text:
In an exclusive interview on AC360, Zimmerman trial Juror B37 told Anderson she thought George Zimmerman had every right to carry a gun.
She told Anderson she thinks Zimmerman is guilty of not using good judgement. "I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done."
The juror said she thought George Zimmerman should not have gotten out of his car after calling 911. "The 911 operator also when he was talking to him, kind of egged him on." She said the operator should have advised George to stay in his car instead of asking him, "Can you see where he's gone?"
Why would Trayvon who chose to hide in the bushes, want to unhide himself, accost George & start the fight, without George himself following him & playing gotcha ? Why did the prosecution miss this point?
This Juror keeps saying that George had a right to defend himself. However George Zimmerman followed Trayvon, profiled him to be a thief, which he was not. Doesn't Trayvon had a right to defend himself too. George Zimmerman was armed, Trayvon had only sweet tea and skittles in his hands, this is crazy, where is the justice. The jurors were biased and did not look at all the flaws in this case. George zimmerman was not to pursuit, he did. He was armed, Trayvon was not. That is reasonable doubt to me that George Zimmerman was the initiator, he was following the kid. Come on. Where is Trayvon's rights to defend himself here, does the "stand your ground" law, only apply to some people?
Please be reminded that according to the other witness who testified she had never seen and or had any knowledge that "Z" was neighbor hood watch, I mean if there is any truth to his position she should/would have known since she was a resident for about "4" years. Also if there is any truth to his position, he should/would have known "T" parents and would have contacted them to confirm if "T" had a right to be in the area. Also did "Z" live in the complex, I mean that's what he indicated on the "911" call but was it true? I mean it looks like he "Z" was trespassing!
@Jasmine-With respect, I disagree with your view of this. Both Martin and Zimmerman had a right to be on that sidewalk. We will never know if it was fear or anger that drove Martin to strike Zimmerman and then mount him and bash his head into the ground, but those are the facts in evidence, which allowed Zimmerman to defend himself. I am a parent and could not even begin to understand what that 17 year old young man's parents going through, but to leave Martin guiltless in this matter is very biased. I guess my question would be, what would have happened to Zimmerman had he not had a gun? Where would he be right now and where would Martin be the one in prison for attempred murder or assault??
I feel for this juror! She was set up! She was being courageous! There are many different type of lifestyles in America!
You do not have to understand a particular lifestyle to apply the law! She was not judgmental of differences! Now she is being judged and persecuted
Hate, anger, blame, self-pity, etc are not the heart of America!
I have been watching the coverage of the Zimmerman case and I think he is guilty. The justice system failed him, just like it has failed so many others before. I had a conversation with my daughter and I told her that I fear for my grandkids, I fear for any child born into this society. This world has changed and not for the better. I can't understand for the life of me why Zimmerman felt he had to walk around with a gun, and why people defend that, it is totally beyond me.
As a therapist I am analyzing what B-37 is verbally communicating and it is disturbing.
Mr. Cooperyou are very educated now why was liberia formed what was said about one of the Adminstration say about trouble in the U.S. or that he could see down the line. I ask this same question to all that answer rour comment line
I was a juror in a Florida Stand Your Ground case. The black defendant was found not guilty for killing his white friend. We the jury felt he had no choice when his friend attempted to kill or cause bodily harm with a tire iron. The defendant shot his friend twice while the deceased swung the tire iron toward the defendants head. All this nonsense over a money dispute. No one is threatening the defendant for his actions. Nor should they!!!
I don't understand. Juror B37 didn't even have the witnesses straight when Anderson asked her who was the the most impressive witness, she created an amalgam. She couldn't get the witnesses straight, but she trusted implicitly in the testimony that supported George Zimmerman? Anderson even tried to correct the confusion, but she marched on.
Whaaa, whaaa, whaaa. Justice was served, get over it.
If juror B37 had the guts to say, "not guilty" she should have the courage to show her face, now she wants to write a book, we know her story already; she was not a juror of George Zimmerman's peer. What about her make her his peer? She totally disconnected to Trayvon, who was and is the victim! Racism is alive and well.
How come that juror refers to zimmerman in a very familiar way "George" ; everyone else says George zimmerman. Did she know him? How is she so "warm' when speaking about him.
So let me get this straight….Zimmerman was guilty of "bad judgement" but you couldn't say the same when Trayvon Martin decided to defend himself after being stalked and followed ( although I don't think him defending himself when incorrectly confronted for going home was bad judgment)? Furthermore, you said the operator egged him on? In one 911 call they asked if Zimmerman was following Trayvon, Zimmeren replied "yes" and the operator said "we don't need you to do that sir" and he continued anyway. Furthermore, Trayvon was not a suspicious strange run the neighborhood….did you forget his father lived there….implying he had just as much right as zimmerman to walk around? This is crazy.
I am sorry for the misspelling of Trayvon's name in my previous comment. It is bad enough that this teen lost his life by being profiled as a thief based on his appearance. Trayvon had nothing to do with those robberies. Zimmerman falsely accused and made an example of this scared teen who was talking on the phone with his girlfriend while trying to get home to his family as fast as he could. Zimmerman did more than just follow this teen, he killed him. He kept on repeatedly following this teen even after he ran. I would have been scared as hell and thought my life was in danger if a man were following me like that. He was right to think that because he did lose his life!
1. A 6 man jury is not fair... this woman said they save pressured the holdout to stay and probably had to feel to vote like them. This is awful... 12 man jury must. Be mandatory ... there would have been a much different verdict if 12 people were on that jury. They pressured her to vote their way ...... not right......
2. The jurore on air in your interview is an obvious red neck, right wing gun supporter and racist ... really pathetic .. there are so many well educated people in America but they do not live in Florida!!! I am sad for the martin family and scared because these scary, ignorant, mean ugly proposition this country. Pathetic.
Seriously why doesn't anyone see these jurors as being mental for taking a 3-D model made up video as if it were a real camera? Zimmerman lied constantly and that shown he intended to do wrong here. Zimmerman refused to give his full address to allow the police to get there faster. Then he lied about getting out of the car and following this teen on foot. You can here his change in breathing in the tape. Then when this scared teen stopped to see who was stalking him Zimmerman whispered to him (he probably pointed to his gun and gestured he was going to shoot) That is based on this grown mans behavior. Then Trevon ran, Zimmerman stated that. So why did Zimmerman continue to pursue at this point??? He intended to harm this child. This is so sad. The jurors should be ashamed of themselves. What if their kids were treated like this how would they feel then?
When is it allowed for a juror to apply their own look into case. How can a juror state "I believe that Trevon thought he wasn't going to let George have this one up on him", sounds like a personal opinion or somebody lied about not being influenced by the news. This was not evident and could be considered in the verdict. But we know now it did, Juror B57 stated in part 2 of your interview.
I agree with you 100%, juror B57, keep talking, the real you will come out, most of things she is saying do not make sense, look at her back ground that in it self tells you who and what she is really about. The real issue here is that Zimmerman started it all. Race was addressed but wasn't focused on...B57 you lie, truth will come out!!!!
Can't belive what I am hearing.
Did Trayvon not have the right to protect him self also? like George he had every right to be there he was just trying to get home peacefully to watch the game on TV, while George was following him. If he look suspicious because he was looking around or looking back that was because he was scared for his life and was looking around for a REAL POLICE OFFICER to help him or anyone else other than the man that was following him. I am sure that Juror B37 would have done the same thing also, weather it was a black or white guy following her. Mr O moro said he could have run, why should he have run? for George to shoot him in the back because he ran which means he is guilty of some crime and then today we would not have a case against him. if Trayvon looking around was suspicious then running would mean he is guilty and give George every right to shoot him I think he did the right thing by standing his ground.
Hi Claudia,
I have veen saying the same thing in my m ind. Trayvon was unarmed, George was armed. Trayvon had a right to defend himself to, but instead they charge him with aggravbated assault and they were not even there. There is no evidence that states who through the first punch, but he told Rachekl that he was being followed. Juror B-37 is so contradictory and so Bias. She says George did not use proper judgement and should have stayed in his car, but she is saying that he had to shoot Trayvon, who was unarmed, like Trayvon wasn't supposed to defend himself. She sounds to me that she made up her mind before the deliberations even started with the little evidence she had, very biased towards George...smh
This is medicine after death. These jurors should stop patronizing Trayvon's parents by trying to say that Zimmerman made some mistakes. What's done is done, let the parents mourn their son.
Let's examine the real issue – how is it that a juror can say she believed that Zimmernan's heart was in the right place when he was in an aggravating pursuit of a young man. How can she then turn around and blame seclusion for her failure to see or feel the heart of America. As a whole, we are indeed this far from any truth in the matter.
I would like to know why juror B-37 said about Rachel that "that is how they live" or something along those lines. Who is they? When she made that statement I thought she was never going to find George Zimmerman guilty. How did the jury get to be all white and why did the prosecution agree to the jury selections? Tryayvon Martin was killed and it is a sad day in Americal that the jury did not realize that fact.
That interview with the juror completely changed my way of seeing the verdict. I was upset about the verdict. I couldn't understand how they could say he wasn't guilty. But her explanation that they had to focus on only the question of whether Zimmerman was afraid for his life, and leave out all the rest of it, I understand completely. It must have been unbelievably difficult to leave out the emotion and focus solely on the law.
You must be logged in to post a comment.


