text:
Beautiful women with Cigars

Cuban woman smoking cigar

As you might guess, this post is about pictures. But it might not be what you expect. I wasn’t exactly sure what I could say about this remarkable collection by the photographers at Flickr that would speak any more eloquently than they do by themselves. But I am going to try. I want to ask some questions about what one sees when viewing these images, and the kinds of responses that they evoke. It might be that in the seeing, they become more than just pictures. Let me explain.

Although the images here are not especially complicated, there is something about them that warrants further observation. Seeming relaxed and natural, these women exhibit themselves with the kind of attitude that declares, why yes, here I am, this is me. It is at best a study in self-representation that achieves an aesthetic ideal. And it strikes me that there is something about these portraits that is suggestive of Africana spiritualities. It’s not just that some of the women are wearing the traditional colors of the orisha, the ethereal beings of Lucumi culture in Cuba. It is more that they seem to summon forth an affirming aspect that speaks indelibly to the forms that Spirit might take when inhabiting physical bodies. Here we have a mix of mundane and divine presence; and I believe that there is something important in this.

two women cigar

As a student of black religions, I cannot help but to bring my academic indoctrination to this place, and my focus shifts to the resplendent beadwork that adorns these women’s outfits. They are indicative of the elekes, derived from the Yoruba sacred arts, here embellishing the traditional Cuban woman’s costume. There’s an amber-gold and coral necklace reminiscent of Oshun, the orisha that rules sweetness and all things of rich feeling and worth; there are the blue and crystalline patterns of Yemaya, the ever-generous Mother and queen of the sea; and there are the pristine white beads associated with the camino of Obatala whose effulgence proclaims the grace of Our Lady of Mercy. These colors reveal the nature and character of the great avatars of the Afro-Cuban religions, even as they inscribe fulsome models of womanhood upon the social text. The gender attributes of the orisha also express the range of possibilities that can exist between culturally normative qualities of femaleness and that which is exemplified by divine beings in physical form. For those who can read the material signs that bear witness to this spiritual vocabulary, it is instructive.

Friendly Smile

ashour rehana

How often, when we think of God, do we imagine a being who takes human form? And if we do, what are the representations that are most appealing to us? Which pictures and images offer the truest likeness for our expectations? I began to think about the religious art of the world and I wondered, is there a space in that domain for women of color? If so, is it too much of a stretch for us to see these women as models for the Divine feminine, as archetypal manifestations of the Goddess? Or is an image just an image, just as a cigar is only a cigar, something to enjoy, but nothing more, without greater meaning or significance?

ana tennis

Of course, in most of the esteemed religious traditions of the world, there is recognition of the power that is constituted by the woman’s form. Artistic images of the embodied female are auspicious, even holy. When the image of the woman is believed to offer sacred meaning, as with so many religiously-inspired sculptures and paintings, it might convey an intangible quality, evoking a kind of feeling within ourselves. There is an engagement. Whether we are witness to the serene piety of Mother Mary, or the mystical, generative power of the cosmic Shakti, we are deeply affected by visual apprehensions of the Divine feminine, and we bring that reflection back to ourselves. But I wonder how many of us also affirm the darker forms of the Goddess – She who possesses a brown body or a creole visage  – the black woman, apotheosized, beatified, and idealized in a sacred effigy?

kelly lynn

God as a Black woman? She does exist, although unknown to many, but it is not for lack of visual resources that we do not see Her more often. That which becomes sacred is always present, and for some, Spirit materializes in the physical realm as a mirror of the self. She might be conceived as an elemental force of nature, or admired as Sophia, the feminine aspect of God, or simply respected as a universalized principle, as with the Egyptian Auset (Isis). This is perhaps why images and representations of the Divine are deemed to be non-controversial within most African and African-derived religions: it is understood in these traditions that the vitality of a form that is considered sacred is ascertained primarily in reference to the culture and values of the group for whom it functions. And in Africana religions, there is added value given to the feminine.

cubawam1Although contemporary standards of race and gender complicate representations of womanhood, appearing as they do in popular media, advertising, and other visual domains, Africana spiritualities have forged a distinctive consciousness by which female beauty and power are articulated in inventive ways both within and outside of the religious system. Historically, the cultures of resistance that forged African-based theologies also brought forth an “oppositional gaze” whereby the objectification and dehumanization of women so prevalent in the larger social environment was thwarted and reoriented toward alternative practices of looking at and seeing the female. In a number of these religions – and here I include Africana religions of the Caribbean such as Lucumi (Santeria), Shango, and Vodou, as well as New World religions such as Candomble – idealized representations of the gendered and raced body challenge and critique the norms of the dominant order, its notions of womanhood, beauty, and its understandings of divinity. Aesthetic perspectives, in many cases, are drawn from the productive ritual sites and spaces in which spirituality is enacted. In this regard Africana religions have addressed issues of human subjectivity time and time again, and with dynamic immediacy, in the sacramental traditions of trance possession – the extraordinary transformation that occurs when invisible spiritual beings incarnate within (visible) human bodies. This is where the image of God comes into form, as it were. Spirit possession is, of course, the ritual activity par excellent in many African-derived religions.

erik anderson

Spirit embodiment is an exquisitely creative kind of manifestation, a style of liturgy and personal devotion which holds, as its basic organizing principle, the fact that a divine being can enter physical time and space and move into visual existence by way of mythopoetic invocation, projecting the life energy known as ashe through voice, rhythm, and movement, into a human body. Call it a theophanic mediation of the ancestral world and the realm of the human family and its earthly communities, but it is through this spectacular performance that physicalness is instantiated in divine-human encounters that model ways of living and being. In these actions, the force of spiritual presence is truly experienced, truly felt, and paradoxically, truly revealed via the instrumental consciousness of a human being, who becomes truly transparent. When “feminine” beings possess sex-specific female bodies, the ordinary woman becomes the agent by the Divine is contained in the most mundane of vehicles, as the distance between the limited embodied self and the infinite immateriality of spirit is resolved, albeit in ways that are strange, mysterious, and occulted.

sven dreesbach

Throughout the Atlantic diaspora, religious imagery and the depictions of the female divine in Africana religions are known for their subversive reformulations of the gender stereotype of females as weak, subordinate, and passive. The creative interpretations of womanhood in these traditions become culturally significant for their rejection of conventional definitions of what “woman” is, does, and stands for, in favor of more complex, multilayered models. Under slavery, where gender roles and meanings were informed by African ideas and aesthetics, but ascribed by the social institutions and arrangements of New World colonial regimes, notions of femaleness were often conjoined with maternal expressions. According to these conventions, female deities could be associated with traditional spheres of domestic authority, such as mothering, herbal arts, and healing. On the other hand, also in these contexts, resistance to slavery affirmed models of militancy and martial power, also recast in feminine forms. In Haiti, for example, divine motherhood was epitomized in representations of the loa Ezili Danto, the stalwart patroness of the land, whose embodiment of gender valorized the trope of the powerful warrior-woman who stands in fierce devotion to and protection of her child. This particular orientation to womanhood is reformulated elsewhere in the New World where Spirit manifests as the hard edged, independent female, re-imagined as the tough single mother who overcomes adversity and exploitation by strength of will, for instance, with the biblical slave woman Hagar, who is embraced by Christian womanists in the United States. Finally, one should not overlook the illustrious cohort of black and brown Madonnas in the pantheon that includes the so-called folk goddesses of Western Christianity, from Sara la Kali to Nuestra Senora de Guadeloupe, who reflect, as brilliant icons, the rich, diverse elements of New World womanhood that articulate multiple feminine displays of Spirit. Their images are the conduit and the bridge between transcendent ideals and the immanent form, a real convergence of body and soul.

