text:
TODAY'S BIRTHDAY: There are strong indications that you will form a powerful alliance in the year ahead that could prove to be helpful to your career. The value of this partnership will depend on your ability to keep it confidential.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- There's a chance that you could be domineering in a one-on-one relationship, which would be counterproductive. Use charm to get what you want.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- It's nice to be helpful, but don't take on so many burdens that it makes you ineffective. When you're bogged down and can't function, you won't do anybody any good.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- Stick to the plan of a social engagement, instead of trying to make a last-minute change. Your alterations won't add anything of value.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- If you're not careful, you could easily yield to peer pressure and agree to do something that does not serve your best interest. Be firm and stand your ground.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Just because someone is a colorful talker doesn't mean that he or she is a knowledgeable one. Don't be mesmerized by the flash and totally overlook substance.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- The need for instant gratification could cause you to spend your money foolishly. Wait until you find the perfect buy instead of snapping up the first offer you come across.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- If you make an impulsive commitment or promise, there's a good chance you'll end up regretting it. Be very careful on what or to whom you pledge your word.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- If a friend or associate is raring to go, you might be a bit too retiring for him or her. Instead of seeking solitude, get out and try to have fun.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- You'll be eager to hang out with people, yet you might not enjoy being in a large gathering full of new faces. Stick to your familiar inner circle.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- There is nothing wrong with being a little competitive, provided it's for a reasonable, constructive purpose. Today, however, your urge to win might come from a negative source.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- You'll be susceptible to high-risk proposals that promise something for nothing. Look at all "too good to be true" deals with a gimlet eye.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- You'll enjoy conversational exchanges as long as they're not centered on personal or weighty subjects. Don't allow yourself to get drawn into emotional repartee.


