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by Dr. G.F. Haddad
Al-Sulamī, Muh.ammad ibn al-H.usayn ibn Muh.ammad ibn Mūsā, Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān al-Azdī al-Sulamī al-Naysabūrī al-Shāfi'ī (325-412), the h.adīth Master, Shaykh of the S.ūfīs, and bibliophile who authored hundreds of books, "he was of very high status" (al-Dhahabī), "the Shaykh of the Path in his time who was granted mastery in all the sciences of the realities and knowledge of the path of tas.awwuf, he authored many wondrous treatises in the science of the Folk, having inherited tas.awwuf from his father then his grandfather, and he authored, in that field, an unprecedented amount of works, exceeding one hundred" ('Abd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī). He came from a modest home and was orphaned of his Azdī father – reputed for his refined manners and scrupulous transactions – in his teens, after which his maternal, Sulamī grandfather took charge of his education.
He narrated from al-Dāraqut.nī, Abū al-'Abbās al-As.amm, Ah.mad ibn 'Alī ibn H.asnūyah al-Muqri', Ah.mad ibn Muh.ammad ibn 'Abdūs, Muh.ammad ibn Ah.mad ibn Sa'īd al-Rāzī, Ibn Wārah, Abū Z.uhayr 'Abd Allāh ibn Fāris al-'Umarī al-Balkhī, Muh.ammad ibn al-Mu'ammal al-Māsarjisī, the h.adīth Master Abū 'Alī al-H.usayn ibn Muh.ammad al-Naysabūrī, Sa'īd ibn al-Qāsim al-Barda'ī, Ah.mad ibn Muh.ammad ibn Rumayh. al-Nasawī, and his grandfather Abū 'Amr Ismā'īl ibn Nujayd ibn Muh.addith Naysabūr Ah.mad ibn Yūsuf al-Sulamī. It is related that he began to narrate as early at age eight, in 333, in writing, from his Shaykh, Abū Bakr al-S.ibghī. He did narrate occasionally from Abū Nu'aym al-As.bahānī although the latter was his junior of five years.
Among those who narrated from him: al-H.ākim, al-Qushayrī, al-Bayhaqī, Abū Sa'īd ibn Rāmish, Abū Bakr Muh.ammad ibn Yah.yā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muzakkī, Abū S.ālih. al-Mu'adhdhin, the leader (ra'īs) of As.bahān Abū 'Abd Allāh al-Qāsim ibn al-Fad.l ibn Ah.mad al-Thaqafī al-Jūbārī (d. 489), Ah.mad ibn Muh.ammad ibn 'Abd al-Wāh.id al-Wakīl, known as al-Munkadirī, al-Qād.ī Ah.mad ibn 'Alī ibn al-H.usayn al-Tawwazī – from both of whom al-Khat.īb narrates the notice on al-Sulamī in his Tārīkh Baghdād –, Abū Bakr Ah.mad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd Allāh al-Shīrāzī al-Naysabūrī the Musnid of Khurāsān, Abū H.āmid Ah.mad ibn Muh.ammad al-Ghazzālī al-T.ūsī the Elder, of Transoxiana (d. 435) – the uncle or great-uncle of H.ujjat al-Islām –, Abū Muh.ammad al-Juwaynī the father of Imām al-H.aramayn, 'Ubayd Allāh ibn Ah.mad ibn 'Uthmān al-Azharī, one of al-Khat.īb's most famous Shaykhs, 'Alī ibn Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Khat.ībī of Awzakand in Transoxiana, his close friend and scribe the h.adīth Master Abū Mans.ūr 'Umar ibn Ah.mad ibn Muh.ammad al-Jūrī al-Naysabūrī (d. 469), the jurist Abū H.afs. 'Umar ibn Ismā'īl ibn 'Umar al-Marwazī al-Jis.s.īnī, the Persian S.ūfī poet Fad.l Allāh Abū Sa'īd ibn Abī al-Khayr al-Mayhanī, Abū Bakr Muh.ammad ibn Ismā'īl ibn Muh.ammad al-Naysabūrī al-Tiflīsī, Abū al-H.asan Mahdī ibn Muh.ammad ibn al-'Abbās al-T.abarī al-Māmat.īrī, known as Ibn Sarhank, Abū Bakr Muh.ammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn H.abīb ibn 'Abdūs al-S.affār, Abū al-Qāsim Ismā'īl ibn Zāhir ibn Muh.ammad al-Nūqānī al-Naysabūrī, and others.
He wrote h.adīth in Naysabūr, Marw, Iraq, and the H.ijāz, and narrated h.adīth for over forty years, by dictation and reading, forming several major Masters. His works became well-known and spread far and wide in his own lifetime. He also took tas.awwuf from the Malāmatī Shaykhs Ibn Munāzil and Abū 'Alī al-Thaqafī in Khurāsān as well as from the students of Abū 'Uthmān al-H.īrī, Abū Nas.r al-Sarrāj the author of al-Luma', his grandfather Abū 'Amr ibn Nujayd, and Abū al-Qāsim al-Nas.rābādhī, with whom he would attend h.adīth gatherings.
Al-Khat.īb narrates that Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī said that when his teacher, Abū 'Alī al-Daqqāq, heard that al-Sulamī practiced samā' in the fashion of the Fuqarā' – the S.ūfīs – he said: "For such as him, in his state, stillness would have been more appropriate." Then al-Daqqāq said to Abū al-Qāsim: "Go to him, you will find him sitting in his library. On top of his books you will find a small square red volume containing the poetry of al-H.usayn ibn Mans.ūr [al-H.allāj]. Bring it to me without letting him know." Al-Qushayrī went and found al-Sulamī in his library and the book in full view as his teacher had said. He sat down then al-Sulamī said: "A certain man used to criticize one of the Ulema for moving during samā'. That man was glimpsed one day, in the privacy his house, whirling like one overwhelmed with emotion. He was asked why and replied, 'A difficult question had been on my mind which makes sense to me now, so I could not control myself out of joy, and got up and whirled around.' We say to him: Such is their state." When al-Qushayrī, on the one hand, saw exactly what Abū 'Alī had described as he had described it and, on the other hand, Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān speaking as if to address what Abū 'Alī had said in private before, he found himself in a dilemma. He decided to reveal everything to al-Sulamī and told him: "I fear to offend you and yet cannot disobey my teacher." Al-Sulamī said: "Take the book and tell him I sometimes cite excerpts from this poetry in my works."[1]
Al-Qushayrī narrates that al-Sulamī asked Abū 'Alī al-Daqqāq: "What is more perfect, invocation (dhikr) or reflection (fikr)?" Al-Daqqāq replied: "What is it that constitutes a spiritual opening for the Shaykh?" Al-Sulamī said: "For me, dhikr is more perfect because the Real (al-H.aqq) is described by dhikr and not by reflection." Abū 'Alī approved.
Al-Sulamī said: "The root of tas.awwuf is adherence to the Book and the Sunna; abandonment of lusts and innovations; high respect of the Shaykhs; sight of the excuses of creatures; and perseverance in the recitation of daily devotions."[2]
One day al-Sulamī went to Marw only to find that his teacher Abū Sahl al-Su'lūkī had replaced his gathering of early-morning Qur'an recitation with a gathering of poetry recitation. Later, Abū Sahl asked: "Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān, what do the people say about me?" Al-Sulamī replied: "They say, he has replaced the gathering of Qur'an recitation with a gathering of poetry recitation." Abū Sahl said: "Whoever says to his Shaykh: 'Why?' shall never succeed." Al-Dhahabī comments: "Only if he is infallible; but if the Shaykh is not infallible and yet hates questioning then he shall never succeed. Allāh I said [help one another unto righteousness and pious duty] (5:2), [and exhort one another to truth] (103:3), [and exhort one another to pity] (90:17). True, now the murīds are peevish boors, always objecting and never following, talking and not acting – such shall never succeed."
Al-Sulamī narrated with his chain from Ibn al-Mubārak that the latter said: "It is incumbent upon a wise person that he not make light of three things: Ulema, Sultans, and brothers. Whoever makes light of the Ulema, his hereafter is lost; whoever makes light of the Sultan, his worldly life is lost; and whoever makes light of his brothers, his dignity is lost." Al-Dhahabī cites it.
Al-Khat.īb wrote in his Tārīkh Baghdād: "Muh.ammad ibn Yūsuf al-Naysabūrī [al-Qat.t.ān] said to me, 'Al-Sulamī was untrustworthy and used to forge narrations for the S.ūfīs.'" Al-Khat.īb then says: "Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān is held in the highest esteem by the people of his country, his rank in his community is great, and he is, in addition to this, an authority in h.adīth."[3] Al-Qat.t.ān was a contemporary Naysabūrī countryman of al-Sulamī who did not achieve the latter's fame. Sibt. Ibn al-Jawzī rejects his condemnation as motivated by envy.[4] Al-Dhahabī in his Mīzān and Mughnī endorses the disparagement while his student Ibn al-Subkī rejects it: "Al-Khat.īb's statement concerning al-Sulamī is the correct position, Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān is trustworthy (thiqa), and [al-Qat.t.ān'] criticism of him carries no weight at all."[5] Al-Khat.īb further said of al-Sulamī, "He was a proficient (mujawwid) authority in h.adīth" while al-H.ākim said, "He was prolific in his auditions and narration of h.adīth and meticulous in narration." Al-Dhahabī himself states in the Siyar: "Al-Sulamī has a compilation of questions he put to al-Dāraqut.nī on the status of the Shaykhs of h.adīth that reveal high expertise…. but he is not strong in h.adīth."
Al-Sulamī had gathered a large library of books and manuscripts on tas.awwuf and h.adīth from which the Shaykhs of Naysabūr borrowed at will. He used to spend time in his library, reading and writing. He achieved, in the words of Abū Nu'aym, "complete mastery of the ways of the S.ūfīs so as to summarize it according to the elaborations of the ancients."[6] He began to author books in his twenties and did not stop until his death fifrty-odd years later. Among his works:
· Ādāb al-S.ūfiyya.
· Ādāb al-S.uh.ba wa H.usn al-'Ushra which begins, "Glory to Allāh Who has immensely honored the elite of His servants with intimate friendship in the Religion, and raised them so as to show generosity towards His sincere servants…."
