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Protect Your Health by Completely Eliminating Your Pest Problem by Calling an Experienced Exterminator in South Windsor, CT
Mice, rats, roaches, bedbugs – these are all unwanted pests in any home. They can cause a variety of problems, from ruining food to spreading disease. That's why it is so important to deal with them sooner than later.
Some people prefer to do their own pest control as a way to get rid of unwanted pests and insects. Nothing wrong with that. If you are one of those people, you will be able to find a lot of useful information on DIY pest control below.
However, if you are not one of those people and believe that you should hire a professional pest control company for pest removal in South Windsor, CT you need to know where to begin and what to expect.
Pest Inspection – Know the Pest Problems Beforehand
So, there are pests in your home. Now what?
The first step is a pest inspection that identifies the type of pest problem present on your property. Once identified, our pest control professionals will work diligently to get rid of them for good by using safe pesticides or other methods approved by EPA for use against these pests.
For example, in the case of termite problems, we will check for signs of termites on the exterior and interior sides, including droppings in your yard or mud tubes on windowsills.
Our pest inspectors will also look at baseboards – which can indicate an infestation with their characteristic black fecal matter smears- as well as walls.
They will also check if any gaps around door frames should be filled by flooring materials like carpeting (leading into closet space), cracks near windows/closet doors leading out from these areas where moisture could seep through).
Lastly, our bug exterminators will inspect all other surfaces within reach: inside cabinets & drawers; along window sills; and below cabinet edges so they are aware of the extent of the problem.
What Should I Do to Prepare for a Home Inspection in South Windsor, CT?
How do I prepare for my pest control visit?
Here's what to do to prepare for your pest control inspection:
- Make sure to provide ample access points, like doorways or windows near where you'll need service so technicians can get inside quickly if necessary; close all nearby cabinets before they enter as well!
- In addition to providing crucial accessibility amenities, think about what else might entice pests into residence: food storage containers with leftovers from dinner and dirty dishes waiting patiently at drainboards, for example.
How Much Does a Pest Inspection Cost in South Windsor, CT
The cost of the pest inspection in South Windsor, CT can vary depending on who offers it, but an average pest control inspection will set you back about $100. Keep in mind, though, that some companies offer them for free.
Indoor and Outdoor Pest and Insect Control in South Windsor, CT
When you schedule a visit from a pest control professional and depending on the pest issue they will have to perform either home or outdoor pest control or both.
Take mice for example. To eliminate the problem, the pest control technician will inspect your home or business to identify points of entry and possible nesting areas and close any openings before setting up traps inside.
Home Pest Control vs Professional Pest Control in South Windsor, CT
Pest control is important. For small problems, it is more expensive to call a professional. But if the pests are big or there are more of them, you will need to call someone who knows how to get rid of them. Prevention is the key–don't let pests get in your home or office!
Because bugs can cause billions of dollars worth of damages to your property. If you don't catch them early on then they'll infest your entire house requiring extensive repairs that may be costly too!
Pest Control Methods in South Windsor, CT
There are 5 chemical pest control methods for bugs extermination that we employ. If you decide to call us for your pest control problem in South Windsor, CT the one that we will use will depend on the type of pests and severity of the problem.
- Insecticides – as the name suggests, insecticides are chemical products designed to kill insects, such as ants, cockroaches, and flies.
- Rodenticides – highly lethal type of pesticide, more commonly known as rat poison. They are much stronger than the other pesticides due to the caution that rodents show when they encounter a suspicious food source. Due to this need for increased lethality, rodenticides are effective against all mammals when ingested.
- Fogging – it is odorless and it doesn't leave any residues that are hard to clean. In addition, fogging is considered to be environmentally friendly. Fogging is used against adult flying insects such as mosquitoes, flies, moths or flying ants. This method is applied by a special ULV fogging machine through the infested areas. It's called ULV (ultra-low volume) as it spreads a very small amount of the insecticides.
- Heat Treatment – we use it when dealing with infestations caused by fleas, bed bugs, and other insects. If you have children or pets heat treatment is the best option because it's safe for everyone that lives in the house! The rising temperature will eliminate all stages from eggs to adults – without poison being scattered around everywhere which can harm them as well.
- Fumigation – it is a last resort for serious infestations, and it's often used when other methods have failed. During the fumigation service, your home will be sealed off from air circulation while large amounts of pesticides are sprayed inside your home to kill both adult pests as well any eggs or larvae present.
Pest Control and Management Plans in South Windsor, CT
Depending on your needs you can choose between one-off pest control treatment, monthly or quarterly pest control plan.
When you sign up for a monthly or quarterly plan what you get is peace of mind. Our trained bug removal specialists in South Windsor, CT will not only correctly identify the different types of pests throughout the year but also recommend the best treatment.
Why should you care? Because while some pests are simply a nuisance, others are destructive in addition to being a nuisance. Still, others can compromise the health of family members and pets.
Mice Control in South Windsor, CT
Simply put, the goal of rodent extermination is to kill off the active rat population in your home using rodent traps and rat poison.
Rodent Control Strategies
Preventing and treating rodent infestations requires a combination of eliminating access points rats and mice might use to enter your home, removing food sources and shelter that attract rodents, and using traps to get rid of existing rats and mice in or around your home.
Signs of Mice
Not sure how to tell if there are rats in your home or office? Here are the main tell-tale signs:
- Rat droppings – droppings are usually found in certain places. Rats produce up to 40 droppings per night.
- Rub marks – rats have poor eyesight, so they use established routes to help with navigation. They leave grease and dirt marks on objects and surfaces that they touch often.
- Scratching noises – black rats are good at climbing. They are often found in the attic, where they might make noises at night. Brown rats can be identified by sounds they make with their teeth.
- Rat holes – brown rats dig in the ground to make a place to live. They also dig in places with solid things like metal or wood.
- Rat nests – rats can make nests in the following places – lofts, attics, eaves, and cavity walls. They will shred things like insulation, cardboard, and other soft items to make their nests.
- Footprints – if you want to know if there are rats are in your home – put some flour or talc on the floor and check for fresh marks daily.
Rodent Extermination Cost in South Windsor, CT
The cost of rodent control in South Windsor, CT will depend on the type and severity of the rodent problem. Be cautious when rodent control companies in South Windsor, CT give you a quote over the phone that is too good to be true. More often than not that's a way for those pest control companies to get their foot in the door. Once in they might start adding additional fees for this and that.
Mosquitoes Control and Treatment Services in South Windsor, CT
We all want to spend time outside playing with the kids or enjoying a glass of wine with a loved one. And mosquitoes often times get in the way. That's why where mosquito control comes – to help you reclaim your yard and make life more enjoyable.
What Attracts Mosquitoes to Your Yard
- Female mosquitoes need the iron and protein in your blood to reproduce. That's why they're so intent on biting you. Once they have your blood, they just need to find somewhere to lay eggs.
- Mosquito breeding grounds can be anywhere withstanding, stagnant water. This includes gutters, dog bowls, birdbaths, and containers, such as bottle caps.
- While you can do your best to minimize stagnant water on your own property, you have no control over what your neighbors do. That's why it's important to have effective mosquito control.
What is Mosquito Treatment? How Does it Work?
A traditional mosquito treatment consists of 5 steps:
- A property inspection to help identify any potential mosquito breeding sites.
- A service guarantee where a technician will come back in between scheduled visits to address any problems at no additional charge.
- Mosquito source reduction where areas of standing water and other potential breeding sites are eliminated.
- Larvicide treatments to target these potential breeding areas.
- Adulticide treatments to target adult resting areas.
Mosquito Control and Treatment Pricing in South Windsor, CT
Mosquito treatments typically last between 21 and 30 days and should be applied as often. Most mosquito treatments are billed per 1/4 acre or per 1/2 acre. Generally, only the perimeter of the yard is treated, concentrating on areas of foliage and woods. This cost can range depending on the size of the property and the frequency of treatments.
Bed Bug Control and Extermination|Removal in South Windsor, CT
Bed bugs are small, brownish insects that feed on blood. They live near beds and other places where people sleep to make their home; this means you may have them if your itching gets worse around bedtime or after waking up in the morning (or both).
Signs of Bed Bugs in the House
- Bloodstains on your sheets or pillowcases
- Dark or rusty spots of bedbug excrement on sheets and mattresses, bedclothes, and walls
- Bedbug fecal spots, eggshells, or shed skins in areas where bedbugs hide
- An offensive, musty odor from the bugs' scent glands
How Can Bed Bugs Get into Your Home or Office?
Bed bugs can come from other infested areas or from used furniture. They can hitch a ride in luggage, purses, backpacks, or other items placed on soft or upholstered surfaces. They can travel between rooms in multi-unit buildings, such as apartment complexes and hotels.
Types of Bed Bug Treatments and Removal in South Windsor, CT