text:
Student researcher puts spotlight on sleep deprivation issues
After staying up late to study for finals last year, senior psychology major Caroline Cooke needed a nap. Sitting in her sleep research lab, she had an idea — with sleep being one of the main predictors of student success in college, why doesn't JMU have a place for students to catch a nap on campus? In the following months, she dedicated her time to researching the benefits of naps and the issues that accompany sleep deprivation.
"Our current research is focusing on the general health metric to see how the population of JMU is sleeping as a whole and how that plays into stress levels," said Cooke, who came to JMU with an interest in market research but decided to go into psychology to take a more scientific approach to studying people's behavior. The idea is to see how impulsive students are before and after naps and how taking a short nap can affect risky behavior.
Overseen by Dr. Jeff Dyche, associate professor of psychology, Cooke and her research team use a variety of techniques to measure sleep patterns. ActiGraph sleep monitors, watch-like devices that measure the body's circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle, collect data from study participants. By using this research tool, researchers can determine when and how well people sleep in a more objective way than simply filling out a sleep survey.
The implementation of The Nap Nook, a permanent area for students to nap on campus, is a result of Cooke's research and serves as her senior capstone project. Students can sign up for naps online or in person for up to 40 minutes. The ideal time to nap is 20-30 minutes, but the 40-minute slots allow for students to settle in and fall asleep. "The main goal is for people to recognize the value of a daytime nap and to see that it might minimize or negate the need for stimulants like caffeine and/or prescriptions," said Cooke.
"Sleep deprivation is correlated with health-related problems and it should be taken as seriously as any other unhealthy behavior like smoking or heavy drinking," said Cooke. By giving students a designated place to catch up on sleep, Cooke and her team hope to decrease the negative stereotypes of napping on campus and show students that the more they nap the more productive they will be. "It's crazy to see how even a 10-minute nap can make such a big difference in your day."
And students are listening. Since its opening this fall, The Nap Nook has served almost 900 students. Along with the physical space for napping is a campaign started by Cooke called "Revive The Sleep Deprived" to educate students on the facts of sleep deprivation.
Research indicates that after approximately 21 hours without sleep, the side effects are equivalent to a blood alcohol content of .10 percent, which is higher than the legal driving limit in Virginia. Students should know just how important sleep is not only to their performance in school, but also their physical well-being.
"We can't just function at this high level of performance when we are tired. Just like your phone when it's out of battery, we need to recharge ourselves too," said Cooke.
Cooke plans to graduate this spring, but would like to stay at JMU to carry on her campaign and research to oversee a sleep hygiene reform on campus.
"I became interested in sleep research because at first glance it looks so passive, it seems like your most passive state of existence but it's really your most active state, there is so much going on under the surface."
For more information on Cooke's research and The Nap Nook visit www.jmunapnook.com
By Melissa Mowery ('14)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Posted by Editor on 03/11/00
Beauchamp Wins at Redlands
Josée Robitaille has just dropped us a line to let us know that Sylvain Beauchamp (Shaklee) has won today's criterium at the Redlands Classic. In her own words: It was a 90minutes race he broke away with 30 minutes to go. One rider followed him and both of them made it to the line. Sylvain won the sprint.. Full results to follow.
|Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top


text:
Today's News: Our Take - The Little Couple Star Jen Arnold Has Cancer
Jen Arnold, one half of The Little Couple, has cancer, according to People.
"I have recently been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer and am currently undergoing treatment, including surgery and chemotherapy," Arnold said in a statement.
Arnold added that her prognosis is good. "While there is never a good time to get news like this, getting it just as we are building our new family is tough in many ways," her statement continued. "But being surrounded by the love of my husband and our two beautiful children is actually in many ways giving me the strength to fight it even stronger."
Arnold, 39, and her husband Bill Klein are parents to Will, 3, and Zoey, 2, whom they only recently adopted from India. The family became reality stars after a special about their wedding, The Little Couple: Just Married,became a hit in 2009.
View original The Little Couple Star Jen Arnold Has Cancer at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


text:
In recent months there has been quite a buzz about Facebook and why users should delete their accounts. Most of the articles I have read, and the arguments I have seen, follow a similar path of "Facebook can't be trusted with our data", but there are other reasons as to why perhaps the time has come for us to log out permanently.
If it isn't data breaches that cause you to leave, it may be the flood of fake news infecting the site, or the fact that now our kids and/or parents also have accounts and we want something more generationally unique. It may even be because employers are now routinely using Facebook (and other social media sites) to research job applicants forcing us to change our names and hide certain photos and posts, ironically becoming more and more self-censoring on a site that prides itself on sharing. Whatever it may be, and as valid as these issues are, I think they are missing the point somewhat.
The question that these issues relate to is one of use; what should or should not be done with the tool that is Facebook. But I feel that the real question is actually more basic; what tool is Facebook?


text:
Gelatos Double Scoop, Blueberry
Product Description
Nothing on the market today compares with Design Memory Craft Gelatos®. Compact acid-free pigment sticks glide on creamy smooth for vibrant color and coverage. All Gelatos® blend easily with or without water. Try this unique medium on paper, canvas, or wood!
Gelatos Color are creamy sticks infused with brilliant color. The color glides easily onto papers and can then be dissolved with water to create watercolor effects or left to dry for vibrant bursts of color
Try stamping with the Color Gelatos or apply a field of color and use a stamp to remove the color
Color Gelatos work wonderfully on flocked papers and embellishments too
Color Gelatos are acid-free and odorless
We Also Recommend


text:
PUBLIC policy often illustrates the law of unintended conse quences.
Society's complexity – multiple variables with myriad connections – often causes the consequences of a policy to be contrary to, and larger than, the intended ones. So, when assessing government actions, one should be receptive to counterintuitive ideas. One such is John McCardell's theory that a way to lower the incidence of illness, mayhem and death from alcohol abuse by young people is to lower the drinking age.
McCardell, 57, president emeritus of Middlebury College in Vermont and professor of history there, says alcohol is and always will be "a reality in the lives of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds." Studies indicate that the number of college students who drink is slightly smaller than it was 10 years ago, largely because of increased interest in healthy living. But in the majority who choose to drink, there have been increases of "binge drinking" and other excesses. Hospitalizations of 18- to 20-year-olds for alcohol poisoning have risen in those 10 years.
This, McCardell believes, is partly because the drinking age of 21 has moved drinking to settings away from parental instruction and supervision. Among college students, drinking has gone "off campus and underground," increasing risks while decreasing institutions' abilities to manage the risks.
Although all 50 states ban drinking by persons under 21, technically there is no national drinking age. Each state has a right to set a lower age – more than half had lower age limits in the 1970s – but doing so will cost it 10 percent of its federal highway funds and cause significant uproar from contractors and construction unions.
This pressure on the states by the federal government was put in place in 1984, under Ronald Reagan. He was famously susceptible to moving anecdotes, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, founded in 1980, had a tragically large arsenal of them.
MADD has been heroically successful in changing social norms, nudging society toward wholesome intolerance of the idea that intoxication is amusing (today, the 1981 movie "Arthur," featuring Dudley Moore as a lovable lush, is embarrassing) and that drunk driving is a minor peccadillo.
The hope was that a drinking age of 21 would solve two problems. One was that of "blood borders" between states with different drinking ages: people from age-21 states drove into neighboring states with lower drinking ages, then drove home impaired. The other problem is immature and reckless drinking. The hope was that proscribing drinking by people under 21 would substantially delay drinking until that age.
That theory, McCardell believes, has been slain by facts. What's needed now is some "mechanism other than moral suasion" to regulate alcohol use by the under-21 cohort.
The drinking age of 21 was one of 39 measures proposed during the 1980s by a presidential commission on drunk driving; various measures adopted did dramatically reduce the problem.
But – according to the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse – about 5,000 people under 21 die every year from vehicular accidents, other injuries, homicides and suicides involving underage drinking. Supporters of the drinking age of 21 say there's nothing wrong with the law that better enforcement could not cure.
McCardell thinks that, on campuses, a drinking age of 21 infantilizes students, encouraging immature behavior with alcohol and disrespect for law generally. Furthermore, an "enforcement only" policy makes school administrations adversaries of students and interferes with their attempts to acquaint students with pertinent information, such as the neurological effects of alcohol on young brains. He notes that 18-year- olds have a right to marry, adopt children, serve as legal guardians for minors, purchase firearms from authorized dealers, and are trusted with the vote and military responsibilities. So, he says, it is not unreasonable to think that they can, with proper preparation, be trusted to drink.
McCardell – gray hair, gray suit, soft voice; he says he is a "social drinker" – and his group, Choose Responsibility, suggest merely that drinking by 18- year-olds be treated like driving by young people – as an activity requiring a license earned after instruction, with provisions for suspending the license when the right it confers is abused.
Students may not care about McCardell's cause because they have little trouble finding fake IDs, or getting older friends to purchase their alcohol. His strongest argument, however, may be that delaying legal drinking until 21 merely delays tragedies that might be prevented with earlier instruction in temperance. The age that has the most drunk driving fatalities? Twenty-one.


