text:
This post covers some foundations which are often misunderstood.
Radiation emitted from a surface (or a gas) can go in all directions and also varies with wavelength, and so we start with a concept called spectral intensity.
This value has units of W/m².sr.μm, which in plainer language means Watts (energy per unit time) per square meter per solid angle per unit of wavelength. ("sr" in the units stands for "steradian").
Most people are familiar with W/m² – and spectral intensity simply "narrows it down" further to the amount of energy in a direction and in a small bandwidth.
We'll consider a planar opaque surface emitting radiation, as in the diagram below.
The total hemispherical emissive power, E, is the rate at which radiation is emitted per unit area at all possible wavelengths and in all possible directions. E has the more familiar units of W/m².
Most non-metals are "diffuse emitters" which means that the intensity doesn't vary with the direction.
For a planar diffuse surface – if we integrate the spectral intensity over all directions we find that emissive power per μm is equal to π (pi) times the spectral intensity.
This result relies only on simple geometry, but doesn't seem very useful until we can find out the value of spectral intensity. For that, we need Max Planck..
Most people have heard of Max Planck, Nobel prize winner in 1918. He derived the following equation (which looks a little daunting) for the spectral intensity of a blackbody:
where T = absolute temperature (K); λ = wavelength; h = Planck's constant = 6.626 x 10-34 J.s; k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.381 x 10-23 J/K; c0 = the speed of light in a vacuum = 2.998 x 108 m/s.
What this means is that radiation emitted is a function only of the temperature of the body and varies with wavelength. For example:
Note the rapid increase in radiation as temperature increases.
What is a blackbody?
A blackbody:
- absorbs all incident radiation, regardless of wavelength and direction
- emits the maximum energy for any wavelength and temperature (i.e., a perfect emitter)
- emits independently of direction
Think of the blackbody as simply "the reference point" with which other emitters/absorbers can be compared.
The Stefan-Boltzmann equation (for total emissive power) is "easily" derived by integrating the Planck equation across all wavelengths and using the geometrical relationship explained at the start (E=πI). The result is quite well known:
E = σT4
where σ=5.67 x 10-8 and T is absolute temperature of the body.
The result above is for a blackbody. The material properties of a given body can be measured to calculate its emissivity, which is a value between 0 and 1, where 1 is a blackbody.
So a real body emits radiation according to the following formula:
E = εσT4
where ε is the emissivity. (See later section on emissivity and note 1).
Note that so long as the Planck equation is true, the Stefan-Boltzmann relationship inevitably follows. It is simply a calculation of the total energy radiated, as implied by the Planck equation.
The Smallprint
The Planck law is true for radiant intensity into a vacuum and for a body in Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE).
So that means it can never be used in the real world
Or so many people who comment on blogs seem to think. Let's take a closer look.
The Vacuum
The speed of light in a vacuum, c0 = 2.998 x 108 m/s. This value appears in the Planck equation and so we need to cater for it when the emission of radiation is into air. The speed of light in air, cair = c0/n, where n is the refractive index of air = 1.0008.
Here's a comparison of the Planck curves at 300K into air and a vacuum:
Not easy to separate. If we expand one part of the graph:
We can see that at the peak intensity the difference is around 0.3%.
The total emissive power into air:
E = n²σT4, where n is the refractive index of air
So the total energy radiated from a blackbody into air = 1.0016 x the total energy into a vacuum.
This is why it's a perfectly valid assumption not to bother with this adjustment for radiation into air. In glass it's a different proposition..
Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium
The meaning, and requirement, of LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) is often misunderstood.
It does not mean that a body is at the same temperature as its surroundings. Or that a body is all at the same temperature (isothermal).
An explanation which might help illuminate the subject – from Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, by Siegel & Howell, McGraw Hill (1981):
In a gas, the redistribution of absorbed energy occurs by various types of collisions between the atoms, molecules, electrons and ions that comprise the gas. Under most engineering conditions, this redistribution occurs quite rapidly, and the energy states of the gas will be populated in equilibrium distributions at any given locality. When this is true, the Planck spectral distribution correctly describes the emission from a blackbody..
Another definition, which might help some (and be obscure to others) is from Radiation and Climate, by Vardavas and Taylor, Oxford University Press (2007):
When collisions control the populations of the energy levels in a particular part of an atmosphere we have only local thermodynamic equilibrium, LTE, as the system is open to radiation loss. When collisions become infrequent then there is a decoupling between the radiation field and the thermodynamic state of the atmosphere and emission is determined by the radiation field itself, and we have no local thermodynamic equilibrium.
And an explanation about where LTE does not apply might help illuminate the subject, from Siegel & Howell:
Cases in which the LTE assumption breaks down are occasionally encountered.
Examples are in very rarefied gases, where the rate and/or effectiveness of interparticle collisions in redistributing absorbed radiant energy is low; when rapid transients exist so that the populations of energy states of the particles cannot adjust to new conditions during the transient; where very sharp gradients occur so that local conditions depend on particles that arrive from adjacent localities at widely different conditions and may emit before reaching equilibrium and where extremely large radiative fluxes exists, so that absorption of energy and therefore populations of higher energy states occur so strongly that collisional processes cannot repopulate the lower states to an equilibrium density.
Now these LTE explanations are far removed from most people's perceptions of what equilibrium means.
LTE is all about, in the vernacular:
Molecules banging into each other a lot so that normal energy states apply
And once this condition is met – which is almost always in the lower atmosphere – the Planck equation holds true. In the upper atmosphere this doesn't hold true, because the density is so low. A subject for another time..
So much for Planck and Stefan-Boltzmann. But for real world surfaces (and gases) we need to know something about emissivity and absorptivity.
Emissivity, Absorptivity and Kirchhoff
There is an important relationship which is often derived. This relationship, Kirchhoff's law, is that emissivity is equal to absorptivity, but comes with important provisos.
First, let's explain what these two terms mean:
- absorptivity is the proportion of incident radiation absorbed, and is a function of wavelength and direction; a blackbody has an absorptivity of 1 across all wavelengths and directions
- emissivity is the proportion of radiation emitted compared with a blackbody, and is also a function of wavelength and direction
The provisos for Kirchhoff's law are that the emissivity and absorptivity are equal only for a given wavelength and direction. Or in the case of diffuse surfaces, are true for wavelength only.
Now Kirchhoff's law is easy to prove under very restrictive conditions. These conditions are:
- thermodynamic equilibrium
- isothermal enclosure
That is, the "thought experiment" which demonstrates the truth of Kirchhoff's law is only true when there is a closed system with a body in equilibrium with its surroundings. Everything is at the same temperature and there is no heat exchanged with the outside world.
That's quite a restrictive law! After all, it corresponds to no real world problem..
Here is how to think about Kirchhoff's law.
The simple thought experiment demonstrates completely and absolutely that (under these restrictive conditions) emissivity = absorptivity (at a given wavelength and direction).
However, from experimental evidence we know that emissivity of a body is not affected by the incident radiation, or by any conditions of imbalance that occur between the body and its environment.
From experimental evidence we know that the absorptivity of a body is not affected by the amount of incident radiation, or by any imbalance between the body and its environment.
These results have been confirmed over 150 years.
As Siegel and Howell explain:
Thus the extension of Kirchhoff's law to non-equilibrium systems is not a result of simple thermodynamic considerations. Rather it results from the physics of materials which allows them in most instances to maintain themselves in LTE and this have their properties not depend on the surrounding radiation field.
The important point is that thermodynamics considerations allow us to see that absorptivity = emissivity (both as a function of wavelength), and experimental considerations allow us to extend the results to non-equilibrium conditions.
This is why Kirchhoff's law is accepted in thermodynamics.
Operatic Considerations
The hilarious paper by Gerlich and Tscheuschner poured fuel on the confused world of the blogosphere by pointing out just a few pieces of the puzzle (and not the rest) to the uninformed.
They explained some restrictive considerations for Planck's law, the Stefan-Boltzmann equation, and for Kirchhoff's law, and implied that as a result – well, who knows? Nothing is true? Not much is true?Nothing can be true? I had another look at the paper today but really can't disentangle their various claims.
For example, they claim that because the Stefan-Boltzmann equation is the integral of the Planck equation over all wavelengths and directions:
Many pseudo-explanations in the context of global climatology are already falsified by these three fundamental observations of mathematical physics.
Except they don't explain which ones. So no one can falsify their claim. And also, people without the necessary background who read their paper would easily reach the conclusion that the Stefan-Boltzmann equation had some serious flaws.
All part of their entertaining approach to physics.
I mention their papertainment because many claims in the blog world have probably arisen through uninformed people reading bits of their paper and reproducing them.
The fundamentals of radiation are well-known and backed up by a century and a half of experiments. There is nothing controversial about Planck's law, Stefan-Boltzmann's law or Kirchhoff's law.
Everyone working in the field of atmospheric physics understands the applicability and limits of their use (e.g., the upper atmosphere).
This is not cutting edge stuff, instead it is the staple of every textbook in the field of radiation and radiant heat transfer.
Note 1 – Because emissivity is a function of wavelength, and because emission of radiation at any given wavelength varies with temperature, average emissivity is only valid for a given temperature.
For example, at 6000K most of the radiation from a blackbody has a wavelength of less than 4μm; while at 200K most of the radiation from a blackbody has a wavelength greater than 4μm.
Clearly the emissivity for 6000K will not be valid for the emissivity of the same material at a temperature of 200K.