Our solution to eliminate bed bugs in your South Windsor, CT home or business may involve a combination of the following treatment options:
- Bed bug heat treatment – bed bug heat treatment works by drying out the bugs' bodies. Temperatures above 118°F kill them quickly.
- Bed bug fumigation services – fumigation is a method of pest control that completely fills an area with gaseous pesticides – or fumigants – to suffocate or poison the pests within.
- Bed bug insecticide treatment – several insecticide formulations are typically required for a thorough bed bug service due to the varying types of surfaces, materials and circumstances encountered.
- Bed bug steam remediation treatment – steam remediation treatments work by delivering lethal temperatures into deep recesses and inaccessible areas where bed bugs hide.
- Bed bug mattress covers – eliminate bed bug entry and escape points, remove potential hiding places, and stop them from feeding on you, your family, and your guests in the middle of the night.
We take a sensitive and sympathetic approach recognizing how emotional and stressful a bed bug infestation may be. That means we work with you, your family or your business to provide treatment services with as little disruption and as much discretion as possible.
Bed Bug Removal Cost in in South Windsor, CT
There's no right answer when it comes to the cost of bed bugs extermination. Why? Because of the level of infestation, the size of the space, and the type of treatment will affect your price.
To find out how much the bed bugs treatment will cost in your case call us to schedule a bed bug inspection.
Roach Exterminator in South Windsor, CT
It is often easier to spot signs of a cockroach problem than the actual insect pest. Cockroaches are mostly nocturnal. During the day they prefer to stay hidden in cracks and crevices, coming out to feed mostly at night time.
Cockroaches are attracted to all types of food available in your home. They will eat anything from foods, paper, and packaging to plastics and fabrics. If you suspect a problem in your home or business there are some simple ways to tell if you have cockroaches.
Signs of Cockroaches in Home
- Droppings – cockroach droppings are a sure sign that you have an infestation. These pests will eat pretty much anything and leave behind something that resembles coffee grounds or pepper. These droppings are less than 1mm wide and can be difficult to spot if you don't know what you're looking for.
- Smear Marks – in addition to droppings, cockroaches tend to leave streaks behind. You can often find these markings on walls; they are dark, irregular smears, you can find in areas where they are most active.
- Stench or Unusual Odor – cockroach-infested areas have a very particular scent caused by the pheromones left behind in their droppings. This musty smell can attract other cockroaches and the bigger the infestation, the worse the smell. It is a damp, unpleasant odor that can sink into just about any surface.
- Eggs – a surefire sign of a cockroach infestation is finding their egg capsules. These capsules are called oothecae, and just one of them can hold up to 30 nymphs.
- Shedded Skin – cockroaches go through several lifecycle stages to reach adulthood. As they grow, they shed they molt anywhere between 5-8 times before they become adults. If you have a cockroach problem, you will likely see shedded skin.
- Property Damage – cockroaches will eat just about anything, and that can cause some damage. If you have an infestation, you will likely find chew marks in food packaging, but you will also discover the damage in other materials, such as leather.
- Living Roaches – while they tend to keep out of sight, if you enter a dark bathroom or kitchen and turn on a light, you may be unlucky enough to see these pests scurry away to their hiding spots. If you spot a live cockroach, it's likely that there are plenty more that you haven't.
DIY Cockroach Control
- Identify problem areas with flashlight and glue traps
- Use caulk to close gaps to prevent further infestation
- Place gel bait stations to effectively reduce roach population
- Clean to remove things that cockroaches need
If none of those work or cockroaches reappear call us for professional cockroach extermination in South Windsor, CT. As a matter of fact, we would suggest to call us as soon as possible and not waste time and money trying to fix the roach infestation yourself.
Here's why:
- Expertise – the key to effective pest control is proper identification. The appropriate treatment depends on the species of the pest, how far the infestation has spread, the size of the home, climate, and many other factors.
- Cost – professional pest control services can be more costly initially but save you over time through prevention.
- Convenience – you just call us and we will take care of the rest.
- Hazard – using chemicals of any kind for DIY roach extermination can pose a hazard to yourself, your family, and your pets. With a professional service, the risk to the homeowner is taken away.
- Effectiveness – our cockroach treatments use the most up-to-date methods and products. We can also treat areas where infestations have spread that you may not see such as inside walls, in attics, and crawlspaces.
- Prevention – with our professional service, visits are set on a scheduled basis whether there is an active pest problem or not. This allows our technician to use preventative measures when infestations are gone to keep them from flourishing in your home.
Flea Exterminator in South Windsor, CT – What You Need to Know for Effective Pest Control
Don't blame yourself. You did everything you could. You bathed them. You gave them treatments. You kept an eye on them when they went outside. Yet despite all this vigilance, your cat or dog managed to pick up some fleas. Then these frustrating hitchhikers went one step further – they took over your house!
How to Detect Fleas in Your Home
- Set up a flea trap –buy one from the store, plug it in, turn off the lights, and leave it overnight. By morning, check the sticky pad to see if you've captured any fleas. The more fleas, the worse your infestation!
- Inspect pet beds and carpets – look for signs of fleas in pet beds and in your carpets. With a pet bed, the evidence of fleas is usually concentrated in a small area – you will see the fleas themselves as well as flea dirt. In a carpet, pick a few areas and run your hands through the fibers – you want to look for fleas, flea dirt, and eggs.
- Try the white sock test – pull on a pair of knee-high white socks and move slowly through a room. Your body heat should be enough to attract fleas, who will leap onto your socks for a bite to eat. After you've completed a circuit of the room, check your socks for any fleas.
If there's a flea infestation in your home or place of business you need to call an experienced flea exterminator.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Flea Exterminator in South Windsor, CT
Fleas can come into your home on your pet or on your clothing. One female can turn into 1,000 over the course of just 21 days, so it's important to attack the problem quickly. In addition to their irritating bites, fleas carry tapeworm eggs that can infect your pets or children. Scratching the bites can lead to infection and scarring.
Flea exterminators charge depends on the location and house size. If your infestation requires more visits that are not part of your initial cost.
Wasp Control in South Windsor, CT – Wasp Exterminator That Helps You Get Rid of Wasps Fast
Wasp colonies go as the queen wasp goes. At the beginning of spring, the queen emerges and selects a new site and lays the foundation for the colony. Queens lay eggs at the end of spring and hibernate in winter.
Queens can be up to three times larger than worker wasps or drones. Once she lays her eggs, she stays inside. Meanwhile, workers forage for food while drones help the colony propagate. Worker wasps die in winter.
Once the queen sets up the colony, she lays her eggs, and the colony grows, reaching its peak in summer. The workers then seek out sugary foods to power the colony's activity. These colonies can contain thousands of wasps.
Wasp Control Methods
We use an integrated approach that employs a variety of effective and efficient methods to control wasps. Our integrated program includes using:
- Inspection – determining what is needed to provide an effective wasp control plan.
- Documentation – explaining the specifics of the overall control plan and the findings and results of, not only the initial inspection but scheduled follow-up services as well.
- Education – explaining the behavior, diet, and habitat of wasps and how this information will be helpful to the homeowner.
- Cultural controls – modifying the area around the home or business to reduce the number of sites that are suitable for wasps to nest.
- Exclusion – making it hard for wasps to get inside the structure.
- Sanitation – keeping the area clean and efficiently reducing access to the wasp's sources of food.
- Selection of the best wasp control methods – traps, light modification, mechanical and insecticidal controls, physical removal.
- Emergency services, if needed.
How Much Do Wasp Exterminators Cost in South Windsor, CT?
The total cost to eliminate wasp infestation from your property is directly affected by the accessibility of the wasps' nests. This figure is usually higher if the nest is located in a remote area of your home. Wasp control treatment starts with the inspection phase to track the nest and identify the specific species of wasp infesting your home.
A word of caution – In most cases, wasp nest removal is a task best left to professionals, since many people will have a serious allergic reaction to wasp stings. More importantly, wasps are much more aggressive and more easily provoked compared to bees, which is all the more reason why you should let the exterminator handle these airborne menaces.
Wildlife Removal Control in South Windsor, CT
Wildlife control, sometimes called wildlife removal or critter control, focuses on nuisance wildlife species that are causing damage.
Wildlife damage control is an important part of wildlife management on your own land. When you get too many of one species in a certain location, some kind of control must be done to reduce the conflicts with humans or other wildlife species.
Types of Critters We Remove
- Raccoons
- Bats
- Squirrels
- Skunks
- Coyotes
- Beavers
How Much Do Wildlife Removal Cost in South Windsor, CT
The national average cost of critter removal is $350. Take this number with a grain of salt, though. The price will depend on the critter and what needs to be done.
The only way to know your cost is to call a wildlife removal service in South Windsor, CT and schedule an appointment.
Don't fall for companies that will give you a quote over the phone. The lowball offer they will give you more often than not is just to get their foot in the door. Once in they will start charging you fees for this and that and you will end up paying more than you should.
