text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hands up, everyone who knew that in addition to her multitude of English blogs (50+ at last count), Sabine also runs a blog in German. No, we weren't aware either. At least, not until one of our sharp-eyed readers pointed it out to us.
It'll come as no surprise, then, to discover that Sabine has posted a blog there titled "Was mir passierte, nachdem ich in London organisierten Kindermissbrauch aufdeckte". Translation: "What happened to me after I reported organised child abuse in London".
The blog post is date-stamped 31 July 2016, so there's no way for her to argue that she wasn't aware of the restraining order. The post starts with a reference to Sabine's pre-trial trip to Brussels:
This very interesting conversation was held in March 2016 in Brussels, while the London police were still insisting that I stay in my apartment. Luckily, thanks to the EuroStar, Brussels is a day-trip from London.
The travel ban was one of the conditions imposed on me after I was arrested on 4 August 2015 at the Royal Courts of Justice. A dear former neighbour from Buschower had accompanied me to be a witness to whether my return, after six months' exile in Spandau, was to take me to jail. The arrest can be viewed here:
What was my 'crime'?
On behalf of a mother, I had threatened a judge: either give her her children back, or we would turn to the online world.
In November 2014 the Russian mother had contacted me on the basis of my website, because she was looking for help to get her two children returned to her care. The police had removed them, claiming that she and her partner would be a danger to her children, then 8 and 9 years old.
During their summer vacation the children had broken a pact with their English father, who had threatened to kill them if they told the mother what he was doing to them and other children, as head of a cult.
The details the children described about their abuse could not be invented, unless they had actually experienced them. The children also included drawings of the genitalia of their abusers:
However, High Court Judge Pauffley decided in her judgement that it was all fantasies, although medical reports confirmed anal scarring. But the judge said the injuries pointed not to the father, but to the current boyfriend of the mother.
The drawings were also suppressed by the police; the judge, therefore, never saw them.
The mother and I fled at the same time in February 2015 because of two documents issued by the secret family court, which threatened us with jail.
The mother was also visited by a minibus of nine police officers who wanted to pick her up. She escaped through the back door, while a lawyer, through a closed door, insisted on a court order. This conversation was inter alia recorded, and became one of many videos that the children's supporters produced.
While I was living in my nephew's apartment in Spandau, Interpol had been alerted and the London police had searched my apartment. An arrest warrant was made, and enacted on 4 August 2015.
This was the first of four arrests, three crimes against me, a six-day-long court process in which I emerged the winner, and other court hearings involving money, not prison.
I'm going to tell more about this to my clients. I have reason to lead the Buschower Birthday culture in Märkische Heide further and visit the Friesenhof with English friends.
The Havelland happens to have become my soul home!
Funnily enough, Sabine seems to have neglected a few facts here, including that pesky restraining order that should have prevented her from writing this post in the first place.
We're sure the courts will be very interested in this, so we've forwarded it along to the police on Sabine's behalf.


text:
In security team, Obama's challenge deepens
WASHINGTON — Barely a week after winning re-election, President Barack Obama suddenly confronts a deepening challenge in assembling a new national security team, his task complicated by a scandal that has cost him a CIA chief and raised doubts about his Afghanistan war commander.
Hard questions from Congress, potentially bitter confirmation hearings and a scandal of infidelity and inappropriate emails are suddenly shaping the fight ahead. The White House portrayed a president focused on the economy and confident in his military and intelligence leadership, but clearly not thrilled.
When asked if the personnel troubles were an unwelcome distraction, presidential spokesman Jay Carney said: "I certainly wouldn't call it welcome."
Obama was already expecting to have to replace his chief diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and perhaps his defense secretary, Leon Panetta. Those two alone — plus Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is also leaving — help shape Obama's thinking and represent him before the world.
Now Obama is without his CIA director, David Petraeus, the once acclaimed military general in Iraq and Afghanistan who resigned in disgrace last week over an extramarital affair.
The details of that scandal keep expanding Tuesday, including the revelation that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation by the Pentagon for potentially inappropriate communications with another woman in the case. That, in turn, has frozen Allen's nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe, which casts more doubt about a military leadership in which each move affects another.
"It's a hard moment for the administration," said Joshua Rovner, an associate professor of strategy and policy at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island. "It certainly wasn't expected, but if anything good comes out of it, they do have a chance to take a long, hard look at strategy."
He noted that Petraeus had taken on such revered status for his military career that he won confirmation as CIA chief with little scrutiny.
Even beyond the surprise difficulties, Obama could have trouble with the rest of his high-stakes turnover.
When Clinton leaves, a favorite to replace her is Susan Rice, an Obama loyalist who serves as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She could face a bruising confirmation hearing given that she was the first face of the administration's maligned explanation of the fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"She's clearly going to have a little more difficult time than she would have if she hadn't gone out on all those talk shows," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the second-ranking Senate Republican. Kyl is retiring at year's end and likely would not get a vote on Rice, but he said: "As of right now, I wouldn't support her."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Rice could have a difficult time winning confirmation, although he didn't take a position.
"I'm concerned about the fact that she went on Sunday shows and said it was the product of a spontaneous uprising as opposed to a terrorist attack. Why did they wait so long to publicly ...change their position on it? I think she'd have to answer questions about that, no doubt about it."
Some of Rice's key advocates predict Republican lawmakers would not have the inclination or the votes to try to block Obama from appointing the State Department chief he wants. Yet others expect her confirmation hearing to be contentious and are wary of picking that fight at the start of the second term.
The other top candidate for the State job is Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is expected to be confirmed easily by his chamber colleagues. His departure from the Senate, though, could potentially cost Obama's party a seat by creating an opening for the man who just lost the other Senate seat, Scott Brown.
The idea of Kerry as defense secretary, which has also been floated, is not one that he has expressed an interest in, according to people close to him.
For Obama, the post-election period was intended to focus on starting to enact the economic agenda at the core of his re-election bid. He and Congress are in the hunt for elusive compromise before Jan. 1 if they are to avoid a huge package of tax increases and spending cuts that could derail the economic recovery.
Obama is, in fact, pursuing that course. But a story involving sex, resignations, national security and congressional oversight has a way of grabbing attention.
Carney, the president's spokesman, characterized the cases of Petraeus and Allen as individual matters that reflected no broader theme or challenge.
"I really would ask you to not extrapolate broadly," Carney told reporters. "The president has great confidence in the military, great confidence in his commanders, and will continue to have that confidence."
That expression of confidence extends to Allen, which is significant given the state of America's longest war. Allen is due soon to give Panetta a recommendation on the pace of U.S. troop withdrawals in 2013; about 68,000 U.S. troops are still serving in a war that is on pace to continue until the end of 2014.
How long Panetta himself will lead the defense agency is yet another unknown for Obama. The Pentagon chief Panetta recently has indicated a willingness to stay on for at least some of Obama's second-term.
When asked whether he would rule out staying for all of Obama's second term, Panetta said: "Who the hell knows?"