· Amthāl al-Qur'ān.
· Al-Arba'īn fī al-H.adīth on simple living and asceticism. This work was published by Dā'irat al-Ma'ārif al-'Uthmāniyya al-Niz.āmiyya in H.aydarabād.
· Bayān Ah.wāl al-S.ūfiyya.
· Darajāt al-Mu'āmalāt, an explanatory glossary of S.ūfī terminology.
· Darajāt al-S.ādiqīn.
· Al-Farq bayn al-Sharī'a wal-H.aqīqa.
· Al-Futuwwa ("Spiritual Chivalry "), in print. Its translation is also in print.
· Ghalat.āt al-S.ūfiyya, a critique of certain S.ūfī interjections (shat.āh.āt) and refutation of those who forward indwelling, incarnationism, and the uncreatedness of the soul.
· H.aqā'iq al-Tafsīr, a S.ūfī commentary on the Qur'ān that achieved fame already in al-Sulamī's lifetime but later became controversial. Al-Sulamī said: "When we came to Baghdād, Shaykh Abū H.āmid al-Isfarāyīnī said to me, 'I would like to see H.aqā'iq al-Tafsīr.' I sent him a copy and he looked at it. Then he said, 'I would like to hear it,' and they set up a pulpit for me." Al-Khashshāb narrated in his biography of al-Sulamī that after Abū al-'Abbās al-Nasawī heard the H.aqā'iq from him and went to Egypt to transmit it, he received a gift of one thousand dinars solely for transmitting that work. Ibn al-Jawzī said that the work was entirely original, "without reference to the principles of the Religion,"[7] while al-Dhahabī exclaims: "He authored H.aqā'iq al-Tafsīr in which he included cruxes and the figurative interpretations of the esotericists (al-bāt.iniyya) – we ask Allāh for mercy! …. Would that he had not compiled it…. It is Qarmat.ism.… He committed much distortion (tah.rīf) [or folly (takhrīf)] in it."[8] Ibn al-S.alāh. in his Fatāwā reports from al-Wāh.idī the opinion that whoever considers the H.aqā'iq an actual Tafsīr has committed kufr then says: "In my view, the conjecture regarding those who are trusted is that, in such a case, they mean other than actual tafsīr or explanation of the word mentioned in the Noble Qur'ān. Otherwise, they would have trodden the path of the esotericists. In fact, they only mention the parallel (naz.īr) of what the Qur'ān mentioned. Thus, the [spiritual] parallel is mentioned together with the [Qur'anic] parallel. So, when they mention killing one's ego with reference to the verse [Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you] (9:123), it is as if he said, 'Allāh has commanded us to fight the ego as well as those of the believers who are near us.' And yet, I wish they had not been so lax in such interpretations due to the misunderstandings and misconceptions they contain, and Allāh knows best."[9] Al-Suyūt.ī mentioned this fatwā in his Itqān after stating, "The discourses of the S.ūfīs concerning the Qur'ān are not tafsīr," elsewhere describing the H.aqā'iq as "a dispraised Tafsīr."[10] Ibn al-Subkī said: "Al-Dhahabī should not attribute 'very high status' to one to whom he then attributes distortion and Qarmat.ism. The book he refers to has caused much talk due to the fact that it confines itself to the mention of figurative interpretations in a manner appropriate to the S.ūfīs and keeps at bay the outward sense of the words." The work is in print in two volumes.
· Al-Ikhwatu wal-Akhawāt min al-S.ūfiyya.
· Al-Istishhādāt.
· Jawāmi' Ādāb al-S.ūfiyya which begins, "Glory to Allāh Who has adorned His friends with the high manners of externals and internals…. I thought of gathering together something about the ethics of the Masters of spiritual states and the early friends of Allāh…"
· Al-Malāmatiyya, an expository epistle that was published in Cairo in 1945.
· Manāhij al-'Ārifīn.
· Maqāmāt al-Awliyā' ("The Spiritual Stations of the Friends of Allāh"). Shaykh Muh.yī al-Dīn Ibn 'Arabī used it for his epistle Muh.ād.arāt al-Abrār.
· Masā'il Waradat min Makka.
· Mih.an al-S.ūfiyya ("The Trials of the S.ūfīs").
· Al-Muqaddima fī al-Tas.awwuf wa H.aqīqatih, in print.
· Al-Radd 'alā Ahl al-Kalām.
· Al-Samā'.
· Al-Su'ālāt, technical questions al-Sulamī put to the major h.adīth Master al-Dāraqut.nī on narrators and h.adīth minutiae.
· Sulūk al-'Ārifīn.
· Sunan al-S.ūfiyya.
· T.abaqāt al-S.ūfiyya, al-Sulamī's biographical masterpiece, in which he built upon and expanded previous works such as Shaykh al-Islām Abū Saīd Ibn al-A'rābī's (d. 341) T.abaqāt al-Nussāk; his teacher Abū Bakr Muh.ammad ibn Dāwūd ibn Sulaymān al-Naysabūrī's (d. 342) Akhbār al-S.ūfiyya wa al-Zuhhād; and Abū al-'Abbās Ah.mad ibn Muh.ammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Nasawī's (d. 396) Tārīkh al-S.ūfiyya. Among its continuations are al-Harawī al-Ans.ārī's (d. 481) T.abaqāt al-S.ūfiyya in Persian, Abū Nu'aym's H.ilyat al-Awliyā', al-Jāmī's Nafah.āt al-Uns in Persian, and al-Sha'rānī's Lawāqih. al-Anwār fī T.abaqāt al-Akhyār. Abū Muslim Ghālib ibn 'Alī al-Rāzī said that when they read al-Sulamī's T.abaqāt in Ray for the first time in 384 there was such a crowd that a boy got trampled to death and a man died from the emotion of hearing the work: "Then, when I departed for Hamadhān, crowds were following us for a full leg of travel, asking for certificates of transmission." Its excellent edition by the Azharī Shaykh Nūr al-Dīn Shurayba is preceded by a overview of al-Sulamī's works in manuscript and print.
· Tahdhīb al-Nāsikh wal-Mansūkh fil-Qur'ān li Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī.
· Tārīkh Ahl al-S.uffa, listing their names and merits, which Abū Nu'aym used.
· Tārīkh al-S.ūfiyya, compiled before the T.abaqāt al-S.ūfiyya. Al-Dhahabī and Abū Nu'aym quote from it extensively in Tārīkh al-Islām and the H.ilya respectively. 'Abd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī wrote in his Us.ūl al-Dīn:
The book Tārīkh al-S.ūfiyya by Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān al-Sulamī comprises the biographies of nearly a thousand sheikhs of the Sūfīs, none of whom belonged to heretical sects and all of whom were of the Sunnī community, with the exception of only three of them: Abū H.ilmān of Damascus, who pretended to be of the Sūfīs but actually believed in incarnationism (h.ulūl); H.usayn ibn Mans.ūr al-H.allāj, whose case remains problematic, though Ibn Khafīf and Abū al-Qāsim al-Nas.rābādhī approved of him [as did al-Qushayrī, Ibn 'At.ā' Allāh, and the H.anbalīs Ibn 'Aqīl, Ibn Qudāma, and al-T.ūfī]; and al-Qannād, whom the S.ūfīs accused of being a Mu'tazilī and rejected, for the good does not accept the wicked.
· 'Uyūb al-Nafs wa Mudārātuhā.
· Was.iyya.
· Zilal al-Faqr.
· Al-Zuhd. This work consists in narrations from the first three generations: the Companions, the Successors, and their Successors.
Muh.ammad ibn Ma'mūn narrated: "I was with the Shaykh Abū 'Abd al-Rah.mān al-Sulamī in Baghdād when he said to me, 'Come and let me show you a young man the like of whom there is none in the ranks of the S.ūfīs nor in the ranks of the students of fiqh, nor is there anyone with better manners.' He took me by the hand and we went to al-Bāfī's circle, where he showed me the Shaykh Abū Bakr [Muh.ammad ibn Bakr ibn Muh.ammad] al-T.ūsī [al-Nawqānī al-Naysabūrī]" – the teacher of Imām al-Qushayrī in fiqh.[11]
Towards the end of his life al-Sulamī built a small retreat-house (khāniqāh) for the S.ūfīs in Naysabūr, which al-Khat.īb saw when he visited the town. When al-Sulamī died, he was buried there.[12]
[1]Narrated by al-Khat.īb in Tārīkh Baghdād (2:248-249).
[2]Al-Dhahabī, Siyar (13:154).
[3]Al-Khat.īb, Tārīkh (2:284).
[4]Sibt. Ibn al-Jawzī, Mir'āt al-Zamān (Year 412).
[5]Dr. Nūr al-Dīn 'Itr echoed Ibn al-Subkī's words when I asked him about the reported discreditation. In his edition of al-Mughnī fī al-D.u'afā' (2:184 #5434), in the margin of al-Dhahabī's words, "He does not have strong credentials… He forged narrations for the S.ūfīs… He committed much distortion (tah.rīf) [or folly (takhrīf)] in H.aqā'iq al-Tafsīr," 'Itr wrote: "The truthful and ascetic h.adīth Master who singled himself out with certain narrations. Al-Khat.īb said, 'He was a proficient authority in h.adīth.' Al-H.ākim said, 'He was prolific in his auditions and narration of h.adīth and meticulous in it.' See Tadhkirat al-H.uffāz. and the Lisān."
[6]Abū Nu'aym, H.ilya (2:25).
[7]Ibn al-Jawzī, Talbīs Iblīs (p. 164).
[8]Al-Dhahabī, Tadhkirat al-H.uffāz. (3:1046) and Siyar (13:158).
[9]Ibn al-S.alāh., Fatāwā (1:196-197 #44).
[10]Al-Suyūt.ī, al-Itqān fī 'Ulūm al-Qur'ān (2:1218), and T.abaqāt al-Mufassirīn (p. 31).
[11]Ibn al-Subkī, T.abaqāt al-Shāfi'iyya al-Kubrā (4:121).