Tips for Selecting a Pest Control Service in South Windsor, CT
You don't want to be taken for a ride when you are choosing a bug removal company, do you. That's why it is so important to ask every exterminator that you call the following questions:
- How many years have you been in business at your present address?
- Would you provide me with a list of references?
- Will the person(s) performing the services be a certified, licensed pesticide applicator or a licensed technician?
- Would you provide me with a copy of your pest control license, copies of the labels for all pesticides used and the rates at which they will be applied?
Beware of Pest Control companies or Individuals That:
- Want to do pest control as part of a package deal, such as general home repair or tree trimming or that will give you a special price if treatment is done immediately.
- Don't have a listed or working telephone number.
- Sell services door-to-door or target the elderly or infirm persons who live alone. CHECK THEIR IDENTIFICATION AND CREDENTIALS!!!
- Arrive unexpectedly and show you insects they have found in your neighbors' house as evidence of a neighborhood problem.
- Quote a per-gallon price. Termite control can require several hundred gallons of diluted insecticide.
- Claim to have a secret formula. All pesticide products must be registered by the U.S. EPA and the States Departments of Agriculture. Registered pesticide labels contain a list of active ingredients.
- Try to pressure you into immediately signing a contract by suggesting your house is structurally unsound and may collapse if not treated.
- Claim to have excess material leftover from a previous job and offer a reduced price for immediate treatment.
- Claim to be endorsed by the States Departments of Agriculture, the U.S. EPA or other government agency. Government agencies DO NOT endorse any service company or specific pesticide product.
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The (Unconscious) Situation of our Consciousness – Part I
Posted by The Situationist Staff on November 15, 2007
In their 2003 article, "The Situational Character," Situationist contributors Jon Hanson and David Yosifon summarized some of the evidence indicating that we greatly overestimate the role of our consciousness and of our will.
Over the next few weeks, we will offer a series of posts containing, not only Hanson and Yosifon's general summary, but also other summaries of the more recent research on the hidden situation of our consciousness. This post begins with Hanson and Yosifon's summary of some of the fascinating research on "automaticity" and the illusion of conscious will. As they argue, the failure to appreciate the ubiquity of automaticity and the illusion of conscious will are major contributors to the dispositionist deception — the sense that, not situation, but our conscious will, is calling the shots and pulling the levers of our own behavior.
* * *
. . . Daniel Wegner concludes, in a book that brings together generations of experimental research on the felt experience of human will, that "conscious will is an illusion. It is an illusion in the sense that the experience of consciously willing an action is not a direct indication that the conscious thought has caused the action." Two other leading researchers of the will, [Situationist contributor] John Bargh and Tanya Chartrand, have made an extremely compelling, if unsettling, case that "most of a person's everyday life is determined not by [her] conscious intentions and deliberate choices but by mental processes that are put into motion by features of the environment and that operate outside of conscious awareness and guidance"—a thesis that they acknowledge is "difficult . . . for people to accept."
In part for that reason, we want to be certain that the claim is not misconstrued. None of the researchers in this field of social science have concluded, nor do we, that the "conscious will" is purely and totally an illusion. What is asserted—and what researchers have demonstrated—is that the experience of will is far more widespread than the reality of will. Wegner calls the latter the empirical will and argues that our perceived will is often an unreliable and misleading basis for understanding our behavior. The experience of will occurs often without empirical will, and thus creates the illusion of will. Moreover, it contributes to the illusions of choice, preference, and, more generally, dispositionism.
Exhibit A in the case that our conscious will is not as central as we presume is the fact that our conscious attentional capacity is extraordinarily limited. Remember your first attempt at driving a manual transmission automobile—before the processes became automatic. If you are like the authors, the memory still causes some embarrassment. Images of stalling, chugging, and squealing evince the limits of our ability to tell our feet and legs—much less the car—precisely how to behave. Now suppose that, at the same time you were attempting to let the clutch out with your left foot while depressing the gas pedal with your right, you were attempting to have a serious phone conversation with a friend about, say, your love problems. Such multitasking would be all but impossible given the severe limits on our ability to be consciously attentive.
The point has been demonstrated in numerous experiments. For instance, studies have shown that eating radishes instead of available chocolates depletes one's ability to persist in attempting to solve puzzles, and that suppressing emotional reactions to a movie depletes one's ability to solve anagrams or to squeeze a handgrip exerciser. The unhappy truth is that because "even minor acts of self-control, such as making a simple choice, use up [one's] limited self-regulatory resource, conscious acts of self-regulation can occur only rarely in the course of one's day." Social psychologists studying the phenomenon have concluded that, in our daily lives, our conscious will "plays a causal role only [five percent] or so of the time." Little wonder that the growing popularity of cell phones has made driving generally more dangerous, even for experienced drivers.
Exhibit B in the case for automaticity is the now-cascading evidence demonstrating the extent to which our choice biases, our schemas, our memories, our attributions, our affective responses, our motives, our perceptions, and so on are activated automatically—outside our conscious awareness, and often by exterior situational features and events. The evidence of implicit attitudes summarized above is just a small strand of the larger fabric of automaticity operating within our interiors.
There is also mounting evidence that our automatic perceptions are linked to our behavior, also through automatic means. Charles Carver and his colleagues, for instance, found that subjects participating as the "teacher" in a Milgram-esque experiment tended to give longer shocks when they had been primed with a list of hostility-related words. More recently, John Bargh and his collaborators have made numerous demonstrations of the automatic perception-behavior link. In one experiment, for example, some subjects were primed with words related to rudeness, others, with words related to politeness. The subjects were then placed in a situation that presented both an opportunity and motive to interrupt an ongoing conversation. The first, rude-primed group interrupted more than sixty percent of the time, while the second, polite-primed group interrupted less than twenty percent of the time. In other studies, subjects primed with stereotypical qualities of elderly people (e.g., wrinkles, Florida) behaved more like elderly people—walked more slowly, were more forgetful, and so on—than subjects who were not similarly primed. And Chartrand and Bargh have shown in other experiments that, without being aware of it, subjects often engage in so-called "behavior matching," or the "chameleon effect." For instance, when subjects are placed next to an interaction partner who is either rubbing his or her face or shaking his or her foot, the subjects tend to engage in behavioral patterns matching those of their interaction partner.
But the automaticity doesn't stop there. Although we sometimes intentionally try to transform our conscious acts into automatic behavior—recall how you practiced playing the piano, dribbling a basketball, or driving that darn stick shift—much of what becomes automatic does so automatically. And that includes many of our goals and motivations. In one study, for instance, subjects were asked to rearrange scrambled words to make a sentence. Some subjects were nonconsciously primed to succeed because the words included items like "strive," "achieve," and "succeed." Others were given neutral words that would not prime the goal to achieve. All of the subjects then were given a second, timed task—to rearrange letters in words to create new words. The anagrams ranged from simple to impossible. After completing the anagrams or running out of time, the subjects filled out questionnaires about their moods. Subjects who were not primed to succeed reported similar moods whether they performed well or poorly. The moods of the subjects who were primed to succeed, however, varied depending on whether they succeeded or failed. That is, they seemed to care about how well they performed, even though they were unaware of what caused their moods, much less that it was the success-oriented words they encountered in the first task. Subjects were, beneath their conscious radars, given a goal that they did not even know they had, and that goal remained, hidden in their interior situation, shaping their moods in ways they neither saw nor appreciated.
Our automatic goals are quite pervasive. When we commonly adopt a particular goal in a given situation—be it the workplace, the classroom, or the ping-pong table—that goal is likely to be triggered automatically in that situation, whether or not we want it to be triggered. As with all evidence of situational influence, such automatic goal-setting and mood-effect evidence further reveals the extent to which we humans are susceptible to situational manipulation.
* * *
To read Hanson and Yosifon's law review article from which this excerpt is drawn, go to "The Situational Character." For a sample of previous posts discussing the role of unconscious and automatic causes of behavior, see "The Situation of Reason," "The Magnetism of Beautiful People," and "The Unconscious Genius of Baseball Players."
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This entry was posted on November 15, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Choice Myth, Social Psychology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to "The (Unconscious) Situation of our Consciousness – Part I"
January 22, 2008 at 12:05 am
[…] a sample of previous posts discussing the role of unconscious and automatic causes of behavior, see Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV of the series titled "The Unconscious Situation of our […]


