystal Hu via firstname.lastname@example.com or follow her on Twitter
Read more:
Why Amazon cut hundreds of jobs
Think you're buying on Amazon? It's actually from Alibaba


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beauty blog, beauty blogger, benefit cosmetics makeup, chrissy teigen makeup, laura mercier, natural makeup
something i've realized is that i don't wear face makeup during the work week. i wear brow gel and mascara during the week, but that's really the most you'll see me wearing. there's something about living in the city and being exposed to some really gross stuff in the air. for that reason, i like to give my skin a break during the week. while i do wear face makeup if i'm going out during the weekend, my favorite look is "au naturale." the lovely ladies in the photos pictured here rock that look, and it's one of my favorites. for me, achieving this look is easy to do with the follow objects:
clarins beauty flash balm | this stuff is a GAME CHANGER. it costs a pretty penny, but i use it as a primer, a face moisturizer, basically for anything i need. if i feel like my skin needs something, then this is my go-to.
hourglass ambient lighting powder | i love to brush this all over my face for a smooth, even glow. it's not too much and it helps brighten up my skin.
hourglass strobe lighting powder | i will say you have to pack this stuff on, but it is my favorite. it's a beautiful highlighter and gives your face that perfect shine.
l'oreal voluminous million lashes mascara | this is hands down my favorite mascara and is budget-friendly. it gives you natural, luscious lashes and i have gone through four tubes of it. i call this my "holy grail" mascara, and if you try it you will see why.
benefit gimme brow volumizing fiber gel | this brow gel is the best for natural brows. all you do is swipe it on and head on your merry way. sometimes i'll do a bit more, but if i'm on the move and want something easy this is it.
buxom full-on lip cream | this stuff is the bomb. there are multiple shades, but white russian is the color i always have in my bag. it's the definition of my lips, but better and once again is my holy grail lip gloss.
laura mercier caviar stick eye colour | if you want a soft wash of color, these babies are your best friends. from some of the photos here, you can see that their eye looks were achieved with the lightest of shadows. i'd recommend using some of these guys for help with that technique. personally, i love moonlight and amethyst!


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Affidavit: Doctor prescribed meds for Prince in another name
MINNEAPOLIS — A doctor who saw Prince in the days before he died had prescribed oxycodone under the name of Prince's friend to protect the musician's privacy, according to an affidavit unsealed Monday.
The document is one of several affidavits and search warrants unsealed in Carver County District Court as the yearlong investigation into Prince's death continues.
The documents don't say where Prince got the fentanyl that killed him, which was obtained illegally and not by prescription. But they do shed some light on Prince's struggle with addiction in the days before he died. Oxycodone was not listed as a cause of Prince's death.
Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park home on April 21. Autopsy results showed he died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times more powerful than heroin.
According to the search warrants, authorities searched Paisley Park, cellphone records of Prince's associates, and Prince's email accounts to try to determine how he got the fentanyl.
A search of Prince's home yielded numerous pills in various containers. Some were in prescription bottles that were under the name Kirk Johnson, Prince's longtime friend and associate. Some pills in other bottles were marked as if they were a mix of acetaminophen and hydrocodone — but at least one of those tested positive for fentanyl, meaning it was counterfeit.
The documents suggest Prince was struggling with an addiction to prescription opioids. Just six days before he died, Prince fell ill on a plane and made an emergency stop in Illinois as he was returning home from a concert in Atlanta. First responders revived him with two doses of a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
One affidavit says Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, who saw Prince April 7, 2016, and again on April 20, admitted to authorities that he prescribed oxycodone for Prince the same day as the emergency plane landing "but put the prescription in Kirk Johnson's name for Prince's privacy."
Authorities also searched Johnson's cellphone records, to see who he was communicating with in the month before Prince died.
Messages left with attorneys for Schulenberg and Johnson weren't immediately returned Monday. Schulenberg has an active medical license and is currently practicing medicine in Minnesota. His attorney, Amy Conners, told the AP last week that there are no restrictions on his license.
Investigators haven't interviewed either Johnson or Schulenberg since the hours after Prince died, an official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
While authorities have the power to ask a grand jury to investigate and issue subpoenas for testimony, that step hasn't been taken, the official said.
Prince did not have a cellphone, and authorities searched multiple email accounts that belonged to him, as they tried to determine who he was communicating with and where he got the drugs that killed him, according to the search warrants. The search warrants don't reveal the outcome of the email searches.
The documents say some of the drugs in Prince's bedroom were in a suitcase with the name "Peter Bravestrong" on it. Police believe Bravestrong was an alias that Prince used when he traveled. The suitcase also contained lyrics for the song "U Got the Look" that appeared to be in Prince's handwriting.
Investigators have said little about the case over the last year, other than it is active. The official who spoke to the AP said the case has taken investigators to Illinois and California, as authorities have interviewed friends, family and any potential witnesses, including the flight crew and hospital staff that were present when Prince overdosed on the plane.


