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By submitting this form, I give OurChurch.Com permission to send me communication by email.
This is Day 18 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 60+ of us bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers.
The idea behind creating a sneeze page for your blog? Quite the opposite of spewing bacteria all over your friends, family and co-workers while wondering why no one says God bless you anymore, your blog's sneeze page encourages your visitors to stick around for a while, hand sanitizer optional.
If you still haven't installed a statistics tracker, today is a good day to get that done. Tracking the hits to your blog is the only way to know if these exercises are doing your blog any good.
Creating a sneeze page can be done several different ways, and if you've been blogging for more than a minute, you're probably doing at least one of them.
- Your about me page is more than a mini-bio. Link to your favorite posts that tell your readers more about you.
- Create a page that lists the most popular posts on your site. For you WordPress users, there are plugins that will do this automatically, but why not stroll through your archives yourself? Link to the ones you like the best, the ones with the most views, and the ones that generated interesting discussions in your comments. Mix it up.
- When you use words like "yesterday's post" in your current post, take the time to hyperlink yesterday's post. Write your blog as though every single visitor is reading for the first time.
- Each post should be a sneeze post. Link your commonly used themes, references and cast of characters in each post. Tell us who you are every chance you get, and be interesting. Readers won't read your blog for an hour without compelling content and easy navigation. Don't bury the goodness.
- If you're using a blogging platform that won't allow separate, tabbed pages, you can use your sidebars just as effectively, but on a smaller scale. More of a slightly runny nose than a sneeze, you can still get your readers to click around your site by listing your must-read posts.
Discussion questions:
- What is your current method for getting your readers to stick around on your blog?
- Do you change your sneeze or sticky pages frequently or just kinda let them collect dust?
- What's your way of knowing if anything you're doing on your blog is working?
- Do you like cats?
The Extra Mile
A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further today…
- Reply & give other bloggers feedback on the little things they do.
- When other bloggers include a link to a new article they've posted today, click, read, and comment on it.
- Check previous posts in the series for new comments.
- Tweet, share, & bookmark this post.
- Please review the blog of Becky Beery (aka TiajuanaBecky), and give her some feedback.
Blogging daily about nothing in particular at freefringes.com and tweeting about even less as @hmx5, Erica Mullenix is a writer and special needs parent living in Texas with her three extraordinarily normal children and Lab mix pound puppy.


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Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I've seen this contest mentioned over the last couple of days and wanted to get the word out. Dimples BBQ Sauce is giving away a bottle of their totally awesome BBQ Sauce (which I've recently reviewed) as well as a t-shirt. The contest ends today (November 6) at 8:00pm EST.
So how do you enter? It's simple! You can enter in one of two ways:
- Like the Facebook page for Dimple's BBQ Sauce and mention that The "Q" Review sent you (that is who is running the contest with Dimples).
- Leave a comment on the blog for this contest on The "Q" Review.

subset: commoncrawl


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While on leave from teaching, Buffalo, New York-based 07Mom decided to start her own company (with her 1-year-old son in tow). Just a short while later, it's starting to take off, with her products mentioned in publications including The Boston Globe.
1.) What do you do?
I am an elementary teacher, as well as a budding entrepreneur and blogger.
2.) How did you end up in your current career?
After going to college for Travel and Transportation Management, I realized the part I liked most was the actual travel, not the management. So, I went back to school for education. While on leave from teaching after having my son, I came up with an idea for a new kind of diaper bag (check out the Over Tote™ at www.elliebags.com) and started my journey as an entrepreneur, which led to blogging.
3.) What's your dream job?
I'm working on figuring that out. I'd love to do something that included writing, teaching, networking, and being creative. Most of all, I'd love something flexible that allows me to spend a lot of time with my son.
4.) Tell us a few things on your Life To-Do List.
Wow, that's a big question. There are certainly places I'd like to travel to. Traveling, seeing new places, and meeting new people has always been a love of mine. And there are so many places I can't wait to show my son. I want to be someone who gives to others and makes a difference. Most of all, I believe I'm here to be the best mother, wife, daughter, friend . . . I can be. And on a lighter note, ice cream is always on my to-do list.
5.) What's for you the toughest challenge when it comes to juggling work and family?
Time. I'm teaching, running a business and a blog, trying to keep up the house and still have clean clothes to wear Monday morning! Going back to work took such a big chunk out of the time I spend with my family, but I'm enjoying every moment we're all together.


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Copyright © 2006-2020 Wingra Direct LLC. All Rights Reserved.


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Bryan Stave, pop singer and song writer has announced that his campaign on Kickstarter is now live for his debut album. Bryan is attempting to raise funds to produce and release his first album which will be the culmination of years of practice, hard work and growth as a songwriter and artist.
"I have been writing and recording this debut album for the last 10 months and will need more funds to see it all the way through," says Bryan Stave while explaining his fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. "The entire album is now written and even the tracks and video for a few songs are complete. With more funding, I can finish the remaining tracks and shoot the other videos so that promotions can take place in earnest."
Bryan Stave has been working on this project for the last ten months but the journey to get to this point was a long one – nearly three and a half years. He had a passion for music and always wanted to make a career in this field. He worked as a financial analyst to clear his student loans and save money to invest in the music project. He started writing during this period which helped him develop his skills and led to creation of the current sound.
Bryan also drove around the country for many months, visiting friends and family, and writing the material that would later become a major part of this album. He moved to Nashville where he found his producer, Christian Davis of Sony Records. The first three tracks, 'Monday Song', 'Shiny Toys', and 'Chasing Platinum' were finalized.
Bryan Stave has also started promoting the songs and the album through Effective Immediately PR, the firm which helped him create and build a presence on social media. Push Focus Productions was chosen for production of the official video for 'Monday Song.' Producer Christian and Bryan have started work on the next three songs of the album and plans are in place to complete production of the other songs of the album over the summer and fall.
If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, they plan to release a second video which will be released in early fall.
The Kickstarter campaign is aiming to raise a pledged goal of $30,000 within the deadline date of August 6, 2017. Bryan Stave has announced a slew of exciting incentives for participants in the Kickstarter campaign depending on the level of participation and contribution. Those who pledge $25 will get a copy of the album while those who pledge $250 or more will get signed copies of the original lyrics.
About Bryan Stave:
Bryan Stave is a pop singer and songwriter looking to release his first album. He has already worked on three tracks and the promotion and other production works too have made good progress. The Kickstarter campaign aims to raise $30,000 which will be utilized to finish and release the album.
Media Contact
Company Name: Crowdfunding Music
Contact Person: Conner Franco
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 8002951184
Country: United States
Website: https://goo.gl/iKtEv2