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All About Glass
All About Glass
This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.
Artist Lino Tagliapietra shares his love of working with glass. Voices of Contemporary Glass: The Heineman Collection at The Corning Museum of Glass, May 16, 2009- January 2, 2011.


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After a bit of a summer lull, the Montreal R User Group is meeting up again! We're trying out a new venue this time. Notman House is the home of the web in Montreal. They hold hackathons and other tech user group meetups, and they are all around great people in an all around great space in downtown Montreal.
Our meetup will feature R super-user Etienne Low-Decarie, who will give a walk through of some of the most powerful packages in R, many of which were built by rstats rock star Hadley Wickham.
I will also kick off the meetup with a short session on how R is revolutionizing data science in academia, journalism, business and beyond.
- November 14th, 7pm at 51 Sherbrooke W.
- BYOL&D (Bring Your Own Laptop & Data)
Don't forget to RSVP. Hope to see you there!


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text: Previous Product Next Product Falcon Field Hockey Award £5.00 – £15.50 Size Choose an option105mm150mm190mm220mm240mmClear Centre Logo Options Please note that not all styles/sizes of award take a centre logo. Refer to the items individual image to see if a centre space is available. None Stock Victory Centre Bespoke Centre (+£0.25) Engraving Instructions Please take care to check the instructions you type Artwork Upload Include a bespoke logo of your choice, for example sports club, school badge or company logo. For large quantities please attach your engraving requirements. (max file size 64 MB) Falcon Field Hockey Award quantity Add to cart SKU: PA20099 Category: Hockey Trophies Additional information Reviews (0) Additional information Dimensions N/A Size 105mm, 150mm, 190mm, 220mm, 240mm Reviews There are no reviews yet. Be the first to review "Falcon Field Hockey Award" Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Your rating * Rate… Perfect Good Average Not that bad Very poor Your review *Name * Email * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Related products Quick View Quick View Hockey TrophiesMaverick Legacy Hockey Jade Glass £6.75 – £10.25 Select options Quick View Quick View Hockey TrophiesMillennium Hockey Jade Glass Award £4.25 – £8.25 Select options Quick View Quick View Hockey TrophiesMaverick Hockey Heavyweight Award £10.50 – £15.00 Select options Quick View Quick View Uncatagorised, Hockey TrophiesBRZ/GOLD MAN OF THE MATCH MINI CUP WITH HOCKEY INSERT AND PLATE – 3.75in £7.99 Add to cart Quick View Quick View Embossed Sports Medals, Hockey TrophiesFalcon Hockey Medal £2.00 Select options Quick View Quick View Uncatagorised, Hockey TrophiesBRZ/GOLD HOCKEY MINI STAR TROPHY £6.25 – £7.99 Select options Quick View Quick View Embossed Sports Medals, Hockey TrophiesTyphoon Hockey Medal £1.95 Select options


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Hi there! It's me again, Kaye from Miss Print! I'm so happy to be back here at the Bake Shop with my second tutorial. It's getting pretty cold here in many parts of the northern hemisphere, so why not make a quilt to remind yourself of the beautiful colours and warm evenings of summer? This is a quilt to snuggle, cuddle, and dream under.
2 layers cakes – I used Dream On by Urban Chiks
1 bella solids layer cake – I used Snow
4 7/8 yards for backing – I used Groovy in Blue Moon from Dream On
7/8 yard for binding – I used Old School in Grass from Dream On
Select 20 squares from each of your Dream On layer cakes – the 20 squares from each layer cake should be matching, as you will need 2 matching printed squares to complete each block. You will also need 40 of the squares from your solid layer cake for a total of 80 layer cake squares.
Divide your layer cake squares into piles containing your two matching printed squares and two solid squares – these four squares will be the basis for each block.
The following directions are for one block:
On the backside of each solid square, draw a line down the middle from each point (i.e. top right point to bottom left point, and top left point to bottom right point) so that you have an X traversing the whole of the square.
Pair up one solid square and one printed square right sides together. On both sides of the lines you just drew, sew a 1/4″ seam.
Now it's time to cut your square – this will yield 8 half square triangles (HSTs):
Do not cut down your diagonal lines quite yet. Cut your square in half so that you are left with two 10×5″ pieces.
Now cut each 10×5″ piece in half so that you are left with four 5×5″ pieces.
Cut down the diagonal line on each 5×5″ square. Press your seams toward the printed fabric.
Repeat with your remaining solid and printed square. Each finished HST should measure 4.5″ square (trim if necessary).
Lay out your 16 HSTs as shown in the picture below.
Sew your HSTs together row by row.
Sews the rows together to form your block. Look at that… your block is done! Your block should now measure 16.5″ square (to finish at 16″ square).
Repeat the above steps with the rest of your block piles.
Lay your blocks out in a 4×5 grid and sew into rows. Now sew your rows together and your quilt top is done!
Sandwich, baste, quilt, bind and you're done!
Finished quilt will measure 64×80″.
Since there are enough printed layer cake squares left to make a second quilt (obviously you will need to double the rest of the ingredients), why not swap squares with a friend so that you can each make two quilts but with different fabrics? Or get a little funky and incorporate some of your extra squares into a pieced back? I'm sure you won't be short on ideas for how to use that awesome leftover yumminess!
Kaye Prince
{Miss Print}


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Petite Cornwall
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A neat all-black NATO strap that adds sophisticated and confident attitude to your style.
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A neat all-black NATO strap that adds sophisticated and confident attitude to your style.


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Saxby's: Art & Coffee October 24
Art & Coffee was something I truly enjoyed and I can say that was one experience I've never had before because it was nothing but sheer, carefree good times and a first for me -- a first-time live event and the FIRST time I've ever let people view snapshots on a slideshow before I even got to view them! That was a great leap of faith that wasn't as scary as I thought. In fact all of you gave such wonderful feedback. So here are all of you being YOU in all your glory. Thanks so much! --jRead More
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Hardware for computing for non-ICT specialists
This lecture covers different perspectives on the study of the mental, focusing on the difference between Mind and Brain.
This lecture provides a history of data management, recent developments data management, and a brief description of scientific data management.
Computer arithmetic is necessarily performed using approximations to the real numbers they are intended to represent, and consequently it is possible for the discrepancies between the actual solution and the approximate solutions to diverge, i.e. to become increasingly different. This lecture focuses on how this happens and techniques for reducing the effects of these phenomena and discuss systems which are chaotic.
This lecture will addresses what it means for a problem to have a computable solution, methods for combining computability results to analyse more complicated problems, and finally look in detail at one particular problem which has no computable solution: the halting problem.
This lecture focuses on computational complexity which lies at the heart of computer science thinking. In short, it is a way to quickly gauge an approximation to the computational resource required to perform a task. Methods to analyse a computer program and to perform the approximation are presented. Speaker: David Lester.
This lecture focuses on where and how Jupyter notebooks can be used most effectively for education
JupyterHub is a simple, highly extensible, multi-user system for managing per-user Jupyter Notebook servers, designed for research groups or classes. This lecture covers deploying JupyterHub on a single server, as well as deploying with Docker using GitHub for authentication.
This tutorial is part 1 of 2. It aims to provide viewers with an understanding of the fundamentals of R tool.
This tutorial is part 2 of 2. It aims to provide viewers with an understanding of the fundamentals of R tool.
The Virtual Brain is an open-source, multi-scale, multi-modal brain simulation platform. In this lesson, you get introduced to brain simulation in general and to The Virtual brain in particular. Prof. Ritter will present the newest approaches for clinical applications of The Virtual brain - that is, for stroke, epilepsy, brain tumors and Alzheimer's disease - and show how brain simulation can improve diagnostics, therapy and understanding of neurological disease.
The concept of neural masses, an application of mean field theory, is introduced as a possible surrogate for electrophysiological signals in brain simulation. The mathematics of neural mass models and their integration to a coupled network are explained. Bifurcation analysis is presented as an important technique in the understanding of non-linear systems and as a fundamental method in the design of brain simulations. Finally, the application of the described mathematics is demonstrated in the exploration of brain stimulation regimes.
The simulation of the virtual epileptic patient is presented as an example of advanced brain simulation as a translational approach to deliver improved results in clinics. The fundamentals of epilepsy are explained. On this basis, the concept of epilepsy simulation is developed. By using an iPython notebook, the detailed process of this approach is explained step by step. In the end, you are able to perform simple epilepsy simulations your own.
The practical usage of The Virtual brain in its graphical user interface and via python scripts is introduced. In the graphical user interface, you are guided through its data repository, simulator, phase plane exploration tool, connectivity editor, stimulus generator and the provided analyses. The implemented iPython notebooks of TVB are presented, and since they are public, can be used for further exploration of The Virtual brain.
A brief overview of the Python programming language, with an emphasis on tools relevant to data scientists. This lecture was part of the 2018 Neurohackademy, a 2-week hands-on summer institute in neuroimaging and data science held at the University of Washington eScience Institute.
Tutorial on collaborating with Git and GitHub. This tutorial was part of the 2019 Neurohackademy, a 2-week hands-on summer institute in neuroimaging and data science held at the University of Washington eScience Institute.
Colt Steele provides a comprehensive introduction to the command line and 50 popular Linux commands. This is a long course (nearly 5 hours) but well worth it if you are going to spend a good part of your career working from a terminal, which is likely if you are interested in flexibility, power, and reproducibility in neuroscience research.
This lesson is courtesy of freeCodeCamp.
This talk presents state-of-the-art methods for ensuring data privacy with a particular focus on medical data sharing across multiple organizations.
This lecture talks about the usage of knowledge graphs in hospitals and related challenges of semantic interoperability.
This lesson is a general overview of overarching concepts in neuroinformatics research, with a particular focus on clinical approaches to defining, measuring, studying, diagnosing, and treating various brain disorders. Also described are the complex, multi-level nature of brain disorders and the data associated with them, from genes and individual cells up to cortical microcircuits and whole-brain network dynamics. Given the heterogeneity of brain disorders and their underlying mechanisms, this lesson lays out a case for multiscale neuroscience data integration.