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Raging Moderate, by Will Durst
This week's tale is a horror story about lessons learned by the GOP from the 2012 presidential election. And those teachable moments are... nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Empty voids. "Hear the hollow roar of the Pod People. See them lash out at the unknown. Feel their blind terror of a future they don't understand. It's Son of the Bride of the Attack of the Robot Amnesiacs! Part 6."
They say one sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Which means it can't be long before the entire Republican Party is institutionalized for their own safety, shuffling around in shabby bathrobes popping a daily regimen of psychotropic pills in miniature Dixie cups. Falling asleep during games of checkers. Which, admittedly, is redundant.
The contraction of the party into a hard, white stone nugget the size of a peach pit is almost complete. Inclusion? Heresy! Generosity? Hah, we spit on your generosity! And fie on your benevolence. Compassion? Grace? Sympathy? Tolerance? More liberal plots solely designed to destroy the lives of decent God-fearing people. Just like science and education and the EPA.
Fueled by the fiery core of Tea Party Irregulars, the GOP futilely pursues an agenda intended to replicate a simpler time gone past. An imaginary simpler time gone past. Right now, from Texas to Wisconsin to Florida to North Dakota, coordinated efforts are rolling back anything that smells like a societal advance. Voting rights. The control of women over their own bodies. The freedom to marry any person you love. Equal access to health care. The Republicans are undergoing an overhaul to remake themselves the Party of the '50s. The 1750s.
These guys have assumed multiple positions so far on the wrong side of history they probably see dinosaurs chewing on extinct ferns in their backyards. Going to end up with La Brea Tar Pit fossils as their only friends. Their theme song -- straight from the movie "Horsefeathers," by Groucho Marx: "Whatever it is, I'm against it." Should really adopt the woolly mammoth to replace the elephant as their mascot. Maybe the Dodo Bird.
Furthermore, the stated plans of John Boehner's House majority now involve slowing down immigration reform. Of course, "slowing down" is simply another euphemism for "getting rid of." "Termination with extreme prejudice." "Buried so deep in committee, you wouldn't be able to find it with a thousand Klieg lights and a molecular microscope." Not hard to imagine the next order of business is to mandate American housewives wash their clothes in the creek.
One fact never addressed, their record -- not really one to write home about. Unless your home is on Failure Avenue. Stubborn Street. Contrary Court. Wayward Way. Think about it. Conservatives have opposed every single major advancement in human rights over the last 200 years. Freeing the slaves. Women getting the vote. Minimum wage. Child-labor laws. Medicare. Social Security. Obamacare. Miniskirts. Arugula. Jazz.
So that's their back-to-the-future track. Morphing into the modern equivalent of the Whig Party. The sepia-toned, Sansabelt slacks-wearing, Tin Pan Alley-listening, rabbit ears-adjusting, blacksmithing, coal-powered, buggy-whipped, daguerreotype party. Sitting all by themselves in an outhouse with a Sears catalogue and black-and-white dreams of separate but equal water fountains as only their companions.
Five-time Emmy nominee Will Durst's new one-man show, "Boomeraging: From LSD to OMG," is presented every Tuesday at The Marsh, San Francisco. Go to... themarsh.org for more info. Or willdurst.com. And don't forget to listen to the newest edition of the Will & Willie Show on KKSF 910 @ 7 p.m. this Saturday night and 960 KNEW @ 6 p.m. this Sunday night. Or willandwillie.com 24/7.
Copyright ©2013, Will Durst, distributed by the Cagle Cartoons Inc. syndicate. Contact Cari Dawson-Bartley at [email protected] Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the world. He is a familiar pundit on television and radio. Email Will at [email protected] Check out willandwillie.com for the latest podcast. Will Durst's book, "The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing," is available from Amazon and better bookstores all over this great land of ours. Don't forget to check out his rooftop comedy minutes at: http://www.rooftopcomedy.com/shows/BurstOfDurst.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Zip It
Erica Jong's stunning self-absorption
Attention, Bill Clinton. Erica Jong is waiting for your call. "I can't get in touch with Bill," she announces in her most recent memoir. "He has to get in touch with me." She does everything short of giving her phone number. She agonizes about pleasing him in the sheets ("I wonder if I'm trashy enough"). She reassures him she's cleared things with her spouse ("My husband is cool about our affair").
No matter that it's been three decades since Jong published Fear of Flying, the book that presumably emboldens her to proposition American presidents. It careened to the top of best-seller lists after its publication in 1973, revolutionized the way people thought about women's erotic desire, provoked translations into two-and-a-half-dozen languages, and turned its thirtysomething author into a celebrity. It also drove her to eternal self-imitation. Each of the seventeen books Erica Jong has written since has been an increasingly desperate postscript to her first novel.
But the book's whole mythology depends on the availability—and ecstasy—of the zipless fuck. It is because of this availability that numbers of women left their husbands in the glory years of Fear of Flying, and that men sent Jong requests for underwear. It was, after all, the middle of the sexual revolution. The birth-control pill had been approved in 1960. By 1966, Masters and Johnson had announced that traditional sexual intercourse was, for half the human race, anticlimactic. The Hite Report confirmed as much a few years later. Many a young woman felt invited—or compelled—to embrace erotic experiment. But with possibility came fear—not least, fear of ignorance. Suddenly everybody wanted to know what they should be doing, and feeling, in bed. The Joy of Sex appeared on coffee tables across the nation. Firsthand accounts of women's desire were at a premium.
Enter Erica Jong and her zipless fuck. But here's an irony: Fear of Flying demonstrates the unavailability of the zipless fuck. Far from being an inspirational story (as it is routinely billed) of a woman's escape from a dead marriage and discovery of erotic pleasure and independence, it's the tale of a woman who ditches her husband only to find in the arms of a lover first impotence and frustration, then heartbreak and abandonment. The end of the novel has Jong's protagonist returning ruefully to her spouse: she stalks him around European capitals, begs a receptionist for the key to his hotel room, and admits herself into his bathtub in anticipation of his arrival. As an image of female liberation, it's hardly up to snuff. The heroine—naked and prone—awaits the forgiveness of her husband. Not flying in the open skies, as the novel's title (and Isadora's surname) suggests she might—but waterlogged in the lavatory of a man. (Improbably, Jong herself appears to mistake her novel's closing scene for a vision of freedom. "I wasn't going to grovel," she has Isadora boast as she reclines in Mr. Wing's steaming bath. No? If not, it could only be because she knows the man she married is sufficiently weak to take her back without any elaborate rituals of contrition.)
But if Fear of Flying is hardly a tale of women's emancipation, it nonetheless raises arrestingly honest questions about desire and commitment, fantasy and fidelity. It is this honesty, along with the protagonist's boisterous energy and foul-mouthed wit, that once made the book remarkable. "What was it about marriage anyway?" Isadora asked. "Even if you loved your husband, there came that inevitable year when fucking him turned as bland as Velveeta cheese: filling, fattening even, but no thrill to the taste buds, no bittersweet edge." Jong put her finger on a real wound. But the only salve she's offered over the next seventeen books is that of interminable adultery. And spread over the decades, that salve gets both thinner and more bitter. The voice in Jong's latest book, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, is no longer the voice of her spunky first heroine. It is a cynical voice—a catty, peeved, snobbish, bored, and boring voice. It is the voice of a woman who, for all her talk of love, has never learned to love. Jong in her sixties is at once too much and too little like Jong in her thirties.
Seducing the Demon aims to double as autobiography and writer's guide. Short lists of rules for "fledgling writers" ("Forget intellect"; "There are no rules") alternate with lengthy recyclings of the author's old affairs. Sisyphean repetition has been Jong's formula since her first novel, but with each enlistment the formula grows feebler and Jong's memory dimmer. The anecdotes are darkened, their author sounds nastier, and the honesty that was once her peculiar virtue hardens into a pose.
Consider the tale of "Dart," as Jong calls one of her more significant others in Seducing the Demon. He was known as "Bean" in her 1984 novel, Parachutes and Kisses, and identified in Fear of Fifty by his full roman-numeraled name, Will Wadsworth Oates III (not to mention by his curved penis—anatomy always being a more faithful mnemonic device for Jong than psychology). In Parachutes, Bean is portrayed as the heroine's soul mate: for 400 pages he treats her like gold, and she sobs that she "never" wants them "to be parted." By Fear of Fifty, her prince has morphed into a boy toy she spots "on a Nautilus machine." He is still, however, "essentially kind," and supports her fiercely through a breast-cancer scare—even after she has rebuffed his marriage proposals and tired of him. Reenter Dart in Seducing the Demon. By now a two-decade-old memory for Jong, he has transformed into a monster. Mean, lecherous, and stupid, he now meets her by crashing his vehicle into her house. When he attempts to renew their friendship as she is writing Demon, she casts him away brutally: "Dart had lost his looks, his youth. He was no longer twenty-six as he'd been when we met." (Never mind that Jong is fifteen years his senior.) 'Meat from a Truck' is what I would call this chapter if Dart were still worth writing a novel about." But, she scoffs, "the meat is no longer fresh."
Who is this heartless woman? Could it really be the late twentieth century's great defender of erotic love? The woman who claimed, in Fear of Fifty, that she still adored each one of her many ex-partners, that in fact "I even love them better than I did when we were together, because now I have more empathy"? Empathy? The only emotion visible in the hodgepodge of Jong's latest "memoir" is narcissism. All her politics have dwindled to vanity—and a vague sense of aggrievement. Perhaps she feels the human race hasn't accorded her the adulation she deserves, but where once she was the Feminist Who Loved Men she now comes off as the Slut Who Hates Them. Where once she made some display of solidarity with other women, it is now plain that she dislikes, disregards, and fears them.
Take her attack on female writers her age, or younger. They envy her "rich life," she tells us glibly, the whole lot of them. She has to kick herself under the table to pay attention to them at dinner parties. That said, she has some advice for them: Be loyal to your sex! Don't review another woman's books badly—to do so is a sign of "self-hatred"! Putting aside the gross anti-intellectualism and horde mentality implicit in such a proposition, it is jarring for its hypocrisy. Stand by your sisters, says the career vamp of American letters? (Not content merely to detail, in Seducing the Demon, how she destroyed Martha Stewart's marriage, Jong also assaults us with all the withering things Stewart's husband allegedly said about Martha in flagrante delicto.) Don't hurt other women, says the writer who vociferously spurns her mother, reviles her sisters, and lingers sadistically on how the "schoolteacher" wife of a "famous" Irish poet she "fuck[ed]" and discarded in a fancy London hotel sits home and "pays [his] bills"? This person draws the line at a bad book review?
Love (like all great undertakings) is a messy matter. It is not my contention that it can—or even should—be innocuous. When Jong was poised to be its feminist champion, in the 1970s, she brought to the discussion both stinging candor and fiery commitment. Today, her sole commitment is to her own fame. Her sole candor is strategic titillation. When she calculates that it will keep us turning the page, she offers sordid details from her (ever more distant) sexual past. In so doing she avoids the far more difficult, and potentially interesting, question of how she lives now. Jong has been married, at this point, for roughly fifteen years. She has always said that marriage and erotic intensity—even emotional intensity—are incompatible. Well, are they? She chokes off the question with a line or two about tantric sex. She prefers to elaborate on the blow job she gave her publisher in the early '70s.
And even in an account of this ilk, her lies are legion. Incapable of self-criticism, Jong proves almost touchingly unfit to analyze her own motives. No matter what she does, she is always right and forever wronged. So even as she—an unpublished novelist at the time, demanding half a million dollars for a novel her elderly publisher knows nothing about—takes his "flabby prick" into her mouth, she is not, she emphatically tells us, a "gold-digger girl." She is a … "social worker"! She simply "felt sorry for his age." Her only regret? That the old moneybag did not give her a priceless first edition of poetry into the bargain; he gave her only a facsimile. "I didn't," smarts Mother Teresa, "give him a facsimile blow job!"
Jong's only real love is for the glory she imagines will greet her writing—writing that is notable, unfortunately, for its comic clumsiness: "I wish I could lower my standards," she complains. "I could write faster, but the books would suck." The books do suck. Each of them, these days, is about one thing: finishing it. "[G]o home and finish the book," she has her mother say at the close of Fear of Fifty. "The story is not over yet," she reminds us at the end of Seducing the Demon. Jong's prose, increasingly, is about prose. Even her pornographic fantasies—about Bill Clinton, the poet Ted Hughes, and, indeed, William Shakespeare—pale next to her reveries about the literary laurels that await her. "I dream," she tells us in Seducing the Demon, "that I have written an amazing book."
Dream on, Erica. This book—like your last dozen—is amazing only for its mediocrity. It is amazing only for its meanspiritedness, its tedium, its awkward prose, and its stunning self-absorption. Literature can bear a great deal of self-absorption, but Jong may well have overshot the mark. Literary aspiration, at the end of the day, is a limited plot device. Especially in the absence of literary talent. Muses—like men—tend to eschew those who chase them exclusively; single-minded pursuit frightens as often as it flatters them.
The best way to write is to have something to say. For all her aggressive loquacity, Erica Jong has run out of topics. She has run out of interests. She has run out of empathy for other people. And yet the war in which she once fought—the war to reconcile passion with feminism—goes on. The ends are still just. And the stakes are as high as ever.
Photograph by Sophie Bassouls/Corbis Sygma
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Kind words can often backfire
Is it ever OK to compliment a co-worker's appearance?
When Lisa Parker was new to corporate coaching, a senior-level colleague she respected brought her in as his No. 2 for a series of training seminars. Time and time again, he introduced her as smart, capable and beautiful.
"I was so uncomfortable," she said. "The first time it happened I remember standing there waiting to take the front of the room and thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe he just said that.' "
Parker asked him to stop. Embarrassed, he responded: "But you ARE beautiful." That was a decade ago and he never did it again. The two have happily worked together many times since.
Sound familiar? Fast forward to April 4, when President Barack Obama introduced California's Kamala Harris at a Democratic fundraiser as brilliant, dedicated, tough and "by far, the best looking attorney general in the country."
The remark — the two are friends — raised a few eyebrows over whether it amounted to sexism. The president, who has similarly complimented men before, called Harris and apologized. A Harris spokesman assured the world she remains an Obama supporter.
But the question lingers. Male-to-female, female-to-male, peer-to-peer, superior-to-subordinate: Are workplace compliments focused on looks or other personal details like dress ever OK? Is the alternative a more sterile professional life? When do such remarks rise to actionable harassment, or become worthy of a friendly rebuff or a trip to HR?
"If we all end up trending toward the center we become pure vanilla. It's boring and it's a huge loss," said Parker, the New York author of the March book "Managing the Moment."
Parker, compliance experts and human resource managers agree that tone, context and a pattern of behavior are everything when it comes to unwanted remarks.
"Personally I'm not offended by a compliment, but I do take the issue very seriously," said labor lawyer Ingrid Fredeen, once in-house counsel for General Mills and now a vice president for ethics and training at Navex Global, a supplier of computer-based training tools.
"Whenever you're in some kind of a male-dominated world, there are always many sides to a compliment. Some of them are just pure. They don't mean anything other than, 'You have a nice jacket on.' End of story," she said.
Others are dripping with innuendo. "They're about power, and so using a compliment is a way to change the power dynamic between two individuals, and there's some tension there. That happens very frequently."
According to the nonprofit group Catalyst, which works to expand opportunities for women in business, sex discrimination charges amount to about 15 percent of allegations handled by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2011. That includes sexual harassment, defined as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature" that unreasonably affects employment or a work environment.
Nearly all large employers in the U.S. had harassment grievance policies in 1998 and 70 percent of U.S. companies provided training related to sexual harassment, according to research published in 2007 in the American Journal of Sociology by Frank Dobbin of Harvard University and Erin L. Kelly of the University of Minnesota.
But where does that leave the casual remark? "If it's made in public, laugh it off in the moment and then privately speak to the person," Parker counsels.
Fredeen notes: "When you're thinking about the legal landscape, compliments alone don't typically constitute unlawful sexual harassment."
Donna Mazzola, who recently retired after 30 years in HR in the banking and insurance industries, said the way codes of conduct are enforced is important. Even then, atmosphere from department to department, floor to floor, is everything.
"In the sales office, the women gave it right back to the guys and you would almost never have a complaint," she said of one large insurance company where she worked. "It's very common to have a sales guy say, 'Gal, were you out drinking, what the hell are you wearing today? Jeez, your dress is awful short.' In corporate you would have never said something like that."
Much also depends on personal relationships, Mazzola said. "Is this someone you hang out with in the lunch room? Or is this a more senior person or a colleague who you're not that close with?"
Such remarks are definitely not restricted to men, she said, recalling a female senior executive who once hauled a female vice president into her office to chide her about the way she dressed.
" 'You dress way too sexy for this company and for your role,' " Mazzola recalled. "The VP said, 'Well, have there been complaints?' And this woman said, 'No, but I see the way men look at you in training sessions.' "
The vice president's response? "Well, if there are no complaints, I don't understand."
Parker said appearance can indeed be a legitimate target of complaints if a person creates a distraction.
But falling short of that, is it OK to compliment an outfit or a coworker's new hairdo? Why risk a compliment or a casual remark if the intent is innocent? Why not stick with ball scores, the weather or the latest movie?


