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This has been a big year in the world of high-tech surveillance. At the Super Bowl in January, a new technology was used to scan the faces of the fans as they entered the stadium in Tampa, Florida. Then Ybor City, a section of Tampa, installed a similar system for face recognition that operates 24 hours a day as a crime control measure. And this summer a case went to trial at a federal court in New Jersey testing whether the police can use a regular search warrant to enter an office and install an invisible software technique for keystroke monitoring.
There are some who, citing events like the ones mentioned above, say "Privacy is gone. Get over it." The specter of George Orwell's 1984 just doesn't send chills up their spines. But for those who have followed the history of privacy law in the United States, there is at least some reason for hope that even as new technologies arise, solutions will be found in the law to protect the rights of citizens.
During the 1920s, in the midst of Prohibition, the Supreme Court first considered whether the police should be subject to Fourth Amendment warrant requirements when using a new investigative technique -- wiretapping the telephone. The court ruled in Olmstead v. United States, a 5-4 opinion, that because there was no physical trespass or seizure of tangible evidence, no search had occurred. But Justice Louis Brandeis and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in separate dissents that the law should limit this type of intrusion into private matters. A few years later Congress passed legislation to safeguard the privacy of telephone communications, and many years later the Supreme Court overturned the original decision in Olmstead and decided that when new technologies emerge, citizens are entitled to a "reasonable protection of privacy."
While there have been some setbacks over the last several decades, in recent years the justices, perhaps sensing a shift in public opinion, have looked more closely at privacy claims. In just the past year, to the surprise of many observers, the court ruled that certain government searches on highways, in hospitals and by means of new technology are unconstitutional.
In 1997 the court struck down a Georgia law that required candidates for public office to submit to drug testing. It was a remarkable outcome that broke a string of decisions in which the court had upheld drug-testing requirements for railway workers, customs officials and high school athletes. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court that there was no "symbolic exception" to the Fourth Amendment.
Two years earlier the court had sided with a petitioner who argued a First Amendment right to publish and distribute a pamphlet anonymously. The Supreme Court, noting that the Federalist Papers were published under pseudonyms, said that an integral part of free expression is the right to express your views and still keep your identity private. Then, in 1999, the court ruled that police violate a suspect's right to privacy by allowing news reporters along when they execute search or arrest warrants in a private home.
But no one expected what would happen this year. In one of the most remarkable Fourth Amendment cases in many years, the Supreme Court held that the use of a thermal imaging device without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment. In Kyllo v. United States, federal agents employed the device (which detects radiation emitted from most objects and displays different colors that indicate the relative warmth of the emission) to scan Danny Kyllo's Oregon home for the presence of heat lamps used to grow marijuana plants. Based on the information gathered from the thermal imaging device, tips from informants and utility bills, a magistrate judge issued a warrant for agents to physically search Kyllo's home. The agents found an indoor growing operation with more than 100 plants. Kyllo was indicted as a result of the evidence obtained in the physical search of his home.
The justices had a lively exchange about whether the court could realistically limit the use of new surveillance techniques. Justice John Paul Stevens asked Kyllo's attorney, Kenneth Lerner, whether it would still be a search if the police had rented the house next door, leaned out a window with a long pole with a thermometer on it, and found out what part of Kyllo's house was hot and what wasn't. Lerner answered that the court could not limit police use of thermometers or watches or things "that we typically use in our daily lives." Justice David Souter then asked what if "thermal imaging becomes very common and every school kid has a $5 thermal imager?" Lerner replied, that if this point is reached, it might become like wiretapping, which is regulated under federal law even though it is not a particularly sophisticated surveillance technique.
In the end the Supreme Court sided with Kyllo and held that the warrantless electronic search of his home was unconstitutional. Justice Antonin Scalia said, "Obtaining by sense-enhancing technology any information regarding the interior of the home that could not otherwise have been obtained without physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected area constitutes a search -- at least where (as here) the technology in question is not in general public use."
Many of my colleagues believe that the focus of Kyllo will, for now, be limited to searches of the home. But my hope is that courts will look more closely at the constitutionality of invasive surveillance practices conducted in public places, such as the new cameras that perform real-time face recognition. Most people do not expect that automated devices will capture their identities when they walk down a street. And even if the practice becomes widespread, it could still be, like wiretapping, subject to federal regulation. Also, as a matter of constitutional tradition, the Supreme Court's expectation of privacy test was first established in a case concerning a phone call made from a public phone on a public street corner. If there is a constitutional right of privacy in a glass booth, surely that right can be found elsewhere.
The court has made clear that the Fourth Amendment has a future in the twenty-first century. With new technologies that reach increasingly into our personal lives and the very real risk of extended police surveillance in public spaces, it may be just in time.
Marc Rotenberg is the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (www.epic.org) and teaches privacy law at Georgetown University Law Center.


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Paul Tough Speaks at Harvard: How Children Succeed
Posted by Claudia M Gold September 3, 2012 01:42 PM
One of the highlights of Paul Tough's new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character comes in the final chapter, when he describes how he and his wife interact with their three-year-old son Ellington to help develop the qualities he spends the rest of the book demonstrating are associated with success.
He describes helping Ellington to calm down after a tantrum or bad scare, providing discipline and rules, and, in addition to lots of hugs and comfort, helping him learn to manage failure. These are exactly the parenting behaviors that research has shown lead to the capacity for emotional regulation, cognitive resourcefulness, resilience, and the ability to adapt to a complex social world.
The thesis of this book, whose primary focus is the education system-Tough is speaking on Thursday September 6th at the Gutman Library of the Harvard School of Education-, is that the conventional wisdom about the key to success has been misguided. Rather than focus on promoting cognitive abilities, our focus should be on development such things as gratitude, curiosity, self-control and grit, all of which are distilled into the word "character."
While Tough does not explicitly make this point, but rather demonstrates it in writing about his son, character develops in relationships. When a person has a relationship with someone who not only cares about him, but also thinks about him, understands his perspective and unique challenges, helps him calm down in the face of difficult feelings, sets limits on his behavior and trusts him enough to let him fail, he is more likely to develop the "non-cognitive skills" associated with success. He will be able to think clearly and flexibly in the face of stress.
The first chapter offers an excellent overview of the current explosion in research on toxic stress, or stress in the absence of such a secure, safe relationship. Tough refers to the ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study, a huge longitudinal study that dramatically demonstrated the association between early adversity, including such things as abuse and neglect, parental mental illness and substance abuse, and family discord, with many negative health outcomes including not only mental illness but also chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease.
Particularly important is the work of Alicia Lieberman, one of the pioneers in the field of infant mental health. Tough writes of Lieberman's collaboration with pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris in an innovative San Francisco based program that applies the ACES study to preventive work with children and families. Lieberman recognizes that providing a secure attachment relationship "takes a superhuman quality" in the face of poverty, uncertainty and fear. Her model of intervention works with parent and child together.
Lieberman's treatment is relatively intensive, administered in weekly sessions that can continue for as long as one year. But the principle behind it-improving children's outcomes by promoting stronger relationships between children and their parents-is increasingly in use across the country in a wide variety of interventions. And the results, when the interventions are evaluated, are often powerful.
The rest of Tough's book focuses on interventions for school age children. The implication is that these children have had stressed early relationships, but that interventions in the school setting that focus on character development may mitigate against these early experiences. He writes:
It is hard to argue with the science behind early intervention. Those first few years matter so much in the healthy development of a child's brain; they represent a unique opportunity to make a difference in a child's future. But one of the most promising facts about programs that target emotional and psychological and neurological pathways is that they can be quite effective later on in childhood too-much more so than cognitive interventions.
Tough describes successful school programs that have focused on character development. The Youth Advocate Program, or YAP, in Chicago offers an intensive mentoring program for high-risk teenagers. At KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in the South Bronx, where there is a curriculum designed to teach character, and even a character report card, one student describes how the teachers were devoted to him and his fellow students. " They were like my second family, in essence...that's the vibe we all ended up getting, that we were like a family."
Yet another program is OneGoal in Chicago, run by CEO Jeff Nelson:
Nelson's belief is that underperforming high-school students can relatively quickly transform themselves into highly successful college students- but that it is almost impossible for them to make that transition without the help of a highly effective teacher. OneGoal has signed a unique partnership deal with the Chicago public schools that lets the organization work directly with individual teachers...the teacher sticks with the same class for three years...And when the students are freshmen in college the teacher keeps in close touch with them...providing support and advice."
Tough shows how relationships can be stressed not only for the very poor, but also the very wealthy.
Riverdale, a private school in a very different part of the Bronx from KIPP, offers an example of wealthy students who are similarly at risk. Referring to the work of psychologist Madeline Levine, he writes:
Wealthy parents today, she argues, are more likely than others to be emotionally distant from their children while at the same time insisting on high levels of achievement, a potentially toxic blend of influence that can create "intense feelings of shame and hopelessness" in affluent children.
Stressed relationships of this kind may have a negative impact on character development. Riverdale's headmaster, Dominic Randolph, is concerned that students are lacking in important character traits.
Traditionally the purpose of a school like Riverdale is not to raise the ceiling on a child's potential achievement in life but to raise the floor. What Riverdale offers parents, above all else, is a high probability of nonfailure...The problem, as Randolph has realized, is that the best way for a young person to build character is for him to attempt something where there is a real and serious possibility of failure.
The book takes an interesting turn when, after focusing on a number of programs that measure their own success in terms of rates of college graduation, Tough reveals that he himself did not graduate from college. Clearly Tough is a highly successful person. This information led me to wish that more of the book had been devoted to exploration of the definition of success.
I thought of how Sigmund Freud defined mental health as the capacity to love and to work. I though about creativity and empathy as two qualities that are intimately tied to success. I found myself remembering Brandon Fisher, the manufacturer of drilling equipment who was recognized by President Obama in the 2011 State of the Union address for his critical role in the rescue of the Chilean miners.
These other aspects of success are mentioned in Tough's book. For example:
At KIPP, teacher Mike Witter explains to a parent, "The categories [of character traits] we ended up putting together represent qualities that have been studied and determined to be indicators of success. They mean you're more likely to to go to college. More likely to find a good job. Even surprising things, like they mean you are going to get married, or more likely to have a family."
A related body of research, coming from the fields of infant mental health and psychoanalysis, supports the notion that the way Tough interacts with Ellington will in fact lead to this broader definition of success. This literature, and in particular the work of leading researcher Peter Fonagy, refers to the central aspect of a secure attachment relationship, a capacity that is unique to humans, as mentalization, or "holding a child in mind."
John Bowlby, considered the father of attachment theory, writes how in the setting of such a relationship a child becomes, "self-reliant and bold in his exploration of the world, cooperative with others, and also- a very important point-sympathetic and helpful to others in distress."
Tough is applying his considerable talents as a journalist and writer to a critically important task. The question he asks is not only how children succeed, but also how the answer can inform meaningful social policy. He is bringing this issue to the forefront of public discussion. I am thrilled to be in the company of Tough, as in my work I have also been asking: What can we as a society do to promote healthy relationships, that in turn promote both character and success, from infancy through adolescence? Tough writes:
Parents are an excellent vehicle for those interventions, but they are not the only vehicle. Transformative help also comes regularly from social workers, teachers, clergy members, pediatricians, and neighbors.
Tough tackles this issue in his whole body of work, including not only this book, but also his first book, Whatever it Takes, about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children's Zone, and his New Yorker article The Poverty Clinic about pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris' program. I am eager to see what he does next.
Originally published on the blog Child in Mind.
The author is solely responsible for the content.
About the authorClaudia M. Gold, M.D. is a pediatrician and author of Keeping Your Child in Mind: Overcoming Defiance, Tantrums, and Other Everyday Behavior Problems by Seeing the World Through Your Child's More »
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Chris Gasper is an online columnist for Boston.com.
Gasper joined the Boston Globe in 2002, covering sports for the Globe North section. During his career he's covered high school and college sports, as well as a healthy amount of time covering the Patriots. During the Mike Reiss years, he and Reiss were a very strong combination on the beat. He moved into the columnist role when Boston.com became more of a seperate entity from the Globe, though his columns still occasionally appear in the Globe.
Gasper can be seen and heard on many outlets, including Comcast SportsNet, 98.5 The SportsHub (where he makes a nice balance to Felger and Massarotti as an in-studio guest on their show), the Patriots pregame shows on 98.5 and SportsCenter 5 OT.