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Counterweight Rappel Failure
March 11 was a bluebird day at the Soul Asylum, a limestone sport crag in the Utah Hills near Saint George, Utah. Ike Palatt, 21, on his first day of spring break from university in New York, was eager to warm up on the 110-foot Soul Train (5.12a), a line that starts slabby, then rears to vertical about halfway up. Belayed by friend and frequent climbing partner Jarret Hunter, Palatt tied in and sent the route.
March 11 was a bluebird day at the Soul Asylum, a limestone sport crag in the Utah Hills near Saint George, Utah. Ike Palatt, 21, on his first day of spring break from university in New York, was eager to warm up on the 110-foot Soul Train (5.12a), a line that starts slabby, then rears to vertical about halfway up. Belayed by friend and frequent climbing partner Jarret Hunter, Palatt tied in and sent the route.
Arriving at the anchor station, a pair of Metolius Rap Hangers, Palatt daisied in with two short draws, untied and threaded the rope through the thick, rounded hangers. He pulled up the rope to its midpoint and rigged it for a single-rope rappel in which he would rap one side while his partner counter weighted the opposite side. Although unconventional, counterweight rappelling was Palatt's preferred method of descent, one that he and his partner often employed.
After setting his Grigri on the rope and clipping in to it, Palatt inspected his rigging. It all looked good, he says. I yelled, Got me?' and Jarret said, Yeah.' Then I leaned back.
Because Palatt had used short quickdraws to clip himself to the anchor, he was unable to weight the rope to test that all was in order. Nevertheless, having performed this counterweight rappel numerous times, he was unconcerned.
When Palatt weighted the rope, it zipped through the rap hangers — he had accidentally set his rappel on the same side of the rope that his partner was counter-weighting. "I yelled Take," says Palatt, but obviously that didn't work.
Palatt plunged down the climb, struck the wall, rag-dolled to the ground and landed unconscious in a bush. Hunter, a trained EMT, administered first aid, stabilizing his seriously injured friend while climbers nearby went for help. A rescue team arrived, transporting Palatt to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas. He suffered two badly broken feet, a broken elbow and rib, fractured vertebrae and a bruised lung. Today, after several surgeries, he expects a full recovery and to be back on the rock in the near future.
Palatt is lucky to have survived a 110-foot fall. He was probably spared because the bush he landed in cushioned the impact, and the friction of the rope pulling through the rap hangers slowed his fall, if only a little.
The causes of the accident are twofold. First, although Palatt and his belayer both understood that Palatt would rappel on one side of a counterweighted rope, they did not discuss on which side he would rappel. Palatt assumed that his belayer knew he would be on the right side because they had climbed together for over three years, and he always rappelled on that side. The belayer, however, assumed that Palatt would rappel the left strand in order to clean the draws clipped to that side of the rope.
When you climb with someone for so long, says Palatt, you just assume you do things the same way. We were so comfortable with one another that we just left out that critical piece of communication.
Second, while Palatt did visually check his anchor and confirm with his belayer that he was on, he wasn't able to weight the rappel while remaining clipped to the anchor since he was clipped in with two short quickdraws. A simple test bounce on the rope should have raised the red flag.
Lowering accidents are common, although the circumstances of Palatt's accident are uncommon. Still, the root cause — miscommunication — is to blame for this and most other lowering accidents. In this case, because both climbers were so tuned in to each other's systems, they felt that spelling out the details was unnecessary. If, prior to leaving the ground, Palatt had confirmed that he would rappel on the right side of the rope, the accident would have been avoided. Whether you are counterweight rappelling, lowering, or simply rappelling on both strands of rope, confirm your intentions with your belayer, and reconfirm them at the anchor before you commit.Palatt's accident could also have been avoided had he carried longer quickdraws or long slings, which would have let him remain tethered safely to the rap hangers while testing the rappel rope. Instead, Palatt, like many minimalist sport climbers, headed up the route with just two short draws for clipping himself to the anchors. Adding two long draws to the sport rack and reserving them for rigging your lowering station is a good idea.
Finally, while counterweight rappelling does allow the climber to control his rate of descent, it is unnecessarily complicated, requiring a rappel and a counterweight. Simply lowering straight through the anchors would have avoided the accident.


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An incident at the annual Python developer conference has led to allegations of sexism, death threats, the firings of two people, and—apparently—multiple DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks.
The strange saga began Sunday at the PyCon event in Santa Clara, CA, when Adria Richards, a developer evangelist for e-mail vendor SendGrid, overheard jokes being told by two developers sitting behind her during a session. The jokes were sexual in nature, she said. Richards proceeded to take a picture of the developers, then tweeted the photo and asked PyCon organizers to have a word with them.
The story ended with one of the developers getting fired, Richards getting fired, and an apparent denial of service attack against Richard's personal blog and against SendGrid. "Anonymous has reviewed the situation and rendered judgment using their collective wisdom and experience," wrote one anonymous poster in a manifesto. Could the story get any stranger?
Speaking out
According to Richards' tweets and a personal blog post titled "Forking and Dongle Jokes Don't Belong at Tech Conferences," the developers in question were sitting right behind her at PyCon and made "jokes about forking repo's in a sexual way and 'big' dongles." (Richards herself apparently made a joke about male genitalia on Twitter, using her work account, several days before PyCon.)
Richards did not tell the developers that she was offended, saying in the comments on her blog post, "I didn't want to be heckled or have my experience denied." She initially decided to remain silent about the jokes, she wrote, until she saw up on the main stage a photo "of a little girl who had been in the Young Coders workshop." At that moment, "I realized I had to do something or she would never have the chance to learn and love programming because the ass clowns behind me would make it impossible for her to do so," she wrote.
After tweeting the pictures of the developers, she then wrote on Twitter, "Can someone talk to these guys about their conduct? I'm in lightning talks, top right near stage, 10 rows back #pycon." She also linked to PyCon's code of conduct, which says in part that "offensive jokes are not appropriate for PyCon." On her blog, Richards concluded, "Yesterday the future of programming was on the line and I made myself heard."
PyCon staff quickly spoke to the developers, who apologized, but the staff took no further action. PyCon described its response in a blog post yesterday:
On Sunday March 17th an incident occurred involving some inappropriate comments made during a crowded plenary session. Per the stated guidelines for attendees and staff, the issue was reported to the PyCon 2013 staff and resolved privately.
Both parties were met with, in private. The comments that were made were in poor taste, and individuals involved agreed, apologized, and no further actions were taken by the staff of PyCon 2013. No individuals were removed from the conference, no sanctions were levied.
PyCon values the privacy of all attendees above everything. Except in cases wherein law enforcement must or could be involved, all reports and actions taken are kept confidential by PyCon staff.
After the incident, PyCon updated its "Attendee Procedure for Handling Harassment" to encourage conference attendees to report such behavior privately. "Public shaming can be counter-productive to building a strong community. PyCon does not condone nor participate in such actions out of respect," the updated PyCon procedures say.
One of the developers was also fired by his employer, PlayHaven, which said the inappropriate comments were contrary to the company's dedication to gender equality. PlayHaven makes a financial platform for monetizing mobile games.
"Forking" and firings
A person going under the Hacker News name "mr-hank" claimed that he was the developer who was fired. He apologized for the jokes but said Richards misinterpreted the "forking" statement. The developers were discussing the process of forking code bases, not making sexual jokes, he said. "While I did make a big dongle joke about a fictional piece [of] hardware that identified as male, no sexual jokes were made about forking," he wrote, adding:
She gave me no warning, she smiled while she snapped the pic and sealed my fate. Let this serve as a message to everyone, our actions and words, big or small, can have a serious impact. I will be at pycon 2014, I will joke and socialize with everyone but I will also be mindful of my audience, accidental or otherwise. Again, I apologize.
The other developer making jokes, Alex Reid, was not fired.
PlayHaven CEO Andy Yang acknowledged firing the developer, writing, "PlayHaven had an employee who was identified as making inappropriate comments at PyCon, and as a company that is dedicated to gender equality and values honorable behavior, we conducted a thorough investigation. The result of this investigation led to the unfortunate outcome of having to let this employee go. We value and protect the privacy of our employees, both past and present, and we will not comment on all the factors that contributed to our parting ways... We believe in the importance of discussing sensitive topics such as gender and conduct and we hope to move forward with a civil dialogue based on the facts."
Richards' own blog was subsequently hit by a DDoS attack. VentureBeat also reports that Richards has been the target of rape and death threats on Twitter, although such tweets have apparently been deleted by Twitter.
The SendGrid website has also been unresponsive much of the day. The company has not confirmed the cause, although it's assumed to be a DDoS attack. (Hacktivist group Anonymous is supposedly behind it.) "Our SMTP and Web servers are currently down," SendGrid wrote in a status update. A few hours later, the company provided some good news: "We're now accepting mail via SMTP & Web API. The Website is up, and we're working to finalize this resolution." Business customers have complained about the outage impacting their operations.
Today, SendGrid fired Richards. In a Facebook post, SendGrid wrote, "Effective immediately, SendGrid has terminated the employment of Adria Richards. While we generally are sensitive and confidential with respect to employee matters, the situation has taken on a public nature. We have taken action that we believe is in the overall best interests of SendGrid, its employees, and our customers."
A further post from SendGrid CEO Jim Franklin a few hours later expanded on the company's reasons for firing Richards. "SendGrid supports the right to report inappropriate behavior, whenever and wherever it occurs," Franklin wrote. "What we do not support was how she reported the conduct. Her decision to tweet the comments and photographs of the people who made the comments crossed the line. Publicly shaming the offenders—and bystanders—was not the appropriate way to handle the situation.
"A SendGrid developer evangelist's responsibility is to build and strengthen our Developer Community across the globe. In light of the events over the last 48+ hours, it has become obvious that her actions have strongly divided the same community she was supposed to unite. As a result, she can no longer be effective in her role at SendGrid."
Update: The original version of this story said Adria Richards found out about her firing on Facebook and left a comment on her employer's page threatening a lawsuit. It now appears that comment was written by an impostor, and not by the real Adria Richards.
Update #2: Our editor-in-chief Ken Fisher weighs in on the controversy.