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Los Alamos fire could become the largest in New Mexico history
Big fires have happened before in New Mexico, but scientists see a recent pattern that may be the most severe since the last Ice Age. Among the causes: fuel buildup due to fire suppression, a decline in the annual snowpack, and warmer climate.
The Las Conchas fire, burning its way through the mountains and canyons around Los Alamos, N.M., is about to join Arizona's Wallow fire as a state record-breaker.
As of noon local time Thursday, the Las Conchas blaze had consumed 92,710 acres near the city of Los Alamos and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the nation's three nuclear-weapons labs. That's roughly 23,000 acres more than the fire had claimed Wednesday. Most of the additional growth in the past day came as the western section of the fire, driven by southerly winds, moved north from the Los Alamos area.
By midday Friday, Las Conchas is expected to capture the dubious title of largest single forest fire on record in the state. The previous record-holder was the Dry Lakes fire, which burned 94,000 acres near the Gila National Forest in southern New Mexico in 2003.
Combined with another fire in the Gila National Forest that ignited this past April and burned nearly 90,000 acres, three of the state's largest forest fires have occurred within the past 10 years, according to data from the forestry division of the state's Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department.
From the standpoint of geological history, "these big, severe fires are not unprecedented" in hot, dry intervals the region has experienced during the past 10,000 years, says Grant Meyer, a geologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque who studies the interaction of climate and weathering processes – which can be affected by wildfires – on the landscape.
"But recent experience down here suggests that what we're looking at in the last few decades is at least as severe and maybe more so than anything we've seen since the last Ice Age," he adds.
A build-up of fuels from forestry practices that emphasized fire suppression is partly responsible, he says.
"But part of it as well – and the data are very good on this – it's climatic warming" as human industrial activity and land-use changes have pumped increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, he says.
Long-term decline in annual snow pack
A long-term average decline in annual snow pack, which provides the bulk of the region's water, along with rising average temperatures have lengthened the fire season and dried out the fuel.
New Mexico, along with much of Texas (which has had a record fire season), and the southeastern US is in the throes of extreme to exceptional drought conditions, according to data published jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Department of Agriculture, and the University of Nebraska.
The Wallow fire in Arizona, which has consumed more than half a million acres and is some 93 percent contained, and the Los Conchas fire, are "an indication of what kind of fire season this has been," says Jerome McDonald of the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, an interagency task force overseeing the firefighting efforts.
"Our team was on the Wallow fire as well," he continues. "As firefighters we're seeing extreme fire behavior and the kind of [fire] growth we haven't seen in our careers."
The Las Conchas fire has displayed some of that odd behavior.
'It's really aggressive'
"We have seen fire behavior we've never seen down here, and it's really aggressive," says Los Alamos fire chief Donald Tucker.
Fire crews were hoping to use the burn scars from the 2000 Cerro Grande fire – recolonized with grasses and shrubs that represent less abundant fuel than the Ponderosas and other conifers the fire has fed on so far – to help anchor their fire breaks.
Instead, when the Las Conchas fire reached the burn scar, the grass and shrubs burned, as expected. But the region is so dry – 0.19 inches of rain since Jan. 1 – and the fire has been so hot that it also has reignited the downed, blackened trees that lie around the landscape "like match sticks," Chief Tucker says.
Backfires set to establish fuel-free zones to the south and west of Los Alamos and the national laboratory so far have proven effective, Tucker says.
"Our piece of the puzzle looks good," although areas to the north are not so fortunate, he acknowledges.
To date, firefighters have been able to contain just 3 percent of the fire, which has destroyed 13 homes and damaged 3 others that were in sparsely populated areas.