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The Complete Wardrobe
Long gone are the days when an English gentleman would sit with his tailor in the back office and discuss the coming season's wardrobe over a glass of Sherry and a digestive biscuit. And the Parisian no longer takes quite as much pride in his wines as he used to. In the United States, there seems to be a book published every other week on the decline of manners, morals and the quality of dry cleaning.
It isn't tumbril talk to note that style and taste are today almost regarded as character flaws. And tradition has become more a commodity, more a matter of decor, than belief. Even some of the button-down shirts in Brooks Brothers now have stubby little three-inch collar points! Fred Astaire must absolutely be rotating in his grave. The quality of mercy may not be strained, but the quality of quality certainly is!
All the anecdotal evidence suggests that quality is having a hard time of it everywhere, but even in our Age of Not-So-Great Expectations it's still possible to get the real thing. Amid all the shoddy clutter and haste couture, the genuine article can still be found: the proper navy blazer, authentic shell cordovan penny loafers, real khakis of Second World War-quality cotton drill. It isn't easy, since great steaming piles of frighteningly trendy gear have taken over even many of the better stores. But it is possible. We've done the dogged spadework, and here--for the greater purposes of removing doubts--are the results of our spirited off-the-rack sartorial excursion.
The prices listed are approximate; phone for the nearest venue.
The Suit
The basic uniform of the business world is the suit. From the 1890s until the Second World War, the trusty blue serge held sway. Since then, however, gray flannel has been the cloth of choice among the cognescenti. There is a sense of sincerity about gray flannel that seems missing in slicker-looking worsteds. It never looks too sharp or parvenu, never loud or pushy. Good gray flannel has the built-in, old-money look that one associates with tradition and refinement. It's soft and easy, with a touch of depth and texture for interest, rather than being stiff and shiny. And what better foil for accompanying haberdashery and accessories?
Mid- to dark gray flannel is best, with a slight nap and a moderately soft hand. Single- or double-breasted is equally appropriate, but the latter has the edge as being a bit more formal and dressy. Previously, flannels were slightly heavier cloths, ranging from around 12 to 16 ounces, but new technology has allowed for what are called Super flannels, woven of fine merino wool, to produce exquisite fabrics with weights as low as eight ounces. The finest of these cloths are the Super 150s. (The higher the number in Supers, the finer the cloth.) These cloths drape beautifully, retain their shape and can be worn in all but the steamiest weather. ($3,500; Brioni, 212/956-4155)
The Tie
There are a number of classics in the tie repertoire: the resplendent seven-fold, the silk knit, the woven Macclesfield, the redoubtable striped repp. But the classic whose revival we most look forward to enjoying--and it is once again being seen--is the challis tie.
Challis is a featherweight wool that is hand-block printed (originally from natural vegetable dyes) with geometric, paisley or sportif patterns. Occasionally the cloth is fashioned into particularly handsome dinner jackets, but for the most part it goes for neckwear. What is so wonderful about challis is that it ties well--firmness without bulk, for a knot that holds--and its muted colors are not reproducible in any other medium: dark Persian blue, dusky bottle green, burnt orange, rusty reddish browns and tawny yellows predominate. It is the perfect tie with tweeds of all sorts, natty with more casual flannels. ($70; Mariano Rubinacci, 617/407-0600)
The Dress Shirt
Business suits can accept a variety of collar styles, from button-down and tab to long point and rounded club. But surely the best looking is the spread collar: crisp and neat, flattering, adaptable, elegant. Popularized in the 1930s by the Prince of Wales and his brother the Duke of Kent, it's a collar for the man who is known to dress well.
Modeled on the English detachable cutaway collar with its Edwardian sense of propriety, the spread collar's angular, wider than normal point stance has an unmatched dressiness. As such, it is often worn with French cuffs, and accompanied by richly woven Macclesfield neckwear. Often seen in a variety of stripes and checks--sartorially sensitive dressers occasionally opt for horizontal stripes--the spread-collar shirt done in a pure white superior oxford cloth is foolproof and unbeatable. The Italian firm of Borrelli, shirtmakers since 1895, cuts and sews its shirts by hand with extra-thick pearl buttons; the spread collar is meticulously fashioned, the white royal oxford cloth a silky texture, the French cuffs pristine. ($275; Borrelli Shirtmakers, 212/702-0136)
The Summer Suit
A number of lightweight cloths have, over the years, vied for the natty warm-weather vote: linen and silk are elegant, tropical worsted serviceable, seersucker jaunty. But our vote goes to the supremely comfortable and friendly tan cotton suit. Always single-breasted and usually unlined, the cotton shows its sophistication in its simplicity. A poplin weave is often used, but the best cotton for suiting is gabardine, which has the fine twill ridges that make it light of weight and soft of touch, yet strong and durable.
The neutral color accepts any accessory, from oxford cloth button-down to piqué polo and minimalist T-shirt. Of course, it must be the right shade of tan. Not too pale, like what the fellow wore in John O'Hara's short story "The Gentleman in the Tan Suit." Khaki or British tan, with just that hint of dusty yellow, is what's wanted. Unlined for coolness, easily laundered and looking the better for a few wrinkles, the jacket and trousers can easily be "broken up" and worn with other jackets and trousers, making it a decidedly useful item for travel. ($2,950; Kiton, 212/702-0136)
The Blazer
There are four crucial points to consider about the blazer: color, cloth, cut and buttons. A real blazer is navy blue ("Bell-bottom trousers, coat of navy blue," as the Second World War song "Bell-bottom Trousers" goes). Green is perfectly appropriate if you win the Augusta Open, maroon, gold and light blue tend to indicate real estate agents. A single-breasted version is acceptable, but double-breasted is best. Although blazers have been made over the years in everything from stone-washed denim to Fiji silk, the proper alternatives are circumscribed: cashmere, flannel, Super worsted, twill, doeskin flannel, tropical worsted or hopsack. Pocket treatment can vary--flapped, open patch, patch-and-flap and besom are all acceptable--but no yokes, fancy stitching or bi-swing backs please. The blazer is pristine of cut and simplicity itself--except for the buttons.
Blazers are the only sports jackets that take metal buttons: generally gold, silver or brass. Blazer buttons can be intensely individualistic and idiosyncratic, but are usually grouped into four categories: fancy (gilded-and-enameled crests), standard design (a navy anchor or a simple
basket-weave pattern), initialed or plain (often chosen, but not highly recommended because they scratch easily). Ralph Lauren, who is rumored to know a thing or two about classic dress, has combined these elements brilliantly and faithfully in his Purple Label double-breasted blazer: Super 120s merino-and-cashmere fabric, six-button (two-to-button) closure, side vents and handsomely crested buttons, handmade in England. Goes perfectly with flannels, khakis or jeans. ($1,795; Polo/Ralph Lauren, 212/606-2100)
The Khakis
Khakis and jeans have been the great levelers of the American wardrobe, the most democratizing items of clothing ever worn. Everyone, from film star and computer tycoon to dockworker, has a pair of jeans, and knows that Levi's 501s have never been bettered. But what about khakis?
For GIs returning from the Second World War, khakis were the all-purpose trouser; worn with a tweed jacket or a Shetland crewneck and button-down, they became an essential part of the civilian campus uniform. In the turbulent 1960s and '70s khakis were often replaced with jeans, but they held their own and, in the past 20 years, have reemerged as a staple of the wardrobe. These days every designer has his own spin on the genre--so tarted up in some cases that it would make an old Army-Navy store devotee shiver--and no outfitter of sensible clothes would be without a supply.
Genuine old-style khakis are made by Bill Thomas in Reading, Pennsylvania. Bills Khakis, as they are called with genuine simplicity, are the real thing: substantial, eight-and-a-half-ounce 100 percent twill cloth; full cut in the legs, seat and rise, from original Second World War patterns; deep 14-inch drill-cloth pockets; eight stout belt loops. Nothing fancy, just pure quality. Bill does a pleated model with a heavy brass zipper, but the pants that hiked across battlefields and athletic fields are the plain-fronted, button-fly model. These are the most comfortable and durable khakis you can buy. ($85; Bills Khakis, 800-43-KHAKI; Web site: www.billskhakis.com)
The Slip on Shoe
The classic slip-on, popular in the United States for well over a half century, is the penny loafer (so called because teenagers in the 1950s put a penny in each slot of the instep strap as a minor fashion statement). The classic model is moccasin style, a comfortable construction in which the top vamp section is sewed to the sides in a U shape. Although a variety of leathers are used, shell cordovan has always been considered the ne plus ultra: soft, supple and extremely durable; over time the patina of genuine shell cordovan only improves its unmatched luster. This leisure handmade moccasin has been made to perfection by the Alden Shoe Co. of Middleboro, Massachusetts--in the original dark oxblood and black--since the early 1950s. This is the original model, and the acknowledged master of the form: flawless in every detail, hand-sewn on the last, true Goodyear welting, vegetable-tanned shell cordovan of rich character. ($400; Alden Shoe Co., 508/947-3926)
The Coat
It was the costume historian James Laver who conceived the theory that all modern men's clothing derives from either war or sport. It's certainly true of outerwear, as the parka, the trench coat, the polo coat, field coat and golf jacket remind us. These are coats that work, and have an added dash of style as well.
What has always been admired in a good, all-around outdoor coat is the combination of functionality and handsomeness. Leave it to the Italians to combine the latest technology with the higher calling of aesthetics to produce the perfect coat. The firm of Loro Piana has created a new generation of fabrics with its Storm System range. Produced from extremely fine, high-quality natural fibers--covert cloths, cashmeres, gabardines--fused to Gore Technologies' windproof and water-resistant barrier, the new line of outer coats repels rain like a duck.
Although Loro Piana designs several different sports-related coats, the most elegant and useful is its thigh-length "Horsey" style: double fastening, with superior zipper and horn buttons, drawstring waist, a dozen exterior and interior lined pockets (including a very convenient cellular phone pocket secreted away inside), a zip-out padded vest that's handsome enough to be worn by itself, storm cuffs, throat latch and tattersall lining. Designed to accommodate the precision of movement dictated by sporting activities, yet relaxed and smart enough for city wear, it is an extremely serviceable garment. ($1,320; Loro Piana, 212/371-2819)
The Sweater
A cashmere turtleneck is a staple of the good life. Incredibly soft and light, cashmere takes color better than any other fiber, producing hues that are at once vibrant and true without being in the least bit harsh. Along with the camel family of fibers (camel, alpaca, vicuña), cashmere is the warmest of fibers in proportion to its weight.
The finest cashmere has traditionally come from the Himalayan regions of India and Mongolia (the area where the little Kashmir goats thrive), and is generally processed in southern Scotland, in the region around Peeblesshire. Some say it's the water that makes Scottish cashmere the best; others attribute its quality to the expertise of the Scots. Whatever the reason, a hand-cabled, four-ply pullover from this neighborhood is definitely the real thing. ($1,295, in 80 colors; Ballantyne Cashmere, 212/736-4228)
G. Bruce Boyer, a frequent contributor to Cigar Aficionado, is the author of Eminently Suitable (W.W. Norton, 1990).