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After missing the first four races of the homestand, Teddy Roosevelt teased the crowd in his return to action today at Nationals Park.
When Saturday's presidents race began, Teddy was nowhere to be seen, but after Tom, George, and Abe had taken the field, Teddy appeared from the centerfield gate and drew a roar from the crowd as he put on a burst of speed to overtake his racing president foes.
It looked as if TR was about to celebrate his return by putting his losing streak behind him, but the excitement of the moment was apparently too much.
When he reached his cheering section along the first base line, #26 stopped to share in the excitement, and was soon passed by the other presidents. Of course, opportunistic Abe was positioned to mop things up.
Video by YouTube member lfahome


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WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an attempt to boost his chances, McCain offered to fix the economy by selling secret government artifacts on Ebay. Unfortunately, the maverick senator doesn't quite get computers and sold it all too cheaply.
Despite opposition from numerous government insiders, McCain claimed that "the old ways aren't going to solve 21st century problems. Old secrets have to make way for new solutions." Supporters applauded the senator's bold initiative to increase government revenue, resulting in a brief spike in his popularity.
However, McCain entered the information incorrectly and all the items were sold before he could correct the mistake.
Among the items sold were photos from the Roswell alien autopsy for $7.14, a used but still working Venusian warp engine for $153.63, the rifle used by the second gunman in the JFK shooting for $23.78, and J. Edgar Hoover's first training bra for $3.58.
Most of the items were sold to independent collectors around the country, bringing in a total of $209.32 to help offset the federal deficit.
Randall Summers of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who purchased a rare copy of Ben Franklin's first erotic novel, said "You better believe I'm framing this sucker! John McCain, you got my vote!"
How this will play for the Republican candidate in the final days of the election has yet to be seen.


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"In a briefing last week for the visiting commandant of the Marine Corps," writes Nathan Hodge at the Wall Street Journal, Japan-based Marines "said the experience of Operation Tomodachi, the Japan relief effort launched after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, could help the U.S. military respond to worst-case battle scenarios."
"This is varsity-level stuff," Gen. [James] Amos said.
Hodge again:
Japan has become an unlikely laboratory for the U.S. to study modern warfare after the March nuclear accident created conditions like those the military could face if a terror group set off a "dirty" radiological bomb. It was the first time Marine aircraft had operated in a radiologically contaminated environment, and Lt. Col. Marsh [commander of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265], which was involved in the operation. . . told [Gen. Amos], "it's not hard to believe that we could be responding someplace involving a disaster at a nuclear power plant, dirty bombs or terrorism."
Fukushima has focused the attention of the world on the safety of nuclear plants. As Matthew Bunn of Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs writes:
At Monday's opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency's ministerial meeting in Vienna on what to do about nuclear safety after Fukushima, [IAEA] Director-General Yukiya Amano laid out a sensible five-point plan for improving global nuclear safety. But Amano missed a crucial point: Disasters like Fukushima can be caused not only be accident but by terrorist action. The nuclear industry in many countries is much less prepared to cope with security incidents than with accidents.
As if the nuclear industry (at least in Japan) was even prepared to cope with an accident. Dr. Bunn again (emphasis added).
[Thus] the need to take steps to strengthen global nuclear security – protecting against both sabotage of nuclear facilities and theft of nuclear weapons or the materials to make them — [is] particularly urgent. . . . Both al Qaeda and Chechen terrorist groups have repeatedly considered sabotaging nuclear reactors – and Fukushima provided a compelling example of the scale of terror such an attack might cause. Indeed, given the multiple layers of safety systems in place for nuclear facilities today – and the extraordinarily weak security measures in place in some countries – the chance that the next big radioactive release will happen because someone wanted to make it happen may well be bigger than the chance that it will happen purely by accident.
Back in 2003, at the New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote:
An attack on a nuclear power plant would seem to fulfill, almost perfectly, Al Qaeda's objective of using America's technology against it. In his State of the Union Message last year, President Bush announced that United States forces searching Afghan caves had indeed found diagrams of American reactors. Around the same time, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, acting on information provided by the F.B.I., warned of a plot to crash a commercial aircraft into a plant. . . . As potential targets go, Indian Point [nuclear energy plant] seems almost too obvious. It is situated on the Hudson River . . . thirty-five miles from midtown Manhattan. . . . A 1982 analysis by a congressional subcommittee estimated that, under worst-case conditions, a catastrophe at one of the Indian Point reactors could result in fifty thousand fatalities and more than a hundred thousand radiation injuries. . . . By an uncomfortable coincidence, American Airlines Flight 11, just minutes before it slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, flew almost directly over Indian Point's twin reactor domes.
Then there's the threat of cyberwarfare, as exemplified by the impact that the virus Stuxnet has had on Iran's nuclear program. Still, as Seymour Hersh wrote in a New Yorker piece last November, The Online Threat, which is a cautionary tale about the dangers of allowing the intelligence communities and the military to hype cyberwarfare: "There is surprising unanimity among cyber-security experts on one issue that the immediate cyber threat does not come from traditional terrorist groups like Al Qaeda."
He quotes John Arquilla of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School: "Terrorist groups are. . . . not that interested in. . . . attacking our computer system." When it comes to cyber security, their priority is to "protect their operations." Still, Hersh warns: "As terrorist groups get better at defense, they may eventually turn to offense."
Meanwhile, as Bunn writes
. . . attempting to separate safety and security is wrongheaded as the two are integrally linked. Better safety measures can make a facility more secure (by making it more difficult to sabotage, or keeping better control of where nuclear material is within a plant), and better security measures can make a plant safer. . . . Ultimately, a nuclear facility cannot truly be safe unless it is also secure.
Three years ago, the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) was launched in Vienna at an IAEA conference, the first organization dedicated to strengthening the "physical protection and security of nuclear and radioactive materials and facilities worldwide." After another conference in May, this time about Fukushima, WINS issued this statement, which I've excerpted:
Safety and security have traditionally been regulated and managed in isolation from each other. Safety management has been the responsibility of operators, engineers, safety managers and scientists, whereas security [is] frequently led by ex-military and police personnel. . . . This situation must change. The complex, interconnected nature of safety, security and emergency management requires convergence.


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Reports & Studies
Welcome to our complete catalogue of reports and studies (which includes backgrounders, policy briefs, full-length research reports and books).
Most publications are available to all at no cost. Please support the CCPA and help make important research and ideas available to everyone. Make a donation today.
The Possible Effects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on the Cost and Regulation of Medicine in Canada
by Joel LexchinFebruary 3, 2016 | National Office
The Decline of Canadian Peacekeeping Training (and What to Do About It)
by A. Walter Dorn, Joshua LibbenFebruary 2, 2016 | National Office
Literacy Programming in Manitoba
edited by Jim SilverJanuary 27, 2016 | Manitoba Office
Ontario Debt, 1990-2015
by Sheila BlockJanuary 21, 2016 | Ontario Office
by Howie WestJanuary 19, 2016 | National Office
Submission to the Special Committee to Review the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
by Keith ReynoldsJanuary 18, 2016 | BC Office
Winter 2016, Volume 19, Number 1
edited by Sarah Leavitt, Shannon Daub, Terra PoirierJanuary 11, 2016 | BC Office
by Lynne FernandezJanuary 8, 2016 | Manitoba Office
CEO Pay in Canada
by Hugh MackenzieJanuary 4, 2016 | National Office
A Case of Refugee Path Immigrants (RPI's)
by Bamidele Adekunle , Jamie Cidro, Glen FilsonDecember 31, 2015 | Manitoba Office
How Does Your Garden Grow? Sustainability, collaboration, and place-based learning
by Erika ShakerDecember 10, 2015 | National Office
Drawing on our strengths
by Keely Ten Fingers, Darren Lezubski, Jim Silver
edited by Molly McCrackenDecember 10, 2015 | Manitoba Office
Frais de garde d'enfants dans les villes canadiennes 2015
by David Macdonald, Thea KlingerDecember 10, 2015 | National Office
2015 Child Care Fees in Canadian Cities
by David Macdonald, Thea KlingerDecember 10, 2015 | National Office
by Andrew Posen, Arjumand Siddiqi, Clyde HertzmanDecember 9, 2015 | BC Office