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U.S. economists' insights on markets win Nobel
- Work of two Americans debated the rationality and efficiency of markets
- Americans Eugene Fama%2C Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller win
Three American economists were awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science on Monday for theoretical work that demonstrated the importance — and the limitations — of the idea that markets for assets such as stocks and housing are too efficient for most investors and policymakers to outsmart.
Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago, along with Yale's Robert Shiller, received the award from the Stockholm-based Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday.
Fama, the oldest of the three at 74, published his first research spelling out the "efficient markets hypothesis" in 1970, arguing that asset markets rapidly incorporate most, if not all, information about an asset into its price, making it nearly impossible for mutual funds and other investors to consistently beat the market.
But the hypothesis didn't neatly explain how markets could create bubbles, including the tech stock bubble of the late 1990s and the housing-price surge of the last decade — both of which Shiller predicted would pop, and explained in different editions of his book Irrational Exuberance, first published in 2000. The result was that the politically conservative Fama and the more pro-regulation Shiller made complementary contributions, showing how markets can be irrational in the short run but highly accurate in weighing long-term prospects of stocks and other assets.
"Shiller showed there's a strong herd effect in financial markets,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at consulting firm IHS. "The free-market people have a point that the markets are efficient in the long term. That hasn't been thrown out the window. What has been thrown out the window is the idea that the market is always efficient in the short term.''
The 60-year-old Hansen's work is more technical and written for other economists, Behravesh said. His papers supplemented Fama's research by adding more mathematical sophistication and depth, said Mark Zandi, Moody's Analytics chief economist.
Shiller, 67, said he began his research with the idea that Fama's famous theory was "a half truth.''
"The efficient markets (theory) assumes that everyone is smart all the time -- and that's just wrong,'' he said. Instead, his work argued that investors should also consider the role that psychology and wishful thinking play in driving asset prices up and down, an idea he pressed hard in the 2005 second edition of Irrational Exuberance, arguing that housing prices were due to crash.
"I like to be scientific too, but it's also about noticing conflicting evidence and saying the theory is not quite right,'' he said. Fama and other proponents of efficient-markets theory ``have a different view of human nature than I do.''
The intellectual tension between Fama and Shiller neatly illustrates fissures that drive this week's budget battles in Washington, and which financial markets wrestle with every day, Zandi said.
"There's a tension now in policy between the need to make markets work — look at all the innovation in energy today — but markets also need to be monitored, regulated and managed,'' Zandi said. "Markets work until they don't, and psychology and sentiment are very important, and people can make big mistakes.''
The Nobel committee cited the trio for the real-world importance of their work. Fama's insights into how difficult it is to beat the stock market are often credited for the rise of mutual funds designed to mimic the holdings of large market indices such as the Standard & Poor's 500. And Fama's formulas for determining the long-run value of financial evidence are still widely used more than 40 years after his initial research, Zandi said
About 33% of U.S. households that owned mutual fund shares owned at least one index mutual fund in 2012, according to the Investment Company Institute. By the end of last year, 373 index funds managed total net assets of $1.3 trillion, the Institute said.


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Can you believe this quilt is almost done? Next week I will show you how to bind it by machine. The following week I will start all over with another brand new quilt-along. Here's a hint for my next quilt: it requires 1 Jelly Roll and a 1 1/2 yards of background.
This week I added tons more quilting to my Sea of Squares quilt. I spent an extra 7 hours gleefully quilting along, adding loads of texture with
straight slightly wonky lines using my walking foot. If I had planned ahead I would have quilted about an hour a day for 7 days. Instead, being the procrastinator I am, I did it all in one day, but it was still fun!
Step 1 – Quilting the Sash Rows (1 Hour 45 Minutes)
First I started with what was easy. I quilted parallel lines all going the same direction through all of the skinner sash rows. I worked my way across the quilt, one row at a time, flipping the quilt when there was too much bulk under the machine.
Step 2 – Quilting the Rest of the Rows (5 Hours, 15 Minutes)
Now it's time to fill in the rest of the space. I quilted the rectangles with lines running perpendicular to the previous quilting lines. For the big squares I alternated directions. I quilted the print squares all one direction, and the solid squares the other way.
It was cold that day so I bundled up while quilting!
I wanted to try out the continuous reverse feature on my machine. I can push a button once and it will sew backwards until I push it again to stop (and I don't have to keep my finger on the button). So I would quilt one line of quilting, then push the reverse button and quilt a line backwards without having to turn the quilt all the way around. It was great!
It took about 1000 yards (2 spools) of thread just for the top. I used the same color in a thinner weight for the bottom so I wouldn't run out of thread.
Quilting this quilt was very liberating for me. I did not mark the quilting lines because I wanted to add a touch of modernity to the quilt with more organic-looking texture. Once I let go of my perfectionist tendencies and got into the "waviness" of the lines, it set me free to enjoy the process. Jason is always telling me to go bold and let out my inner artist. So now I'm giving you the same permission!
Be sure to take a look at my flickr group so that you can see the wonderful quilts being made by everyone else. And if you are working through any of my quilt-alongs, I'd love to see your progress!
In fact, Judith shared her version of Sea of Squares in beautiful brown and cream. Notice the wonderful quilting she did with wiggly lines across the surface and quilting motifs in the blocks. I love it when you can really make your quilt your own. Nice job, Judith!
Please share your pictures here:
Quilt-Along Schedule – Links are Active at the Completion of Each Step:
- Week 1 – Supply List
- Week 2 – Sorting and Cutting the Charms
- Week 3 – Sewing the Blocks
- Week 4 – Completing the Quilt Top
- Week 5 – Piecing the Backing
- Week 6 – Basting
- Week 7 – Machine Quilting
- Week 8 – Optional Extra Quilting – Today's Blog Post
- Week 9 – Machine Binding to Finish
Sharing is Caring
Please share your work in progress in my facebook group: Quilt With Christa . 🙂