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The Immortals Of Meluha by Amish Tripathi (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)
Order the Book HERE
Read Chapter One HERE
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Amish Tripathi is a 38 year old, IIM-Calcutta educated boring banker turned happy author. The success of his debut book, The Immortals of Meluha (Book one of the Shiva Trilogy), encouraged him to give up a fourteen-year-old career in financial services to focus on writing. He is passionate about history, mythology and philosophy. He believes that there is beauty and meaning in all world cultures & religions. Amish currently lives in Mumbai (India), with his family.
OFFICIAL BLURB: 1900 BC: the once-proud Suryavanshi rulers of the Meluha Empire are in dire peril. The empire's primary river, the Saraswathi, is slowly drying up. There are devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis – and to make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracised race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills.
The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient prophecy: when evil reaches epic proportions and all seems lost, a hero will emerge . . .
FORMAT/INFO: The Immortals of Meluha is 439 pages long, divided into twenty-six chapters with a Glossary of the Sankrit/Hindi terminology. Narration is in the third-person, via Shiva, Krittika, Daksha, Kanakhala, Nandi, Brahaspati, Sati and a few others. This is the first volume of the Shiva trilogy and the second volume titled The Secret Of The Nagas will be released later this year.
January 3, 2013 marked the paperback and e-book publication of The Immortals Of Meluha via JoFletcher Books and it was previously self-published by the author in 2010 and was then picked up by Westland books and given a tradition release (see cover below) on April 1, 2011.
The story focuses on Shiva, a twenty-one year old warrior who is living with his tribesmen in what is currently Tibet. He comes across a group of Meluhans (Meluha is what is now Western India & Pakistan) who are searching for something or someone. Shiva's tribe is called the Gunas and another tribe called the Pakratis is hunting them. Shiva detests the needless violence and decides to follow the Meluhan party back to their land. Things seem troublesome in Meluha wherein the Suryavanshi kings (Descendants of the Sun) are the rulers and the people live by Suryavanshi standards. They are facing friction from their eastern neighbors, the land of Swadeep ruled by Chandravanshis (Descendants of the moon) as both sides are clueless in regards to the drying up of the Saraswati River and hence blame each other for their differences.
There's Nandi who yearns to be the right hand to the prophesied "Neelkanth", Sati is the Suryavanshi princess who is rather held down by an archaic law and might find release if she can find the true path. Then there's Brahaspati who provides Shiva with some mental acuity and comic relief as he tries to help the "Neelkanth" with his role. Thrust into this maelstrom of people and events, is Shiva who while being a foreigner is still caught up in the throes of an ancient prophecy whilst not believing it personally? Thus begins the first chronicle of the Shiva trilogy.
I was able to read this book when it was released in India and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot for a variety of reasons. The mythological aspect of the story is highlighted in a big way; the author has utilized a lot of aspects of mythos associated with Lord Shiva and had inserted them intelligently in the story. As a person who's decently versed in Indian mythology, I was certainly blown away by the author's expertise in utilizing small mythological kernels and factoids and planning the story around their like. Secondly the story is pretty linear and very fast paced, from the start the reader is introduced to an ancient world however the plot twists and the pace will have the readers racing along smoothly. For many readers the terminology and settings of the story might be very different that what they have come to expect within epic fantasy however the glossary provided will help tremendously in their understanding of the plot and terms. Characterization is very relatable however the characters seem a bit two-dimensional. This might also be due to the fact that this was a debut novel and written a few years ago.
There's also the epic storyline and the author does his best to lay out the details of the conflict brewing as well sow some seeds of confusion to misdirect the main characters as well as the readers. I would recommend the readers refer to the glossary whilst reading the story as that way they can get more out of the story and its intricacies. I was hooked onto the happenings from cover to cover and couldn't read faster to reach the climax and the author ends it on a very nice cliffhanger. This was a very crucial move by the author as readers on reading the last words will want to jump into the next book immediately. The writing is definitely smooth and the prose very accessible for any reader to be immediately drawn in to the story and world presented.
One of the things that I found to be a bit jarring was the modern day slang and jargon that was utilized throughout the story. The author describes many situations and often the characters mouth dialogues and terms as if they were living in the modern era instead of four millennia ago as per the tale settings. This was a point, which has been criticized by many readers as well as many critics and is a thoroughly valid one. This is the one major flaw of an otherwise very good debut. Many might feel that the story seems very formulaic by epic fantasy standards in spite of the Indian settings and that might something to keep in mind while reading this debut. The characters appear a bit two-dimensional and are also a bit predictable however since this is the first volume, I think we can wait to see how the individual and overall characters arc pan out in the remaining volumes.
CONCLUSION: I had hopes that this book would be a good read however the author did one better and made it a fun one. Amish Tripathi is a talented man and he proves himself to be an effective storyteller as well. This book is highly recommended for those wanting to read something different in the field of epic fantasy. Amish joins the diverse epic fantasy wave spurred on by the likes of Saladin Ahmed, Martha Wells and few others, with his take of a fantasy tale with a terrific Indian mythological bent.
37 comments:
Am I reading the date wrong or do you not know that the second book is already out ?
- January 18, 2013 at 9:23 AM
@ Anon.
I know the 2nd book is already out BUT it's only available from an Indian Publisher.
It will get its international release in April/may of this year from JFB as well.
- January 18, 2013 at 11:53 AM
- Sarah (Bookworm Blues) said...
I wouldn't have looked at this one twice if it wasn't for your review. Something about the cover art just doesn't do it for me. That being said, your review really makes me want to reserve it at the library. I enjoy "different" books in epic fantasy. So much of it is the same old same old - the European based feudal systems, women in gigantic dresses, lots of kings and chosen ones and etc. It always perks me up to see a reviewer mention that a book is "different."
Yeah, I'll be checking this one out.
- January 19, 2013 at 2:59 PM
- Aderyn Wood said...
I agree, if it weren't for this review I wouldn't have spotted this. Looks like a good read, I've added it to my list.
- January 19, 2013 at 9:13 PM
- The Reader said...
@ Sarah & Aderyn
I'm glad you both noticed this book, I hope you let me know how you find it. It was a huge hit back in India and so I'm curious as to how western readers find it.
- January 20, 2013 at 10:24 PM
this is the most bizzare effort at historical fancy I have ever seen. the book is replete with the fundamental errors due lack of research into the social and human conditions into the era which the book claims to be set it. author tries to use sanskrit or hindi words to give a bit of credence to his plot, but again he displays a severe lack of understanding of meaning of those words. For example he translates "har har mahadev" as "each one of us is mahadev"... utterly stupid !! On another occasion its almost hilarious to find the use of word "varjish-griha" for GYM. The word "varjish" is of arabic origin and is never encountered in any of pre-islamic works in indian literature. author has succeeded in writing a fancy "chandrakanta" like thing, but he falls far below the level of stalwarts like Dan Brown who support their plots with authentic research and insight. It is not a novel but a formula much like Manmohan Desai's films.
- March 7, 2013 at 6:20 AM
- The Reader said...
Hi Anon.
The author has primarily written it as fantasy based on mythology. I don't think he said it was historical fantasy. The point about fundamental errors is sligtly valid in regards to the lingo and terminology used by the characters as I pointed in my review.
I think he set out to write a story that would be popular but not accurate as he's not writing a thesis. I don't recall the "varjish-griha" part so I'll check up on that.
Lastly I don't think anybody could count Dan Brown as a stalwart in research. He's the same as Manmohan Desai when it come to his religious thrillers. I think it depends on how much enjoyment you can derive with books such as these. I thought it was a good debut effort.
- March 7, 2013 at 12:03 PM
I found this quite good. What I mean is that the book can be read by children to old aged people across the globe. Nowadays teenagers are not at all interested in reading books and specially unaware of our mythology. Amish has done a good job by mingling history, mythology and punched a little bit of romance in it. I don't like comparing with Dan Brown because many information provided by him is unable for teenage children to decipher. Lastly I think a little bit research work would have helped our up-coming generation to be more knowledgable about mythology. Idea to create a book like shiva trilogy is mind-blowing.
- April 3, 2013 at 12:39 PM
- Niyati Pandya said...
I started reading this book and must admit I was better off without it; let us please not everyone try to be an author; the book has such obvious errors; no wonder Amish Tripathi had to self publish it; fantasy, history, mythology; nothing just fits; modern day slang; use of the words like hell with you; geographic errors; please let's not be fooled; go back to banking please;
- April 12, 2013 at 8:40 PM
Mr.Tripathi is a good writer. I wish him good luck for his upcoming writings. But some issues I would like to arise, such as Shiva was never challenged throughout....everyone came in his way saw his blue throat and bowed in his feet...this was awkward...in the fightings he took down every opponent with ease...should have been a little more dramatic if he had faced some little flares of defeat...if his strategies were countered by his opponents..also some characters were never needed...like Parshuram...and some chapters were stale...at some certain stages i felt that i was getting bored...i skipped many chapters of the third novel...and lastly these are my personal thoughts and I think Mr.Tripathi can do much better...I liked the first novel very much..however was disappointed with the last two...
- April 14, 2013 at 10:01 AM
- Unknown said...
buyers of this book are the 90's kids who have less knowledge of Indian mythology. They just see the fascinating cover with shiva and his trident printed on it and just buy it just like a superhero comics...
- April 20, 2013 at 1:12 PM
This book would be a dud had the character been someone other than Lord Shiva, its the mythology angle that saves the book. Certainly not a value for money. Wonder how it became a bestseller.
- April 30, 2013 at 6:38 AM
i think amish has done a wonderful job... n fr all those who think it has geographical errors ,wrng info, n othr words n stuf.... its a fictional book... u can use any kinda words n false info in it...its not a big deal...its a great book. amish u rock !!! n btw..thnx fr da review.
- May 7, 2013 at 4:13 AM
- Unknown said...
can someone plzz answer my questions :-
1) does the depiction of Shiva in the book conform to the old age mythologica belief about him?discuss in 200 wrds
2) one of the criticism leveled by the book is the jarring use of the modern day slang and jargon in a religious and mythological context. do you agree? express ur views in 150 wrds
- June 26, 2013 at 4:32 AM
- The Reader said...
Hi Sarah,
To answer your questions:
1)The description hold partially as the author reveals him to be a Tibetan. There's no such mention in any of the text but nothing to disprove it either. Bharatvarsh can be considered to be what now constitutes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Parts of Afghanistan and Tibet. So there's certainly the possibility of Shiva being from there.
2)The modern slang and terminolgy used are not used in a religious context. They are simply mouthed by the characters and don't make sense entirely as science hasn't advanced to that degree in the world showcased in the books. Its a thing that can either "bother you highly", "bother a little bit" or "not bother at all" as it's entirely a subjective point.
Hope that answers your queries.
- June 26, 2013 at 12:08 PM
- Unknown said...
thank mihir for ur help..
but i need an elaborated answer for both the qustions
- July 2, 2013 at 3:23 AM
This appears to be the product of an overread, ovrheated mind that has read too many western thrillers and has little to offer. Such is the modern day danger from persons who are called highly educated(in some honorable university and irrespective of the course) and come to believe that they are the pathpavers for answering age old philosophical questions as well.It is evident from the way he has answered the so called question of questions.A bestseller at the cost of pulling down your gods to the level of fumbling average human beings!As he is financial guy, I am sure he wouldn't see the evil in finance and banking.
- July 3, 2013 at 9:58 AM
- Nikhil Surve said...
is this story real?? plz!!! i want to knw bcz m confused!!!!
- July 26, 2013 at 10:31 AM
- The Reader said...
@ Nikhil
As far as I recall the author has mentioned that this is his re-imagination of the legend of Shiva. So in that regards, it's fiction with an Indian mythological bent.
- July 27, 2013 at 10:10 PM
- Unknown said...
how can amish said that shiva is simple man ? if shiva is simple man then in Ramayana there is one proof that said Ram meet Mahadev when hi goes in shri laka and no one simple man can alive 3000 thousand year on the earth
- September 30, 2013 at 7:08 AM
Amish Tripathi is an absolute idiot, to write such a fantasy on one of the most revered GOD for us.
Lord Shiva's story as a human is imposssible to imagine, HE is a concept, a CREATOR, DESTROYER of the evil, and above all Supreme Father of this universe. No body can quantify him, he is above all comparisons. Amish go back to your old banking job, you are not at all fit to be an author.
- December 2, 2013 at 3:42 PM
It's a wonder that this book is a best-seller. The book is a misrepresentation of facts & Indian mythology. Agreed - that this is a work of fiction. But, even fictitious work requires some research and attestation to relevant facts. This book is a clear indication of no research or adherence to facts by the author, whose style of writing and story-telling is amateurish at it's best. I could find no skill in the writing at all. It is definitely not recommended for young people who have a lesser knowledge of our Indian mythology as it would just corrupt their minds about the true mythology.
- December 31, 2013 at 7:06 AM
Many mistakes in the book.
For example the characters are using the word "INDIA" more than once and repeating that shiva is the saviour of India. Just remember the story with detailed maps and all mentioning that the story is taking place in BC 1900. How can these characters use the name India in their conversations?
And another example,
The chief scientist named Brihaspathi is using the word "OXYGEN" when mentioning the contents of respiratory air. But OXYGEN was named by Antione Lavoisier in 1777.
Amish is just using Indian puranas for this novel. Every now and then he mention a story in purana which is being used for setting this fiction's platform. I don't find this right, hurting the feelings of Shiva devotees and then he is saying that he is a devotee of Shiva.
- January 20, 2014 at 5:43 AM
Parshuram character made no sense..use of morden slang, rest was amazing.Good work amish
- February 7, 2014 at 6:26 AM
I taught this was a great story re-written purana of lord shiv. I wasted my money on this book. The author is really stupid the story is nice without our gods but if this idoit says shiv is just a human then what rudra n shiva r different? If he says lord shiva is human then how his throat is blue naturally? Somras? What the hell? I cant imagine what if my children reads this in future without the knowledge of gods? This guy is an idoit who wanted to make money. Then what the agories r fools worshiping lord shiva/bhairava sacrificing their lifes? I taught this story was devon ke dev mahadev same like the tv series i just wasted my money buying this book. Instead i should have bought the old purana.On top of that he has planned to make movie now i wonder why some caracters rejected to act this info i got from youtube.
- February 13, 2014 at 4:27 PM
- Unknown said...
hi.. this book is realy too good.. (y) please tell wich language you used for ur immortals of meluha cover page background.. plz rply
- April 26, 2014 at 4:22 AM
The books like these are only useful to conceal and distort the truth. Writers should avoid using such a wild, incorrect and foolish imagination especially in godly and divine subjects.
The truth about Lord Siva can be very well find in siva puranam and skanda puranam.
'Puranam' is the basement stone and these types of books are only good for spreading lies.
- April 27, 2014 at 2:53 AM
People; please learn to read fiction as fiction - do not try to link it with the facts and if you feel that you have invested on a wrong book; there is something called as the epilogue and sample chapters available - you need to go through that and then invest.
- May 30, 2014 at 1:58 AM
Its one of its kind....it made the mythology more awesome
- October 6, 2014 at 1:19 PM
- Neha Agarwal said...
The novel itself is very absorbing and nicely plotted. I finished it with expectation of same quality in next 2 parts of the trilogy. Bengali translation is upto the mark.
- April 2, 2015 at 1:56 PM
the book is good.
yes, it may not be 100% historically correct.the author has mixed mythology with history. however, it is enjoyable. he has used hindi words in the text, because, neither he nor us, is aware of the language used in those days. its not a mistake. the word india is used again and again, so that the modern reader does not get confused.similarly, the citizens of meluha (indus valley) were of dravidian/ elamite stock,but they are shown worshipping aryan Gods. we must not judge it historically. this is a fantasy + mythology+ adventure story+ author's theory. overall, a good story.
- August 24, 2015 at 1:57 PM
- Manoj said...
it is a great book
- November 10, 2015 at 12:54 AM
- Jiiva said...
Thats an awesome book..Bt thats true it may not be 100% historically true
- April 3, 2016 at 1:04 AM
- Santosh Narva said...
I Haven't read the book and I WILL NOT read it .
SHIVA is NOT a Marvel comics character like a batman or Superman but GOD
I don't think the writer whoever he / she has got any fucking right to add fiction to GOD
This is the trend with Indian television also in serials like
SANKAT MOCHAN MAHABALI HANUMAN and SIYA KE RAM etc .. which adds MASALA to the existing divine literature to ' match ' so-called television standards .
And I always wonder how the hell those entertainment programs which make GOD a PROTOTYPE to be moulded as the so-called ' creative time ' wishes , are so successful ??!!
- November 5, 2016 at 5:43 AM
- Unknown said...
It is a fictitious mythological book
- April 19, 2017 at 1:30 PM
Mythological fantasy is a boom! And I am still analyzing how. I recently read a review by Vishnu Chevli that sucked me into an entirely different realm. I must say Indian fantasy has began to make its own mark in the world of literature!
- September 26, 2018 at 5:00 AM
- Live football scores said...
This is very fantastic, it's one of my favorites. Thanks
- February 13, 2019 at 3:58 PM