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Romney Regains Stride; Gingrich Shows Old Newt At Sioux City Debate
Mitt Romney returned to form in the final Republican presidential debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
Romney, who had perhaps his shakiest debate performance in Des Moines over the weekend, appeared to regain his composure in Thursday night's debate in Sioux City, Iowa.
He managed to once again convey the sense that he was the one GOP candidate of the seven remaining who could credibly stand on the same stage with President Obama next fall, the most electable of the candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination.
That being the case, Romney could said to be the debate's winner since he appeared to get his groove back and didn't add a new gaffe to the $10,000 bet offer of the last debate.
If the former Massachusetts governor came out the better for the debate, Newt Gingrich didn't.
Gingrich maintained his cool even though, as the race's latest frontrunner, he was the target at several points during the debate from his rivals. That was the new Newt on display.
But there were times when old Newt, the consummate Washington insider or proposer of crazy ideas, made an appearance.
At those moments, he did little to appeal to the conservative voters he needs in the primaries or the independents he would need in the general-election.
While there were no high-stake bets or utterances of "oops", the last debate had its moments.
There was the moment when Romney was asked about President Obama's response to the U.S. intelligence drone that somehow fell into Iranian hands. Romney ridiculed the Obama Administration's request of the Iranians to return the unmanned drone.
"The — this is a president — with the — the spy drone being brought down, he says pretty please? A foreign — (laughter) — a foreign policy based on pretty please? You got to be kidding."
In an answer when he defended his idea that judges should be subpoenaed to appear before Congress to explain decisions Congress doesn't like, Gingrich may have shown many people unfamiliar with his past why so many people who are familiar with his past tremble in fright at the thought of Gingrich being the nominee.
Told that two former Republican attorney generals rejected his idea as dangerous and silly, Gingrich said:
"So I would suggest to you actually, as a historian, I may understand this better than lawyers. And as lawyers, those two attorneys general are behaving exactly like law schools, which have overly empowered lawyers to think that they can dictate to the rest of us." (Cheers, applause.)
It was red meat for the conservatives in the audience who have come to blame much of what's wrong with America on so-called activist judges. But as Rep. Ron Paul of Texas explained to Gingrich, there's this little notion called the constitutional separation of powers.
Speaking of Paul, he and Michele Bachmann provided some of the debate's most electrifying moments. Neither one has much of a chance of being president, but a back and forth they had over Iran was nonetheless riveting.
Paul made his familiar argument that it's the hawkish talk of U.S. politicians that's the problem, not Iranian intentions of getting a nuclear weapon. Bachmann vehemently disagreed.
PAUL: You know what I really fear about what's happening here? It's another Iraq coming. It is war propaganda going on. (Applause.) And — and we're arguing — to me the greatest danger is that we will have a president that will overreact, that we will soon bomb Iran.
BACHMANN: And with all due respect to Ron Paul, I think I have never heard a more dangerous answer for American security than the one that we just heard from Ron Paul. And I'll tell you the reason why. (Cheers, boos, applause.) And the reason — the reason — the reason why I would say that is because we know without a shadow of a doubt that Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally Israel off the face of the map, and they've stated they will use it against the United States of America.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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20 Top Things to Do in North Dakota
Unspoiled countryside and plenty of outdoor fun await in this rugged state. Highlights include Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the International Peace Garden and the Maah Daah Hey Trail as well as museums and historic sites that commemorate the state's heritage.
Top attractions in North Dakota
Some of America's most inspiring adventurers, including Lewis and Clark, Sakakawea, and President Theodore Roosevelt, left footprints in this sparsely populated state. Even today, the rugged land feels little changed since they passed.Traveling from sprawling Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the west to appealing Fargo in the east, visitors will find fabulously starry skies, whistling wind and vistas that stretch for miles. More than a century ago, Roosevelt called this land at the edge of the plains, "a world of beauty and color and limitless space." It still is.
Click ahead to find out about 20 of our favorite experiences in North Dakota.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Theodore Roosevelt referred to his time in North Dakota by saying, "Here the romance of my life began." One visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park explains his love affair. Some 70,000 acres of painted canyons and grassy hiking trails border Interstate-94 and the Little Missouri River. Bison graze along the road, and prairie dogs chatter at scenic turnouts.
The park is separated into two large units 50 miles apart, with a small parcel for Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch in the middle. The southern unit, anchored by nearby Medora, is busier, but the northern is just as spectacular. From Memorial Day through September, rangers lead guided tours and nature talks, as well as evening campfire programs about Roosevelt.
Related: Top Things to Do in Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park
North Dakota Heritage Center
Stand beneath a T. rex and a Triceratops as they battle. Stare down a mammoth. See casts of sea creatures that swam here millions of years ago. North Dakota's past takes shape in Bismarck at the North Dakota Heritage Center, which nearly doubled in size after a $52 million makeover. Exhibits in the Treehouse cater to tykes.
Related: Top Things to Do in Bismarck
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
Now reconstructed, Fort Union was the most important fur-trading site on the upper Missouri from 1828 to 1867. The imposing white house at Fort Union, where the head merchant lived, looks strangely grand against the landscape, like a suburban mansion built expressly to outshine its neighbors. That's exactly what it was; traders built it in 1828 to impress area tribes. A self-guided tour, ranger-guided tours and living history programs are available for visitors. In Williston.
Related: Free Things to Do in North Dakota
Medora Musical
The colorful, two-hour Medora Musical raucously relives Teddy Roosevelt's cowboy days (this is no dry history lesson). The outdoor show features singing, dancing, live animals and fireworks, all against a stunning badlands backdrop. You'll come away tapping your toes-and eager to check out nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Related: Top Things to Do in Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park
North Dakota State Capitol Building and Grounds
Nicknamed The Skyscraper on the Prairie, North Dakota's 1934-era capitol in Bismarck is the tallest structure in the area (at 241 feet). You can take a guided tour, including a visit to the 18th-floor observation deck, for free. Also on the grounds: an arboretum trail, prairie trail, and numerous statues and memorials, in addition to the North Dakota Heritage Center.
Related: Top Things to Do in Bismarck
Maah Daah Hey Trail
Fun to say and fun to ride, the Maah Daah Hey Trail packs in a lot of dramatic scenery (and some really tough climbs!). The 98-mile main trail connects the southern and northern units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, running through rolling prairie and rocky badlands-home to mule deer, coyotes, golden eagles, bighorn sheep and bison. Loop trails and a new southern extension add another 80 miles to the trail system.
Hikers and horseback riders share the trail with bicyclists. Guided mountain bike tours are offered seasonally through Dakota Cyclery Mountain Bike Adventures.
Related: Top Things to Do in Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Scandinavian Heritage Park
In the small north-central city of Minot, the Scandinavian Heritage Park nods to northern Europe with a replica Stav church, Danish windmill, Finnish sauna and a 25-foot-tall Swedish Dala horse. Minot also is home to Norsk Hostfest, the continent's largest Scandinavian festival, where high-quality handcrafted merchandise and traveling shows make for a one-of-a-kind experience each fall.
Related: Top Things to Do in Minot
International Peace Garden
Trails and lush gardens along the U.S.-Canada border celebrate peace between the two nations. The 2,300-acre garden is half in the U.S. and half in Canada, about 110 miles northeast of Minot.In summer, the International Peace Garden gets big splashes of color from perennials and annuals. For visitors year-round, an Interpretive Center offers a restaurant, gift shop and conservatory with 3,000 cacti. Guided tours of the gardens are available by reservation.
Chateau de Mores State Historic Site
A 26-room, 1883 hunting lodge built by the Marquis de Mores, an entrepreneurial French aristocrat who hoped to find his fortune in the Dakota Territory, overlooks Medora. His meatpacking business failed, but the town he named for his wife, Medora, prospered. The lavish home where he and his wife lived still contains many original furnishings. Docents stationed throughout Chateau de Mores State Historic Site offer insights and tours.
Related: Top Things to Do in Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Knife River Indian Villages
Explore a reconstructed, furnished Hidatsa earth lodge, 15 miles of trails and a museum (22 miles west of Washburn). A rich culture thrived along the banks of the Missouri River in west-central North Dakota when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived in 1804. Today, trails weave through the sage and wildflower-dappled prairie to the remains of villages, including one where Sakakawea lived before she joined Lewis and Clark.
Bully Pulpit Golf Course
Rocky badlands provide the backdrop for this challenging, one-of-a-kind 18-hole golf course three miles south of Medora. The Bully Pulpit Golf Course takes golfers through meadows, woodlands, along the Little Missouri River and into badlands canyons.
Related: Golfing in the Badlands
Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center/Fort Mandan Historic Site
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent more of their epic journey in North Dakota than in any other state. In Washburn, stop first at the striking Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and take in its fascinating exhibits about the Lewis and Clark expedition and area history. Then, continue to a replica of the fort, authentically reconstructed with 800 cottonwood logs, where the explorers weathered the brutal winter of 1804-1805.
North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame
At the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, this interpretive center tells the stories of Native Americans, ranchers and rodeo riders on the North Dakota plains. The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame patio offers sweeping Little Missouri River views.
Lake Metigoshe
On the Canadian border, 200 miles north of Bismarck, Lake Metigoshe State Park offers a well-rounded, classic lake vacation-walleye fishing, a tidy beach, clean cabins, a Fourth of July fireworks show and canoeing-with way less noise and crowds than you'll find at big, better-known Lake Sakakawea.
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
History buffs shouldn't miss North Dakota's signature historic site, 7 miles south of Mandan. Reconstructed earth lodges at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park make up On-A-Slant Village, occupied by the Mandan from about 1575 to 1781. Portions of the old infantry and cavalry post have been rebuilt, including the Custer House, called the Mansion on the Prairie. Two living history tours take visitors through On-A-Slant Village and the museum, as well as the Custer House and barracks.
National Buffalo Museum
The National Buffalo Museum highlights bison art and history and manages a herd that grazes nearby. Visitors can also see the World's Largest Buffalo Monument, a 26-foot-tall, 60-ton giant, as well as the Frontier Village complex of historic buildings. In Jamestown, 100 miles west of Fargo.
Bonanzaville USA
Interpreters and 40 buildings on 12 acres re-create life when "bonanza" farms ruled the prairies in the late 1800s. Bonanzaville USA in West Fargo includes just about every type of building and business that might have made up a small North Dakota town when the area was being settled-a log cabin, blacksmith shop, school, drug store, general store, creamery, saloon, newspaper office, bank, barbershop and more.
Plains Art Museum
A downtown standout in Fargo is the Plains Art Museum, in the renovated International Harvester warehouse. Beautiful inside and out, the museum houses more than 3,000 works by regional and national artists. The collection includes works by artists as varied as Impressionist Mary Cassatt and Native American contemporary artist George Morrison.
Related: Top Things to Do in Fargo
Enchanted Highway
Turn off I-94 at Exit 72 (90 miles west of Bismarck) to find seven enormous sculptures along a 32-mile ribbon of rural highway. The massive artworks are the quixotic tourism initiative of retired educator Gary Greff, who established Enchanted Highway to bring more travelers to his tiny hometown of Regent.
Lake Sakakawea and Garrison Dam
On the Missouri River 75 miles upstream from Bismarck, Garrison Dam, built between 1947 and 1953, is one of the largest earthen dams in the world. Exhibits in the power plant lobby feature displays about the construction and operation of the Garrison Dam and recreation on Lake Sakakawea. The corps provides free tours of the power plant daily during the summer months and by appointment the rest of the year.
Lake Sakakawea (pictured) stretches 178 miles from Garrison Dam northwest to Williston and averages 2 to 3 miles in width. The lake and its shoreline are popular for boating, sailing, scuba diving, sightseeing, bird-watching, camping and hunting.