text:
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text:
Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji was once approached by a reporter for an interview. When Banaji heard the name of the magazine the reporter was writing for, she declined the interview: She didn't think much of the magazine and believed it portrayed research in psychology inaccurately.
But then the reporter said something that made her reconsider, Banaji recalled: "She said, 'You know, I used to be a student at Yale when you were there, and even though I didn't take a course with you, I do remember hearing about your work.' "
The next words out of Banaji's mouth: "OK, come on over; I'll talk to you."
After she changed her mind, Banaji got to thinking. Why had she changed her mind? She still didn't think much of the magazine in which the article would appear. The answer: The reporter had found a way to make a personal connection.
For most people, this would have been so obvious and self-explanatory it would have required no further thought. Of course, we might think. Of course we'd help someone with whom we have a personal connection.
For Banaji, however, it was the start of a psychological exploration into the nature and consequences of favoritism — why we give some people the kind of extra-special treatment we don't give others.
In a new book, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, Banaji and her co-author, Anthony Greenwald, a social psychologist at the University of Washington, turn the conventional way people think about prejudice on its head. Traditionally, Banaji says, psychologists in her field have looked for overt "acts of commission — what do I do? Do I go across town to burn down the church of somebody who's not from my denomination? That, I can recognize as prejudice."
Yet, far from springing from animosity and hatred, Banaji and Greenwald argue, prejudice may often stem from unintentional biases.
Take Banaji's own behavior toward the reporter with a Yale connection. She would not have changed her mind for another reporter without the personal connection. In that sense, her decision was a form of prejudice, even though it didn't feel that way.
Now, most people might argue such favoritism is harmless, but Banaji and Greenwald think it might actually explain a lot about the modern United States, where vanishingly few people say they hold explicit prejudice toward others but wide disparities remain along class, race and gender lines.
The two psychologists have revolutionized the scientific study of prejudice in recent decades, and their Implicit Association Test — which measures the speed of people's hidden associations — has been applied to the practice of medicine, law and other fields. Few would doubt its impact, including critics. (I've written about Banaji and Greenwald's work before, in this article and in my 2010 book, The Hidden Brain.)
"I think that kind of act of helping towards people with whom we have some shared group identity is really the modern way in which discrimination likely happens," Banaji says.
In many ways, the psychologists' work mirrors the conclusion of another recent book: In The American Non-Dilemma: Racial Inequality without Racism, sociologist Nancy DiTomaso asks how it is that few people report feeling racial prejudice, while the United States still has enormous disparities. Discrimination today is less about treating people from other groups badly, DiTomaso writes, and more about giving preferential treatment to people who are part of our "in-groups."
The insidious thing about favoritism is that it doesn't feel icky in any way, Banaji says. We feel like a great friend when we give a buddy a foot in the door to a job interview at our workplace. We feel like good parents when we arrange a class trip for our daughter's class to our place of work. We feel like generous people when we give our neighbors extra tickets to a sports game or a show.
In each case, however, Banaji, Greenwald and DiTomaso might argue, we strengthen existing patterns of advantage and disadvantage because our friends, neighbors and children's classmates are overwhelmingly likely to share our own racial, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. When we help someone from one of these in-groups, we don't stop to ask: Whom are we not helping?
Banaji tells a story in the book about a friend, Carla Kaplan, now a professor at Northeastern University. At the time, both Banaji and Kaplan were faculty members at Yale. Banaji says that Kaplan had a passion — quilting.
"You would often see her, sitting in the back of a lecture, quilting away, while she listened to a talk," Banaji says.
In the book, Banaji writes that Kaplan once had a terrible kitchen accident.
"She was washing a big crystal bowl in her kitchen," Banaji says. "It slipped and it cut her hand quite severely."
The gash went from Kaplan's palm to her wrist. She raced over to Yale-New Haven Hospital. Pretty much the first thing she told the ER doctor was that she was a quilter. She was worried about her hand. The doctor reassured her and started to stitch her up. He was doing a perfectly competent job, she says.
But at this moment someone spotted Kaplan. It was a student, who was a volunteer at the hospital.
"The student saw her, recognized her, and said, 'Professor Kaplan, what are you doing here?' " Banaji says.
The ER doctor froze. He looked at Kaplan. He asked the bleeding young woman if she was a Yale faculty member. Kaplan told him she was.
Everything changed in an instant. The hospital tracked down the best-known hand specialist in New England. They brought in a whole team of doctors. They operated for hours and tried to save practically every last nerve.
Banaji says she and Kaplan asked themselves later why the doctor had not called in the specialist right away. "Somehow," Banaji says, "it must be that the doctor was not moved, did not feel compelled by the quilter story in the same way as he was compelled by a two-word phrase, 'Yale professor.' "
Kaplan told Banaji that she was able to go back to quilting, but that she still occasionally feels a twinge in the hand. And it made her wonder what might have happened if she hadn't received the best treatment.
Greenwald and Banaji are not suggesting that people stop helping their friends, relatives and neighbors. Rather, they suggest that we direct some effort to people we may not naturally think to help.
After reading the story about Kaplan, for example, one relative of Greenwald's decided to do something about it. Every year, she used to donate a certain amount of money to her alma mater. After reading Kaplan's story, Banaji says, the woman decided to keep giving money to her alma mater, but to split the donation in half. She now gives half to her alma mater and half to the United Negro College Fund.
Over the last decade, two psychologists have revolutionized the scientific study of prejudice by developing ways to measure people's attitudes. Tony Greenwald at the University of Washington and Mahzarin Banaji at Harvard have a new book out now. It's called "Blind Spot."
Banaji recently sat down with NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam to talk about one idea in the book. I'm going to talk to Shankar in a minute about the implications of that idea. But he's going to lay the groundwork for us first.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hi, Robert. You know, as I was reading the book, a story jumped out at me. It's a personal story. Mahzarin Banaji, this is the psychologist from Harvard, she has a friend and many years ago both of them were young professors at Yale. Banaji told me that her friend had a passion.
MAHZARIN BANAJI: She was a quilter and you would often see her sitting in the back of a lecture quilting away...
BANAJI: ...while she listened to a talk.
VEDANTAM: Now, the friend's name was Carla Kaplan(ph). And the story begins with an accident.
BANAJI: Carla had a terrible accident. She was washing a big crystal bowl in her kitchen, it slipped and it cut her hand quite severely.
VEDANTAM: The gash went from Kaplan's palm to her wrist. She raced over to Yale New Haven Hospital. Pretty much the first thing she told the ER doctor was that she was a quilter. She was worried about her hand. The doctor reassured her, started to stitch her up. He was doing a perfectly competent job. But at this moment, someone spotted Kaplan. It was a student of hers who was a volunteer at the hospital.
BANAJI: The students saw her and recognized her and said, Professor Kaplan, what are you doing here.
VEDANTAM: The ER doctor froze. He looked at Kaplan and he asked, you're a professor here at Yale?
BANAJI: She said suddenly they were calling in the best-known hand specialists in New England.
VEDANTAM: They brought in a whole team of doctors, operated for hours. They saved practically every last nerve.
BANAJI: Somehow it must be that the doctor was not moved by that, that the doctor did not feel compelled by the quilter story in the same way as he was compelled by a two-word phrase, Yale professor.
VEDANTAM: Banaji told me the story has made her reconsider how she thinks about prejudice.
BANAJI: We really measure prejudice in the old-fashioned way, by looking for acts of commission. What do I do? Do I go across town to burn down the church of somebody who's not from my denomination? That I can recognize as prejudice.
VEDANTAM: Banaji told me she started to ask herself whether favoritism is the way prejudice really works in the United States today.
BANAJI: I think that kind of act of helping towards people with whom we have some shared group identity is really the modern way in which discrimination likely happens.
VEDANTAM: You know, Robert, most of us don't do bad stuff to people who are different from us, but lots of us give special treatment to people who belong to our communities or our religion or our race. You know, and for those people we call in the hand specialist.
SIEGEL: And is this, Shankar, the thesis of the book "Blind Spot," that prejudice is actually a misguided altruism?
VEDANTAM: It's part of a broader thesis of the book, but I think the idea of the book really is that the conventional way we think about prejudice is to think about it as saying I dislike somebody from this other group and I'm going to do something harmful to them. A lot of what Banaji and Greenwald have done over the last 10 or 20 years is turn that idea on its head and say, is it possible that people do biased things without actually realizing that they're biased; that the brain in some ways has a blind spot in just the same way that the eye has a blind spot, that it's unintentional, and yet it has pervasive and important consequences?
SIEGEL: I want to ask about that anecdote. Banaji said two words made the difference, Yale professor. Each of those words is freighted differently. Yale is part of the community. Professor is prestige. You might treat a general in the army or a movie star better in the ER also for some reason. Which did they attach more importance to?
VEDANTAM: Well, I think Carla Kaplan believed that the fact that she was a faculty member at Yale is why she got the hand specialist and the team of doctors and that saying that she was a quilter was why she didn't get the hand specialist in the first place.
SIEGEL: Even though a quilter would rely on one's hands more directly than a professor would.
VEDANTAM: Exactly. I don't think we can actually disentangle these different effects, so it's entirely possible that if Barack Obama went to Yale New Haven Hospital, he would get the hand specialist even though he's not a Yale professor. I don't think the point here is that only, you know, that in-groups are defined in very narrow ways where we say somebody has to be from our university.
It's just the case that some people at Yale New Haven Hospital probably get better treatment than others.
SIEGEL: We have a long tradition of immigrant groups looking out for their members, societies that see to everything from helping the poor of one's own group to organizing burials and cemeteries. Is being part of a community like that and taking acts of commission for one's fellow members now being redefined as a form of prejudice?
VEDANTAM: So that's a really profound and important question, Robert, because I think you're exactly right, which is much of the time when we're helping other people, we're doing good things. And I don't think Banaji's point is that we should stop helping our friends or stop helping people from our groups. Her point is, we only give that help much of the time to people who are part of our groups.
And if we're going to try and overcome some of the enduring disparities we have in the United States, we have to try and direct some of that help to people whom we might not feel like helping, to people whom we might not feel like we have an immediate connection to.
SIEGEL: Shankar, thank you very much.
VEDANTAM: Thanks, Robert.
SIEGEL: That's NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam. You can follow him on Twitter @HiddenBrain. And while you're at it, you can follow this program @NPRATC. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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text:
Feeling pain? If you go to the ER in hope of relief, you're chances of finding it are significantly greater if you're white. That is the conclusion of recent study co-authored by Dr. Mark Pletcher, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.
The findings are reported in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Below we've excerpted and mashed up several stories about the article, including one piece by Reuters, another by the Associated Press, and a third by U.S. News & World Report.
An analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years [found that] [p]rescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose [generally over that time period], from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005.
The increase coincided with changing attitudes among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Doctors in accredited hospitals must ask patients about pain, just as they monitor vital signs such as temperature and pulse.
[The study, however, also] found differences in prescribing by race in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.
Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites . . . .
[The] study found 31 percent of whites in pain received opioid drugs — a broad class of narcotic painkillers dispensed only by prescription — compared to 23 percent of blacks and 24 percent of Hispanics.
In contrast, 36 percent of minority patients received less-potent, non-opioid pain relievers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen during emergency room visits, compared to 26 percent of white patients.
Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.
[According to Dr. Plether,] "[t]here's no difference in the pain severity or types of pain that people are presenting with, but the difference is there consistently." The reasons for the disparity aren't clear.
"Studies in the 1990s showed a disturbing racial or ethnic disparity in the use of these potent pain relievers, but we had hoped that the recent national efforts at improving pain management in emergency departments would shrink this disparity," Pletcher . . . said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, this is not the case," he said.
Why would doctors be less likely to prescribe the drugs to minorities? The study doesn't answer that question, but Pletcher said there are a number of potential explanations.
"There could well be an element of pure racial bias," he said. "But it's probably more subtle and insidious than that. The interaction that occurs between a patient and a physician is complex in terms of interpersonal communications, and minority patients may be less empowered to complain and to demand good pain control. They may be less willing to show weakness by asking for a pain medication."
In addition, "there may be poorer communication in general and language barriers," he said. "A lot of things can get in the way of ideal care."
Patients . . . have to go through a lot of procedures to get a prescription.
"They have to come in and say they have pain, and convince a nurse and doctor that they have pain that requires an opioid. It has to be prescribed and administered," Pletcher said. "There's enough barriers that it doesn't happen as consistently as it should."
The study's authors [also] said doctors may be less likely to see signs of painkiller abuse in white patients, or they may be undertreating pain in minority patients.
Whites — who are more likely to have health insurance — may also be overprescribed the drugs, it said.
Another expert voiced similar concerns.
Dr. Thomas Fisher Jr., assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Chicago, said a variety of factors could explain the disparity.
For one, minority patients might be less likely to demand painkillers because of their history of "negative interactions" with authority, he said. "They may not feel comfortable voicing their needs, and they may not be able to given a language barrier or issues of culture," he added.
And doctors may make assumptions about minority groups and the likelihood that they'll abuse drugs, he said. "These things probably feed one another," Fisher said.
"It's time to move past describing disparities and work on narrowing them," said Dr. . . Fisher . . . .
Fisher, who is black, said he is not immune to letting subconscious assumptions inappropriately influence his work as a doctor.
"If anybody argues they have no social biases that sway clinical practice, they have not been thoughtful about the issue or they're not being honest with themselves," he said.
* * *
For related Situationist posts discussing the situation of medical care . . . . "Infant Death Rates in Mississippi," "The Situation of Racial Health Disparities," "Unlevel Playing Fields: From Baseball Diamonds to Emergency Rooms," and "The Physical Pains of Discrimination."