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Before 16-year-old Rebecca lights candles on the small altar in her bedroom each night, she says her prayers: "Hail, fair Moon, ruler of the night, guard me and mine until the light. Hail fair Sun, ruler of the day, make the morn to light my way." On her altar are four porcelain chalices representing the elements — air, water, fire and earth. Each contains rose petals, semi-precious stones, melted candle wax and dried leaves. They rest on the corners of a five-pointed star. A frog symbolizing "spirit" and "life" sits on point five of the pentagram. Here, in front of her altar, Rebecca performs rituals and casts spells, all in the name of Wicca.
Rebecca is one of the growing number of teenage girls who practice Wicca. For the past half-century, this religion has been growing by leaps and bounds in Europe and North America. Drive to the mall and you'll see cars with bumper stickers declaring, "The goddess is alive. Magic is afoot!" Flip on the tube or go to the movies and you'll find witches portrayed as young, powerful and glamorous. From TV shows to movies, something is definitely "afoot" in American culture.
Wicca goes Mainstream
For many reasons, including the positive attention they're getting in entertainment, paganism, goddess worship and witchcraft have a new crop of devoted followers. The bookTeen Witch: Wicca for a New Generationhas sold more copies for occult publisher Llewellyn than any other in its 95-year history. Also, the Christian-based Spiritual Counterfeits Project hotline in Berkeley, California, reports receiving more inquiries about Wicca in recent years than any other religion. The callers are nearly all teenage girls.
It's hard to deny that Wicca and other similar practices are exploding in popularity. Possibly you've experimented with these religions yourself. Or maybe you have friends who call themselves Wiccans. Whatever the reason for your curiosity, this article will help you discover the truth about Wicca, what its followers believe, why it's so appealing and how it's at odds with God's Word.
What is Wicca?
Wicca is a complex religion that is often associated with witchcraft, occultism and neo-paganism. The way these words overlap can get confusing, so let's dive into the dictionary.
Wicca:From the Anglo-Saxon wordwicce. It means to bend or shape nature to your service.
Witchcraft:The practice of magic or sorcery by anyone outside the religious mainstream of a society. This term is used in different ways in different times and places.1
Occultism:Belief in practices such as astrology, alchemy, divination and magic that are based on "hidden knowledge" about the universe and its mysterious forces. Occultists try to tap into this unseen knowledge to bring about whatever effects they desire.2
Neo-Paganism:The recent revival of ancient polytheistic European and Middle-Eastern religions.Neo-paganism is a loosely defined system of worshiping nature and the gods of nature.
These terms may seem as clear as mud. Since different people use them to mean different things, it can be hard to keep them straight. What's important to notice are the common themes of worshiping nature and using spiritual forces to get results. Most anyone who calls himself or herself a Wiccan, goddess worshiper or witch practices these things. Another important thing to remember is that Wicca is not the same as Satanism. In fact, most witches don't believe in Satan at all.
In addition, Wiccans live by one central rule called The Rede, which says, "Harm no one, do what you will." In other words, witches are free to do whatever seems right to them as long as they avoid harming others. A closely related rule is the Threefold Law, which instructs that "anything you do will come back to you three times over."
Other Wiccan Beliefs
- Wiccans worship "the mother goddess" and her companion "the horned god." They say both of these deities manifest themselves in nature. For instance, Rebecca's prayer acknowledged the sun as the female goddess and the moon as the god. You may also have heard the goddess referred to as Mother Nature. Wiccans believe that the goddess is in everything — in rocks and in trees, the earth and the sky.
- Sometimes, the goddess is represented by specific female deities such as the ancient Greek goddesses Artemis (the goddess of the wilderness) or Gaia (the goddess of the Earth), who was celebrated in the filmFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Some Wiccans even claim that the goddess is Mary, the mother of Jesus. The horned god is often represented by the lusty Greek god Pan or the Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris.
- Most Wiccans celebrate eight holidays or "sabbats" centered on the solar cycles and "esbats" centered on the lunar cycles. These celebrations are supposedly times of heightened interaction between the natural and supernatural worlds.3
- Magic and spell-casting are an integral part of Wicca. Wiccans say that spells are symbolic acts performed in an altered state of consciousness in order to cause a desired change. There are spells to overcome loneliness, to attract money, to bring inner power and to bind an enemy, among others. Witches acknowledge that spells can be used to do good or harm.
- Wicca has no central book (like the Bible) that spells out its beliefs, so witches practice their religion in different ways. Some witches meet in groups called covens or circles, while others practice alone.4
Bewitched Teens
Why are movies, television and magazines so obsessed with Wicca and witchcraft? And why are teens, especially girls, so enthusiastic about picking up the trend? Here are a few factors that might help explain this phenomenon:
Girl Power
According to its own myths, Wicca began more than 35,000 years ago within earth's very first civilization. In this culture, women ruled. Life was peaceful and prosperous, and people worshiped nature and the goddess. The serene existence was supposedly shattered when male warriors invaded the nurturing female-led communities.5Wiccans say that throughout history, they have been fighting to overcome the oppression of a male-ruled society. Today, Wiccans claim there is a goddess revival. They say women are reclaiming their power after living under male domination for too long. They call for women to usher in a new era of peace by throwing off the "shackles" of "male-dominated monotheistic religions" such as Christianity and follow the goddess again in all her forms. It's easy to see why this myth has huge feminist appeal.
Just Plain Power
The thought of being able to control spiritual forces sounds pretty good to many teens who otherwise might feel powerless. Wiccans boast that their religion gives even young witches a great deal of control. Also, the secrecy of rituals may provide a sense of power.6
Saving the Earth
Teens who have grown up hearing news about the rapid destruction of the environment are likely to feel compelled to do something to help stop it. Wicca seems to provide an opportunity to treat nature with great care and reverence.
Having It My Way
Wicca has no set rules or absolute standards. Think back to The Rede, which tells followers to "do what you will." In Wicca, each individual gets to decide on his or her own rules. As one Wiccan high priestess notes, "Within the circle there are no absolutes — no rights and wrongs."7Since most teens don't believe in truth or absolute moral standards, Wicca can appear to be the perfect mix 'n' match religion.
Unfortunately, though these things may sound good, they're deceptions that lead followers down a path to destruction.
In Over My Head: A Former Wiccan Tells Her Story
Kathy was raised in the church but rejected its teaching in her teens. She lived in Salem, Mass., a place with a history of witchcraft and many practicing Wiccans. "I was always kind of artsy, different and non-conformist," she says, "Wicca attracted my interest because it appealed to those facets of my personality. It was certainly non-conformist, and I liked the mystery surrounding it." So Kathy found a Wiccan high priestess who took her under her wing and taught her how to be a witch. "She told me it was all white magic, and that's all I was interested in."
But after a few years, things turned sour. "The more I learned, the more things started to spiral downward, deeper and deeper into darkness and black magic. I became very good at what I was being taught. My teacher never acknowledged Satan but did say there was something called 'the abyss' that we should avoid."
Kathy's New Reality
For Kathy, however, that proved to be difficult. "One hot summer night I was lying awake in my bedroom when all of a sudden the room became very cold. I started to shiver and broke out into a cold sweat, although it was the height of summer. A cold wind blew in through my windows, startling me. Now I was terrified. I hugged my knees to my chest and gasped as a legion of what can only be described as black demons encircled my head, all laughing at me. I started screaming out my Wiccan spells to rebuke them, hoping they would disappear. That only made things worse. The laughter escalated with each spell I tried.
From Memory
"Then all of a sudden I remembered my days in Sunday school as a child and the teachings of Jesus. I hadn't thought about that in a long time. In a loud voice I called upon Jesus Christ to rid the room of this dark presence. Instantly they were gone, and my bedroom was once again calm and warm. My life was never the same after that."
The next day on the way to school Kathy told herself,You have some serious personal inventory to do.She walked into a church that afternoon and has never looked back. Kathy is a Christian now and warns women who think Wicca is harmless. "A lot of women think that by practicing Wicca, worshiping this so-called goddess, that they are celebrating their womanhood. I am here to tell them there is a lot more to it than that. Lots of them haven't had the experiences I have. But they can and will if they stick with it. It's like the warning on a pack of cigarettes: 'Wicca is dangerous and could be hazardous to your health.'"
What Does God Think about Witchcraft?
Since you're reading this article, you're probably curious about how Wicca measures up to the Bible. Can you be a Christian and dabble in Wicca? What does God have to say about magic and the supernatural world? Keep reading!
1. The Spiritual World is Real, and so is Satan.
One thing Wiccans have right is that there is a supernatural world that interacts constantly with the world we see, touch and smell. Unfortunately, they believe it's okay for humans to interact with spirits and spiritual forces any way we choose. To the contrary, the apostle Paul writes that the spiritual realm is potentially dangerous. Therefore, we need to treat it the way God tells us to and be prepared for spiritual battles of good versus evil.
The Bible says:
- For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of Godso that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:12-13)
- Many Wiccans say that Wicca is harmless and nature-loving — that it has nothing to do with evil, Satanism and dark forces. But that is exactly what Satan wantsthem to believe! Intent on deceit, "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light," says Paul. "It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness." Paul says that if they don't turn toward God and repent, "their end will be what their actions deserve" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
2. We Should Worship God, not His Creation.
Wiccans are also right to care for and appreciate nature. But they go too far when they start worshiping it. Jesus tells His followers in the Gospel of Luke, "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only" (Luke 4:8). Creation is merely a reflection of His glory and is not to be worshiped.
The Bible says:
- For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.… They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:21-23, 25)
3. Don't Try to Contact or Control Supernatural Forces.
Magic and spells depend on what Wiccans call a psychic link. Psychic development can involve training in divination — the attempt to obtain information about the past, present or future by occult means or one's own psychic abilities.8The Bible is very clear that divination and any other form of supernatural contact (other than prayer, of course!) is forbidden, since it relies on a supernatural power apart from God. In other words, there is no such thing as "white magic."
The Bible says:
- Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)
- Do not practice divination or sorcery. (Leviticus 19:26)
4. Jesus is the Source of Real Power.
Many Wiccans are critical of the church's view of women. They claim that Christianity does not empower women, whereas Wicca does. While it's true that some Christians have distorted God's Word and not honored women, the Bible says that men and women are equally important in the eyes of God.
The Bible says:
- So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)
Because God places a high value on women as bearers of His image, Christianity honors women in a way that's unique. That's why women were often with Jesus during His ministry. And in John 4 we see Jesus treating a Samaritan woman with utmost respect, even though men weren't supposed to talk to women, and Samaritans were considered outcasts in Jewish society.
We Don't Need to Make Up our Own Rules
In Wicca, each follower is told to do as she wills. Their only standard is that no one should do harm. In other words, there is no absolute truth. But this presents several problems. First, how can one be sure that no harm is being done? Is there any way to knowallthe consequences of an action? No! And aren't personal feelings a wishy-washy method of determining right and wrong?
Alex Sanders, a well-known Wiccan who died in the 1980s, wrote, "A thing is good for me until I feel it is not right for me." Another witch named Stewart Farrar elaborated, "The witch's own conscience must be the final arbiter."9What if a witch one day feels that incest or murder is the right thing to do? Is there anything to stop him? Even though most Wiccans would say that these things are wrong, they have no firm basis for saying so.
A Powerful Authority
Christianity, on the other hand, provides a powerful authority for denouncing racism, crime or any other moral wrong: God's holy character and His Word, the Bible.
The Bible says:
- All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Wiccans do not believe in sin as Christians do. They see sin as an outdated, constraining concept. Therefore, they see no need for God. Wiccan high priestess Starhawk says, "We can now open new eyes and see there is nothing to be saved from, no struggle of life against the universe, no God outside the world, to be feared and obeyed."10Through spiritual self-improvement, Wiccans hope to reach their equivalent of heaven, called the Summerland or the Land of Eternal Youth.
Good Work
On the other hand, the Bible tells us that no amount of good work can earn us eternal life. Through Christ alone we are saved.
The Bible says:
- "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (Jesus in John 14:6)
It's Your Choice
God has made it clear that Wicca is dangerous and incompatible with Christianity. He made His creation for us to enjoy as a reflection of His character, but not to be worshipedinsteadof Him. Wicca may seem attractive, magical and different, but it does not give eternal life and a relationship with the God of the universe. If you choose Wicca, you cannot choose God as well, because He will not tolerate worship of anything but Himself. He is perfect and holy. Study God's Word and you will find that a life centered on the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us on the Cross is better than anything we could ever find here on earth.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this article are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All Rights Reserved.
- Robert Ellwood, "Witchcraft," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000.
- Robert Ellwood, "Witchcraft," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000.
- Sarah Hinlicky, "Witch Path Would You Choose?" www.boundless.org, 1999.
- Vivienne Crowley,The Principles of Wicca(Thorsons, 1997), pp. 6-7.
- Starhawk,The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess(Harper, 1999), p. 27.
- Sarah Hinlicky, "Witch Path Would You Choose?" www.boundless.org, 1999.
- Vivienne Crowley, "The Initiation" in Jones and Matthews,Voices from the Circle, p. 82.
- Craig S. Hawkins,Goddess Worship, Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism(Zondervan, 1998), p. 21.
- Catherine Edwards, "Wicca Casts Spell on Teenage Girls,"Insight Magazine, October 25, 1999.
- Starhawk,The Spiral Dance, p. 27.