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks closed lower on Wall Street on Monday as investors worried that a controversial proposal to seize money from depositors in Cyprus could set off another bout of anxiety over Europe's shared currency.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.05 points, or 0.4 percent, to 14,452.06 Monday. It had plunged as much as 110 points in the early going, briefly turned positive in the afternoon then fell back again in the last hour of trading.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 8.60 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,552.10 The Nasdaq composite dropped 11.48 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,237.59.
European markets recovered most of an early slide and closed with modest losses. Yields on government bonds issued by Spain and Italy edged higher and the euro fell to a three-month low against the dollar.
The market rally that has pushed the Dow to record levels this year has been punctuated by concerns about the euro-region's lingering debt crisis. The Dow fell 1.6 percent Feb. 25, its biggest wobble this year, after elections in Italy threw the country into political paralysis, endangering crucial economic reforms.
"Europe has got problems," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners, a hedge fund. "You could get more stuff like this and the market isn't priced to handle that."
A weekend agreement between Cyprus and its European partners called for the government to raid bank accounts as part of a €15.8 billion ($20.4 billion) financial bailout, the first time in the eurozone crisis that the prospect of seizing individuals' savings has been raised. The measures are stoking fears of bank runs in the other 16 nations that use the euro.
Cypriot authorities, facing an uproar, delayed a parliamentary vote on the seizure and ordered the country's banks to remain closed until Thursday while they try to modify the deal to lessen the impact on small depositors.
Markets in Europe and Asia also fell during early trading, before retracing some of their losses later in the day. Germany's DAX index dropped 0.4 percent and Spain's main stock index shed 1.3 percent. Indexes in Britain and France each lost 0.5 percent.
The euro fell almost a penny against the dollar to $1.2954, touching its lowest level in three months. Gold climbed $12 to $1,604.60 an ounce.
The U.S. stock market's reaction to eurozone developments has become more muted over time.
The Dow slumped more than 8 percent last year between May 1 and June 1 on concerns that Spain and Italy would be dragged into Europe's debt crisis. While the Dow initially dropped last month in reaction to the Italian election results, it has since gained 4.6 percent. Likewise the market recovered much of the early loss Monday prompted by Cyprus's bailout deal.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond, which moves inversely to its price, fell to 1.96 percent from 1.99 percent as investors moved money into low-risk investments. Yields on bonds issued by Spain and Italy, the two most vulnerable large European economies, rose but only slightly. Spain's benchmark 10-year yield rose to 4.97 percent from 4.91 percent, and Italy's rose to 4.57 percent from 4.55 percent.
The stock market's resilience suggests that traders consider the Cyprus situation to be contained for now, said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist for Prudential. The threat of rising volatility may also deter the Fed from thinking about ending its economic stimulus program. The central bank starts its second two-day policy meeting of the year Tuesday.
"Absent the Cyprus flare-up, the markets were slowing a bit and it looked as if investors were digesting the gains and waiting for the next catalyst," said Krosby.
Financial stocks were the biggest decliners in the S&P 500. Investment bank Morgan Stanley fell 60 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $22.99. Citigroup dropped $1.02, or 2.2 percent, to $46.24.
Goldman Sachs said Monday that it had lifted its end-of-year target for the S&P 500 to 1,625 from its previous target of 1,575. The investment bank is forecasting that the U.S. economy will grow 2 percent this year and 2.9 percent next year. It also predicts that corporate deals and dividend payments will increase.
Deutsche Bank also said Monday it was lifting its year-end prediction for the S&P 500 to 1,625 from 1,600, forecasting an upturn in business spending.
Among other stocks making big moves:
• Schlumberger dropped $3.06, or 3.9 percent, to $76.34 after the oilfield services company said that its first quarter activity was below its expectations as customers reactivated fewer rigs than forecast.
• Boeing fell $1.25, or 1.4 percent, to $85.18 after archrival Airbus signed its biggest deal of all time on Monday. The European plane maker won an order from Indonesia's Lion Air worth 18.4 billion euros ($24 billion) for its short haul A320 and A321 jets.m