CigarLady 1

michael vincent miller

…I did not want to wander too far away from these images. In looking at them I wondered how they would be looked at, and whether they would be evaluated according to current practices of representation, and whether the seeing of these beautiful women would be impacted by the processes of judgment that corrupt the gaze, thus making the pleasure of spectatorship adulterated and impure. There is, of course, a longstanding correlation between the oppression of women and their visual representations in cultural production. The valences of oppression vary according to the specific ideological configurations of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality in any given society. Certainly, images of black and brown female bodies in contemporary media are used to perpetuate division, in the ways that gender and racial discrimination are used adjudicate human worth, according to the binaries of superior/inferior, better than/less than, good/bad, moral/immoral, etc. The associations between racism, sexism, and womanhood are utilized most frequently to service the production and consumption of images as by-products of the virulent excesses of late-stage capitalism. It is difficult to separate these strands when looking at images of women, and especially women of color, as there is no end to the spectacle of the woman’s body and its violent objectification and hyper sexualization in art, film, literature, and other areas of culture. So, our judgments of these black and brown women will be inevitably shaped by things like skin color, body type, and so forth – this is the stuff by which aesthetic evaluations are made. But how does the visual meaning shift when the object spills into the sacred area, away from the profane realm? In this business we pay attention to the occurrence of spirituality in the vernacular, in the everyday experiences where religion might be embedded in minute displays of a life’s story, whether in a moment, or in a picture. Without the benefit of full context, it might be difficult to interpret, let alone appreciate, these photos. We should aware of the conditions under which the images were created and adopted.

peter keller

So I wondered about the subjects of these pictures. Who are these women? What kind of lives do they live? Are the delighted smiles coaxed to their mouths solely by the insistence of the camera’s lens, or by the taste of a fat fresh Cohiba? They go nameless, their anonymity negotiated at the behest or discretion of the photographers, mainly mostly American and European travelers, denizens of the tightly regulated tourist industry in Cuba. While some of these ladies appear to be just sitting, content, watching the curious passersby watch them, others are busy at work, selling table wares along with other street merchants, some offering divination services as fortune-tellers and card readers. All of the images are probably vended; we know that these are still hard times in Havana, and no doubt in exchange for a nicely styled, photogenic posture, a modest gratuity was expected and paid according to the manner in which baksheesh is negotiated according to local traditions. So all is well, and here they are.

I do think that these pictures speak boldly about self-representation by women of color, and about gender, and religion, and about beauty. But what I like most about them is that they simply reflect back what is there. Look closely, and you might detect something there, too: a harbinger of the Spirit, a different form of divinity, a feminine image of God in a woman’s body.

This entry was posted in Africana Religions, Religious Studies and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Beautiful women with Cigars

  1. Kurt Daniel says:

    Wonderful post. In light of what you write above, I’m curious have you seen the music video of (Dominican) Jarina De Marco’s “Spell on You”? There was an interesting discussion of whether she was appropriating a culture that she posted on her facebook. It does feature a cigar smoking woman, but then the overt sexuality of a lighter skin “bruja/hope-to-be pop star”. Either way, I loved your post and the visuals of the video.

    • I have not seen that one Kurt but I will. Interested in the discussion. Leave it to you to keep me informed on all kinds of things having to do with all kinds of things! and thanks for your words of support as always…you are a scholar-friend in the best sense, and I appreciate this.

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Russell Collection L/S Tailored Shirt-958M

Russell Collection

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  • Contemporary, tailored cut with modern stiffened, semi-cutaway boned collar
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text:
Few Distinct Distances Implies Many Points on a Line

In this post I will show that if a planar n  point set spans a small number of distinct distances, there must exist a line containing \Omega(\log n)  points of the set. This result originated in a conversation between Shakhar Smorodinsky, Frank de Zeeuw, and myself, a few months ago in IPAM. I understand that Orit Raz and Micha Sharir independently obtained similar observations at about the same time.

Shakhar Smorodinsky and Frank de Zeeuw.

Guth and Katz proved that every set of n  points in {\mathbb R}^2  determines \Omega(n/ \log n)  distinct distances. This almost completely settled a conjecture of Erdős , who observed that the \sqrt{n}\times \sqrt{n}  integer lattice determines \Theta(n/\sqrt{\log n})  distinct distances, and conjectured that every set of n  points determines at least this number of distinct distances. Beyond the remaining \sqrt{\log n}  gap, a major open problem is characterizing the point sets that determine a small number of distinct distances.

Given a set of n  points in {\mathbb R}^2  , we say that it is near-optimal if it determines O(n/\sqrt{\log n})  distinct distances. Erdős asked whether every near-optimal set “has lattice structure”. Since this seems to be a very challenging problem, Erdős wrote “The first step would be to decide if there always is a line which contains cn^{1/2}  of the x_i  [i.e., of the points of the set], (and in fact n^{\varepsilon}  would already be interesting).”

Embarrassingly, almost three decades later the n^{\varepsilon}  bound seems as distant as it ever was. Up to now, the best known bound was a variant of a proof of Szemerédi, which was communicated by Erdős.

Theorem 1 (Szemerédi). Let \cal P  be a near-optimal set of n  points. Then there exists a line containing \Omega(\sqrt{\log n})  points of \cal P  .

Proof.     Let x  denote the maximum number of points of \cal P  that are on a common line. Let T = \{(a,p,q)\in {\cal P}^3 \mid |ap|=|aq|\}  , where a,p,q  are three distinct points and where (a,p,q)  and (a,q,p)  are counted as the same triple. The proof is based on double counting |T|  , and we begin by deriving an upper bound for it. Given a pair of points p,q\in{\cal P}  , the triplet (a,p,q)  is in T  if and only if a  is on the perpendicular bisector of the segment pq  . By the assumption, each such perpendicular bisector contains at most x  points of {\cal P}  , which implies

|T| \le x \binom{n}{2} = \frac{x(n^2-n)}{2} \qquad \qquad (1).

For the lower bound, notice that for every point p\in {\cal P}  , the points of {\cal P}\setminus\{p\}  are contained in at most d = O(n/\sqrt{\log n})  concentric circles around p  . We denote these circles as C_{p,1},\ldots,C_{p,d}  and set n_{p,i} = |C_{p,i} \cap {\cal P}|  . Notice that \sum_{i=1}^dn_{p,i} = n-1  for every p\in{\cal P}  . By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have \sum_{i=1}^d n_{p,i}^2 \ge \frac{1}{d}(n-1)^2  . This in turn implies

|T| = \sum_{p\in{\cal P}}\sum_{i=1}^d \binom{n_{p,i}}{2} = \frac{1}{2}\sum_{p\in{\cal P}}\sum_{i=1}^d (n_{p,i}^2-n_{p,i})
\ge \frac{1}{2}\sum_{p\in{\cal P}} \left( \frac{1}{d}(n-1)^2 - (n-1)\right) = \frac{n(n-1)(n-1-d)}{2d}. \qquad (2)

Combining (1)  and (2)  immediately implies

x \ge \frac{n(n-1)(n-1-d)}{2d} \cdot \frac{2}{(n^2-n)} =  \Omega\left(\sqrt{\log n}\right). \qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad \Box

Szemerédi’s proof is almost identical to the proof of the Kővári–Sós–Turán theorem. We now prove a variant of this theorem.

Theorem 2 (Kővári–Sós–Turán variant). Let \cal C  be a set of n  circles and let \cal P  be a set of m  points, both in {\mathbb R}^2  , such that the incidence graph of {\cal P}\times{\cal C}  contains no copy of K_{2,s}  (where s  may depend on m,n  ). Then

I({\cal P},{\cal C}) = O(mn^{1/2}s^{1/2}+n).

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Adam Westbrook // ideas on digital storytelling and publishing

False starts

Posted in Entrepreneurial Journalism by Adam Westbrook on August 27, 2012

Most of us, either through our upbringing, education or profession, have an aversion to making mistakes. Most of us too are governed in some way by a fear of failure.

Fair enough, but we live in a world, and work in an industry, where change is afoot and where innovation is desperately needed. This comes not from walking the line, but from making mistakes and experimenting.

As I start to wrap things up around here I’ve been looking back over some of the mistakes and false starts I’ve had over the last few years. There are lots of them. I hope that sharing mine will make you feel better about yours.