text:
Pretty Dragonfly Women White T-Shirt C
Item Specifics
Item Type: Tops
Tops Type: Tees
Gender: Women
Collar: O-Neck
Sleeve Length(cm):Short
Style: Casual
Material: Modal, Polyester
Fabric Type: Knitted
Clothing Length: Regular
Sleeve Style: Regular
|Sleeve Length
|cm | inch
|cm | inch
|cm | inch
|cm | inch
|62cm |?24.4''
|86cm |?33.8''
|41cm |?16.1''
|18cm |?7.1''
|64cm |?25.2''
|92cm |?36.2''
|44cm |?17.3''
|18cm |?7.1''
|68cm |?26.7''
|96cm |?37.7''
|45cm |?17.7''
|19cm |?7.5''
|69cm |?27.1''
|98cm |?38.5''
|47cm |?18.5''
|19cm |?7.5''
|72cm |?28.3''
|102cm |?40.1''
|49cm |?19.3''
|19.5cm |?7.7''
|75cm |?29.5''
|108cm |?42.4''
|51cm |?20.0''
|20cm |?7.9''
|77cm |?30.3''
|110cm |?43.2''
|52cm |?20.4''
|20cm |?7.9''
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text:
Suck. Squeeze. Bang. Blow. There's no joke to be made there—you're looking at the DNA of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, virtually unchanged since Dr. Nikolaus Otto first built it in Germany back in 1876.
Despite this system's longevity, we're still finding ways to make engines more efficient. Like any machine, internal combustion engines waste a lot of their theoretical performance—less than 30 percent of the energy in each drop of gas is used to actually move the car. That's because engines are complicated machines with lots of moving pieces of metal, and moving them around thousands of times a minute generates waste heat. Sucking air into a cylinder at a lower engine speed is also harder than doing it at 6000 rpm. Accessories like the water pump and alternator all suck away some power, too.
Careful design work on these bits won't double power or efficiency, but lots of small improvements here and there add up. More significant gains can most easily be achieved by getting more air into the cylinder, so it's here that many of the world's largest car makers have focused their R&D efforts, taking advantage of the breathtaking increase in computing power to build engines that would be unthinkable even a couple of decades ago. The tech has already begun to pay real dividends to drivers. Here's how it works.
Take it from the top
As the name suggests, the internal combustion engine—unlike a steam engine—burns its fuel inside the engine housing. The process has four basic stages. It starts with a combustion chamber capped at one end by intake and exhaust valves, then by a piston, connected to a crankshaft, at the other. As the crankshaft turns, the piston drops to the bottom of the cylinder, sucking in air from the intake valve (this is called the "intake stroke"). At the same time, fuel is sprayed in to the expanding cylinder, which mixes with the air. As the crankshaft continues to rotate, the piston moves back up and compresses this fuel and air mix (the "compression stroke"). Once the piston is at the top of the cylinder and the fuel-air mix is under the greatest pressure, it's ignited by a spark. This causes it to explode, which in turn pushes the piston back down again, turning the crankshaft ("the power stroke"). Finally, as the piston moves back up once more, the exhaust valves open and exit, stage right ("the exhaust stroke").
The flow of air into the engine is controlled by a throttle valve, sitting between the air intake and the engine manifold. Pushing on the right-most pedal in your car opens this valve further. Sensors measure the amount of air coming in, as well as how hot it is. Based on this information, the engine knows how much fuel to add and the spark plugs know when to fire. More air means more fuel, which together mean larger explosions. Larger explosions have more energy to transfer to the pistons, which turn the crankshaft more rapidly.
In a conventional engine, the intake and exhaust valves are controlled by a camshaft, which is turned by the crankshaft (which in turn rotates as the pistons force it down during each bang). Lobes on the cam push each valve open and then allow it to close, timed for each stroke of the cycle. The timing of valves opening and closing is fixed by the shape of the lobes on the camshaft. The amount the valve opens is fixed, too (this is called valve lift). The simplest engines have one intake and one exhaust valve per cylinder, both controlled by a single camshaft. By using two camshafts—one for intake valves and one for exhaust valves—each cylinder can have two or even three intake valves and two exhaust valves, making it easier to get air into and out of the engine. The aim is to get as much air as possible, sometimes expressed as volumetric efficiency. For instance: a two liter engine that sucks in two liters of air each cycle would have a volumetric efficiency of 100 percent. In practice, most engines have a much lower figure.
Car engines have to operate under lots of different conditions—at idle, under partial load, at full throttle—and we expect them to perform well, no matter what. Engineers have to design the engine to perform well in each scenario, but this comes at the cost of being optimal at none. Building a fixed timing engine that idles well gives up some top end performance; getting good top end performance means giving up some fuel efficiency at lower revs (not to mention more emissions).
When the throttle is fully open at high revs, the goal is to produce as much power as possible. To maximize the amount of air in the cylinder, the intake valves should be open as long as possible even before the start of the intake stroke, then remain open into the compression stroke. Opening the valve before the intake stroke allows it to begin filling the cylinder even as it starts increasing in volume. And, as the mass of air is pulled in by the partial vacuum, it gains momentum that doesn't disappear instantly just because the next stroke has started or because a valve is trying to close against it.
Similarly, it's a good idea to open the exhaust valves a little before the exhaust stroke starts. It requires effort to move the piston up during the exhaust stroke, and opening the exhaust valve a little before the start of the exhaust stroke reduces the pressure the piston has to work against. Ultimately, this decreases frictional losses in the engine. And, as with the air coming into the engine during intake, the exhaust gases have momentum that won't disappear when the piston begins its next stroke (so the exhaust valves can be open for part of the intake stroke).
As a result, engines have an overlap period when both intake and exhaust valves are open. For high performance, a longer overlap is beneficial, but at low engine speed the pistons aren't moving as quickly, the partial vacuum generated by the expanding cylinder volume is lower, and so the velocity of the air being sucked into the cylinder is lower. At low engine speed, that means a long overlap can allow exhaust gases to enter the manifold and unburned fuel to exit the exhaust valves. This is why highly tuned engines like those in race cars don't like idling very much.