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Reminiscing on his childhood, Canadian photographer Thomas Dagg has inserted popular elements from the Star Wars franchise into modern urban landscapes by using forced perspective to turn his childhood toys into realistic additions to his black-and-white photos. To do this, he used different focal lengths to shoot the real life shots and 5-inch toys so that they matched perspectives and angles. In an interview with PetaPixel, Dagg went into detail about his approach:
"I ended up shooting all the toys etc on neutral grey so I could take the shadows and blend it in using soft light or overlay modes. It would only really work if the seamless ended up being the perfect density, but it saved me so much time painting in shadows etc."
"Shooting them imperfectly was actually rather freeing," he explains. "I'd pull my phone out of my pocket and shoot the scene super quickly a few times in order to get what my natural 'snapshot' imperfect framing that I'd then match with my camera."
"I wanted to feel like these could actually happen," he adds. "Since in my head at 8 they definitely did.


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Learn Accordion your way
TakeLessons experts are ready to teach. Get a deal on a private or group lesson, or browse on-demand content 24/7 for free.
Private lessons with top Accordion instructors near Spring, TX
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Mark V S.
4.9 (65)
Why do people laugh when you say "accordion"!? Let's show them different! This instrument ROCKS!!! It's one of the most expressive, international, fun, and emotional instruments out there! So much more than just "polkas": Argentinian tangos, German beer songs, French cafe, Irish Celtic music, Russian folk, Italian melodic, and the list goes on... Bottom line: I love this instrument because it is FUN and VERY "produceable". Half of it is an arsenal of buttons while the other half is a good 'ol piano keyboard, and depending on which model you have, there are many tone levers to thoroughly change its personality -- no electricity needed! No sight-reading required! All ages welcome! I can teach you how to create some fun and inspired music on it regardless of your musical tastes or background, as long as you have a PIANO ACCORDION -- not JUST buttons like a bayan or concertina (sorry -- at this time, please note that I do NOT teach chromatic/diatonic button accordion or "virtual/electronic accordions" such as the Roland series -- just traditional, acoustic piano accordion). Ready to have some fun? Click BOOK NOW and let's begin!
/30 mins
Alejandro R.
5 (2)
Nearly a decade of experience touring and recording with artists of the regional mexican world. All ages and skill levels welcome! I will adapt to your skill level and musical interests whilst teaching you the fundamental like scales and theory! Casi una decade de experienca acompañado y grabando con artistas del regional mexicano. Cualquier edad y nivel musical está bienvenido! Me adaptare a su nivel musical y también a sus pasiones musicales. A la misma vez nunca olvidándonos de los fundamentos como las escalas y teoría.
/30 mins
David M.
4.8 (8)
Hi my name is David. God has been good and has allowed me to teach and perform the accordion for the last 25 years. I have students from all around the world ( India, London, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and all around the United States). My lessons are high energy and a lot of fun. I teach from the Palmer Hughes Books and add in 25 years of playing out professionally into the lesson. I also send students different styles of music that will give them a more professional sound. You have a choice of taking lessons from my Pittsburgh studio or you can learn the accordion at the comfort of your own home with live, One on One online accordion lessons. I look forward to starting you on your accordion Journey.
/30 mins
Alex A.
5 (4)
I want to help you explore music on a deeper level rather than simply memorizing notes. We would analyze song forms, chord progressions, and develop a diverse repertoire in Cumbia, Tango, Vallenato, Waltz, and Polka music. However, I do this with your interests in mind. Oftentimes, my students decide which songs they want to learn or even compose songs with my help. If developing a solid understand of accordion music sounds like something you want, shoot me a message and we can chat more!
/30 mins
Gordon L.
4.8 (35)
Gordon L. began playing music at a very early age but didn't begin to learn the saxophone until he was in fifth grade. Gordon's interest in music grew when he began to work sound systems for bluegrass bands and eventually he started to experiment more with music. Soon after he would pick up guitar which would spark his interest in further pursuing his playing of music. After he bought a guitar, Gordon would practice relentlessly, sometimes for as long as 12 hours a day. This passion for music allowed Gordon to go to a summer rock band camp in San Diego where he learned everything you need to know about touring, playing in a band, making a music video etc. When Gordon reached his senior year of high school he attended Perpich Center of the Performing arts in Golden Valley, Minnesota. While he was learned he took classes in ear training and music theory. He also took a Taiko drum class while he was at Perpich. Along with learning new musical concepts, Gordon also learned how the music business works which got him more interested in marketing the bands he performed in. Gordon also was able to take guitar lessons at Macphail in Minneapolis under the apprenticeship of James Allen. Gordon went on to Mesabi Range Community College where he received his Associates Degree. While there he played saxophone in the Community Band and guitar in bands he started himself. Gordon also took a banjo class, piano class and a music history class at Mesabi Range Community College. His main focus in the past years has been working with bands doing studio work, mini tours and CD production/marketing for those groups. After Community College, Gordon went to Evangel University in Missouri where he continued to study Guitar and Saxophone while picking up more woodwind and string instruments. Gordon took private guitar lessons and attended a Guitar Master Class at this college. He also attended Missouri State University where he learned about theory and composition. He also played Saxophone in the jazz band. While he attended school in Missouri he relentlessly continued to play in multiple groups live and recorded a Ska/Reggae CD (guitar and saxophone tracks) with the band Bringers of the Dawn. Gordon can fluently play and teach Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Clarinet, and Saxophone. Gordon is also willing to teach harmonica and banjo to those interested in learning. Gordon also has knowledge of several other cultural instruments with a background in piano lessons from high school and college. He got superior and excellent ratings at musical competitions for voice and saxophone in high school where he performed songs such as the Hungarian Dance #5 and Beautiful Dreamer. Gordon loves all genres of music and enjoys learning every style he can in order to improve his musical instruction. For the moment Gordon is pursuing songwriting particularly in the field of cultural music. Focusing on the students immediate musical needs, Gordon is able to encourage students to set goals in order to efficiently practice, concentrate and focus during the lesson time. Gordon is very patient with every student so that they refrain from becoming frustrated, overwhelmed or intimidated. Realizing the importance of music, Gordon makes sure that every student leaves each lesson having learned something new.
/30 mins
Jared J.
4.9 (105)
Just to clear up any confusion, I unfortunately do not own or teach: Diatonic Accordion, Bandoneon, or Bayan. All of which are accordion instruments that feature buttons for both hands and not just the left. I do own and teach the 120 Button Chromatic Piano Style Accordion with Stradella Bass (Left Hand Buttons/Right Hand Piano). I can teach you how to play the accordion as a lead instrument in a group, as an instrument for accompaniment, or as a solo instrument where you use both band to create songs by yourself. I can help introduce easy songs in a variety of styles including jazz, musette (french), classical, zydeco, polka, Irish, etc... You also do not need a 120 button bass accordion; 24, 32, 60, 72 will will also work just fine - you will just have less range available.
/30 mins
Jason F.
5 (56)
Accordion is a blast to learn and play! I specialize in piano accordion and enjoy playing and teaching from many styles of world music including: European Polkas, Slavic, Klezmer, French, Irish, and popular well-known songs including showtunes. One of the joys of playing the accordion is its amazing musical versatility and that you are always discovering new tunes on it! :) Lessons will aim to give the student the musical foundation and tools they need to explore this amazing instrument. Focus on many style of music and an aim to work toward playing the student's favorites songs will be a primary goal in addition to having a lot of fun! :)
/30 mins
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I love working with Silvia! She is very encouraging and sweet. You can tell that she is passionate about playing music and believes that it is very important that you enjoy playing. She is working wit
Nikki (Accordion lessons with Silvia R E.)
Rodrigo was flexible with my crazy schedule and was always willing to go the extra mile. I have really developed a true love now for the accordion thanks to him.
Adrian (Accordion lessons with Rodrigo R.)
Rodrigo is very knowledgeable and helpful—he helped make many concepts clear to me in only a few lessons. I am excited to practice and continue to improve my playing!
Connor Bulakites (Accordion lessons with Rodrigo R.)
Rodrigo is an excellent instructor! He explains everything thoroughly and makes the accordion less intimidating to play.
Cassidy (Accordion lessons with Rodrigo R.)
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again: serious bakers and cooks need to have a scale in the kitchen. The ability to weigh ingredients gives you a lot more precision than volume measures do, especially for dry ingredients like flour, where "1 cup" could be anywhere from 3.5 – 4.5 ounces depending on how hard you try to pack it into the cup (4-oz is a good standard for all purpose flour, incidentally). You can get by without one just fine, of course, but it's nice to have. A good basic scale is the EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale. It's not too expensive, it's easy to use and works very well.
The scale is small and lightweight, made of durable plastic that comes in a variety of different colors so that you can pick one that will fit into your kitchen. It runs on two AAA batteries that come included in the packaging and has a 3-minute auto shutoff to preserve battery life. It has a capacity of up to 11-lbs (4.98-kg), but will also measure a single gram for times when you need a very fine measurement. The feature that I like the best is the unit feature. Previous scales I've had require you to flip them over to change their measure from grams to ounces. On this scale, a touch of a button right on the front flips the measurement from grams to kilograms to ounces to pounds, which is very handy. Another nice thing about it is the size of the screen: it's so large that you can almost read the numbers from across the room.