Here’s a quick list of some of the false starts I’ve had so far:

  • I blew my first potential gig as a film-maker, a commission to make a documentary for an NGO. In my naivety and desperation to get the gig I under-sold myself and gave a very cheap quote. Sensibly, they decided to go with someone more expensive!
  • I wrote an ebook of journalism skills for hyperlocal bloggers – it sold a whopping 15 copies
  • Next Generation Journalist did a bit better – it made enough to justify the time I spent on it – but sold far fewer copies than I thought it would
  • My Future of News Meetups in 2010 started off amazingly, but I was unable to continue them after 6 months (although others carried on the baton)
  • I spent about 5 months developing an idea for a new magazine with a friend, but we both lost motivation when we couldn’t marry it to a demand in the market.
  • I started a video business in January 2011 and it did really well. But when the web domain came up for renewal I decided to cancel it and end the business – not through lack of work, but all my clients were coming through me, not the business.
  • I worked with two great  journalists on ambitious plans to create a multimedia explainer of the Eurozone crisis last winter. The topic was so big and fast changing we had to drop it over Christmas.
  • I started a website called Volcano Love Stories which was going to collect love stories that emerged from the volcanic eruption in 2010. I only got one submission
  • Not to mention more than 20 films that have not made the splash I wanted, a dozen web domains bought and left to rot, and the countless ideas that sit in notebooks.

The point is, every one has false starts and stumbles. Everyone falters and fails, particularly on the way to doing important work. Although each of these were disappointing and painful at the time, I learned something important from each of them.

Don’t be set back by your personal false starts. The people who make it in the end are the ones who pick themselves back up, dust themselves off and get busy again. As long as you learn something from them they haven’t been a waste of time.

What have your false starts been and what did you learn from them?

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  1. jodylan89 said, on August 27, 2012 at 11:59 am

    Thanks for this motivation. We seldom hear of the hurdles and fall-backs that great people had to overcome before getting to where they are. It is really encouraging to read.

    • Adam Westbrook said, on August 27, 2012 at 12:12 pm

      Thanks Jody! That’s a good point..we never hear enough about the difficult parts of the journey, only the successes, which skews our view of it sometimes.

  2. Auburn Meadow Farm said, on August 27, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    Thanks for itemizing that way – it makes it all seem more real and less self-helpish : )

  3. Reblogged this on

  4. Thanks Adam, I and many can relate. Thanks

  5. Franziska Bährle said, on August 28, 2012 at 11:37 am

    Great and motivating post, Adam! I just had a similar experience in a project that I worked on for the first time.
    It didn’t fail, but I realized I had made a few mistakes and was really annoyed by that. However I then realized that I’ve learnt from those mistakes and that it would have been quite unlikely for everything to be perfect right from the start. If it would be, how could we learn and improve our skills then?

    • AdamWestbrook (@AdamWestbrook) said, on August 28, 2012 at 3:06 pm

      Good point. It’s a bit like training for physical fitness. It’s important to push yourself just outside your comfort zone each time..that way you widen your circle of comfort and get better. Thanks for the comment 🙂

  6. themarcthomas said, on August 28, 2012 at 4:15 pm

    False Starts? I’ve had a few of them:

    1) A mapping website – collating maps of the city onto a single website
    2) A street style blog – this one never even saw the light of day but was 90% ready to go. Photos and collaborators fell through
    3) Millionaire Experiment – attempted to make people do stuff for charity if funding steps were reached with 1M being the final goal. Actual money raised: £0.
    4) Sell e-book – Never got round to launching this. However, I did sell it to a publisher… it will launch in just a few weeks.
    5) Create an app that would act as a city guide – Got pretty far with this one. However, someone launched before me.
    6) Create iPad magazine showcasing best of British writers – brand designed, writers commissioned and excited but then realised we missed the newsworthy deadline. Bad planning caused failure.
    7) Launch magazine about masculinity – DONE! However, 1 issue with very little interest: – ironic name.
    8) Write great american (actually, British novel) – attracts interest from several publishers, almost picked up by a big Welsh publisher, in final review round they pass up calling it ‘at best derivative, at worst misogynistic.’ Main character based on self – worrying character assassination. Many bad feelings.
    9) Discount card for city – profitable from day one. Sold a good number. Success until local stores became disinterested and didn’t sign up for a new round of offers. Angry customers – bury head in ground.

    However, for every five failures, I’ve got a success too and ten more ideas. The trick is, I think, to keep going relentlessly.

    P.S. Looking back at your failures is a very therapeutic exercise. Means you’ve tried something!

  7. AdamWestbrook (@AdamWestbrook) said, on August 28, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Wow your failures are better than mine (FailedAstronaut – love it) …but by better I don\’t mean worse if that makes sense!

    You\’re dead on, on two points: 1) the therapy of looking at your failures (and sharing them, I\’ve found) and 2) the trick is to keep on going relentlessly

    Thanks for sharing 🙂

  8. Bonnie said, on August 28, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    Thank you so much for this post! This is so encouraging for someone like me who is over 2 years into a start-up and finding it very very challenging. Do you have a rule to help you decide whether to keep going at an idea, or to let it go and move on? Thanks again for posting!

    • AdamWestbrook (@AdamWestbrook) said, on August 28, 2012 at 6:09 pm

      Glad you liked it!
      You should read “The Dip” by Seth Godin – it’s got some great advice to answer just that question.

  9. Tina Remiz said, on August 31, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    Thanks for sharing! The very much needed bit of motivation right now.

  10. […] of them. Many of the ideas are now redundant as I’ve moved onto other things, and following last week’s confessional, I thought I’d give some them away for […]

  11. […] False Starts | Adam Westbrook […]

  12. marcywrite said, on April 15, 2013 at 10:42 pm

    Yes! I am all for failing because failing is simply learning. Imagine if we were told never to fall when we were learning to walk. As a writer and marketing coach, I took my lemons and turned them into lemonade. I discovered from my own stops and starts that I will quit a project if I dislike marketing it. I will continue to pursue the concept and market it only if I enjoy the marketing process. So my business morphed successfully into helping my clients discover their marketing personalities, whether they are writers, networkers, social media lovers, or thrive on community participation. They market effectively if they enjoy their process–and their business benefits.

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text:
Photography: 2D or not 2D

I love it when people from different art-disciplines come together to collaborate. The outcome can be so unique, like in this ‘2D or not 2D’ project. It’s a photo-series done by photographer Alexander Khokhlov, make-up artist Valeriya Kutsan and Veronica Ershova who did the digital retouching and post-production. Much more work here.

The authors were inspired by two-dimensional posters. Key-idea of the project was, to turn the 3D models faces into 2D images. It made me think of how photo’s used to be hand-colored for a while in the twenties-sixties. Back then, those colors would bring depth to an image. In this project it’s the other way around: colors bring flatness. Amazing! Face painting and 3D photography seen in a whole new perspective!

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CFP The 4th International Conference on Adoption and Culture

The 4th International Conference on Adoption and Culture

Mapping Adoption: Histories, Geographies, Literatures, Politics
March 22 – 25, 2012
The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California

Call for Proposals

For our 2012 conference, we are expanding our concerns to include not only adoption in its many historical and cultural variations but also parallel institutions such as foster care, orphanages, and technologically-assisted reproduction, as well as various forms of forced relinquishment or family separation.. We seek proposals that explore the cultural meanings and/or political locations of any of these practices, and we encourage analyses of relationships among them. We will include academic work from a wide range of scholarly disciplines and areas—literature, film and popular culture and performance studies, cultural studies, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, political science, law, women’s and gender studies, etc.— as well as artistic presentations of film, creative writing, graphic art, music, or productions in other media. We also encourage interdisciplinary panels, presentations, and productions.

Proposals may address adoption or related practices or their representation in any way, but we especially encourage work addressing race, class, gender, nationality, and/or sexuality and sexual orientation, and/or investigations of topics such as state and institutional power, (in)fertility, markets and market practices, and incarceration.

Confirmed keynote speaker: Catherine Ceniza Choy, Associate Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, University of California, Berkeley, whose forthcoming book, Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America, examines how Asian international adoption has contributed to the transformation of the U.S. into an international adoption nation and how its history is also a history of race, labor, immigration and intimacy.

Please send 200-word proposals for papers or samples of creative work (of less than 10 pages) to

Proposal deadline: July 1, 2011.

A conference website is under development.