text:
My health insurer here in California is Anthem Blue Cross. When I first opted for it, it was just called Blue Cross. Then, a year or so back, I was notified that an entity called "Anthem" would now be running my insurance policy. I didn't think much about it at the time. I've had the usual problems most people have with their health insurers -- confusing bills, co-payments and deductibles that never seem to add up, a bureaucracy that gives every impression of being more interested in fighting me than helping me -- but nothing more.
Now, Anthem Blue Cross is going a step further. It's raising rates for individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent. That's fifteen times faster than inflation. So far, my group policy hasn't been affected but I'm expecting the worst.
Anthem says it has no choice. It says the recession has forced many policyholders to drop coverage because they can't afford it. So Anthem has to spread its costs over a much smaller pool, which ratchets up the cost of each. In addition, says Anthem, too many of those remaining policyholders have greater medical needs than the average. So Anthem is just doing what it has to do to survive.
This argument sounds logical until you look more closely. First, Anthem and its corporate parent, WellPoint, are enormously profitable. WellPoint's profits rose to $2.7 billion last quarter. Even if you subtract one-time-only financial maneuvers, WellPoint is still fat and happy, which makes Anthem fat and happy. Everyone is fat and happy except Anthem's policy holders, who are being skewered.
Anthem's argument is even more questionable when you consider that Anthem has been among the most aggressive opponents of the healthcare bills passed by the House and Senate. If Anthem were sincere about why it's raising its rates, it would be embracing the legislation. The Senate and House bills would add tens of millions of Americans to insurance pools -- thereby spreading the costs over more people and avoiding the very problem Anthem says is now forcing it to raise its rates so much.
Even more troubling is the fact that Anthem obviously believes it can raise its rates by as much as 39 percent without losing every one of its remaining customers with average or even somewhat above-average medical needs. The only way it could possibly raise its rates so high and expect to keep its customers would be if Anthem's customers have no other choice. In other words, Anthem's strategy makes sense only if Anthem faces little or no competition from other health insurers.
I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case. Insurers, remember, are exempt from the federal antitrust laws. And WellPoint, Anthem's parent, is the largest insurer in America.
Anthem is a microcosm of what ails our private for-profit health insurance system -- the most expensive in the world, whose costs are rising faster than anywhere in the world; a system rapidly becoming unaffordable to more and more Americans, in which insurers are rapidly consolidating into behemoths that have almost no competitors. And a system in which the biggest health insurers are lobbying like mad against reform because they like things just the way they are. They can squeeze the public and the public has no alternative but to pay up.
All this makes Anthem one of he best arguments for reform -- which is probably why the President mentioned Anthem yesterday when he emerged from what was billed as a "bipartisan" meeting to talk about healthcare and jobs.
Obama says he's open to any new ideas from Republicans for how to control healthcare costs and expand coverage. The problem is Republicans don't want to play this game. They don't care about controlling costs or expanding coverage. They care only about taking back the House and/or the Senate next November. And they believe a means toward attaining this goal is to prevent Obama from achieving a victory on healthcare. The sooner the President accepts that undeniable fact -- and gets the House to pass the Senate's bill, and then uses the reconciliation process (that requires only 51 votes in the Senate) to deal with any remaining irreconcilable differences between the House and Senate -- the better.
In the meantime, next chance I get I'm switching to another insurer -- if that makes any difference at all in what I pay or the service I get, which seems increasingly doubtful. I'm also joining any Tea Party of mad-as-hellers fed up with how Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Wall Street, and much of the rest of corporate America have taken over our democracy.


text:
Product Information
- European Oak brushed textured Oak look.
- Mineral-based core made up of magnesium oxide (MGO core) reinforced with tough fibreglass for stability and durability means it is fireproof, as magnesium oxide is used in furnace linings and crucibles.
- Waterproof. Fire Proof. Dent Proof. Shift Proof and Mould Proof.
- Environmentally sustainable.
- Waterproof IXPE backing so no underlay needed.
MGO is made up of 100% minerals widely used in the construction industry and is recognised as safe, stable and resistant to fire, water mould and denting. There is no need for any transition gaps (expansion) for areas up to 30 metres x 30 meters
Specific Benefits:
- Water Resistant: the rigid core helps to prevent warping when exposed to moisture, this means you can install in virtually any conditions, especially bathrooms and basements.
- Fire Resistance: the stone composite rigid core is fire resistant.
- Durability: good at resisting damage form impacts like high heels and heavy objects.
- Stability: the high-density stone core makes this flooring more resistant to expanding and contracting than other floors:
- Easy Installation: The Valinge 5Gi push-fit system makes the Impervia® floor a DIY solution, and with the IXPE backing it means you can install directly over most existing floors, such as old wood, stone and ceramic tiles etc.
- Price: This flooring is cheaper than real wood and softer to walk on.
Sizes available:
615mm long x 128mm wide x 6.5mm thick – 26 pieces (x13 left handed and x13 right handed) (2.046m2) per carton.
To become a distributor of Impervia Luxury Vinyl Flooring click here
Free Samples Straight to your door
Our free samples are free of charge and easy to order, get a true representation of your chosen flooring now.Order Free Sample
Product Specification
- Width128mm
- Length615mm Fixed Length
- ConstructionComposite stone centre, 1.5mm IXEP backing and 0.5mm EIR surface. Read more about the durability of Impervia Flooring here
Free Samples Straight to your door
Our free samples are free of charge and easy to order, get a true representation of your chosen flooring now.Order Free Sample
For information on fitting please see our guide(s).
Further documentation for this product.
Free Samples Straight to your door
Our free samples are free of charge and easy to order, get a true representation of your chosen flooring now.Order Free Sample
Recommended ProductsView All Products
Black Walnut Luxury Impervia Herringbone Parquet Flooring | IMP-HB-C501
IMP-HB-C501View Details
Impervia Luxury Herringbone Cobble Grey Oak Flooring | IMP-CDW 901XL-10 HB
IMP-CDW 901XL-10 HBView Details
Impervia Herringbone Parquet Impervia Natural Oak | IMP-HB 9005-1
IMP-HB 9005-1View Details
Flooring FAQ'sView All FAQ's
Any type of underfloor heating system must be tested and commissioned before you consider installing any timber floor. You then turn it off before installing any floor.
The best way is to remove the old floorboards and then check the joist and the base floor and make sure that the bricks or other method of allowing air to circulate underneath as free form debris and other obstacles. You can then add insulation between the joists using "hangers" and then fix a 20mm structural board direct to the joists. An alternative method is to screw marine plywood to the joists and then fully bond a 15mm engineered board which can also be herringbone or chevron. Parquet herringbone and chevron cannot be fitted to joist as it needs a plywood or chipboard subfloor.
Yes, wood flooring can be fitted in any part of your home. Remember that wood flooring is a natural product and will react differently compared to man-made or stone tile options. Discuss care and maintenance advise with our experts prior too fitting in high spillage areas.
The term character can be applied in two ways with wood flooring. The first is referring to the aesthetic properties of the wood e.g. grain pattern, knots etc… the 'character' of the timber. The other meaning of this term is as a grade description, i.e. 'Character Grade' this denotes a way to visualise the grading specification. Character grade usually has a wider grain, with larger and more frequent knots permissible than a 'select' grade, but not as much as a 'rustic' grade.
This will depend on a number of factors unique to where the flooring is fitted. Typically, if the floor is well maintained and cleaned with the correct products, the finish should last for many years, possibly a lifetime depending on usage. If a wood floor has not been properly maintained or is in a very heavy use environment, then you need to watch out for indicators that the finish is in need of maintenance. These indicators are typically: • How quickly the wood floor is getting dirty/how easy it is to clean any soiling off? • Does the wood feel rough? (not application to band sawn flooring) • Does the floor look patchy? • Has a chemical cleaner been used or spilt on to the floor? If the answers to these questions are that it is hard to clean and looks/feels rough/patchy then it might be time to consider re-oiling. It is always best to get in touch with us first to discuss and sanding may not be required.
Contact Us
Questions or comments? If you can't find the answer to your question on our site or want to leave some feedback, please fill in the form below.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection.


text:
Local Societies Have the Location
Most family historians, I would dare say, do not live close to the towns, farms and churches of our ancestors. Fortunately, somebody else does. Their location is prime real estate for your genealogical searching. Try this: in your search engine type the name of the county and state in which your ancestor lived, then + "genealogy" . From my experience your query will return a list for at least one historical or genealogical society in the county or the region of your foreparents. These local societies often have resources available that the big data banks don't carry.
For instance, Ira and Serena Sayles, my 3rd grandparents, lived for years in various towns of Allegany County, New York. I have been compiling data about their lives for my Project 150: My ancestors in the Civil War. The Allegany County Historical Society has transcribed an index and scanned the images for the 1865 New York census, an absolutely stunning document which is available elsewhere for other counties but not Allegany. I contacted the web master to relay my thanks, and was able to extend my contact to the individual specializing in Whitesville, Ira and Serena's family home in 1865. In another query I discovered the Cornerstone Genealogy Society of Greene County, Pennsylvania, and was able to order an 1865 county map that will come in handy as I study the Minor family in the Civil War.
I wish I had a magic carpet that could whisk me to the physical locations of these libraries, where I would grab a coffee and chat with fellow enthusiasts. Until that acquisition, a long distance membership and the internet will just have to do. And when all is said and done, that makes for a pretty remarkable ride.


text:
My neighbor's wandering chickens always provide opportunities for photographs and were the inspiration for my poem today. 🙂
Chicken Incredulous
One foot lifts to h o v e r
then is placed methodically down,
followed by the o t h e r
methodically placed,
head thrusting forward and
like a slow piston,
in rhythm to her steps.
Her neck swivels
this way and that,
then abruptly her head pivots,
fixing my gaze.
Eye to red eye
with the visitor in my backyard,
accusingly she stares
and declares
the intruder.
Copyright © 2015 Terry Boswell
This post is my response to the Photography 101 prompt, "Connect." Perhaps I've taken liberties with the prompt; highlighting my close encounter connecting with a wide-eyed chicken a few days ago. 😉 … And yes, that's snow and ice in the background. Spring has yet to connect with the state of New York!
It's also my response to Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Farm Animals. Thank you Cee for the challenge!
… And… It's my fifth and final post in the Five Days Challenge. I was invited by Amy, from Snapshots, Snippets And Scribbles to take part in the challenge, and for each of the five days I'm supposed to invite one person.
Because I didn't invite anyone on day one, today I'm inviting two people; Meredith from PonderTheIrrelevant and Priscilla from scillagrace… If you would like to participate, post a photo every day for five days and write a story to go along with each photo. I've written a poem for today, but your stories can be fiction or non-fiction. They can be short paragraphs, multiple pages, or poems. Each day, please invite one person to carry on the challenge. The challenge is not mandatory and can be refused, but I hope you accept and have fun!