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Special features:
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Please note that the default damage deposit is for short term stays up to 3 weeks. For longer stays the required damage deposit increases with the total length.
For international tourists, the main route to Cape Coral is via plane. The nearest airport is Ft. Myers International Airport (RSW) with only a 45 minute drive to Cape Coral.
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The Freshest Thing in Town
The fresh fish sold at Point Loma Seafood's is brought in daily by the owners and management. With over 100 years of experience, we select from the best that the best importers, brokers, and local fisherman have to offer to San Diego. Seasonal fish is bought directly from local fisherman, giving Point Loma Seafood's some of the freshest fish in San Diego. What Point Loma Seafood's provides to you is the freshest, safest finfish, shellfish and mollusks sold anywhere.
Quality Shellfish
Our shellfish is all farmed in federally inspected HASCP facilities. The products are raised to marketable sizes. Then before shipping, the contents of the belly are purged with fresh filtered salt water to insure no sand or foreign material is in each clam or mussel. Our shrimp are the best available on the market. Shrimp is a product that you the consumer will get exactly what you pay for. There are no "deals" around. For those of you who want the best, Point Loma Seafood's has it. We sell wild salt-water shrimp. Shell on, heads off. There are none better on the market.
Local Delicacies
During the months from October thru March, our locally caught California Spiny Lobster is available. They have no claws, however the tail meat is firm, sweet, delicate and mild. These crustations are sought after from all around the world. Another locally caught delicacy is the Pacific Swordfish. From early summer thru early to mid-fall, the Swordfish we buy is caught using harpoons. The fish are sighted, then the fisherman "runs up" on the fish in order to "stick" the fish with the harpoon. This fish is then brought on board and cleaned immediately in order to preserve the quality of the meat. Over harvesting, is a non-issue with this style of fishing. The fish are chosen, caught and sold in the same day. The cards are stacked on the side of the fish for sure.


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Obama, Christie Unlikely Partners After Sandy
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
And I'm Audie Cornish.
The most populous city in the country is drying out and beginning a long and complicated recovery. One positive sign: Tomorrow, some New York City subway routes are scheduled to reopen. But today, gridlock ruled as people took to their cars. And that means it's car pool time.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: You have to have three people in the car. I know it is inconvenient for a lot of people, but the bottom line is the streets can only handle so much.
CORNISH: That's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who laid out restrictions for most people driving into Manhattan.
SIEGEL: Still, car pooling is low on the list of troubles caused by Sandy. In a few minutes, we'll hear from Hoboken, New Jersey, which remains flooded. And the big picture is tragic too: 66 people confirmed dead, 30 in New York state and eight in New Jersey.7
CORNISH: Earlier today, President Obama flew to Atlantic City. He got a look at hurricane damage, along with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and pledged his support.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are here for you, and we will not forget. We will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you've rebuilt.
CORNISH: NPR's Mara Liasson is with us to talk about the president's trip. And, Mara, the storm has made a strange pairing here, seeing Republican Chris Christie and the Democratic president. Tell us more about their time together today.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Well, they traveled up and down the coastline in Marine One, the president's helicopter, so they could survey the damage. They also visited a community center in Brigantine, where they visited with people whose lives have been disrupted and also with a lot of volunteer workers.
And they also really praised each other profusely. The - Christie said the president has sprung into action immediately. He can't thank the president enough for his compassion and concern. And the president said of Christie, who's been one of his harshest critics, Christie has been responsive and aggressive. He's put his heart and soul into making sure that New Jersey bounces back. And he thanked him for his extraordinary leadership and partnership.
CORNISH: Is there some political peril for the president in a storm?
LIASSON: Well, there - yes, there's political peril for any president with a natural disaster. Just remember George W. Bush with Katrina. But the president has also a big opportunity here - as does Chris Christie, who harbors some future presidential ambitions of his own - and that is to be competent and to be aggressive and to be focused on the task at hand and to be not political.
CORNISH: And what about Governor Christie? I mean, it seems that he's more or less abandoned his role as one of Mitt Romney's most energetic surrogates here.
LIASSON: Well, he's abandoned it at least for the moment. Remember, he once described President Obama as blindly walking around the White House looking for a clue. Now, he can't thank the president enough for his aggressive focused leadership. I don't think that he's completely abandoned Mitt Romney, but he has a much bigger job to do.
He has a state full of people who are hurting. He also has a state full of independents who don't want to see him distracted at all by presidential politics. And he has been blunt in the way Christie can only be, saying that he doesn't care at all about the presidential election.
CORNISH: And has - have people actually given any criticism to Christie about this?
LIASSON: No. Well, not that - no. There have been some - maybe some grumbling behind the scenes among Republicans because he doesn't seem to have invited Mitt Romney into the state. But this is a governor who's doing exactly what he is supposed to do, a president who's doing exactly what he's supposed to do. And how this affects the presidential race remains to be seen, but there's no doubt that this is the right thing for both of these guys at the moment.
CORNISH: NPR's Mara Liasson, thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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House, Edward Mandell
House, Edward Mandell, 1858–1938, American political figure, adviser to President Wilson, b. Houston. Active in Texas politics, he was (1882–92) campaign manager and adviser to Gov. James Hogg and his successors. He was known as
ColonelHouse because of a Texas state office he held. He met Woodrow Wilson in 1911 and helped him secure (1912) the Democratic presidential nomination. After Wilson's election House became the President's closest adviser. He often served as the President's liaison with members of the administration and important men in the country. Greatly interested in foreign affairs, he was sent to Europe in 1914 in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of war and again in 1915 to propose a peace conference. After U.S. entry into World War I, he was U.S. representative at the conference for coordinating Allied activities. House also gathered data for the peace conference, was American delegate to negotiate the armistice, and was a member of the U.S. peace commission. He helped to draft the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations. More conciliatory and realistic than Wilson at the peace conference, his friendship with Wilson ended in 1919 because of conflict on the conduct of the negotiations. House and Charles Seymour edited the documentary What Really Happened at Paris (1921). Some of his papers, selected and edited by Seymour as The Intimate Papers of Colonel House (2 vol., 1926–28), are a valuable historical source.
See A. D. H. Smith, The Real Colonel House (1918) and Mr. House of Texas (1940); A. MacPhail, Three Persons (1929); A. L. George and J. George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House (1956, repr. 1964).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies


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Lady Viking Fitness
Linda "Lady Viking" Josefsson has over 30 years of experience in the fitness industry. She's also has a 3rd degree black belt in martial arts.
This is a private training center. The environment is extremely clean and sterile. The owner, Linda "Lady Viking" offers personal training, martial arts, boxing, massage therapy and nutrition coaching
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Lady Viking Fitness
2665 S Monte Cristo WayLas Vegas Nevada 89117USA
About Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels together with their associated activities.
Neighborhoods in Las Vegas, Nevada
Artesian Heights, Astoria Trails South, Berkley Square, Beverly Green, Breamoor Heights, Canyon Ridge, Centennial Heights, Centennial Point, Centennial Village South, Charleston, Charleston Heights, Chatham Hills, Church - Noblitt, College Park, Copper Crest
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Saints name Ryan Ramczyk, Demario Davis among MVP's for 2018 season
The New Orleans Saints announced their Most Valuable Player awards for the 2018 season at the annual Touchdown Club luncheon on Wednesday, with right tackle Ryan Ramczyk representing the offense and linebacker Demario Davis for the defense. Kicker Wil Lutz was named special teams MVP.
Davis commented briefly after receiving the award, thanking the Saints and his teammates for the recognition. "I mean this from the bottom of my heart: this is my family," he told Rod Walker of The Advocate. Davis signed with the Saints as a free agent last year after spending most of his career with...
Report: NFL, Saints file appeal seeking to dismiss NFC title game lawsuit
The NFL has filed an appeal against a lawsuit from New Orleans Saints fans following the team's loss in the 2018 NFC championship game, spurred by an uncalled penalty late in the contest. The NFL's appeal follows a filing from Orleans Parish Judge Nicole Sheppard that said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and several officials from the game appear in Louisiana court to testify about the game. David Hammer of WWL-TV reported the news of the appeal, adding that the district and appeals courts have already denied an initial attempt to dismiss the case out of hand.
However, there's...
Louisiana judge: Roger Goodell, officials should give depositions in NFC title game lawsuit
The latest attempt by New Orleans Saints fans to seek legal recourse in the wake of the 2018 NFC championship game has taken a step forward. Judge Nicole Sheppard, of Orleans Parish Civil District Court, has said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and three members of the officiating crew should be present for questioning under oath about the game.
Sheppard said the depositions should occur in September; the NFL may appeal, which could delay or avert the questioning. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 22. The lawsuit was filed by attorney Antonio LeMon.
The Saints lost that...