[12]Ibn al-Subkī, T.abaqāt al-Shāfi'iyya al-Kubrā (4:143-147 #321); al-Dhahabī, Siyar (13:152-158 #3766); Nūr al-Dīn Shurayba, introduction to T.abaqāt al-S.ūfiyya.


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Randy Travis: Don't Know if He'll Ever Fully Recover
Randy Travis: 'I Don't Know if He'll Ever Fully Recover'
The road to recovery is a long one — especially after suffering from a stroke. Randy Travis is still on that bumpy path following a stroke in July of last year, despite making lots of progress since then.
The legend's family and friends, including fellow country singer Neal McCoy, worry the singer's stroke may affect his ability to ever perform again. Travis may be making strides, but he's starting small, and McCoy worries he may never be able to pick up a guitar again.
"He looks great, but is still struggling to use both of his hands," McCoy tells People Magazine (quote via Contact Music). "I don't know if he'll ever fully recover, but he's a tough guy with a work ethic."
Currently, Travis' main concerns include working on body functions like walking and talking. The stroke was a result of congestive heart failure, and despite original reports that he was improving following the stroke, Travis was rushed to surgery soon after. The emergency surgery was supposed to relive pressure from his brain.
Thankfully, on Valentine's Day, Travis slipped on his cowboy boots and stepped out in public for the very first time since the stroke. His good friend, McCoy, was there and even documented the occasion on his Facebook page.
McCoy isn't the only one proud of Travis' progress — the star's family members also have high hopes that he'll one day return to the stage.
Says father Harold Traywick, "I'm sure he would just like to get back to work."
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What's great about cooking vegetables is that less really is more. What I mean by this is the less you tamper with your vegetables, the more you'll get from them. When you boil vegetables in a pan of water, you're actually stripping them of vital nutrients. This can lead to a loss of water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and folate. Here are some quick tips to ensure you retain the nutrients in your veggies when it's time to slice, dice, and get your cook on!
Photo: Flickr/kaktuslampan
- Skin and leaves: Most of the vitamins and nutrients in vegetables are found in the skin and outer leaves. Since vitamins dissolve in water, try cleaning your vegetables by scrubbing them with a soft brush and some water. This way you won't have to peel your veggies (like potatoes, or carrots), and you'll keep all of the vitamins intact. And the leaves from radishes or onions can be used in your dishes as well, since they are rich in vitamin A, calcium, and iron.
- Steaming: Remember, you want to cook your vegetables as quickly as possible, and with the least amount of water as possible to retain their nutrients. You can steam your vegetables, steam-fry them, or microwave them. If you don't have a steamer, put a small amount of water in a pot. Cover the pot and the built up steam inside will help reduce the overall cooking time. Shorter cooking times will help your vegetables maintain their nutrients and color.
- Chopping: Cut your vegetables into large pieces. This helps reduce vitamin loss, because there are fewer surfaces exposed when they are steamed. If you can, boil your potatoes whole with the skin on to prevent potassium from leaching into the water rather than sticking around in your spuds.
- Speediness: Vegetables like broccoli, snow peas, green beans, and asparagus should be cooked as quickly as possible. Unlike potatoes or carrots, you just want them cooked until crisp. Overcooking them will destroy their vitamin B and C contents.
- Stews and sauces: All of the leftover nutrient-rich liquid from your vegetable cooking session can be reused later for vegetable stock, stews, or sauces. If you're not ready to use it right away, just freeze for later use.
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Capsule endoscopy is a procedure that uses a tiny wireless camera to take pictures of your digestive tract. A capsule endoscopy camera sits inside a vitamin-size capsule you swallow. As the capsule travels through your digestive tract, the camera takes thousands of pictures that are transmitted to a recorder you wear on a belt around your waist.
Capsule endoscopy helps doctors see inside your small intestine — an area that isn't easily reached with more-traditional endoscopy procedures. Traditional endoscopy involves passing a long, flexible tube equipped with a video camera down your throat or through your rectum.
Your doctor might recommend a capsule endoscopy procedure to:
Capsule endoscopy is a safe procedure that carries few risks. However, it's possible for a capsule to become lodged in your digestive tract rather than leaving your body in a bowel movement within several days.
The risk, which is small, might be higher in people who have a condition — such as a tumor, Crohn's disease or previous surgery in the area — that causes a narrowing (stricture) in the digestive tract. If you have abdominal pain or are at risk of a narrowing of your intestine, your doctor likely will have you get a CT scan to look for a narrowing before using capsule endoscopy. Even if the CT scan shows no narrowing, there's still a small chance that the capsule could get stuck.
If the capsule hasn't passed in a bowel movement but isn't causing signs and symptoms, your doctor might give the capsule more time to leave your body. However, a capsule causing signs and symptoms that indicate bowel obstruction must be removed, either by surgery or through a traditional endoscopy procedure, depending on where the capsule is stuck.
Before for your capsule endoscopy, your doctor is likely to ask that you take steps to prepare yourself. Be sure to follow your doctor's instructions in preparing for your capsule endoscopy. Failure to follow the directions may mean that your capsule endoscopy has to be rescheduled.
To help the camera capture clear images of your digestive tract, you'll be asked to stop eating and drinking at least 12 hours before the procedure. In some cases, your doctor may ask you to take a laxative before your capsule endoscopy to flush out your small intestine. This has been shown to improve the quality of the pictures collected by the capsule's camera.
To keep medication from interfering with the camera, your doctor might ask you not to take certain medications before the procedure.
In most cases, you'll be able to go about your day after you swallow the camera capsule. But you'll likely be asked not to do strenuous exercise or heavy lifting. If you have an active job, ask your doctor whether you can go back to work on the day of your capsule endoscopy.
On the day of your capsule endoscopy, your health care team will review the procedure. You might be asked to remove your shirt so that adhesive patches can be attached to your abdomen. Each patch contains an antenna with wires that connect to a recorder. Some devices don't require the patches.
You wear the recorder on a special belt around your waist. The camera sends images to the antenna patches on your abdomen, which feed the data to the recorder. The recorder collects and stores the images.
Once the recorder is connected and ready, you swallow the camera capsule with water. A slippery coating makes it easier to swallow. Once you swallow it, you shouldn't be able to feel it.
You'll then go about your day. You can drive, and you might be able to go to work, depending on your job. Your doctor will discuss restrictions — for example, avoiding strenuous activity, such as running and jumping — with you.
Wait two hours after you swallow the capsule to resume drinking clear liquids. After four hours, you can have a light lunch or a snack unless your doctor tells you otherwise.
The capsule endoscopy procedure is complete after eight hours or when you see the camera capsule in the toilet after a bowel movement, whichever comes first. Remove the patches and the recorder from your body, pack them in a bag and follow your doctor's instructions for returning the equipment. You can flush the camera capsule down the toilet.
Once the procedure is finished, your body might expel the camera capsule within hours or after several days. Each person's digestive system is different. If you don't see the capsule in the toilet within two weeks, contact your doctor. Your doctor might order an X-ray to see if the capsule is still in your body.
The camera used in capsule endoscopy takes thousands of color photos as it passes through your digestive tract. The images saved on the recorder are transferred to a computer with special software that strings the images together to create a video. Your doctor watches the video to look for abnormalities within your digestive tract.
It might take a few days to a week or longer to receive the results of your capsule endoscopy. Your doctor will then share the results with you.
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TAMPA -- Gov. Rick Scott said he developed a thick skin since running for office for the first time in 2010.
"The newspapers don't always agree with everything you do," Scott told about 270 attendees of a conference for the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants at the Tampa Convention Center this morning.
But it wasn't a newspaper that compared the governor to Peter Garrett, the former lead singer to the Austrailian rock band Midnight Oil. Or noted his likeness to Carel Struycken, the actor who played the mysterious giant in David Lynch's Twin Peaks.
That would have been Jon Stewart on the Daily Show in a piece that aired Tuesday night lampooning Scott's efforts to purge the voter rolls of non-citizens. It was the same show that challenged Scott to give a urine sample after Scott announced he wanted welfare recipients to take a drug test.
"Every now and again, a politician comes along who is just truly terrible and really deserving of more scorn than even we can dole out in our nightly 21-minute, 30-second wise-ass-athon," Stewart said.
After his speech, Scott said he didn't watch the show.
"Somebody said there was something about me on there," he said.
He then joked that the show "completely supported my position that non-U.S. citizens shouldn't vote in our races."
Not exactly. But Scott did enough of that during his talk Wednesday to the CPAs. Two days after Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said the Department of Justice will sue Florida over its noncitizen voter purge, Scott said the legal costs will be justified.
"People have died for the right to vote," Scott said. "We have fought wars for the right to vote. It's very important that your vote doesn't get diluted...I have to defend the rights of voters. I have no choice."
He said a small sample from a state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles database showed that 100 people registered to vote weren't citizens, and that 50 of those voted. On Tuesday, Florida's former secretary of state, Kurt Browning, told the Miami Herald, that he believed that database had too many errors and refused to release it.
Scott, however, stands by the veracity of the database and said he will fight the federal government in court.
"I got elected to hold government accountable and defend your right," Scott said.
-- Michael Van Sickler, Times staff writer


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Ever wonder how the heck Saturn got to have such enormous, perfectly flat rings? In this cool video from Universe Today's Fraser Cain, you'll discover that astronomers are wondering the same thing. In fact, it's a huge debate.
Scientists like Kevin Grazier, who worked on NASA's Cassini probe to Saturn, are stumped by the rings. Are they new or old? How do they remain in such a perfect shape, rather than plunging into Saturn's gravity well and burning up in the gas giant's atmosphere? Watch this terrific video to find out what the latest theories are.
Also watch just to see Cain standing in the beautiful, snowy wilds of an island off the coast of British Columbia.
Watch more video from Universe Today


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The Award will celebrate educational practices from all over Europe that can demonstrate the use of creative and inclusive learning methods with outstanding results and the potential to be replicated and/or of inspiring others. The Award is not limited to a particular sector; lifelong learning covers education and training across all ages and in all areas of life be it formal, non-formal or informal.
The University of Glasgow is the leading partner in the consortium of universities that have developed this Erasmus Mundus Internationals Masters programme in Adult Education for Social Change.