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I had positive biases approaching Vanishing and other stories. Deborah Willis grew up in my hometown of Calgary (I don't recall ever meeting her, so no bias there) and she sets a number of her stories in the city where I live. Having said that, not only does she acknowledge her heritage, she does it in a way that those of us who also grew up here cannot help but recognize — with all respect to my Irish friends, who can fill a couple of shelves with books set in the neighborhood, we don't get a lot of work set in Calgary. And when we do, some of us (KfC first in line) might be inclined to adjust our critical judgment a tad. This excellent book did not require that at all. And even if you have never been to my town, it is a good book.
There are 14 stories in Vanishing and other stories and while they are in no way linked, there are a lot of common elements. Most of the stories centre on relationships and how they have disintegrated, or disappeared, or simply become part of the past. Willis often tells a story in three tenses — set in reminiscence from a point in the future, the principal focus is on a more recent past, with deeper references even further back. Overall, it is a very effective technique but when you read the stories one after the other it does become a bit of a template. Setting the book down for a day or two between stories is a very appropriate response.
Consider, for example, "Escape", one of my favorite stories in the book. Thomas' wife has died and one of his avenues of escape is to begin frequenting a casino that is a 60-minute drive out of town (avoiding anyone who would know him — Mrs. KfC and I know this 'destination resort' well, although we have never been through the front door):
These days, he goes every night. He knows the roads well, and can make it in less than an hour. He could go to the casino in town, but likes being far from home, from colleagues and well-meaning friends. And he likes the drive: the rain-darkened highway, the sudden light from passing cars.
Thomas becomes a compulsive gambler, but not for any of the usual reasons. Rather he is intrigued, even infatuated, with the whole process and, finally, focuses his obsession on a dealer at the casino:
He learns to recognize the ones who play for money and the ones who play to find God. The first play to win, and they stop once they do. They pick up their chips and they walk out. The other kind of gambler, the kind he is becoming, sinks into the game and disappears. This gambler plays because he loves the rhythm and routine. He loves the moment — a breath — between winning and losing. To be made or broken within seconds. To live or die — the choice made each minute, by luck or some other careless god. He loves the risk, and cares little for the reward. He plays to lose.
That is about as good a summary of compulsive gambling as I have ever read. It comes in the context of someone who has lost his spouse and is seeking some other kind of companionship. Thomas does get into a "rhythm and routine" and it has nothing to do with winning or losing the bet, it eventually has to do with his obsession about the dealer. The way this idea is developed speaks to a very real talent that Willis both has and expresses.
One of the intriguing aspects of this collection is that in a sense the themes move backward, rather than forward — while in the first few stories the author examines disintegrating, established adult relationships, the latter stories are much more about young people and relationships that are just beginning. It is a risky technique: the linking theme in the stories is the disruption of relationships, but the tactic is to start from the long-established and move back towards those that are still in the process of definition.
In that context, here is an example from "This Other Us", a story that appears midway through the book:
The three of us lived together for six years, in a two-bedroom suite on the bottom floor of an old house. We had a deck, a compost bin, and a herb garden we neglected. Like most young people in that coastal town, we rode our bikes everywhere, ate tofu, and went to bed early.
We had two cats, many shared appliances, and we'd forgotten whose dishes were whose. We never kept track of who paid the biggest share of the hydro bill — it all evened out in the end, we decided — or who had cleaned the bathroom last. In fact, we hardly cleaned at all. We were used to each other's unruliness.
Lise, who narrates those words, is the third person in the triangle — Karen and Lawrence are the couple who complete it. But one day a van with the words Revolution Now! on the side appears and Karen packs up, jumps in with the scruffy driver and heads off. Dumpy Lise eventually starts to experiment with tall, slim Karen's clothes and Lawrence pays attention. Something develops between her and Lawrence. And then Karen comes back….
I grew up in the 1960s in Calgary, Alberta, Canada — as did Deborah Willis, some years (okay, decades) later. I'll admit that when Deborah Willis does a take on Phil's Pancake House (and she sets it close to my time, not hers) it sends me back through those decades — Phil's is the all-night place where we went for food in the middle of the night when I went to the University of Calgary back in the 1960s (the pancakes are a speciality, but I was partial to the spaghetti with meat sauce at 2 a.m.). I can tell from the picture on the jacket that Deborah Willis is at least a generation younger than I am, but she has created a marvellous collection of stories, many set in my community, that explore what it is like to come to maturity.
If there is a criticism of Vanishing and other stories, it is that in exploring the way that relationships "decompose", author Willis creates a pattern that tends to blend too much from one story into the next. For the reader, there is an easy way around that — restrict yourself to two or three stories at a reading. When you do, you will find yourself very much in the hands of a superb stylist who plays her plots carefully. I am not saying I hope this collection wins the Governor-General's award for fiction, but I sure won't be whining if it does. It is a wonderful first book and I eagerly await more from an obviously talented author (who also currently works in Munro's bookshop in Victoria, so if you happen by there, buy as many books as your suitcase will hold).
Sorry, I can't resist — above is a 1970 picture of Phil's Pancake House, which would have been taken only two years after I graduated. Depressing as it looks, it brings back memories.