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Thursday, 15 October 2009
Happy Blog Action Day for Climate
I'm posting this as my little contribution to Blog Action Day 2009 on tackling climate change. Let me start off by saying I am indeed happy today; I'm happy to see people pitching in all across the web to contribute to this great campaign. I'm happy that there is still some chance the world may work together at Copenhagen. I'm particularly happy that there are just so many solutions to climate change waiting to be put into practice, as soon as we all agree to stop dithering and act.
I want to reflect on the recommendations at the conclusion of Kari Norgaard's excellent essay on the psychology of climate denial, which I blogged on recently. I'll use the concise and convenient summary of six points provided by Wellsharp's nice overview of Norgaard's recommendations:
Engage with denial openly – research shows fears are less paralyzing when faced openly.
If you're one of the many people still trying to argue that CO2 doesn't cause warming, that it's "plant food", etc. - it's time to let go and face reality. Look at the planet Venus: surface hot enough to melt lead, and the reason (worked out well before anybody began debating the greenhouse effect on earth) is the huge buildup of CO2 in Venus' atmosphere. Find a better account of why Venus is so hot, and then come back; I won't hold my breath. Otherwise, you need to recognize that you're grasping at straws. Besides, if greenhouse warming weren't bad enough, CO2 emissions are also acidifying the world's oceans - already, right now, it is measurable and it's got oceanographers really shaken. (See my recent posts on Acid Test and the Monaco Declaration.)
Many people have landed in climate "denial" by way of a conservative blog, talk radio, cable news, or editorials like those from George Will or the Washington Post. Look, whatever your views on their politics, those sources just aren't listening to the science. They're 'in denial'; you may feel, like them, that liberals are trying usher in world government, and using climate change "alarmism" to scare people into compliance. Well, we're not. I don't want world government, and neither do Obama nor the Democrats in Congress, nor any center or left party in Canada's Parliament, nor Elizabeth May. Passing laws like CAFE standards, cap-and-trade, or renewable portfolio standards may not be laissez-faire, but neither are they Socialism, nor stepping stones to rule by the U.N. They're just domestic policy, same as the old kinds of policy like depletion allowances for oil exploration, or loopholes in New Source Review for coal plants.
Contradict fear by providing honest information, open discussion (e.g. acknowledgement of the risks but also hopeful examples)
If we drag on the delay and make no effort to cut greenhouse emissions, we do indeed face serious consequences - for people, not just for polar bears. Drought and stresses on the food supply are probably the biggest and "scariest" impacts. Look at Australia now; consider that scientists project similar problems setting in around the world in more temperate climate as continental interiors heat up and dry out. Poor countries will be hit first and hardest, be we won't escape such impacts in the developed world either. So we won't be able to just retreat into a wealth bubble, even if the ethical problems of doing so didn't rule that out anyway. Indeed, poor countries are already experiencing negative impacts from climate change, as documented by CARE.
Okay, now: don't panic. We can in fact cut greenhouse emissions, substantially, without moving back to the stone age. Maybe Exxon won't be the biggest supplier of energy in the future, and they won't like that, but we can have hot water, comfortable houses, mobility, and electrons for the fridge, TV and internet from 100% renewable sources. More on this below. I already get all my electricity from renewables through Bullfrog Power and soon, Ontario will be providing much more green electricity to everyone province-wide thanks to the groundbreaking Green Energy and Green Economy Act. The future for renewables in Ontario is really looking up.
Contradict helplessness through providing opportunities for effective action, including opportunities that reduce isolation, build community, and create positive frames of reference. "people must be given not only information, but something to do." (p.47)
Okay, you are on the internet. There's plenty you can do besides changing lightbulbs. Look up what legislation is being proposed where you live, and email your representatives to tell them what you think. You'll be surprised how easy it is, and they actually keep track of what their constituents bother to write in about. You can phone and leave your views with a staffer, as well.
Vote with your wallet - sign up for green electricity; insulate (lots of tax credits for doing this, lately); boycott products that are the most negative for the environment, and tell stores and manufacturers why you are making those choices (again, emailing is quick and easy.) I read that Wallmart is aiming to post the carbon footprint of every product on their shelf pricing displays - wow!
Next, tell your friends: tweet whatever you discover about greener or smoggier product choices; join Facebook groups for action to protect rainforests, healthy oceans, whatever catches your eye and heart. You don't need to chain yourself to a smokestack to be an activist on the internet.
Combat guilt by acknowledging the present and providing opportunities to engage in more responsible behavior.
Here we are, now. We've got big fossil fuel companies, coal-fired power plants, oil pipelines, and furnaces to run. When we started building all this, we didn't realize what it could do to the atmosphere and ultimately the climate. So let's not beat ourselves up over what our parents didn't know, nor over how right now, we need coal, oil and gas to be able to function. However, good news: there are alternatives - lots of them. We won't convert everything overnight, but in a generation, we could readily replace fossil fuels with renewable sources in most sectors where it counts. Houses can be far better insulated (saving money on whatever kind of energy you buy for heat and cooling - now that's cool!) Houses can get heat from geo-exchange systems (zero carbon if the power for circulating pumps is green electricity); hot water passive solar already works and is catching on worldwide, from China to Mexico to Canada (okay, we need backup heat for grey Februaries...).
For electric power, there's small hydro (only 3% of dams in the U.S. have electric generation - retrofit even a fraction of the rest, and get more power with no new dams); run-of-river hydroelectric also avoids dams; solar PV prices are plummeting, and the industry has been growing incredibly rapidly with multi-billion-dollar investments; concentrating solar thermal like Solar 1 can also work well, and can be equipped to provide dispatchable power or "baseload" by storing the heat carrier in insulated tanks for use on demand (one of Joe Romm's top picks for green energy); wind power - already cheaper than most other new generation sources, and beats coal handily if we only make coal pay the full ride for all its externalities (CO2, mercury, particulates, smog and acid precipitation, mining impacts - yuck!)
For cars, plug-in hybrids are an exciting prospect for cutting dependence on gasoline and making the most of the kind of green electricity I just enumerated. Have a look at the great news and commentary site www.evworld.com for the latest on electric, plug-in hybrid, and other green autos.
I could go on and on with this kind of great news; I'll save some for a future post, but for now, just stop worrying that if we agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this will somehow "cripple the economy." Instead, I foresee a great future for renewable and sustainable energy production from dozens of sources. Never again should we need to worry about "peak oil" or peak anything - we can produce more than enough for everyone if we deploy even half of the potential inexhaustable sources that are starting to prove themselves more and more ready for prime time.
Oh wait - did I mention LED lighting? Bio-char? Cellulosic and algal biofuels? Wave and tidal power? Electric rail for freight and passenger travel?
All that without even getting to controversial lower-carbon power such as nuclear or coal+carbon sequestration, either of which are still potential sources (though each likely to end up costing MORE than renewables - see www.climateprogress.org)
Confront and constrain the influence of the fossil fuel industry on policy debate (e.g. public information campaigns)
Good responses to this are easy to find now - we just need to get them out to the public and to policymakers, consistently. Just a few top picks:
Look on DesmogBlog for James Hoggan's new book Climate Cover-up and order your copy today. It's a powerful expose of the sorry spectacle of Big Oil and Coal laundering their dirty money through foundations and think tanks to fund mindless spin doctors and astroturf (i.e. fake grassroots) campaigns of deception. Hoggan caps off a series of such exposes that started with Ross Gelbspan's The Heat is On through Stauber & Rampton's Trust Us, We're Experts and Toxic Sludge is Good for You.
Develop other ways of appealing to national identity and national pride e.g. through emission reduction efforts
For the US: despite all the denial and delay under Bush 43, the U.S. economy has indeed achieved some measure of improvement in CO2 intensity of GDP. It will take a lot more than this to achieve absolute reductions, particularly if and when economic growth kicks back in. But the U.S. still leads in technical innovation and research.
For Canada: okay, we signed Kyoto and then punted, and the earliest we might see national carbon policy in effect is 2011. However, paradoxically, there is one jurisdiction in Canada that already has a carbon price in effect. Did you guess Alberta? No, really - check it out.
Both countries have been laggards in the global negotiating process, but the Obama administration has re-engaged and is working hard to bring in China. There could still be a productive agreement in Copenhagen this December. Contact your elected officials to urge them to make this happen.
Be positive! Don't sit around thinking "oooh, we're dooooomed." We're not doomed. We just need to pry political power from the oily hands of the fossil fools.
9 comments:
- Arthur said...
Nicely done, thanks Tim!
- Thursday, 15 October 2009 at 15:17:00 GMT-4
- Harald Korneliussen said...
The desmogblog link goes to a domain squatter site.
- Friday, 16 October 2009 at 08:56:00 GMT-4
Thanks for participating in BAD. You have a great blog and this was an insightful post.
For anyone who doubts climate change please read my blog action day post
Responses to questions and objections on climate change. It's a good place to send your skeptical friends and colleagues — at least as a starting point for whetting their intellectual appetite to learn more (or, as a quick answer to blog comments).
- Friday, 16 October 2009 at 12:30:00 GMT-4
- Tony Wildish said...
it's nice to read a climate blog with a positive attitude, and thanks for all the pointers you include.
You refer to the climateprogress site for information on nuclear being more expensive than renewables. Do you have a more specific link? I'd like to read what they have to say. I've been learning about the cost of nuclear vs. renewables from the bravenewclimate site, for example, in http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/09/27/tcase1/.
There, Barry Brook comes to quite the opposite conclusion, that renewables like wind or solar just can't do the job if you want reliable 24x365 power. His analysis is pretty thorough, if he's wrong, I'd be very interested to know where.
- Sunday, 18 October 2009 at 11:30:00 GMT-4
- Paul Baer said...
In this light, the UK "10-10" campaign caught - my eye: 10 percent reductions in 2010. Focused on individuals, but tied to the scientific urgency, it ought to lead people to the hard questions: how do we keep up 10% annual declines? It calls not for reduction, but investment. So it leads people from the personal to the political. It hasn't been picked up yet in the US but it ought to be.
--Paul Baer
- Saturday, 21 November 2009 at 20:00:00 GMT-5
I just came here by accident. Wow, where do I begin? You don't really mean to compare Venus' atmosphere with that of Earth do you?! Of course a doubling of CO2 is likely to raise average temperatures here on Earth on the order of 1 degree C (that's a bad thing?), but all the rest is poorly understood feedbacks, despite what the climate modelers tell you. (They should get out more often so they stop confusing their models with reality.) Or ocean acidification (a pretty scary term used to describe making the pH of the oceans slightly less alkaline than they currently are, if that were possible): a good look at ocean carbonate chemistry debunks that idea fairly quickly. Is this really how you propose to "engage the denial"? Good luck in your quest. John
- Monday, 7 December 2009 at 18:03:00 GMT-5
- Unknown said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- Tuesday, 15 December 2009 at 23:27:00 GMT-5
- Unknown said...
I wrote a reply to John Ham's comment, but it got long enough that I felt it deserved a post of its own, so I've moved it here
- Tuesday, 15 December 2009 at 23:43:00 GMT-5
Affiliate Marketing is a performance based sales technique used by companies to expand their reach into the internet at low costs. This commission based program allows affiliate marketers to place ads on their websites or other advertising efforts such as email distribution in exchange for payment of a small commission when a sale results.
- Friday, 29 January 2010 at 07:27:00 GMT-5