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Georgia rep. says controversial rape comment 'partly right' (with audio)
WASHINGTON - Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey, an OB-GYN since 1975, said former Rep. Todd Akin was "partly right" when he said women's bodies can avoid pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."
However, the six-term Georgia lawmaker issued a statement Friday, the day after his comments, saying his position was misconstrued and that he neither defends nor stands by Akin's remark.
Gingrey spoke to constituents at a Thursday breakfast meeting and commented on both Akin and Richard Mourdock, two Republican Senate candidates tripped up by their clumsy comments last year about rape and abortion, according to the Marietta Daily Journal in Georgia. Republicans disavowed Akin after his statement, and Mourdock was widely criticized when he said pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended."
"Part of the reason the Dems still control the Senate is because of comments made in Missouri by Todd Akin and Indiana by Mourdock were considered a little bit over the top," Gingrey said, according to the newspaper. "Mourdock basically said 'Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that's still a child, and it's a child of God, essentially.' Now, in Indiana, that cost him the election.
"And in Missouri, Todd Akin . was asked by a local news source about rape and he said, 'Look, in a legitimate rape situation' - and what he meant by legitimate rape was just, look, someone can say I was raped: a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents - that's pretty tough - and might on some occasion say, 'Hey, I was raped.' That's what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape.
"I don't find anything so horrible about that," Gingrey said. "But then he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman's body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He's partly right on that."
He made the comments to the Smyrna Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, according to the newspaper.
Gingrey added that he has been an OB-GYN since 1975 and understands pregnancies.
"And I've delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, 'Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don't be so tense and uptight, because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.' So he was partially right, wasn't he?" Gingrey said. "But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you're not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman's body shutting anything down, because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart," the congressman said.
Gingrey is co-chairman of the GOP Doctors Caucus, which was formed in March 2009 to challenge President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. He also is a member of the Health subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce panel.
He sought to explain his comments, saying in a statement issued by his office Friday, "At a breakfast yesterday morning, I was asked why Democrats made abortion a central theme of the presidential campaign. I do not defend, nor do I stand by, the remarks made by Rep. Akin and Mr. Mourdock. In my attempt to provide context as to what I presumed they meant, my position was misconstrued."
Gingrey's initial comments drew widespread criticism.
"Just when I think Republicans can't possibly be any more wrong when it comes to women, they find a new low. In one fell swoop, Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey said women regularly lie about being raped, that they're able to prevent a pregnancy simply by 'being tense and uptight,' and that Todd Akin had a point," said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY's List.
Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it was "alarming and telling" that the head of the GOP Doctors Caucus shared Akin's views.


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A key priority for SGS is helping our clients to maintain product integrity by reducing risks in the production chain as early as possible.
Our raw material inspections are a vital step in that process, helping to ensure that your supplier is meeting your specifications and giving you insight into the nature of your raw materials':
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Ultimately, our aim is to give you confidence that you are producing a safe, high quality product that meets the expectations of customers and regulatory bodies.
A vast range of industries use raw materials testing at the start of the production process. These include, but are not limited to, consumer goods and retail, health and wellbeing, food and agriculture, and automotive businesses. Not only do SGS inspections help ensure that your final product is of the best quality, they also enable you to highlight and mitigate problems before they become costly – financially and in terms of your business's reputation.
With an international network of laboratories staffed by world-class experts in raw material testing, we are equipped to create a program of tests for raw material inspection and raw material identification that can cover chemical, microbiological, mechanical and physical properties testing. Programs are based on your particular needs and are shaped to help you meet local regulatory requirements for your intended market.
The various forms of raw material analysis we conduct are flexible enough to be used as one-off services to inform product or ingredient development or to form part of a broader program of inspections throughout the production chain.
When you work with SGS, you benefit from over a century's experience of providing inspections with integrity and to the highest standards. You also gain from the lessons we have learned from carrying out raw materials inspections for businesses of all sizes across the globe. Our expert consultants will be able to advise you on the specific benefits on offer to your organization through SGS raw materials inspections.


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I would like to thank Huguette for nominating me for this celebrated Versatile Blogger Award. I'm highly honoured to have been able to connect with her via this blogging medium. She is a very honest person and isn't afraid to speak her mind. She is undoubtedly an inspiring woman who has survived war and emerged victorious. I really respect her from the bottom of my heart. Thank you again Huguette for this nomination!
What is The Versatile Blogger?
The Versatile Blogger Award was created to celebrate blogs who have unique content, strong writing, and beautiful images or photographs.
- Thank the person who gave you the award.
- Include a link to their blog.
- Select 7 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly.
- Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
- Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
7 Things About Me
- Of all the dreams I have had, the most frequent one is that I am an olympic ice – skater making graceful jumps and turns. Whenever I recall this, I laugh out so bad! (and I hope you are doing too!)😂
- Sometimes when a stranger asks me the route to some place, I deny knowing it even if I know exactly where the place is. It is because I sometimes get too lazy to give directions. Hehe.😁
- I cannot sing. Seriously, I do not even have the guts to sing in the shower sometimes!😛
- I have three rabbits in my hometown (two white and one black). I always miss them. The last time I saw them was two years ago. 😢
- If you ever find me sitting quiet, it is probably because I am over thinking.😮
- The first thing I do every morning is that I search for my slippers because I always end up sliding them under my bed.😂
- I hate coffee. Though I like its taste, I cannot drink it. (Get ready for a battle in the comments section!)😎
I Gift This Award To:
Anyone who wishes to participate! It's an open nomination. 😊
Thank you for reading!