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Homeowners take on projects to improve their homes for a variety of reasons. Some may do so to make a home more functional, while others may do so to improve their home's resale value.
Some homeowners take on a home improvement project to make their homes more eco-friendly. Such projects are often mistakenly assumed to be costly undertakings, but there are several cost-effective ways to make a home more eco-friendly.
Upgrade your appliances. A home improvement project does not have to require the use of a hammer and nails or the hiring of a contractor. A simple home improvement project like upgrading older appliances, including the washer and dryer, to newer, more efficient models can give a home a fresh look while reducing energy consumption. That reduction in energy consumption is a byproduct of the stricter standards placed on manufacturers who must adhere to guidelines to produce products that are more energy-efficient. For example, the Natural Resources Defense Council notes that today's energy-efficient refrigerators will use less than half the energy of models made as recently as 15 years ago.
Add more insulation. Adding more insulation or replacing older insulation used to be an especially laborious process. However, in many instances insulation can now be added or upgraded to a home without any major reconstruction or demolition, reducing the cost of the project considerably. Adding more insulation to a home can reduce energy consumption in the winter, and allow you to keep the thermostat at a more reasonable number.
Install high-efficiency water fixtures. Few people think about how much water they consume over the course of a typical day, but the figures might be eye-opening to those who hope to adopt a more eco-friendly lifestyle. According to the United States Geological Survey's Water Science School, it's generally accepted that the average person uses between 80 and 100 gallons of water each day. Showers seem to be especially wasteful, as older shower heads might be using as much as 5 gallons per minute, or 50 gallons of water during a 10-minute shower.
Older fixtures that consume such massive amounts of water can be easily and affordably replaced with newer, more efficient fixtures. Today's high-efficiency low-flow showerheads can provide a strong shower stream while reducing water consumption. Such showerheads are also less taxing on your water heater, reducing your energy consumption as a result. Homeowners can also install high-efficiency toilets that use as little as 1.3 gallons of water per flush (compared to older models that consumed as many as 5 gallons per flush). The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that installing water-efficient fixtures and appliances would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion annually.
Install a programmable thermostat. Programmable thermostats present another affordable way to improve a home and benefit the environment. Many of today's programmable thermostats can record personal preferences and usage and determine the best course of action for heating and cooling your home. Temperatures can be adjusted room-by-room, and the programmable thermostat allows homeowners to control their heating and cooling while they're out of the house, ensuring they're not paying to heat or cool an empty house and wasting energy in doing so.
Home improvement projects don't have to be a grand undertaking, particularly when a homeowner's goal is to make a home more eco-friendly. A few minor and affordable changes may be all it takes to improve a home and benefit the environment at the same time.
Exclusive content from CARE magazine


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The provisions of Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto) which limit the acreage of irrigable land which may receive irrigation benefits from, through, or by means of Federal reclamation works, shall not be applicable to lands owned by States, political subdivisions, and agencies thereof, so long as such lands are farmed, primarily in the direct furtherance of a non-revenue-producing public function, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior; and to the extent that such lands continue to qualify for the exempted status afforded by this section they shall not be deemed to be excess lands for any purposes whatsoever under said reclamation laws.
Quick search by citation:
43 U.S. Code § 425 - Exemption of lands owned by States, etc., from acreage limitation on receipt of irrigation benefits; determination of exempt status
(Pub. L. 91–310, § 1, July 7, 1970, 84 Stat. 411.)
Editorial Notes
References in Text
Act of June 17, 1902, referred to in text, is popularly known as the Reclamation Act, which is classified generally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 371 of this title and Tables.


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Pilot mismanagement and confusion caused Asiana Flight 214 to crash in San Francisco last year, federal accident investigators concluded Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said there was confusion over whether one of the airliner's key controls was maintaining speed.
The agency also cited the complexity of the Boeing 777's autothrottle and pilot training by the South Korea-based airline as contributing to the crash, which killed three passengers and injured more than 200.
The plane, with 307 people on board, was too low and too slow during the landing attempt. Its tail struck a seawall and was ripped off. The rest of plane went spinning and sliding down the runway. The crash was the only fatal passenger airline accident in the U.S. in the last five years.
Before the vote, Chris Hart, the NTSB's acting chairman, said that increasingly complex automated aircraft controls designed to improve safety are instead creating new opportunities for error.
The Asiana flight crew "over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand," he said.
Among the other issues raised by the investigation are some that long have concerned aviation officials, including hesitancy by some pilots to abort a landing when things go awry or to challenge a captain's actions.
The irony of the accident is that it occurred at all. Three experienced pilots were in the cockpit on July 6, 2013. The plane, a Boeing 777, had one of the industry's best safety records. And weather conditions that sunny day were near perfect.
But the wide-bodied jetliner with 307 people on board was too low and too slow during the landing. It struck a seawall just short of the runway, ripping off the tail and sending the rest of the plane spinning and skidding down the runway. When the shattered plane came to rest, a fire erupted.
Despite the violence of the crash, only three people were killed – Chinese teens seated in the back who may not have been wearing their seatbelts and were thrown from the plane. One of the teenage girls survived the crash but was run over by two rescue vehicles in the chaos afterward. Nearly 200 people were injured.
In documents made public by the safety board, Asiana acknowledged the likely cause of the accident was the crew's failure to monitor and maintain the plane's airspeed, and its failure to abort the landing when in trouble. The South Korea-based airline said the pilot and co-pilot reasonably believed the automatic throttle would keep the plane flying fast enough to land safely, when in fact the auto throttle was effectively shut off after the pilot idled it to correct an unexplained climb earlier in the landing.
Asiana said the plane should have been designed so that the auto throttle would maintain the proper speed after the pilot put it in "hold mode."
Boeing had been warned about the problem by U.S. and European aviation regulators. Asiana urged the safety board to recommend that the aircraft maker be required to include an audible warning to alert pilots when the throttle changes to a setting in which it no longer is maintaining speed.
"Asiana has a point," said John Cox, a former airline pilot and aviation safety consultant, "but this is not the first time it has happened. Any of these highly automated airplanes have these conditions that require special training and pilot awareness. … This is something that has been known for many years and trained for many years."
Boeing told the board there was nothing wrong with the plane, and the crash was caused by the failure of the pilots to maintain speed and to abort the landing when the approach had become unstable, as required by their company's policies. An unstable approach occurs when a plane's speed or rate of descent is too fast or to slow, or the plane isn't properly aligned for landing.
Captain Lee Kang Kuk, 45, a veteran pilot who was new to the 777, was flying the plane. Because an airport navigational aid that helps planes land wasn't working that day, Kuk was flying a visual approach that involves lining up the jet for landing by looking through the windshield and using numerous other cues, rather than relying on a radio-based system called a glide-slope that guides aircraft to the runway. A training captain was sitting next to him in the right seat watching his performance.
Kuk told transportation accident investigators that he did not immediately move to abort the landing after it became unstable because he felt only the instructor pilot had that authority. Cockpit culture in which the senior captain is viewed as supreme was identified as a factor in several South Korean airliner crashes in the 1980s and '90s. Afterward, procedures and hierarchies were overhauled in Korea and elsewhere, including the U.S.
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February 11, 2016
70 years later, WWII Veteran Norwood Thomas reunites with wartime girlfriend in Australia
70 years later, WWII Veteran Norwood Thomas reunites with wartime girlfriend in Australia
A 93-year-old World War II veteran from the United States embraced his wartime girlfriend in Australia in their reunion Wednesday after more than 70 years apart.
Norwood Thomas and 88-year-old Joyce Morris laughed as they wrapped their arms around each other after Thomas flew from Virginia to the southern Australian city of Adelaide to reconnect with his long-lost love.
"This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me," Thomas said, in a reunion broadcast on Channel 10's "The Project."
"Good," Morris replied with a laugh. "We're going to have a wonderful fortnight."
Morris was a 17-year-old British girl and Thomas was a 21-year-old paratrooper when they first met in London shortly before D-Day. After the war, he returned to the U.S. The pair wrote letters to each other, and Thomas asked Morris to come to the U.S. to marry him. But somehow Morris misunderstood and thought he'd found someone else, so she stopped writing.
The two eventually married other people. Thomas' wife died in 2001; Morris divorced her husband after 30 years.
Last year, Morris asked one of her sons to look for Thomas online, and they found his name featured in an article about D-Day that ran in The Virginian-Pilot.
Thomas and Morris reconnected via Skype. After their story went public, hundreds of people made donations to help fund Thomas' trip to Australia from his hometown in Virginia Beach.
The two are planning to spend Valentine's Day together.
Wild Thing's comment...............
God bless both of them.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 11, 2016 01:55 AM


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In continuation of its clamp down on suspected Badoo members, Lagos State Police Command, in collaboration with other security agencies and local security volunteers have arrested 87 suspected Badoo members while declaring 20 other people wanted in connection with activities of the group in Ikorodu.
The 87 suspected Badoo members were arrested in an all-night operation on their hideouts in Owutu and Odongunyan in Ikorodu.
Those declared wanted for cult related killings include: Moshood (a.k.a Mosho); Alfa (a.k.a King of Boys); Papa; Fela; Alakoto and Chukwudi.
The police also declared 14 others wanted for kidnapping in Ikorodu. They include: Agbara; O/C; Femi (a.k.a FM); Pencil, Odidan; Jaru; Allen; Bush; Happiness; Fagbo; Junior; Nuru and Jamiu.
The police called on the suspects to come out of their hideouts and report themselves to the nearest police station.
The Command equally advised members of the public with useful information on the suspects who are all residents of Ikorodu to assist the police.
The raid was an extensive operation on the two areas – Odongunyan and Owutu. The operation was necessitated by more intelligence on the membership of the dreaded cult group and their mode of operations.
Before the operations, the police in conjunction with members of the Department of State Security Service, representatives of the Nigerian Army, Lagos Neighbourhood Security Corps and Odua Peoples' Congress (OPC) met with herbalists and Babalawos in Ikorodu and its suburbs on the need to collaborate with the police to wipe out the cult group in Ikorodu.
Representing the Lagos State Police Commissioner, CP Fatai Owoseni at the meeting, Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Imohimi Edgal warned the herbalists and Babalawo and local vigilantes to eschew jungle justice, stressing that the Command would not tolerate further excesses from the security stakeholders.
Edgal solicited for more information that would help the police to speedily end the activities of the group in the area.
The Police Commissioners later met with Obas and traditional rulers in Ikorodu.
Also involved in the exercise were the Commander, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), ACP Olatunji Disu; Acting Area Commander, Ikorodu and all DPOs in Ikorodu among other senior police officers.