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LITTLE ROCK — On the heels of a special session to avert a steep rise in health insurance premiums for teachers and other school employees, lawmakers could consider providing help for retired teachers not yet eligible for Medicare in next year's fiscal session.
LITTLE ROCK � On the heels of a special session to avert a steep rise in health insurance premiums for teachers and other school employees, lawmakers could consider providing help for retired teachers not yet eligible for Medicare in next year�s fiscal session.
In the recent special session, the Legislature earmarked $43 million from the state surplus to hold a nearly 50 percent increase in premiums set to go into effect Jan. 1 to 10 percent. Lawmakers lopped another $36 million annually from other state sources to shore up the public school employees health insurance system and created a task force to study the system and recommend structural changes for its long-term stability.
Legislators also discussed, but took no action, on legislation aimed at helping retired teachers avoid a scheduled 20 percent hike in health insurance premiums on Jan. 1.
A bill by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, that would have used $4 million from the state�s surplus to help about 3,000 retired teachers was one of two cost-containment proposals considered. Hutchinson said he hopes to get his proposal on the agenda during the fiscal session in February.
Rep. Jim Nickels, D-Sherwood, wants his proposal that would consolidate all of the public sector insurance plans under one umbrella to be considered by the task force created to look at ways to improve the health insurance plans for teachers and school personnel as well as state employees.
Rep. Harold Copenhaver, D-Jonesboro, co-chairman of the State Public School Life and Health Insurance Program Legislative Task Force, said he expects both proposals to be looked at by the panel.
�We have to look at every option that is available for these teachers and what�s best for the state as well,� Copenhaver said last week after the task force�s first meeting.�
During the special session, Hutchinson told the Joint Budget Committee that more than 700 retired school teachers live in his Senate district and that those who are not Medicaid eligible, under 65-years-old, receive no state assistance in paying their insurance costs.
�If we are, and it appears we are, going to be allocating and appropriating money to assist teachers and school employees with their increased insurance premiums, I think it�s only fair that we do the same, or at least offer some assistance to the retired teachers who don�t have a school district to fall back on or petition for help until they are 65,� he told the committee. �They are on their own and they are being hit very hard.�
Hutchinson said last week that many of the 3,000 are recent retirees and probably were not anticipating such a hike in their insurance rates when they were planning for retirement.
�I don�t think the state can afford to do a long-term premium support for them, but the first year, to help with the sticker shock, I think we could put in $4 million of general improvements funds and that would reduce the premium increase by 50 percent,� he said.
The Legislature�s fiscal session begins Feb.10 and if the funding is approved, the retired teachers would see their premium increase cut in half for most of 2014, Hutchinson said.
Bob Alexander, director of the state Employee Benefits Division, said last week that �a vast majority� of the 3,000 retirees participate in the top-tier Gold Plan and face an premium increase of $97 every two weeks. Those in the Bronze Plan will see an average increase of $114 a pay period.
Nickels proposed during the special session a bill that would establish a unified health care benefit program for all publicly funded employees and retired employees. The measure was discussed in the House Insurance and Commerce Committee but no action was taken.
�I think all the public sector risk pools should be just one risk pool, and that would include university health insurance, city, Municipal League, counties, state police, highway, everybody into one risk pool,� Nickels said.
�I think that the legislation that just passed only kicked the can down the road a little bit, and until we get everybody into one risk pool, we�re going to have this problem,� he said. �There are going to be winners and there are going to be lowers.�
Nickels told lawmakers that if they do try to consolidate all the insurance plans, representatives and lobbyists for everyone will descend on the state Capitol in opposition arguing that their individual plans work, and many will probably be correct.
The goal, he said, is to �do what is in the best interest for the state of Arkansas.�
Nickels acknowledged that analysts from the Bureau of Legislative Research said the fiscal impact of combining the public health insurance plans would be high, but said their report suggested that �overall, it�s a wash as far as the economic impact on taxpayers in the state of Arkansas.�
The fiscal impact statement said consolidation the administrative resources �is expected to create economies of scale in a statewide context, and therefore decrease overall costs.� It also said �there will be winners and losers, for example, while EBD would require expansion, many other systems� offices would no longer be required.�
Nickels also mentioned a 2010 study by the National Conference of State Legislatures which concluded states that consolidated all public sector insurance plans would save money by containing costs, simplification and with multi-agency purchasing arrangements. Employees would have more choices for health benefit plans, the study said.
Rep. Tommy Wren, D-Melbourne, who sponsored legislation during the special session to create the task force and has appointed to the 12-member panel, said he liked Nickel�s proposal.
He said the premise behind the proposal is, �if we combine (all the plans) we have more participation, we have more money, and when we have a catastrophic event there�s more money in the pool to cover those.�
�I think this is a great idea,� Wren said. �I appreciate Rep. Nickels bringing this up and I do think it�s something the task force will look at immediately.�


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Summer is the time for traveling, so I thought I'd take us on a whirlwind world tour to see – the Great Wall? Machu Picchu? Stonehenge? Not quite, but something just as interesting. Here's a quick tour of laws on sexual harassment, from a few countries far and not so far from our own…
Let's start right here in the US. Although prohibitions on sexual harassment in the workplace have become deeply engrained in our culture, they are relatively recent. The first federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At first, courts rejected sexual harassment claims, holding that it wasn't a form of sex discrimination. Then, in the 1970s, courts began to recognize claims for "quid pro quo" harassment – in other words, it was illegal for a boss to tell a female subordinate, "Have sex with me or you're fired." And finally, in 1986, the Supreme Court for the first time took the broader view that harassment doesn't occur only when you lose your job because of it – instead, illegal harassment occurs whenever there you are subjected to a hostile work environment based upon sex. A hostile work environment can be created in a variety of ways, including sexual touching, suggestive glances or gestures, sexual teasing, or the display of offensive sexual materials in the workplace.
Let's now hop a plane to our most far-flung destination: Japan. In Japan, widespread public awareness of sexual harassment ("sekuhara" in Japanese) first emerged in the late 1980s. This occurred in the wake of a widely publicized court case, in which a Japanese female writer won a hostile work environment claim against her male editor for spreading rumors of promiscuity about her. Japan's first law specifically prohibiting sexual harassment was passed in the late 1990s.
Workplace harassment in Japan can take different forms than it does in the US – for example, many women report being forced to serve tea or other drinks to male supervisors, and to do a "karaoke duet," in which younger female employees are forced to sing romantic songs with older male supervisors. Despite some cultural differences, though, there are also broad similarities. The rates of reported harassment in the two countries are similar – about 50% of women in their 20s and 30s report experience sexual harassment at work. And in both countries, the rate of reported harassment varies depending on where you work – for example, harassment is most prevalent in the manufacturing sector, and far less common in the government sector.
Moving along, we'll stop in France, a country with a very interesting approach to sexual harassment. Historically, France's prohibition on sexual harassment has been much narrower than the US's, outlawing only quid pro quo harassment and not hostile work environment. In addition, French sexual harassment law only applies to supervisors, whereas US laws applies to coworkers as well (and sometimes even third parties). At the same time, though, France has gone much further than the US by making harassment in the workplace a criminal violation. And recently, in 2012, in the wake of the Dominique Strauss Kahn controversy, France went even further, broadening the criminal law to include "intimidating, hostile or offensive" behavior and making harassment punishable by up to 3 years in jail.
On our way home, we'll stop at our neighbor to the north: Canada. Canada's courts began to recognize claims for harassment in the workplace beginning in the 1980s. Canadian courts adopted many of the same principles that had been developed in US courts, and in the 1980s Canada recognized both quid pro quo harassment and hostile work environment as illegal. However, there are also important differences. Unlike in the US, Canadian courts have put less emphasis on how the harassment has affected the victim psychologically. Canadian courts have also treated sexual harassment as more of a human rights issue than a women's issue, focusing on the protection of human dignity, regardless of whether the victim is male or female.
Whether you're traveling half-way across the globe this summer or staying right in your backyard, it's worth doing a little virtual traveling to see how workers' rights are different – or not so different – in other parts of the world.
If you believe your rights have been violated, contact us.