The other universities are University of Malta, Open University of Cyprus, Tallinn University and Universiti Sains Malaysia. A distinctive feature of this programme is the connection between theory and practice, gained through focused placements and mobility periods between the partner universities. It draws together the recognised strengths of the consortium partners into a relevant, joint degree that engages with and responds to such issues as social inequality, migration and intercultural cooperation.
EILEEN stands for Enhancing Intercultural Learning in European Enterprises. EILEEN is a 2-year project funded by ERASMUS+, which seeks to promote intercultural competences and a welcome culture in enterprises. The EU is making significant efforts to eliminate the barriers to labour mobility. However, most of the enterprises in European countries do not necessarily have the essential intercultural know-how for receiving employers with a different cultural background. At the same time, often the foreign employees are not ready to face the challenge of working in a different country, and encounter difficulties in identifying the new cultural paradigms, accepting the differences and acquiring cultural knowledge.


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TORONTO – The looming U.S. fiscal cliff will weigh on markets again this week amid uncertainty that politicians can come together to defuse a potential crisis that threatens to send the U.S. into recession and derail a fragile global economic recovery.
"If there is no indication that a compromise is going to be reached, and that some type of resolution is going to be reached, equity markets as we are witnessing, will pass verdict," said Andrew Pyle, investment adviser at ScotiaMcLeod in Peterborough, Ont.
Investors will also be anxious to see if shoppers' confidence has been shaken as the American retail sector launches the start of the holiday shopping season with many stores opening their doors Thanksgiving night on Thursday.
The TSX has tumbled 3.9 per cent since the election Nov. 6 as worries about a sudden slowing of economic growth would be bad news for a resource heavy market like Toronto's, since a lessening of demand for oil and metals would put pressure on mining and energy stocks.
The Dow industrial average has fallen five per cent as investors worry about higher dividend and capital gains taxes.
The election left the Washington status quo largely in effect — the Democrats control the White House and Senate while Republicans continue to control the House of Representatives.
The outcome left traders lacking confidence that lawmakers can agree on a budget deficit cutting compromise and defuse the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and the automatic imposition of huge spending cuts. Many economists believe the combination would send the U.S. back into recession.
There was some comfort at the end of the week as congressional leaders expressed confidence a deal could be reached following a Friday meeting with president Barack Obama.
And while many think that American politicians will get a compromise together out of sheer self-survival instincts, it's not surprising that investors aren't waiting around until Dec. 31 to protect themselves, particularly in the U.S. where much higher dividend and capital gains tax hikes are a real possibility.
"While politicians in Washington may tend to act stupid at times, they will not be so insane to allow this fiscal cliff to materialize and will likely do something sooner than later so that doesn't happen," added Pyle.
"But that doesn't mean that investors are not still sensitive to hints or indications that may not happen."
And while investor confidence has been shaken by the looming deadline, traders will be anxious to see if consumers are feeling a sense of alarm at the start of the holiday retail season, which traditionally kicks into gear the day after Thanksgiving. It's referred to as Black Friday as it, ideally, marks the start of a period when retailers begin to turn a profit, or move into the black.
Some analysts point out that a widely-watched gauge, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index released Nov. 9, showed that Americans feel better about the state of the U.S. economy than at any point in the last five years.
But Pyle said it's very possible the unease is affecting consumers who are facing big tax hikes in 2013 unless the fiscal cliff issue is dealt with.
"We have lost a key element of consumer confidence with this market decline," he said.
"And so now retail business owners in the US are not only thinking about their own fiscal future under the fiscal cliff scenarios, now (they're) thinking, I may not get many customers in the store on Black Friday because the market has fallen back so much and we could see it reflected in another somewhat dismal retail sales number for November."
On the economic front, traders will look to the September reading on Canadian retail sales. Economists looked for Statistics Canada to report sales rose 0.5 per cent during the month following a 0.3 per cent rise in August.
In the U.S., traders hope to see continued signs of an improving housing sector amid lower levels of foreclosures and modest price increases.
Housing starts for October are reckoned to come in at an annualized rate of 840,000, down from 872,000 in September.
"Compounding the natural volatility of the figures, stormy weather towards the end of the month may have restricted starts along the populous east coast," said CIBC economist Andrew Grantham.


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I was spinning up a steady grade and smelling the sea when a spindle-legged Rastafarian in full BMC kit passed me. He wasn't wearing a helmet—just a crocheted red, green, and yellow tam. He was a cheery guy, enjoying a nice morning on the Pacific Crest Highway, and we shared pleasantries.
It was hard to feel unpleasant. I was riding up the Malibu coast in conditions that could technically be described as freaking perfect—gently warming sunshine, squawking gulls, balmy breezes, flawless blue skies. Hurricane Sandy was churning toward the Jersey shore, and my gut said that my 27-hour trip to California was about to be prolonged. I was riding alongside my lifelong friend, Peter, who helped me fall in love with cycling decades ago. The moment felt a bit otherworldly, and that feeling didn't diminish when an SUV pulled alongside us and Patrick Dempsey stuck his head out the passenger window to ask where we were headed. Then he drove off.
This shouldn't have come as a shock, because Peter and I were pedaling toward a Malibu ranch where a Bicycling crew would photograph, interview, and videotape Dempsey. Even though I've met Patrick before, I was astonished to see his face talking at mine. Maybe it was due to the four hours of sleep I was working on or the background stress that this ride was taking longer than I'd imagined. Peter lives in Pacific Palisades, not far from the Malibu border, and I had imagined a shorter route. But still, the weather was idyllic, everyone out on the road was all smiles, and I was sharing a ride with my oldest friend in the world.
Peter had just bought a Parlee, and I was lucky that he hadn't yet unloaded his old Ridley, which fit me surprisingly well. If he didn't live in southern California, I would have urged him to keep the Ridley as a rainy-day bike, but out there anyone who kits up on one of the 17 monsoonal days of the year is really a moron. Peter and I talked about our kids, the BB386 bottom bracket, and big rides we'd done lately. Peter looked lean, and I knew he'd ridden the 24 Hours of Moab a few weeks earlier, and I was relieved that we weren't out on an all-day excursion.
After about 25 miles on the PCH, we turned up a canyon for the final stretch. In less than a minute, the weather transitioned from perfect to parching, no longer conditions in which one could obscure a shortage of sleep or the previous night's excesses of Barbera d'Alba. The climb was hardly steep, but the temperature was nearly 90 degrees. I started cataloging excuses in my head. I hadn't done any recon on the climb, but correctly guessed that it would require roughly a half-hour of discomfort. I just settled into a rhythm and hoped Peter would go easy on me.
This is not precisely how it turned out. Peter and I first rode together in the 1970s; we were among the first kids in our grade school to get multispeed bikes with drop bars. I got into touring before him, aned he got into racing first. In the '80s, he convinced me to splurge on Descente shorts, and around that time I got him hooked on the Tour de France. All this to say that we've got some history on the bike.
It would be an insult to Peter to say that he half-wheeled me. It was nothing like that. He kept it playful and never showed me up, but also kept his foot on the gas enough to extend me on that canyon road. I spent the last 15 minutes struggling to retain my rhythm and keep up the chatter and resist the urge to sit up. Even then, with my lips dried and my legs quivering, I had a feeling of gratitude—to be turning the pedals under fierce sunshine, to be close enough with an old friend to share a moment devoid of pretense.
The last pitch was the only hard kicker on that climb. I was pretty beat; Peter could have dropped me without effort or regret. But we turned into that driveway side by side. We unclipped in a parking lot with jaw-dropping mountain views. I thanked Peter for the ride. And, of course, I meant it.
Fast Friends
A ride up memory lane on two wheels brings old friends closer together
by peter flax
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Song Premiere: The Besnard Lakes, 'People Of The Sticks'
The Besnard Lakes have a new album coming out in April, and after hearing the song "People Of The Sticks," it's safe to say we're in for another soaringly gorgeous record from the Canadian rock group.
Hear The Song
People Of The Sticks
- Song: People Of The Sticks
- from Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
The fourth album in 10 years from this Montreal-based band will also continue a tradition of odd titles. This one is called, Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO and features fellow Canadians Spencer Krug and Mike Bigelow of the band Moonface. Krug also played with Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown. Sarah Page, the talented harpist who adds so much dimension to The Barr Brothers' music, is also heard on this new album, along with the return of the Fifth String Liberation Singers' Choir.
When asked about their thoughts on making this record, the band sent a joint email saying, "Themes of personal loss alongside Millenial ennui weave their way into the narrative of the record. 2012 has come and gone and the world still rotates on its ever precarious axis prompting the question: What next?"
Here's a track listing for Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO.
1. 46 Satires
2. And Her Eyes Were Painted Gold
3. People Of The Sticks
4. The Specter
5. At Midnight
6. Catalina
7. Colour Yr Lights In
8. Alamogordo


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Dr. Elaine Heffner: Deciding between wants and needs
Waiting in line ahead of me at the supermarket checkout counter was a mother whose 3-year-old girl jumped around checking out the sweets shelves nearby.
Finding something that appealed to her she took it off the shelf, showed it to her mother half asking and half putting it with the other purchases. Her mother said, "No," whereupon a familiar scene ensued with the child begging, pouting, demanding, crying until the mom finally relented and the bag of sweets was purchased.
As children grow, they have more ideas and wishes of their own and a greater ability to assert them. In addition, their own needs and wants are their primary focus. Children feel they really need whatever it is they want — and sometimes behave as if their very life depends on it. It is not surprising that parents get mixed up about what they need and what they want.
A mom talked to me about the confusion she feels about some of her 3-year-old daughter's requests of her. On the one hand the child seems too demanding, but on the other hand mom thinks that if she weren't working she would be able to meet those requests. Were her daughter's requests justified? Was she asking for what she needed or for what she wanted? Partly the mom feels angry at her daughter asking for things mom can't do, and that makes her feel her daughter is "spoiled." But mom feels guilty about the fact that she is working, and she worries that maybe her daughter really needs what she is asking for.
This mother is trying to figure out if her child's requests are legitimate. Trying to decide if something is a need or a want seems to be part of the process parents go through in responding to their children. It's as if needing something makes it OK but wanting it is not. There is a kind of moral judgment that wanting things is bad.