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The Survivors
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Title :
The Survivors
Series :
The Next Generation
Rating :
Overall Ep :
First Aired :
9 Oct 1989
Stardate :
Director :
Les Landau
Year :
Writers :
Michael Wagner
Season Ep :
x 03
Main Cast :
Brent Spiner
Gates McFadden
Beverly Crusher
Jonathan Frakes
William T. Riker
LeVar Burton
Geordi La Forge
Marina Sirtis
Deanna Troi
Michael Dorn
Worf Rozhenko
Patrick Stewart
Jean-Luc Picard
Wil Wheaton
Wesley Crusher
Guest Cast :
Anne Haney
Rishon Uxbridge
John Anderson
Kevin Uxbridge
Near the end of the episode, Uxbridge teleports himself off the bridge into the turbolift to go to Deanna's quarters. Why bother with the turbolift? Why not just teleport direct to her room?
Kevin's power of perception must extend far beyond the planet - he was able to sense the location of all the Husnock in other star systems in order to destroy them, after all. Given this, he really should have known that the Enterprise was waiting in orbit for him to recreate his house rather than being fooled by it.
Great Moment :
Uxbridge's confession of the true magnitude of his crime - a wonderfully chilling and sorrowful moment which John Anderson plays to perfection.
Body Count :
Technically nobody dies in the episode, but we see Kevin and Rishon and the crew of the Husnock ship apparently killed. Off screen, eleven thousand colonists and fifty billion Husnock are killed shortly before the episode begins.
Factoid :
Andorian Raiders are mentioned as possible suspects in this episode, the first time the aliens from the original series are mentioned in TNG.
John Anderson had lost his own wife shortly before this episode, and found it very difficult to play the part as a result.
Picard's mention of an Andorian ship being dismantled is the first reference to the Andorians in The Next Generation.
The USS Enterprise-D arrives at the planet Delta Rana IV, the site of a Federation colony, in response to a distress call which indicated that they were under attack by hostile aliens. They find the planet blasted by high power weapons, the entire surface devastated and lifeless - save for one small plot of land with a single house on it. Worf assures Picard that there cannot possibly be any enemy ship still in they system, essentially staking his reputation on it. They beam down to find themselves confronted by Kevin Uxbridge, a colonist who brandishes a phaser at them and demands that they leave. His wife, Rishon, forces him to accept them into their home as guests and they talk about what has happened. As Picard talks to them, Troi begins to experience a curious sensation - a loop of music which plays in an endless loop in her head, blocking out her empathic power and rendering her more and more distracted.
Kevin and Rishon claim not to have any idea why they were spared in the attack, though Kevin suggests that perhaps it was because as a pacifist he refused to fight against them. Both of them refuse to leave the planet, even though they have no apparent way of sustaining themselves there. In orbit, the alien ship returns to menace the Enterprise, apparently having been hidden behind a moon. Worf is shocked to have missed it and can offer no explanation. It is a large, threatening-looking vessel, but when it fires on the Enterprise the weapons seem pitifully weak. Picard fires a warning shot in response and it retreats immediately at warp speed. They give chase but the enemy vessel matches their acceleration perfectly, staying just ahead of them until they give up and return to the planet.
Picard beams down with a portable replicator unit for the Uxbridges, as a way to chat with them some more. Rishon is frightened to learn that the alien ship is back, but Kevin reassures her they are in no danger. Back on the ship Troi begins to suffer more and more from the music, which never stops no matter what she does.
The alien ship returns and again fires on the Enterprise, this time with far stronger weapons which damage the ship. They fire back, but their weapons make no impact at all on the enemy shields. They are forced to retreat, leaving the alien vessel in orbit. Picard begins to form a theory, but doesn't explain it to the others. He waits a while and then returns to the planet, finding no sign of the alien ship. Picard beams down with Worf and confronts Kevin, who is surprised to see him back. Picard states that the ship is dedicated to protect the two Federation citizens no matter what, and that so long as they live he will remain at the planet.
Beaming back to the ship, Picard finds the alien warship once again returning. He does nothing as it closes in and fires on the surface, destroying Kevin and Rishon's home. Picard then launches a single photon torpedo which destroys the alien vessel. With both the survivors and the aliens gone, there seems no more reason to remain at the planet. Picard decides to stay anyhow, watching the surface carefully.
Three hours later they are amazed to see the house reappear on the surface. Picard has kevin and Rishon beamed directly to the bridge, much to their shock. He lays out his theory for Kevin; ever since they arrived the alien ship has been responding to his wishes, first trying to lure the Enterprise away, then trying to drive them away, and then apparently destroying the house to give them no more reason to remain. Picard suggests that an alien ship did come and attack the planet, but found that Kevin as more than he seemed to be - something so different that he needed to block Troi's empathic powers to stop her from sensing it. He also suggests that whatever Kevin is, only he survived the attack - Rishon did not. Kevin says nothing, but Rishon fades into nothingness as he transforms into an energy being and leaves the bridge.
Picard goes to Troi's quarters, knowing that Kevin will go there to undo the music he put into her mind. With Crusher at his side, Picard pulls the rest of the story from Kevin; he is a Douwd, an immortal being capable of creating illusions and false surroundings using his considerable powers. He met Rishon whilst travelling in Human form, and the two fell in love and married. He lived with her for her entire life, content to remain in Human form. When the aliens attacked the colony Kevin did indeed refuse to fight, though he used his power of illusion to try and trick the attackers, a vicious race called the Husnock. The tricks only made them angrier, and when Rishon joined the colony defence she was killed with the rest. Her death sent Kevin into a rage, and he lashed out with his powers and destroyed the Husnock - not just the attacking ship, but the entire species, all fifty billion of them. An appalled Picard declines to pass judgment on Kevin's action and releases him to return to the planet where he can recreate the image of Rishon and live out whatever happiness he can. The ship proceeds on course. She joined the colonists in fighting the alien Husnock raiders and was killed. Though a devout pacifist, in a moment of anger towards the invaders for taking his wife's life, he annihilated the entire Husnock race. Stunned at his "sin", Kevin recreated Rishon and their house, and sentenced himself to exile on the ruined Delta Rana IV. He used the fake warship as a ruse to try and keep the Enterprise from finding out the truth. The music in Troi's mind is also his creation; her empathic powers were also threatening to reveal the truth. Picard confesses that the Federation is not qualified to be his judge in the matter, and allows him to return to the planet. As the Enterprise departs, Picard indicates that the Douwd should be "left alone".
A truly great episode, Survivors serves up an engaging mystery and resolves it in an interesting way. John Anderson is outstanding as the Douwd, there's a real pathos to his performance - and you can see why, on learning that he lost his own wife not long before filming and was struggling with having to play the same thing out on screen. It's a tragedy, to be sure, and you can only marvel at his willingness to go through with the role and pull it off as amazingly well as he does.
In a way, the episode comes to nothing. The resolution doesn't really resolve anything - the situation when the Enterprise leaves is identical to when it arrived, and indeed things would have gone on exactly the same if they had never responded to the distress call at all. This isn't really an episode about solving some problem as such - it's about solving a mystery, about exploring a situation and working out what is going on. It succeeds brilliantly on that level, and I kind of like the fact that the resolution is to accept that there's simply nothing to be done.
I've seen discussion of exactly what should be done with Kevin Uxbridge, and I'm really not sure that any course of action would be possible or would achieve anything useful if it were. On the one hand, it is clearly not within the Federation's power to actually do anything to Kevin. He could likely simply leave if he wanted, and if pressed too far he could just wipe out the Federation. However, whilst it is certain that they would not be able to force a punishment on him, it's actually likely in my opinion that if they did try, he'd probably accept it. He's lost in guilt over what he did - if Picard told him he had to spend a few decades in a rehabilitation colony, I'd imagine he would submit to it through choice. But you have to ask, what would that accomplish really? Kevin is immortal, if you locked him up for the next fifty years it would probably mean little to him. Also we should bear in mind that the Federation attitude to these things is pretty clear - they call them rehabilitation colonies, not prisons, because that's what they believe in; they don't seek to "punish" as such, but rather to educate the criminal into seeing that what they did was wrong. You may think that's not a good attitude and I may even agree, but it IS their attitude nonetheless. In Kevin's case there really doesn't seem to be any rehabilitation to be done, he's already about as sorry as he could be. So all they can really do is stand back whilst he voluntarily placed himself into a rehabilitation that he doesn't need - is that really accomplishing anything useful?
It's fun to speculate as to what would have happened with the Husnock if Kevin hadn't been around. On the one hand, the Husnock ship is far larger than the Enterprise, and apparently far more powerful. However, we should bear in mind that what we see is not a genuine Husnock ship, but rather Kevin's recreation of such; and he initially creates it as weak, only to then make it strong, then weak again. Whilst Kevin likely based his recreation on the design of the real ship, we can only speculate as to how it would compare to the original in strength. All we can really say of the original warship is that it had enough armament to devastate the surface of a planet, which isn't really that big of a deal in Trek terms.
With fifty billion total population the Husnock were also apparently quite a small species - an episode of DS9 suggests that a fight to the finish with the Dominion could cost 900 billion casualties, indicating that the Federation is many times larger than the Husnock ever were. So whilst the Husnock warship may have been comparable or indeed superior to the Enterprise in firepower, there's really no reason to suppose that they are some super-powerful species that would conquer the Federation. That said, there's really no reason why they couldn't be super powerful either.
© Graham & Ian Kennedy
Page views : 43,872
Last updated : 24 Nov 2014