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Jury says it has reached verdict on 4 counts; deadlocked on murder charge
Judge gives jurors Allen charge in Michael Dunn trial after deliberating 28 hours
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After 28 hours of deliberations, the jury in the Michael Dunn trial says it has reached verdict on four of the five counts against Dunn, but is unable to reach a unanimous decision on count one of first-degree murder or any of the lesser included charges.
The judge was giving the jury the Allen charge, which urges them to come up with a verdict and gives them additional time to deliberate.
Dunn is charged with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree attempted murder, and one count of firing into an occupied vehicle. He claimed self-defense in the Nov. 23, 2012, Black Friday shooting, saying he saw what appeared to be the barrel of a shotgun after being threatened by 17-year-old Jordan Davis.
Less than an hour after the jury began its deliberations Saturday morning, the jurors sent out three questions:
Dunn and defense attorney Cory Strolla objected to the way the judge answered the last count, but that the judge overruled and gave that instruction to the jury and it was sent back into deliberations just after 10 a.m.
The 12 sequestered jurors returned to the courthouse just after 9 a.m. Saturday to discussing whether Dunn is guilty of five different charges for firing 10 shots into an SUV full of teenagers, causing the death of Davis.
Healey said they jury requested several boxes of evidence in the jury room removed so they would have more room to spread out. The jury has asked 10 questions since it began deliberating Wednesday afternoon.
The jury's questions are good ones, according to legal analysts, but they also show that there may be so many charges and counts against Dunn that it's hard for the jurors to reach a unanimous decision.
"I think everything is consistent with them wanting to get it right, but it does speak to a little bit of confusion," analyst Randy Reep said. "I'm legal to defend myself against Jordan Davis, but popping those other bullets into the car would be attempted for people who it wasn't justified to. That is the distinction I think that they're struggling with there."
Davis' parents arrived early Saturday, saying they were hopeful for a favorable verdict. The victim's father, Ron Davis, again thanked everyone for the support, adding they hope they have something else to celebrate on Sunday -- which would have been Jordan's 19th birthday.
With people are anticipating a conclusion, the number of people waiting on the steps of the courthouse grew on Saturday. There were dozens of people with sings, some calling for Justice for Jordan and others in support of Dunn.
"I'm here waiting just like the rest of the country," said U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown. " It's good that the jury is deliberating and taking their time and the instructions are very complicated. The issue is about Jordan and whether or not we can get justice for him, so failure is not an option."
Long day Friday
Judge Healey called off nearly 10 hours of deliberations Friday when the jury sent a note about 7 p.m. they had "hit a wall."
"This is one admirable group that's clearly taking this as seriously as they should," Judge Russell Healey told the courtroom as he released the jury Friday night. He urged the seven women and five men to get some "good rest" before resuming deliberations Saturday morning.
That came two hours after the jury asked the judge a question about reaching a verdict. The jury asked if they were allowed to reach a verdict on some of the five counts against Dunn, but not on others.
Judge Healey answered yes, that any count they cannot reach a unanimous verdict on could be declared a mistrial, and it would be up to the state if it wanted to re-file the charge and hold a second trial.
"It sounds like they're close, so we'll just hope for the best and be in recess until we hear more from the jurors," Healey said just after 5 p.m. Friday.
Dinner was ordered in and the jury kept at it two more hours before saying they had to break for the night.
Healey said he had researched the legal precedent for deliberations on weekends, and it appears the jury would be asked continue trying to reach a verdict both Saturday and Sunday, if necessary.
Speculation begins
The jury's late-afternoon question was the first time they communicated with the judge all day Friday.
Some court observers were beginning to speculate on a deadlocked jury, but others say it's not uncommon for a 12-member jury to go this long, particularly since they have to reach verdicts on five separate counts: first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder -- one each for the other three teenagers in the SUV -- and one count of firing into an occupied vehicle.
Rhonda Peoples-Waters, an attorney providing legal analysis for Channel 4 during the trial, said that possibilities of the jury finding Dunn guilty of a lesser charge, or even reaching a deadlock are now being discussed.
"They can come into agreement on some of the counts, and not others," she said.
For perspective, George Zimmerman's six-member jury deliberated for 16 hours before finding him not guilty. In the highly publicized trial of Jerry Sandusky, prosecuted for sexual crimes against children, it took jurors more than two days find him guilty. In the case of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in California, the jury deliberated for seven days.
"There's always the possibility that they will come back to the judge and say, 'Judge, we cannot reach a decision,'" said Gene Nichols, another lawyer helping give perspective to this trial.
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service shows that the biggest factors in cases that end with hung juries are:
- A weak case
- Police credibility questions
- Concerns about fairness
- Complexity of the evidence and testimony
Attorney Cory Strolla made arguments during his defense of Dunn that the state's case was not beyond a reasonable doubt and he did question the thoroughness of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office's investigation.
Nichols has defended clients whose trials have ended with a hung jury.
"The jury will come back and tell the judge, 'We cannot reach a decision.' And when they do that the judge is going to send them back in and just say, 'Talk about your issues. Go back and give it another try.'"
If the jury still can't reach a unanimous decision, "The judge will have to declare this a hung jury and everyone would have to go home, to try this case another day."
Nichols said Judge Russell Healey will not make this decision quickly or easily because retrying the case would be time-consuming and expensive. He said a second trial probably could not happen before summer.
As for the effect of the gender and racial makeup of the jury, studies have found that it's easier for people of similar backgrounds to talk to each other and reach consensus. The 12 people sitting in judgment of Dunn include four white women, four white men, two black women, an Asian woman and an Hispanic man.
Studies reveal women are more compassionate than men in most criminal cases, although in cases involving sex crimes, women jurors are more ruthless. Jury experts say men tend to be harder on defendants who they believe are guilty or lying.
Nichols believes this jury will ultimately reach a verdict in this case.
"It's not very common to have a hung jury. At some point and time jurors recognize they need to make a decision," Nichols said.
The only time the public has seen Healey so far Friday was just after deliberations began when he told spectators and lawyers they were no longer able to wait in the courtroom for a verdict since there was concern that those in the jury room could hear muffled sounds coming from the adjoining courtroom.
The jury will remain sequestered for the duration of the trial. Healey also made the decision Thursday afternoon to also keep all four alternate jurors sequestered in case any of them was needed to step in for one of the 12 jurors currently in deliberations.
The court administration said that the media will be given at least 30 minutes notice when and if a verdict is reached before it will be announced.
Copyright 2014 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Casting any of the leading roles in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie is going to be a pretty tough decision, because whoever lands the parts could definitely make or break the film. If fans don't think their favorite characters are portrayed right on screen, there is the potential for the movie to wind up as a box-office disaster. And that's why casting both Liam Hemsworth and Chris Hemsworth in the film is probably not such a bad idea.
Yep -- Fifty Shades of Grey movie cast speculation is running rampant these days, and believe it or not, Chris and Liam potentially starring in the flick together has now popped up on the rumor radar screen. (Holy eye candy alert.)
OMG. Can you even begin to digest this combination of hotness? Why hasn't this scenario popped up before? You have to admit, it would be pretty tough to choose between Liam and Chris when it comes to filling Christian Grey's spot, so why not make one Christian and one Elliot Grey? (Duh, yes, I know that would mean Chris would play Elliot and Liam would be Christian.)
And even though Christian and Elliot's characters in the book aren't biological brothers since both were adopted, it still couldn't hurt to have them share the same strikingly good looks. If anything, it will only make their characters seem even more intriguing.
And regardless of their acting skills, it's tough to ignore the obvious -- these two are incredibly fun to look at, and the Fifty Shades of Grey movie is bound to be visual, to say the least. If the point of the film is to really turn us on, casting the Hemsworth brothers is a great start to set things up for success.
Would you like to see either Chris or Liam (or both) cast in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie?
Image via Kevin Winter/Getty