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Bacon, Roger
Bacon, Roger, c.1214–1294?, English scholastic philosopher and scientist, a Franciscan. He studied at Oxford as well as at the Univ. of Paris and became one of the most celebrated and zealous teachers at Oxford. Bacon was learned in Hebrew and in Greek and stressed the value of knowing the original languages in the study of Aristotle and of the Bible. He may also have known Arabic; his own philosophy drew upon Arab Aristotelianism as well as upon St. Augustine. He had an interest far in advance of his times in natural science, in controlled experiments, and in the accurate observation of phenomena.
It is the intention of philosophy,he said,
to work out the natures and properties of things.He declared that mathematics was the gateway to science, and experience, or verification, the only basis of certainty. This belief in experience as a guide to the outer world was, however, not divorced from theology; wisdom and faith were to him one. His writings were numerous. Three of his most important works were written for Pope Clement IV in one year (1267–68)—the Opus majus (tr. 1928), the Opus minor, and the Opus tertium. He was deeply interested in alchemy, an interest that may account for his being credited by his contemporaries with great learning in magical practices. He was long credited with the invention of gunpowder (because of a formula for gunpowder that appeared in a work attributed to him). A manuscript in cipher, discovered in the 20th cent. and attributed to him, would make Bacon the first man to have observed spiral nebulae through a telescope and to have examined cells through a microscope; but considerable doubt has been cast on the original date and the authenticity of the manuscript. Earlier editions of his major works were supplemented by an edition of his hitherto unedited works in various fascicles by Robert Steele and others (1909–35).
See A. G. Little, ed., Roger Bacon Essays (1914, repr. 1972); biography by F. Winthrop Woodruff (1938); studies by T. Crowley (1950) and S. C. Easton (1952, repr. 1971).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Philosophy: Biographies


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§ 422.505. What types of applications and related forms are used to apply for retirement, survivors, and disability insurance benefits?
(a) Applications. Prescribed applications include our traditional pre-printed forms, and applications our employees complete on computer screens based on information you give us. We then print a copy on paper, have you sign it and process the signed application electronically. You may also use SSA's Internet website to submit an SSA-approved application to us. You can complete an Internet application on a computer (or other suitable device, such as an electronic kiosk) and electronically transmit the form to us using an SSA-approved electronic signature. If, however, we do not have an approved electronic signature established when you file your Internet application, you must print and sign the completed application and deliver the form to us.
(b) Related forms. The following are some related forms:
SSA-3—Marriage Certification. (For use in connection with Application for Wife's or Husband's Insurance Benefits, (Form SSA-2))
SSA-11—Request to be Selected as Payee. (For use when an individual proposing to be substituted for the current payee files an application to receive payment of benefits on behalf of disabled child, or a child under 18, or an incapable or incompetent beneficiary or for himself/herself if he/she has a payee.)
SSA-21—Supplement to Claim of Person Outside of the United States. (To be completed by or on behalf of a person who is, was, or will be outside the United States.)
SSA-25—Certificate of Election for Reduced Spouse's Benefits. (For use by a wife or husband age 62 to full retirement age who has an entitled child in his or her care and elects to receive reduced benefits for months during which he or she will not have a child in his or her care.)
SSA-721—Statement of Death by Funeral Director. (This form may be used as evidence of death ( see § 404.704 of this chapter).)
SSA-760—Certificate of Support (Parent's, Husband's or Widower's). (For use in collecting evidence of support.)
SSA-766—Statement of Self-Employment Income. (For use by a claimant to establish insured status based on self-employment income in the current year.)
SSA-783—Statement Regarding Contributions. (This form may be used as evidence of total contributions for a child.)
SSA-787—Physician's/Medical Officer's Statement of Patient's Capability to Manage Benefits. (This form may be used to request evidence of capability from various medical sources.)
SSA-824—Report on Individual with Mental Impairment. (For use in obtaining medical evidence from medical sources when the claimant has been treated for a mental impairment.)
SSA-827—Authorization for Source to Release Information to the Social Security Administration. (To be completed by a disability claimant to authorize release of medical or other information.)
SSA-1002—Statement of Agricultural Employer (Years Prior to 1988). (For use by employer to provide evidence of annual wage payments for agricultural work.)
SSA-1372—Student's Statement Regarding School Attendance. (For use in connection with request for payment of child's insurance benefits for a child who is age 18 through 19 and a full-time student.
SSA-1724—Claim for Amount Due in the Case of a Deceased Beneficiary. (For use in requesting amounts payable under title II to a deceased beneficiary.)
SSA-3368—Disability Report—Adult. (For use in recording information about the claimant's condition, source of medical evidence and other information needed to process the claim to a determination or decision.)
SSA-3369—Disability Report—Work History. (For use in recording work history information.)
SSA-3826-F4—Medical Report—General. (For use in helping disability claimants in obtaining medical records from their doctors or other medical sources.)
SSA-3827—Medical Report—(Individual with Childhood Impairment). (For use in requesting information to determine if an individual's impairment meets the requirements for payment of childhood disability benefits.)
SSA-4111—Certificate of Election for Reduced Widow(er)s Benefits. (For use by applicants for certain reduced widow's or widower's benefits.)
SSA-7156—Farm Self-Employment Questionnaire. (For use in connection with claims for benefits based on farm income to determine whether the income is covered under the Social Security Act.)
SSA-7160—Employment Relationship Questionnaire. (For use by an individual and the alleged employer to determine the individual's employment status.)
SSA-7163—Questionnaire about Employment or Self-Employment Outside the United States. (To be completed by or on behalf of a beneficiary who is, was, or will be employed or self-employed outside the United States.)
[69 FR 499, Jan. 6, 2004, as amended at 70 FR 14978, Mar. 24, 2005]


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Snead, Sam
Snead, Sam (Samuel Jackson Snead)snēd [key], 1912–2002, American golfer, b. Ashwood, Va. An outstanding high school athlete, he turned to golf after injuring a hand as a football player. He attracted attention with several professional victories in 1937 and won his first major title, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) championship, in 1942. After serving in World War II, he returned to the game and won (1946) the British Open title. In 1949, Snead won the PGA and the Masters. He gained his third PGA in 1951 and additional Masters titles in 1952 and 1954. Snead (teamed with Arnold Palmer in 1960 and with Jimmy Demaret in 1961) figured in two Canada Cup victories for the United States. Nicknamed
Slamming Sammybecause of his graceful but powerful tee shots, he was a leading PGA money winner and set the record for PGA tournament wins (82; equaled by Tiger Woods in 2019).
See J. Dodson, American Triumverate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf (2012).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Sports: Biographies


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England's newspaper, The Mail, published excerpts from my book today. The words are a little odd when divorced from the paintings but you can read them here.
7 thoughts on "A Kiss in the Sunday Mail"
I don't remember how I started following your blog/site. I think somehow a quilter who also draws had a link to your blog. I am so thankful I did start following you thoughts, words, sketches. Your words and drawings are so personal but they mean so much to me personally also. Thank you so much for sharing the article today and I look forward to reading your book.
Even though you say you can't believe in an afterlife, I see in your writing that your beloved Patti is still with you in so many ways. We expect a lot of drama and a real physical connection out of the idea of heaven, but it's the love we carry with us that makes space for departed souls in our everyday lives. Your writing stands up very well without the pictures, though I can't wait to see the whole work. Thanks for sharing this and for sharing your art/heart so beautifully.
The excerpt was really moving. The relationship the two of you shared and the connection you continue to feel for your wife is beautiful.
A lovely added touch to the book: the photos inside the dust jacket.


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TOURS, France, October 9, 2011 (AFP) — Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet won a sprint finish to claim the Paris-Tours cycling classic here on Sunday. The BMC rider edged Italian Marco Marcato of Vacansoleil in a two-man dash to the line, with Denmark's Kasper Klostergaard-Larsen of Saxo Bank finishing third shortly after in the 230.5-kilometer race.
Pre-race favorites, including Britain's recently crowned world champion Mark Cavendish and Belgian Philippe Gilbert, winner here in 2008 and 2009, lost out after becoming boxed in at the back of the peloton.
More From Bicycling
The 26-year-old Van Avermaet, who won a stage of the 2008 Tour of Spain, becomes the 40th Belgian to win the race which goes back 105 years.
"The race nerves were jangling from the start. The team was running smoothly so we decided to try something after the feeding station," said Van Avermaet. "Everyone really worked hard for (Alessandro) Ballan, for (Taylor) Phinney and for me. We were the only team that wanted to control the race.
The Paris-Tours peloton flies through the town of Amboise in the Loire Valley. (James Startt)
"I've come close to winning in a few classics this season but there's only one place which counts and that's first. To win a classic such as this is very special and a great step forward for my career. It will give me a big confidence boost for next season."
"I'm really good at sprinting after a long hard race and so is (Marcato), but in the end I was stronger," Van Avermaet said. "I was happy he was working very well in the end. We decided to go full out to the finish and then see who was the fastest in the sprint."
Van Avermaet added: "It's a great year for the Belgians and we have to make the most of it. We have good riders behind Philippe (Gilbert)." With Gilbert, who swept this year's three Ardennes classics, and Thor Hushovd set to reinforce his team in 2012, Van Avermaet said: "We shall have a very strong team next year.
Van Avermaet and Marcato broke free from a group of 21 riders behind France's Arnaud Gerard, who launched his attack 15km from the line. The pair left FDJ rider Gerard at the base of the Epan climb with 7 kilometers to go. They took advantage of disorganization among their challengers with Van Avermaet giving Marcato no chance as the Italian struggled with leg cramp in the final sprint.
Van Avermaet's victory was his fourth of the season. He took the final stage of the Tour de Wallonie on the way to winning the overall and won Stage 6 of the Tour of Austria en route to the points classification there. His previous best finish at Paris-Tours came in 2009 when he finished 14th while helping then (and future) teammate Philippe Gilbert take the win.
2011 Paris-Tours podium, from left: Marcato, Van Avermaet, Klostergaard-Larsen. (James Startt)
BMC's directeur sportif, John Lelangue, said he hatched a plan to spilt the race in the crosswinds just after the feed zone (115 km to go).
"When I passed the feed zone and saw the soigneur with all seven musettes still in his hands, I said to our mechanic that it was a good sign that we were all going for it," Lelangue said. "We had our entire team in the first group of 50 and from then on we were going in all the counters and all the groups and Greg was in a good one.
"It was a good way to finish the classics season."
1. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC 5hr 21min 43sec (average: 42.988 km/h)
2. Marco Marcato (ITA) at 02sec
3. Kasper Klostergaard-Larsen (DEN) 15
4. Ian Stannard (GBR) same time
5. Laszlo Bodrogi (FRA) s.t.
6. Mickael Delage (FRA) at 22sec
7. Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA) s.t.
8. Stuart O'Grady (AUS) s.t.
9. Roy Curvers (NED) s.t.
10. Arnaud Gerard (FRA) s.t.
11. John Degenkolb (GER) 48
12. Mathew Hayman (AUS) s.t.
13. David Boucher (FRA) s.t.
14. Maarten Tjallinghii (NED) s.t.
15. Damien Gaudin (FRA) s.t.
19. Robbie McEwen (AUS) at 1min 23sec, 20. Oscar Freire (ESP) s.t., 27. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA) s.t., 34. Romain Feillu (FRA) s.t., 35. Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) s.t., 42. Mark Cavendish (GBR) s.t., 67. Philippe Gilbert (BEL) at 1min 46sec
Paris-Tours' flat course runs through the valleys. (James Startt)
Chevreuse and Loire