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FORT WORTH, Texas — A man convicted Monday of killing a North Texas pastor in his church caused various problems while jailed after his arrest — including assaulting jailers — but his criminal record began when he was a young teenager, witnesses testified during the punishment phase of his trial.
Steven Lawayne Nelson, 25, is facing the death penalty or life in prison without parole for the suffocation death of the Rev. Clint Dobson at Arlington's NorthPointe Baptist Church in March 2011. Nelson also beat the church secretary so severely that she suffered a broken jaw and memory problems, and then he stole her car and other items.
Jurors in Fort Worth deliberated a little more than an hour Monday morning before finding Nelson guilty of capital murder. Prosecutor Page Simpson said during closing arguments that Nelson forced Dobson and his secretary, Judy Elliott, to tie each other up. Simpson called Nelson a "predator" who committed a terrible crime because he wanted to steal a car and the victims' credit cards.
Nelson denied killing the minister. He told jurors last week that two friends committed the crime while he stayed outside, and he only entered the church to steal a laptop.
But prosecutors showed the jury text messages Nelson sent the day after the killing, including one saying that he messed up. In another sent the day of the murder, he wrote: "I don't mean to brag. I'm a monster." Blood from both victims was found on a pair of Nelson's shoes, and studs from his belt were found at the church, according to testimony.
During the penalty phase of his trial, which began about two hours after he was convicted, Tarrant County juvenile services intake supervisor Mary Kelleher said Nelson was 14 when he was sent to a juvenile prison for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, burglary and criminal trespassing.
Kelleher said the judge chose the most serious punishment because Nelson had not responded to court-ordered probation and rehabilitation programs. But she said she liked Nelson, and she testified that when she asked him about his behavior, he told her he was bored.
Defense attorneys suggested that Nelson had serious family issues that led to setting his mother's bed on fire at age 3 and his other intentional attempts at burning down his house at age 6.
Kelleher said she did not know about those incidents, apparently documented in reports from Oklahoma, where Nelson and his family lived before moving to Texas.
Several Tarrant County jail guards testified that about a year ago, Nelson broke a jail phone when he became upset after talking to someone. Nelson then cursed, threatened and bumped one guard, and it took three to restrain him, according to testimony.
Nelson has been charged with assaulting another jailer in October 2011, which happened about a month later. Nelson also is a suspect in another inmate's death.
Jail guards also testified that during his time in jail before the trial, Nelson broke a light in his cell and destroyed sprinkler heads, and that guards found a shank and narcotics in his cell.
Testimony by prosecution and then defense witnesses is expected to continue the rest of the week, after which jurors will decide Nelson's sentence.


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Watch believed used to time JFK's death for sale
NEW YORK (AP) — A wristwatch that is believed to have been used to declare the time of President John F. Kennedy's death is going on the auction block in New York City.
The 18-carat Patek Philippe timepiece is estimated to bring up to $150,000 at Christie's on Dec. 17. The stopwatch was made in 1948 and purchased for Dr. Kemp Clark by his mother in Switzerland a year later for $750.
Clark was one of several attending physicians at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, when the president entered the emergency room. He pronounced Kennedy dead at 1 p.m. by referring to the watch, according to his family, and signed the death certificate.
"There is endless debate among historians on the actual time of death and there was most likely also a clock in the ER," said John Reardon, Christie's international co-head of watches. "However, the family and historians agree to these facts: the watch was on his wrist that day and he called the time of death and signed the death certificate."
Friday marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.
The Reference 1463 Patek was the Geneva-based company's first water-resistant chronograph wristwatch. It is being sold by Clark's direct descendants) and comes with its original red clamshell box, sales receipt and Patek Philippe certificate. The back is engraved with the doctor's name.
Clark, who died in 2007, created the neurosurgery service at Southwestern Medical School and Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1956 and the neurosurgery residency program in 1962.
A portion of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Red Cross.


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Conference Info Menu
Chris Dibona - Google
Open Source Programs Manager
Speaking Topic: Open Source Licenses, a review with corner cases
Open Source Programs Manager
Speaking Topic: Open Source Licenses, a review with corner cases
Chris DiBona is the Open Source Programs Manager for Mountain View, Ca based Google, Inc. His job includes running the Summer of Code and releasing open source software on Google's Code website, which can be found at http://code.google.com.
Before joining Google, Mr. DiBona was an editor/author for the popular online website slashdot.org and He is an internationally known advocate of open source software and related methodologies. He co-edited the award winning essay compilations "Open Sources" and "Open Sources 2.0" and writes for a great number of publications. He was briefly the Linux guy on TechTV and speaks on a variety of open source issues internationally.In this talk, Chris DiBona will discuss the various open source licenses and what they mean for developers. He will focus on the basics of the licenses and discuss the corner cases that come up when software uses these licenses is used by a company or individual. Listen Now! [.mp3]


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In 1963, at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., President Lyndon Johnson awarded singer Marian Anderson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a president can give to a civilian (someone not in the military). He explained why this African American musician was being honored: "Artist and citizen, she has ennobled her race and her country, while her voice has enthralled the world."
Twenty-four years earlier, however, some in Washington weren't interested in honoring her but instead treated her unfairly. By then, she had given wonderful concerts of classical music in Europe and the United States, including at the White House. But in 1939, when a local university tried to have her perform at Constitution Hall, Washington's concert hall, the managers of Constitution Hall wouldn't let her, just because of the color of her skin.
Eleanor Roosevelt, President Franklin Roosevelt's wife, was upset by this example of discrimination against African Americans and arranged for Marian Anderson to perform that spring at the Lincoln Memorial. More than 75,000 people filled the area in front of the memorial to hear Marian Anderson sing. Thousands more around the country listened on radio to a live broadcast of the performance. She started by singing "America," then sang some classical pieces, and ended with spirituals, including "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." Newspapers and magazines wrote rave reviews, which let thousands more people learn about the dignified and courageous way she had triumphed over discrimination. Four years later, in 1943, she was at last invited to perform at Constitution Hall.
Did this end unfair treatment for this singer? Not exactly. In 1953, Marian Anderson was again denied permission to perform at a concert hall, this time by the Lyric Theater in Baltimore, Maryland. Luckily, this city's music- and freedom-loving citizens came to her defense. Some wrote letters to newspapers complaining about "this insult to a great American singer." Others threatened never to go to that concert hall again. Hundreds complained directly to the Lyric's managers. Finally, Maryland's commission on interracial relations persuaded the Lyric's owners to let Marion Anderson perform there on January 8, 1954. The hall was filled to overflowing with her enthusiastic fans.
Ten years later, racial discrimination in concert halls finally became illegal. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin at any place that serves the public, including concert halls, theaters, stadiums, restaurants, hotels, and anywhere else.
Source notes for this Minute may be found be clicking here.
Amy Nathan is the author of Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride into the Civil Rights Movement, which tells about many little-known and yet important stories in civil rights history, including the story of Marian Anderson being the first African American to perform at Baltimore's Lyric Theater in January 1954, and also the story about the merry-go-round that's located not far from where Marian Anderson gave her famous 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. For more information, click here.
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Untreated water is drinking water that has not been chemically treated, filtered, or boiled to eliminate infectious bacteria, viruses, and parasites (such as Giardia lamblia). These organisms can cause diarrhea and mild to severe illness.
Many infections that result from drinking untreated water go away by themselves after a few days, but some require treatment.
Current as of: September 20, 2021
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:William H. Blahd Jr. MD, FACEP - Emergency Medicine & Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine & H. Michael O'Connor MD - Emergency Medicine & Lesley Ryan MD - Family Medicine
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Local Government Services include administrative, financial, and other assistance to local officials, staff, and citizens in the day-to-day operation of a local government. The LGS Section delivers assistance through workshops, publications, individual consultations, on-line resources, and local government site visits.
General areas of assistance include but are not limited to Budgeting, Finance, General Government Administration, Special District Administration and Elections, local government financial analysis, and enterprise management. In addition, LGS staff assist with preparation, processing and publication with a number of required local government filings that are received by the Department of Local Affairs. Finally LGS staff perform research functions for the state, local governments, and other interested individuals to generate useful information to inform the legislature, other decision makers and the general public