Children want lots of things. Most of the conflicts between parents and children are over a child wanting something a parent can't do, doesn't want to do, or feels it inappropriate or unwise to do. Like the mom quoted, a parent may at first feel that the requests are acceptable, but then start to feel angry with their children for asking.
There is nothing wrong with children wanting things. There is nothing wrong with not giving a child everything he wants. The problem comes with the parent's anger and the message that the child is "bad" for wanting. The child then gets angry in turn and lets mom know she is bad for saying no. That's when a simple conflict turns into a conflagration.
Sometimes we unwittingly participate in this kind of escalation because it may be easier to just say yes. Nobody likes dealing with a child's protests. But what seems like the easier path often turns out to be more difficult in the end. From the child's point of view, increasing the protests may seem like the way to go. Parent and child end up in a tug of war in which either may feel defeated, but in which no one really wins.
In the conflicts that arise, children are not only seeking to gratify their wishes, but also struggling to be in charge of things over which they have very little control. Understanding that can help us be more sympathetic in our responses. It's hard not to get what you want. But sometimes it's hard not to give it. And that's when we get angry at children for asking.
— Elaine Heffner, LCSW, Ed.D., has written for Parents Magazine, Fox.com, Redbook, Disney online and PBS Parents, as well as other publications. She has appeared on PBS, ABC, Fox TV and other networks. Dr. Heffner is the author of "Goodenoughmothering: The Best of the Blog," as well as "Mothering: The Emotional Experience of Motherhood after Freud and Feminism." She is a psychotherapist and parent educator in private practice, as well as a senior lecturer of education in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Heffner was a co-founder and served as director of the Nursery School Treatment Center at Payne Whitney Clinic, New York Hospital. And she blogs at goodenoughmothering.com.


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After her 75-year-old mother suffered a severe health problem last fall that required surgery, Colleen Sturvidant needed a way to better keep an eye on her.
Because Sturdivant lives in Oakland and her mom lives by herself in Sacramento, it wasn't easy for Sturdivant to check on her and there was little chance she could respond quickly in an emergency. So when a friend of her husband suggested she try out a new device his company had designed for just such situations, Sturdivant, 45, decided to give it a try.
The product, from a San Francisco startup called Lively, is built around a system of network-connected sensors that can tell Sturdivant when her mom gets something out of the fridge, when she opens her front or back door, when she takes her medicine and even when she leaves the house.
It may sound creepy to those concerned about privacy, but Lively's system has been reassuring to both Sturdivant and her mom. The system can't directly notify Sturdivant when there's an emergency, but by keeping track of her mom's regular patterns, it can indicate when something might be wrong.
'I talk to my mom often, practically daily,' said Sturdivant, who works in the information technology department of a local retailer. 'But I want that conversation to be about what's going on in her life and not about, 'Are you OK?' '
That kind of peace of mind is precisely what Lively's founders wanted to offer customers, said David Glickman, the company's co-founder and chief operating officer, who is a college friend of Sturdivant's husband. When Glickman and his colleagues founded the company two years ago, they set out to create a product that would help seniors live independently for as long as possible while helping their families keep an eye on them.
Lively is just one of a growing number of companies offering senior monitoring devices and systems. Among its competitors are startups such as BeClose and GrandCare Systems as well as Care Innovations, a joint venture formed by Intel and General Electric.
Their products are meant to address some of the implications of the aging of the American population. The U.S. government's Administration on Aging forecasts that the number of Americans age 65 or older will grow from 40 million, or 13 percent of the population, in 2010 to 72 million, or 19 percent of the population, in 2030. People are living longer, and are contending for longer periods with chronic illness.
The number of seniors suffering from Alzheimer's disease alone is expected to grow from about 5 million today to more than 7 million in 2025. At the same time, there's a dearth of assisted-living facilities and lack of trained health givers, noted BeClose CEO Liddy Manson.
'We're definitely going to have a human resources crunch,' said Manson. 'So technology is going to have to bridge the gap.'
While the potential demand for products such as those offered by BeClose and Lively is huge, the market is still nascent, industry analysts say. Greg Caressi, an analyst who focuses on health care technology for research firm Frost & Sullivan, estimates that only about $15 million worth of senior monitoring products were sold in the United States last year. He forecasts the market will grow to about $25 million in 2017.
Many consumers simply aren't aware that such products are available, Caressi and other analysts say. In many cases, the costs have been prohibitive to consumers and health insurers often don't pick up the costs.
Glickman and his colleagues hope they can expand the market by addressing some of the flaws they saw in earlier senior monitoring systems. They were expensive; complicated, sometimes requiring professional installations; or invasive, some including video cameras or requiring seniors to wear something around their neck at all times.
By contrast, Lively's service is designed to be simple. The kit comes with six sensors and a hub device that are already paired when users open the box. The hub includes a built-in cellular data connection, so users don't have to worry about connecting it to their home network or to the Internet. Basically all they have to do to set it up is attach the sensors to refrigerator doors or medicine cabinets and plug in the hub.
Glickman and his colleagues intentionally left out a camera and designed the system so that it doesn't provide fine-grained details of seniors' activities. It can't tell what they're eating or what pills they're taking, and it doesn't keep track of their movements outside the home.
Perhaps most importantly, Glickman and his colleagues priced the service relatively cheaply. The system costs $149 plus a $20 monthly subscription fee. By contrast, similar systems can cost $400 or more with monthly charges starting at $50.
For Sturdivant, the system has been well worth its cost.
'The monthly service price is fine for the peace of mind that it gives me,' she said.
San Francisco startup Lively offers a device that helps consumers keep track of their older parents. Here's a look at the company and its product.
Founded: 2012
Founders: Iggy Fanlo, CEO; David Glickman, chief operating officer; Keith Dutton, chief technology officer
Employees: 12 full time, 25 total including consultants
Funding: $7.3 million
Backers: Cambia Health Solutions, Maveron
Product: $149 Lively monitoring system, which includes six motion-detecting sensors and a wireless Internet-connected hub
Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285. Follow him at Twitter.com/troywolv.


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A blunt, shit-stained instrument wielded indiscriminately to bludgeon pseudoscience, superstition, blind faith and common or garden irrational bollocks.
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Friday, 30 October 2009
Spine Wizards and other Woo-Woo Therapists
Anyway, this got me to wondering if we could think up some more good terms for the other alternative therapies. Here's a few suggestions to get you started. Please fell free to post your suggestions in the comments field.
Buggeropathy v. colonic irrigation. To shove a garden hose up ones jacksie
Decashification n. detoxification. A cunning marketing ploy involving eating less and spending more.
Dilution Druid n. homeopath. One who prepares impotent quacksalvers with no memory of the bullshit it once contained.
Foot Wanker n. reflexologist. A medical numpty with a foot fetish under the misapprehension that the feet are connected to the pancreas.
Juju Jedi n. Reiki Master. One skilled in the ancient art of convincing the naïve minded that spiritual healing works and the laws of nature are wrong.
Prick Therapy n. acupuncture. The ancient Chinese martial art of stabbing people with small needles.
Quartz Quacks n. Crystal Therapist. A Woo-monger of immense gullibility prone to frequent misuse of the word "energy".
Spine Wizard n. chiropractor. A caster of subluxation spells.
Wife Beating v. cupping. The pointless bruising of daft tarts.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Anal Ventriloquism for Dummies
Chapter 1: Sound-Bite Gob-Shite
Invent some random spiritual mumbo jumbo by plundering a few choice religions for currently fashionable nonsense. Whenever possible, pepper your flatulent prose with a generous sprinkling of meaningless keywords such as "spiritual", "force" or "energy". Assuming he's not referring to the new boarding steps for the Airbus A380, here's Deepak Chopra deftly demonstrating the technique with some vacant, meaningless arse dribble.
Chapter 2 : Religious Zeal
Why not reject contemporary tolerant free thinking in favour of blind adherence to Bronze Age superstitions that promote illiberal persecution. This will ensure that not only do you spout nonsense, but you spout abhorrent odious nonsense. Stephen Green demonstrates by commenting on the recent death of Stephen Gately and making Jan Moir sound relatively empathetic.
Chapter 3: Pick n Mix
Why not take a number of irrational beliefs and mix them up to come up with something utterly insane. Here's crazy creationist and convicted tax evader, Kent Hovind succinctly combining Christianity, Conspiracy Theories and Anti Vax propaganda in a single sentence of verbal arse gravy.
Chapter 4: History Denial
If historical facts don't align nicely with your heinous prejudices, why not just invent lots of ways of disregarding the facts you don't like the look of. Here's Nick Griffin demonstrating.
Chapter 5: Bat Shit Crazy
Once completely blinded by your preferred religious ideology you should be able to dream up some really crazy shit and direct it at an alternative bonkers religious ideology hell bent on world domination and submission, while remaining totally oblivious to the hypocrisy. Ann Coulter has made this into an art form.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Simpsons Skeptics: Video Edition
Original cards available here and here
Saturday, 17 October 2009
Pareidolia: For God and Country
I preach to the choir, so you lot will all be familiar with the phenomenon of Pareidolia. Our brains seem to be hard-wired to recognise face patterns, even when they occur randomly in nature.
Much pareidola is seen around religious figures, Christians claims to see Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich, and Catholics in particular are good a spotting the Virgin Mary. This made me ponder if we are more likely to spot the things that interest us.
I took the following photograph whilst on a walking holiday in the Lake District this summer, perhaps it's a little telling of my preferences, but to my eyes the tree in the photo reminded me of something that has fascinated and interested me for years.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Derek Acorah to summon the spirit of Michael Jackson
Under cover reporters from Science, Reason & Critical Thinking have infiltrated the shows script writing board and can now exclusively reveal an early draft of the show's script. This early draft features Yvette Fielding as the host although recent press releases cite June Sarpong.
[Derek Acorah, Yvette Fielding and token Skeptic Chris French are seated around a round table in a darkened room lit only by a single dim, un-shaded light bulb suspended from the ceiling]
Derek Acorah: Spirits of the after life can you hear me?