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Chapter 1: Bujumbura-New York, May 1994
On the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura, there is a small international airport. It has a modern terminal with intricate roofs and domed metal structures that resemble astronomical observatories. It is the kind of terminal that seems designed to say that here you leave the past behind, the future has arrived, behold the wonders of aviation. But in Burundi in 1994, for the lucky few with tickets, an airplane was just the fastest, safest way out. It was flight.
In the spring of that year, violence and chaos governed Burundi. To the west, the hills above Bujumbura were burning. Smoke seemed to be pouring off the hills, as the winds of mid-May carried the plumes of smoke downward in undulating sheets, in the general direction of the airport. A large passenger jet was parked on the tarmac, and a disordered crowd was heading toward it in sweaty haste. Deo felt as if he were being carried by the crowd, immersed in an unfamiliar river. The faces around him were mostly white, and though many were black or brown, there was no one whom he recognized, and so far as he could tell there were no country people. As a little boy, he had crouched behind rocks or under trees the first times he'd seen airplanes passing overhead. He had never been so close to a plane before. Except for buildings in the capital, this was the largest man-made thing he'd ever seen. He mounted the staircase quickly. Only when he had entered the plane did he let himself look back, staring from inside the doorway as if from a hiding place again. In Deo's mind, there was danger everywhere. If his heightened sense of drama was an inborn trait, it had certainly been nourished. For months every situation had in fact been dangerous. Climbing the stairs a moment before, he had imagined a voice in his head telling him not to leave. But now he stared at the hills and he imagined that everything in Burundi was burning. Burundi had become hell. He finally turned away, and stepped inside. In front of him were cushioned chairs with clean white cloths draped over their backs, chairs in perfect rows with little windows on the ends. This was the most nicely appointed room he'd ever seen. It looked like paradise compared to everything outside. If it was real, it couldn't last.
The plane was packed, but he felt entirely alone. He had a seat by a window. Something told him not to look out, and something told him to look. He did both. His hands were shaking. He felt he was about to vomit. Everyone had heard stories of planes being shot down, not only the Rwandan president's plane back in April but others as well. He was waiting for this to happen after the plane took off. For several long minutes, whenever he glanced out the window all he saw was smoke. When the air cleared and he could see the landscape below, he realized that they must already have crossed the Akanyaru River, which meant they had left Burundi and were now above Rwanda. He had crossed a lot of the land down there on foot. It wasn't all that small. To see it transformed into a tiny piece of time and space — this could only happen in a dream.
He gazed down, face pressed against the windowpane. Plumes of smoke were also rising from the ground of what he took to be Rwanda — if anything, more smoke than around Bujumbura. A lot of it was coming from the banks of muddy-looking rivers. He thought, "People are being slaughtered down there." But those sights didn't last long. When he realized he wasn't seeing smoke anymore, he took his face away from the window and felt himself begin to relax, a long-forgotten feeling.
He liked the cushioned chair. He liked the sensation of flight. How wonderful to travel in an easy chair instead of on foot. He began to realize how constricted his intestines and stomach had felt, as if wound into knots for months on end, as the tightness seeped away. Maybe the worst was over now, or maybe he was just in shock. "I don't really know where I'm going," he thought. But if there was to be no end to this trip, that would be all right. A memory from world history class surfaced. Maybe he was like that man who got lost and discovered America. He craned his neck and looked upward through the window. There was nothing but darkening blue. He looked down and realized just how high above the ground he was seated. "Imagine if this plane crashes," he thought. "That would be awful." Then he said to himself, "I don't care. It would be a good death."
For the moment, he was content with that thought, and with everything around him. The only slightly troubling thing was the absence of French in the cabin. He knew for a fact — he'd been taught it was so since elementary school — that French was the universal language, and universal because it was the best of all languages. He knew Russians owned this plane. Only Aeroflot, he'd been told, was still offering commercial flights from Bujumbura. So it wasn't strange that all the signs in the cabin were in a foreign script. But he couldn't find a single word written in French, even on the various cards in the seat pocket.
The plane landed in Entebbe, in Uganda. As he waited in the terminal for his next flight, Deo watched what looked like a big family make a fuss over a young man about his age, a fellow passenger as it turned out. When the flight started to board, the whole bunch around this boy began weeping and wailing. The young man was wiping tears from his eyes as he walked toward the plane. Probably he was just going away on a trip. Probably he would be coming back soon. In his mind, Deo spoke to the young man: "You are in tears. For what? Here you have this huge crowd of family." He felt surprised, as if by a distant memory, that there were, after all, many small reasons for people to cry. His own mind kept moving from one extreme to another. Everything was a crisis, and nothing that wasn't a crisis mattered. He thought that if he were as lucky as that boy and still had that much family left, he wouldn't be crying. For that matter, be wouldn't be boarding airplanes, leaving his country behind.
Deo had grown up barefoot in Burundi, but for a peasant boy he had done well. He was twenty-four. Until recently he had been a medical student, for three years at or near the top of his class. In his old faux-leather suitcase, which he had reluctantly turned over to the baggage handler in the airport in Bujumbura, he had packed some of the evidence of his success: the French dictionary that elementary school teachers gave only to prized students, and the general clinical text and one of the stethoscopes that he had saved up to buy. But he had spent the past six months on the run, first from the eruption of violence in Burundi, then from the slaughter in Rwanda.
In geography class in school, Deo had learned that the most important parts of the world were France and Burundi's colonial master, Belgium. When someone he knew, usually a priest, was going abroad, that person was said to be going to "Iburaya." And while this usually meant Belgium or France, it could also mean any place that was far away and hard to imagine. Deo was heading for Iburaya. In this case, that meant New York City.
He had one wealthy friend who had seen more of the world than East Central Africa, a fellow medical student named Jean. And it was Jean who had decided that New York was where he should go. Deo was traveling on a commercial visa. Jean's French father had written a letter identifying Deo as an employee on a mission to America. He was supposed to be going to New York to sell coffee. Deo had read up on coffee beans in case he was questioned, but he wasn't selling anything. Jean's father had also paid for the plane tickets. A fat booklet of tickets.
From Entebbe, Deo flew to Cairo, then to Moscow. He slept a lot. He would wake with a start and look around the cabin. When he realized that no one resembled anyone he knew, he would relax again. During his medical training and in his country's history, pigmentation had certainly mattered, but he wasn't troubled by the near total whiteness of the faces around him on the plane that he boarded in Moscow. White skin hadn't been a marker of danger these past months. He had heard of French soldiers behaving badly in Rwanda, and had even caught glimpses of them training militiamen in the camps, but waking up and seeing a white person in the next seat wasn't alarming. No one called him a cockroach. No one held a machete. You learned what to look out for, and after a while you learned to ignore the irrelevant. He did wonder again from time to time why he wasn't hearing people speak French.
When his flight from Moscow landed, he was half asleep. He followed the other passengers out of the plane. He thought this must be New York. The first thing to do was find his bag. But the airport terminal distracted him. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before, an indoor place of shops where everyone looked happy. And everyone was large. Compared to him anyway. He'd never been heavy, but his pants, which had fit all right six months before, were bunched up at the waist. When he looked down at himself, the end of his belt seemed as long to him as a monkey's tail. His belly was concave under his shirt. Here in Iburaya everyone's clothes looked better than his.
He started walking. Looking around for a sign with a luggage symbol on it, he came to a corridor with a glassed-in wall. He glanced out, then stopped and stared. There were green fields out there in the distance, and on those fields cows were grazing. From this far away, they might have been his family's herd. His last images of cows were of murdered and suffering animals — decapitated cows and cows with their front legs chopped off, still alive and bellowing by the sides of the road to Bujumbura and even in Bujumbura. These cows looked so happy, just like the people around him. How was this possible?
A voice was speaking to him. He turned and saw a man in uniform, a policeman. The man looked even bigger than everyone else. He seemed friendly, though. Deo spoke to him in French, but the man shook his head and smiled. Then another gigantic-looking policeman joined them. He asked a question in what Deo guessed was English. Then a woman who had been sitting nearby got up and walked over — French, at long last French, coming out of her mouth along with cigarette smoke. Perhaps she could help, the woman said in French.
Deo thought: "God, I'm still in your hands." She did the interpreting. The airport policemen wanted to see Deo's passport and visa and ticket. Deo wanted to know where he should go to pick up his bag.
The policemen looked surprised. One of them asked another question. The woman said to Deo, "The man asks, 'Do you know where you are?'"
"Yes," said Deo. "New York City." She broke into a smile, and translated this for the uniformed men. They looked at each other and laughed, and the woman explained to Deo that he was in a country called Ireland, in a place called Shannon Airport.
He chatted with the woman afterward. She told him she was Russian. What mattered to Deo was that she spoke French. After such long solitude, it felt wonderful to talk, so wonderful that for a while he forgot all he knew about the importance of silence, the silence he'd been taught as a child, the silence he had needed over the past six months. She asked him where he came from, and before he knew it he had said too much. She started asking questions. He was from Burundi? And had escaped from Rwanda? She had been to Rwanda. She was a journalist. She planned to write about the terrible events there. It was a genocide, wasn't it? Was he a Tutsi?
She arranged to sit next to him on the flight to New York. He felt glad for the company, and besieged by her questions. She wanted to know all about his experiences. To answer felt dangerous. She wasn't just a stranger, she was a journalist. What would she write? What if she found out his name and used it? Would bad people read it and come to find him in New York? He tried to tell her as little as possible. "It was terrible. It was disgusting," he'd say, and turning toward the airplane's window, he'd see images he didn't want in his mind — a gray dawn and a hut with a burned thatch roof smoldering in the rain, a pack of dogs snarling over something he wasn't going to look at, swarms of flies like a warning in the air above a banana grove ahead. He'd turn back to her to chase away the visions. She seemed like a friend, his only friend on this journey. She was older than he was, she'd even been to New York. He wanted to pay her back for helping him in Ireland, and pay her in advance for helping him enter New York. So he tried to answer her questions without revealing anything important.
They talked most of the way to New York. But when they got up from their seats, she turned to him an said, "Au revoir." When he reached Immigration and took a place at the end of one of the lines, he again spotted her. She was standing in another line, pretending not to see him. He looked away, down at his sneakers, blurred by tears. The spasm passed. He was used to being alone, wasn't he? He didn't care what happened to him anymore, did he? And what was there to fear? What could the man in the booth up ahead do to him? Whatever it might be, he'd already seen worse.
The agent stared at Deo's documents, then started asking questions in what had to be English. There was nothing to do except smile. Then the first agent got up from his seat and called another agent over. Eventually, the second agent went off and came back with a third man — a short, burly, black-skinned man with a bunch of keys as big as a fist on his belt. He introduced himself to Deo in French. His name was Muhammad. He said he came from Senegal.


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An unconfirmed report -- and don't hold your breath for confirmation -- has the next-generation iPhone sporting a Retina Display, according to Reuters.
A South Korean newspaper cites an unnamed source and publishes that Apple has revved up its product pipeline for a second-quarter unveiling of the next iPhone, replete with an eye-popping 4.6-inch display.
That's a leap from the present 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone, but rumors have consistently said a 4-incher is on the way. Samsung does have a 4.65-inch screen on its Galaxy Nexus.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
AppleInsider.com's Josh Ong calls into question the timing of the rumored unveiling, too, because that'd only be a six- to nine-month window following the release of iPhone 4S. Multiple reports point to an early fall launch for the new handheld.
Samsung and LG are listed as suppliers of the new glass -- suppliers that have worked with Apple before.


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DOVER –The Dover Chamber was pleased to welcome Glacial Energy with a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony.
Glacial Energy is one of the fastest growing, most successful retail energy marketers in the United States. They serve residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional customers in 20 states.
They are a nationwide electricity and natural gas service provider with the most efficient, reliable and experienced team—not to mention competitive and flexible services.
Focusing on a streamlined business model, Glacial Energy counts on an advanced back office infrastructure that enables them to address all needs—even the most unique ones. Their combined experience and exceptional level of service contribute to a service offering that exceeds specific customer needs without sacrificing their quality of service.
-- Generator Neutral – as neutral service company, Glacial Energy buys its energy from providers that offer the most competitive pricing, flexible terms and conditions and efficient customer support.
-- Very Low Overhead – they are committed to further contribute to consistently low pricing, which ultimately benefits their customers.
-- Focused on Energy – because they focus solely on energy services for commercial enterprises and residential, they are able to cater to the most demanding, time-conscious and largest of customers.
For additional information about Glacial Energy and to request an energy anaylsis for your business, please contact Scott Earwood, Business Development Manager at (910) 690-8517 or via email at email@example.com. You can also visit them online at http://www.glacialsales.com/scott.earwood
The Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit association of businesses, professionals, individuals, and organizations working together to advance the economic well-being of its members and the community. For details on Dover Chamber membership and other programs or for a schedule of activities, please call the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce at 603-742-2218, e-mail email@example.com, or visit www.dovernh.org.


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Your daily news briefing, with the video of the day, the top news and the quote of the day.
Hot video
Frank Buckles, the last World War I veteran, dies at age 110.
News to know
Leaders from around the world are deliberating about how best to intervene in Libya and how to oust Moammar Gadhafi. President Barack Obama met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday to discuss options. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier said all options are on the table, and the U.S. military is prepping forces in the region for possible action of some kind.
Quote of note
"I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body." – Actor Charlie Sheen, talking about how he's now off drugs. The quote was one of several bizarre comments Sheen made while making the morning talk-show rounds today.
GateHouse News Service


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Sol 97 Update on Curiosity from USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Meeting at APL14 November 2012
I'm at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland for a ChemCam science team meeting this week. The location was chosen, in part, to make traveling easier overall--it's between France and JPL. Some of the team members are supporting MSL tactical operations so that the rest of us can focus on the meeting. It's nice to take a break from operations and think about ChemCam data analysis and interpretation, but difficult to keep up with what the rover is doing. One of the people who is working operations reported that the latest SAM analysis had to be pulled out of yesterday's plan because there wasn't enough power to do it and the decontamination heating that ChemCam needs every week or so. This must have been very frustrating for the operations team!