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US ends funding for Pakistan's 'Sesame Street' FILE - In a Oct. 13, 2011 file photo, a Pakistani artist, left, gives final tou...
US ends funding for Pakistan's 'Sesame Street'
FILE - In a Oct. 13, 2011 file photo, a Pakistani artist, left, gives final touches to characters of Pakistani Sesame Street in Lahore, Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan says it terminated funding for a $20 million project to develop a local version of Sesame Street amid reports of corruption. Embassy spokesman Robert Raines said Tuesday, June 5, 2012, the U.S. terminated funding but declined to provide details. (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary, file)
The U.S. has terminated funding for a $20 million project to develop a Pakistani version of "Sesame Street" in response to alleged corruption by the local puppet theater working on the initiative, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
The organization in question is the Rafi Peer Theater Workshop, a group based in the city of Lahore that jointly developed the show with Sesame Workshop, the creator of the American series.
The show, which includes Elmo and a host of new Pakistani characters, first aired at the end of last year and was supposed to run for at least three seasons. The U.S. hoped it would improve education in a country where one-third of primary school-age children are not in class. It was also meant to increase tolerance at a time when the influence of radical views is growing.
The U.S. cut off funding for the project and launched an investigation after receiving what it deemed to be credible allegations of fraud and abuse on a telephone hotline set up by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Pakistan, said U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
"So rather than to continue to throw good money after bad, we thought it was prudent to cut off this program and wait for the results of the investigation," Toner told reporters in Washington.
A total of $6.7 million had been spent on the show so far out of a total of $20 million that was planned, he said.
The U.S. did not provide details about the alleged corruption.
The Pakistan Today newspaper reported Tuesday that the graft included using the U.S. money to pay off old debts and awarding lucrative contracts to relatives, citing unnamed sources close to the project.
Faizaan Peerzada, the chief operating officer of Rafi Peer and one of several family members who run the organization, denied the corruption allegations. He claimed the U.S. ended its participation because of the lack of additional available funds.
"Rafi Peer is proud of its association with the project and of the quality of children's educational television programming created within Pakistan as a result," the group said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.
If the corruption allegations prove true, it would be an embarrassment for the multibillion-dollar U.S. aid program in Pakistan, which some analysts have criticized for lacking focus and not achieving results.
Rafi Peer plans to seek alternative sources of funding to continue producing the local version of "Sesame Street," which is called "Sim Sim Hamara," or "Our Sim Sim." The original goal was to reach 3 million children, 1 million of whom are out of school.
The show is led by a vivacious 6-year-old girl named Rani who loves cricket and traditional Pakistani music. Her sidekick, Munna, is a 5-year-old boy obsessed with numbers and banging away on Pakistani bongo drums, or tabla. Other new characters include Baily, a kindly donkey who loves to sing, and Haseen O Jameel, a vain crocodile who lives at the bottom of a well.
The action revolves around a mock-up of a Pakistani town, complete with houses, a school and Baaji's dhaba, a small shop and restaurant found in many places in the country. The town also includes a large Banyan tree, known as the wisdom tree in South Asia, in the shade of which the children often play.
Each episode is based around a word and a number, like the U.S. version, and tackles general themes like friendship, respect and valuing diversity. This last theme is particularly important in Pakistan, where Islamist extremists often target minority religious sects and others who disagree with their views.
The American version of "Sesame Street" first aired in 1969, and the U.S. government has worked with the company since then to produce shows in about 20 foreign countries, including Muslim nations like Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Sesame Workshop, the creator of the American series, said it was dismayed to hear about the corruption allegations against Rafi Peer and noted that it received separate funding from USAID for its work on the Pakistani show.
"It is our hope that the achievements of Sim Sim Hamara, and the gains we have made in the lives of children in Pakistan, will carry on," it said in a statement.


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Juice Plus+®: The Next Best Thing to Fruits and Vegetables
Juice Plus+ is whole food based nutrition in a capsule and chewable form, containing juice powder concentrates from 30 different fruits, vegetables and grains. Juice Plus+ helps bridge the gap between what you should eat and what you do eat, and provides the starting point for a healthier way to live.
Juice Plus+ products are all-natural and made from quality ingredients sourced from farm fresh produce, so you can enjoy improved nutrition and wellness.


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We first started Explore. Create. Repeat to provide insight and inspiration to the creative community. Since our official relaunch in 2013, we produced over 130 original articles and interviews, and even released The Complete Guide To Fearless Freelancing. Our content was shared all across the web, and featured on popular sites like Swiss-Miss, Lifehacker, and the InVision blog.
Now, we're excited to announce the next step for ECR — featuring a brand new direction, brand new content, and a brand new name: Format Magazine. Format Magazine won't just pick up where ECR left off; we've given it a total rehaul.
Format Magazine explores the creative mind. Through our intimate artist profiles, weekly discussions, educational guides, and documentary video series, we're showcasing both the physical work as well as the inner workings of talented individuals all around the world, and advocating for creativity every step of the way.
A huge thank you to all our contributing writers, featured artists, and most importantly, to you our readers. We can't wait to take this next step with you.


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One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Art
A great artist should be able to create no matter what materials he has at hand, and since the cost of traditional materials like paint, marble and clay can add up quickly, it only makes sense that many artists have turned to a whole new source -- a trash bin.
If art is supposed to make you think, then these found object artists are certainly doing their job. After all, it's hard not to reconsider your definition of trash when you see something utterly amazing created from something that otherwise would have ended up at the local dump.
For a deeper look at found object art and the artists behind these creations, don't miss this great WebEcoist article.