[producer knocks light bulb cable with a stick to cause a small shake]
Yvette Fielding: [small shrill scream]
Derek Acorah: I feel a disturbance in the force.
Yvette Fielding: Who is it Derek?
Derek Acorah: I sense a presence, make yourself known, who are you?
[Dramatic Pause]
Derek Acorah: Hang on, I'm getting something
Derek Acorah: Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), known as the "King of Pop", [citation needed] was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time. His unique contributions to music and dance, along with a highly publicized personal life, made him a prominent figure in popular culture for four decades.
Yvette Fielding: [Whispers] Nice research Derek.
Derek Acorah: Spirit of Michael Jackson, use my body as a medium.
[Derek bows head, closes eyes and sits still]
[producer flickers light switch]
[dramatic pause]
[Derek, opens eyes]
Derek Acorah: [in squeaky voice] hello to all my fans in the UK.
Yvette Fielding: [screams]
Chris French: Hello Michael, now that you have passed to the other side, can you tell us the meaning of life?
Derek Acorah: [in squeaky voice] If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.
Yvette Fielding: [screams]
Chris French: Can you tell us which, if any, of the religions are correct? Are you in heaven, or another dimension, or just in Derek's delusion?
Derek Acorah: [in squeaky voice] My goal in life was to give to the world what I was lucky to receive: the ecstasy of divine union through my music and my dance.
Yvette Fielding: [screams]
Chris French: Is our current understanding of physics correct, is there a Higgs Boson particle, is the universe finite, are we just part of a multiverse, what happened before the big bang?
Derek Acorah: [in squeaky voice] Go and buy my new single, it's really good.
Yvette Fielding: [screams]
Chris French: Can you give us any sort of useful information whatsoever?
Derek Acorah: [rises slowly out of seat and moonwalks backward around the table]
Yvette Fielding: [screams and shits her pants]
The BCA Press Statement
The Jack of Kent blog has some excellent analysis on the BCA press statement following yesterday's High Court hearing where Simon Singh was awarded the right to a full appeal.
I haven't managed such critical analysis of the press statement, but I have managed to acquire an exclusive photograph of the BCA's press officer:
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Simon Singh has won permission for a FULL APPEAL
Entering the gothic cathedral of law for the first time was a little surreal as we wove our way through the corridors to our allotted courtroom. I sat at the back of the court with the Singh posse waiting for the Judge feeling not unlike a naughty schoolboy outside the headmaster's office.
We all stood up as the Judge entered and Simon's lawyer addressed the Judge. We were under strict instructions of no tweeting, blogging, farting or recording, so I am unable to give you a full transcript, however, please allow me to paraphrase…
Lawyer Dude: "You're most worthy eminence, sir, your majesty whatever etc etc. We have given you a shit load of documentation explaining why Simon should be given permission to appeal, do you want me to go through the 4 major points"
Justice Law: "Nah, I can't be arsed to go through all that as you've written far too much, anyway I've already made up my mind to grant Simon permission for a full appeal and Simon will be allowed to re-argue it was fair comment. Now bugger off and try and write something a bit shorter for the full appeal.
I may not have used the exact words, but you get the general idea. For a more sensible update take a look at
- Padraig Reidy's piece for Index of Censorship
- Tessa's guest blog on Lay Science.
- Simons post hearing statement on the Sense About Science website
- Heresy Corner on Simon Wins One
- Nature News
- Dr Aust's Spleen
- And of course Jack of Kent's Permission Granted
I was hoping to point and laugh at the BCA, but they didn't turn up, word has it they they'd got wind of the hearing.
Great News. Just a successful appeal and then a trial to go then. Piece of cake.
It was also nice to see #SinghBCA trending on twitter today, let hope this helps us get a few more signatures for libel law reform.
Ooh and even Google were in on the act:
Or perhaps i just made that up. Anyway, here's Simon speaking directly after the appeal...
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
The "Jesus Lizard"
At 2,000 frames per second, this new footage has helped scientists unlock the secrets behind the lizard's miraculous feats.
Unlike water boatman or small insects, the basilisk lizard is too large and heavy to simply balance on the water tension and has therefore puzzled scientists for many years on how they appear to simply run across the water with a total disregard for the rules of physics as currently understood.
Many theories have been mooted as to how the lizard so effortlessly accomplishes this graceful act including calculating the optimum speed and direction of force ratio to the generation of small water bubbles to increase the time available for each step.
However, scientists at the Discovery institute claim that analysis of the lizards DNA and careful studying of the video footage has finally revealed that the lizard can walk on water simply because it is the son of God.
Further studies have revealed that the lizard can also turn water into wine and make some bread and fish go a very long way. Despite the miraculous abilities of the Jesus lizard, scientists have warned the faithful not to tempt the lizards into performing more useful feats. When quizzed further on why the lizards are able to suspend the natural laws of the universe in order to achieve fancy tricks but not to alleviate pain, suffering, famine and hatred, scientists simply responded: "Lizards move in mysterious ways".
Saturday, 10 October 2009
The Amaz!ng Panel
On the Amazing Panel were:
Martin Robbins: The Lay Scientist
Andy Lewis: The Quackometer
George Hrab: Geologic
Rebecca Watson: Skepchick
Neil Denny: Little Atoms
Tim Farley: What's the Harm?
NB These are not official TAM London video's
Tessa Kendall gave a brief talk on the current work of the National Secular Society before Tracy King introduced Rebecca Watson who lead the panel in an opening introduction outlining the contributions made by each of the panel.
Opening discussion
Rebecca led the discussion on how to promote skeptical content to a wider audience
Question 1: Negative repercussions
Does the panel ever worry that their work in scepticism and wide Internet presence might have negative repercussions on their professional day jobs?
Question 2: Hate Mail
Have any of you made any real enemies or received any feedback from your blog that's actually frightened you?
Question 3: YouTube
Obviously YouTube is a big medium for scepticism. What's your take on the bannings that have been going on?
Question 4: Getting started
Its a pretty basic question for a beginner, but other than holding bits of paper up, if you've got a blog, how do you go about getting some readers when you're just starting out?
Question 5: European forum
We definitely need something like the JREF forum but more on European topics, because if I make a comment on the JREF about homeopathy they don't even believe their are real doctors in Hungary who practice homeopathy.
Question 6: The term "Skeptic"
Jonathan Ross tweeted today that he thought that the term "Skepticism", is a negative and he prefers to think of it as rational thought.
Question 7: Celebrities
Many of you, if not all of you have experienced some form of "celebrity" yourselves because of your skeptic work for example at TAM's you sign autographs.
NB These are not official TAM London video's
Official TAM London videos coming to the TAM London YouTube channel soon
Additional thanks to
Tracy King
Tessa Kendall
Mark Duwe
Chris Blohm
Sid Rodrigues
And a special thanks to the so proffesional Rebecca for keeping her knees together throughout.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
TAM London
Richard Wiseman
Richard kicked the event off his humorous introductions and punctuated each of the speakers with his unique blend of magic, psychology and comedy.
Brian Cox
So, the first speaker to take the stage was particle physicist and ex rock star, Professor Brain Cox. "What's the point of building a large Hadron Collider" mused Brian. He gave us one answer supplied by a science funding corporation, a single slide of meaningless, uninspiring management bollocks. As a comparison to this, he then went on to show a few simple images; a simple snap from an Apollo mission showing for the first time, the earth beyond the moons horizon; and an image from Voyager, when it turned around to look at us and captured a pale blue dot in a ray of sunlight. Brian accompanied the image with Carl Sagan's timeless quote which raises more hairs on the back of the neck than any sermon ever could.
Having reminded us of the accomplishments of the Apollo and Voyager mission, Brian whetted our appetite on what we might expect from the LHC. Despite rather clumsily buggering up the machine last year, Brian assured us that they've now sussed out that they have to be very careful when sending a shit load of volts through a fairly thin wire. He promised us it won't happen again, and they'll be stoking her up again in a few weeks in the hope of cranking up a few particles to within a fraction of the speed of light and twatting them into each other.
It then got a bit technical perfectly comprehensible and enlightening just not dumbed down to the perceived levels TV producers frequently think necessary. By outlining our current understanding of particle physics it became clear how our current unifying theory (Excluding gravity) relies on the existence of the so far undiscovered Higgs Boson particle. It seemed clear from the talk that the LHC will either find the bloody thing, or give us the confidence to admit it doesn't exit and force us to think up a new theory.
Brian closed off with a few quotes from some esteemed scientist on the LHC, including this quote from himself that he was rather surprised the BBC used verbatim:
"Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat"
Jon Ronson
Next up was Jon Ronson with some slightly lighter material. Jon stooped over the corner of the lectern and proceeded to tell us the story of the "Men Who Stare at Goats". Jon's best selling book of the same name, and soon to be movie of the same name starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. The book came about as a true life investigation into the CIA's secret paranormal research for military purposes. Jon treated us to a brief trailer of the upcoming movie that featured George Clooney as Lyn Cassidy who reasons thus:
"I am made entirely of atoms, and atoms are predominately made of nothing, the wall is also made of atoms and therefore overwhelmingly consists of nothing"
This simple logic did however lead to his perpetual confusion when every time he slammed himself into the wall, he completely failed to pass through it.
Jon talked us through the how his project started as a series of documentary films for Chanel 4 exploring some of the crazy shit going on within US military intelligence. Jon uncovered bizarre psychological experimental warfare techniques from starring at goats in an attempt to make their hearts stop right up to blasting Iraqi prisoners of war with the theme tune to Barney the Dinosaur, surely water boarding pails in comparison to this heinous violation of human liberty.
Simon Singh
As I'm sure you all know that Simon is currently in the process of being sued by the British Chiropractic Association for writing an article in the Guardian some 18 months ago regarding the efficacy of chiropractic treatment for certain childhood diseases. The well now well known and oft repeated paragraph around which the libel case hangs once again is:
"The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments"
For his TAM talk Simon walked us through the genesis of his article, and in fact his book "Trick or Treatment" co authored by Professor Edzard Ernst. It seems as though the starting point was a BBC 2 documentary showing a woman, I believe in China, undergoing surgery without general anaesthetic, but using acupuncture for pain relief.