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The Barn Bed & Breakfast
Table Of Contents
Spend the night in a true timber frame, post and beam barn set on 135 acres of wooded quiet. Located in Dahinda Illinois, The Barn Bed & Breakfast features rustic decor, antique furnishings, deafening quiet, and an outdoor shower for hot summer nights. It is located in the heart of the Midwest between Galesburg and Peoria. You, or your group, have the entire barn to yourselves. There's a full working kitchen in the "horse stall", a claw foot tub and shower in the "oat bin" bathroom and the hayloft sleeps ten. The Barn has available WiFi, a VCR and DVD, and washer/dryer. An expanded Continental Breakfast is included in room rate. The homemade coffee cake, fruit bowl, fresh squeezed orange juice, etc., is in The Barn kitchen at check-in to enjoy whenever you please.
Guests repeatedly remark they enjoy having the entire barn to themselves, the antique furnishings, the photo opportunities in all seasons, the walks through the wildflowers, spotting a deer, wild turkeys or Indian artifacts, and viewing our small herd of registered Shorthorn cows, etc.
Free pickup from Galesburg Amtrak Station.
We've got the place -- the peace of mind is up to you!
Great for:
- Romantic Getaways
- Honeymoon
- Anniversaries
- Grownup Girls' Slumber Parties
- Church Retreats
- Family Gatherings
- Small-Business Meetings
- Or better yet -- no reason at all
Insider's Info
Travelers are always looking for memorable and relaxing experiences. Let's discover more through the words of our innkeepers. Why do most travelers stay at your inn?
Personal getaways; scrapbooking groups
What are you best known for? What makes your inn unique? What do you love most about your inn?
Peace & quiet. Separate facility. Can accommodate up to 10 in a group.
If someone has never been to your city, what is the #1 reason to come visit?
NA, we are in the country.
What's the best compliment you have ever received about the inn?
More than one has asked to be first on the list if we ever wan to sell The Barn or do we adopt.
What's the best kept secret about the area?
No secrets, multiple things to do.
If a traveler is staying at your inn for 4 nights, what should he/she do in the area?
Visit Galesburg, Seminary Street, Peoria, Bishop Hill, Wildlife Prairie Park, riverboat casinos
Is there anything within walking distance of your inn?
135 acres of wooded peace and quiet, wildlife
What is your favorite restaurant/food in the area?
Landmark, Inkeepers, Chez Willy's, Cherry Street, Vintages, dozens more
Any good area guides/websites that travelers could reference? How many rooms does your inn have?
1; sleeps 10 in an open loft. Works for couples, families, group of girls etc
Do you accept pets?No. Moore Care Boarding & Training, 1307 Knox Hwy 8, Knoxville
History of the Barn
The Barn is a result of an appreciation of old barns and hating to see them deteriorating and torn down. Our intent was to build a barn using almost forgotten construction techniques and materials with the final result appearing to be a turn-of-the-century barn that had been scrubbed down and made livable.
Sixty oaks and a few walnut trees were cut here on the property and a portable sawmill was brought in to fashion the logs into the proper size timbers and floor boards.
The Barn is a true example of timber frame, post and beam, mortise and tenon construction. The frame has no nails and is secured with 700 hand carved wooden pegs. The board and batten siding came from eleven different barns in the area including the one that sat on the same site.
Area Attractions
Nearby Attractions
- Premier Antique & Craft Area
- Children's Discover Depot
- Historic Galesburg
- Seminary Street
- Railroad Museum
- Wildlife Prairie Park
- Bishop Hill
- Nauvoo
- Dixon Mounds
- Riverboat Casinos
Area Festivals
- Knox County and Spoon River Scenic Drives (First 2 full weekends in October)
- Welcome to Galesburg, IL.
- Galesburg Chocolate Festival (Valentine's Day weekend)
- Galesburg Railroad Days (Fourth weekend in June)
- National Stearman Fly-In - Galesburg (Labor Day through the following Sunday)
Walnut Grove Farm - Knoxville
- Knox County Scenic Drives weekends
- Christmas at Walnut Grove Farm (Fri., Sat. and Sun. Thanksgiving weekend)
- Bishop Hill Historic Site - Bishop Hill (Open April through December)
- Peoria Festivals (Several throughout the year)
- Great auctions in the area can be seen on www.topauctions24-7.com
How to Find Us
35 Miles West of Peoria
- from I-74 take Exit # 71 and go three miles north
- then 10 miles west on U.S. 150
- then one mile north to Dahinda
- then one half mile west of the Post Office
Fifteen Miles East of Galesburg
- from I-74 Take Exit #54 and go seven miles East on U.S. 150
- then one mile north to Dahinda
- then one half mile west of the Post Office


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Eclipse DemoCamps November 2010/VijayawadaCampus
< Eclipse DemoCamps November 2010
Revision as of 23:12, 15 October 2010 by Krishna2prasad20002.gmail.com (Talk | contribs) (→Organizer)
What is an Eclipse Campus DemoCamp?
KLUniversity, Green Fields, Vaddeswaram, Guntur.
Room details coming soon
Date and Time
1st November, 2010.
Krishna Prasad
KLUniversity, kpklce at gmail dot com, Department of M.C.A.
If you are a student or instructor and would like to present at the DemoCamp, please feel free to add your name and topic to the list.
- Krishna Prasad Chilukuri, Eclipse An introduction
- Krishna Prasad Chilukuri, Java Application Development Using Eclipse
Who Is Attending
If you plan on attending please add your name and company to the list below. If you have any trouble with the wiki, just send an email to kpklce at gmail dot com.
- Krishna Prasad
- K.Ramesh Gandhi
- Surendrababu J
- R.Praveen
- A.Chaitanya Kumar


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Mo. Appeals Court Upholds Energy-Saving Rules
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - A Missouri appeals court has upheld regulations of energy-saving incentives for utility customers.
The Western District court's decision Tuesday lets utility companies recoup the cost of energy-efficiency incentives for customers when they request rate increases from the Missouri Public Service Commission. But a utility can collect the revenue lost from reduced power usage only after proving the program saved energy.
The rules enacted by the Public Service Commission are meant to implement a 2009 law that allowed utilities to recover costs associated with customers using less electricity.
More than one-third of a $260 million rate hike approved last year for Ameren Missouri is devoted to recovering costs from energy-efficiency measures. Kansas City Power and Light also received compensation for energy-efficiency measures in a rate increase approved this month.


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SPECIAL- New road: Life rebuilt from the edge of death
Most of the Sigma Chi brothers in the U-Haul accident returned to school that fall, but for 1981 Albemarle High School graduate and UVA second-year Bob Jahrsdoerfer, the road to recovery took a decade.
"My memory came back vaguely approximately two weeks after the accident," says Jahrsdoerfer, who awoke in mid-October in UVA's intensive care unit. Critically injured, he was being treated for a brain injury so severe that he permanently lost the sight in his right eye.
In fact, Jahrsdoerfer, a rushee, whose skull was punctured over his right eye by a jagged piece of metal, says he might not have survived at all if one of his future fraternity brothers hadn't held his head to keep his airway clear of blood filling his throat.
Initially transported to Lynchburg General, Jahrsdoerfer was soon flown to UVA. As an artery in his brain continued to bleed into his sinuses weeks after the accident, his father, a prominent otolaryngologist, learned about a risky and experimental surgery being performed by a doctor in Boston. A device would be threaded through a leg artery to his brain to cut the damaged blood vessel.
The gamble paid off, and Jahrsdoerfer was able to return for the 1983 spring semester. But without vision in both eyes, the once athletic student wasn't the same in the classroom or on the field.
"I was not as active, got a big belly. I also lost a lot of self-esteem and self-confidence," he recalls. By spring 1984, the overwhelmed Jahrsdoerfer dropped out of UVA and moved to Texas to be near his father. After two years of working odd jobs, he enrolled in Steven F. Austin State University, where, as his mental faculties gradually returned, he earned a degree in psychology and sociology.
He returned to Virginia in the 1990s to earn a master's degree in counseling from Longwood University. Today, he's the director of guidance at Dan River High School, teaches at a community college, and is working on his doctorate.
He says his career choice stems directly from the accident.
"When you go through something like that, you want to help people who need help," he says. "One of the worst things for me was the psychological impairment that often follows a head injury. I was unhappy and depressed for a period of 10 years."
Despite the hardship of recovery and the challenges he's faced, Jahrsdoerfer says he's feeling better about the way his life has turned out.
"I think things happen for a reason," he says. "Who knows what kind of person I'd be now if I'd kept going through life with things being so easy. I'd never have learned to persevere."