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Please don't sue me for a bad review!
You remember recently when the news out of Italy was that some seismologists who had failed to adequately warn residents of an impending earthquake were threatened with lawsuits? According to published reports, some of them actually were sentenced to prison terms for manslaughter.
When I heard that, I thought it was insane. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I idly wondered if perhaps a wine critic, who was trying to be similarly objective in his reporting, could not someday be sued, for giving a wine a lousy review. The winery proprietor could argue something along the lines of slander, or defamation, or interference with his ability to run his business successfully, or monetary damages–something like that. And, in our litigious society, that proprietor might easily find a sympathetic jury. As this thought was mildly disturbing, I quickly got rid of it.
Then, there came this report, from just a few days ago, where a Minnesota doctor sued someone who had given him a bad review on a rate-your-doctor website. According to the report, the case has now reached the state's Supreme Court.
Now we have Rob McMillan, the resident wine guy at Silicon Valley Bank, musing on the question, "Can you sue a wine writer?" From Rob, we learn (I didn't know it) that Parker had been sued back in the 1990s by Faiveley for libel, after Parker implied that the Burgundy producer might have been "cheating" [Rob's word].
Rob also wondered about whether a bad Yelp review could result in a lawsuit, and about the culpability of bloggers. Speaking for myself, as both a published critic in Wine Enthusiast and as a blogger, I can't imagine a winery proprietor coming after me legally for a poor review. He or she would be so attacked by the media (other bloggers, editorialists, critics, mainstream columnists, the ACLU and other free speech defenders) that it wouldn't be worth his time or money to pursue such a case.
Besides, most of the wine I review–pretty much all of it, actually–is either sent to me by the proprietors, or submitted by them to large, regional blind tastings in places like Napa Valley and Santa Barbara County. If a proprietor elects to send his wine to a critic, he is rolling the dice and has to accept the consequences.
On Yelp's Usage Language box, they write that posters "…may expose yourself to liability if, for example, Your Content contains material that is false, intentionally misleading, or defamatory…". A review cannot be "false," since it's the writer's opinion, not a statement of fact. Nor can it be "intentionally misleading," unless someone can prove that the critic's state of mind was such that he really liked the wine in question, but then deliberately wrote otherwise. The word "defamatory" is harder to parse, but "defamation" means the intentional slander or libel of someone or something, and that, too, would have to be proved in court. Of course, an angry proprietor could know he didn't have a case and still wish to harass a critic, legally and financially, out of sheer pique.
I can see it happening one of these days, maybe not to me, but to someone else. It's already happened to restaurant critics. The San Francisco Chronicle's great reviewer, Michael Bauer, wrote a few years ago on his blog about how restaurant critics in both Australia and Philadelphia were sued for "liable for a defamatory review…These type of cases are nothing new," Michael wrote, adding that "The next frontier will be when a restaurant decides to sue a Web site, community reviewer or a blogger about comments made on the Internet." We may be perilously closer to that frontier than we think, if in fact we haven't already crossed it.
Thanks for mentioning the SVB on Wine blog Steve.
I'd love some more legal types to weigh in on the developing case law regarding bloggers right to flame (slander), versus Freedom of the Press. Its been a while since I checked, but I thought there were some cases where Bloggers were not given the same protections as traditional media?
I doubt we see a great increase in litigating bad professional reviews, if for no other reason than it just draws more attention to a bad review. I agree however that the area of developing legal interest will be on-line consumer reviews. Ignoring the litigation aspect for the moment, there are things winery owners should do with those flaming on-line reviews and I discussed some in the blog.
Last… because I don't want to become a test case for what can and can't be litigated, I didn't author the word "cheating" in my blog. I highligited a small section on the subject from the repository of all truth: Wikipedia as instructional of the topic. ( …. don't get me in trouble!!)
"Trying to be similarly objective in his reporting"? Come now, Steve. You can't be referring to yourself as you have renounced, wholesale, the possibility of objective wine assessment (and admitted to being able to correctly identify a variety 50% of the time.)
Even in this piece you say "A review cannot be "false," since it's the writer's opinion, not a statement of fact".
Examples of facts are: "This man is 6 feet, 1 inch tall". "The Sky is blue". "He has red, curly hair"
Examples of opinion are: "I don't like short men". "I like blue shirts, but not blue pants". "I find men with red curly hair to be silly-looking"
When you report actual facts in a review, you are being objective. When you write metaphors similes, it's an exercise in creative writing, but it is not objective analysis.
So, yes, Steve, a review can not only be "false" but "incorrect". Like a doctor failing to identify/diagnose a disease, a lawyer failing to identify a line of defense/prosecution or a contractor improperly installing electric wiring, plumbing or ceiling joists.
A wine's make up does not change with the observer. So, the observer must be astute and have acute senses and the wit to understand what those are telling him.
When a wine evaluator fails to a) correctly identify and, b) acknowledge the meaning of the organoleptic components of a wine, they are not demonstrating competence in sensory wine evaluation
If that is not the case, the evaluator is not qualified for the job and *should* be sued for every review they write – positive or negative,
because in either case, those mislead the public/reader.
Every so often, this subject comes up and everybody who likes to publicly opine about wine likes to chime in how it's impossible to objectively identify wine's sensory components (when they have neither training in wine chemistry nor human sensory neurophysiology).
Funny that this is not a tenet in the perfume industry.
Admitting that there are hard, fast absolutes to wine's organoleptics would discredit a lot of wine writers, piss off a lot of producers whose wine's don't reflect the character of the fruit and region listed on the label and hurt the fragile sensibilities of consumers who will spent three digits on a bottle of wine but don't want to hear that they have chose a lousy wine.
Let's get down to facts here, and not some imagined line of argument.
Libel is libel and it is a legal defintion that has little to do with identifying chemical components directly. It has to do with two things. The first is unbiased opinion based on perception. The second is not knowingly misleading statements such as " the sound was bouncing all over the place".
If one says that a highly oaked wine has an oxidative character, that is an opinion. It may be right or wrong according to someone else, but it an opinion based on perception. If someone says that a wine smells like cherries, that is clearly an analogy. If one says that there is cherry in the flavors, that might be, at first glance, a knowingly misleading statement. But then there is the question of damages.
Now, to real life and why I know that statements of opinion based on perception and not knowingly misleading cannot be the subject of successful lawsuits.
Case One: Our panel had a Sauvignon Blanc in a blind tasting. Its unusual character was variously described by our tasters as pinto bean, peanut butter and peat bog. When we wrote those words in a tasting note, the winery owner, a litigious lawyer, threaten to sue. I told him to go ahead. I had those views on the tasting notes of our panel. He went away angry, but he went away.
Then there was the time we were threatened by the lawyers for Matanzas Creek when we tasted a particularly flawed Pinot of theirs and commented that the winery had recognized the flaw and had poored it out. Turns out the winery had rebottled the wine they had in inventory and thought they corrected the flaw. So, we were wrong technically. I explained that our comments were meant as a compliment to the winery for doing the right thing, and that we would happily correct the oversight complete with the original review and an explanation that the winery had not done the right thing after all.
The threat to sue responsible reviewers is nothing more than that. It is an act of bullying in which the winery has its lawyer draw his gun and wave it in your face (figuratively, of course).
Now, if you describe a wine as being made with maple syrup, you may be in trouble. But not if you describe it as smelling like maple syrup–even when you are the only person in the world who has that perception.
Rob McMillan: "Its been a while since I checked, but I thought there were some cases where Bloggers were not given the same protections as traditional media?"
There are some statutes, often called "journalist shield laws" that give journalists the right to refuse to testify as to their sources — depending on how the particular state has drafted its statute, courts have had to struggle with figuring out who qualifies for that protection. But that has nothing to do with libel law.
For First Amendment purposes, a blogger has every bit as much protection as a professional journalist for Big Media Inc.


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TROY — The fatal stabbing on Monday in north Troy was a robbery that turned deadly, according to statements by police officials at a Tuesday press conference downtown. Deputy Troy Police Chief Richard McAvoy spoke to the press, praising police in the quick arrest of two teenagers, Keith Furgeson, 17, and Ahziarh Carter, 16. The pair was arraigned in Troy City Court Tuesday morning on second-degree murder charges in connection with the fatal stabbing of Takim Smith, an Albany resident. McAvoy said police arriving at the Corliss Park Apartments in Lansingburgh Monday evening and found Smith "bleeding profusely from several wounds." Inside the apartment was an infant child "unhurt" in the attack, McAvoy said. Police are reviewing surveillance video of the scene for evidence, and a search of the area that continued late Tuesday morning turned up "property," according to police reports. Cops were preparing to search the roof of a nearby Family Dollar store for additional evidence Tuesday afternoon. Law enforcement officials say they are looking into a recent financial settlement the victim recently received as a possible motive for the robbery. Troy Mayor Lou Rosamilia also addressed the press, praising police and vowing that the department will continue to "continue to work hard." Relatives of the victim say Smith wasn't the type to get in trouble and was currently enrolled in school. Police suspect he was visiting the infant child at the time of the attack.
Two Troy teens charged with murder in fatal stabbing Monday night (with video)
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While the audience of this blog is typically from well beyond the boundaries of my home county (and, I'm happy to say, even beyond the confines of this continent), I frequently look back to that place, as I have spent a considerable number of years writing about its history. No doubt, it's fascinating to me because of my family connections, going back to the early 1700s. Even my remote, non-familial connections to the story of blacks in the county are of interest to me, and take no back seat in my examinations of historical events or personalities.
Currently, the Page News and Courier (Luray, Virginia) has a column running, focused on the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War… and yet, every time I read it, I get visions of the Centennial… in which case, the story of African-Americans have been forgotten, or minimized. Sorry to say, but I can't link to the column, because it isn't online, but… the column spends time focusing on the broader story of events leading-up to the war (and mostly, it appears to be a deeper South-centric story… I suppose to suggest that the upper South was not so different than the lower South… and we know the error of such suggestions), with no real consideration of people and events in the county. While it may seem that there is incredibly little to write about at this time in relation to the county's history… no stories of local Confederates being formed in defense of the Southland, no stories of depredations at the hands of the Yankees, no stories about the Peter B. Borst's glorious stand for the rights of Page County's citizens in the secession convention… I submit that there are some difficult details to be considered that are being conveniently forgotten… and those details are found in the pre-war stories of slaves and free blacks in the county.
So, what made me pull out this soapbox today? It started with this video…
A moving reenactment indeed, and though this is a reenactment in St. Louis, the story it tells rings true, even for my home county.
Page County's history, as related to slavery, is a peculiar one, but its a story that needs to be told, all the same… and it only makes sense to tell it in conjunction with the Sesquicentennial… especially as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement.
If you go to Page County today, you will find but two mentions of slavery in the history of the county, in her historical markers… one being at Catharine's Furnace, and the other being on a supposed slave block that sets near the restored railroad depot in Luray. Oh, and that link that you see on this page, to the essay… "Is there a slave auction block in Luray, Page County, Virginia… or not"… that's no longer active, because Geocities closed shop more than a year back. I wrote the essay, because, honestly, from my perspective as a historian, it isn't a slave auction block, but, I think that may be worth a post by itself. Despite my objections to the stone receiving attention as a slave auction block, that doesn't mean I don't believe that slave auctions took place in the county. In fact, in the course of my research, I uncovered an account that had been lost for years, of an auction at Marksville, near what is now the town of Stanley. To date, the 1856 slave auction at Marksville is the only slave auction that I know of to have been documented as having taken place in Page County. The author, Jacob R. Seekford, wrote:
In 1856, when the southern slave buyers would come into this county and would buy slaves and would take them to the south in large droves of colored men and women. In 1856, just in front of the door of the house where 'Skeet' Good lives at Marksville, was the place where they sold slaves. Mary Williams, then the mother of two little girls belonging to Paschal Graves, was with her little baby girl put on the block and sold to a man who took them away down south, then the other little girl was sold to Daniel Koontz for $400, and Mr. Koontz gave the little girl to Mrs. John P. Foltz, who lived at Newport. Mrs. Foltz being his daughter. This little negro girl grew to womanhood and married William Winston, she is still living in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Her name was Martha. Many years ago she asked me if I could find her mother and sister. I told her that it would be impossible, then she broke down and cried. I do not know how it will be in the great beyond, but I would like to be there when Martha meets and clasps hands with her mother and sister. Those were terrible days, and I have often wondered what it might some day bring upon this country.
If that doesn't tug on the heartstrings, I don't know what will… and it ties back to the beginning of this post, with that video.
My point today is that, yes… my home county had slaves, and as we are now in the midst of the Sesquicentennial, with local media taking advantage of the opportunity to present the story of the war in a column… why are we still hearing the same story that was so commonly told in the 1960s? Where are the stories… of this auction… of Bethany Veney… of slave resistance (yes, Page County has a few examples of this as well)… of inhumane treatment of slaves… of the critical role slaves played in the stories of some families… and even of free blacks and their hopes for the freedom of their family members? It can all be found in Page County. I know, because I've found much of it… and most in the old editions of the very newspaper where that column about the Sesquicentennial now runs.
And, as for the coming war and Page's white population… well, at least those who wore gray (saying nothing yet of those who were Southern Unionists)…
Was slavery the motivation for the common soldier serving in the war? Or… was it the motivation for those slave-holding elites who carried the county into war… taking along with them, the common man, convinced by the elites that it was more a matter of states' rights? Was states' rights a "masking device" for the deeper cause of slavery? Was the common man ignorant or unaware that, though he owned no slaves, he was still fighting for the preservation of the institution? Or, was he well aware of this, but the institution being something he had been in the midst of, all his life (call it, the status quo), it was only a secondary concern? Granted, motivations for service are complicated enough, but we still can't deny the fact that slavery is at the core of the discussion.
So, tell us the story of the slaves AND free blacks there, and how all of that plays into what is important for us to consider during the Sesquicentennial… if we don't tell the story now… then when will it be convenient to do so in our reflections of history?
*For some reflections on the early history of African-Americans in Page County, I encourage you to see one of my info compilation blogs… Too Long Forgotten: Searching for the History of Slaves and Free Blacks in Page County, Virginia.