For additional information, contact Susan
Castagnetto at:

Conference co-chairs:
Susan Castagnetto, Intercollegiate Women’s Studies of The Claremont Colleges, Scripps College

About Lisa Marie
This entry was posted in transracial adoption and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to CFP The 4th International Conference on Adoption and Culture

  1. Hollypali says:

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The road to Damascus?

Walking back from the polling station yesterday afternoon in the drizzle, past the familiar faces and houses of our village, I found myself trying to imagine what it would be like to live in Damascus where, aged 61, I would never have had the experience of voting in a free, democratic election; where I would have lived my adult life keeping my thoughts to myself for fear of informers or the secret police; and where now, today, I would most probably be living in real terror of arrest and torture, if I hadn’t already been carted off.

But the thought that really gnawed was this: where, knowing what faced me, would I find the courage to go out on the streets and protest? It seems to me that those thousands of ordinary people across the Arab world, and particularly those in Syria, who have recently joined the crowds knowing that they may simply not make it home that evening, that they may be picked off by snipers or mown down by tanks, or rounded up later and taken to some hideous secret interrogation centre – these ordinary people are quite extraordinarily brave.
Having never felt the resentment and anger they must feel, I don’t think I can really understand where that bravery comes from. It must be a huge rage, a consuming sense of injustice, that will make a peaceable person expose themselves to the possibility of extreme physical or psychological pain, or even death. And perhaps in voicing these thoughts I’m also acknowledging the fear that, if it came to it, I would turn out to be a coward, unable to find that courage.
I imagine that anger of this kind must have a quickening effect, a sharpening of the sense of being alive. Perhaps it even promotes a feeling of invulnerability, and certainly there must be a sense of solidarity, even of some kind of collective safety, while you’re in the crowd. But when the bullets begin to fly, or the door’s kicked in at three in the morning, doesn’t even the most righteous indignation yield to weak-kneed terror?
Last weekend, under a cloudless sky, I spent a morning at the magnificent new Culloden Moor visitor centre. The battle still casts a faint shadow over Scottish politics, more than two hundred and fifty years later, and I was reminded that for years afterwards the Hanoverians ran a kind of police state in the Highlands, in which actual and suspected Jacobites were ruthlessly hunted down and normal civil liberties – including the right to speak one’s language of birth – were brutally suppressed. I was so caught up in the drama of those far off events, and their wonderfully vivid interpretation, that I didn’t think of Syria at the time, nor, oddly enough, the fact that we were less than a week away from our own election.
But I see the connections and parallels clearly now, and it reminds me just how fortunate we are to live in a democracy; also how vital it is that we lead politically engaged lives, that we stay informed, that we vote and that we teach our children to vote. That way, with luck, our courage may never be put to the test.

About Jamie Jauncey

Author, writer, blogger, facilitator, musician, co-founder of Dark Angels and The Stories We Tell
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3 Responses to The road to Damascus?

  1. WriteNow says:

    I have been thinking about M L King, Gandhi, and Abe Lincoln in much the same context for the last week or so. I think our courage may be put to the test in other ways, and soon. The unrest across the Arab world, in conjunction with financial turmoil and uncertainty about the pallid recovery…I hope we find the courage to do what we need to do, even without the impetus of knowing that a door can be kicked in at 3 a.m.

  2. Jamie, your blog really is something I look forward to on a Friday, to step out of the madness of my daily rush to 'get things done'. It's as good as sitting down to enjoy a cup of coffee, but is far more valuable and stimulating than mere caffeine! Thank you.Julian

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A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending ndcoslo in Oslo Norway and was pleased to see how deeply the Norwegians think and care about design.

Take this hotel room key for instance. No need to insert your key into any slot (or use a key). Just hold it near your door and your in. Very nice.

Inside if you need the lights on, simply insert your card into the key holder and the lights come on (they do this in Japan too).

What? It’s dark and you can’t see where to insert your key? No problem. We will light it up with an orange light so you can see in the dark.

Here is the soap dispenser in the bathroom. One big simple push and you’ve got soap.

Here’s the heated towel rack.

Here’s the dead simple shower controls.

Configured to an optimal heat setting (38C). Nice.

With one simple soap dispenser (All Over Shampoo).

Here is what you will see on a bus when your stop is coming up.

And they’ve got beautiful churches like these built centuries ago

And their own opera house to boot!

Of course not everything is perfect (I am not a fan of these milk dispensers).

But I like the affordances and thoughts to give to people (of every culture).

Over all I have to say I was very impressed with Norway.

It reminded me a lot of Japan.
Beautiful design.
Generous people.

And you can just tell over there they still give a darn about how things work.


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Fellowship of the Idiot 19.7 mile Run

My sister lives near Morrow Mountain State Park so I’ve known about the Albemarle area for over 40 years.  In fact, my niece got married on the top of Morrow Mountain.  What I didn’t know about this area until I got into running was this awesome running store called Vac & Dash.   Vac & Dash is a unique store.  They sell vacuum cleaners and running shoes.  They also are a UPS shipping outlet, sell and repair bikes, time races and sell disc golf supplies.

Back in 2012 when I was doing a race a month, I stumbled upon Vac & Dash and the awesome Run the Valley half marathon.  I was very intrigued about running to the top of Morrow Mountain.  I signed up and ran with a new friend from my Galloway running group.  I wasn’t at all concerned with speed at that time so I went into that race with a very relaxed attitude.  It was a hoot!  Beautiful scenery and very well run race.   It is the only race to date that I have placed in my age group.  (disclaimer:  I got 3rd place in my age group…and there were only 3 of us in the group.  I got a trophy though.  LOL)

Fast forward 5 years and my oldest and one of my dearest running friends, Lisa, messaged me and ask me to join her in the Fellowship of the Idiot Run.  The Fellowship of the Idiot Run started back in 2003 with a few friends getting together for their last long run before the Myrtle Beach Marathon. They started at the YMCA in Albemarle and ran to the top of Morrow Mountain and back.  Every year since then, idiots have gotten together for this awesome long run.  This year there were 174 runners making it over 600 official idiots since the run’s inception.  Fellowship was 19.7 miles and there was a hard cut-off at 2 hours to make it the top.  I jumped at the chance to run such a fun run with such a great friend and said yes immediately.  However, when I learned about that hard cut-off, I worked myself up and became very anxious.  That meant I had to average about a 12:00 minute mile.  Not too much of a worry on a flat course but going up the mountain…. Hmmmm, I didn’t know if I could make it or not.

I really, really wanted to become an Official Idiot and earn my shirt.  I tried to keep a positive attitude and tried very hard to just enjoy the run and not stress so much about pace.  My good friend Claudia told me to run 30:30 intervals if I had to on the steepest incline (30 second run: 30 second walk).  So that was my plan.

The run starts at 5:30am and since my sister lives about 25 minutes from the start, we traveled to her house on Friday night.  I stayed up way too late visiting but somehow managed to wake up at 4:00 and make it out the door by 4:30.  I was in Albemarle just before 5:00 and had plenty of time to use the bathroom, find Lisa, and check in.

Peter, the owner of Vac & Dash, welcomed us all, said a few words and then it was a simple, Ready, Set, and Go.  We were off!  Here we are just before the start.

Idiots at the start

The first few miles were in the small town of Albemarle.  Since it was so early there wasn’t anyone on the streets except us.  It was very dark.  I had my reflective vest on for safety and I also wore my new headlamp.  By the way, I highly recommend the Petzl Headlamp.  I love the USB charging feature and it is very comfortable.  It stays put on my forehead and doesn’t bounce at all.  The only thing I wish is that it had a blinking feature on the back some way.  That would be cool and even safer.  There was one hill early on in the run and it was very tough.  Lisa and I were talking and I was having trouble completing my sentences.

The next miles passed effortlessly.  We talked and talked and enjoyed meeting other idiots out for this 19.7 mile run so early in the morning.  Before long, we started seeing the sun begin to rise.  It was a beautiful orange.  The weather was on the chilly side but not too bad.  I like chilly for a run so I was in heaven.  There really wasn’t a wind to speak of at all.