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Roberto Maurizio Paura-Moovbox Anti-Stress Synthetizer
At Design Interviews
(Excerpt) Interview with Roberto Maurizio Paura : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The creation of the MoovBox comes from a very simple reason: the passion for music. What Francesco Mammetti, Gilles Traditi and I were looking for was a way that could be able to model the music tracks in the most intuitive and personal approach as possible. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : Our main goal was to create a multimedia device that would work in synergy with the smartphone and that, on the one hand, could replace the now too common touchscreen in the interaction for musical composition, and on the other hand, could resume the concept of the synthesizer, in our case portable, introduced in 1962 by Robert Moog. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The MoovBox leaves sufficient amount of room for an intervention of engineering in order to trasform the concept in a real product. We believe that the award coud be a great business card for a possible contact with companies or even for a crowdfounding platform. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The MoovBox is a project presented at the seventh edition of the Samsung Young Design Award. From a purely embryonic level, in a few months we were up to develop a convincing form of the product and to align all his functions. Since that time, we needed some several months to develop the communication and prototype for the degree thesis. .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The MooBox was born from our desire to participate in the Samsung Young Design Award responding to the proposed theme (Electronics for urban mobility) in a really non-conformist way. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The MoovBox is now a project with ample space for improvement. Samsung Electronics Italia has made a formal model of the project to exhibit during the event of the competition and to bring out our idea. From our personal experience, the MoovBox achieves resounding success and we would be delighted both in selling the copyrights and in keep on working to make it on our own. .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : Our team has a deep knowledge of musical instruments. This knowledge, linked with our preparation in industrial design and product allowed us to sum up in a single device all the features that make the MoovBox a very innovative project. We also realized that we could take advantage of a tool as powerful as the smartphone to completely eliminate a number of useless settings from the interface of our project. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The Moog Modular was a great inspiration for us. we were fascinated by the idea of being able to distort sounds that, until then, was impossible to create with other musical instruments. With as much attention we have studied the historical importance of the Walkman and the revolution that brought to the way we enjoy music. .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : Initially the target of MoovBox were commuters since the project was configured and configure yet as synthesizer-stress. We then realized that the device was going to meet a much wider user as commuters are an extremely heterogeneous category. Ours is a project that fascinates above all music lovers such as electronics but also teenagers, professionals and many others. .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : We think our project is unique because the interaction with the device changes with the needs of the user. The unrepeatable sounds created, listened and shared via the smartphone MoovBox make a unique medium. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The name of MoovBox comes from the desire to combine the words "Moog" and "move" to reconnect to the idea of the synthesizer and the scope of mobility. Instead, the suffix "box" is used to indicate the device's ability to contain a number of musical instruments and unlimited possibilities. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The design of our project has gone through the program of parametric modeling Autodesk Inventor Professional, which has allowed us to experiment freely on preliminary forms of the model. One advanced idea was then worked on Rhinoceros to work faster on surfaces and small details. All this, finally, was rendered thanks to Keyshot and paginated with Adobe Illustrator. Instead, the study model has been realized in high density polyurethane foam and milled by a numerical control milling machine, and then painted with white stucco spry. .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. Roberto Maurizio Paura : The unique aspect of our project is the ability to distort the devices and simultaneously cause a distortion in the music we listen to. Furthermore, the shape and the features within the MoovBox are designed to fit the instrument selected by the user. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? D.[ End of Excerpt: Read complete interview with Roberto Maurizio Paura on Moovbox Anti-Stress Synthetizer at design-interviews.com ]
Roberto Maurizio Paura-Moovbox Anti-Stress Synthetizer Images:
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"The funny thing about taking family photographs," my husband quipped in-between poses, "is that you're basically documenting manufactured memories."
I have to be honest. Our family doesn't often look like this:
All of us smiling, standing in a field brushed with sunlight, and dressed to the nines in a color-coordinating palette of blues and oranges. There is a dramatic lack of yoga pants and mis-matched toddler socks here, along with way too much grooming.
And, can I tell you a secret? The only reason my girls are smiling is that our wonderful photographer was cracking poop jokes from behind her lens, on my suggestion (I'll take my Mom of the Year Award now, thanks).
But despite the surreal nature of the shots Shannon caught last weekend, I disagree that they fail to capture our family. While we may not always look just like this, it's a perfect depiction of how I feel inside. My girls? They fill my life with light. And though the mundane tasks of the day and sibling squabbles dominate my schedule, there is a contentment in my family that I rarely get the chance to capture.
The closer I look at our portrait, the more I see that Shannon photographed each of our personalities perfectly. My shy, snuggly Bean and her comedian older sister. My husband, with his arms wrapped around every one of us, the backbone of our family. And me, with a genuinely happy and relaxed smile.
Manufactured? Staged? Maybe. But not one less bit real.
If you are in the Boston area, Shannon (who is uber-talented) is running an unbelievably amazing summer special for $149! If that wasn't enough, she loves Warrior Moms. Creative Images Boston will donate $15 for each session that mentions Postpartum Progress!


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A diabetic foot wound is any tissue injury that occurs in the foot of a diabetic that does not heal promptly or becomes worse over time.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is the third in a series about wounds and wound care centers.
Q: What is a diabetic foot wound?
A diabetic foot wound is any tissue injury that occurs in the foot of a diabetic that does not heal promptly or becomes worse over time.
Q: Why are diabetics more at risk?
Many diabetics have lost feeling in their feet (neuropathy), so the injury may go unnoticed. Germs occurring with or after the injury can lead to serious infection. Diabetics also have problems with narrowing of the tiny blood vessels which nourish the tissues (microcirculation). Other complications, such as kidney disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, foot deformities, blocked arteriesand lowered defense against infection add to the problem. Also, smoking cooks up a recipe for disaster.
Q: How do I recognize a problem?
Look for redness, swelling, pain, tenderness and fever. These are signs of infection.
Q: How can I prevent problems?
Control your weight through proper diet and exercise. Control your blood sugar and blood pressure. Don't smoke. Avoid injury — cover and protect your feet and toes at all times with proper footwear (no flip-flops). Fluffy socks help protect the feet and absorb moisture. Avoid temperature extremes, hot or cold. Inspect your feet daily and trim nails carefully and regularly. You should consider a consultation with a foot and ankle specialist for an evaluation, prescriptions for special footwear, correction of deformities and/or early problem treatment. You should also have a thorough evaluation of the circulation in your legs and feet. Skin problems may require the attention of a dermatologist.
Q: What if I get a wound?
Get medical help right away. Prompt attention can prevent complications. If caught early, simple measures like antibiotics, appropriate dressings, and careful follow-up may be all that is needed. Depending on the circumstances, such as the severity of infection or the extent of tissue damage, admission to the hospital or referral to a wound care center may be required. Foot wounds in diabetics frequently "smolder" for a long time and become chronic. These are the types of wounds that are often treated at wound care centers.
Q: What kind of treatment can I expect?
A complete evaluation of the wound is done and contributing factors are evaluated. This includes general health, circulation, nutrition, other illnesses, medications, etc. Diagnostic studies might include X-rays, blood work, bacterial cultures, scans and ultrasound exams. Treatment of the wound requires cleansing and removal of dead tissue, followed by application of a gel or ointment to fight infection and stimulate healing, and a special protective dressing. Aftercare might consist of staying off the feet, elevation of the legs, oral antibiotics and follow-up visits for dressing changes and wound care. If the wound has progressed too far, hospitalization may be required. Home healthcare, wound V.A.C. therapy or hyperbaric oxygen therapy may also come into play.
Avrohm Faber, M.D., is the Medical Director of Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Halifax Health, and is a staff physician at the Bert Fish Wound Center, New Smyrna Beach. For more information on this physician or to send topics for future medical columns, please visit vcms.org.


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Frescobaldi Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina DOCG
Description: Frescobaldi Nipozzano 2009 from legendary Tuscan producer Marchesi de' Frescobaldi – a Chianti Rufina Riserva DOCG – has intense dark berry fruit and pepper on the nose that's enhanced by savory herbs, smoke and a certain meatiness on the palate. This fine Sangiovese would be a great pairing with a hearty winter beef stew but makes an equally fine partner at a spring barbecue. No matter what the season, Nipozzano is an elegantly structured red that deserves to be savored with the special someone in your life.
Price: $19.00