text:
Tanks are a crucial part of any land force in battle, and every military dreams of coming up with the ultimate invincible vehicle, complete with incredible firepower. But some militaries dream bigger than others. From winged tanks and DiY armored cars, to tanks studded with flamethrowers, here are some of the most bizarre examples of experimental tanks. Not surprisingly, most of these never saw much action in the field.
The homemade tank of Syrian rebels: the Sham II
Five video cameras and a 7.62mm gun outside, flat screen TVs, PlayStation controller (controlling the machine gun) and a steering wheel on the inside. The walls are 2.5 centimetres thick and resist up to 23 mm cannon fire.
(via Russia Today)
Object 279, the Soviet experimental heavy track
Developed at the Kirov Industrial Plant in Leningrad. Only one was built, in 1959. The tank has a four-track running gear and a 2000 hp 2DG-8M diesel engine, and if necessary it withstands the shockwave of a nuclear explosion. Object 279 has 182-319mm thick armor, and is equipped with CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) protection.
(via Armor.kiev.ua and WW2 In Color)
Sherman BARV (Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle) or the Sea Lion, WWII
Based on a Sherman M4A2 tank, and able to operate in 9 foot (2,7 m) deep water, it was used to remove other vehicles and re-float stuck landing crafts. 52 of them were deployed on the Operation Neptune, (or D-Day), and they continued to be used until the 1960s.
(via Geocities on Internet Archive)
Antonov A-40 Krylya Tanka ("tank wings")
The legendary Oleg Antonov converted a T-60 light tank into a flying tank. It was lightened when he removed armament, ammunition and headlights, and a limited amount of fuel. Then he attached it to a Tupolev TB-3 or a Petlyakov Pe-8 in 1942. The monster had only one flight, according to a Soviet source, but the Westerners say it never left the ground.
(via Fiddlers Green)
Japanese flamethrower tank from WWII
These were constructed in 1939, and the interior parts were built in 1940 and 1941. Eight of these were found by American soldiers in 1945. It had two Type 97 7.7mm tank machine guns and giant flamethrowers. Some of the tanks had just two flamethrowers, but on another one there were five mounts.
(via US Intelligence Bulletin / September 1945 and Marine Corps Association & Foundation)
The Venezuelan turtle: "Tortuga"
Designed by Tomás Pacanins, it was built out of a 1934 Ford 6x4 truck, and armed with a 7 mm machine gun. Twelve were built in the Puerto Cabello shipyard, but only five were displayed. Venezuela wanted to demonstrate its power to Columbia with these armored cars and two Italian Ansaldo CV33s.
(via Florida State University)
Wijnman Koekblikje (1932)
After the Dutch Army was founded in 1932, they started a project to build an armored car on a common truck chassis. The outcome was the Koekblikje (jar of biscuits), based on a Morris 6x4, and including three M.20 machine guns (6.5 mm).
(via En Cars Globe and Desert Rats)
Carden-Loyd tankettes from Great Britain
This tankette bega as a private one-man tank project by a Brtish military engineer, Major Giffard LeQuesne Martel, but later some companies adapted his idea. One of them was the Carden-Loyd Tractors Ltd. They producted these tankettes from 1927 to 1935. The British Army used some of them, but the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Czechoslovakia, France, Netherlands, and other countries also bought these. At 3000 pounds (1400 kg), Mark VI was the most successful generation (in the foreground).
(via bkpforums and armourbook)
Stridsvagn m/21-29 from Sweden
The Swedish Army bought the plans of the German Leichte Kampfwagen II (LK II) for 100,000 Swedish kronor after WW I, and produced it as Stridsvagn m/21 with a 6.5mm machine gun. In 1929 they updated the old construction with a better engine and an extra machine gun.
(via bkpforums and ointres.se)
Tsar Tank or Lebedenko Tank, Russia, 1914
The largest armored vehicle ever built was made in 1914 in Russia, developed by Nikolai Lebedenko. The tank used the good old tricycle form instead of caterpillar tracks. The two big wheels were 27 feet high (8.2 m), and powered by two 250 hp Sunbeam engines. The weight of the big wheels was too much, so it often got stuck in the ground. After some tests the tank remained somewhere in a field, and stood there eight years before it was taken apart.


text:
- Search
Publications: Lek, Elaine
Lek, E., Platell, M.E., Fairclough, D.V., Hall, N.G. and Potter, I.C. (2018) Diets of reef-dwelling labrids (Choerodon species) vary with body size, season and habitat: influence of foraging ability, specialization and opportunism. Journal of Fish Biology, 92 (4). pp. 901-928.
Lek, E., Fairclough, D.V., Hall, N.G., Hesp, S.A. and Potter, I.C. (2012) Do the maximum sizes, ages and patterns of growth of three reef-dwelling labrid species at two latitudes differ in a manner conforming to the metabolic theory of ecology? Journal of Fish Biology, 81 (6). pp. 1936-1962.
Lek, Elaine (2011) Comparisons between the biological characteristics of three co-occuring and reef-dwelling labrid species at two different latitudes. PhD thesis, Murdoch University.
Lek, E., Fairclough, D.V., Platell, M.E., Clarke, K.R., Tweedley, J.R.ORCID: 0000-0002-2749-1060 and Potter, I.C. (2011) To what extent are the dietary compositions of three abundant, co-occurring labrid species different and related to latitude, habitat, body size and season? Journal of Fish Biology, 78 (7). pp. 1913-1943.
Fairclough, D.V., Potter, I.C., Lek, E., Bivoltsis, A.K. and Babcock, R.C. (2011) The fish communities and main fish populations of the Jurien Bay Marine Park. Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia.
Platell, M.E., Hesp, S.A., Cossington, S.M., Lek, E., Moore, S.E. and Potter, I.C. (2010) Influence of selected factors on the dietary compositions of three targeted and co-occurring temperate species of reef fishes: implications for food partitioning. Journal of Fish Biology, 76 (6). pp. 1255-1276.
Lek, E., Fairclough, D. and Potter, I.C. (2009) The biology of three sympatric labrid species from two regions in Western Australia. In: 8th Indo Pacific Fish Conference and 2009 ASFB Workshop and Conference, 31 May - 5 June 2009, Fremantle, Western Australia.
Potter, I.C., Fairclough, D., Babcock, R. and Lek, E. (2006) Ecological interactions in coastal marine ecosystems: The fish communities and main fish populations of the Jurien Bay Marine Park. Strategic Research Fund for the Marine Environment


text:
Published: June 29, 2010
Gas tax law could OK 'forced pooling'
Firms would drill from nearby site
The Marcellus Shale natural gas industry wants to see legislation attached to any severance tax adopted by the state that would force property owners who refuse leases to allow drillers to gather the gas beneath their land, an industry coalition leader said Monday.
Calling it the most economical and conservative land-use approach to drilling for gas, David Spigelmyer, Chesapeake Energy's regional vice president for government relations, said in a Times-Tribune editorial board meeting that "forced pooling" is a key element of any legislation the state's Marcellus drillers could support and is actively being discussed during budget negotiations in the capital.
Mr. Spigelmyer said he does not expect forced pooling to be adopted in the coming days as part of budget talks, but he said "an agreement" likely will emerge with the budget "to talk about (the severance tax) holistically" with other industry-supported legislation on forced pooling.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an organization of the state's Marcellus drillers, "has not said, 'Hell no' " to a severance tax, said Mr. Spigelmyer, the group's vice chairman. "We've said there needs to be a broader discussion."
A forced pooling statute would require landowners without gas leases to allow a company to drill under their land from a nearby leased property, and it would define the amount of royalties those holdout landowners are owed for their gas.
Eminent domain
Such a statute would help avoid an unnecessary proliferation of wells, Mr. Spigelmyer said, but critics say it is a form of eminent domain.
In May, State Rep. Camille "Bud" George, D-74, Houtzdale, Clearfield County, called it a "controversial, ugly provision" through which "an intrusive government would be depriving an individual's property rights to benefit private companies."
Limit zoning laws
As part of severance tax discussions, the industry also wants to limit municipal ordinances that attempt to regulate where gas drilling can occur - a development spurred by a state Supreme Court decision last year that opened the door for municipalities to have some control over where gas wells are located through zoning.
"We're willing to work with municipalities, but we're seeing ... an extraordinary number of ordinances that are coming into play that basically zone out development completely," Mr. Spigelmyer said. "We want to make sure we don't have ordinances in place that basically remove your rights."
Negotiations over a severance tax are at the center of ongoing state budget decisions, and Mr. Spigelmyer said Monday a Pennsylvania tax needs to look like those in other, competing shale-gas producing states.
Pennsylvania has benefitted from increased drilling without a severance tax, he said, but an unfair tax and recently introduced legislation to halt drilling in the state will deter development.
"I've already seen where companies have walked away from joint venture opportunities to invest in Pennsylvania because of the mere inference of a moratorium," he said.
"It has the potential to, and I think it already has, limited capital investment in the commonwealth."