After further investigation Simon discovered that although she was receiving acupuncture she had also received a couple of drugs stronger in fact than morphine as well as a local anaesthetic. Of course this was never revealed on the documentary film leaving viewers with the impression that complete pain relief for surgery can be easily accomplished by jabbing a few needles around in your appropriate meridians. Hence the motivation to author a book that critically examines the most popular alternative medicines in an unbiased and scientific quest for the truth behind their efficacy.
The second part of Simon's talk focused around the pretty shitty English Libel laws that the ill conceived case has highlighted. Much has been written already about this important case by much wiser men and women than I, so rather than repeat the details now I would rather point you at a few other blogs that can explain it far more eloquently than I can:
Jack of Kent, The Quackometer, Stuff and Nonsense, The Lay Scientist Zenos Blog, Neurlogica, DC's Improabble Science
In fact Simon kindly paid tribute to this fine list of bloggers and thanked them for their kind support and awareness raising, unfortunately I can remember exactly which bloggers he listed as I was blinded by own name nicely highlighted in the middle. In fact, I'm filling up now just thinking about it, I'm going to have to move on...
Ariane Sherine
Ariane Sherine recanted the fascinating story of the Atheist Bus Campaign. Ariane's beguiling dulcet tones made her an absolute dream to listen to, and she enthralled a packed room of 600 skeptics with tales of how the campaign nearly fell at the first hurdle. But eventually ended up by raising, I believe in excess of £150,000.
Ariane loitered around with the great unwashed skeptics for much of the event and whenever she stood still for a few moments a massive queue of skeptics and Atheists invariable formed behind her, clutching their Godless Crimbo guides in the hope of getting Ariane to scrawl something in the book. She diligently obliged by taking the time to write a lengthy personal message in many books.
I feel a little guilty whenever meeting Ariane, as when I wrote her Simpsons Skeptic Top Trump Card, instead of concentrating on her sterling campaign work or captivating journalism, I opted instead for a few cheap sexist nob gags. The situation is only compounded every time I met her, as on this occasion when I some how ended up talking to her about my cock. My wife tells me that I'm lucky that she's far too polite to just say "Fuck off you creepy man".
Ben Goldacre
Ben Goldacre's unique mixture of science, stand-up and rabble rousing has made him a firm favourite amongst the skeptical community. The self confessed potty mouthed nerd cheerleader and architect of the Bad Science column in the Guardian, and the Bad Science Book and T-Shirt and tank top, and hopefully soon skeptical action figure, is never short of things to say.
On this occasion, Ben used his platform to remind us to be vigilant of dodgy mainstream science reporting focused on selling papers through inaccurate health scares such as the MMR media reporting debacle, or meaningless equations to tell you about, for example the most depressing day of the year, or attention grabbing headlines like "all men will have big willies" derived by perverting genuine scientific research.
I was also delighted that he took some time to poke a pointy metaphorical stick at Dr Gillian McKeith, or to use her full medical title as Ben always reminds us, Gillian McKeith. For any non UK based readers unfamiliar with the middle class nutritional nut eating advice of Gillian McKeith, I'm always tickled by the fact that both Gillian McKeith and Ben Goldacre's dead cat Henrietta are both members of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants.
Robin Ince & Friends
After a few swift pints next door at the Black Friars pub, we were back to the conference centre for our bangers and mash and an evening of comedy and music with Robin Ince and friends.
I shan't go through all of Robin's comedy and musical guest performers of the evening, but I will call out Chris Cox, who pulled my wife up on stage to assist with his great comedy mind reading trick. Despite my wife's best efforts to derail him, he correctly honed in her selected playing card.
Robin's in-between sets featured a sterling analysis of the author and columnist Ann Coulter. Now Ad hominem attacks may well be a cheap unscientific attack on an individual rather than an idea, but taking the piss out of Ann Coulter is just so much fun. Actually, Come to think about it, she was taking the piss out of herself, as all Robin did was read Ann's own words verbatim from her book. They're just hilarious to the rational and intelligent ear straight as they come out of the book. To bring back a bit of sanity and calm things down a bit Robin closed day 1 as it began by reading from the Gospel of Carl.
George Hrab
Geo enthralled us with a set of music and comedy to start of the second day of TAM. I especially enjoyed his story of how whilst driving through his hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was cut up by a car emblazoned with a God Fearing Jesus bumper sticker only to pull up next to said vehicle at the next set of traffic lights and spot crazy creationist Michael Behe in the passenger seat.
What to do? You can't run him off the road, or give him the finger; after all we have our fine atheist reputation to uphold. Quick thinking George however solved the dilemma by rolling down the window and shouting "Boo". Works for me.
George also gave us a number of songs interspersed with his jolly banter, my favourite of which is the anthem for the 365 days of Astronomy, "Far".
Glen Hill
Next up was Glen Hill, son of Elsie Wright, nee Hill whose famous fairy photographs of 1916 were believed by many to be genuine.
Glen explained how the fairies were drawn, cut out and mounted to indulge the fantasies of her little cousin. Glen then explained how Sir Arthur Conon-Doyle went on to promote the photographs as genuine in an attempt to vindicate his own alcoholic father who experienced hallucinations of little men or faries.
Inspired by the Cottingly fairy pictures I took some similar pictures of my own kids with the aid of Photoshop and a few Google image searches. However, no one considered my photo's to be genuine.
Glen then moved onto the second half of his talk which was based on his book " Religion Explained in an Hour", where he postulated on how he believed the Abrahamic religions were founded on psychotic delusions. Now I enjoy a good bit of God bashing as much as the next rationalist, but I do feel he veered from impartial talk to anti religious rant. Still, it's all jolly good fun.
Adam Savage
Mythbuster Adam Savage told us a few tales behind the making of a couple of the scenes from the Mythbusters TV show.
The main one talked about was his experiment to see how fast you could swim through syrup, deftly accomplished by digging two long troughs and filling them with a suitably viscose liquid. Adam was a great story teller but the anticipated funny punch line at the end of the story failed to materialise.
I had a quick chat with Adam after his talk along with a few other people who lynched him when he came off stage. When I arrived on scene he was being quizzed by a chap doing a piss take of the star trek / comic book guy nerd, with the weird voice sounding not unlike Peter Cook on a park bench enlightening those near by on the length of their intestines. I was about to congratulate him on his amusing nerd pastiche when I realised he wasn't actually putting it on for comic effect.
Tim Minchin
Do I really need to tell you how awesome Tim Minchin is live? As with his appearance at Robin Ince's 9 lessons and carols for Godless people, Tim totally stole the show.
Anyway, he's touring at the moment so I don't want to give away too many spoilers as he did perform a number of amusing ditties from his live set. So I'll skip the details of his TAM performance. I do however want to briefly mention the animated film to accompany his skeptic anthem, "Storm" that is currently in production.
We were lucky enough to get a quick sneak preview of "Storm". I expected the film to be pretty bloody good, but it's going to be even better than that, so keep an eye out for Tim Minchin animated film of "Storm" next year when it is due for release.
Phil Plait
Bringing up the rear of the conference was the President of the JREF, the incredulous Phil Plait.
As the first TAM to be held outside North America, it was great to teach our American Skeptic friends how to swear properly. After abandoning a few attempts to point out the hilarious differences between American English and English English, Phil went on to win the crowd by liberating his tongue around some good old fashioned British swearing. Phil successfully supplanted a "baloney" for a "bollocks" but failed to score higher in the TAM profanity bingo competition.
Incidentally despite first rate professional swearing from the likes of Goldacre and Minchin, I would have to award the curse of the conference trophy to Ariane's hate mail author.
Anyway, I seem to have gone off topic in a hopeless attempt to be rude to Phil Plait. Oh, by the way, I had a chat with Phil and he promised to be very rude back to me on his Bad Astronomy blog so I'm really looking forward to fielding some first rate piss taking from the main man.
Where was I, Oh yes, Phil Plait's closing talk. Phil actually gave a superb talk based on his best selling book "Death from the Skies", after explaining the difference between asteroids and comets Phil explained the reality behind the likelihood of a strike, the consequences of such a strike and some realistic mitigation methods. Phil contrasted these ideas with Hollywood's perception of such events with a few clips from the very silly Armageddon and the slightly better Deep Impact.
Or if you couldn't be bothered to read all that, you could hear it on episode 4 of the Pod Delusion, availble from iTunes, or the embeded player below.
The Benny Hinn Show
Sunday, 4 October 2009
My Favourite Science Writers
Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Donald Prothero, Richard Feynman, Simon Singh, Marcus Chown, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Phil Plait, Steven Pinker, Ben Goldacre
Those at TAM London on Saturday morning should be able to break the colour code.
Friday, 2 October 2009
The Pod Delusion: Episode 3 (New Labour, New Atheists, New TV, New Apps)
- Will Howells takes a closer look at Gordon Brown's keynote conference speech at the Labour Party conference
- Simon Howard examines Andy Burnham's labour party conference speech on hospital parking fees
- Tom Morris rips apart Andrew Brown's recent poor Guardian article attempting to establish a link between the middle classes and the "new" Atheists.
- Duncan Stephen investigates this weeks freeview retuning, and reminds us off the sort of shite we can enjoy on freeview
- I simply rehashed my iWoo blog and conducted a more detailed review of some iRrational iPhone Apps
You can now download and subscribe from iTunes (Just search the iTunes store for the "Pod Delusion" or listen from here:
iTunes review would be greatly appreciated.