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Be wary of tests.
Medical tests like MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays can be helpful. But the problem with them – and the reason a task force recently recommended that doctors limit the number of tests they order – is that medical screening often finds abnormalities that aren't the root of a patient's problem.
In the case of many complaints, such as lower-back pain, medical tests offer little insight, and the prescription remains the same: rest. If a doctor orders you an X-ray, then a CT, and then an ultrasound, all in his own lab, you should run the other way, says Mordkin, because it's likely that physician stands to profit from the tests, and you can't be sure whether he's operating with his or your best interests in mind. On the other hand, "If we're concerned you have something serious, like a kidney stone, and you're in a lot of pain, that's a good time to get a CT scan of your kidney. It depends on your symptoms and presentation."
Bottom line: Ask your doctor why you need that test, what he hopes to tell from the results, and how it will affect your treatment.
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One-Eyed Cat: Northern European (Germanic, Celtic and Slavic) Paganism
This is the magic of Freyja and I am her völva: a seer, priestess and oracle.
Sharing wisdom taught by the Norse Gods over twenty years of practice, I teach safer seiðr / seidhr (Norse trance work and fate-magic), reverent animism, and deeper workings with the Gods and land spirits through respect for all life and peoples. We'll also explore the wider Eurasian influences on central and northern European religion, including Norse, Slavic, Celtic, Baltic, Siberian, Mediterranean and ancient Indo-European beliefs and discuss how to apply them to contemporary practice.
Odin, Loki, Frey (and Tyr): Different Roles, Same God
Please note that this is not a treatise on how all Gods are One God/dess— in Norse myth or otherwise. Norse myth contains distinct deified ancestors, locally-specific Gods and many other members of the pantheon such as Njordh, Mani, Baldr and Thor.
The Norse deities Odin, Loki, Frey and Tyr are the same God; their wife and sister Frigg, Sigyn, Gerd and Freyja are likewise the same being— in different roles, at different stages of their lives.
As we humans perceive them, these eight deities simultaneously exist as separate people, with separate histories and lives and so are portrayed in many ways as separate people in the myths. However, a closer look at the myths, surviving folklore, and scholarship will reveal remarkable similarities between them, a richness of moral complexity, fierce love for humanity, and a compelling depth of character and heroism worthy of our respect.
In my own experience as a seiðkona, a Norse seer, and that of many other modern worshipers, the hatred of Loki virulently present in Asatru is painful to him as the mourning father of two slain Gods, bound by his own intense grief— and damaging to all of us. Loki is ignored, denounced and maligned by Heathens who either have not met him, have not been exposed to enough recent scholarship, or who only work with a literal, dogmatic— and very Bible-like— understanding of the Icelandic Eddas, the largest corpus of Norse Lore available in modern times. Unfortunately, this viewpoint has been largely spread by Norse scholars themselves, influenced by Christianity, until very recently!
This will take awhile to unpack (probably a series of three or four blog posts, perhaps more), so I'll do it a point at a time and listen to responses along the way. I expect and welcome them, even if you vehemently disagree (and can state so in a respectful manner. If you cannot, expect no response.)
I will go by the lore in saying this, through his and her heiti (poetic use-names, describing a role), personality, objects of power, attributes, children and tales, using sources readily available in both the Icelandic Prose and Poetic Eddas. My analysis of available scholarship will include linguistic history, archaeology, art history, comparative mythology with three nearby cultures (continental Germanic, Celtic and Slavic— occasionally Classical) and folklore, with sources referenced. And, lastly, I will mention my own experience as a seiðkona and oracle, where applicable, which can be found woven throughout this blog.
Thank you.
Photos of the Stora Hammars Image Stone I from Wikipedia. It's one of many such picture-stones depicting Norse myth, scattered throughout northern Europe.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
It's problematic that you chose not to present this "all are one" as your own personal belief. I think I need to say that.· Beth Wodandis, Liza, Jamie and Greybeard likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Ruadhán speaks for me on this matter. Scholarship will never be sufficient to fully understand the nature of the gods, and the mantle of expertise you throw over this post suggests otherwise.· Jamie and Ruadhán J McElroy likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
> The Norse deities Odin, Loki, Frey and Tyr are the same God; their
> wife and sister Frigg, Sigyn, Gerd and Freyja are likewise the same
> Goddess— in different roles, at different stages of their lives.
> ...however, in my experience, some good deep digging into other
> pantheons will readily reveal a similar pattern. For at least some
> pantheons; I won't make this claim for Gods I've never met.)
This was the relevant part of your article. Perhaps you don't extend this further than that, but you're certainly saying "X + Y + Z = 1 god; A + B + C = 1 Goddess", or "all [these figures you mention] are One". I mean, pardon my use of a shorthand, but I think the point is still relevant.· Beth Wodandis, Liza and Jamie likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
It's still a reductionism that stands at odds with the experiences of not only standard mythology/lore, but also many Heathens and other polytheists. That was my point. Even reducing three or four gods of a pantheon to One, even if twenty others are separate, is best presented as an opinion or personal experience than as an authoritative statement.· Beth Wodandis and Liza likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
I didn't personally take this as a statement that "all are one" is your belief, but if it were, I would not have any problem with it. We each experience the world and the gods differently because they are infinitely complex and beyond full understanding by mortals, so I strive not to denigrate the beliefs of others in any way, particularly by suggesting that they are untrue.
Your opening line, however, to wit: "The Norse deities Odin, Loki, Frey and Tyr are the same God; their wife and sister Frigg, Sigyn, Gerd and Freyja are likewise the same Goddess" is presented as a declaration of fact, not a declaration of belief. It leaves no room for the perfectly valid beliefs of others, including others who might experience these gods very differently than you do.
These are not my gods. I respect and honor that you have found a way to understand them that resonates with your spirit; may we all find that level of personal truth! I cannot but be frustrated, however, that you present your personal experience as a statement of fact despite the large number of heathens who have related to them in very different ways.
This post would have an entirely different tone -- one that I would welcome and entirely agree with -- if you had preceded the first line with the words, "For me . . . "· Beth Wodandis, Liza and Ruadhán J McElroy likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Hhmm, I have to agree with Shirl, here, that she is pretty clear that this is her argument/belief. (Though maybe move that paragraph to the top, or use an asterisk to direct peoples' attention to it?)
Definite food for thought!
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Well, see, I'd have no problem with this if she was presenting this as her own, personal belief, but she's not. She's taken not only an authoritative tone, she's presented this as absolute truth. Her blog is prefaced, and this is visible on every post, in a manner that makes this appear as not a mere personal belief, but as an authoritative statement on historical beliefs, and as a representative belief of Heathenry and Slavic polytheism. That's where the problem with this post lies.
If she was making it *just* about her beliefs, more power to her; she's certainly as welcome to believe whatever Divine Reductionism she likes, as I am to believe that her beliefs are wrong. The difference is, I don't think it's worth telling people that their opinions and personal beliefs are problematic, cos, well, for starters, how does one dismantle an opinion? One cannot. Now, if a statement is presented as a fact, that opens it up to critique, including weighing it against the evidence. Yeah, in this instance, we'd be weighing the evidence of her experience/s against the evidence of literally hundreds of others' experience/s --in which case, Occam's razer seems an adequate probability model, because the easiest answer is that if most people experience separate entities, then the entities are separate.· Beth Wodandis and Liza likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Yes, creeping monotheism has become a force in pagan life. Its so hard to get away from a monotheist culture.· Galina Krasskova likes this comment.
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
So Loki is ok because Loki is also Odin, Freyr, and Tyr, anyone who thinks he isn't is either ignorant or Christian, and she has both spiritual and academic authority to make these calls even without presenting data and/or detailing UPG to back that declared authority up. Is this a troll post?· Liza and Ruadhán J McElroy likes this comment.
Thursday, 12 June 2014
I look forward to seeing more on this. I am ashamed at my peers for pointing out so much to correct in what is only an introductory post. It is unfortunately par for the course for Heathenism/Norse-folk types.
It is not okay that someone's first reaction to a post be "oh how dare you!" before the person is even finished with their series.
Friday, 13 June 2014
> It is not okay that someone's first reaction to a post be "oh how dare you!"
> before the person is even finished with their series.
Citation needed.
Also: Really, now? A "How dare you criticise anything!"? For disagreement on the Internet, this has been especially civil. I've seen academic rebuttals get nastier that what's happened in the comments here.
Thursday, 12 June 2014
While it is true that this is only an introductory post (and she stated as much), I think it might have gone over a little better if there had been more "meat" to the initial post: an anecdote, an initial line of reasoning, *something* beyond just a thesis statement and a list of the material that will be used in the argument. If the other posts have not been written yet, considering the controversial nature of the argument (and believe me, this is one that many people with at least equal credentials and experience, including myself, are going to have heated positions about) I think it might have been better to wait until there was a bit more to begin with.· Liza likes this comment.
Friday, 13 June 2014
Can't wait to see more of this piece. This article is kinda like being invited to read someone's notes on their personal practices. Very excited to see this. I've seen correlations between Odin and Loki before but never with the other 6 deities and I'd like to know how that works. Keep it up. Something else I think should be considered: Since we're being invited into these insights the same way we would be invited into someone's home, it could be good form to just remember that we're in someone else's house and that our manners should reflect that.
Friday, 18 July 2014
Thank you, Douglas. I'll be using primary sources from The Tain to the Eddas, and work from Hilda Ellis Davidson, Jan Puhvel, some fascinating essays by Lady of the Labyrinth and other scholars to point out correlations.· Douglas Lange likes this comment.
Friday, 18 July 2014
And Simek's Dictionary of Norse Mythology, where relevant.· Douglas Lange likes this comment.
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biotechnology, the use of biological processes, as through the exploitation and manipulation of living organisms or biological systems, in the development or manufacture of a product or in the technological solution to a problem. As such, biotechnology is a general category that has applications in pharmacology, medicine, agriculture, and many other fields.
The techniques of genetic engineering have been used to manipulate the DNA (genetic material; see nucleic acid) of bacteria and other organisms to manufacture biological products such as drugs (insulin, interferon, and growth hormones). A common technique involved in this process in gene splicing, in which a gene that produces a desired product can be inserted into bacterial DNA. Bacteria can then be grown in large quantities and processed to extract the desired substance; specially cultured plant and animal cells can be similarly grown and processed. Hybrids of cancer and antibody-producing cells (hybridomas) have been cloned in the laboratory to mass produce experimental monoclonal antibodies, which are being studied for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Bacteria have also been altered to break down oil slicks and industrial waste products.
Plants and foods with such desired qualities as prolonged shelf life or increased resistance to diseases and pests have been created through genetic engineering; that is, by inserting DNA from other organisms. Much of the corn and soybeans grown in the United States, for example, are now genetically modified in some way, Livestock have also been genetically altered to produce medically useful substances (see pharming). The field of biotechnology also includes gene therapy, in which attempts are made to insert normal or genetically altered genes into cells to treat genetic disorders and chronic diseases.
See R. W. Old and S. B. Primrose, Principles of Gene Manipulation (5th ed. 1994); J. E. Smith, Biotechnology (3d ed. 1996).