Lisa’s whole family came out to support her and they were blasting cool songs and ringing cow bells, and hootin’ and hollerin’ and pretty much being the very best supporters ever!

We stopped a few times for pictures and I walked a few steps when I was drinking or taking a Gu but for the most part, I ran all the way.  I didn’t even have to use the 30:30 plan to make it up the mountain.  I was so surprised I was able to run the whole way up.  I was all smiles coming in at the top of the mountain!

Here’s a shot that Lisa’s husband, Wes,  captured of me.

me at top

And here we are at the top.   This shot was from the race site and we must have been looking at Wes.

us at top

And just look at this amazing shot Wes got of the sunrise!  Breathtaking!  We really ran to heaven that morning!

Wes' sunrise

After these photos and a quick Gu and bathroom break, we headed back down the mountain.  The run back was just as awesome.  Morrow Mountain State Park is so peaceful.

Morrow Mtn

The roads were a little busier when we got back into Albemarle but not too bad.  The directions were clearly marked and before we knew it we were back at the Y.  We had earned our shirts and now were official idiots!

got our shirts

Note, In years past someone was pictured holding their shirt upside down by mistake and now everyone does it.  An Idiot Tradition!

From the race you get that awesome shirt and a funny idiot certificate.  Wes however, couldn’t have us complete a run of this magnitude and not get a medal.  He designed this medal and got them for us.  Lisa was Idiot 1 and I was Idiot 2.  Lisa’s daughter made the buttons for us.

I had the most fun ever.  Thank you so much to Lisa and her whole family for including me!

Thanks so much to Peter from Vac&Dash and thank you to all the volunteers that make the run possible year after year.  I certainly want to be a returning Idiot next year and beyond!

When you are planning your 2018 race calendar, you really should include Fellowship of the Idiot Run.  If something comes up and you can’t make it, you can’t get a refund.  But somehow I think you’ll be okay with that.  There isn’t a race fee at all.  Completely free!

Do however, make sure to make a donation to help support this remarkable run.  Make sure to save some time after the run and go on down street to Vac & Dash.  If you’re lucky like me you might just find something on the clearance rack!

A Hinson Singlet with the year I ran on it!  Woot Woot!  Best $4 I’ve ever spent!   (Vac & Dash does the apparel for Hinson.)  I also got the red one and it was only $4 as well.  I’ll be stylin’ for sure this summer!

Happy Running Friends!


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Welcome to Medicaid!

Beth Kidder
Deputy Secretary for Medicaid

2727 Mahan Drive
Mail Stop #8
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Phone: (850) 412-4000

Report a Complaint
Complaint Resolution Program
Submit Questions
Recipient Resources

Medicaid is the medical assistance program that provides access to health care for low-income families and individuals.  Medicaid also assists the elderly and people with disabilities with the costs of nursing facility care and other medical and long-term care expenses.

In Florida, the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) is responsible for Medicaid.  The Agency successfully completed the implementation of the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care (SMMC) program in 2014.  Under the SMMC program, most Medicaid recipients are enrolled in a health plan.  Nationally accredited health plans were selected through a competitive procurement for participation in the program.

The Division of Medicaid’s website is designed to align with our functional organizational structure.

Some examples of where key information can be found under the new structure are below:
Looking for information on: Go to:
Behavior Analysis Services Information Bureau of Medicaid Policy
Health Plan Contracts and Information Statewide Medicaid Managed Care
Health Plan Enrollment Bureau of Medicaid Data Analytics
Health Plan Rates Bureau of Medicaid Data Analytics
HEDIS Performance Measures Bureau of Medicaid Quality
Institutional Rates Bureau of Medicaid Program Finance
LIP/DSH/GME Operations Bureau of Medicaid Program Finance
Medicaid Eligibles Bureau of Medicaid Data Analytics
MES Procurement Strategy Bureau of Medicaid Fiscal Agent Operations
Nursing Home Prospective Payment System Bureau of Medicaid Program Finance
Pharmacy Policy Bureau of Medicaid Policy
Provider Fee Schedules and Provider Handbooks Bureau of Medicaid Policy
Recent Presentations and Reports Medicaid Program Coordination
Recipient Support and Provider Services Bureau of Medicaid Recipient and Provider Assistance
State Plan Bureau of Medicaid Policy

Please click on the link below to view a high level organizational chart of the Medicaid Division.  This organizational chart will help you navigate our site.

Medicaid High Level Organizational Chart, July 2017 [93KB PDF]

For additional information on the program, please choose one of the following links.

Statewide Medicaid Managed Care

Medicaid Finance and Analytics

Medicaid Operations

Medicaid Policy and Quality

Program Coordination


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Posts Tagged ‘in the past’

I realize that as I get healthier emotionally I can laugh more at my issues.  In the past, I took everything so seriously, was so afraid for people to see the real me so I covered me up with fat.  What would they think if they really knew me?  I hid my deepest fears, feelings, pains and shame under layers of fat.  As my heart heals, the pain fades and the shame goes away, I risk and  let safe people in to see the real Ruthie.  Some things are not pretty,  scarred and still broken BUT I know that as I face my fears of rejection and pain, I become freer to be who I was always meant to be and to laugh.   The Bible says there is a time to laugh and a time to cry.  Laughter is good for my soul.

I do cardio several mornings a week with Mark, he is my gym brother.  He makes me laugh, he  aggravates me, he laughs at me and tells me I am ridiculous many times in an hour.  Talking and laughing makes the cardio hour go by really quick.  We talk about our week, our spouses, kids and ourselves (he tries to talk about sports and I can tell you that last about 10 seconds!).  One day I was talking about the way I saw myself in the past and he looked over at me and said, “You used to be a real head case didn’t you?”  I burst out laughing and said, “You have no idea!”  I cannot tell you how good it felt to be able to laugh at my past.

Exposing who I was in the past and who I am now frees me to heal, love myself  and others.  Because I can laugh at myself I now will try new things or do things that I know I am not good at and look foolish  (box jumps–when I jump people can’t help but laugh–that will be another post).

If I am your trainer, you know there is one thing I will never let you laugh at or make fun, that is your body fat.  Many times fat is covering up pain and I will not let people minimize their pain by making fun of their outward appearance.   For me dealing with the pain and healing, renews my spirit, gives me the energy to educate, retrain my body and mind.

Read Full Post »

My favorite Gold’s Gym t-shirt says, CHANGE YOUR MIND CHANGE YOUR BODY.   If you have had body image issues and/or weight problems you have probably tried to diet over and over again.  I never understood why I would be doing good on a program and then all of a sudden would start sliding back. I really believe the answer  lies in our minds.  Out of will power you can do just about anything for 4-6 weeks but if you have not changed the way you think you will go back to past behaviors.

In the past one of my most self defeating features was the way that I beat myself up verbally.  All day long I would say negative things about how I looked, what I did, what I didn’t do.  Here are a few:

I am so fat, I am so lazy that now I am fat,  If I wasn’t so fat I would be happy,  I am the biggest mom here, Look at my jellyroll (stomach), I hate myself the way I am, Why should I start exercising or eating right again, I will just quit like last time.

I could go on for days about all the mean self-defeating things I said about myself.  I have since learned to retrain myself to thinking good thoughts about myself, even if they are things that have not happened yet.  I am believing that what is inside me is going to come out if I continue to be positive.

Whether you read the Bible or The Secret they both same the same thing.  Whatever you think about you will become.  Your focus has to be on the you you want to be, not who you were even thirty seconds ago.

My trainer, David Suri, would get so angry with me when I would spout off one of my negative statements about myself.  I never forget the first time, he looked at me in disbelief and said, “Why would you say that?”, I said, “Because it is what I think and it is true.”  He told me NEVER  EVER SAY THAT AGAIN, you are changing and you have to believe it.  At first I was a little shocked because he would get so upset with me and then I began to understand the battle for me was not the exercise and the food, it was in my MIND.   He helped me to learn to think differently about myself.   You see the problem was that I did not believe I was going to change for the good.  I was so afraid of failing again and going back.