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Nature's Garden 42109 St. Rt. 18 Wellington, OH 44090PH(440-647-0100) FX (440-647-0220)Material Safety Data Sheet 05/19/10*********************************************************************************
None of our flavoring oils are tested on animals.All of our flavoring oils are considered GRAS by the FDA, and are safe for consumption, and for usage in lip products and other edible body products.
Flavoring Name: Mango
Physical / Chemical Characteristics:
Fire and Explosion Data: Extinguishing media: Use foam, dry chemical, & CO2. Special firefighting procedures- Self contained breathing apparatus & protective clothing should be worn when fighting fires involving chemicals. Fire and explosion hazards: None known.Reactivity Data: Conditions to avoid: None. Materials to avoid: Strong oxidizing agents. Decomposition of byproducts: CO2, CO, Fumes. Hazardous polymerization: Will not occur.Health Data: Inhalation and symptoms of exposure: N/A. Skin and eye contact and symptoms of exposure: N/A. Skin absorption and symptoms of exposure: N/A. Ingestion risks and symptoms of exposure: N/A. Carcinogenicity: N/A/. Emergency & First Aid Procedures: Inhalation: seek fresh air immediately, if breathing is difficult- see doctor. Eyes: Flush immediately with clean water for at least 15 minutes. Contact doctor. Skin: remove contaminated clothing, wash affected areas with soap and water. Ingestion: give water to dilute, see doctor. Hazardous Ingredients/ SARA III Information: This proprietary material contains the following toxic chemicals subject to the reporting requirements of section 313 of Title III of the superfund amendments and reauthorization act of 1986 and 40 CFR Part 372. : None
Disclaimer:This data is provided without any warranty, expressed or implied, regarding its correctness or accuracy. Since the conditions for use, handling, and storage and disposal of this product are beyond control, it is the responsibility of the user both to determine safe conditions for use of this product and to assume liability for loss, damage, or expense arising out of this product's improper use. No warranty expressed or implied regarding the product described herein shall be created by or inferred from any statement or omission in this MSDS.
Natures Garden Mango Flavoring Oil (unsweetened)- The aroma of a ripened mango. For use in lip balms, massage oils, body sprays, perfumes, bath/body products, and pet bath products. Phthalate Free. None of our flavorings contain any gluten, formaldehyde, or formaldehyde releasing agents.
Flavoring oils are different from fragrance oils.
Flavoring oils are regulated by the FDA because they are designed to be used for consumption or for cosmetic products that may be ingested. The ingredients contained in flavorings are considered GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) by the FDA. Flavorings developed for lip balms smell, but do not taste. It is only when sweetener is added to the flavoring that you can taste the flavoring. Since lip balm, lip gloss, and lipstick are worn on the lips, flavorings are used to scent them. Our flavoring oils are created using distilled, fractionated coconut oil as their solvent. Some of the ingredients in our flavorings are natural, while other ingredients are not considered natural. Flavorings typically do not have as strong of a scent throw as fragrances do. Therefore, it is not advisable to use flavorings in candles, porpourri, or smelly jellies. Some people choose to use flavoring oils in their pet bath products as opposed to fragrance oils because flavoring oils are considered safe for consumption.
Fragrances are regulated by IFRA (International Fragrance Association), and typically are not safe to use in applications that are worn on your lips. However, if a fragrance oil is listed as safe to be used on the lips under category #1 of the IFRA Compliance sheet for that particular fragrance, it can be used in lip applications. Fragrances are made using solvents which allow for better scent throw than flavorings. Therefore, we suggest using fragrances, as opposed to flavorings, in candles, smelly jellies, potpourri, soap, and most other bath products.
If you require that your product is sweetened, add powdered stevia extract with maltodextrin. Stevia powdered extract with maltodextrin is an all-natural sweetener that mixes nicely with lip balm base without producing the excessive gritty feeling that most sweeteners produce. Stevia is approximately 10-15 times sweeter than sugar, and a little bit of this product goes a long way. You will notice that maltodextrin is added to the stevia powdered extract. Maltodextrin is an all-natural carbohydrate obtained from grain products, and it gives the stevia better flow/dispersion in lip balm bases; reducing the gritty feel.
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…I see so much, yet dare not tell
Shaking away dreams, I must not dwell.
So for now I freeze this moment in space
Sending out prayers for the Human Race.
These children whose laughter echoes in my ears
Are our future and hopes for all we hold dear.
So teach them to live, to love, and be free
We each play our part, meaning you and me.
Teach them to follow what lies in their heart
For material possessions we shall soon part
The values of life are not kept in the bank
For soon they will know, to the depth man has sank.
Disarm them with kindness, make them aware
That the future is in their hands, we need to share.
Let them know this Earth needs to heal
That All things Are possible, where nothing is real.
Help heal our world, Let our children grow
With knowledge of Love.. Let hatred go.
Tomorrow comes around, to those who wait
Help Our Children, Let's not leave till too late.
Sue Dreamwalker
The above is part of a poem I wrote, you can read the original version here
entitled Let Our Children Grow A poem I composed while watching children playing on the beech one vacation in 2009.
I hope you have a wonderful Peaceful weekend, and remember to keep holding love in your hearts.
For those of you who may be wondering how that Knitting I started came along you can see how I did and what is happening in the Dreamwalker Garden HERE
Have a Wonderful Peaceful Weekend
In Love and Light