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目的 PurposeDefines a list of property names that should not be persisted to the database. This is often useful if you have read-only accessor methods ("getters") that are helper methods but get confused as being persistence-related.
使用例 Examples
Here we have an accessor that takes the
class Author { String name String getUpperCaseName() { name.toUpperCase() } static transients = ['upperCaseName'] }
name and converts it to uppercase. It doesn't make sense to persist this derived value, so we mark it as transient adding its JavaBean property name to the
transients list.


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Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt offered some new insight into Google's self-driving car program today at his annual press talk at Allen and Co.'s Sun Valley conference.
Schmidt revealed that Google had talked to "all" of the auto-manufacturers globally about the cars, which he called "not yet ready for productization," facing challenges including getting individual states to approve it (Nevada is the only one currently).
"The current biggest problem is that it runs at the speed limit and nobody drives at the speed limit," Schmidt said. Apparently Google has prototypes that don't run at the speed limit however; as Schmidt revealed that Google had a racecourse in an undisclosed location, where the car would race human-driven cars, and win.
Schmidt also went into how exactly the car worked, saying that a consumer will eventually type an address in what he called "Google maps on steroids." "The deal here is that there's a person in the driver's seat, and a really big red button that says "Off." He said the self-driving car would function much like a plane's auto pilot, ultimately bolstered by a real human on standby.
When asked if the more technophobic mainstream would easily adopt the novel technology, Schmidt responded, "Depends on how drunk they are." Schmidt brought up the sad statistic of 35k people killed each year in drunk driving accidents in the United States, and the even sadder fact that that is considered a good statistic because it's remained constant over two to three decades.
"It's a terrible tragedy," Schmidt said, "The sooner we can get cars to drive for us the more lives we can save … self-driving cars should become the predominant mode of transportation in our lifetime."
Image via: Zack Sheppard


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What's worse, being described as "shrill" or being called a cougar? Welcome to the "pyramid of egregiousness"! (It considers cougar the greater offense.)
The full interactive version can be found here, part of the new "Name It, Change It" campaign, which was launched by several women's groups today to call out sexism in broadcast news and politics. There's also a video reenactment of several real-life statements about female politicians from broadcast news:
We have no quibbles with the cause — having covered nearly all of these bullshit pronouncements — but most examples of media sexism aren't quite so high on the pyramid as two guys slapping each other five as a woman looks on in horror.
Unless, of course, you're watching Chris Matthews! Or Fox News.
Name It. Change It [WMC]


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We've covered a number of studies on the slower rise of atmospheric warming in recent years. Those studies have mainly focused on the oceans, the Pacific Ocean in particular, where cool La Niña conditions have dominated due to stronger trade winds, resulting in greater heat uptake by deeper ocean water. But that's not the only source of short-term climate variability to account for.
Volcanic eruptions also affect temperatures, as they add tiny particles of sulfate (referred to as "aerosols") to the atmosphere. These particles increase the amount of sunlight that gets reflected back into space, "shading" Earth's surface. Big eruptions, like Mount Pinatubo in 1991, can lower average global temperatures for a couple years. Huge eruptions, of course, can have a more dramatic impact—like the "Year Without a Summer" in 1816.
We haven't had any major eruptions since 1991, but there have been plenty of smaller ones. Since 2000, there have been about 17 eruptions large enough to warrant consideration in the context of the global climate. Recently, a group led by Benjamin Santer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has examined satellite measurements of atmospheric aerosols in order to work out how much of an impact those eruptions have had on the climate.
First, the researchers compared the aerosol measurements to satellite records of temperature and reflected solar radiation. After removing the influence of El Niño/La Niña conditions (which can influence reflected sunlight via cloud cover), they found (as expected) a good correlation with reflected solar radiation. The correlation with temperature was more complicated—lots of things affect the temperature—but a link was also apparent during periods of higher volcanic activity.
That's doubly interesting because recent volcanic activity wasn't accounted for in the climate model simulations compiled for the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The models used estimates of observed "forcings" (factors that push the climate toward warming or cooling) up to 2005, where the projections of future scenarios took over. The inputs used for the pre-2005 period included Pinatubo but dropped its sulfate contributions to negligible levels by 2000—and they didn't account for any eruptions after that.
(There is a reason to ignore small eruptions. The model simulations are averaged together to represent long-term trends rather than short-term variability. Since the timing of volcanic eruptions is unpredictable and don't change the long-term trends, no attempt is made to anticipate volcanic activity.)
Most of the 17 eruptions took place after 2005, meaning that the real world experienced a source of cooling that the simulated worlds in the models did not. The difference made by accounting for this isn't trivial, but it isn't huge, either. Several newer studies showed that adding the recent volcanic activity to the model simulations lowered global temperature about 0.02 to 0.07 °C by 2010.
While this is a point of interest for climate scientists more than the average person, the researchers also point out that it illustrates one problem with simplistic claims that recent temperatures show CO2 doesn't cause much warming. There are a number of sources of short-term variability to account for, both in the real world and in climate model simulations. In addition, the researchers say that volcanic aerosols are unlikely to be the only model inputs that could be improved for recent years—and our observations aren't perfect to boot. A meaningful analysis takes much more than eyeballing a couple graphs.
Things like small eruptions are the fine details that keep researchers hard at work and help climate modelers interpret their results. The public argument about climate change, on the other hand, often glosses over those details.
Nature Geoscience, 2014. DOI: 10.1038/NGEO2098 (About DOIs).
Listing image by NASA Earth Observatory


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I hope that everyone has fully come down from their Xmas period festivities, it seems that many of us needed a few days to recover from the sugar, food and for some over merriment….well whatever it was, we all hope it was as much fun as we had enjoyed.
New Years Eve is fast approaching, so I will like to inform of you of some of the events that will happening in and around Vancouver and a little beyond.
Many people have been asking us questions at the hotel about where you may be able to catch some fireworks, I am afraid to say that the city of Vancouver will not be participating in any major outdoor celebrations this time around, so sadly no fireworks for us this year…however, please read the following list of events below that you may like to attend.
Robson Square Ice Rink
A great way to kick off the New Years Eve party celebration for all the early birds out there with families. The Rink which is located near the Art Gallery will be hosting a family friendly evening with plenty of entertainment, music and GLOW STICKS! The countdown will happen early at 8pm, it will be New Year somewhere in the world….and even better the Rink and Rentals are FREE.
Bright Nights in Stanley Park
The lights will still be on during the New Year period, so come on down to Stanley Park and be bedazzled with all the festive lights and displays, and if you like, you can also hop on the festive holiday train…choooo choooo! The lights will be glowing away from 3pm all the way through till 11pm. And admission is always by donation.
Whistler First night
If any of you are making the trip up to Whistler, there will be a first night celebration in the Village Square and at the Whistler Conference Centre. The celebrations will begin at 6.30pm, with stories to be told, live music to boogie too and much more. Door tickets will be $20 and $10 for Children, a family friendly event so it will be alcohol free. An early countdown or the kids will happen at 9.30pm.
Polar Bear Swim (New Years Day)
The 91st annual Polar Bear swim will be happening at 2.30pm at English Bay Beach. If you fancy yourself to be hardy enough for this, feel free to join in and go for this popular dip in the bay, Costumes are one of the many highlights of this event, so if you feel this is your thing, lets see you get dressed up for the occasion. You will need to register for the swim, you can do this at English Bay and it is free to sign up, you will find this at The English Bay Bathhouse between 12.30pm and 2.30pm.
A little tidbit here, this Polar Bear swim is one of the oldest clubs to participate…91st year is quite something. The fist swim included just 10 swimmers, whilst the 2011 swim involved a massive 2.246 participants…WOW!
Non perishable Food Donations and cash donations are welcome too, with the proceeds going towards the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
What ever you wish to do, and however you will celebrate we wish you all a very happy and incredible New Year, please keep visiting the blog as I will update you on further events come January and beyond…