I make my clients run or do step ups when they say mean things about themselves.  The  first time they do it they are shocked and say, “well it is true, look.”  I always tell them that it may have been true 30 seconds ago but we are bring healthy habits in our life and must believe in ourselves.    There are hundreds of books that talk about positive thinking.  I used to think those people were crazy and went a little overboard but now I understand the need to believe in myself and believe in proclaiming good, healthy, positive things about myself and my future.

I have taught myself  and am teaching my clients to say, “In the past I did…. now I …..

Example:  In the past I felt I was lazy and fat, now,  I am a work in progress and I am learning to move and eat healthy.

Please be kind to yourself.  Please share one positive statement about yourself.

Visit my best bud, Robin\’s blog.  She has an excellent post today on being comfortable with who you are meant to be.

Read Full Post »


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Farmer liquor and some other beverages

While reading travel guides and browsing the net for information about Korean culture and cuisine, I noticed that Korea seems to have a very rich and diverse tradition in alcoholic beverages and that even the official tourist brochures mark them as a fundamental part of the culture. The fact that a country has deep traditions in brewing and distilling is, of course, a great thing by itself, but the fact that it’s mentioned so openly strikes me as somewhat surprising.

This is probably because in Finland, where I grew up, alcohol consumption has always been some kind of taboo, with very strict government controls for where and when you can sell it. Here the common wisdom is that alcohol consumption must be regulated, otherwise the Finns will literally drink themselves to the grave. Only in recent years there has been some progress in Finland with respect to attitudes towards alcoholic beverages, and people have shifted from the tasteless Finnish fodder to imported beers from UK, Belgium and Czech Republic. In the process, then, some brave individuals got the idea that you could actually make good beer also in Finland (Thank god for Capitalism!) and set up small breweries. And now there seems to be a growing appreciation for the culture of alcoholic beverages, if you like to think of it in that sense.

Well, the point in all this was to say that it’s good to see such a healthy relationship towards brewing and alcoholic drinks in Korea. Of course I could be wrong and Koreans actually have a national drinking problem, but somehow I doubt that. At least I’m looking forward to experiencing the local stuff without any fear of developing drinking problems (not too serious anyway :P).  And for my own joy, and perhaps others’ as well (if somebody keeps on reading this rants), I’m going to introduce a few types of Korean Liquors here:

Makgeolli is made from fermented rice wine and should have a sweet and yogurty flavour. The alcohol content is low and it’s served from these little bowls. It’s also called “the liquor of common people” or “farmer liquor” because originally it was especially popular within farmers. It certainly looks interesting but I can’t really imagine how it would taste 🙂

Soju, made traditionally from rice, but nowadays from other starches as well, has a ABV of 20-45%. In some places it’s called the Korean vodka and it seems to be extremely popular. It’s supposed to be dirt cheap and you can basically buy it from any convenience store. And according to the Korea Tourism Organisation, it “goes well with almost everything” =) No wonder it’s so popular, eh?

This fruit wine is made from small plums that are matured for at least 5 years. There are also a number of other fruit wines, made from raspberries, cherries, pineapples and others. The alcohol content of these wines should be quite low and some of them are not sold widely, so I might need to travel to the countryside to taste them.  There are also wines made from flowers, such as roses, and of herbs, such as insam (Korean ginseng). The herb wines are renowned for their medical attributes and health benefits (naturally) 🙂

Well, that’s all for now =)

3 responses to “Farmer liquor and some other beverages

  1. the few koreans that i know didn’t really manage to outdrink the finns…so i have a feeling that even though it’s in the open (unlike in finland: “it’s not a drinking problem, if i’m a social drinker!!” :))), the culture of drinking has to be very different.

    this is a matter of investigation, my dear watson! 🙂

    p.s. can’t wait to experience the health benefits of that wine! 😀

    • Yes, I totally agree that the culture of drinking has to be different. For me it sounds like a more healthy relationship if you can openly advertise the drinking traditions and many different styles of beverages, instead of being ashamed of it. On some level it means that you know how to enjoy it more responsibly, or at least I would guess it can mean that 🙂

      But yes, certainly a matter of investigation! Extensive field research ftw! 🙂

  2. Our exchange reports are gonna be filled with subtle observations of Korean culture 🙂 hihiii

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Akvelon | Integration
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Implementing a new IT system is a big project, that entails a number of expected and unexpected risks. To make sure that the investments you made will return in business profits, you need a partner that will control and solve potential problems and will share project risks. Akvelon is ready to take that responsibility by delivering its own tools and risk management methodologies or working under its partners’ procedures.

Integration testing has always been a challenge especially if the system under test is large with many subsystems and interfaces. End-to-end testing involves ensuring that that integrated components of an application function as expected. Your entire application is tested in a real-world scenario such as communicating with the database, network, hardware and other applications.

Akvelon tests, tests, tests. We do a significant amount of testing throughout construction. As part of construction we do confirmatory testing, a combination of developer testing at the design level and agile acceptance testing at the requirements level.

Our experience can deliver the following:

• Examine the benefits of virtualizing and consolidating your server infrastructure to lower administration overhead

• Segment your network to meet security, compliance or segregation of duties (SOD) requirements

• Segment your network to reduce or eliminate single points of failure so that if one network segment goes down, others continue operating.This allows for improved diagnostic speed while the issue is localized

• Document an accurate network map of your organization including dependencies

• Coordinate internal and external Intrusion (hacking) testing

• Implement and configure Firewalls with the appropriate profiles to allow only authorized traffic and users through

• Develop a corporate taxonomy to support the inventory and       governance of software tools

When implementing systems, Akvelon focuses on fitting together the most suitable sub-systems while also making the most of the customer’s existing equipment and infrastructure in order to contribute to minimizing the overall cost of the project.

Need to simplify, consolidate and streamline your systems, processes and tools? Want to improve efficiency while introducing new services and business models? Our experience and expertise help you do just that. We’ll help turn your OSS environment – your organization, processes and tools – into an asset supporting your business development.

When you add new systems, new services or new customers, it is far too easy to build parallel vertical Business Support Systems, each in control of its own customer data.

We can help you reduce the number of systems and capitalize on your existing investments in order to reduce your OPEX and boost your business.

We ensure you have an agile environment – with the right organization, processes and tools – that supports efficient data management, innovative offerings and smooth, standardized self-care.

Our Business Integration involves:

  • Convergent rating and billing
  • Marketing and offer management
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  • Service development and management
  • User data management.

We have plenty of experience with End to End Delivery.


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Monthly Archives: September 2011

Alfred Johnson Quantum international – Shelter Plus Initiative

Just a quick post that talks a little about our Shelter Plus Initiative: Alfred Johnson Quantum International founder and CEO, is helping to launch a series of programs assisting a number of mentally challenged children. Quantum International is Associated with Texans … Continue reading

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Free Online Courses, Classes and Tutorials

Applied Psychology - Understanding Models of Consumer Behavior

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Applied Psychology - Understanding Models of Consumer Behavior
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  • The free online course Applied Psychology - Understanding Models of Consumer Behavior will introduce you to models of how consumers approach the marketplace and how they each go through the buying decision process differently.

    The psychological makeup varies between consumers and this impacts greatly on the final decision each consumer makes. The course first introduces you to the four models of consumers which researchers have identified. These models help marketers determine how consumers may approach a particular marketplace.

    The course then describes in detail both General Models and Specific Models of consumer behavior which attempt to explain how and why consumers behave as they do, and what factors may impact the buying decision process. Consumer behavior models help a marketer in identifying and understanding a wide range of variables that could explain consumer behavior. In this way these models help a marketer understand and predict buyer behavior, and they help the marketer formulate better marketing programs and strategies.

    This free course will be of great interest to all professionals in the area of marketing and psychology who would like to know more about consumer behavior models and their importance in creating effective marketing campaigns.

  • Having completed this course the learner will be able to:
    - Describe the Models of Consumers - Economic, Cognitive, Passive and Emotional;
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David Hernandez

I first met David Hernandez at La Gente, a storefront community organization in Lakeview on Halsted Avenue in 1974. I was taking a Spanish conversation course there on Saturday mornings, taught by my friend Jerry Schenwar. I was hanging around after class talking to Jerry, when David walked in. He was going to be doing a poetry reading that evening at La Gente, so he invited us to attend.