text: Science Technology Did GMO Corn Give These Mice Giant Tumors? By John Platt John Platt Twitter Writer John R. Platt is an environmental journalist and editor covering endangered species, climate, pollution and related topics. Learn about our editorial process Updated June 5, 2017 Share Twitter Pinterest Email Photo: University of Caen. Science Space Natural Science Technology Agriculture Energy A scientific study published this week concludes that rats fed genetically modified (GM) corn grew massive tumors, but the research has also been criticized for its methodologies. The study, published Sept. 19 in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, was conducted by Gilles-Eric Seralini and others from the University of Caen in France and the University of Verona in Italy. Over the course of two years, the scientists fed mice a genetically modified corn called NK603, created by Monsanto to be resistant to the weed killer glyphosate (marketed by Monsanto under the brand name Roundup). One group of mice was fed corn that had been treated with Roundup, while others were fed untreated corn. Another group was given water with Roundup at levels of 0.1 parts per billion. The corn comprised 11 percent of their diet. According to the paper, the female mice developed large mammary tumors and disabled pituitary function; they died two to three times more than mice in a control group. Male experienced liver congestion and necrosis (tissue death) and tumors. Both genders experienced chronic kidney deficiencies. The scientists said these conditions "may be due to an endocrine disruption linked to Roundup and a new metabolism due to the transgene," which is the genetic material transferred into the modified corn. The team said this was the first study to look at the effects of GM corn over the two-year lifespan of mice, rather than the 90 day span of previous studies. Dr. Michael Antoniou, a molecular biologist at King's College in London who was not affiliated with the study, told the Daily Mail that the research "shows an extraordinary number of tumors developing earlier and more aggressively — particularly in female animals. I am shocked by the extreme negative health impacts." But some other scientists have been quick to criticize the study. "In my opinion, the methods, stats and reporting of results are all well below the standard I would expect in a rigorous study; to be honest I am surprised it was accepted for publication," professor David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge, said in a collection of expert remarks gathered by the Science Media Centre in the United Kingdom. He said the study lacked proper statistical analysis and the control group of 10 male and 10 female mice was too small. Dr. Wendy Harwood, senior scientist with the John Innes Centre, said it would be important to have a control group fed other types of food, since corn may not be a normal part of the mouse diet. She was also critical that the scientists did not release their full data set. Both scientists called for replication of the study's results, and that may happen sooner rather than later. After hearing about the study, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he will seek an immediate European Union ban on the import of the NK603 corn. "I've demanded a rapid procedure, in the order of a few weeks, which will allow us to establish the scientific validity of this study," Ayrault said today.


text:
My butt is so glad not to be on a cross country roadtrip anymore.
My heart is feeling otherwise. I think it's hard to get back and have work-work to do when I would rather:
1. Clean up the dead-ish garden after being inspired by the amazing urban farms I saw in Detroit (more on that later) and the rural farms in West Virginia.
2. Rearrange my apartment which somehow now seems tiny and horribly cluttered after living in a car and cooking on the same cast iron pan for the last three weeks.
3. Take a bath.
But I have deadlines and obligations. Some of which are very cool. Like…
1. Doing an auctioned item as a fundraiser for La Cocina. I've pledged to do an urban farming house-call, followed by a dumpling eating contest. Auction ends August 26!! Click here for details.
2. The Eat Real Festival this weekend where I'll be peddling produce with Abeni and Nicole Lobue will be serving that produce chopped, cooked, dressed, and anoited. This goes down Saturday, August 28 10:30-5, in Jack London Square where the Borders used to be. Sunday, Abeni and I will be teaching a chicken cull and rooster processing class. Yes, killing and cleaning. Here's the link to buy a ticket. Three of my oldest girls are going down.
3. Back to work at the Biofuel Oasis, which, since I've been gone has acquired bunch of cool new urban homesteading wares like kraut crocks, organic cheese cloth, and cover crop seeds. Of course I'll spend all the money I make there buying the cool new stuff. I'll be teaching a goat/cheesemaking class on Sunday, October 17.
Anyway, it's good to be back. And damn, it's so hot my tomatoes might just ripen….


text:
Scanner & Weather Radio« Weather « Downloads
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Listen to police and fire departments and NOAA weather of your region on your phone.
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The \"Modify global system settings\" permission is needed in order for the app to be able to change the device\'s \"Wi-Fi Sleep Policy\" to \"Never\" (but only with your permission). When you run the app, it will check the setting and ask you if you would like for it to be changed to \"Never\" (if it\'s set to something else) so that the scanner audio won\'t be interrupted if the screen turns off while you\'re listening over Wi-Fi.
This App will periodically present Airpush advertisements in your notification bar. This is to support the development for this application. If you don\'t like it, go
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City of Tulsa and Rural Police, and Fire, Tulsa County Sheriff
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Amateur Repeater Los Angeles Area 147.435mhz
Cincinnati Police
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Fort Worth Police Dispatch
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Tucson Police and EMS
Minot Police, Sheriff, Fire, and EMS
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Modesto Police Dispatch channel 1
San Juan and Ponce Police, Fire and EMS
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Albuquerque Police and Bernalillo County Sheriff
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Content rating: Low Maturity


text:
NEW YORK >> Apple is opening the doors to its bank vault, saying it will distribute $100 billion in cash to its shareholders by the end of 2015. At the same time, the company said revenue for the current quarter could fall from the year before, which would be the first decline in many years.
Apple Inc. said Tuesday it will expand its share buyback program to $60 billion — the largest buyback authorization in history. It is also raising its dividend by 15 percent from $2.65 to $3.05 per share. The dividend yield will be about 3 percent at current stock prices. The average yield for the top 20 dividend-paying companies in the U.S. is 3.1 percent, according to Standard & Poor's.
Investors have been clamoring for Apple to give them access to its cash hoard, which ended March at an unprecedented $145 billion. Apple's tight grip on its cash, along with the lack of ground-breaking new products, has been blamed for the steep decline in its stock price over the winter.
News of the cash bonanza coincided with the company's release of a poor quarterly outlook for the three-month period that ends in June.
Apple released its fiscal second quarter earnings after the stock market closed Tuesday. The company's stock initially rose 5 percent to $425 in extended trading, then retreated $2.63, or 0.7 percent, to $403.50. The shares are still down 40 percent from a peak of $705.07 hit on Sept. 21, when the iPhone 5 went on sale.
"The decline in Apple's stock price over the last couple of quarters has been very frustrating for all of us, but we'll continue to do what we do best," CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts after the release of the results. But he reinforced that the company's job is not to boost its stock price.
"The most important objective for Apple will always be creating innovative products," he added.
Apple's results beat the consensus estimate of analysts who follow the company, though it posted its first profit decline in ten years.
Net income was $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per share, down 18 percent from $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per share, in the same period a year ago.
Revenue was $43.6 billion, up 11 percent from last year's $39.2 billion.
Analysts were expecting earnings of $9.97 per share on revenue of $42.3 billion, according to FactSet.
For the quarter that just started, Apple said it expects sales of $33.5 billion to $35.5 billion. In the same quarter last year, sales were $35 billion. Wall Street was expecting sales of $38 billion.
The June quarter is generally a weak one for Apple, since consumers tend to wait for the next iPhone, which the company usually releases in the fall. But a year-over-year decline is a signal that Apple is failing to capitalize on the continued growth of smartphone sales. Sales are tapering off in U.S. and other mature markets, and not many consumers in India and China can afford iPhones.
Apple started paying a dividend last summer and has been buying back a modest number of shares, enough to balance the dilution created by its employee stock option program but not to make a dent in its cash pile. The company says it's now expanding the buybacks from $10 billion to $60 billion. It's raising the quarterly dividend starting with the payment due May 16.
The company has faced continued pressure from Wall Street over the use of its cash, which earns less than 1 percent in interest. Investors reason that if the company has no better use for the money, it should be handing it over to shareholders. The company had said it was considering ways to use the money, and this year engaged in a public debate with a hedge fund manager who wanted it to institute a new class of preferred shares.
When a company starts doling out its cash to shareholders, it's usually a sign that its growth is stalling and it's finding it hard to identify good ways to invest in its own business. But Apple is still growing fast by the standards of large companies, and its cash pile-up is a reflection of the extraordinary success of the iPhone.
Judging by Apple's stock price, investors have concluded that Apple will never again launch a revolutionary new product like the iPhone or iPad. The commitment to bigger buybacks may reinforce that impression, said David Tan, a Georgetown University assistant professor of strategy who focuses on technology.
"How are we going to read into what this move says about Apple's long-term prospects?" Tan said. "Does this mean this is all that Apple has left to offer or is this just something temporary while we wait for the next big thing from the company?"
For now, it seems clear Apple's well of innovation has temporarily run dry, but that doesn't mean it won't be replenished soon, Tan said. "What no investor can see is what is happening between closed doors in research and development," Tan said. "R&D is always very secretive. It always takes a very long time between the inception of an idea and commercializing a product."
Investors have grown increasingly frustrated with Apple. The company has only been releasing updates to its existing line of mobile devices and computers since Cook became CEO 20 months ago instead of blazing new technological trails as it did with the iPod's 2001 unveiling, the iPhone's 2007 debut and the iPad's introduction in 2010, said Lauren Balter, an analyst for Oracle Investment Research. At the same time, Samsung Electronics has been gaining market share with larger smartphone screens and other features while Google Inc. is creating a buzz with its own Nexus tablets. Google is also expanding into "wearable computing" with Internet-connected glasses that are expected to go on sale late this year or early next year.
"The market is tired of the same old thing at Apple," Balter said. "Investors are looking for innovation. The reality is that people are looking at other products now and they are looking at other cool features from competitors."
Apple is rumored to be working on a "smart" watch and a revolutionary TV set, but it hasn't confirmed that. On Tuesday's call, Cook sounded slightly more open to making an iPhone with a larger screen, saying merely that Apple would not ship a phone with a larger screen as long as that meant tradeoffs in other measures of screen quality, like brightness.
AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco.


text:
This is a pack containing modern social badges ideal for your websites, applications or other any project. This is new Dimension of badges creation. All badges are made of 100% shapes, so they can easily be scaled up or down – depending on your requirements. The PSD file is very well organized, with layers named appropriately. I hope you appreciate the fresher and cleaner look of the new badges set.
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text:
48 page high-end print-ready A4 Indesign Annual Report Template
Replace the placeholder images with your own and replace the placeholder text with your own.
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- This document is compatible with indesign CS4, CS5 & CS6 – Includes an IDML file which IS compatible with CS4+
- The downloaded file also includes IMDL INDT files.
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text: Dealing with herpes is a struggle within itself some worse than others. When I found out I was with a guy whom I thought I loved for years. He cheated on me left and right but I loved him so I stayed thinking back now I wish I hadn't. I didn't find out until... For detail, click here.