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Why Teens Hate Therapy
Mistakes Therapists Should Avoid
"How do I get her to talk about her feelings?" asks Jean, a counseling intern about to meet 13-year-old Hannah for an initial appointment. "I'm not sure what to say to her." Hannah will be the first client Jean has seen without a more experienced co-therapist at her side, and she's worried.
Oh boy, I wonder privately. Are they still teaching that good therapy means getting kids to pour out their feelings? I'm suddenly reminded of a teen client I'd seen years ago who, when I asked what hadn't worked in her prior therapy, began a mocking singsong of her therapist: "So, Cindy, how does that make you feel? How does that make you feel? How does that make you feel?" "Ugh," she continued, "enough already with my fucking feelings. It made me feel like I just wanted her to shut up! That's how it made me feel!"
"Don't worry about getting her to talk about her feelings," I say to Jean. "If you're doing anything close to what Hannah needs you to do, you won't have to. She'll show you what her feelings are."
It hadn't been all that long ago that I, too, had thought a client's feelings were the Holy Grail of therapy. But I've realized in the years since that direct questions about feelings are actually a source of irritation to kids. They'll talk about them, alright, but not in a discussion isolated from the conversation at hand, with a spotlight turned on it. Besides, the question itself is now so predictable, parodied even by the people it's supposed to serve.
Most teens are in therapy only because their parents, their teachers, the juvenile court judge, and/or some adult in authority somewhere has told them they must see a therapist. Consequently, they often find most standard, shrink-wrapped attempts to "engage" them infuriating. For example, to the therapeutic bromide, "We're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about you," their (usually unspoken) response can only be, "You may be here to talk about me, but I'm not—I never wanted to talk to you in the first place." In short, they don't talk, don't want to answer questions, don't want to be in our offices, and don't intend to make it any easier for us, so we often resort to our stale therapeutic cliches because we don't know what else to do. It's probably fair to say that most teens, being highly protective of their emerging selfhood, loathe therapy sight unseen, and that too many hate it even more once they've had a taste. At a time when adolescents and preteens need our help in navigating the multiple challenges of family, academic, and social life more than ever, the gap between clinical theory as taught in graduate school and real-life practice continues to widen, unfortunately.
Most of us were never trained to talk to adolescents. I was taught psychotherapy by psychoanalysts, who worked hard to instill in me an understanding of the importance of unconscious conflict, character structure, object relations, interpersonal dynamics, and transference. It was great training and has proved highly valuable, but it was a beginning, not an ending. This hit me right between the eyes when I took my first job as staff psychologist at a residential treatment center for socially and emotionally disturbed boys and girls who didn't give a crap about their unconscious conflicts or anything else having to do with therapy. I'd ask them, "What are your treatment goals?" and they'd look at me as if to say, "Lady, is there anything on my face that says I have a treatment goal?" I'd make an interpretation of their behavior--"I wonder if you yell at your mother when she asks you where you're going because it feels invasive" or whatever—hoping to spark a little insight, and they'd stare blankly at me for a moment before getting up and leaving the session.
When I began treating adolescents in earnest, I realized that if I wanted to keep one of them sitting in my office for more than half a session, I'd have to change how I spoke with them. We needed language that was more natural, shared, mutually revealing than the questioning, interpreting, ritualized clinical language I'd been taught. I did learn this new tongue, but not by myself—I was taught by these angry, unhappy kids. They became my first postgraduate instructors as they began to respond to our more transparent and unaffected encounters. They showed me that successful treatment with them wasn't a matter of how I thought therapy "should" go, but of what would make them want to come back a second and third time.
I began to realize that the point of talking to them was to get them a little curious about what we might wind up chatting, joking, or arguing about in the current or following session. Another point of our talks was to get them to be less afraid of hope. So many of these kids had been let down so often by different adults, institutions, and circumstances that they'd learned to protect themselves by refusing to allow themselves to want anything they thought they might not get—lasting friendship, support from parents and teachers, good grades, a sense of self-worth, and certainly any real help from a therapist. So, I started to feel that if I could nudge them along to think that they might want to try just a little bit, with my help, to get something they wanted, it would be a great leap forward in treatment.
Over the years, I've developed an approach I call Natural Law Therapy, which simply means that I try to conduct therapy as much as possible according to the normal, natural way people talk to each other in different circumstances, without premeditated rules, protocols, or scripts. People who are perceived as not sounding natural or real or normal often are considered phony, duplicitous, and overbearing. Not surprisingly, they evoke in others a sense of distrust, anxiety, defensiveness, and anger. Of all clients, perhaps teenagers are the most protective of their vulnerable sense of dignity, and are particularly unforgiving of adults who seem to talk down to them, attempt to get some advantage over them, or assume a verbal one-up stance.
Some of my therapy principles have a counterintuitive element to them. For example, how can we demonstrate our trustworthiness to a teen who distrusts all adults? A standard rule for inducing trust in clients is promising confidentiality up front. But I've found that refraining from pointing out inconsistencies in their stories that they aren't yet ready to address is a better way to gain teens' trust than promising to keep their secrets. Rather than using the standard clinical technique of addressing these inconsistencies in the form of a mild confrontation, it's more respectful to protect their dignity by keeping mum. What makes a kid feel safe is knowing that if he says something he hasn't meant to say, or hasn't realized would invalidate his previous assertions, I'm not going embarrass him by pointing out his oversight.
For example, I once treated a 14-year-old girl who was adamant for the first three sessions that she had no problems at all. In the fourth session, I was commenting on her apparent lack of awareness of how her anger and irritability affected the rest of her family when she blurted out, "Why should I be worried about them when I'm the one with all the problems?!" To point out that she'd just contradicted what she'd been saying for weeks would have been unkind and unhelpful, demonstrating that I was far more eager to be right and make her see the truth as others saw it than to help her become more comfortable with saying what she really felt or thought.
I also began to rethink the meaning of the therapeutic alliance and establishing rapport. The usual process for connecting with clients is to spread empathy all over the place, to make careful, nonjudgmental responses to every word a client utters. But too-obvious attempts at therapeutic joining with teenagers before there's any real engagement just raises the "yuck" reaction in teen clients, and immediately compromises any relationship-building. Rapport isn't something that emerges directly from "rapport-building techniques"; it only grows organically from the mutual regard and respect that people develop for each other--something that requires genuine engagement over time. The idea that rapport leads to engagement is exactly backward. You engage and, if you like what you see in the other person, you connect. Then you have rapport.
Furthermore, in the spirit of establishing rapport with the reluctant or resistant adolescent client, therapists will sometimes set the scale more heavily in favor of empathy and support than accountability, to avoid difficult topics and not alienate the young client. They might excuse behaviors like extreme rudeness, profanity, and direct insults or refrain from commenting on the client's inappropriate activities like getting stoned and having semi-anonymous sex or a propensity for shoplifting that scream out for a genuine response. This reticence can convey to the teen client not that these therapists genuinely care, but that they're willing to sacrifice a measure of self-respect in order to appease the client.
However, when we sacrifice our personal boundaries or pretend not to notice things taking place in session in order to keep the peace, we lose the credibility we need to be able to do our job. Balancing the demonstration of our understanding and compassion with our ability and willingness to hold everybody in the room accountable for their actions (including ourselves) is one of the most critical challenges therapists face with clients, particularly troubled teens.
If there were a universal icon for adolescent therapy, it would have to be the stony face of a silent teen sitting in front of an oh-so-gently probing therapist. The act of speaking becomes so loaded with meaning that it threatens to overshadow the therapy itself and slow it to a halt. Because we've allowed the act of speaking to matter more to us than to our clients, we've inadvertently played up the value of words as currency, giving our clients the power of the purse, so to speak, forcing us to beg for every cent. As a result, adolescent clients who resent being sent to therapy or who are simply self-conscious about talking to someone they hardly know can sit and watch the entertaining show of the tap-dancing we do to get a response from them.
As long as we approach the problem of helping teenagers by asking, "How do I get this kid to talk?" therapists will carry the burden of energizing the therapy—not a great clinical strategy. What follows are three case studies in which some of the principles that I've discussed above—or their absence—played important roles. The three girls I've written about are very different personalities, with differing degrees of interest in therapy. As a result, my approach and configuration of their respective therapies is different in each case. Other than a few minor modifications in tone or pacing, I'd approach boys with the same set of principles with which I approached these girls.
The Gentle Art of Not Taking the Bait
Rachel, who was 15, was referred by her family physician when her mother discovered she'd been cutting herself. She offered no resistance to therapy and came to her sessions eagerly. Dressed in gray and black, and often wearing a hoodie pulled down low to cover much of her face, she was funny, warm, kindhearted, likable—and brimming with self-contempt. Sophisticated and circumspect in my office, she was, I learned from what she told me, quite different among her friends. With boys, she flaunted her sexuality—wearing tight clothes and a good deal of makeup, flirting strenuously—to make up for what she believed to be her subpar looks and personality. Partly because she was by nature empathetic to other people's pain (being only too aware of her own) and partly to compensate for her own feelings of inferiority, she became the go-to person for all her friends who wanted to discuss their problems. She was content to absorb their pain in exchange for feeling valued and tended to say yes and agree to do things even when she really didn't want to. At the same time, she had a reputation for being someone her peers wouldn't want to cross, sometimes lashing out when frustrated or when she learned about some injustice suffered by a third party. Over all this lay an unmovable mass of depression and anxiety like a heavy cloud that she'd been under for years.