Jerry didn’t make it that night, but I did. I was blown away by the power of David’s words, capturing the rhythms and cadences of those mean streets that he called home in Chicago’s Puerto Rican barrio. David, who was a year or two younger than me, in his mid-twenties, truly was a poet, and I envied him for his achievements at such a young age.  That night I bought his book “Despertando.”

Over the years, I bumped into David a few times at both political and cultural events. He read poems at Mayor Harold Washington’s inaugurations and funeral. He had good street cred, and was admired greatly both in his own community and citywide. He died last year at the age of 66. This year, on December 6, David will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. For more information on the induction ceremony go to www.chicagoliteraryhof.org

David Hernandez

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text:
Questioner: What is the ruling on calling Allaah, ‘Olohun Aleke-Ola’?

Dr Sharof: It is not certain that it has a suitable meaning. What is the meaning of ‘Aleke Ola’ in Yoruba language? You the Yorubas here; what is its meaning?

A brother from the Congregation: The One whose wealth transcends that of others.

Dr Sharof: Who are the ‘others’ you’re referring to?

The Congregation: Laughing mode activated!

Dr Sharof: The word ‘Aleke-Ola’ has no (befitting) meaning (for Allaah). If what is meant by it is that the wealth of Allaah transcends that of other than him, then it has no (befitting) meaning. It has no (befitting) meaning because there is no one who can compete with Allaah regarding anything. It is not meaningful to say a person has wealth but that of Allaah transcends it. Are you the one who made yourself wealthy? That Yoruba wording has no good meaning (for Allaah). Anytime you’re discussing Tawheed you must make use of clear words. This is because even in the Arabic language, it is not permissible to use unclear words for issues regarding Tawheed let alone Yoruba language. This is because ‘Aleke-ola’ may have a different meaning. It could be interpreted to mean that Allaah is aside and wealth is aside but Allaah transcends wealth. That Yoruba word is not appropriate. If Ta’ala is what you want to translate to Yoruba language, it is ‘Olohun-toga’. If you say, ‘Olohun-toga’, it implies that there is nothing great save Allaah. There is no need saying, ‘Olohun-togaju’. ‘Subhaanohu’ is to be interpreted as ‘Olohun-tomo’…Interpreting Ta’ala as ‘Aleke-ola’ is not appropriate. This is not appropriate in Tawheed. When talking about Allaah we must use of clear Yoruba terms. If you use an unclear Arabic word in Tawheed, the scholars will reject it. This is because we are afraid that the meaning may be inappropriate for Allaah. Allaahu ta’ala (Olohun-obatoga); Allaahu subhaanohu wa ta’ala (Olohun obatomo-toga); Allaahu ‘azza wajal (Olohun obatoga to gbongbon). All these are appropriate.

[SOURCE: “Question and Answer session during the explanation of Ma’aarijul Qabuul at Ibadan”]

Translated by Aboo Aaishah Al Odeomeey


text:
Magento Product Page Improvement

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    • Huge decrease of your server load
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Optimize the look of magento product page, let customers view more info about the items right at product list in Magento, use more sales channels to succeed in ecommerce. All this made possible by our extensions!


text:
Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds Review – Microphone & One Touch Answering?

Traditional earbuds can be troublesome to deal with, especially because they have a tendency to come apart, ruin one’s device, become tangled, or cause pain and discomfort in one’s ear due to the design.

Those who are tired of traditional messy and tangled earbuds and don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on Bluetooth buds, then this review would like to introduce an alternative approach that is certainly more economical, but that doesn’t skimp on quality and effectiveness either.

Called Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds, this device may be just what most individuals need when it comes to earbuds. Best of all, they make up for the shortfalls of most Bluetooth devices.

What Are Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds?

Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds are an alternative solution to traditional earbuds that tend to be uncomfortable, difficult to use, and that get tangled all too often.

With this revolutionary and easy to use set of buds, users can finally have an easier time listening to music or their phone without having to worry about spending hours detangling and maneuvering the buds. Further, those who are disdained with spending hundreds of dollars on a Bluetooth option can finally rejoice with this product and what it has to offer.

How Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds Work

Before choosing any product, including an earbud device, it is always useful to understand how it works. This way, users can make a solid determination as to whether it is right for them. In this case, Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds promotes amazing sound quality and a no-tangle design by way of the main components of the device.

To begin with, the sound quality is due to the high-quality and powerful speakers that are in the earbuds. Those who use this device will be able to compare them to the capabilities of a Bluetooth device, just without the exorbitant cost involved.

Better yet, the sound quality is clear, regardless of whether one is using their phone’s music features or video playback.

Second, the headphones have a no-hassle feature, which means that users can finally start using their headphones without having to worry about spending hours on end detangling the wire. To prevent tangling, the device features a magnetic cap. Once the cap is secured in place, the wires will not tangle and users will have an easy time using them when they need them.

Charges For Hours Of Use

Another outstanding feature of this device is that with just a few minutes of charging, users can be well on their way to using this product for hours on end. As the brand explains, the product charges in a matter of minutes.

Once it is charged, those who have the product can simply connect the headphones and use them to listen to music, make calls, or any anything else.

The Benefits Of Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds

There are many prominent benefits to be had when one adds Microboom to their routine. Here are the main advantages of this product so that users know what to expect:

A Convenient And Hassle Free Headphone System

One of the main advantages of this product is that it offers users the opportunity to use their headphones without any hassle involved. The product is a convenient solution that can be unclasped in a matter of seconds.

Users do not need to worry about these headphones becoming tangled either – they will stay untangled and intact once the magnetic clasps are connected.

Built-In Microphone

Second, the device features a built-in microphone that allows users to take calls quickly and easily. Very few headphone systems make it so simple to manage one’s calls and it is certainly much better than having to unplug the headphones before using the phone’s calling mechanism.

Hours Of Use For A Short Charge

Third, users are bound to love how long the phone can be used with just one charge. Each charging period takes a matter of minutes. Once fully charged, users can take the headphones with them anywhere for hours on end use, without having to worry about the battery dying.

Fourth, for those who are tired of uncomfortable and painful ear buds, then this product may be just the right solution. This device is designed to be extremely comfortable for ears of all sizes, which means no dealing with strained and sore ears.

Easy To Use

Finally, all of the mechanisms on this device are self-explanatory. Those who add this product to their routine won’t need to waste any time trying to figure the device out.

Clearly, there are many prominent benefits to be had when one adds Microboom to their routine. These headphones are simple, easy to use, and high-quality devices that can compensate for expensive headphones that are just not worth it sometimes.

Microboom Bluetooth Earbuds Summary

Overall, those who are interested in Microboom can order the product through the brand’s website. The device is currently being offered for just $29.99, plus shipping and handling. Those who are dissatisfied for any reason can return it for a full money back guarantee within 30 days of purchase.

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text:
signs of spring

I checked my front flower boxes today. After clearing away the dead stuff from last year – which remained because I had not cut my day lilies after they were done … not the best gardener here – I saw that there were signs of life pushing up out of the soil, through the dead stuff , and into the world, saying “Here I am! Spring is coming!” What a relief. I am SO ready for Spring.

DSC_0155copySince we’ve established that I am not a very good gardener, I can openly admit that I don’t know what those top two plants are. I am thinking tulips because I know I see tulips in my boxes every year. Or I am thinking irises. But now that I say that, I can not remember ever planting irises. So I suppose I will bet on tulips. I do know the bottom purple beauties are crocuses, and I love seeing them bloom every year. It just means we’re one step closer to Spring. And that makes me so happy 🙂

2 thoughts on “signs of spring

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text:
Cover Reveal: Handling Cynthia

Coming April 2015!

I’m pleased to announce that the next novella in the Second Chances series is coming soon! Handling Cynthia, a BDSM erotic romance, introduces Rick’s ex-girlfriend, Cyn.

Handling Cynthia book cover

Cynthia Darlington can’t forget how Trent Weber kissed her before they left for college—backed up against her Mustang, wrists held firm in his grip, her body yielding to his desire. Now, five years later, she seeks him out at their class reunion, newly aware of her submissive nature, and craving his dominance. With so much time and distance between them, he’s practically a stranger now. Giving herself to Trent could be the culmination of all her hopes—or a teenage fantasy gone horribly wrong.