text:
Not so fast, college football offenses.
A proposed change by the NCAA rules committee would prohibit offenses from snapping the ball until at least 10 seconds had run off the 40-second play clock, slowing down the up-tempo, no-huddle attacks that have been making defenses dizzy.
The rule allows defenses time to make a substitution without the offense changing players — as is currently required — and with no fear the ball will be snapped before 29 seconds are left on the play clock. An exception will be made for the final two minutes of each half, when the offense can snap the ball as quickly as it wants.
"This rules change is being made to enhance student-athlete safety by guaranteeing a small window for both teams to substitute," Air Force coach Troy Calhoun, chair of the football rules committee, said in a statement Wednesday. "As the average number of plays per game has increased, this issue has been discussed with greater frequency by the committee in recent years and we felt like it was time to act in the interests of protecting our student-athletes."
The committee also proposed a change to the targeting rule that would eliminate the 15-yard penalty when instant replay officials overturn an ejection. Last year, when a targeting penalty was called, the 15-yard penalty stood even if the replay official determined the player should be allowed to stay in the game.
Both proposals need approval from the playing rules oversight panel, which is schedule to consider them on March 6.
The proposal to slow down offenses will have a hard time passing if the many coaches who run up-tempo these days have anything to say about it.
"It's ridiculous," said Arizona's Rich Rodriguez, who has been at the forefront of the fast football trend.
"For me it goes back to the fundamental rules of football. The offense knows where they are going and when they are going to snap the ball. That's their advantage. The defense is allowed to move all 11 guys before the ball is snapped. That's their advantage.
"What's next? You can only have three downs? If you play that extra down you have more chance of injury."
Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze said he found about the proposal when he got a phone call from Auburn's Gus Malzahn, a fellow advocate of up-tempo offense.
"I said, 'Y'all are kidding me. That's not true,'" Freeze told Malzahn.
This is a non-rules change year for the NCAA, but exceptions can be made for rules that affect player safety.
There was much discussion about the pace of the game last season, with some coaches — most notably Alabama's Nick Saban and Arkansas' Bret Bielema — questioning whether something needed to be done to slow down offenses. Safety concerns were cited because of the increased number of plays. The fastest-moving teams — such as Arizona and Ole Miss — average more than 80 plays per game. Texas Tech led the country with 90.3 plays per game last season.
Arkansas ran 64.7 plays per game, 121 out of 125 FBS teams. Alabama was at 65.9, 116th in the country.
Freeze said he was skeptical of the health risks presented by up-tempo offense because he's never seen any data to support the claim.
"I would think they would have some type of study that proves that," he said.
Rodriguez has been pushing the pace with his teams for more than two decades and doesn't buy safety concerns.
"If that was the case wouldn't every team that went fast in practice have more injuries?" he said.
The committee said "10 seconds provides sufficient time for defensive player substitutions without inhibiting the ability of an offense to play at a fast pace. Research indicated that teams with fast-paced, no-huddle offenses rarely snap the ball with 30 seconds or more on the play clock."
Freeze and Rodriguez both said their offenses rarely get plays off within 10 seconds of the ball being spotted.
"If they say it's not occurring anyway, why put in a rule?" Freeze said. ""I just don't really understand what we gain from this other this rule other than a chance to create more chaos."
It's not just the up-tempo coaches who voiced their disapproval with the proposal.
"I just spent two days at Big Ten meetings and it wasn't even brought up," Rutgers coach Kyle Flood said. "It doesn't make sense to me." The Scarlet Knights ranked 84th in the country in plays per game (71).
Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville, a former defensive coordinator whose team averaged 78 plays per game (28th in the nation), said the proposal was never discussed during last month's American Football Coaches of Association convention.
"This came out of left field," he said. "It's wrong."


text:
(CNN) -- You can't find it on a map, you'll never see it on a postcard and forget trying to book a tour. But it may be the most memorable monument to the current U.S. election campaign.
Republican Sarah Palin, pictured here with John McCain.
It's the "Bridge to Nowhere." Actually the bridge was never built, that wasn't its official name and a lot of what's being said about it isn't true, either. And yet, it's been coming-up almost daily in connection with the new star of U.S. politics: Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin .
The bridge was supposed to go somewhere. Barely.
It was to connect Ketchikan, Alaska (population 8, 000) to the island and airport of Gravina, Alaska (population 50). They're tiny towns but the lawmakers and engineers who proposed the project dreamed big -- the structure was to be taller than New York's Brooklyn Bridge and nearly as long as San Francisco's Golden Gate.
The cost was estimated at $400 million, a sum so startling for a project so silly that it became infamous as a symbol of Washington's wasteful spending -- the kind of thing that Republicans love to hate.
Still, when Sarah Palin was running for governor of Alaska, the project promised to create a lot of Alaskan jobs with a lot of Washington's money. She supported it.
There was so much public outcry, though, that the U.S. Congress eventually refused to fund it. When Palin was elected state governor in 2006, she decided not to spend her own taxpayers' money on it either. The Bridge to Nowhere went from the drawing board to the dustbin.
Then, three weeks ago, Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate. She boasted that day that she "told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere."
She's said it repeatedly ever since and the McCain campaign put her putative refusal into its ads on TV. It's offered as proof that she's a principled woman who won't waste taxpayers' money.
For a time, the Democrats tried to convince voters that Palin didn't cancel the bridge until after Congress already had.
But that explanation hasn't stopped the story or hurt Palin, and the country's attention has moved on. Both campaigns are accusing each other of lying about the candidates' records and remarks in a number of ways.
Palin's record as a small-town mayor and then a state governor is full of the kinds of anecdotes and petty intrigues common to a lot of political careers.
Her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere is different because it became a centerpiece of the Republican presidential campaign. And because before she was opposed to the bridge, she was all for it.
All About Democratic Party • Barack Obama • John McCain • Republican Party


text:
You never know who you will bump into in Shureido. Nakasone san has been at the hub of the Okinawan martial arts community since the 1960s, and at one time or another every karate and kobudo teacher on the island comes through his shop. This time, while I was sitting having coffee with Nakasone san in came Ishiki Hidetada. Ishiki sensei is one of the senior students of Matayoshi Shinpo. I trained with him in the Kodokan in 90's but had not seen him since Matayoshi sensei passed away. He is a very nice man, and an excellent kobudo (and karate) ka. After a few minutes of talking he remembered me, and he invited me out to his dojo the next day.
Training was great fun! Ishiki sensei not only does karate and kobudo, but he is also a teacher of Okinawan folk dance and Eisa and his kobudo group does a lot of demonstrations. An example of one of his shows is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7brXwhuZg What I particularly liked about training with him was that he has taken complete charge of his dojo, and his training. He has created a "warm up kata" that takes a few minutes to do and includes elements of Shorin, Goju, and Matayoshi tode kata, among other things. It is very mobile, and he sometimes does it to music. Trying to follow him through it left me impressed at his speed and agility, as well as general fitness level- he is in his 60s but moves like a much younger man!
We did some warm ups, including walking through Matayoshi lineage tode forms and his warm up kata, and worked for a while with the sansetsukon. Then we spent some time with the version of Tokumine no kon he does. It is a dojo kata, and I was impressed with both its content and the comfortable way Ishiki sensei has with teaching it. I was only visiting his dojo, and only there two nights, but he made sure we had as much time with it as we wanted. "I want to share it", he said, "so let's make sure you have it!"
Tokumine no kon is not one of the base Matayoshi kata. I have seen in it some kata lists from at least as far back as 1970 and people I know who trained with Matayoshi at the start of the 1960s say that they used to go through 10 or 11 bo kata at times, and it was one. However, along with kata like Ufutun bo and Ufugushiku no Sakugawa no kon, it is not an official kata. The version Ishiki sensei does he calls Tokumine no kon sho. He and Yamashiro Kenichi developed it out of what they now call Tokumine no kon dai, the base Matayoshi version that is very similar to the other Kyan lineage versions around the island. The kata is in that demonstration above, if you are interested in seeing it.
It is quite a bit more elaborate than the standard version, and some people might question its value, as it is not an "old" kata. But that, I think, is where the value of dojo kata lies. They are new. They allow teachers to be creative, to express their own thinking on the system and their practice. They can also simply be fun, something that gets left out of some peoples' training. Ishiki sensei was not trying to say it was an old form- he immediately introduced it as his own interpretation of the older form. But he teaches it to his students as their first bo kata, and I like that. He is taking responsibility for directing his students in his dojo, and has faith in his knowledge. He has a vision and is working towards it. While dojo kata often fail, in my opinion because the teacher is not actually experienced enough to develop one, when a good teacher puts one together they demonstrate something unique about that person's experience and shed light on the system as whole. I like the form. I may keep practicing it. And I am really glad I got the chance to see Ishiki sensei again and have the opportunity to see where he has taken his practice. My thanks to him and his students for sharing with us. It was fun, and I was very pleasantly impressed with both the technique and the welcoming atmosphere!