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I'm in kind of a weird place right now and I think it's a place all moms find themselves at some point. A huge majority of the women that I know and are friends with are stay-at-home moms (especially those with young children). But since I work outside of the home, I'm surrounded by many working moms and these women are more work-friends than anything. At times, it feels like two different worlds.
So, outside of the office, when I meet another working mom, I start to feel an immediate kinship with her. There's a momentary thought that pops into my head that says "Here's another mom just like me!"
But all moms are not created equal. After all, you can't classify women into two groups: those who work and those who stay-at-home. That's way too simplistic. Because, to be honest, many moms _want _to work. And many stay-at-home moms like being stay-at-home moms. Some working moms would rather be stay-at-home moms, and some stay-at-home moms would rather be working moms. There aren't just two types of moms anymore.
Some moms work outside the home because of desire to work, some work strictly because of financial considerations like salary or medical insurance, and some work because of obligations to a family run business. Some moms are stay-at-home moms because of choice; they simply want to. Some stay-at-home due to family situations (maybe an ill child or a military lifestyle). Some moms stay at home to avoid the cost of daycare.
The danger in pre-judging a woman on her occupational status is two-fold. First, you could write off a friend simply because they have a different working situation than you. What a shame that would be! Stay-at-home moms and working moms can be great friends! Working Wanda and Stay-At-Home Sally can forge a wonderful friendship even if both are content in their situations. And even if Wanda would rather stay-at-home and Sally would rather work.
Secondly, the needs of a family change and you might not always be in the situation you're in. A woman who works today might not work outside the home tomorrow. Likewise a stay-at-home mom might enter the work force in the future. Having friends who have been there, done that before can be a great asset as your life changes.
I'll admit though, there is a part of me that has a little spark of hope when I meet another working mom. (Maybe that has more to do with the fact that I personally don't know too many.) I just have to keep in mind that it might be that the only thing that I have in common with her is our working status. In the whole grand scheme of things, that probably isn't enough to build a friendship on. Likewise, when I meet a stay-at-home mom, we might be a great friendship fit. I try to keep an open mind! I like having friends from different backgrounds; career is just one of them.
What's the easiest way for you to find friends?


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International drug companies avoid manufacturing and research in the Middle East has been saved
Press releases
International drug companies avoid manufacturing and research in the Middle East
Press release
- Deloitte: GCC prescription drugs account for 89% of Middle East pharmaceutical sales
- Deloitte: Life sciences market expects limited growth in 2014
5 January, 2014- According to a new Deloitte report, current uncertainties and instability in certain Middle East markets will limit the growth of the life sciences sector in the Middle East North Africa region. The key life sciences markets comprised of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technology segments are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Syria, and to a lesser extent Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar.
The Deloitte report, "Global life sciences outlook: Resilience and reinvention in a changing marketplace" outlines the top issues facing global life sciences stakeholders, and provides a snapshot of activity in a number of geographic markets. The report goes further to suggest considerations for companies as they seek to grow revenue and market share in 2014 and beyond.
"In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with most significant economic activity in the Middle East, a growing and aging population and increasing total health care expenditures per capita are supportive of life sciences and health care industry growth," said Hassib Jaber, life sciences sector leader at Deloitte Middle East. "This is in part due to the spread of chronic diseases, as the region is experiencing epidemics in diabetes and cardio vascular illnesses".
According to Deloitte research, the GCC's population is expected to increase by 5% year-on-year, driven mainly by the influx of expatriates. While the dominant age group is estimated to be 30-44 year olds, the 45-65 and 65+ age groups are expected to grow cumulatively by an average of 6% between 2011 and 2020. Among other favorable trends are continually improving health care standards; increasing governments' investments in technological advancements and health awareness; the growth of smaller health care clinics and ambulatory centers; and a strong medical tourism industry.
Sector issues in the Middle East for 2014
Two of the main issues facing the Life Sciences sector in the Middle East for the coming year are:
- Product registration and pricing / Intellectual property protection
Product registration and pricing, and intellectual property (IP) protection are among the top issues facing life sciences firms operating in the MENA region. When combined with the region's instability, these issues are expected to curb significantly the appetite of international drug companies to manufacture and/or do research in the Middle East.
- Prescription drugs
In the GCC, prescription drugs account for an average 89 % of the region's total pharmaceutical sales. This is also driven by the use of medical insurance to buy all products, including items that otherwise would be considered over the counter. Within prescription drugs sales, patented products account for 90 % of the total. A key challenge is the speed of registering and approving new drugs.
"In 2013, the life sciences sector was less impacted by the recent global economic uncertainty than other sectors. However, it is facing reimbursement pressure from escalating costs and overwhelmed health systems across the world. Still, an overview of recent sector performance shows that it is favorably positioned to achieve success in the next few years through increased innovation and value delivery," concludes Jaber.
Click Global life sciences outlook: Resilience and reinvention in a changing marketplace for more detail.
Press contact
Nadine El Hassan
Middle East Public Relations
Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)
Tel: +961 (0) 1 748444
Fax: +961 (0) 1 748999
About Deloitte
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a more detailed description of DTTL and its member firms.
Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's more than 200,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.
About Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)
Deloitte & Touche (M.E.) is a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) and is the first Arab professional services firm established in the Middle East region with uninterrupted presence since 1926.
Deloitte is among the region's leading professional services firms, providing audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services through 26 offices in 15 countries with more than 3,000 partners, directors and staff. It is a Tier 1 Tax advisor in the GCC region since 2010 (according to the International Tax Review World Tax Rankings). It has received numerous awards in the last few years which include Best Employer in the Middle East, best consulting firm, and the Middle East Training & Development Excellence Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).


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We feed crows. We don't go out much, so we feed crows. Any scraps that used to go to the chickens now go to the crows.
They are generally grateful but sometimes our offerings aren't quite to their liking. Stale bread, for example, is
carried off to a pan of water.
Here it is dunked in water and, after soaking for a few seconds,
taken out again
and buried in the lawn for later retrieval.
With all that food stashed away it was only a matter of time before it peaked someone's interest.
At about half eight every evening (when the light is fading – along with my hope of crisp, clear photos),
arrives to raid the crows' larder.
As you may imagine, this makes the crows furious.
We are usually alerted to the fox's arrival
as it repeatedly swoops down on the thief.
and again.
Generally, the fox isn't too bothered and continues to eat;
though occasionally she'll remind the crow not to get too close.
But the vixen is wary; these are, after all, big birds.
Sometimes, the adult vixen has a young female in tow. This is probably a daughter from last year's litter; they sometimes stay with the family group and help raise any cubs.
At first, the new arrival seems unfazed by the crow's indignation
This is the third mobbing of one species by another that I have watched (See 'The Fox And The Duck' and 'Swallows And The Kestrel'). But on this occasion it actually
pays off. The young vixen has had enough and runs away.
Later, when it is darker still, the adult vixen finally brings out her cubs.
She has two, probably born in March and now seemingly healthy and well fed – on a diet of crow food.


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Thursday, March 17, 2011
Posted by Rot at 6:28 PM
Labels: etsy, etsy.com, jack o'lanterns, pumpkin hollow, pumpkins
2 comments:
- crudedoodle.com said...
If I were a wealthy man, i'd have this reconstructed larger and out of hard wood and use it as a foot stool. I love this one.
- March 18, 2011 at 4:59 PM
- Rot said...
this is one of my all time faves.
- March 18, 2011 at 7:55 PM
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On-Campus Interviews:
If you are interested in interviewing on campus for intern or job placement, follow these steps for a successful recruitment experience:
1. Call Ms. Theresa Kinney, Employer Relations Coordinator, at 570-208-5874 or email at email@example.com to set up an interview date.
2. Provide us with an updated description of the position(s) you wish to fill as well as any candidate requirements (majors, GPA, and/or graduation dates). This information will be used to advertise the interview date to students. You may also send any recruitment materials you would like us to distribute to students prior to the interview.
3. Ms. Kinney will market the event and gather student résumés. The résumés will then be sent to you for pre-screening and selection of candidates.
4. An interview schedule will be set up according to your specifications, and we will email it to you as soon as it is completed.
5. Our office will send you an email confirmation letter, directions to campus and our office, and parking instructions prior to your interview day
Day of the Interview:
1. Plan to arrive on campus at least fifteen (15) minutes before your first interview.
2. Enjoy lunch with Office of Career Planning staff and faculty (if available).
3. Provide our office with feedback on both our services and our students.
After the Interview:
1. Please inform us regarding which students you invited to a second interview and to which students you extended job offers. This is critical for the success of our office and the future students, and we appreciate your willingness to provide it.
2. We expect you will notify our students regarding their status with your company in a respectable time frame.