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Hiking Your Way to Health
As autumn's outdoor temperatures begin to moderate, many of us look forward to opportunities for vigorous cardiorespiratory activities that we put aside in the heat of the summer. It's much easi ...View Article
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Regular Chiropractic Care and Your Mechanical Advantage
Vigorous exercises such as hiking, running, and walking pose challenges to numerous physiological systems including the cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal systems. By progressively increasing mechanical loads on weight-bearing structures (including the lumbar spinal vertebra, pelvis, thigh bones, shin bones, and ankle bones), these exercises also engage metabolic pathways involved in production of new bone. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your body effectively meets the various physiological demands imposed by our exercise activities.
In order for all our internal systems to work at peak capacity and efficiency, our organs, tissues, and cells must receive and transmit timely information from and to our body's master system, the nerve system. But spinal misalignments may irritate spinal nerves, causing nerve interference and disrupting the free flow of signals across critical neurological networks. Such disruptions may lead to pain, interfere with our ability to exercise effectively, and interfere with our ability to gain the numerous benefits of exercise. By detecting and correcting such spinal misalignments, regular chiropractic care helps our bodies function at optimal levels and gain the most from the valuable time we're spending on our exercise activities. As a result, regular chiropractic care contributes substantially to our long-term health and well-being.
As autumn's outdoor temperatures begin to moderate, many of us look forward to opportunities for vigorous cardiorespiratory activities that we put aside in the heat of the summer. It's much easier to hike in the spring and fall, even in the peak afternoon hours, because the sun's intensity is less harsh.
Hiking is tremendous fun and is a wonderful form of vigorous exercise for the entire family, including the youngest through the oldest.1 Hiking combines both cardiorespiratory and strength training activities, which train not only your heart and lungs but also the large muscle groups of your legs, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, and the gastrocnemius/soleus muscles of your calves. However, hiking is not like other forms of exercise. As you cannot really do a hike gradually, it's important to have acquired a good level of fitness before you begin to hike. Also, hikers need to be prepared and take along specific supplies. When you hike, it's best to expect the unexpected, and certain basic supplies are critically necessary.
In terms of fitness preparation, beginning hikers should be able to walk four miles at a brisk pace.2 This will allow you to hike a two-mile trail at a modest incline, covering a total of four miles out and back. Doing such a hike a few times will then provide the preparation needed for increasing your hiking distance. Hiking preparation also includes strength training. In a comprehensive strength training program, you train all major muscle groups once a week. This is done by performing "split routines" such as training chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs on separate days. Your comprehensive strength training program works synergistically with your cardiorespiratory exercise. Doing one form of exercise benefits the other activity and the result is substantial improvement in your fitness levels. The overall result is that you are appropriately prepared to hike.
Regarding supplies, every hiker needs a backpack. Your backpack will contain a hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, a two-liter water bottle, some trail mix and protein bars, a GPS-capable phone, a map and compass (as low-tech backups to your phone's GPS), and a lightweight rain slicker or waterproof poncho. Each of these items is necessary for a safe and enjoyable hike. You don't want to run out of water or snacks. You don't want to get sunburnt or rained on. And you certainly don't want to get lost. By Murphy's Law, the supply that you neglect or forget to bring, is the one you will need on that hike. The best policy is to always be prepared.
With appropriate preparation, hiking will provide you and your family years of enjoyment of the natural world and will enhance your health and well-being for years to come.


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as we all know there are several ideas around of what and how Jhana is supposed to be.
Now, for all who trust in th Suttas, here is one that contradicts the widely believed version of jhana being a one point concentration method, where "jhāna is a state of uninterrupted absorption in an object".
Have a look at venāngapurasuttaṃ (venānga), that is AN III 63(or 64).
Much Metta,"But, Master Gotama, what is the celestial high and luxurious bed that at present you gain at will, without trouble or difficulty?"
"Here, brahmin, when I am dwelling in dependence on a village or town, in the morning I dress, take my bowl and robe, and enter that village or town for alms. After the meal, when I have returned from the alms round, I enter a grove. I collect some grass or leaves that I find there into a pile and then sit down. Having folded my legs crosswise and straightened my body, I establish mindfulness in front of me. Then, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I enter and dwell in the first jhāna, which consists of rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by thought and examination. With the subsiding of thought and examination, I enter and dwell in the second jhāna, which has internal placidity and unification of mind and consists of rapture and pleasure born of concentration, without thought and examination. With the fading away as well of rapture, I dwell equanimous and, mindful and clearly comprehending, I experience pleasure with the body; I enter and dwell in the third jhāna of which the noble ones declare: 'He is equanimous, mindful, one who dwells happily.' With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous passing away of joy and dejection, I enter and dwell in the fourth jhāna, neither painful nor pleasant, which has purification of mindfulness by equanimity.
"When I am in such a state, if I walk back and forth, on that occasion my walking back and forth is celestial. If I am standing, on that occasion my standing is celestial. If I am sitting, on that occasion my sitting is celestial. If I lie down, on that occasion this is my celestial high and luxurious bed. This is that celestial high and luxurious bed that at present I can gain at will, without trouble or difficulty."
https://www.palicanon.org/index.php/sut ... at-chapter


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Guilford advances to regional semifinal
ROCKFORD - Despite being down at halftime, Guilford powered their way to a 62-56 win Monday over Harlem at the Class 4A Boylan Regional quarterfinal.
Delano Clanton's 23 points led the way for the Vikings while Vontarius Tidwell added 11 of his own.
Harlem's Dejwon Woods had a team high 14 points. Alex Karbarz chipped in 12 for the Huskies.
Guilford will play Boylan tonight at 7 p.m. in the regional semifinal.
Class 4A Belvidere North Regional
DeKalb 82, Belvidere North 71: Belvidere North came up short in an 82-71 loss Monday to DeKalb at the Class 4A Belvidere North Regional quarterfinal.
North had 34-28 lead at halftime, but Ty Berkenpas' team leading 18 points were not enough to ensure a victory. Todd Berkenpas added 17 for the Blue Thunder.
DeKalb scored 30 points in the third quarter, led by Rudy Lopez who had a team high 23 points.
DeKalb advances to play Huntley tonight at 7 p.m.


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A flawed Act
Dr Grumble has never been entirely comfortable with the Mental Capacity Act. He preferred the law when it was vaguer. He always felt that if he acted in good faith and documented carefully the reasons for the decisions he had made the courts would protect him.
When the Mental Capacity Act was introduced Dr Grumble was specially trained by a barrister on what it would all mean. She made it quite clear that if Dr Grumble ever treated a patient against their wishes he would be guilty of assault. That's fine. Dr Grumble has never had any difficulty allowing patients to reject treatments they do not want even if it causes their death. Not usually anyway.
But there is one situation when Dr Grumble would be very uncomfortable about following the law and he put this to the barrister. He asked what would happen if a silly girl came to the Emergency Department having taking a potentially fatal overdose and declined treatment. Silly girls do this. They do it quite often. The next day they can feel different. So Dr Grumble has treated them against their will on many occasions and they have never in the past taken any action against him. But that was in the past when the vagueness of the law offered more protection and acting in good faith was always looked upon favourably.
Dr Grumble asked the barrister to clarify what the position would be following the introduction of the Mental Capacity Act if he decided to prevent the death of a young girl who refused to be treated having taking an overdose. The answer, insofar as lawyers will ever answer a question, was not reassuring. It seemed that even if the patient was depressed Dr Grumble would be required to let them die.
To allow a patient to die in such circumstances is so obviously wrong that Dr Grumble has decided to ignore the law in such a situation, save the patient's life and accept the consequences. If the patient dies they won't complain and if they live they are quite likely to be grudgingly grateful. And if Dr Grumble got it wrong they can always have another go at killing themselves. After all killing yourself is not that difficult if you really want to do it. The strange thing is that many people who try to kill themselves turn up in the Emergency Department where treatment can be offered. There is a reason for that.
Not all doctors are as brave as Dr Grumble. This was predictable
Some of Nutty's comments have been removed at her request.


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Angels' protest of Astros' pitching change rescinded
Manager disputed Porter's interpretation of switching relievers in seventh
HOUSTON -- The Angels' 6-5 victory over the Astros rescinded manager Mike Scioscia's official protest of Thursday night's game at Minute Maid Park, while somewhat downplaying another umpiring controversy one day after the big replay dispute in Cleveland.
However, hours after the game concluded the question lingered: Why did the umpires allow Houston manager Bo Porter to make two pitching changes without his first reliever facing a batter and with no injury involved?
Approached by a pool reporter, crew chief Fieldin Culbreth only had one answer.
"The only thing I can tell you is that all matters concerning protests are handled through the league office, and that's all I can tell you," Culbreth said.
Rule 3.05(b)
|If the pitcher is replaced, the substitute pitcher shall pitch to the batter then at bat, or any substitute batter, until such batter is put out or reaches first base, or until the offensive team is put out, unless the substitute pitcher sustains injury or illness which, in the umpire-in-chief's judgment, incapacitates him for further play as a pitcher.
With two on, two outs and the Angels trailing, 5-3, in the top of the seventh, Porter subbed right-hander Paul Clemens with lefty Wesley Wright, with left-handed hitter J.B. Shuck due to bat.
After Wright threw his warm-up pitches and Porter saw the right-handed-hitting Luis Jimenez on deck to pinch-hit, Porter made another pitching change, going to righty Hector Ambriz before Wright faced a hitter. Scioscia was furious, got in a long argument with the umpires and informed Culbreth that the Angels would play the rest of the game under protest.
"My contention was that the pitcher who came in had to face one batter," Scioscia said. "That's why I protested it, and we're happy we won."
That rule is 3.05(b), which states: If the pitcher is replaced, the substitute pitcher shall pitch to the batter then at-bat, or any substitute batter, until such batter is put out or reaches first base, or until the offensive team is put out, unless the substitute pitcher sustains injury or illness which, in the umpire-in-chief's judgment, incapacitates him for further play as a pitcher.
Wright did not suffer any type of injury.
"I think the rule's pretty clear," said Scioscia, who didn't want to go into what was explained to him.
Porter contested that because Jimenez was officially announced as a pinch-hitter, he could go to a different pitcher without having the first guy face a batter. After discussing it with the umpires, Porter was allowed the substitution, which brought Scioscia out of the dugout.
That, however, is not mentioned in the rulebook.
"If you have to pinch-hit for that batter, you now have the right to bring in another pitcher," said Porter. "Technically, Wesley came in to pitch the batter that was scheduled to hit, but he pinch-hit for the batter that was scheduled to hit -- which, from my understanding of the rule, you can bring in another pitcher to face the pinch-hitter."
For reasons unbeknownst to anyone at the ballpark, Culbreth allowed it to take place. Afterwards, Culbreth wasn't willing to offer up an explanation. Asked a follow-up question, he responded similarly: "I can tell you that all matters concerning protests go through the league office."
With two outs in the ninth at Progressive Field on Wednesday, A's infielder Adam Rosales appeared to hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth, the ball clearly bouncing off the railing that sits atop the left-field fence.
It was initially ruled a double, with crew chief Angel Hernandez maintaining the call after reviewing with instant replay, and the A's eventually lost. The next day, Major League Baseball executive vice president Joe Torre said in a statement that the umps made an "improper call" but said the call "stands as final."
The last upheld protest was June 16, 1986, in a game between the Cardinals and Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. That day, umpires called the game after rain delays of only 17 and 22 minutes, when the rule states that they must wait at least a half-hour.