text:
Story highlights
Report: Google is working on a video-game console
Console would run Google's Android operating system
Wall Street Journal also says company will make a smartwatch
Google is reportedly working on a video game console that would be powered by its Android operating system, potentially putting another huge tech player in an arena dominated by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
Oh, and The Wall Street Journal reports Google is working on a smartwatch, too. Like almost everybody else in the industry.
Both a console and a watch would be moves to undercut rival Apple, which is widely expected to roll out its own smartwatch and is reportedly planning to add gaming as part of the next iteration of its Apple TV product.
Citing unnamed sources who have been "briefed on the matter," the Journal also said Google is planning to release a revamped Nexus Q, a media-streaming device that was announced but never released for sale to the public.
An Android gaming console would come on the heels of the release of OUYA, a $99, open-platform console that runs on a version of the Google operating system. After raising $8 million on Kickstarter, OUYA went on sale to the public on Wednesday. Demand for the new console appears to be strong; it was sold out on Amazon earlier this week.
READ: Ouya's profile in The CNN 10: Startups to watch
If the console report is true, it remains to be seen whether Google would go for the OUYA model of a more affordable, accessible system or try to compete with the so-called Big Three – Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's Wii U.
All three carry heftier pricetags but are more powerful and more well-established in the gaming world, with new games developed specifically for the devices.
An Android-powered smartwatch would enter Google in what's becoming a crowded, if largely still theoretical, field. Credible leaks have most analysts convinced that Apple has a smartwatch in the works. In recent months, Samsung and LG have confirmed they're working on connected watches, as well.
READ: More than a watch – Apple's entry into wearable tech
And a handful of those watches, a leading item in the emerging field of "wearable tech," are already on the market. Consider Pebble, another Kickstarter success story.
A Google watch could partner with arguably the most exciting wearable tech product to date: Google's Glass connected headset.
Google did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment for this story.


text:
Trump's 'covfefe' tweet raises eyebrows
Social media was left scratching its head early Wednesday at a tweet from President Donald Trump's personal Twitter account.
"Despite the constant negative press covfefe," the President wrote to his 31 million followers.
'Covfefe' set off a meme firestorm on Twitter, with users attempting to figure out what the President meant.
Many people on Twitter were also left asking why the tweet was left up. The tweet was later deleted after raking in over 127,000 retweets and 160,000 likes in nearly 6 hours.
According to a March letter from the House Oversight Committee to White House Counsel Don McGahn, deleting tweets could violate the Presidential Records Act, if they are not archived.
After deleting the original tweet, Trump posted a new one poking fun at his Twitter blunder.
"Who can figure out the true meaning of "covfefe" ??? Enjoy!"


text:
NEWPORT BEACH As the sun shone down brilliantly on Big Corona beach Saturday morning, a man with a mop of blond hair wearing a red T-shirt that said "Sea Rescue – Cape Town" stood along with a crowd that had gathered on the sand.
At least 250 people – family members, friends, lifeguards, fire officials, civic leaders and residents – were gathered on the beach to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Buddy Belshe – a local lifeguarding legend, competitive swimmer, loving father and beloved friend to many who were there.
Belshe died Dec. 19 of natural causes. He was 78.
Belshe was a cherished friend to Leonard Bernard, a local children's book author who wore the red T-shirt as a badge of honor. Belshe had given it to him 10 years ago for making a civilian rescue.
"It was nothing dramatic," Bernard said. "A girl got stuck in the water, and I pulled her out. But, he simply would not allow me to diminish that experience."
So Belshe gave him the T-shirt he got on a trip to South Africa.
"That's just the kind of person Buddy was," Bernard said. "Anything that came from him was so genuine."
Anyone who knew Belshe, had the understanding that lifeguarding was in his DNA. His father Gene was a lifeguard and police officer, and his mother, Johnnie, a swimming instructor. He started out as a seasonal lifeguard for Huntington Beach at 16.
After rising up the ranks in Huntington Beach as operations lieutenant, he moved to Newport Beach where he remained until his so-called retirement in 1987. Of course, he returned as a seasonal lifeguard and watched the water for 19 more summers.
Belshe was also a champion swimmer and started the Pier-to-Pier 2-mile Rough Water Swim in 1976 as part of Newport Beach's Bicentennial celebration. The annual event came to be known as "Buddy's Swim" by accomplished swimmers throughout Southern California.
Those who were close to him knew he couldn't stay away from doing what he was born to do – watch the water. He did so for 60 years and even after a rotator cuff surgery that kept him away from the ocean, he worked as a lifeguard for Blue Buoy Swim School in Tustin.
For the lifeguarding community, Belshe is nothing short of an icon, said Claude Panis, a 35-year Huntington Beach lifeguard
"Buddy is my hero," he said. "He came back as a lifeguard in his 50s, after retiring as a supervisor. His physical fitness and the way he continued to stay in shape were simply incredible. Buddy is certainly someone we all try to emulate."
Belshe was a dear friend to high school buddy Ernie Polte, a few years Belshe's senior.
"He was one of the sweetest and most cordial people I ever knew," Polte said.
Belshe was a loving father, who had his own style of parenting, said his son Dana Belshe. He recalled the day when his dad made him swim numerous times by the pier to help him get over his fear.
"There was this one time when he took me out into 18-to-20-foot surf," Dana Belshe said. "There was a lifeguard who told me to take the buoy and my dad told me, 'Don't you dare take that buoy.'"
Many in the crowd burst out laughing and several guests nodded knowingly.
"He believed that what didn't kill me would make me stronger," he said. "He taught me that not quitting would make me a winner."
Newport Beach Marine Operations Battalion Chief Jim Turner worked with and for Belshe. There was even a time when he was Belshe's supervisor. They trained together and competed against each other. Regardless of the circumstances, being around Belshe was always a pleasure, Turner said.
"He taught me to trust my instincts in the same way that he trusted his own," he said.
It was common to see Belshe remain several minutes after his shift. He just knew that he might have to make a couple of rescues and often did, Turner said.
As Turner spoke, kayakers went by and children frolicked in the pounding surf. Seagulls sat by the edge of the bright blue water and a brown pelican swooped along the shore.
This was it. This was the little beach that meant the world to Belshe, Turner said. One of the lifeguards paddled out to Belshe's memorial wreath to a lifeguard boat off the shore.
As Belshe wished, his ashes were scattered just off Big Corona Friday night, Turner said.
And somewhere not far away, on the other side, his former colleague Max Bowman believes, Belshe is organizing a cloud-to-cloud swim.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7909 or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Saturday, 05 April 2014 07:22 AM EDT
AURANGABAD, India — On the eve of India's mammoth general election, even some members of the ruling Congress party appear to have accepted it will not return to power, raising a question mark on the future of its leader, Rahul Gandhi.
The frontrunner to become prime minister after the five-week election starting on Monday is opposition Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi, although opinion polls suggest he will fall short of a majority and will need to form a coalition.
On Friday, the last major poll before the election had the BJP and its allies winning up to 246 seats in the 543-member parliament. Congress, which has ruled India for over 50 of the 67 years since independence, was forecast to win between 111-123.
Apparently resigned to a poor performance in this election, some Congress insiders have started trying to put a positive spin on a likely spell in opposition.
"Being in opposition in democratic politics gives a great opportunity to the party," Mani Shankar Aiyar, a senior Congress official and former government minister, told Reuters. "We need to democratize the party."
Another senior party member said: "This is a tough election. At the moment, the BJP appears to have an advantage."
Officially, Congress says the opinion polls have got it wrong and it will emerge as the single largest party.
"We're extremely confident," said party spokesman Sanjay Jha. "After Rahul Gandhi said we'll win, we've been especially upbeat. Poll findings will have no bearing."
Nevertheless, some Congress members have said the inability of 43-year-old Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, to effectively counter Modi has led to its woes. And although Gandhi has vowed to revitalize the party, they doubt he has the acumen to eventually lead it back to power.
Some senior members of Congress favor his younger sister Priyanka, the Times of India newspaper said this week. It quoted senior general secretary Janardan Dwivedi as saying that Priyanka Gandhi had been interested in "political developments and the language of politics" since an early age.
In a party where Rahul Gandhi is at least publicly seen as the unquestioned heir, the report created a storm.
Jha, the Congress spokesman, said the comments about Priyanka Gandhi were speculative. "She's not said anything personally. I would say any statement on what she will do in the future is a matter of speculation," he said.
Priyanka has restricted her political activities to supporting her brother and campaigning in her mother Sonia Gandhi's constituency. But many Congress faithful see her easy campaign style and marked resemblance to her grandmother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, as a sign that she could revive the party's fortunes.
On the stump, Rahul Gandhi, the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, draws crowds but even those in the audience do not fancy his chances.
Kept waiting for hours, thousands of listless young supporters in Aurangabad, a down-at-heel district in Bihar state, come alive as Gandhi's helicopter descends, throwing up a plume of dust.
With a designer stubble and wearing white cotton 'kurta' tunic over blue jeans, Gandhi strides onto a rickety stage. Pushing up his sleeves, he appeals in his speech to core Congress voters.
"We want the poor to feel that they are a part of this nation. This is our dream for India," Gandhi tells a crowd that appears enthused more by his celebrity appeal than his rhetoric.
Despite criticism that his brand of Hindu nationalist politics is divisive, Modi has dominated the campaign. He has focused on effective government and creating jobs, which has resonated better with the country's 815 million voters.
Congress, which has been in power for the last decade, has struggled to overcome a series of corruption scandals, slowing economic growth and an inability to push policy.
At the election meeting, insurance agent Dharmendra Singh came early to get a ringside view of Gandhi. But he will cast his vote for Modi, impressed by a stint working in the western state of Gujarat which the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate has led for the past decade.
"There's no graft. There's 24-hour electricity," says the 25-year-old. "I want to see Narendra Modi as prime minister."
Away from the rally, teacher Kamala Devi has come to Aurangabad to visit the district school office. A lifelong Congress voter, she shakes her head vigorously when asked about Rahul Gandhi.
"He doesn't take a stand. He doesn't have confidence," says Devi, 56. "What they want to do is good. Their thinking is good, but they don't get things done."
The turning point of the election campaign, many analysts say, was Gandhi's first major television interview in January, which he fluffed.
Asked if he was afraid of losing the election to Modi, he replied in the third person: "Rahul Gandhi and millions of youngsters in this country want to change the way the system in this country works."
Gandhi appeared nervous and ill-prepared and the interview was widely criticized as a public relations disaster. He has not given any others since.
"How can he reform the system that made him what he is?" said Mohan Guruswamy, a political analyst. "It would have been a smart strategy if he was an outsider. But now it looks contrived."
Although any talk of a role Priyanaka Gandhi may have in Congress is nascent, it has begun. One strategist, however, described her as an ace in the sleeve, and not to be used now.
"There's the feeling that this is not the best election in terms of our prospects, so why waste our ace?" said the strategist, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity due the sensitivity of the matter.
© 2023 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.
Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.
Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.