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Last week an unnamed group (commentary elsewhere) ran this full page ad (below) in The Washington Post disagreeing with the use of Sea of Japan over East Sea for the body of water between the Korean peninsula and Japan. The series of ads has also appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The group also has informational pamphlets on several other contested issues.
In the US English, the conventional, Federal Board of Geographic Names toponymn for this body of water is "Sea of Japan", and the conventional alternative name is also "East Sea" (Tong-hae romanized from Korean native script). When space is available, the placename is shown as "Sea of Japan (East Sea)". As with any placename, alternatives are dropped under space constraints (such as with a 1 column map).
When the 8th Edition National Geographic Atlas of the World was published earlier this decade, a similar campaign (though more threatening) was run about the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).
Tags: bgn, east sea, korea, nyt, placename, sea of japan, toponymn, twp, wash post, wsj


text: With annual sales of $4.6 billion, Motion Industries is a leading industrial parts distributor of bearings, mechanical power transmission, electrical and industrial automation, hydraulic and industrial hose, hydraulic and pneumatic components, industrial products, safety products, and material handling. Motion Industries has over 530 locations, including 13 distribution centers throughout North America and serves more than 300,000 customers from the food and beverage, pulp and paper, iron and steel, chemical, mining and aggregate, petrochemical, automotive, wood and lumber, and pharmaceutical industries. more... See more text


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Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive cancer that grows quickly, so treatment will usually begin a few days after a diagnosis has been confirmed.
As AML is a complex condition, it's usually treated by a group of different specialists working together called a multidisciplinary team (MDT).
Treatment for AML is often carried out in 2 stages:
- induction – this first stage of treatment aims to kill as many leukaemia cells in your blood and bone marrow as possible and treat any symptoms you may have
- consolidation – this stage aims to prevent the cancer coming back (relapsing) by killing any remaining leukaemia cells in your body
The induction stage of treatment is not always successful and sometimes needs to be repeated before consolidation can begin.
If you're thought to have a high risk of experiencing complications of AML treatment (for example, if you're over 75 or have another underlying health condition), less intensive chemotherapy treatment may be carried out.
Your doctors will watch you carefully and suggest other treatments if needed.
The initial treatment you have for AML will largely depend on whether you're fit enough to have intensive chemotherapy, or whether treatment at a lower dosage is recommended.
Intensive chemotherapy
If you can have intensive induction chemotherapy, you'll be given chemotherapy medicine at a high dose to kill the cancerous cells in your blood and bone marrow.
You'll usually be given a combination of 2 or more chemotherapy medicines.
The treatment will be carried out in hospital or in a specialist centre, as you'll need very close medical and nursing supervision.
You may be able to go home between treatment rounds.
You'll have regular blood transfusions because your blood will not contain enough healthy blood cells.
You'll also be vulnerable to infection, so it's important that you're in a clean and stable environment where your health can be carefully monitored and any infection you have can be treated quickly.
You may also be prescribed antibiotics to help prevent infections.
For intensive treatment, the chemotherapy medicines will be injected into a thin tube that's inserted either into a blood vessel near your heart or into your arm.
Side effects of intensive chemotherapy for AML are common.
They can include:
- feeling or being sick
- bruising or bleeding easily
- diarrhoea
- loss of appetite
- sore mouth and mouth ulcers (mucositis)
- tiredness
- skin rashes
- hair loss
- infertility – this may be temporary or permanent (see complications of AML for more information)
Most side effects should resolve once treatment has finished. Tell a member of your care team if side effects become particularly troublesome, as there are medicines that can help you cope better with certain side effects.
Find out more about the side effects of chemotherapy
Non-intensive chemotherapy
If your doctors do not think you're fit enough to withstand the effects of intensive chemotherapy, they may recommend non-intensive treatment.
This involves using an alternative type of chemotherapy to the standard intensive therapy.
The medicines used during non-intensive chemotherapy may be given through a drip into a vein, by mouth or by injection under the skin, and can often be given on an outpatient basis.
Other medicines
If you have the type of AML known as acute promyelocytic leukaemia, you'll usually be given other medicines as well as having chemotherapy.
The 2 medicines most commonly used are:
- all tans retinoic acid (ATRA) – usually given during and after induction chemotherapy, it changes immature white blood cells into healthy mature cells, and can reduce symptoms quickly
- arsenic trioxide – usually given if the AML has come back, it speeds up the death of leukaemia cells and changes the immature blood cells into healthy mature cells
Side effects of ATRA can include headaches, nausea, bone pain, and dry mouth (excessive thirst), skin and eyes.
If there's no AML left after induction chemotherapy, the next stage of treatment is consolidation.
This often involves receiving regular injections of chemotherapy medicine that are usually given in hospital.
The consolidation phase of treatment lasts several months.
Radiotherapy involves using high doses of controlled radiation to kill cancerous cells.
It's used to:
- prepare the body for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant
- treat advanced cases that have spread to the nervous system or brain, although this is uncommon
Side effects of radiotherapy can include hair loss, nausea and fatigue.
Most of the side effects should pass once your course of radiotherapy has been completed.
Bone marrow and stem cell transplants
If the treatment is not working or there's a high chance of your leukaemia coming back, you may be offered a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
Before transplantation can take place, the person receiving the transplant will need intensive high-dose chemotherapy, and possibly radiotherapy, to destroy the cells in their bone marrow.
You may be given donated stem cells or you may have a transplant of your own stem cells. The stem cells are given through a tube into a blood vessel (a drip) in a similar way to chemotherapy medicine.
You'll need to stay in hospital for a few weeks after the transplant, usually in a room on your own, because you'll have a high chance of getting infections.
Your friends and family should be able to visit you, but they'll need to wear protective clothing.
Transplantations have better outcomes if the donor has the same tissue type as the person receiving the donation.
The best candidate to provide a donation is usually a brother or sister with the same tissue type.
Targeted medicines
You may be offered targeted medicines if you have certain types of AML. Targeted medicines affect the way cancer cells grow.
Some targeted medicines come as tablets and others are given through a drip into your vein.
Adults recently diagnosed with AML may be offered a combination of venetoclax and low-dose cytarabine, if intensive chemotherapy is not suitable.
Your specialist can discuss with you whether targeted treatment is suitable for you.
In the UK, a number of clinical trials are currently underway that aim to find the best way of treating AML.
Clinical trials are studies that use new and experimental techniques to see how well they work in treating, and possibly curing, AML.
As part of your treatment, your care team may suggest taking part in a clinical trial to help researchers learn more about the best way to treat your AML, and AML in general.
Find a clinical trial for acute myeloid leukaemia on Cancer Research UK
If you take part in a clinical trial, you may be offered medicine that's not licensed for use in the UK and is not normally available.
But there's no guarantee that the techniques being studied in the clinical trial will work better than current treatments.
Your care team can tell you whether there are any clinical trials available in your area, and can explain the benefits and risks involved.
Find more research into AML on Cancer Research UK
A treatment team for AML may include a:
- haematologist (blood cancer specialist)
- haemato-pathologist (specialist in the study of cancerous blood cells)
- paediatrician (specialist in treating children)
- cancer nurse specialist (sometimes called a CNS), who will be the first point of contact between you and the members of your care team
- radiologist (specialist in X-rays and scans)
- pharmacist
- social worker
- psychologist
- counsellor