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Like Eddie says, this is a cultural crisis! The Japanese are beating the crap out of us at our own game!
Look what a wonderful variety of color styles the Japanese cartoonists come up with just as a matter of course!
Color seems to be the thing that anime does best.
It's a tad bit on the cold side for me, but then the Japanese are a cold race.
We westerners on the other hand are naturally emotional and warm and inventive, yet our stupid-ass corporate franchise controlled society is stopping us from what we could easily do-beat the crap out of cold cultures that are still imitating what we did from the 1930s to the 1950s!
This stuff makes me crazy!
So much fun and eye candy. Every mood imaginable.
If you are a painter and are stuck for color ideas, just steal a pile of these!
After copying these color schemes, you might be able to see the general concepts behind them and start to create your own schemes.
But there is no excuse for bad color in America anymore. The internet is a vast library of ideas.
All I did was type "anime" then "FlCl" in "the Google" and a wealth of genius color ideas came up.
You can do it too! Look up anime, fashion magazines, nature photography-anything but modern American cartoons to break your habit of only using 3 approved cartoon color schemes.
With all the easily accessible inspiration available today, why the Hell is there still shit like this?Thank God our pals the Japs are keeping visual pleasure alive. Let's pay attention!
This last one isn't too impressive color wise but it just goes to show you how Japanese artists know what the public wants and are not stingy at giving it to us whereas stupid evil conservative modern Americans refuse to give humans natural things that humans like.


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Keep the name of this item handy: Pomellato "Victoria" necklace in rose gold and jet.
Pomellato "Victoria" necklace in pink gold and jet.
A necklace signed by Maison Pomellato, "Victoria" model, made up of intertwined rings in 750/000 satin rose gold and jet.
- Length: 420 mm.
- Width: 9-23 mm.
- Weight: 54,3 grams.
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Whoever planned Monflanquin for Alphonse de Poitiers in 1252 was apparently convinced of the wisdom of gridiron planning no matter what the site might be. Thus, the rounded and at places steeply sloping hilltop chosen for this bastide was branded with an unyielding grid of streets. Only the egg-shaped perimeter of the town reflected the topography. More
You searched for: Location Monflanquin Remove constraint Location: Monflanquin Image Date 2014 Remove constraint Image Date: 2014


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When should you put your Christmas tree up
We're only three days into December and already our Facebook and Twitter feeds are filling up with pictures of friends' Christmas trees. (And arguments over whether not it's too early).
But are you really getting too excited if you put your tree up this week?
And are you being too mean if you're making side remarks about those who have already decked their homes with bows of holly, festive flamingos and flashing lights?
When is the watershed for Christmas decorations? The answer is, there isn't one. But here are some popular (and less popular) notions:
Christmas Eve?
Most Popular
Traditionally Christmas decorations went up on Christmas Eve and not before. In fact, it was bad luck to bring evergreens into the house before then.
But, let's face it, who other than the super-stringent or chronically disorganised waits until then these days?
December 1?
This at least shows some restraint: you have waited until the beginning of December.
This is also the traditional day Australians put their decorations up, ready for the beginning of what is their summer holidays.
But while it's December, it still isn't Christmas, so perhaps waiting until the 1st of the month is just a token gesture to restraint.
Advent Sunday?
If you caved at the weekend and your tree was up while it was still November, this is where you win.
Advent, the season when Christians prepare for the celebration of Christmas, begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas - Sunday November 29 this year.
Technically this is the official beginning of the build-up to Christmas, so use this as a stick to beat off your critics.
12 days before Christmas?
Some people use this argument mistakenly thinking the 12 days of Christmas lead up to Christmas Day. But they don't.
The 12 days of Christmas, as featured in the song, begin the day after Christmas Day, and end on Epiphany on January 6.
Two weeks before Christmas?
Seen by many as a good compromise, this will also make sure your tree doesn't end up nothing more than a bald twig by Christmas Day. But, again, there's no basis for it.
Around the world
To make things more complicated, people around the world celebrate Christmas and hang their decorations on different days.
In some cultures, the decorations go up on Saint Nicholas's Day (December 6). And Eastern churches use the Julian calendar, so celebrate Christmas on what for us is January 7.
In America, Christmas basically begins when Thanksgiving is over on the last Thursday in November.
So, in summary, there is no set date to put your tree up. Just do it when you want, and try not to be scathing when your neighbour has theirs twinkling bright halfway through November.
It's Christmas after all.
Is yours up yet?
Send us your Christmas tree pictures on email or through Facebook and Twitter. We'll use the best online and in the paper.


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Frank Ocean's Favorite Albums This Year, GRAMMY Reaction
Frank Ocean, the six-time GRAMMY nominee, recently explained what it's like to be honored by his peers. But the Channel Orange singer also offered a list of artists he thought rose above the fray this year.
When he was asked about the GRAMMY nods for his debut set, Channel Orange, Ocean explained why it was a big deal to him.
"Of course awards matter," he told the Guardian. "It's like a player in any ball league – NFL, NBA, whatever – you come up in these systems of organization, and you can hate the league but, at the end of the day, you can't hate the championship...The GRAMMYS are like the championship, and that's cool. It's cool to be recognized by your peers
[Check out what Ne-Yo says about Ocean's big waves]
As CBS Local recently reported, Ocean is among the standout artists in a six-way tie for most GRAMMY nominations, which were announced at the GRAMMY Nominations Concert — LIVE!! hosted by Taylor Swift and LL Cool J on December 6.
Ocean stands with Kanye West, Jay-Z, The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, fun., and Mumford & Sons as the six artists who have six nominations each, to top all other artists.
But Ocean recently shed a little light on the artists he recognized as exceptional this year.
"I thought Norah Jones made a really good record," he said. "I thought Kendrick Lamar made a cool record. I thought John Mayer made a really good record. Speaking of new records, you know who needs to make a new album? I think Fleetwood Mac needs to make a new album. I think so. I think they do."
Ocean may soon get his wish as Fleetwood Mac recently announced they would be embarking on their first major tour in three years in 2013.
See who wins what at the 55th GRAMMY Awards on February 10 (8/7 c) on CBS. --Erik Parker, CBS Local
for more features.