When Trent watched Cyn walk away after their kiss five years ago, it was enough humiliation to last a lifetime. But with one look at her in that tight black dress, his old desire resurfaces—and with it, the dark fantasies of her bound and submitting to his will. He longs to master this beautiful, confident, and supremely independent woman. If he can’t convince her to submit to her darkest cravings before the weekend is out, he could lose his last shot at the one who got away.

This BDSM erotic romance novella is intended for an adult audience. It contains scenes of flirtation, hot kisses, erotic bowling, a spoiled sub, a demanding Dom, second thoughts, and second chances.

One response to “Cover Reveal: Handling Cynthia

  1. Pingback: Excerpt: Seducing Jordan | Andrea Dalling

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text:
the nu place and, how i had coitus with a book

Yesterday morning I slipped into a trance induced by a book, to wit, Functional Biochemistry in Health and Disease: Eric Newsholme and Anthony Leech.

It is not like the book is attractive; it (or at least the copy I have got) has spelling errors and shit. But it has got what I need: concepts that I have been overlooking-it sure puts glutamine on the map – interesting boxes and answers to my long unanswered questions. It has restored faith that freshness can be breathed unto next year’s lectures; I have got a crush on it 🙂

Today Medical Biochemistry: Human Metabolism in Health and Disease: Miriam D. Rosenthal and Robert H. Glew tried to take me there but, after yesterday’s exploits, phew I was spent. Plus I am monogamous, I mean nogamous.

One, I mean zero

3 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. getere
    Jan 17, 2011 @ 21:30:36

    thanks for this post. it shows not all good books should be misspelling-free. i think one of the things that slow me down is my obsession with correctness and perfection. a biochemistry book is not a dictionary or some english literature book. it’s a book about biochemistry, written for people who are well capable of correcting spelling errors. it’s more important for readers to get the book early than get it late with correct spellings. i’m noting all this to myself.

    carry on with your affairs…

  2. Bettiye
    Jan 16, 2011 @ 17:50:06

    Well, It is about time, my blogging has been interrupted so many times I couldnot post anything in January,

    Medical biochemistry seems interesting. I want to know the process involved in making Vitamin D in our body, Does the book clarify some on that?…

    and Hey no love affair with a book, you are having me reconsider my rushing back to you…..

    • tibebe
      Jan 17, 2011 @ 13:00:28

      page 342, right column

      well, excuse me for having someone on the side 😈

      but you know, you two have got a lot in common: both your names start with a b – bettiye and book, wezete wezete

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Animal Sitters, LLC and Cape Coral Pet Sitters
Watching over your pets and home since 1984
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Please provide information about you and your pets so we can assure your sitter can meet your needs.  If you prefer to talk to us, call the office at 239-482-4822

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text:
Monday, August 22, 2016

Enjoy Your Day

Good morning!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I'm back again today sharing another card I made when I was on the Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen Design Team.

I used this cute little cat from Newton's Summer Vacation.  He certainly looks like he's enjoying himself, right?  I colored the image with copics and then cut it out using the Stitched Circle STAX from My Favorite Things.  I used Glossy Accents on his fishing goggles to give them a glassy look.  I kept my card very simple by just adding some twine tied in a bow.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy your day!

Hugs, Anita

Stamp:  Newton's Nook Designs - Newton's Summer Vacation
Paper:  Echo Park - A Perfect Summer; Neenah
Other:  MFT Stitched Circle STAX, Copics, Glossy Accents, twine

  1. What a sweet card! I aleays love your coloring!

  2. Very cute card Anita, love the fishy paper too.


text:
08 February 2010

Scientists' Fear

In my previous post on the future durability of the AGW scare, I mentioned the reason why scientists tend not to view climate sceptics as presenting a legitimate scientific viewpoint. I took the opportunity of a wild kick at my other favourite target, democracy:

"If scientists treat creationists and the like with respect, and argue honestly and fairly, they will be screwed by elected politicians."

Because I was off on a tangent, and not giving the argument the separate post that it deserves, I didn't provide any evidence that this attitude really exists among scientists.

As it happens, I picked up Dawkins' "The God Delusion" from the library at the weekend. Imagine my smug self-satisfaction, then, when I read the following this morning on page 91

In parts of the United States, science is under attack from a well-organized, politically well-connected and, above all, well-financed opposition, and the teaching of evolution is in the front-line trench. Scientists could be forgiven for feeling threatened, because most research money comes ultimately from government, and elected representatives have to answer to the ignorant and the prejudiced, as well as to the well-informed, among their constituents.

Dawkins is putting that forward as an excuse for scientists to make public statements that they don't believe - in this case for being overly sympathetic to Christianity, in order to keep moderate Christians as allies against creationists. He considers it an insufficient excuse - "The real war is between rationalism and superstition", but he believes that some scientists are concealing their real views for tactical reasons in the war against fundamentalists and "elected representatives". I think he is right.

The fundamental point, which I've touched on on a number of occasions, is that if you want to be a scientist in a democracy, where "most research money comes ultimately from the government", as Dawkins says, then you have to be a bit of a politician. That comes through just as strongly in Phil Jones' cri de coeur in today's Times - "I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR or dealing with crises."

I really don't believe that more than one in ten of the warmist scientists would spin, lie and conspire in the way they have just to support their pet theory against scientific opponents - even with the stakes as high as they are in terms of funding and career opportunities. They would see that as a betrayal of science, and their consciences would not allow it.

But The Discovery Institute is not a scientific opponent - it is an anti-scientific opponent. Its dishonesty and ulterior motives disqualify it from participating in the normal scientific process according to the normal rules, and in dealing with it, scientists subordinate the scientific process to political tactics.

The key fact about the climate debate is that, because of where the initial scepticism came from, many scientists saw it in the same light as intelligent design. As I wrote yesterday, once they had made that assumption, they were trapped: if you believe your opponents are enemies of science, then stronger arguments from the enemy spur you not to greater doubt, but to greater determination. Also, since the more politically aware bodies in science closed ranks against climate sceptics, they found support largely among that minority more accustomed to working with the political right. The association of climate sceptics with minor right-wing think tanks and a Republican senator confirms in the mainstream scientists the view that they are dealing with a political enemy, not a scientific opponent.

I wrote in my giving-up-on-politics post, "not only do my good arguments not win against my opponents' bad arguments, my good arguments do not even win against my allies' bad arguments."

The problem that causes is that the arguments most likely to persuade the public that you are right, are likely at the same time to persuade the well-informed that you are wrong.

We are seeing the knock-on effect of that situation. In order to win over the ignorant and indifferent, prominent people on both sides of the dispute are employing arguments that are weak, irrelevant, or downright dishonest. Such techniques achieve successes, but at the cost, on both sides, of convincing the opponents more strongly of their own rightness. And, both convinced of their own rightness and dismayed by their opponents' undeserved popular successes, each side becomes more unscrupulous still in response.

The really difficult question is; does all this mean that the scientists were wrong to 'go political' over evolution? Once they had arrogated to themselves the right to decide that evolution was true and they needed to do whatever was necessary to keep teaching it, was an overreaching such as is happening over climate inevitable?

I don't have to answer that question - I can just blame the problem on democracy, the only system which makes convincing the ignorant and indifferent an essential part of everything from studying the climate to putting on a museum exhibition.

neil craig said...

I don't think you can really say that Professor Fred Singer was not quite obviously a well qualified scientist & climate scientist at that. Cinsrquently there can be no excuse for pretending that this was not a scientific dispute (at least on the sceptical side). Since they have clearly lied massively the onus must be on Jones, Mann, Pachauri & all the eco "experts", who have after all bused knowingly false personal insults against opponents to prove that they are, in some way, far more honest than they appear.

I think that this is simply a more extreme version of the way that government funded science is normally of negative value & encourages dishonesty. http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2009/01/government-funding-of-r-has-negative.html

Tony Sidaway said...

Global warming thrives because there is no credible scientific critique. That's how the cookie crumbles.


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