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Today's tip was written by Jerome Courtial, an engagement planner here at BBH in London.
Jerome is a very smart and interesting guy - I highly recommend you check out his blog, digicynic, from which he kindly lets me reproduce this post (his blog is quite new, you could probably read the whole thing in one sitting.)
Anyway, here's his take on virals.
HOW TO DO VIRALS, by Jerome Courtial
All virals are Black Swan. In fact, using past references and case studies might make you less likely to come up with the next big viral phenomenon.
I'm talking here, of course, about the uber-virals. The ones that have been seen by millions of people, that everyone talked about, that have changed pop culture and have redefined the way we do advertising.
I'm not restricting my thoughts to online virals as now, any piece of communication can become viral - the internet is just the facilitator.
I'm also not just talking about 'advertising' virals, but phenomenons that have ended up being virals (Chocolate Rain, Mentos and Diet Coke, Blairwitch…)
There are only very few real virals every year. The subservient chicken, Kylie's Agent Provocateur video, John West Salmon, the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment are a few examples.
We've all analysed their success and come up with pretty solid arguments as to why they were so successful. Yet no one seems to have found the right formula to reproduce this kind of phenomenon.
But let's go back to the Black Swan theory from Taleb's new book:
What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes.
First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable.
And here's his argument summarised (whole article on Moneyweek here):
Taleb argues that humans are 'hard wired' to see the world through the lens of the 'Platonic fallacy.' We look for structure where there is none and comprehension where none is possible. Such people are condemed to live in the realm of 'Mediocristan'. There, their understanding will be conditioned by "Platonified economists with their phoney bell-curve-based equations". More, they will constantly fool themselves with the "narrative fallacy" – the human drive to impose a post hoc explanation on even the most shocking events.
Let's come back to the last point. The "narrative fallacy". Which is, how humans beings like to find patterns where none exist, trying to make sense of the unexpectable.
If you were to ask 10 advertising gurus why the subservient chicken was so successful, you'd probably get 10 different points of view. The surprise, the innovative use of the technology, the awkwardness, the comic factor… All making for a pretty sound explanation of why this one piece of work, out of hundreds of thousands, achieved such a grand scale success.
Yet, for all these explanations, no one seems to be able to use this knowledge to recreate similar effects.
Being able to understand and analyse great virals is in no way a factor in predicting whether a piece of communication will go viral, let alone trying to manufacture another one.
I will go further than that. I actually think it's counter-intuitive. As soon as you have some big principles as to why communication have turned out to be great virals, you are even less likely to come up with the next one.
As I said, all the virals listed above had one point in common. Their success was totally unexpected. You could not predict that, overnight, kids around the world would start popping Mentos into Diet Coke bottles following an online video. It's easy to post-rationalise why they did. But it in no way guarantees that you will be able to come back with the next one (especially if you are one of the two brands involved).
Some agencies or really talented people have a better feel for what will is likely to become viral. But they are just doing better work than the rest. No one has found a formula to consistently turn communication into virals. Crispin Porter and Bogusky have never been able to reproduce another viral of the scale of the Subservient Chicken. The Viral Factory has not done something as successful as the Trojan Olympics. (And I'm happy to be proved wrong), Fallon will find it hard to come up with something as hugely popular as the bouncing balls or the drumming gorilla.
There is a big difference between great work, getting numbers and people talking, and highly successful virals. Yes, having some principles help us get to better work, but not to amazing work. It is only 0.01% of communication that has a major impact on our industry and on our audience's lives.
So when trying to turn a communication into the next big viral, don't just look at what has been successful in the past: it will give no indicators of what will be in the future and will make you less likely to achieve it. You need to be brave and look into other areas, new directions, outside of advertising. Don't try to predict success by comparing it with the 10 most successful virals, it just won't work.
By looking at past examples, you are going to make contrived work that is never going to be any better than the originals you were looking at. You've put yourself into the wrong frame of mind. Therefore it won't be surprising. Or unexpected. This behaviour could not have led to the drumming gorilla or balls, because they broke every single rule of what people thought a good viral was made of.
Which explains why it's so easy to post-rationalise why something went viral (by retrospectively applying a pattern to it) yet so completely impossible to recreate one.
Previous Tips:
How To Get A Pay Rise; Be Wary Of Punding; Challenge The Brief; Tell The Truth; Playing To Lose; How To Write Headlines; How To Do Direct; How To Do Radio; How To Do Press; How To Do TV; How To Do Digital; How To Do Posters; Look At Weird Shit; Presenting To The Client; Presenting To The Team; Presenting To The Creative Director; How To Deal With Rejection; Look Creative; Don't Be Afraid To Ask; Your Idea Has To Be 120%; Read Iain's Tips; Don't Behave; How To Discuss Ideas; Read Hugh's Tips; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7); How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together; How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ; Make Friends With Traffic; Get Reference; Don't Stop Too Soon; Be Very; Breaking Up; Working Well With Your Partner; Finding The Right Partner; How To Approach Agencies; Never-Seen-Before Footage; Dicketts' Finger; Two Blokes In The Pub; Play Family Fortunes; Should You Take A Bad Job?; Don't Overpolish


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May 4th, 2012
Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Patricia Jinich is chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute. She also hosts "Pati's Mexican Table" on National Public Television and blogs at Pati's Mexican Table.
I was born and raised in Mexico City, in a family where every taco happens to be, as my dad boasts, "the best taco you've ever had in your entire life." That is, until you eat the next one.
Living in the US, I am often dismayed at how my home country is portrayed in the media. For some, it's easy to just write off the entire country as dangerous and riddled with cartel violence. As a former political analyst, I am not in denial about the hurdles my country faces, but the Mexico illustrated in some news reports is certainly not the Mexico I know and love - nor is it the Mexico experienced by the 22.67 million international tourists that visited last year.
Cooking, eating and sharing Mexican food has helped me and my Mexican-American boys connect with our heritage. Plus, I truly believe that its warm, generous, colorful cuisine has the power to make Americans fall in love with Mexico - one bite at a time.
I started cooking at home; it was the best way I knew how to take care of my husband, and later my boys. Saucy huevos rancheros on late morning weekends, steaming tamales when we had friends over, soothing caldo de pollo when they got sick, panqué marmoleado to finish with something sweet, aguas frescas to freshen our meals. I began my hunt for Mexican ingredients, which as the years moved on, became increasingly available as the American appetite grew for a wider Mexican food experience.
Eventually, I traded my policy papers for cooking pots. As a chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute, where I direct and teach a Mexican Culinary Program, I embrace the opportunity to share Mexico's rich culture and diverse cuisine. In fact, it is so rich and unique it has UNESCO world heritage status.
When my students, TV show viewers and American friends raise the inevitable questions about traveling to Mexico, I point to my own experience traveling with my young family. Each time we've returned to Mexico, I delightfully find the Mexico that I know.
Overall and underneath, there is a country and culture that is just like its food: incredibly rich, colorful, genuine, giving and accommodating. Just like a luscious mole sauce, with subtle layers of warmth, comfort, ease and hospitality.
Together, we have ridden the entire Copper Canyon route, sampling our way from Los Mochis in Sinaloa to Chihuahua, where the cook of a local restaurant drove us in the back of her wagon to the hotel as our littlest one fell asleep.
We've eaten such tasty freshly made gorditas in the train stops that, to this day, I hear complaints about how we need to go back for those exact same ones. We almost missed the train as I chased after the fresh fruit cart man, who quickly opened sweet ripe mangoes and topped them with fresh lime juice, salt and ground pequin chile, because it is better to miss the train than to eat the mango without the whole works.
In a market in Merida, we were invited into a stranger's kitchen to learn the secret to the perfect achiote recado, the paste that has uniquely seasoned countless dishes in the Yucatan for centuries. The sweetest Purepecha cook taught the boys how to work the Michoacán black clay into the cutest mugs and cups, so that the cook's aunt could show me how to prepare corundas (similar to tamales) in her own kitchen. It's our culture to feed the people we love, and share it with those who are interested in exploring it.
As varied as the places I've been throughout the country, they all share an eclectic and wonderful mix of centuries-old traditions with a weaving of the new and modern. Mexicans are natural hosts – they will do everything they can to make you feel at home in their country and in their homes. We will place our own plates in front of you, if you happen to be hungry. This warmth and openness really sets Mexico apart as a tourist destination.
The travel and tourism industry is crucial to Mexico. It's the source of jobs, opportunities and tremendous pride for millions of people. When you read certain headlines, please take your margarita with more than a grain of salt; what you read in the news is not necessarily gospel. Mexico is a vast, beautiful and diverse country. The overwhelming majority of incidents have taken place in the border areas, more than a two-hour flight from popular tourist destinations like Los Cabos or the Riviera Maya - and cartel-related incidents targeted at tourists are incredibly rare, virtually unheard of.
If you open your mind and your heart you will find a Mexico that is as warm, vibrant and as nurturing as the food itself. The more I savor Mexico, the more I realize how much more I have yet to taste, to travel, to see, to learn and to share. In fact, I think experiences of Mexico are just like tacos - you think you've had the best one ever, until you try the next.
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