Rachel was also very reckless and self-destructive in a willful, intentional kind of way. In the beginning, she told me the kind of things she did—something guaranteed to raise a therapist's anxiety level. She burned her arm at night with a heated safety pin or cut herself with a knife in order to focus her thoughts away from her problems, so that she could fall asleep. Though she'd never engaged in sexual intercourse, she mused out loud about when she would, with whom she would, and how many partners she'd have should she start having sex. She frequently drank too much and had experimented with drugs. I think some of what she told me was a test. So many adults, from teachers to parents and school counselors, had reacted with such urgency and insistence to what she was doing—in itself kind of gratifying reaction—that she'd never had the chance to stop and consider whether she wanted to continue doing it. Would I respond as every other adult had? I began to understand that one key to working effectively with this girl was in not reacting with obvious alarm, even though everything about the situation and her clear anguish seemed to clamor for it.
"She's much prettier than I am anyway," Rachel said to me one day, by way of summarizing why her boyfriend had dumped her for another girl in their grade. "So I really can't blame him." She clearly meant it, and her sad, revealing comment simply hung in the air between us.
This is the kind of statement that would make many therapists want to give Rachel a pat little speech: being pretty isn't everything; if that's how her ex-boyfriend appraises girlfriends, then maybe he's not such good boyfriend material after all; you're pretty, too. Besides the fact that most teenage girls who've been dumped wouldn't believe these sentiments, had I given this kind of response, it would have made the exchange all about me and what I wanted her to believe, instead of about what she thought and felt. I'd be showing her that I was less interested in understanding the values in her world than I was in trying to utilize her disclosure to "raise her consciousness" and make it align with values I thought were important.
Instead, I asked her, "Are there differences between boys who pick their girlfriends based on how pretty they are and those who base their decisions on a whole bunch of different things?" After we'd discussed her male friends' criteria for selecting girlfriends for a while, I asked, "Hey, how come when you tell me about the boys in your school, it always sounds like they're in the driver's seat?" These questions, with their gentle counterpoints to Rachel's pliant manner around boys, served to nibble at the edges of her way of thinking about boys, girls, and their relationships with each other. They helped keep the conversation open and move it forward a little. I was seeding the idea that she could ask for more; that she deserved more. Because of Rachel's deliberate but reserved nature, my choice of tone in therapy was—decidedly—understatement.
There were other interventions I mulled over, looking for the right place to introduce them. For example, I wanted to affirm Rachel's essentially benevolent nature and generosity, but I had to do it in a way she wouldn't find patronizing or gratuitous. She'd always made it hard for others to compliment her, mainly because she was uncomfortable when evaluated more favorably than the self-image she held--as a kind of unattractive loser--which she consciously projected. I think praise made her uneasy, seeming to make her beholden to a standard that she felt pressured to keep up and afraid she couldn't. In other words, while her low self-image maintained her depression, it also felt safer than risking the failure and disappointment of not being able to live up to the good opinion and high expectations of others. Once she told me that she didn't at all mind the low points of her depressive cycles, because she knew that from there, it could only get better.
So, instead of openly pointing out to Rachel what I regarded as her instinctive kindness, I just said that I'd been moved by the stories she'd told me about caring tenderly for her two younger brothers when her mother was away and about getting two girls to stop teasing a third online. "You keep these two facets of your personality—your caring nature and high sense of justice—under such wraps though; nobody sees this part of you." I said this simply as an observation and opinion—not implied advice—indicating no requirement for her to respond. But she did, with a shrug. "It's no big deal," she said.
"Rachel," I responded. "Why is it so important for you to present yourself as less than you are?"
"Because I don't care," she replied. She then added, "Actually, I think I just really hate myself."
It would have been tempting to ask, in deeply concerned tones, "But why? You have no reason to hate yourself. You're such a lovely, kind, good person. You just aren't having a very good day." Such a response—essentially denying that she feels what she feels—could only inspire the client to clam up or just get up and walk out. Instead, we sat together quietly and easily for the remaining few minutes of the session.
Soon after Rachel's comment about realizing she hated herself, I started noticing changes in her demeanor and in the stories she brought to therapy. She looked more carefree, and one day said she was aware of "smiling a lot." She hadn't mentioned school in months, dwelling more on issues with friends and family. Now, she began talking about school, telling me that she'd been writing poems about "conscience," and "putting down the knife." Rachel was offended when her mother suggested she was cutting herself because of a boy, and even more offended when her mother asked if it was because of her. "These are my scars!" Rachel pronounced to me in session. "I don't do this because of a boy. That would be kind of pathetic, don't you think? And my mother just thinks everything is all about her!" At some point in a conversation around this time, I found the right opportunity to say to Rachel, "You know, you have a 'no' in you now." She nodded.
Shortly thereafter, Rachel's mother called me to say that her daughter had indicated she wanted to come in to therapy less often since she didn't have all that much to talk about anymore. In the last few weeks of therapy, Rachel described her new interest: serial killers. With insight and compassion, she talked about how they were often dehumanized by the media and even by the people who were studying them and trying to understand them. Interestingly, she added, "If you dehumanize them, then you can't understand them or catch them. It turns them into monsters, but they're human, too." For some therapists, this new interest in serial killers might itself sound alarm bells. I took it as a reflection of how Rachel had managed to rehumanize herself in her own eyes--an important first step in allowing others to see her that way, as well.
The Paradox of Breaking Eggshells
Thirteen-year-old Danielle arrived in my office—courtesy of her mom—and was stinking mad about it. She didn't agree with anything her mom had to say: that Danielle had become more and more angry over the past few months, that she didn't seem to care about school anymore, that she was rude and disrespectful at home. All that was wrong in Danielle's world, according to Danielle, was that her mother wouldn't let her live with her dad.
That Danielle was going to be a challenge was obvious. She was dodgy (would totally ignore a question or comment), provocative, and outrageous. Early on she commented, "In school the other day, my friend and I yelled down the hallways, 'Babies in blenders! Babies in blenders!' It was so funny!" She wore the chainsaw earrings her father had given her for Christmas, as well as a perpetually insolent expression on her face, to make people a little nervous about whom they were dealing with. Danielle would have eaten a newbie therapist alive.
This was a kid who motored through (and over) her family, her friends, her day. She had attitude in spades, but self-reflection, an awareness of the needs of people around her, empathy? Not so much. With a kid as volatile as Danielle, I assumed that any session might be her last. Instead of thinking about the evolution of her therapy, I scouted for little windows of opportunity to present unfamiliar but potentially intriguing perspectives—not asking her to talk about them or consider them or even focus on them—just getting them on her screen for a moment.
On paper, treatment was about reducing her disrespect and defiance at home, resurrecting her interest in doing well in school, and reducing her idealization of dad. In the office, it was about getting her to stop shadowboxing long enough to hear what needed to be said to her, but which almost nobody dared say: that intimidating everybody around you is a hollow victory in the end, that finding entertainment in another's pain is never an attractive quality, and that beneath the tough-girl persona, she was someone worth getting to know.
But she was also the kind of teen who could see through any attempts to "make friends" prematurely by ignoring her bad behavior or pretending not to be dismayed and appalled by it. Any perceived loss of your own integrity is fatal to therapy with a client like this; if there's something you want to say, you'd better say it and own it. Your tentativeness only reinforces her confidence that she has the upper hand in any exchange with you.
Here she is talking to me about her mother, for whom she feels utter disdain and no shame in showing it. "I can't stand my mom's boyfriend," Danielle spits. "He's such a pussy. He actually gets nervous when he tries to talk to me. And he's, like, what, 50 years old or something? He keeps buying my brother and me all these things just so we'll like him, but it's such bullshit." She laughs an unkind laugh, expecting me to appease her with a grin of my own.
Instead I say, "I feel sorry for the guy." Danielle looks up at me, hard.
What? I ask her with my face.
"You would feel sorry for him," she says, with disgust. "Forget it." She reaches into her backpack and takes out some homework to do, presumably for the remainder of the session.
"How come I always have to have the answer you want me to have in order to keep the conversation going?" I ask.
Danielle looks up at me, and with her questioning sneer and slight shake of the head mumbles, "You're so lost."
I keep on. "Yes, I do feel sorry for the guy. I feel sorry for anyone who wants to get to know you because you make them feel stupid for having tried. And I feel sorry for your mom, too, because she seems to really like this guy, but also wants your approval so she can feel that she's doing the right thing. But you see them struggling with all this, and yet you don't help them out. Instead you laugh."
"Why would I want to help them?" Danielle looks genuinely puzzled.
"Wow," is all I manage to say, suddenly very still.
Danielle looks up, disarmed and unsettled by my response. She stares at me for a moment and then turns away.
And there was the therapy—in that brief collision of our two different phenomenological worlds. In hers, being cavalier and mean is OK and even cool, but in my world it isn't. For a few moments, Danielle felt what it was like to be herself in my world, where the rules are different, and it made her uncomfortable. I don't think she'd ever had reason to consider just how dependent she was on having an accommodating context to make her lifestyle work.
If I'd tried to connect with Danielle simply by being understanding or "neutral," the conversation might have gone something like this: When Danielle said, "I can't stand my mom's boyfriend. He keeps buying my brother and me all these things just so we'll like him, but it's such bullshit." I might have responded, "What would you rather him do?" But, by following Danielle's lead in this way, I would merely be condoning her dismissive position. By saying "I feel sorry for the guy," I was getting across the point that her statement wasn't as cool as she thought it was, without directly challenging her. If I'd suggested that she "cut him some slack," I'd basically have been telling her to "be different," which is exactly what all the other adults in her life have done—to noticeably little effect. By saying that I felt sorry for her mother's boyfriend, however, I was sending a similar message, but in a way she couldn't really fight, since I was stating my own position.