text:
I can hear the leaves falling on the ground outside. A gentle wind. A rustling snap.
Holding on?
The Yellow Trees.
They stand against the clear blue sky torchlike and bright.
Incredibly, warmly, translucent, they shine.
So easy to stroll under their arms, looking up, all the while walking and listening to the scrunch and pop of the fallen leaves underfoot. I twirl.
Magically inviting, the deck bekons with a task all its own: more double-point needle knitting!
Thanks to everyone who left hints and tips — I found I was enjoying an accidental arrangement (that most of you mentioned was the way for speed)…


text:
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man plays in his life many parts" – William Shakespeare
"Landscapes provide a stage for human action, and, like a theatre set, their own part in the drama varies from that of an entirely discreet unobserved presence to playing a highly visible role in the performance" – Dennis Cosgrove
"The city in its complete sense, then, is [...] a theatre of social action, [...] the city creates the theatre and is the theatre" – Louis Mumford
These three quotes all share the notion of life on earth being a play: Shakespeare speaking both abstractly and materially, Cosgrove and Mumford dealing only with the physicality of this thought, and Mumford focusing on the city in particular. I want to apply this family of metaphors to the Occupy Wall Street movement and its global offspring, notably Occupy London.
This map showed how widespread the Occupy protests were by October 15, 2011 – the global day of action – filling nearly the whole land surface with red blobs, except for sparsely inhabited areas such as Canada, Greenland and North Eastern Asia; places with oppressive regimes inhibiting public protest such as the Middle East; and places with poorer connectivity and large non-urban areas such as sub-Saharan Africa. We are seeing today the first widespread global popular uprising in history that shares a name-tag and an idea. This is not surprising, as the grievances being vocalised are corporate greed, extreme socio-economic inequality and, by deduction as well as directly outspoken, the capitalist system in general. Capitalism can only be fought on a global scale because it has spread all over the globe – globalisation being inherently fuelled by capitalism's need for perpetual growth. This struggle is happening in cities. Cities are relevant to this discourse in many ways: urbanisation is the product (and simultaneously raw material) of capitalism, the urban landscape is a public and political space, cities are places of constant power struggles and contestation of meaning, and logistical issues of rallying the relevant numbers are involved. The city therefore becomes the content or cause of protest, but also a stage, a channel and a requisite.
David Harvey's theory of urbanisation as the output and simultaneous site of input of surplus value to fulfil capitalism's perpetual need for growth is interesting in three ways. Firstly, it serves to explain why anti-capitalist (or at least, capitalism-critical) protest should happen in cities, because cities are the direct consequence of capitalism's constant creative destruction of value for bigger value's sake. Secondly, the city is the focal point for the socio-economic inequalities that capitalism produces. As this inequality grows hand in hand with the growth of capitalism itself, as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, this is manifest in the business districts of the city with ever growing skyscrapers harbouring the homeless squatting in their shadows. The city brings together these extremes and makes them visible to whoever refuses to look away. And thirdly, it foregrounds the topic of capitalism itself, returning to the motives for this protest movement. The unsustainability of capitalism has been made apparent in the financial crisis of 2008 onwards. It was one of many economic crises that has shaken the system – indeed the system is built on the cycle of crisis and boom – but as with most truths, it takes some time for people to realise things with their hearts (or stomachs, in this case?) that they noticed long ago with their brains.
But as graduates find themselves crippled with debt and unemployment, as EU countries' economies like Greece find themselves on the verge of collapse, and as banks are bailed out with taxpayers' money but public spending is cut, as CEOs of failing companies get perversely high bonuses – in short, as the middle class is being affected – , 'eyes are opening,the shackles of apathy loosening' and the economic necessity for extreme inequality begins to be questioned.
Marx imagined that capitalism would kill itself off in its never-ending greed by collapsing in one of its crises, and when that failed to happen Lenin predicted that capitalism would fail once it had reached its highest form – imperialism – and could grow no more (resulting in a world war and the global proletarian revolution). Instead of either of these scenarios, capitalism seems to stay alive by exactly these crises, by making the exploited pay for its salvation, then further exploitation of the poor, in a vicious cycle that forever feeds off the disadvantaged. The result of this, the huge and ever growing inequality, is the motor of this protest. As Gerry Stoker argues, this stress on the wider financial structure is vital to urban theory:
'the neo-Marxist emphasis on the constraining impact of social and economic structures encouraged urban scholars to become less interested in analysing observable power. The trend, supported by broader developments in political theory [...] was to examine systematic power'.
The big Occupy protest sites are aimed to be geographically close to the financial districts, because the movement primarily addresses the financial sector rather than the government as responsible for the state of the world, and the transgression of these places by those normally excluded is a vital part of the message.
This act of transgression shows that urban protest is physical: it brings bodies to the multiply times mentioned stage, an action that cannot be sufficiently replicated by virtual support via the internet or other media, and it makes the protester aware of her own strength and agency when taking direct action. It makes people stand together on, quite literally, common ground.
The connection between the bodies and the city is both symbolical and material, Don Mitchell distinguishes between 'public sphere' (the abstract) and 'public space' (the physical). The first has representational aspects to be considered. Mitchell defines the concept of 'spaces of representation' as what he identifies to be a product of Lefebvre's 'dialectic of public space': representations of space are the ordered and controlled layers of meaning, and representational space stands for the true, lived-in aspects of that space. Spaces of representation, he argues, are the result of the constant dialectical struggle of the two.
Actual, real bodies of the protesters (and police) are vital to urban protest. The presence of human bodies displays an urgency to the matter, and creates a sensual (i.e. visible, audible etc.) entity that cannot easily be missed – the necessity of urbanity comes in: publicity is crucial to both the spread of awareness and thus the success of the protest, and the legitimacy of civil disobedience if the law is broken.
David Harvey points out that 'they have the money, [...], the only thing we have is [...] a mass of people', while Susan Leigh Foster's essay Choreographies of Protest carries it in the name: protest can be seen as a dance on the stage that is the city and bodies become tools, symbols and agents. Bodies react to the movements of other bodies; they symbolically and materially choose lines to cross, and cling together to resist arrest. Also, the body itself and its actions can be a form of protest (physically defying the norm or doing things contrary to the ideology of the day), bodies can be revolutionary material themselves, and yet also cities can be bodies; cities and bodies are constantly fighting each other.
Noteworthy aspects of the material particularities shared by multiple Occupy camps are the human microphone and the discrediting attempts by the right-wing press of presenting dodgy thermal images of supposedly largely empty tents. Here the topic of violence has its five minutes of fame: this is not the place to discuss moral considerations of physical violence (there are naturally other forms of violence, which are also not covered here) but rather its implications for urban protest. In popular belief, the police protect the citizens and their right to protest (this is assuming a 'western liberal democracy') and this is arguably often the case. However, in situations of physical political protest the police frequently do not react to violence but incite violence, or simply act unnecessarily violently to nonviolent acts of protest. Although every politician proudly proclaims the right to protest, actual protest that might have the power to change something is out of order, a disruptive act, worthy only of disrespect.
As George Orwell wrote, all repressive regimes reign by fraud and force, and when fraud falls away, only by force. Modern police forces have been created as the ideological and repressive organ of the state, with police officers made to unquestioningly fulfil roles detached them from any class interests. But there is always the possibility that those enacting force wake up too and refuse to do their duty. The 99% that the Occupy movement claims itself to represent includes police officers, and in Oakland, California – an Occupy site with harsh and brutal policing where the use of rubber bullets nearly took the life of an Iraq war Marine Corps veteran, the mayor's deputy and legal adviser have both resigned in protest of that policing, the latter openly calling for support for the Occupy movement.
In his work on 'Policing the Working Class City' (1979), Philip Cohen also pointed to the schizophrenic workings of the police: they have to be seen being successful and law-abiding simultaneously, and to achieve this impossible task the media creates a false hysteria that allows them to disregard of the law in the name of effectiveness. The way in which the police have been reacting to the Occupy movement varies greatly: in the US, many Occupy sites were evicted brutally, such as Occupy Oakland, Occupy Wall Street and – quite famously – the Occupy UC Davis site where about a dozen or so nonviolent, seated in an entirely unprovocative manner, students refused to move and were heavily pepper-sprayed, to an extent that some were hospitalised. While tear gas is used to disperse people by making them avoid that area, pepper-spray leads to great pain and, notably, immobility.
On the first day of Occupy LSX at St. Pauls, where the aspiring occupiers were semi-kettled – basically a kettle with supposed one-at-a-time-exit possibilities, funnily enough always right on the other side of where you were at any given moment – which was quite obviously a method of provoking protesters into legitimating some kind of violent backlash, because, newsflash, no one likes to be caged in a tiny area which is continuously being made smaller. 'Containment' is a method of keeping protesters from splitting into smaller groups and dispersing, thus forcing the police to do likewise – a sort of prevention of divide and riot, if you will. Here, the fact that the police were kettling what was supposed to be an occupation was blatantly a farce.
Publoid space
In Canada, the (nonviolent but contradicting human rights) eviction of some Occupy sites has incited legal complaints to the UN. In London, however, the eviction of the Occupy LSX site in front of St. Paul's Cathedral was legally issued on November 16 by the City of London Corporation, the passing of the deadline did not result in immediate physical removal because such action must first pass through the High Court. In many other logistical and legal ways, each Occupy site is unique due to its specific location, even within the same city. While the globalisation of ideas spread the message and solidarity over the globe, each individual Occupy group brings the issue home to a different place, with different legal and structural challenges to master. In London, the first and biggest site supposedly occupies the London Stock Exchange, despite actually being located in front of St. Paul's Cathedral rather than Paternoster Square, the actual home of the stock exchange, owned privately by Mitsubishi. Together with the legal issues in Zuccotti Park, this has prompted a debate on private-owned public spaces. The space in front of the Cathedral is owned by the Church, the highways however belong to the City of London Corporation, a plutocratically run council. The prominence of this place leads to much tourist attention and also introduced an interesting debate on the role of the Church, i.e. of Christian values of compassion, but also exclusion of protesters from worshipping. Other Occupy London sites are Finsbury Square – an actual public rather than privately owned 'public' (henceforth 'publoid') space just outside the Square Mile, therefore outside the jurisdictional reach of the Corporation of London; the 'Bank of Ideas' in an empty UBS bank building in impoverished Hackney (evicted in January 2012); a site in East London, an unused court complex that has been deployed for symbolic trials of the 1%; and – for a very short time only – Trafalgar Square, which was occupied for a few hours on November 9 by breakaways from the student protest against education cuts and privatisation, but was quickly destroyed by the Metropolitan Police – armed to the teeth – which had previously proclaimed that anyone breaking away from the route of the demo would be arrested under section 12 of the Public Order Act.
The whole issue of publoid spaces is now being greatly debated: they are essentially privately owned spaces that are opened to the public on the conditions of the private owner, subject to only very vague fundamental conditions demanded by the government. These spaces do not exist for the benefit of the public, but – as a collateral outcome of pure profit maximisation – benefit those who are seen to 'belong' in these spaces. Thus the (unintentional) occupation of these publoid places also serves as a form of symbolism through transgression, if the use of places is sufficiently transformed. This rather well endorses Don Mitchell's point that cities are not just places of struggle, but places of struggle over which places are places of struggle.
Problems of scale
The structure of the Occupy movements reflect the world they wish to live in : decisions are made in a bit of a limbo between direct democracy and anarchist consensus (the 'jazz hands' method is mocked by critics for looking goofy, possibly a bit too lively for spectators accustomed to strict formal politics – then again, if the goings-on in the House of Commons represent formal politics, please excuse me for a moment while I weep for humanity), the outcome is more or less 'socialist' in the abstract sense – from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs. Here again, the city has a role to play: direct democracy only works in small communities, such as Zuccotti Park. However even these communities appear too large to come to an anarchist-style consensus where a compromise that considers everyone is found. Rather the system still seems to be majority-rule based. The city, it would seem, is simultaneously too big and too small to be a single unit of governance. Therefore, one of the most pressing aspects of the Occupy movement for its critics is whether official demands are issued and to which extent they are met. For now, the movement seems to see itself as too broad to legitimately be able to make demands beyond the basic, clear message they are sending in their pure presence. They are also unwilling to enter the formal political system. Issuing formal demands would disqualify Occupy as an anarchist movement, despite the adoption of some of its methods.
But progress is only ever brought about by protesting against the status quo. Without activism, society stagnates. As Harvey puts it, 'the right to the city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it after our heart's desire'. We have the power and the legitimacy to overhaul the theatre as we see fit. Either way, let's not miss the show.
Cohen P (1979), 'Policing the working-class city' in Fine B, Kinse R, Lea J, Picciotto S, Young J (eds) Capitalism and the Rule of Law: From deviancy theory to Marxism, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd, London
Harvey D (2008), 'The Right to the City', New Left Review 53
Lefebvre H (1996), Writings on Cities, Blackwell, Oxford
Mitchell D (2003), The Right to the City, The Guilford Press, New York
Monbiot G (2004), The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order, Harper Perennial, London
Stoker G (1998), 'Theory and Urban Politics', International Political Science Review 19 (2)
Read more
Get our weekly email