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Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series has well-entrenched spot in the pantheon of books worshipped by boys (typically, by strong readers over the age of 8 or 9 and by others over 10). In a sense, it's life following art: The novels involve a modern 12-year-old who learns that he is the son of a Greek god. And in my suburb, the series (which I haven't read) may have gotten entire soccer leagues excited about Greek mythology. Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews the latest installment, The Last Olympian (Hyperion, 381 pp., $17.99) in this weekend's Wall Street Journal, and a teacher gives his view of Riordan in a post I wrote in February.
May 10, 2009
January 25, 2008
The Underworld on a String: Poet Louise Glück's 'Averno'
A former poet laureate meditates on a crater lake near Naples that the ancient Romans believed to be the gateway to hell
Averno. By Louise Glück. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 96 pp., $12, paperback.
By Janice Harayda
Louise Glück writes about figures from Greek mythology as though they might show up tomorrow in a laundry room at Yale, where she teaches. Orpheus and Eurydice, Aeneas and Dido, Achilles and Patroclus – she knows them better than many of us know our relatives, well enough to claim the right to explain them to others.
In her latest collection of poems, Glück recasts story of Persephone, the personification of spring. In most retellings of the myth, Persephone is a man's victim: She is abducted by the king of the underworld and partially ransomed by her mother, Demeter, who arranges for her to spend two-thirds of the year on earth and one-third in hell. Glück envisions the tale instead "as an argument between the mother and the lover / the daughter is just meat." In this Freudian version, Persephone is her mother's victim as much as a man's.
This interpretation suggests the fatalistic vision of Averno, a collection of linked poems that glide back and forth between myth and modern life. Averno is a crater lake west of Naples that the ancient Romans saw as the gateway to the underworld and that Glück uses as a unifying metaphor for a book about the dialogue between life and death that intensifies in the last trimester of life. In her title poem and others, she returns to a theme introduced in her earlier work, an idea that's a sophisticated variation on the sign the Grim Reaper often carries in cartoons: "Prepare to meet thy doom." She delivers an italicized warning in "October": "You will not be spared, nor will what you love be spared."
Glück too good a poet to allow this idea to devolve into a parody of a televangelist's message, and her book has a grim integrity lacking in the work of poets who serve up Splenda in quatrains. Even so, the fatalism at times borders on oppressive. It's a relief when a spark of hope ignites at the end of "October": "Surely it is a privilege to approach the end / still believing in something."
Best/worst line: This is the rare book in which the best and worst lines are the same. In "The Night Migrations" Glück wonders how the soul will find comfort after death. She concludes that "maybe just not being is simply enough / hard as that is to imagine." The idea "not being" might be "enough" is perhaps the memorable in the book. But the adverbs weaken it, especially that "simply," which seems to serve no purpose except that of scansion.
Published: 2006 (hardcover), 2007 (paperback) www.fsgbooks.com
Furthermore: Glück won a Pulitzer Prize for The Wild Iris. She was the 2003–2004 U.S. poet laureate. You can hear her read "October" at www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16723.
Consider reading also: The short poem "Demeter at Yellowstone" in Deena Linnet's Woman Crossing a Field: Poems/American Poets Continuum Series (BOA Editions, $14.95, paperback) www.boaeditions.org.
One-Minute Book Reviews is for people who like to read but dislike hype and review inflation. Janice Harayda is an award-winning journalist who been the book editor of the Plain Dealer and a vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle www.bookcritics.org.
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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Fine-mist closures are the go-to closures when you need a simple and easy to use sprayer. These closures provide fine and consistent sprays no matter what liquid you decide to store in them. Ideally, these bottles provide perfect storage for almost anything you can think of. Whether it's homemade apothecary oils, perfumes or deodorants, cleaning products, or even e-cigarette liquids, these Amber Boston rounds will keep your liquids and oils safe from UV rays which may cause them to spoil.
Boston Round Spray Bottles should only be stored and shipped upright. Sprayers contain a vent that allows air to flow into the bottle which prevents vacuum lock.
Our various V#'s are to differentiate between our many suppliers. The only differences you will see in different V#'s will be slight cosmetic changes, sometimes unnoticeable, as well as slight differences in shape/sizing (in regards to bottles). However, all products of the same type will function the same. If you have any other questions,just let us know!
How do I choose the correct closure size?
Closure sizes are expressed using two different numbers.
The second number is the Glass Packaging Institutes (GPI) thread finish and refers to the height of the cap and the style of the threads on the closure or bottle.
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Editorial: State GIC offers CPR to taxpayers
Editors: A link for Mass. editors to localize this editorial:
If the recently settled Quincy teachers contract taught us anything, it is the need to address and fix the spiraling costs of health care to communities, employees and taxpayers.
A proposal hammered out by city and town, state and union representatives to let municipalities join the state's Group Insurance Commission (GIC) is the best near-term solution to the problem.
We urge cities and towns to get together with their employee unions once the governor signs the bill, which is awaiting Senate approval, and find common ground to join a system that has seen half the rate increases many other health plans are experiencing.
A compromise measure that likely will not be embraced by every community's unions tethered to the familiar, the GIC can help those cities and towns hardest hit with overwhelming insurance payments.
Raw numbers don't tell it all. From fiscal 2001 through 2006, the cost of the state's health insurance rose an average of just under 8 percent a year, according to the Department of Revenue. Few, if any communities can make that claim:
- Plymouth shot up a yearly average of 54.6 percent, mostly by the massive increase from $16.9 million to $40.6 million - a 141 percent hike - between 2005 and 2006;
- Randolph rocketed up an average of 23 percent a year since 2001, fueled by hikes of 23 percent to 28 percent in 2002, 2003 and 2005;
- Quincy's health care payments went from $20 million in 2001 to $30.7 million last year;
- Norwell's health care costs over the five-year span doubled the increase of the state average;
- Pembroke had to shell out nearly 47 percent more in 2005 than the year before and the town still had a 15.2 percent increase last year.
It's easy to see that with annual double digit increases, any possible growth in town budgets limited by Proposition 2∏ is being negated by the hikes and with overrides being turned down in many communities, cuts have to be made if no concessions come from workers.
A recent survey by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation with the Massachusetts Municipal Association found that, across the state, the health insurance line item ate up the entire existing tax growth under Prop 2 1/2.
In Braintree, for instance, where the average tax bill is $3,000, the Blue Cross PPO family plan costs about $22,000 yearly, with the town and employee splitting the premiums 50-50. That means it would take more than 3.5 taxpayers to cover the town's share of $11,000 for one worker's health care.
The best plan available under the GIC, the indemnity plan where a subscriber could go to any licensed provider at 100 percent coverage less co-pay, would cost a total of $1,639 per month for a family plan.
That would save Randolph and its employees, where the cost is split 50-50, roughly $300 per month each for a far better plan than their current PPO. The employees would save $3,500 per year and taxpayers would see $3,500 from each worker go back into the coffers.
In Quincy, Mayor William Phelan has offered unions the chance to join the GIC and he promised to keep the employee contribution at 10 percent, with the city picking up 90 percent.
This makes enormous sense for both sides. The highest cost HMO plan, which most city workers have, offered by GIC is $1,032 per month, meaning the employee contribution would be $103.20, about 31 percent savings over what they just agreed to.
The plan would require agreement from 70 percent of a community's union workers for a city or town to buy into the GIC. Some hardliners argue the measure was too much of a compromise and local officials should just be empowered to implement participation.
That can't and shouldn't happen. Collective bargaining is the right of public employees and health insurance costs are part of that hard-fought right. We think, though, when employees crunch the numbers, they'll see the benefits to joining the GIC.
We urge city and town workers and taxpayers to go to www.mass.gov/gic to see the plans available and the fiscal 2008 costs and compare it to what is being paid now.
Also, on our website, we have a chart that shows how much each city's and town's health care costs in our region have risen versus the state. Since 2001, across the state, employee health costs have risen 63 percent while municipal budgets have gone up just under 15 percent and local aid has actually decreased 1 percent in the same period.
Something needs to be done with this budget buster and we think when employees and their union officials - as well as taxpayers - see the numbers, the option of the state GIC will be enormously attractive.


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Review: Caribou Crossing Single Barrel Canadian Whisky
Posted by Arctic Wolf on September 27, 2012
Although Canadian whisky by volume is the best-selling whisky in the USA, the perception of this class of whisky (amongst spirits writers and whisky critics) is that the Canadian spirit is perhaps thin and uninteresting, (fortunately the millions of people who buy whisky appear to be much more impressed than the critics and writers). The landscape however, appear to be changing, especially at the premium end of the whisky market, where the Canadian spirit has seen strong growth in market share. Recognizing this trend, the Sazerac Company has recently made a push towards the premium end of the Canadian Whisky market with two new releases, Caribou Crossing and Royal Canadian Small Batch Canadian Whiskies.
Caribou Crossing is what is known as a Single Barrel Whisky. From the company's inventory of over 200,000 barrels of Canadian whisky, Sazerac's whisky making team selects what they deem to be some of the very finest barrels. Each of these chosen barrels is bottled individually capturing its unique flavour. This means that each individual barrel offers a unique taste experience for the Canadian whisky connoisseur. I was fortunate enough to have been sent a sample bottle from the good folks at Charton Hobbs who are marketing this unique whisky for Sazerac, here in Alberta.
Here is an excerpt from my review:
"… This is a whisky which grows a little in the glass as you let it breathe. The oak and the rye grain seem to gain strength as sawdust and rye husks fill the breezes above the glass. Fresh corn on the cob rises into those breezes; and impressions of butterscotch pudding and vanilla ice cream tempt me into taking my first sip… "
You may read the full review here;
Review: Caribou Crossing Single Barrel Canadian Whisky
Please enjoy my review, and my cocktail suggestion, the Canadian Rye Sazerac.
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