When she said "You're so lost" to me with contempt, I might have responded, "What do you mean I'm so lost?" This suggests that, as her therapist, I was more interested in her criteria for how I should be than I was in what was happening between us. It also hints at my reticence to go down the path of opposing her attitude and behavior, with its potential for conflict.
So, what was the therapy, exactly, in that brief collision of worlds? Danielle is like the emperor whose lack of clothing nobody dares point out. In this exchange, without telling her she should change anything about the way she conducts her life, I was able to get the things I thought she needed to hear out into the room:
I don't agree with you.
I'm going to feel sorry for your mother's boyfriend, even if you don't.
Not everyone associates compassion with being a loser.
You control conversations by punishing people for responding in a way you don't like.
You're controlling with your mom, and she tolerates it because you mean so much to her and she's afraid of losing you.
That's not very nice.
Danielle kept coming back for her sessions week after week. They were always made up of a lively mix of storytelling, debate, humor, confrontation, rages on her part, and the two of us visually appraising each other. Sometimes I met with Danielle's mom, and tried to help her play a less ingratiating role to her daughter's imperial manner and stand her ground more often, even if it meant being "punished" over the next few days by Danielle's snarky comments and noncompliance around the house. Two months into the therapy, Danielle insisted that I join her in excoriating her mother for not being willing to pay a deposit on an apartment rental for her dad, who'd just been booted out of his current one for nonpayment of rent. I declined to do this and she decided to end therapy. "How come my not backing you on this means we don't meet anymore?" I asked her before the end of what, in fact, turned out to be the last session. She looked at me and said nothing. "It's OK," I said. "When you feel it's safe to make room in your world for people who don't always agree with you, come back and we'll pick up where we left off." Danielle turned her face away from mine so I wouldn't see her begin to cry. I never did see her again.
This was not an ideal end to therapy. That would have been that a chastened, more insightful Danielle saw the error of her ways and became a kinder, gentler, more compassionate young person, who started working harder and getting better grades in school. But, whatever we like to pretend, relatively few therapy cases actually end with complete resolution, grateful tears, and the launching of a happy new life. Particularly when dealing with spiky, touchy adolescents who are in therapy only because they've been dragged in, we're lucky to make any impression whatsoever. I like to think that the therapy left Danielle with a reference experience of having genuinely, if briefly and despite herself, connected with someone whose values are antithetical to her own. Maybe in my office, she was imbued with that glint of curiosity, of vagrant hope—a tiny light at the end of her tunnel vision—that would draw her back at some point in the future to be open to some kind of therapeutic experience again.
Meeting Clients Where They Are
Elise, who was 16, was having a difficult day at school. Depressed, picked on by classmates, and unable to get sufficient attention from her few friends, she'd gone down to talk with her guidance counselor, a supervisee of mine. Early in their conversation, Elise emphatically announced that she hated everybody. "And I mean everybody!"
"No, you don't hate everybody," her counselor responded. "You don't hate me. You don't hate your mom. You don't hate your therapist." That was the end of that. Elise got up and walked back to class. What's the point in expressing how you feel if someone's right there to tell you you're wrong?
I asked Elise's counselor what it was she didn't like about Elise's statement that she hated everybody. "It's just so negative," she replied. "I wanted her to realize that there were all these people trying to help her, and that she didn't really hate them."
Elise's counselor was trying for too much too soon. I also didn't think it was the right approach for Elise, whose aloof demeanor and critical manner made it hard for anyone to make much of an impression on her. Without the traction of a relationship in which the counselor or therapist mattered to her, Elise would have no interest in hearing about anything other than what she wanted to hear at that moment—words of comfort or a remark that she could morph into something that validated her jaded outlook.
What was the difference between Elise's counselor's efforts to champion an alternative perspective and my similar efforts with Danielle? It was their personalities and interpersonal relationship styles. Elise was impenetrable and remote. She considered little of what others said or did. By contrast, Danielle took in everything around her, and then would spit it out on the floor in front of you. But for all her pugnaciousness, Danielle engaged with the people in her world, and each moment of engagement held open the possibility for someone—a therapist, teacher, parent—to leave something of him- or herself behind.
Latent power struggles in therapy make their way to the surface whenever our clients begin to see us as a threat to a point of view or sense of injustice they're not yet ready to relinquish. Elise wasn't ready to give up her negativity, which helped her keep people at bay and control interactions with adults, who predictably tried to get her to abandon her negativity in favor of something more hopeful. The conversation was the same each time: "Everything sucks." "No, it doesn't! C'mon, look on the bright side." Just as predictably, their response confirmed Elise in her negativity.
Kids will let go when they want to. The work of therapy isn't getting them to do it, but helping them want to. More important, though, is to know that they don't have to let go in order for you to take the therapy forward. Elise could hate everybody and have a gigantic blind spot for the liabilities of being a lone wolf, while still being titillated by the notion, for instance, that letting others align with her could actually help her feel bigger, not smaller.
I suggested to Elise's therapist that instead of trying to "do therapy" right out of the gate, she give her students more room just to make the comments they wanted to make at the beginning. In the case of Elise, I suggested she might respond with something like, "Yeah, I think I have days when I hate everybody, too" or "What was your day like that you ended up feeling like you hate everybody?" or "How long does your 'I hate everybody' mood usually last?" all asked sincerely, not somberly as if trying to ferret out an underlying pathology. These questions would assist the counselor in joining Elise by normalizing what she felt instead of turning it into something "bad" or abnormal. Moreover, such responses would prevent conversational shutdown by communicating, "Yes, I understand how you can feel that you hate everyone in the world, and maybe today—or every day—you do. But nothing about that keeps us from talking about ways to help you make it through the school day."
Because teenage clients are legally underage, we tend to treat them as if they weren't fully capable of making their own decisions. But no matter what we want for them or can see in them, the choice of whether to accept our help is always theirs--just as it is for adult clients we treat. Unless we honor that choice, creating a therapeutic climate in which they feel respected and able to accept our help is impossible.
"The customer is always right" is increasingly the mantra for adults in therapy, but not yet for teenagers. If they don't talk enough or follow our recommendations, they're likely to be labeled "resistant," even "oppositional." The question of why they don't like therapy is rarely reviewed beyond the hermetic perspective of therapists. But paying attention to their complaints could benefit both us and them.
We already know some of the things teens don't respond well to in therapy—excessive questioning, standardized treatment protocols, enforced between-session homework—so let's stop using them. They do respond well to active, authentic, and respectful relating, direct feedback, and advice. If these were to become a standard part of clinical training and treatment, we'd be taking a great step toward providing services to teens that they'd be as interested in getting as we've been in offering.
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miracle, preternatural occurrence that is viewed as the expression of a divine will. Its awe and wonder lie in the fact that the cause is hidden. The idea of the miracle occurs especially with the evolution of those highly developed religions that distinguish between natural law and divine will. Many supernatural or inexplicable events have been called miracles, but in the strict religious sense a miracle refers only to the direct intervention of divine will in the affairs of men. The adherents of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam attribute miracles to the omnipotence of God, the Creator, who alone can change the natural events of the world or can delegate that power to a disciple, such as Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad. In the history of Christianity miracles have played a major role, two of the most important examples of divine intervention being the Resurrection (Mat. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20; 21) and the Virgin Birth. Miracles in Christianity are also associated with saints' bodies and relics and with shrines. Some saints had in their lifetime great repute for curing the sick by supposed miracles. The Roman Catholic Church requires rigid attestation of miracles before canonization, but does not officially require belief in other than biblical miracles.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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This is a Helper Page for:
|Complex Numbers
|Logarithmic Scale and the Slide Rule
Basic Description
Logarithms are considered the inverse or opposite operations to exponents, just as subtraction is the inverse to addition or square rooting is the inverse to squaring.
For example, suppose we have the exponential expression , which we know will equal 8. Now, suppose we want to do the inverse operation and go from the value 8 to the exponent 3 with a base of 2. We could do the inverse operation by using logarithms and write , which is read "logarithm of 8 base 2 is equal to 3".
- In order words, if we have an exponential equation:
- we can write an equivalent logarithmic equation:
What about exponential equations such as ? It might seem harder to solve for x in this case because there is no whole number exponent that will give us the value of 932 with a base of 10. However, if we simply rewrite the equation as an logarithmic equation , we can find quite easily with a calculator that x is about 2.969.
To look at some more examples of switching between exponential and logarithmic equations:
A More Mathematical Description
Definition of a Logarithm
if and only if , where b > 1 and x > 0
In words: The logarithm of a value at a given base is the power (exponent) that the base must be raised to produce the value.
Graphing a Logarithmic Function
Basic Properties of Logarithms
Additional Resources
- Reference used - Wikipedia, Logarithms Page


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Sunday, August 12, 2012
It's been a while
5 comments:
this is beautiful, thank you for sharing.ReplyDelete
Agree, this is beautiful. I know he would be/is so proud of his daughter and all she is today.ReplyDelete
I appreciate your support here in this community Cutter, and also in real life KC.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 20, 2012 at 10:46 PM
Beautifully written. I lost my dad almost 8 years ago. It was unexpected. He never met my now husband. He never saw my start and now almost be finished with medical school. He never got to hold my sweet baby girl and rock her on his lap. She would have adored him. I hope he knows how much I love him. I, too, don't know if I thanked him enough.ReplyDelete
We can only imagine what our dads would have been like as grandfathers, as father-in-laws, and more. And on the other hand, we get the opportunity to imagine, and we have our memories, and live on as they would want us too. Thanks for the comment, lukogirl. He knew. He knows.ReplyDelete