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Ex-Boston College standout Kiwanuka eyes another Giants' Super Bowl ring
Mathias Kiwanuka is well positioned for this Super Bowl.
The Giants' linebacker starred at Boston College in the heart of Patriots' territory and now will get the chance to go home to Indianapolis to finally play in the NFL's biggest game.
While he has a Super Bowl ring from the Giants' win over New England in February 2008, another one would mean a lot more to the 28-year-old Hoosier.
Kiwanuka was forced to be a spectator for the Giants' 17-14 win over then-previously undefeated New England in Arizona because of a broken leg he suffered against Detroit more than two months before the title game.
"This is everything that dreams are made of," Kiwanuka said. "It is an opportunity not just to play in the biggest game, on the biggest stage.
"This is America's game and this is the biggest game of the year. I get to do it at home, in front of my family and maybe people who would not have been able to travel and see me. Just being back out there after being injured and stuff, it is all fun."
Kiwanuka laughed when asked how many tickets he would need for the Feb. 5 game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
"How many you got?" he shot back, adding quickly he would make due with what he could get.
What he really wants is a ring that he can call his own.
While he felt very much a part of the Giants' win, not being out on the field took something away from it.
He equated the situation to winning football titles at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis in his sophomore and junior seasons.
The then-Colts fan played as a sophomore and contributed.
"The one from my junior year I was starting on both sides of the ball, and it was like my friends were all involved, so I kind of feel like this one will be more like that one. If we go out there and get a win, I still appreciate the opportunity, and I was a big part of the team that won one, but this is the one I will remember more."
This has been somewhat of a comeback season for the Giants' first-round draft pick in 2006.
He might have been the best defensive player on last year's team for the first three games of the season before a neck injury suddenly ended his season and put his career in doubt.
What made things even more tenuous was that Kiwanuka became a free agent after last season and the injury was a caution sign to suitors.
The Giants convinced him to come back and the key was telling him they weren't going to waffle on his position. The defensive end turned linebacker was going to remain a linebacker, except on obvious third-down passing situations where he would work on the line with Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul as a four-headed monster rush.
Kiwanuka has excelled in the role. He has had 81 tackles, 3 1/2 sacks, an interception, a forced fumble and one recovered one.
His best game came against New England on Nov. 6, when he had 12 tackles and picked off a Tom Brady pass in a 24-20 win over the Patriots, their last loss of the season.
"I just think he's a great player," Patriots receiver Deion Branch said Friday. "This guy, you look at his stats or everything. He has the intangibles and there's a reason they move him around so much because he has the ability to make those plays. It's the biggest thing, his speed, his strength. He's a great player. I mean they have a team full of great players"
Like most of the Giants' defenders, Kiwanuka knows New York can't let Brady sit in the pocket all game. The key to winning the Super Bowl four years ago was getting pressure on the New England quarterback.
"Not matter what your job is, if there is somebody hitting you in the face every couple of minutes, you are going to be less effective." Kiwanuka said.
"Maybe he (Brady) doesn't get rattled as much as a younger quarterback does because he has been in high pressure situations, but it's impossible to ignore someone like Osi coming off the edge and hitting you in the back of the head."
If the Giants do that, they have a shot at winning, and writing the perfect ending for Kiwanuka to a great season.
His finance is expecting a baby – a girl – in March.
His older brother, Benedict, who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in May 2010, is healthy again and has attended some games.
And now his family will get a chance to see him in the Super Bowl, and possibly see him make a game-winning play.
"I'm just focused on getting the win because that ring is the most important thing," Kiwanuka said.
The Associated Press