text:
The Cross of Christ Illumines. . . Our Choices
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:3–4
I do not receive glory from men. But I know that you have not the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? JOHN 5:41–44
I have made several pilgrimages to foreign lands. In each case I wanted to visit the sites that had been hallowed by the footsteps of our Lord or the apostles. Even so, I familiarized myself with the laws and customs of my host country. St. Augustine felt that this should always be a concern of followers of Christ. We are pilgrims in this world; while we have a duty to "render to Caesar what is Caesar's," we should never lose sight of the fact that our true citizenship is in the kingdom of God. Italian theologian Archbishop Bruno Forte has said, "Life is either a pilgrimage or a foretaste of death." Every day of our lives, we are either tracing the Lord's footsteps in hopes of sharing in his resurrection, or awaiting a fateful day of death without hope.
To St. Augustine, these groups of people were like two cities: the City of Man, founded in "the love of self, even to the contempt of God" and the City of God, whose occupants love God above all, and who say to their Creator, "Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head" (City of God, Book XIV, Chap. 28). Every human being must choose between the two destinations, for to turn toward one is to walk away from the other. The choice is simple, said St. Augustine: "Love of self till God is forgotten, or love of God till self is forgotten."
Heavenly Glory
When Jesus came unto his own, the Gospel of John tells us, "His own did not accept him," because they preferred darkness to light. This rejection reached its zenith on the cross, where he was abused physically as well as verbally. They mocked him, chided him, ridiculed him—and yet, he did not respond to their taunts. His focus was on his Father: "Father, forgive them." "My God, my God, why. . .?" "Father, into your hands..." Throughout his ministry, Jesus demonstrated this singlemindedness; he did not seek out the accolades of the crowds, but the pleasure of the One who sent him. The Gospels also reveal the Father's great pleasure in his Son: At Jesus' baptism in the Jordan: "This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. . ."
At the Transfiguration, as the disciples witnessed the appearance of Moses and Elijah with their Master: "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." And at Calvary, we witness the wordless anguish of a Father for the agony his Son had endured: the ground shook, the sky grew black, and the curtain in the Temple was torn in two. This was the glory and praise that Jesus sought, and that made it possible for him to endure the long journey from the Incarnation to the Cross and Resurrection.
There were temptations along the way. The devil tempted Christ to use his own power, instead of his obedience, to win over all the kingdoms of the world. The people wanted to make him a king when he multiplied the loaves and fishes. When he was called good by anyone, he pointed out that God alone was good. And when he approached the hour of his death, Jesus prayed, "I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made" (John 17:4–5).
When our earthly pilgrimage is finished, will we be able to say that we have glorified God during our lives? Or did we seek to be glorified by others? Will we have accomplished everything that God desired?
Whom Will You Serve?
One of the most telling—and the saddest—indicators of American cultural values, of what we consider most important as a society, is revealed by the number of cosmetic, appearanceenhancing surgeries that are performed every year. I'm not talking about plastic surgery done to correct birth defects or other serious conditions brought about by illness or accident. I mean the number of otherwise healthy people who are willing to go under the knife to lift a little here, tuck a little there. What does it say about a person's mental health, to be so insecure that he or she would risk life and limb, just to look a little younger, a little trimmer, a little closer to some arbitrary cultural ideal? And what does it say about the health of a nation, that those most admired never look a day over thirty?
Those of us who carry the cross of Christ, who see ourselves as pilgrims headed for that City of God, are bound to see things very differently. We give glory to God in all things, and seek God's blessing upon all of our undertakings. We will not content ourselves with some self-serving "spiritual quest" that has more to do with love of self than love of God. We understand that physical beauty is transitional at best. What matters most is to become the person God created us to be; which is to be more like Christ. So we refuse to let ourselves get caught up in some endless cycle of trying to become someone we are not. When Jesus told the apostles that he must suffer at the hands of the rulers and be crucified, Peter told him that it would never happen. Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me Satan!" He understood that God's way is not our way—and yet, ultimately it is the only way to eternal life. The choice is yours: Which road will you choose? And who will be your companion for the journey? Are you going to believe those who pressure you to conform to the self-indulgent values of the City of Man? Or will you take the higher road, bound for the City of God?
The Power of the Cross by Michael Dubruiel is a book well-suited to daily reading during Lent. The book is available here in pdf version. Daily excerpts will be reprinted in this space during Lent.


text:
bender has sent in the following interesting graphic showing how drought-caused dieback could bias a tree ring chronology and interfere with interpretation of past records, emphasizing the continued need to keep U-shaped temperature response functions firmly in one's mind when considering these series.
[image being re-sized]
(2012 note) For reference, here are some related postings discussing upside-down quadratic response and potential evidence of this in recent northern Canadian and Alaskan tree ring series (an explanation for the Divergence Problem not properly canvassed by the NAS panel).
Upside Down Quadratic
Twisted Tree Heartrot Hill
Wilmking in Alaska
Positive and Negative Responders
bender on Gaspé
Other potential biases to tree ring chronologies neglected by the NAS panel (and discussed here from time to time) are altitude changes, "modern sample bias", standardization bias, pith offset bias.